Scattered across the Gundam Multiverse are some of the
greatest heroes in Anime, Men and Women and even a couple of kids who have
risked everything to protect their teams, their crews, their families, their
entire worlds from the bleakest futures.
However, lifes all about Balance.
And Gundam, whether intentional or not, knows all about balance when it
comes to likeable heroes (and villains) and the other side of the equation: the
characters who just straight piss me off.
This is actually a pretty quick turn around for Part 3 of this recurring
feature as I just did the second part a few months back. But we’ve covered a helluva lot of Gundam in
the last few years (2020 and 2021 in particular), so it seems fair to update
the list of Gundam leads that deserve no sympathy or fanbase. Welcome, Dear Readers to Part 3 of the Top 5
Gundam Characters I Absolutely Hate. And
if you’ve forgotten who else has made this cut, no worries, you can get caught
up now before you proceed:
Nina is basically made to be the love interest of Kou
Uraki…that’s not a compliment.
Kou’s
already found a spot on one of my lists and Nina belongs right there with
him.
Except while Kou is pretty
consistent with his whiny attitude and sheer dumb luck, Nina is all over the
map.
She starts out as a Gundam designer
who is more focused on her prized Gundams being stolen instead of all the
damage being cause around her.
But then
there’s that stupid, stupid plot twist of making her a former lover of series
antagonist Anavel Gato…and Nina suddenly makes it her mission to betray Kou,
fly into the middle of a warzone, shoot Kou and risk her life to save Gato, who
barely sees Nina as a blip on his radar (Even Gato’s like wait, we were
together once, really?).
Kou’s life was
already a giant pity party and when he and Nina reunite at the end of the
series…it’s exactly the punishment they both deserve for being such horrible
human beings.
#4-Shinta and Qum (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile
Suit Gundam ZZ)
Shinta and Qum were meant to be the next generation of
Katz, Letz and Kika from the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
Whereas those three ended up being rather
likeable and even helped save the day a couple of times, Shinta and Qum are the
bane of the Argama’s existence.
They are
a constant magnet for trouble, either causing it themselves or getting caught
up in it and somehow surviving.
These
two are supposed to be the same age as the aforementioned White Base trio.
But…theyre so…it feels wrong to say because
theyre kids but theyre so dumb.
They
never save the day and are a massive step back from using child characters in a
way that advances the plot and yet never feel like a burden.
I don’t know what happened to these two after
Gundam ZZ (they survived two freaking shows are you kidding me) and I don’t
care.
#3-Quess Paraya (Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s
Counterattack)
Wow, three of these lists and I’ve never touched on this
ball of spoiled entitlement.
Quess is
arguably the weakest part of Char’s Counterattack, alongside Hathaway and I
might save him for a 4
th List if i ever come around to it.
The movie wants to set Quess up as the next
Lalah Sune.
But whereas Lalah was
enlightened and gentle, Quess is a spoiled brat who doesn’t hesitate to warm to
Hathaway before jumping to Neo Zeon once Char said “hey”.
Quess boasts about how she’s so in tune with
life and enlightenment because of all the places she’s been to but I could
believe those places just led her on just so they could get rid of her as
quickly as possible.
You’ll be hard
pressed to find someone sympathetic to Quess because she doesn’t deserve
any.
The sad thing is: In Gundam
Hathaway, Hathaway starts a rebellion basically in the name of his “lost love”,
when there was barely a connection between him and Quess…dude really?
#2-Katz Kobayashi (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam)
This one hurts because when he was a kid on White Base
with Letz and Kika, Katz was actually pretty well handled considering what he
and his future foster brother and sister had been through.
Katz survived the One Year War on a
battleship close to the heart of the conflict.
Youd think that would make him quite mature as he got older…it
didn’t.
By the time Katz joins up with
the AEUG he is a shadow of his former self.
Now that he’s a teenager, he’s questioning every single decision made by
Char, Kamille, FREAKING BRIGHT (isn’t he like his Godfather or something?
Guys the closest to family Katz has in the
AEUG).
And then comes Sarah, Scirroco’s
zealot follower who Katz will move heaven and Earth to save…unsuccessfully…for
the entire show.
What hurts the
most?
Katz doesn’t die heroically or
tragically…but rather comically not watching the goddamn road (er space),
meeting his end at the hands of a small asteroid.
I should feel sad…I don’t.
#1-Shakti Kareen (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam)
Honestly, I cant think of another Gundam character I
complained about in every single one of my reviews for a single show.
Shakti was…oh God, she was chaos incarnate
and every decision she made throughout the show was the worst anyone could
make.
Every episode I watched, it wasn’t
a question of if Shakti would mess something up, but rather HOW and HOW
BAD?
The answer was “tremendously”,
everytime and without fail.
You might be
able to forgive her shell shocked mind wanting to plant seeds in the middle of
a forest DURING A BATTLE!!!!
But then
you have Shakti taking on protecting an orphaned infant and forcing them into a
space suit to follow her love interest INTO SPACE just to bring him back
home.
If I was better at taking notes I
could probably do a Top 5 Times Shakti was Captured in Victory Gundam, I cant
think of anyone in Gundam who’s been a Damsel in Distress who the hero
should’ve quit rescuing after the third time (she’s Shakti, not Princess Peach
or Zelda).
Shakti wasn’t mother of the
year, she wasn’t a bad ass inspiration to the rest of the cast, she was just a
bad character all around.
And I’m just
gonna say it: if Shakti hadn’t gotten herself captured on the Moon and Uso had
to save her AGAIN…Uso’s Mom might’ve made it to the end of the show.
There you go, Shakti is the reason Uso’s Mom
is dead.
Hmmm, maybe I will make a Part 4 list in 2022 after I get
to Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (or maybe even Gundam: Reconguista
in G)…yeah consider that a promise guys.
The Top 5 Gundam Characters I Absolutely Hate will return.
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