Tiny Monk-in-training Garma From Daily Char.

Tiny monk-in-training Garma from Daily Char.

The Earth Federation: Spend thousands on multiple separate attempts to mass-produce the Zeta Gundam, including but not limited to: the ZII, the Mass Production Zeta Gundam, the Zeta plus series, the Re-Gz and the Rezel, before finally giving up and settling for Jegans.

Neo Zeon: Makes the Bawoo.

Perfection.

I guess it could be how the story serves them differently post-war?

Zeon remnant groups are everywhere post One Year War (which is actually fairly realistic given the sheer amount of resources and people marshalled in it), so they serve a purpose as “remnants of evil” in a sense. The Federation won the war, then began the process of actually rebuilding the Earth, during which Zeon remnant groups had their opportunity to strike. Given that Zeon opposes the Federation on an ideological level, it’s possible they would attract similar individuals with a grudge against the Federation, if only just to utilise their equipment.

However, at least part of the reason that Zeon remnant groups are so prevent is that the Federation, previously having had a lassie-faire attitude to space, began to crack down, on both anti-federation sentiment and on the Zeon remnants. This sentiment eventually gave rise to the Titans, with any embers of Zeon being absorbed into the larger fires of the AEUG and Neo Zeon, or being stamped out by the Titans (or running off to Mars).

The Post-War Federation, however, is a massive ponderous thing. The continued activities of Zeon Remnant groups (not least of which being the Delaz Fleet, of 0083 fame) quickly led to them stockpiling more military power in the form of the Titans in order to protect their interests in space. The Titans enjoyed massive power in the Earth sphere, simply because the Federation didn’t bother to task much in the way of their regular forces to the region, allowing the Titans to accrue more and more power. The colony gassing, in my mind, is meant to signify how far the Federation has fallen by employing the Titans, and why the AEUG has become necessary. It shows that Zeon wasn’t evil purely because of the actions of the zabis, and that anyone could commit such horrors, even the federation, not out of malice, out of negligence and apathy. The Titans didn’t gas the colony because they were at war with another power and needed a very deadly weapon in a hurry, they gassed it because those protesters were politically inconvenient.

Zeon and it’s remnants represent the dangers of fanaticism - of caring about one thing far too much, at the expense of all else. The Federation represents the dangers of apathy - a lack of care doing just as much harm.

Genuine question that has just occurred to me: to what extent, in Universal Century Gundam stories, are the various iterations of Zeon shown to oppress their own people?

Because that strikes me as an interesting wrinkle to the whole ‘are they really the bad guys’ line of thought. I know the Earth Federation is repeatedly shown to be oppressive towards its citizens (that is how we got into this mess in the first place, after all). And that’s aside from the unethical experimentation and so forth – they are shown to trample on the rights of anyone inconvenient, up to and including instituting a police-state (the Titans, the situation by the time of Gundam:Hathaway).

Whereas on the Zeon side, yes we have the multiple war crimes and mass destruction against the opposing side, but the only solid incident I can think of where Zeon’s own citizens were definitely chafing under their rule is the Cicero uprising in ZZ. Which is … interesting given the issues of legitimacy inherent to Harman’s plot-line.

Like the Federation, I’m sort of parceling off the cyber-Newtype malarkey in its own box, and I’d equally treat the ascent of the Zabis as a separate issue: this is more a question around how the regime they instituted is presented at the level of the ordinary person. I’m curious as to what the overall impression is among people more invested in the UC stuff than me?

Since I did a post talking about all the Mass-Production units I liked in SEED/SEED Destiny, so I should probably talk about the Gundams I did like, especially now that I’m thinking about it with the new movie trailer.

Generally, I don’t have a high opinion of much of the Gundam-type mobile suits in the Cosmic Era, principally because I find they all look rather similar (that’ll happen when they’re all developed from the same five suits by only two factions). I’m also gonna be focusing primarily on suits that appeared in the animated series, since sidestories typically can afford to be a bit more “out-there” with the designs. The first three are the designs that I genuinely like and appreciate, whereas the last two have asterisks attached.

First up, the Infinite Justice. Narrowly makes it into the top spot for me. A good part of it is the novelty of having a bright pink Gundam, I admit. But I do love how, where the Strike freedom decides to add funnels and more guns with which to shoot people, the IJ instead gets a bunch of blades. Like not only is it pink, but it’ll also cut you. It’s still well-armed in the ranged department though, having a beam rifle, “fortis” beam cannons and a bunch of beam boomerangs. I do like the original justice Gundam as well, but the Infinite Justice just feels like a fuller vision of the concept, without being tied into resembling the Aegis too much, in contrast to the Strike Freedom, which felt like they nailed it first time and had to add a bunch of extra stuff on.

The Providence is a solid second, because I like the concept more than the execution. The background for the Providence is that it was supposed to be a heavy assault suit, but they had to retrofit it with the Dragoon tech in a hurry, hence the cabling on its chest and the system’s overall lack of integration. I love the concept of this, and the heavy weaponry it retains makes me imagine a sort of Full Armour Gundam 7th-style unit. I *think* that the whole Dragoon system on its back thing is supposed to give the appearance of a halo? So Rau is a sort of angel of destruction that Kira must stop? It doesn’t work, but I think that’s what they were going for. Providence is a pretty cool name though. I’m not really sure about the integrated beam saber/gun thing on its left arm, but its not bad. The Providence also gets a bump because I quite like Rau as a character, and this is his final unit.

Grabbing third (and bringing an end to the ranking) is the Akatsuki (specifically the Oowashi Akatsuki). The Akatsuki itself is this lovely melding of SEED’s Gundam Aesthetic with the Hyaku-Shiki, and I think it looks gorgeous. You can obviously see the Strike influence, but it’s blended together with elements closer to the Astray series and it all works rather well. Its sensibly armed with a shield and rifle with optional bayonet in addition to beam sabers. I should note that I specifically prefer the atmospheric-based Oowashi pack to the space Shiranui one. This is because the Oowashi pack actually looks like something - wings and two beam cannons evocative of those on the F91. The Shiranui’s just a big box with some funnels stuck on. I do like how the Akatsuki’s great against beam weaponry but crap against physical though, since it’s a nice reversal of fortunes compared to the start of SEED.

Now if only Cagalli actually did anything with it.

The Calamity is a bit of a cheat, since it’s at least partially here because it can become the Sword Calamity. I like a lot of artillery suits, and the Calamity is just my favourite here, mostly because of how sensible it’s weaponry is. Guns in the shield, beam weaponry fitted on the suit itself to take advantage of the generator, then a nice, lovely plasma-sabot bazooka to round out the armament. The only thing it’s really missing is a beam saber. It also makes the most of its integrated weaponry - most of its handheld and the backpack’s replaceable, but that “Scylla” cannon isn’t going anywhere. I also quite like the head. If we had had the Calamity instead of the Buster, I’d probably prefer it.

The Legend Gundam’s here because A) it’s got a nice head. And b) we saw virtually nothing of it in series. It’s here because I end up liking it when it (very-rarely) shows up in side content (like videogames), but it regards to the anime itself, it could charitably be described as “being there”.

Jean-Claude Mézières