#char clones

[wordsandrobots]

#ugh. I had stuff to say and then tumblr killed it#to me‚ Cronicle feels like he’s the source for One Significant Aspect of Harry’s characterization that Schwarz didn’t have#(and also he’s not enough of a hater to really be up there with Jerrid)

Just copying in your tags so I can say, OK! Yeah, it didn't sound like Cronicle is as invested in punching a child to death as Jerid was, I was just reaching for what sounded closest to the shape of his arc.

Looking at it again, it's remarkable how that first row sets the patterns for the rest of the masked weirdos in various different ways. The influences all start overlapping after a while, and I'm unconvinced it's all straightforward 'this character is a homage to a previous one' anyway. Certainly, I don't actually believe Rau was created with Iron Mask in mind (that would be kind of weird, honestly), more that by pushing a Char-alike into a more 'arch-villain' mode, you end up back at something closer to IM than Char himself. Same with Prospera, who doesn't otherwise fit the story-telling patterns we're used to with Char-clones.

At a certain point, one has to admit that 'a person in a mask' is the only constant; everything else can and will be remixed depending on the story the writers want to tell. McGillis is a vastly different character from, say, Graham, who has obvious antecedent in Bruder but also big differences from him, and none of them align to Char in more than an aesthetic concept. McGillis even breaks out of the role of 'rival', in the strictest sense, with it falling on Vidar to be the rival to him.

This is one of the great strengths of Gundam: it's willingness to change everything up while playing with the same iconography. It's the imagery that is the constant, not the characters, even archetypally, and that has allowed it to sustain itself in a much more interesting fashion than if it had just kept to sequels and reboots of the same story. It is at its worst when it merely recapitulates (*cough* SEED *cough*), and at its best when it goes off in wildly new narrative directions (G Fighter, IBO).

#and boy oh boy was I feeling that attempt to recapture Char with Zechs#I was going BONKERS watching Wing

Zechs is fascinating in that, while he speed-runs Char's failure of the test-of-convictions pop-quiz, cramming two series and movie's worth of development into a single anime, he also follows through on an idea the original Gundam toys with but doesn't make foundational: that of Char and Syla representing two poles between which Amuro is being pulled. Syla is firmly in the 'fight for your community, deal with the real world as it is, act for others' camp, while Char is (at least trying to be) in the 'this is all for the greater good, war makes us stronger, it's all about me' one. I think a lot about how definitional it is for him as a character on 79 that he doesn't recognise his own sister properly now she's grown beyond the idealised, innocent image in his head. That's an incredibly acute bit of characterisation when coupled to his treatment of Lalah.

But in Gundam 79, it doesn't quite land, even though that's the shape of the final confrontation, because Syla is not herself a protagonist in the way that both Amuro and Char are. She *ought to be*. That would have been the better writing choice. But it was 1979 and she was a woman so she's relegated to a support role.

Whereas Relena is arguably *the* central character of Wing, in terms of who the plot actually revolves around, so it more openly sees Heero in a tug-of-war between her philosophical position and the hopelessness her brother falls into. Heero winds up stopping Zechs' attempt to become exactly the kind of living weapon Heero himself was supposed to be, largely because of Relena's influence, where Syla was merely one part of the White Base's influence on Amuro.

And this isn't a comment about the quality of those respective shows. Wing suffers immeasurably more in the coherency department than 79 does, for a host of behind-the-scenes reasons. But there's an evolution of plot structure there that is compelling, especially for me, as someone frequently frustrated by Tomino having clearly excellent instincts as a writer in terms of his structures and character concepts, that he fails to follow through on because he needed to get stuck at home with his wife and daughter for a while to properly recognise women as being real people.

Unrelatedly, I've been listen to Propaganda's 'Duel' a lot while writing these posts. Seems fitting, somehow...

Fear not, everyone, I am here today with an exhaustive* spotter's guide to that bunch of masked lunatics we like to refer to as 'Char clones' in the Gundam fandom. Because people are always getting into this monolith of the mecha anime canon and I thought it would save some confusion.

Row 1, left to right:

Char Aznable (Mobile Suit Gundam, 1979): hey, it's that guy!

Quattro Bajeena (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, 1985): it's that guy, again, supposedly

Free space (Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, 1986): ZZ omits masked lunatics to make room for all the unmasked lunatics

Iron Mask (Mobile Suit Gundam F91, 1991): evil uncle stepfather dad cut-price Darth Vader

Cronicle Asher (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, 1993): some guy who is not really trying with this whole 'mysterious masked man' thing

Schwarz Bruder (Mobile Fighter G Gundam, 1994): just your average German ninja sportsman guy (honest)

Row 2, left to right:

Zechs Merquise (New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, 1995): a totally new guy with very familiar fashion-sense

Jamil Neate (After War Gundam X, 1996): ersatz guy, but not the one you think

Harry Ord (Turn A Gundam, 1999): what a guy!

Rau Le Cruset (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, 2002): not that guy

Neo Roanoke (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, 2004): also not that guy, or that guy

Graham Aker (Mobile Suit Gundam 00, 2007): This guy...

Row 3, left to right:

Full Frontal (behave yourselves; Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, 2010): not that guy either, probably, maybe, perhaps

Zeheart Galette (Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, 2011): a guy named after baked goods

Luin Lee (Gundam Reconguista in G, 2014): 'Captain Mask'

McGillis Fareed (Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS, 2015): a guy who is way too into this

Vidar (Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS, 2016): say, Iron-Blooded Orphans, how come mom lets you have two guys in masks?

Prospera Mercury (Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury, 2022): mom

*Mainline series, at time of writing

[userobiwan]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars ➤ 4.02 Gungan Attack

requested by @blue-thrawn

[naboosands]

Every now and then Master Fisto *accidentally* lands on the Vogue Coruscant cover and the rest of the Council lose their minds

Bonus:

[moriaarts]

Cut and Suu

I’m reading this fic Starting over by Rosephan and it has had me in tears multiple times

[wordsandrobots]

I think -- and this is just an immediate reaction -- that it is perhaps a mistake to say the red suits are always associated with the Char Clones in a setting. Yes, they often are, but I think it would be fairer to say that red usually denotes 'rival' more than it does 'Char Clone'.

Athrun is the obvious point of reference for this: he is Kira's rival, but doesn't take the antagonist role in SEED in a way that usually falls to the resident 'Char'. You've also got Epyon in Gundam Wing, which while end up in Zechs hands, it does so only after Zechs has ditched much of his Char-like symbols. Prior to that, Epyon serves as a test of character, a rival path that various people have to struggle with (there's a deliberate duality between it and Wing Zero, with Epyon being a dark reflection of any already dangerous force).

In Iron-Blooded Orphans, the Grimgerde is part of the confusion of symbolism surrounding McGillis; who exactly it will become the rival to remains unclear to then end of Season 1 and it is eventually set aside as the 'rival' characteristics shift elsewhere (the red is changed to blue, in opposition to purple). It's a deliberate invocation of Char, but not a straightforward one.

Meanwhile series like Turn A or Reconguista in G also have Char-adjacent characters who don't use red suits. Harry Ord adopts Quattro's gold colour scheme to go along with his status as a more straightforwardly good force in the plot (the red suit falls to Joseph, who does indeed act as a semi-friendly rival to Loran), while Captain Mask kind of dots around between various different colour schemes. Gundam 00 largely ditches all-red suits for its Char Clone: Graham uses mainly black, with red falling instead to Nina Trinity and Ali al-Saachez -- both rival characters to the heroes but not what I'd really call the Chars of the setting.

In short, while Char and 'rival' are synonymous in the original show, such that being a rival to the hero is one of the hallmarks of a Char Clone, not every rival is a clone of Char. Therefore, red gains a slightly different valence over the course of the subsequent shows than it had originally. (Heck, even in 79, Char's final suit is blue, not red.)

Given all this, I don't think it's weird that the red suit would go to Guel. He is firmly in the position of Suletta's rival throughout G Witch, even when neither of them really want that.

Huh, just realised something. Gundam normally makes a big deal about red Mobile suits, since it’s the colour associated with Char and the various Char Clones (I’m not gonna do a taxonomic breakdown right now, but the only Char Clone without those associations that leap to mind is Rau le Cruset, which is because Athrun is the one with red mobile suits in that series). So Red=Important, in other words.

Thing is, I can’t really think of any way Witch From Mercury uses this. Yeah, the Darilbalde above is red, and it’s piloted by Guel Jeturk, one of the Three House Rivals in Witch From Mercury, but it doesn’t really do much? And while Guel himself is an Antagonist, he’s nothing like Char.

So giving him a red suit seems pretty meaningless, moreso because he already had a custom pink colour scheme on his Dilanza. But it’s the only red suit we see, so….?

Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed something here.

[crimson-nail]

GIVE ME CONTROL OF S2 DONT BE SHY I DONT BITE PUT YOUR FINGERS IN MY ENCLOSURE I DONT BITE

[kaxtwenty]

The further I get into UC Gundam the more I need to beat Char with a lead pipe.

[mapleleaf-ysym]

Happy 100 days Anniversary of HanSei!

It was very fun! I started the series by liking Yushiro then I got stuck with those guys 😭😭 Not complaining tho since I love them all! Their merchandises are just very expensive

I'm not very good with words so I cant say how much I love them and how much of an emotional support source they've been for me ｡⁠:ﾟ⁠(⁠;⁠´⁠∩⁠`⁠;⁠)ﾟ⁠:⁠｡ You just have to know I spend all my time waking up thinking about them lol

Credit art: No Be

[slobozan-shitposting]

I hate when warhammer fans claim that tau battlesuits are inspired by gundam. No, they aren't!! It's clear that battlesuits are typical western mechas (scaled up exoskeleton armor) and not eastern mechas! They have more in common with power armor than with gundams.

Ironically enough, many people don't see the piece of tau lore that actually was inspire by Gundam - Farsight is a Char's clone! A red mecha, high speed as a main advantage in combat, good in melee, conflict with the official government, independence movement. Char, you may say, but no, I described commander Farsight.

[daydreamycrustacean]

[amplexadversary]

See, I was thinking he could just tap into your bloodstream. If he's hanging out in Rain's pocket we already know where he's getting the cells to convert from, and, well, why overcomplicate the system that's already there?

I may have just answered my own question by realizing that Rain would probably be turbo-weirded out by the more straightforward proposal.

[ferhog]

Dean Winchester back from hell after Suletta Mercury killed him or something. The only things I know about Supernatural come from the Sarah Z video. I just thought this would make for a funny visual.

[farsight-the-char]

Meme found on reddit, I thought I would stack how 40k's resident Char Clone matched up.

I gave Farsight half-a-point for Freak status because, by his nature of Tau (and other factors), his sheer lack of "Freakness" makes him a Freak in the 40k setting.

[shummthechumm]

I deeply resent and reject the "gray wing is silverpelt" headcanon now, forever, and always. "oh he's nice to his kids for a few chapters" literally what else is likeable about this weirdly spiteful enabler

[moriaarts]

CT-4T

I wanted to draw a bunch of trans clones for pride month and in true clone fashion they developed personalities and now they are a whole battalion and have backstory and shit