The Mobile Suit Gundam series digs deep into the repercussions of war, especially the effects on individuals’ emotional and moral well-being. Powerful themes of war, including trauma, loss of innocence and duty plague the multifaceted characters of the franchise. While Gundam Wing is not remembered as fondly as other legendary entries into the franchise, it is still rich with complex and driven characters dealing with the repercussions of war.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing thrives at displaying the intense and extreme duality of humanity. Through contrasting characters that verbally and physically duel on battlefields to prove their philosophy is correct, Gundam Wing builds a convoluted but magnetic display of this duality. With an ensemble collection of characters and changing points of view, the series paints a rich tale of pacifism, warmongering, duty and dishonor.
The antagonists and supporting cast carry substantial emotional and political weight for the series as the lead quintet rarely stray from their established characteristics and beliefs. Heero’s stoic and emotionally static nature sets him apart from the other characters who express their trauma and mindset in less robotic ways. Existing as such a stark contrast to everyone else allows Heero’s actions and interactions to magnify the rest of the cast’s trauma and emotions.
Dutifully executing any order deemed necessary, even murder, Heero quickly runs afoul of the aptly named Relena Peacecraft. Relena was born and raised to support diplomacy and pacifism above all else. She is the biological child of peaceful royalty by an anti-war politician who saved her when the Peacecraft’s kingdom fell.
Relena’s relentless attempts to break Heero’s outer shell that culminated in the iconic scene of Heero coldly ripping her party invitation wonderfully juxtaposes the extremes of emotionalism and stoicism. While both individuals lost their families and homes to never-ending wars, their reactions couldn’t be more different. Relena’s persistent pursuit of total peace is an extreme but beautiful dream when opposed to Heero’s dutiful approach to eliminating anyone who opposes his group’s goals.
Continuously comparing driven and dutiful soldiers with the pacifistic dreamers brings to light how deeply rooted the hopelessness of war is in the world of Gundam Wing. While Heero counteracts Relena’s emotional handling of the traumatic world, her ideology of peace opposes Dorothy Catalonia’s passion for war. Born to military royalty and raised to respect fighting and war, Dorothy is rooted in and proudly stands for everything that Relena opposes.
Dorothy and Relena go to extremes to justify their heritage and beliefs due to their profoundly rooted pride in their parentage. While they couldn't be further from one another in their perspectives on war, their devotion drives them closer to the battlefield as they share the understanding that they cannot run from their respective fights. As the current war ensues, Dorothy’s fervent support for war starts to wane as her father dies in the conflict.
During the fallout of the final battle, Dorothy acknowledges a newfound duality as she begins to hate war for taking her father while still loving it because it is all she knows. Internal conflict and duality emanate from Zechs Merquise and Lady Une. The extent of Zechs’ duality is kin to the classic Gundam character Char Aznable, as both adopted masks and new identities to avenge their families.
Zechs, formerly Milliardo Peacecraft, is Relena’s brother and heir to their fallen pacifist kingdom. War plants the seed of a soldier in Zechs, who opposes his sister and parents’ philosophy of total peace. The chivalrous autocrat, Treize Khushrenada, fosters this desire to fight and seek personal vengeance.
War takes place both on the battlefield and in the hearts and minds of people. Treize and Dorothy work as warmongering forces while Relena and the mindful soldier Lucrezia Noin push for solutions without fatalities. These dueling factions cause alliances to break and form across all sides of the conflict, giving rise to new organizations that stem from the evolving minds of those directly tied to the war.
Caught in the middle of these ever-changing factions is the sensitive and broken Lady Une. While it may come off as extreme, Lady Une suffers from dissociative identity disorder, where one personality supports the war efforts and the other seeks peace and diplomacy like Relena. Both of Gundam Wing’s driving philosophies exist in Lady Une’s fractured mind.
As Treize’s reliable assistant and sometimes lover, she supports his cause most outrageously. Where Treize respects the Gundam pilots while seeking to eliminate them, Une hates them to the core and eagerly seeks their eradication. When Treize’s criticism of Une’s extreme methods shatters her mind, her new identity becomes almost as powerful but in support of peace. Her internal conflict and duality spotlight the tragic backlash of putting one’s mind and spirit wholly into the machine of war and peace.
Another wartime duality on full display is Heero’s belief in bearing the burden alone and the other surrogate leader of the Gundam pilots, Quatre’s desire to share war obligations. The confidence in others and willingness to accept help separate Heero and Quatre. Heero firmly believes in the disconnect of the battle where emotions need not live. At the same time, Quatre sees the need for connection and support to mitigate physical and mental damage during wartime.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing’s dynamic alliances and mentally disarrayed characters make an already consulted plot murkier, but they lend themselves firmly to the franchise's core themes. Gundam Wing’s characters balance extremes in captivating and memorable manners adding to the show’s legacy. The traumatized, beautiful child soldiers follow their orders, allowing for the emotional and complicated supporting cast to drive home the show’s themes.