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Why is Gundam's Char Aznable so beloved?

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Slayven

Member
I watched the OG series on Toonami, and he seemed like your standard self righteous anime villain. Was it a timing thing where he was something new in the medium? Or he was just the first Gundam villain?
 
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Because Zechs Merquise hadn't been created yet.
 
There's a few factors. He has a cool mask, a fair amount of charisma, a robot piloting rivalry with the protagonist and a hidden agenda that is more selfish than inherently good or bad, which creates a degree of ambiguity as the show reveals his real goals aren't the same as those of Zeon as a whole.

To be honest, this type of character certainly wasn't invented by Gundam, not even in the context of mecha anime as a genre since there are several historical precedents, but it was executed in an interesting manner and thus became iconic even if the individual parts of his character weren't necessarily original.
 
JCG said:
There's a few factors. He has a cool mask, a fair amount of charisma, a robot piloting rivalry with the protagonist and a hidden agenda that is more selfish than inherently good or bad, which creates a degree of ambiguity as the show reveals his real goals aren't the same as those of Zeon as a whole.

To be honest, this type of character certainly wasn't invented by Gundam, not even in the context of mecha anime as a genre since there are several historical precedents, but it was executed in an interesting manner and thus became iconic even if the individual parts of his character weren't necessarily original.
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He may not have been the first, but he was three times better than the rest.
 
Because Shuiichi Ikea portrayed him with so much swag. This cant be understated. That performance is legendary. Kopsa was great too though.

Plus the character had a very iconic personal style both for himself and his mobile suit.

Plus he's mysterious, aloof and v some what tragic
 
I watched the subs, so my experience might be different, but...

  • He's a recurring villain who gets built up over the whole series, so you get to see a lot of him.
  • He's a devious wild card on the Zeon forces that creates a lot of the drama, such as when he backstabbed Garma.
  • He's against the Zabi family and Giren Zabi is space Hitler. So he's a lot easier for viewers to side with than the other major villains.
  • He is extremely charismatic and not a typical villain; even at his worst, he has a smile on his face.
  • His Japanese voice actor really plays up the dynamic between his ruthlessness and his affable behavior. I fucking love his laugh.
  • He has a personal connection with one of the main cast (Sayla).
  • He poses a credible recurring threat to the hero, actually managing to overwhelm Amuro in a few of their fights. It's established he can do this even with inferior technology thanks to his high skill as a pilot.
  • Most of his mobile suits are painted red and therefore are cooler.
  • He wins. He succeeds at exactly what he set out to do by the end of Mobile Suit Gundam. Not many villains can claim that.
  • In Zeta Gundam, he becomes one of the main protagonists and has a bitching gold mech and sunglasses.

So yeah, Char is pretty awesome.
 
I like the part near the end where he blows a chick's head up with a rocket launcher.

When it comes to Zeta or Char's Counterattack its like whatever. But for the og series he makes a cool rival. Starts out as part of enemy forces but you quickly learn he's more of an independent threat. A 3rd party whose interests don't always align with the main bad guys.
 
Slayven said:
I watched the OG series on Toonami, and he seemed like your standard self righteous anime villain. Was it a timing thing where he was something new in the medium? Or he was just the first Gundam villain?
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you should really watch origin AND the main serie..
in all honesty, "char aznable" is THE character that grows and change in the series (ever so subtly, unless in specific episodes), whereas amuro ray is... plain? :X
i really don't want to spoiler you anything, but if you want to spoil it to yourself..
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Char_Aznable gives a solid description of how the chararacter changes along the way.. it's VERY spoilery, so i wouldn't look at it unless you don't plan to read the whole main series for the century war..
 
Char is a fairly complex character. His motivations, his backstory, his trajectory from rich kid to refugee to assuming the identity to infiltrate a regime to bring them down from inside to getting carried away with a rivalry then joining his rivals then becoming a weird leader who was really unprepared role to martyr. A lot of it was added later, but still pretty progressive for a 70s mecha villain.

The Char/Amuro relationship is so intriguing to me. Char is a talented pilot who really rose beyond his capabilities due to his ambition and really went off the deep end at the end. Amuro was a genius and a phenom who was such a massive underachiever. For all of his brilliance and skill, he never rose above just being a great pilot. Never became a real leader, never got out of his shell, only to die in battle at 29 trying to stop axis from entering the atmosphere. Their relationship and rivalry defined them to their deaths.
 
It is my understanding that Tomino wanted Gundam to be about Char, and he is a Count de Monte Cristo type character. He also seems to be the most fleshed out of the characters despite not being the main character.
 
As far as the original series is concerned, Char is more of an antagonist than an outright villain. He has a very clear agenda of taking out the entirety of the Zabi family in order to take revenge for what they did to his father, and at least initially, he isn't that deeply concerned with what happens to Zeon once the task is complete. Hell, before the movie trilogy and Zeta, the ending leaves enough to the imagination where he was content to go on a suicide attack to take out Kycilia as she's trying to evacuate, just as long as the last of the family goes down with him.

His only real ambition outside of that is to help herald in the age of Newtypes with him getting it into his head that he would be the one to lead the charge, hence the constant need to one-up Amuro once he realizes there's someone out there that's a match for that level of power. Oh, and mommy issues the size of a colony.
 
If you think Char is a villain, then you weren't paying attention. Up until CCA, he's just as much as a hero-type character as Amuro was (and even more so than Kamille was.)
 
theLusitanian said:
It is my understanding that Tomino wanted Gundam to be about Char, and he is a Count de Monte Cristo type character. He also seems to be the most fleshed out of the characters despite not being the main character.
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Yeah, in Tomino's novels Amuro died. The Zeta + Beltochika's Children(CCA) novels all focus much more on Char. And Gaia Gear is even about a Char clone.
 
witchedwiz said:
you should really watch origin AND the main serie..
in all honesty, "char aznable" is THE character that grows and change in the series (ever so subtly, unless in specific episodes), whereas amuro ray is... plain? :X
i really don't want to spoiler you anything, but if you want to spoil it to yourself..
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Char_Aznable gives a solid description of how the chararacter changes along the way.. it's VERY spoilery, so i wouldn't look at it unless you don't plan to read the whole main series for the century war..
Click to expand...

I wouldn't agree with that. Amuro matures IMMENSELY between MSG, Zeta and CCA. I think you're forgetting how he was throughout most of MSG. Granted he was a little kid forced into war and in over his head, but by CCA he's an experienced soldier who is all business, unless a certain person's name is brought up
 
He is one of the most iconic and influential rivals of all time. Char made being a rival into a brand. Keep watching, because his character definitely goes places. His archetype is endlessly repeated in other games/anime.

He's just that good.
 
Ceallach said:
Yeah, in Tomino's novels Amuro died. The Zeta + Beltochika's Children(CCA) novels all focus much more on Char. And Gaia Gear is even about a Char clone.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to spoil that, but yea I thought the novels were the best representation of the concept of the original series.
 
I always thought zechs was awesome but after seeing the whole series I have to say you can hate the guy for all he did but he was so damn good at it.

Mastermind, genius and simply OP when it came to commands and war

Except in zeta but he was still cool 😂
 
- He has iconic character design, you look at him once and its stick.
- Has an archetype that still beloved till now, very confidence and can throw quip kinda guy
- Ongoing meme about how he think red made everything better

Its about what I'd say in quick way.
 
Th only cool thing about zechs was that his gundam physically hurt him to pilot and he just said fuck it and did it anyway
 
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