Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack/Characters

This page describes the characters appearing in Char's Counterattack and the tropes associated with them. As usual, please help out with the blurbs and keep in mind that this page contains a lot of spoilers.

Londo Bell Squadron

Amuro Rei/Ray

• Ace Pilot
• Arch Enemy: He's Char's and vice-versa.
• Attack Drones: The Nu-Gundam comes equipped with the funnel system.
• Badass: By this point it goes without saying.
• Brad Swaile
• Brown Eyes
• Curtains Match the Window
• Combat Pragmatist
• Dying Moment of Awesome
• Flawed Prototype: The Nu-Gundam has some problems that have yet to be ironed out. This does not stop Amuro from kicking all kinds of ass with it.
• The Hero
• Heroic Sacrifice: He and hundreds of mooks (from both sides no less) die holding back the meteor that Char aimed at Earth.
• It's Personal: With Char
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Still a paranoid antisocial kid at heart. Still The Hero in every sense of the word.
• The Leader: Of the Londo Bell squadron.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Nu-Gundam.
• Older and Wiser
• Never Found the Body
• Properly Paranoid: Amuro is entirely correct about what Char is planning, and about the Neo-Zeon fleet being nothing more than decoy balloons. Given how long he's been doing that, this makes sense.
• Psychic Powers: Still one of the strongest Newtypes around. He moves meteors with his mind.
• Retirony: In Beltochika's Children Novelization, he promises Beltochika to quit piloting MS once Char has been dealt with.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He's more or less past that stage of his life, but elements of his PTSD from Zeta still abound.
• Sobriquet: White Devil
• Super Prototype: Despite its flaws, the Nu-Gundam is still one badass machine.
• Tall, Dark and Handsome
• Tohru Furuya
• Took a Level in Badass: Again. He's even more badass than he was in MSG and Zeta.

Bright Noa

• The Captain
• Hirotaka Suzuoki
• Hot Dad
• Parents as People
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Team Dad

Chan Agi

• Affirmative Action Girl
• Chinese Girl
• Expy: Was a stand-in for Beltorchika Irma, after Tomino wasn't allowed to use her.

Hathaway Noah

• Break the Cutie: Was a Cute Shotaro Boy who went to space to join his father. It Got Worse. The Hathaway's Flash novels show that not only he never recovered, but it got EVEN WORSE. Though said only took place after The Novel Verson of Char's Counterattack and not the film, so it may have been Non-Canon. Or at least an Alternate Universe.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: To Quess. It almost works. But then Chen shot her down.
• Nozomu Sasaki

Kayra Su

• Action Girl
  • Action Girlfriend: Her boyfriend is a Non-Action Guy.
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Hair of Gold
• Hot Amazon
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: With her Non-Action Guy lover, Astonage.
• Shinobu Adachi
• Vasquez Always Dies.

Astonage Mendoza

• Action Survivor
• Mauve Shirt
• Mr. Fixit
• Non-Action Guy
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome

Neo Zeon

Char Aznable

• Ace Pilot
• Arch Enemy: Amuro's. It's mutual.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Char embraces his position as Zeon Zum Deikun's son in this film. He's also at his most flat out crazy. Make of that what you will.
• Attack Drones: The Sazabi's funnels.
• Badass: This is Char at his most villainous, his most effective, and arguably his most badass.
• Big Bad
• Biseinen: At 33 he's too old to be bishonen, but he's definitely more of a pretty boy then he was earlier in the series.
• Blue Eyes
• Blond Guys Are Evil
• Broken Ace: It's in this film that we see Char's talents and failings at their respective best and worst, with his bravery, skill, and leadership ability being undermined by his depression, mental instability, and obsessions with both his father's legacy and defeating Amuro.
• The Chessmaster
• Colony Drop: His master plan.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red again.
• Cyber Cyclops: The MSN-04 Sazabi is intended to evoke older Zeonic mobile suits, most notably the Zakus that Char originally became famous flying.
• Dark Messiah: Char presents himself as Neo-Zeon's saviour, and regards himself as one for the rest of the world. His methods however, go beyond the pale.
• Ephebophile: According to rumor in-universe. How much he actually feels for Quess and how much he's just manipulating her is open to interpretation.
  • Considering what Gyunei told Quess at some point, this is an Ascended Meme. Or at least Gyunei trying to be Genre Savvy in regards to Quess.
• Evil Is Petty: Both in-universe and among fans, it is believed that his entire plot to drop Axis on Earth is simply to get revenge on Amuro for killing Lalah
• Fallen Hero: From his Quattro Bagina days. He's not only reverted to how he was in Mobile Suit Gundam, he's gotten worse.
• The Heavy
• Honor Before Reason: To the point of sending his enemies the blueprints for the Psycoframe: he thought it would be pointless to defeat Amuro if he wasn't piloting a competitive Mobile Suit.
• I Surrender, Suckers: And the Federation completely falls for it.
• It's Personal: With Amuro.
• Lack of Empathy: Worse than ever. He's more or less replaced his ability to care about other people with Zeonic ideology and Spacenoid rhetoric.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority
• Manipulative Bastard: He has no problem using his people's feelings towards him to ensure their loyalty.
• Michael Kopsa
• Necessarily Evil: Does not make excuses for himself. He simply thinks what he's doing is necessary for the future of mankind.
• Never Found the Body
• Psychic Powers: Though he's still much weaker than Amuro.
• Pure Is Not Good: Lalah Sune called him "pure" in Amuro's Dream Sequence.
• Sanity Slippage/Took a Level in Jerkass: Despite what the fans might tell you, Char was never a nice guy. But even so, he's become far less stable, and far less empathetic than he was in MSG, let alone Zeta.
• Shuichi Ikeda^[context?]
• Sobriquet: Red Comet.
• Super Prototype: The Sazabi, which is equipped with the new Psycoframe technology.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was already badass, but given his poor performance in Zeta, this could definitely be argued.
• Utopia Justifies the Means
• Visionary Villain
• Wave Motion Gun: Mounted on the Sazabi's waist.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Believes that making Earth uninhabitable will force everyone into space where they will all live in peace. Why yes, he is delusional. Why do you ask?
• Worthy Opponent: What he considers Amuro to be.

Quess Paraya

• Blue and Orange Morality: A rare human case - she's perhaps the best example in the series of how alien someone who operates purely according to Newtype urges would actually be.
• Dark Action Girl
• Fallen Princess
• Girlish Pigtails
• Heroic Sacrifice: Her last act was to push Hathaway's MS out of the way of the missiles that eventually killed her.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Her family's neglect of her her hints that she might have been like this.
• Love At First Sight: All Newtypes are drawn to each other, but Quess latches onto her fellow posthumans like a remora in heat. Especially Char.
• Little Miss Badass: She's just 13.
• Maria Kawamura
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Her last name is pronounced "Pariah."
• Parental Neglect: Neither her father nor her stepmother pay any attention to her.
• Patricide: Semi-knowingly kills her father. She can't quite figure out whether she's upset about it or not.
• Precocious Crush: Has a very ugly one on Char. She thinks he returns the favour.
• Psychic Powers: Char recruited her for her Newtype abilities.
• Psycho Supporter: If she were more emotionally stable she'd never support Char.
• Spoiled Brat: Enough so that her stepmother decided staying on Earth to await a Colony Drop was preferable to evacuating on the same shuttle as Quess.
• Teens Are Monsters: Her upbringing never really got round to the 'instil a basic moral compass' part, and she relies on her Newtype sensitivity to guide her instead. It... doesn't work out so well.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Changes clothes several times in the movie.
• Unskilled but Strong: She's a thirteen-year-old combat novice, and arguably the most powerful Newtype in the Universal Century. The latter outweighs the former by quite a bit.
• Unwitting Pawn: Char is playing Quess like a fiddle. She honestly thinks he's in love with her.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Dear Lord, yes. Quess's Newtype powers basically overwrote her personality once they manifested.
• Yandere: Towards Char, and briefly Amuro.

Gyunei Guss

• Alliterative Name
• All of the Other Reindeer: As a Cyber-Newtype, both Oldtypes and regular Newtypes tend to look down on him. He's developed a bit of an inferiority complex as a result.
• The Dragon: To Char
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Whom he seeks to surpass.
• Hostage Situation: Triggers one and ends it horribly.
• I Owe You My Life: He tells Quess that his parents were killed in a Colony Drop, so Char took him in and trained him.
• Jerkass
• Killed Off for Real: By Amuro
• Kirby Morrow
• Koichi Yamadera
• Love Triangle: He's a point on the very ugly quadrangle involving himself, Quess, Char, and Hathaway.
• Psychic Powers
• Super Soldier: He's a Cyber-Newtype.
• Teens Are Monsters
• Tyke Bomb
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
• What Could Have Been: Production notes suggest that before the second-half Retool of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (where the narrative of this film would have taken place) and before Gyunei was made as a character, his role in Chars Counterattack belonged to Kamille Bidan, "restored" from his vegetative state post-Zeta via Cyber-Newtype operations. Kamille's would-have-been status as former protagonist and subordinate loyalty to Char is supposed to generate further tension.

Nanai Miguel

• Team Mom
• Silk Hiding Steel
• Yoshiko Sakakibara

Rezun Schneider

• Badass Normal: One of the few non-Newtypes in Char's Neo Zeon.
• Dark Action Girl
• Jerkass
• Kazue Ikura

Others

Cameron Bloom

• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: For Mirai, he'd do anything. So he helps Bright as much as he can, specially by leaking confidential Feddie info to Londo Bell, so Earth won't be destroyed and she and Cheimin will survive. Considering he could be executed or trialed if caught, this is a BIG change from his MSG portrayal.
• Older and Wiser
• Tall, Dark and Handsome

Mirai Noah

• Action Survivor
• Hot Mom: Due to the Art Evolution, she looks quite prettier than in her previous incarnations.
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
• Yamato Nadeshiko

Cheimin Noah

• Action Survivor
• The Cutie

Christina

• Cool Big Sis: Apparently, Quess saw her as one.
• Granola Girl
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Adenauer Paraya

• Abusive Parents: He doesn't physically or sexually abuse his daughter Quess, but he does neglect her emotionally to the point where she sees Char as a better role model.
• Death by Irony
• Jerkass
• Smug Snake

Katherina Paraya

• Wicked Stepmother: Strongly hinted to be this to Quess, who hates her so much that she bites her hand. This makes Katherina refuse to go into space if it means she'll have to go with Quess, and this lets Mirai send Hathaway off to meet up with Bright.