• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Why is Gundam's Char Aznable so beloved?

For the record, I am still unclear who in the fresh hell Full Frontal was supposed to be in Unicorn and how he's related to Char.

Hathaway and Riddhe could give her a good match for that title.

Not to mention the Seed Destiny people still exist.
 
Char is Big Boss

also Quess is the worst Gundam character ever invented

Quess is annoying, but in a franchise with Shin and Ezelcant, I don't think she quite manages to be the no.1 worst character.

Top ten for sure tho.

Nope, Char's ideology is very much influenced by his father Zeon Zum Deikun which is where his fanatical beliefs about saving the Earth come from. At first, in 0079 it's very much about his own personal revenge, but by the time of CCA he's on that save the earth shit and that all came from his father.

I don't deny that Deikun's rhetoric is a major component of Char's world view and believe (the speech at Dakar had him name dropping his father afterall, along with the whole getting weighed down by gravity stuff) but a major element of CCA is that Char is also motivated by personal reasons and loss for why he ended up where he was by the end. So even though he was in bed with neo-Zeon and pretty committed to dropping that colony, and he was saying all his dad's greatest hits, it was still motivated by the same drive that made him want to take down the Zabi's, and he was willing to use neo-Zeon to accomplish that goal.

Any time you post, I have Jay Z's voice in my head when reading it and it just makes it so much better

Same.

on the note of Gundam, what order should I watch the show in? Tried the older ones and can't get over the 80s look

You can pick any of the AU series and watch them, since they are meant to be stand alones.

For the UC series, depending on their production release or you could watch the OVA series/movies like Unicorn and the Origin.
 
Did we watch the same movie? Neither Char not Amuro gave a shit about Quess, romantically. Char just wanted to use her, Amuro just wanted her to stop fawning over Char, and Hathaway was...Hathaway

Don't forget Gyunei.

May point is she draws the affection of so many men despite being the worst girl ever.
 
The odd thing is that despite him taking a more direct approach with Kycilia face, Char's final words to Garma made it the more shocking scene in the series for me.
I think it's because Garma is the only innocent among the entire Zabi family, and the realization that Char had be stringing him along for all those years does not paint him a particularly great light, especially as he admitted that he was nothing more than a means to an end. With Kycilia, both she and Char made their intentions known to each other, so there was a direct conflict already at play and the threat of Char catching up to her on A Baoa Qu as it was exploding was as much of a reason for evacuating as there was a chance for her to end the battle on a ceasefire and spare more Zeon lives.
 
One of the things that make the thing with Garma impactful is that, until his final moments, Garma still believed in Char. Then comes the famous line.

For the record, I am still unclear who in the fresh hell Full Frontal was supposed to be in Unicorn and how he's related to Char.

Punished "Venom" Char, A Fallen Hero.
 
I don't deny that Deikun's rhetoric is a major component of Char's world view and believe (the speech at Dakar had him name dropping his father afterall, along with the whole getting weighed down by gravity stuff) but a major element of CCA is that Char is also motivated by personal reasons and loss for why he ended up where he was by the end. So even though he was in bed with neo-Zeon and pretty committed to dropping that colony, and he was saying all his dad's greatest hits, it was still motivated by the same drive that made him want to take down the Zabi's, and he was willing to use neo-Zeon to accomplish that goal.

I do agree that his reasons to turn to droppin the big ass rock were personal but I don't feel as if he was solely doing it because he was scorned by loss. I think he really was ready to sit back and groom the next generation of newtypes and spacenoids but the ending of Zeta fucked it all up. And I say this because he really does care for the preservation of the Earth, he was willing to try to get the earthlings off slowly but it was clear that wasn't happening when his surrogate son/younger brother got mind fucked.

So we can disagree on the nuances. I wouldn't portray him out to be selfish, but his own personal loss are strong motivators.
 
tumblr_n3sy4vctAG1rpk8d0o1_400.gif


Because Zechs Merquise hadn't been created yet.
Dude I would get them confused all the time. It's obvious that Wing was like, "let's just make Char again."
 
For the record, I am still unclear who in the fresh hell Full Frontal was supposed to be in Unicorn and how he's related to Char.

The bit in Char's soul that couldn't let go that Amuro beat him so he hijacked a cloned body of his so that he could be both Char and not-Char at the same time.

Schrodinger's Char.
 
For the record, I am still unclear who in the fresh hell Full Frontal was supposed to be in Unicorn and how he's related to Char.



Not to mention the Seed Destiny people still exist.

Full Frontal was a Cyber Newtype engineered to be as close to Char as possible. He knew he wasn't Char, but wanted people to believe he was or could be to follow him. He believed he absorbed Char's spirit from the remnants of Sazabi's Psychoframe drifting in space and was going to finish what Char started.
 
For the record, I am still unclear who in the fresh hell Full Frontal was supposed to be in Unicorn and how he's related to Char.

With my understanding Full Frontal is a cyber newtype clone of Char with imprinted behaviors and personality. He's basically Char if you stripped away all of his memory and original character motivations
 
Dude I would get them confused all the time. It's obvious that Wing was like, "let's just make Char again."

Hey now, Zechs does eventually see the futility of his chosen path and manages to successfully pump the brakes before it's too late for everyone, and he actually does reciprocate romantic feelings for the one person that always had his back!

It's still a little funny to me that Zechs and Noin is one of the better romances across the franchise, especially since the show they're on has a central relationship where our hero is actively trying to kill the heroine for a little while and has a reputation of being a sausage fest.
 
With my understanding Full Frontal is a cyber newtype clone of Char with imprinted behaviors and personality. He's basically Char if you stripped away all of his memory and original character motivations

Well, I'll still take it over Nazi Char.


(mentioned it in one of the older threads, but the ham that goes into Rau's performance is amazing)
 
I think it's because Garma is the only innocent among the entire Zabi family, and the realization that Char had be stringing him along for all those years does not paint him a particularly great light, especially as he admitted that he was nothing more than a means to an end. With Kycilia, both she and Char made their intentions known to each other, so there was a direct conflict already at play and the threat of Char catching up to her on A Baoa Qu as it was exploding was as much of a reason for evacuating as there was a chance for her to end the battle on a ceasefire and spare more Zeon lives.

One of the things that make the thing with Garma impactful is that, until his final moments, Garma still believed in Char. Then comes the famous line.

Yeah, I think that's it. I mean the Zabi's in general were corrupt as hell, but getting to know Garma and see how much trust he had in Char and how much that trust was misplaced did make it stand out.

I do agree that his reasons to turn to droppin the big ass rock were personal but I don't feel as if he was solely doing it because he was scorned by loss. I think he really was ready to sit back and groom the next generation of newtypes and spacenoids but the ending of Zeta fucked it all up. And I say this because he really does care for the preservation of the Earth, he was willing to try to get the earthlings off slowly but it was clear that wasn't happening when his surrogate son/younger brother got mind fucked.

So we can disagree on the nuances. I wouldn't portray him out to be selfish, but his own personal loss are strong motivators.

I think that is fair characterization, yeah. I do agree wholeheartedly that Zeta's ending was the catalyst for why he ended up going full on nuke the earth, since he seemed to realise (or delude himself) that the only way to save humanity and the earth is to drop the colony.

That scene was animated by Ichiro Itano, famous for the Macross missile massacre, but also for gruesome death scenes.

The way Tomino reacted to the scene was pretty wild. I know that the way it was shown in Gundam Sousei is probably not how it went down, but given how graphic it was I don't doubt there was a lot of shouting about it back then.

Shit I didn't think he was that young.

War ages a kid fast, especially in order to fully steal the identity of someone (presumably) older than you.
 
I just watched Castle in the Sky for the first time and swear that the villain's dub VA is the same as Char's dub VA. Furthermore, I swear that all anime villains are voiced by like one of three VAs.

*gets behind dub flameshield*
 
As someone who knows shit about Gundam but want to start watching, where do I start? My understanding is that there are dozens of series and spin-offs.

The manga Gundam: The Origin is a retelling of the original Gundam story with gorgeous art. I've watched the Mobile Suit Gundam movies, and I prefer The Origin by a fair margin

The covers alone are wonderful.

 
The manga Gundam: The Origin is a retelling of the original Gundam story with gorgeous art. I've watched the Mobile Suit Gundam movies, and I prefer The Origin by a fair margin

The covers alone are wonderful.

The only reason I wouldn't recommend this route to anyone who isn't already a Gundam fan is that buying all of it would run you a couple hundred bucks. You absolutely get what you pay for, though. Pretty much the best quality volumes you're going to get outside of Vinland Saga.
 
Top Bottom