One Year War - Tumblr Posts

'The Midnight of Zeon'

The Earth Federation has evicted Zeon from the once proud A Baoa Qu; vigor turns to desperation as Zeon's battered fleets and their exhausted pilots attempt to flee the lost battle-space. There is little respite for the Federation's defeated foes

If I may, I’d like to use this sentiment as a springboard into the question of “Why are Zeon used as Protagonists so often in Universal Century Works?”

Enemy soldiers in Gundam were always shown to have some form of personality and even humanity, making them personable, affable and giving their deaths tragedy and meaning - emblematic of real-world wars, where there are heroes and tragic deaths on both sides. By humanising Zeon and establishing them as fighting for their own cause, it demonstrates that the “other side” is motivated by the same things as our protagonists, furthering the notion of war being this uncontrollable, hopeless thing that man is drawn into, as opposed to being master of.

So, Zeon then. They’re the villains of the piece, and obviously have heavy influence from WWI and WWII Germany (aesthetically they’re more WWI, but Gihren and the Island Iffish Gassing place them firmly in WWII territory). The fact that the Iffish Gassing is downplayed compared to Operation British proper (IE the Colony Drop) is something I would like to see addressed at some point, but a lot of our series protagonists are from Earth, so the Colony Drop itself affected them more. (I think Shiro Amanda from 08th MS team is stated to be an Iffish Survivor, but I don’t really recall it ever coming up). I think it’s main failing is that it’s typically a background detail (with the notable exception of The Origin), and thus very rarely addressed. Island Iffish is also particularly important because it demonstrates that Zeon’s lofty Ideals of Colonial Independence from the Earth Federation are not held on all levels, seeing the colonies as tools to be used in their war against the Earth Federation, not brothers in arms. In brief; Zeon Footsoldiers yelling about independence? Probably Genuine, since they would likely believe in Zeon Zum Deikun’s philosophy. The Zabi’s or Zeon High Command yelling about it? Probably a motivational smokescreen and nothing more. Both Zeon and the Earth Federation also used nuclear weapons during the early stages on the One Year War, which is the main thing that led massive population losses, in addition to Operation British. I bring this up specifically to illustrate that while neither side are angels, Zeon has more atrocities to its name.

(Note: it was later revealed that at least some of the forces (IE Cima Garahau’s team) carrying out the Iffish Gassing were lied to by their commanders, being told that they would be using sleeping gas to allow the colonists to be freely evacuated. It’s not clear how prevalent this was though, so I’m only noting it here to cover all my bases)

So. We have a large army of idealists, fighting for what they believe is a just cause, in an unfamiliar environment, with command that ranged from the incompetent to the fractious. We can neatly contrast these characters to other members of Zeon who are considerably more kill-crazy, showing how war affects some people (and providing an opportunity for our characters to stick to their ideals). Alright, alright, what else?

Speaking of Zeon High command - while they are full of personality that makes them fun to watch, they’re not really that important to Amuro’s story. With the sole exception of Dozle (Garma is killed largely by accident), he never really meets any of them. They’re comparatively a background element. As such, this provides an excellent opportunity for expansion. Garma’s Forces are young and Idealistic, Dozle’s forces are tough and Honourable, Kycilia’s forces are cunning and sneaky, while gihren’s forces are wild and fanatical. There’s also ample opportunity to sneak in a Zeon commander working under one of them, and have them take actions (Kycilia sponsored Noisy Fairy, the Invisible Knights and the Midnight Fenrir Corp, and that’s just off the top of my head). It works very well from a storytelling perspective if you want a small, tight-knit commando team with varying skillsets and some fancy units (IE Efreets). It even has historical precedent, way waaaaay back in the early Gundam setting books, we learn about Johnny Ridden and the Chimera Corps, Zeon’s own, personal squadron of Crack-aces, who got the Early Production Gelgoogs.

Okay okay, so cool Mobile suit designs (so we sell lots of models), interesting and conflicting commanders, which enables us to say something about the personality of our force in shorthand. Historical precedent of a *Bunch* of prior special forces teams (even with mobile suits, the Earth’s a big place, plenty of room for others), even a doctrine that favours them (The Earth Attack force does brilliantly until the Battle of Odessa, whereupon they’re soundly beaten on Earth. Any forces that couldn’t evacuate would be largely cut-off from support and forced to adopt Guerilla tactics. Furthermore, they’re fighting defensively against a superior foe, since by this point the Federation has mobile suits of their own, and that’s the sort of adversity that can make for an interesting story. It shows a reversal of fortunes of the characters part, mirroring the wider problem that Zeon is having). But surely it wouldn’t be such a stretch to apply some of this to the Earth Federation forces too? Gundams and GM’s are cool too after all.

Ah, and here (in my opinion) we come to the crux of it, the reason why Zeon are protagonists (or at the very least, interesting antagonists a La 0083, so often).

Pathos.

We, as the audience *know* that Zeon will lose the one year war. The absolute best fate for these characters is to retire once the war is over and never pilot again. But it throws everything they do in a new light. The bright-eyed, young pilot who is horrified by the war? All the more tragic, because it was all for nothing. The political officer who’s a hard-line Gihren-loyalist? Well, they’re in for a rude awakening. One of my favourite Gundam manga with Zeon as the protagonists is Acguy: 2250 Miles across America. Because it shows these two characters just trying to reach evacuation off earth before they’re stuck. It’s not one of the many things detailed above no, but it casts them as human above all else. They don’t decide to go out in a blaze of glory fighting the federation. It’s the story of their evacuation, and the adventures they get into on the way there.

It’s a lot easier to sell the tragedy of war if the situation is already bleak for our characters. The Earth Federation starts out bleak, then gets better with the introduction of mobile suits. Zeon starts off great, then gets bleak with the introduction of enemy mobile suits. However, on a small-scale, the introduction of Zeon’s new, shiny and highly-marketable advanced mobile suits (IE Efreets) can tip the tide on a small scale, enabling them to appear badass even as Zeon is losing the wider war.

I’m excited for Requiem of Vengeance, but I really wish we got more Universal Century content that wasn’t the One Year War.

So I’ve been seeing a lot of people chatting about the new Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance trailer, and there’s a part of it I’d like to throw my two cents in on.

Honestly, in regards to there being a billion Gundam’s running around the OYW, I made my peace with that fact years ago, so it doesn’t bother me. Yeah, yeah it’s a little silly from an in-universe perspective, no matter how many times they pull the “secret prototype” card. But from an out of universe perspective, Gundams sell, and they want it to sell. It’s a rare thing in the UC series that doesn’t have a Gundam in it.

But just for the sake of it, how many Gundams are (at present) running around in the One Year War?

Note: I was originally going to ignore things like Thunderbolt, The Origin and the Sidestories, since they all have a somewhat weird canon state. Then I realised that “Gundams that Canonically existed in the OYW” ≠ “Gundams that you see marketed in OYW sidestories”. So, I’m going to lead with the suits that we know existed, then move on to the other ones. I am, however, ignoring Manga, because I haven’t read everything and we’ll be here all day.

Alrighty, so we start off with the original RX-78 series as built in Operation V (sometimes called the “Vinson Plan”). We have:

RX-78-1 “Prototype Gundam” - As its name suggests, the prototype unit to the entire line. Never deployed to my knowledge, I’m honestly not sure what happens to it. I usually read it as being destroyed during the attack on Side 7, but I’m not certain of that.

RX-78-2 “Gundam” - you know this one. Amuro falls into the cockpit at Side 7 and proceeds to pilot it from then until the end of the One Year War.

RX-78-3 “G-3 Gundam” - apparently recovered from Side 7 and used as a test bed for magnet coating technology. Beyond that we have absolutely no idea what happened to it, since there’s a bunch of conflicting accounts. My usual headcanon is that it was used as a basis for all the MSV suits, but we have absolutely no idea if and where it was deployed.

RX-78-4 “Gundam G04” - deployed alongside unit 5 at the Battle of Solomon.

RX-78-5 “Gundam G05” - deployed alongside unit 4 at the battle of Solomon.

RX-78-6 “Mudrock Gundam” - deployed in the defence of Jaburo and the re-taking of California base.

The other two units are part of the series, but were not (as far as we know) deployed during the OYW:

RX-78-7 “Gundam 7th” - completed and deployed after the war.

RX-78-8 - we know nothing about. There may have been an 8th unit, it may just have been design data, and we have no idea if it was deployed or what it looked like.

Next; The Gundam Ground Types. There were 20 (-ish, some sources say 28) Gundam ground types produced during the One Year War from spare parts of the RX-78 series. This includes:

The units seen in 08th MS Team - 12 Gundam Ground Types were deployed to the Kojima Battalion.

The Ez8 - Deployed, as above.

Blue Destiny Unit 1 - Deployed

Blue Destiny Unit 2 - stolen by Zeon Ace Nimbus Schterzen.

Blue Destiny Unit 3 - Deployed in pursuit of Unit 2.

Slave Wraith - Questionably Canon, assigned to and deployed by Slave Wraith team.

I’m also gonna quickly call out that we have no idea on the various Full Armor units (the FA Gundam, the Heavy Gundam, the FA Ground type, the FA type B etc). Some sources say they were built, others that they were only simulation data.

And finally we have everything else:

Gundam NT-1 “Alex” - Developed at Augusta Base, then moved to side 6, where it was deployed against the Cyclops Team.

Gundam NT-1 “Prototype NT-1” - apparently an entirely separate suit to the NT-1. The prototype to the above. Presumably not deployed.

RX-78XX “Pixy/Pixie Gundam” - Questionably Canon, three units built. Unit 1 deployed in Belfast, Unit 2 in the Gobi Desert (and planned to be deployed at Odessa) and Unit 3 in Africa.

RAG-79-G1 Gundam Marine type - Sometimes known as the “Gundiver”. An underwater-spec unit. Unknown amount produced, primarily because it’s essentially a modified Underwater GM as opposed to a “true” Gundam unit.

And that’s about it for mainline UC. Gundam The Origin intentionally keeps things very vague as to how many Gundam’s exist there, so I’m not going to bother.

Gundam Thunderbolt is a bit of an odd case, since at first glance, it adds three:

FA-78 Full Armour Gundam (Thunderbolt ver.) - deployed by the Moore Brotherhood at Side 4.

RX-79[GS] Gundam Ground type S - produced by the Federation during the One Year War and after, presumably deployed.

RGM-79/GH Gundam Head - a GM with a Gundam-style head in an attempt to reproduce the psychological effect on Zeon forces.

But that last one illustrates Thunderbolt’s position on the matter, which is later made clearer in the manga in regards to the Bull-G, a unit built postwar. The Bull-G is a prototype unit contending for the position of the Federations new main unit. However, it’s actually an upgraded GM, fitted with a Gundam-style head to make it more appealing.

And this seems to be thunderbolt’s position on the matter - after a certain point it comes down to a suit’s performance rather than it being a Gundam. So yes, it adds a bunch of Gundam-style suits, but it also deconstructs that just because a suit looks like a Gundam doesn’t make it special.

Which is honestly a pretty interesting position to take.

….. I don’t think so?

Just off the top of my head I can’t think of any Particular examples of Zeon as a whole oppressing their own people (IE other members of Zeon, which I’ll get to in a minute).

EDIT: I can’t think of any examples of Zeon *overtly* oppressing their own citizens, other than propaganda.

I would like to call out Desert Rommel from mobile suit Gundam ZZ. He camps out in a small desert town and is implied to be oppressing the people there. Rommel is in charge of a remnant group comprised of some Desert Zaku’s and Dwadges. He smacks one of his own men for caring about his family instead of giving his all in his attempts to revive Zeon, and is implied to be ruling the town with an iron fist, conducting raids on the outer settlements and Federation bases. Thing is, he’s not affiliated with Zeon at this point, since he’s active during ZZ, and his actions seem largely to illustrate just how desperate his remnant group is.

The Manga “The Plot to Assassinate Gihren” does have some depictions of Zeon’s secret police and has examples of how the population was kept in line (I shan’t spoil, not least because I haven’t read all of it). It does however probably fall under the header of “Zabi Plots”.

Generally, when it comes to their own population during the one year war, my understanding is that Zeon didn’t really have to oppress their own people as such, since they had an excellent propaganda ministry and the Zabi family (Gihren) were massively charismatic and didn’t really require much else to keep the general population in line. It’s implied (at least in the Origin) that Kycillia had a lot of pull with the “civilian” police, and presumably she would deal with any major dissenters. It is stated in some side materials that the Zabi’s suppressed certain political dissidents who were vocally opposed to their rule, but it’s never shown.

I would however note that the Iffish Colony Gassing (the Opening Stage of Operation British) could be taken as an absolutely massive case of this, since I understand that publicly Zeon was trying to do the whole “Independence from the Corrupt and Unfair Federation!” thing, which Iffish completely undercuts. Zeon slaughters billions of colony residents, it’s supposed allies, in order to use Island Iffish as a weapon against the Earth. If the Federation hadn’t fought the (very costly) Battle of Loum, they probably would have tried again, doubling the death toll.

Like, in regards to your average Zeon Colony resident, I expect they’d just be seeing an awful lot of Gihren’s speeches and the occasional riot suppression. Maybe some shady secret service guys.

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?

Zaku I by Hirotoshi Sano