Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

We had Chinese girls and mysterious blue haired chicks before it was cool.
"Why must we fight amongst each other and further pollute the Earth?"
—Quattro Bajeena aka Char Aznable
"Men are perhaps born to fight each other. And women are perhaps fated to be their tools."
—Reccoa Londe

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam) is the second, arguably darkest (though Gundam Unicorn might be heading that way), and arguably most well-received, installment in the Gundam franchise. The original sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam's story follows wangsty Teen Genius Kamille Bidan, who joins the rebellion AEUG out of hatred for the Federation. Following the One Year War, the Earth Federation has created a special, elite branch of the military to police the space colonies and prevent anything like the One Year War from happening again. Unfortunately for all involved, this group, the Titans, are oppressive, corrupt and elitist, believing that those born on Earth are inherently superior.

Zeta Gundam features a much older and mature new cast; however, it is supported by many characters from the original series such as Captain Bright Noah, Amuro Ray and Char Aznable wearing a Paper-Thin Disguise as Quattro Bajina.

In 2005, a series of movies began which remastered the series' animation and added new animation as well. In addition, the story was given a new, Lighter and Softer Bittersweet Ending that apparently retcons Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and possibly Chars Counterattack, if not the entire rest of the Universal Century timeline, out of canon, if not for Tomino explicitly saying it's just an Alternate Universe retelling of Zeta Gundam.

Zeta Gundam is a mainstay in Super Robot Wars, being in every game until Judgement, where after that all UC was excluded from the handheld titles, but reappears in Z and Another Century's Episode R, as well as returning UC to handhelds in Z2. During its intial run, Zeta Gundam had the highest rating of any Gundam series before and since. The show continues to be extremely popular in Japan, and its model kit sales continually get near the top of the Gundam lists. You can watch it for free on CrunchyRoll.

Tropes used in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam include:
  • Ace Custom: Amuro's MSK-008 Dijeh, which is basically a souped-up Rick Dias.
  • Action Girl: Emma, Lyla, Mouar, Haman, Four, Rosamia, Sarah, Reccoa... Actually, there are quite a few.
  • Adult Child: Rosammia, mostly. Probably due to her conditioning.
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Audhumla.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Four, Rosamia, Mouar, Sarah and Jerid have all been known to provoke this sort of response.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Jamitov Hyman.
  • Anti-Villain: Jerid Messa is a Jerkass, but if he does come to care for someone else aside of himself, he does so very deeply, and seeing him cry when he loses those persons makes you Cry for the Devil.
  • Anyone Can Die: It's a Gundam series, what did you expect?
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: Not only Bright despite what Fanon says. Emma also has something to say about this, slapping Fa twice in the same scene. In the first few minutes, Kamille already gets slapped obviously by a teacher of his.
    • Kamille gets slapped a lot.
  • Armor Is Useless: Actually something of a plot point. With the widespread use of beam weaponry, conventional armour became largely... well... useless. This resulted in the advent of 'movable frame' technology, where mobile suits were no longer made of big blocks of metal, but freely-moving armour plates over a flexible, agile 'skeleton'. Not only did this boost their manoeuvrability tremendously, but it eventually led to suit engineers figuring out that you could contort the frame into a non-humanoid shape if you wanted... and thus the Transforming Mecha was born.
    • Finally averted with the PMX-003 The O, which was simply too big and tough for beam guns to make a dent in its armour. Paptimus Scirocco's engineering genius probably helped too.
  • Artistic License Physics: Subverted in Episode 3: the Titans send an Mobile Suit with a white flag to the AEUG. At first, the flag seems to be flapping... in space. But after it lands on the Argama, there's a shot of the flagpole which shows a set of gasjets de-activating.
  • Ascended Extra: Subverted with Gates Capa who appears in episodes 42 and 48, and then disappears without a trace. He doesn't die. He's just... gone.
    • Tomino's original plan was for him to be accidentally killed by Rosamia before her final fight with Kamille. Why this was cut is unclear.
  • Awesome but Impractical: The Colony Laser. Despite its huge power, the firing angle can't be controlled too precisely, and its loading time is quite long, so getting a direct shot on a target in the middle of a fight would be difficult.
  • Awesome but Practical: The Zeta Gundam super powerful robot mode with enough output to use a blaster and even a cannon. Complete with super-fast waverider mode to help get in and out of battles, achieve re-entry, and even assist others with re-entry. Helps keep pace with all the transformables the Titans were steam rolling out.
  • Badass Normal: Hero-Killer Yazan Gabal has no Newtype powers and doesn't fly a Gundam. We don't recommend throwing down with him anyway.
  • Bait and Switch Boss: Jamitov and Bosque. Initially set up as a Big Bad Duumvirate, they're soon supplanted by Scirocco.
  • Bald of Evil: Bosque Ohm.
  • Battle Couple: Jerid and Mouar.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Jamitov and Bosque fill this role right until Scirocco replaces them.
  • Bird Run: Sarah, in one scene where she imagines she's a civilian.
    • Four as well. In fact, a shot of her doing this is featured in the opening.
  • Bishonen: Scirocco combines this with loads of charisma and Newtype powers for a disastrous combo. Also Kamille.
  • Black and White Morality: The AEUG are probably the most heroic faction in all of UC Gundam while the Titans with a few exceptions like Jerid, Mouar, Sarah and Reccoa are portrayed as group of Complete Monsters and Smug Snakes, and Axis Zeon is shown to be only slightly less worse than the Titans.
  • Bling Bling Bang: The Hyaku-Shiki, to Memetic Mutation levels.
  • Blood Knight: Yazan Gable.
  • Boring but Practical: The Methuss, probably the weakest and least polished of the AEUG's mobile suits, goes on to lend its transformation mechanisms to a variety of superior models like the Guncannon Detector and ZII from the Mobile Suit Variations line, and the ReZEL from Gundam Unicorn.
    • Scirocco's third mobile suit, the PMX-002 Bolinoak Samaan. It's the least striking of his designs and probably the weakest, but it's equipped with a sophisticated surveillance radome which entirely justifies this trope: it's intended to gather information and report back, not engage in protracted conflicts.
    • On the character side, there's Gates Capa, the third and last Cyber-Newtype. He's a stark contrast to Four and Rosamia: while not nearly as powerful as either of them, he's also immune to the mental breakdowns both ladies are cursed by.
  • Broken Bird: Four, Rosamia, Sarah and Reccoa.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Happens once, at the end of the third movie.
  • Can't Catch Up: Fa, always trying to keep up with the other female pilots and managing to do it only once. To be fair to the girl, the Methuss isn't the best suit, and Fa was still skilled enough to survive.
    • And on the other side of the war, there's Jerid. He gets more mobile suit upgrades than any other pilot, but no matter what the Titans give him, he can't compete with the Zeta Gundam.
  • Cartwright Curse: Between Jerid and Kamille, Mouar, Lila, Four and Rosamia are killed off. The first three get killed off by their Love Interest's rival, and the last is simply killed by Kamille to prevent her from destroying the Argama
    • As a point of interest, this is just one of the reasons Kamille and Jerid become rivals. If one hadn't been born, it's entirely likely that the other would have lived a happier life.
  • Chick Magnet: Paptimus Scirocco. He manages to end the series with a harem of Newtype women ace pilots, most of which had defected to his side. He basically makes bishie charm a Newtype power.
    • Kamille gets a bit of this as well, with Fa, Four Murasame, Rosamia and arguably Emma...
  • Cliff Hanger: Camille's mind is crushed by Scirocco, and even though the Titans have been defeated, Axis Zeon has not. Thankfully, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ gave us a proper conclusion.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Beltorchika Irma has all that it takes to be one, but since she is about the only girl to fall for Amuro in Zeta Gundam, this doesn't characterize her fully. Fa also is a bit like this.
  • Compilation Movie: Three of them... produced twenty years later; the show is that popular.
  • Cool Big Sis: Emma, Reccoa was one for Kamille. Until her Face Heel Turn, that is.
  • Cool Starship: The Argama.
  • Corporal Punishment: Everyone. The one who gets hit the most would probably be Kamille.
  • Dark Action Girl: Sarah Zabiarov, Mouar Pharaoh.
  • Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original Mobile Suit Gundam, which was already pretty dark in itself. Zeta Gundam has been called one of the darkest Gundam series ever made, topped possibly only by Victory Gundam. Its darkness is at least partially what makes it a fan favourite.
  • Dating Catwoman: Katz tries that with Sarah. It... doesn't work, to say it lightly.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Avoided throughout most of the series, but done in the Grand Finale with Emma and Reccoa. Emma wins, but she dies soon afterwards.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Four and Emma both die in Kamille's arms.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The episode where Reccoa is captured by Yazan, it seems like the entire scene is that of a woman getting raped/being beaten and enjoying it! Rather, Reccoa seems to stand for abused girlfriends and wives who are okay with it.
  • Downer Ending: Although Camille succeeds in destroying Paptimus Scirocco for good, but in turn, his brain gets fried as a retaliation as well. The evil Titans are finally annihilated for good at last, but save for Fa and Bright, all the other heroes of AEUG die a horrible death, and Haman Karn successfully gives Zeon a rise to its former power, shadowing the future of Earth once again.
    • The Compilation Movies changed this to a Bittersweet Ending: yes, most of the cast still die. Yup, there's still alot of bloodshed. However, Kamille doesn't get mind-fried, we see other characters (Amuro, the Kobayashi family, Mirai) reacting to the news, Haman retreats and arranges for Mineva to go to school on Earth, and the last scene is of Fa and Kamille hugging in space.
  • Dubtitle: On the original Region 1 DVD release. Subsequent re-releases fixed this.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Kamille and Four both discuss their names and what they mean to them after they meet.
  • Enemy Civil War: A covert one. Scirocco and his followers disrupt the Titans leadership from within, and Scirocco ultimately kills them and takes over the group.
  • Eva Fins: The Rick Dias, Hyaku Shiki and several other mobile suits sport large back-mounted fins. Justified as Wing Binders, extra limbs to aid in AMBAC.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Scirocco, who starts the series as The Starscream, opposes the actions of his overlords Jamitov and Bosque, and even sends his pawn Sarah Zabiarov to disrupt one of their plans. Granted, it was for self-serving purposes...
    • Reccoa might be a traitor, but she was real happy to kill Bosque as soon as she could. In fact, more than one Titan was NOT pleased to see the effects of the mass gassings: Gady Kinsey even gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome for managing to bullshit his way out of one and living to tell the tale.
    • Yazan, the resident Blood Knight, is disgusted by Smug Snake Jamaican's cowardice. He arranges his death shortly afterwards.
  • Evil Counterpart: Reccoa, to Emma. The differences in their motives for defecting from their respective factions give a very poignant demonstration of the difference between following your heart vs. simply following your feelings.
    • Scirocco to Camille as well. They're both ambiguously autistic, mobile suit engineering geniuses and powerful Newtypes. The difference between them is compassion: Camille is driven by it, while Scirocco has none of it.
  • Evil Is Bigger: The Psyco Gundam, Psyco Gundam II and anything designed by Scirocco will subscribe to this trope.
  • Face Heel Turn: After getting captured, Reccoa defects to the Titans.
  • Fake Memories: Rosamia thinks she's Kamille's long lost little sister, thanks to some brainwashing. She's later brainwashed to believe her upperclassman Gates Capa is her true brother.
  • Fan Service: There's a bit here and there, such as the brief shot of Lieutenant Lila in the shower, or Fa being in the shower while trying to wash Qum and Shinta, or Four taking a bath.
  • Fantastic Racism: Titans towards Spacenoids.
  • Faux Action Girl: Reccoa, though to be fair, her mecha was completely subpar.
  • Final Boss Preview: Scirocco sorties against the Argama crew a couple times early in the series. After that, he's not seen piloting a mobile suit again until the last five episodes.
  • Foreshadowing: Quattro tells Roberto in the first episode that his overconfidence will get him killed some day. Halfway through the series, he underestimates the new Assimar mobile armor, and gets killed.
  • Fragile Speedster: The design aesthetic behind nearly all suits of the 0080s, with the exception of the Psyco Gundams and the PMX series. See Armor Is Useless above.
  • Gentle Giant/Genius Bruiser: Henken Beckner, 190cms of The Captain... and Emma fanboy extraordinaire.
  • Gratuitous English:
    • In the opening: "I wanna have a pure time, everyone's a noble mind!"
    • "Captain Quattro, he is a CHAR!" eventually became a victim of Memetic Mutation.
    • "Believing a sign of Zeta/Beyond the hard times from now"
    • Also, sing along: "Oh, I can't help believe in you..."
  • Green Aesop: One of the first series to have an environmental message that starts to come off as a Space Whale Aesop by the end of the series. Earth, to the Spacenoids, looks polluted and is barely hanging by a thread... despite it not being covered in a neverending city. Despite it looking as healthy as it is now. And a Did Not Do the Research too: the AEUG worrying about a single nuke being dropped would kill the Earth, while they conveniently forget that two nukes were set off in Jaburo with no ill effects to the entire planet... and it'd take at least twelve nukes going off at the same time to cause catastrophic damage to the planet's environment.. which it would recover from. It starts to become clear that Spacenoids are just trying to force people off of Earth for no good reason except they feel superior in space...
    • Considering that before the invention of colonies the population, and wars, were really out of hand. It seemed that Zeta Gundam's Earth was on the cusp of going to the point of no return. Blex pointed out that the Sahara desert was expanding very quickly. So a nuke going off wasn't going to help matters.
    • Another point you could make is that during the One Year War, half the populations of each side were killed VERY quickly. On the the colony side of things, this means gas/blowing up stations. On the earth side, this means large scale nuclear attacks and Colony Drops. It's a wonder the earth still has a surface.
  • Gundamjack: The AEUG stealing three Gundam Mk. II early on is the first example of this trope in the series. Notably, their original plan was to take just one, and Kamille's use of this trope allows them to nab all three.
  • Hero-Killer: Yazan Gable.
  • History Repeats: An Ace Pilot falls in love with a Cyber-Newtype despite the fact that she is used as a guinea pig for powerful and mind-damaging weaponry. During a fight between the aforementioned pilot and his Rival, the woman sacrifices herself to save the man she loves. What series am I talking about?
    • Char quotes this directly shortly afterward.
  • Hot-Blooded: To a degree, Katz. Also Kamille occasionally.
    • "Kamille's a man's name, and I'm a man!"
  • Hot Scoop: Beltochika, after her Character Development.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Bosque Ohm tells Reccoa at one point that the Titans want a peaceful Earth Sphere, and their extreme methods are a result of impatience. However, any possibility of a spark of goodness is extinguished when he laughs maniacally after firing the Gryps Laser for the first time, killing an entire colony worth of civilians.
  • Idiot Ball: Used liberally to justify many of the deaths at the end of the series. Such as Henken sacrificing himself and the rest of his crew in order to save Emma, his crush. She, naturally, died later anyway, after getting her suit's engines trashed, barely making it back to the ship, and then launching again anyway, still engineless. Your Mileage May Vary, of course.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Camille is an epic Mood Swinger, but he does genuinely care for others and tries to do what he can for them. Possibly Jerid Messa as well: see Anti-Villain above.
  • Kick the Dog: Jerid does this during the evacuation of Jaburo, attacking his comrades just so he can board the escape plane.
  • Kill'Em All: Enforced Trope: Tomino was seriously depressed when he directed Zeta Gundam, which ultimately lead to Gundam ZZ. The last episodes are the incarnation of this trope. Only worse could have been an 'End of the world' Downer Ending, like he did five years prior.
  • Klingon Promotion: Scirocco becomes leader of the Titans after killing of Jamitov and arranging Bosque's death.
  • Lady of War: Haman Kahn, Emma Sheen.
  • La Résistance: AEUG.
  • Latex Space Suit: All of the pilot suits.
  • Light Is Not Good: Titan baddie Paptimus Scirocco wears a variant of the standard black Titans uniform... guess what color he picks?
  • Lightning Bruiser: PMX-003 The O, Scirocco's final mobile suit.
  • Love Hurts: Char and either Haman or Reccoa, Katz and Sarah, and Kamille and either Fa or Four. Boy, DOES IT HURT.
  • The Magnificent: Scirocco is often referred to as "The Man from Jupiter".
  • The Man Behind the Man: Scirocco.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Scirocco was one of the first and is still one of the best.
  • Mauve Shirt: The AEUG's Rick Dias is basically the designated suit for these. One of the Argama's Dias pilots, the unfortunately-named Lieutenant Botty, even manages to survive the show in one piece.
  • Meaningful Name: Psyco Gundam and Psyco Gundam Mk. II, piloted by Four and Rosamia, respectively. Technically, "psyco" is short for psychic communicator and refers to the machines' OS, but considering what happened to their pilots....
    • Also Four herself, considering Four Is Death.
    • Scirocco is named for the powerful Mediterranean wind.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The Titans have an extraordinary array of suits, but the humble RMS-106 Hizack is the most common and iconic. Being based on Mobile Suit Gundam's legendary Zaku II helps too.
  • Melee a Trois: Titans vs. AEUG vs. Axis Zeon. This situation was so memorable that homages to this set up appear numerous times in the franchise as a whole.
  • Mind Rape: Scirocco hits Camille with one of these as he dies.
  • More Than Mind Control: Scirocco is not above adding a little spice to his seduction attempts by using his Newtype powers to screw with women's heads. Seeing what it does to Reccoa in particular is downright scary, and makes "The Call of Darkness" one of the show's most disturbing episodes.
  • No Accounting for Taste: Amuro's relationship with Clingy Jealous Girl Beltorchika baffles both Char and Kamille. Subverted in that Amuro knows all this very well, and is only involved with her because she provides an excuse for him not to go back into space... which, after all he went through in the original series, he fears considerably more than sacrificing his personal freedom.
  • Not So Harmless: Yazan's Crew. After the general incompetence of Jerid and Adol's doomed attempt, it comes as quite a shock how brutally efficient Yazan, Dunkel and Ramsus are.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: "You will see the tears of time."
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Char. Has a lampshade hung on it when Haman outs Char in front of the rest of the AEUG. While all the other present AEUG members seem shocked by the revelation, Kamille's reaction is basically just to say "Yeah yeah, real big surprise there." Probably because he saw Hayato confronting Char with the infamous letter.
    • One should keep in mind though that the disguise is only paper thin to the viewer... the AUEG is genuinely surprised, since Char normally wore a mask during most of the One Year War, so there are only a handful of people who know him by looks!
  • Parental Abandonment: Kamille is one really tragic version of this.
  • The Plan: Scirocco pulls these off with frightening ease. Jamaican... not so much.
  • Psychic Powers: Newtypes.
  • Psycho for Hire: Yazan Gable.
  • Putting on the Reich: The Titans. At one point, Bright even calls them a reincarnation of Zeon.
  • Red Shirt: The AEUG's Nemos serve this purpose admirably.
  • Retcon: The third Compilation Movie gives us a Bittersweet Ending instead of the original Downer Ending: Kamille survives the duel with Scirocco more or less unscatched and is reunited with Fa and the rest of the Argama crew. Also, additional footage includes the reactions of characters like Amuro, Beltochika, Fraw, Retsu, Kikka, Mirai, Sayla and Kai.
    • There's an even earlier example of this: originally, all the fancy stuff the Zeta did (like the mile-long beam saber) was just Kamille's raw Newtype power. Later on it was retconned that the Zeta has a device called the biosensor that amplifies Newtype powers and causes incredible phenomenae.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: AEUG.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Subverted: Kamille hesitates when his Complete Monster father Franklin tries to kill him in battle, so someone else had to do it; it's implied to be Quattro in the original, and the Titans in the movie remake.
    • Though his theft of the Mk-II is directly responsible for the circumstances that lead to his mother's death.
  • Selfish Evil: Reccoa Londe.
  • Smug Snake: Jamaican Danigan, from the Titans, and Ben Wooder.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": One of the worst offenders in anime history: pick any character on the cast, and you're guaranteed to find at least three different variations on his or her name. Special mention goes to Quattro Bajeena, whose last name has been romanized in a very... interesting way on occasion... see some of the Gundam video games for the PS 1 to see what I mean.
    • As for mecha, the Psyco Gundam gets mistakenly identified as Psycho Gundam a lot; the name is a contraction of "psychic communicator", not a descriptor of its unfortunate pilots.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": Paptimus Scirocco's personal ride, the PMX-003 The O. Yes, those two 'the's were intentional.
  • The Starscream: Paptimus Scirocco, who actually succeeds in his plans and supplants the big bads Jamitov and Bosque.
  • Super Robot Wars: This is one of the mainstays of the series and has appeared in most of the games. The movie remake series debuted in the spinoff game, Scramble Commander the 2nd and made its traditional debut in one of the most recent games, Super Robot Wars Z. It's returning for Z2.
  • Taking the Bullet: Happens quite a lot.
    • Mouar for Jerid.
    • Four for Kamille.
    • Sarah for Scirocco.
    • Apolly for Fa.
  • Team Mom: Emma Sheen and Reccoa Londe. Fa is also a bit of this towards the Bratty Half-Pint orphans, though she only takes up the Team Mom mantle full-time in Double Zeta.
  • Teen Genius: Kamille was famous for winning several suit design contests before going to the AEUG, and in fact he actually designed the Zeta Gundam.
  • Terrible Trio: Yazan's crew are a particularly competent and scary example.
  • Theme Naming: Scirocco likes naming his custom mobile suits after deities. Pallas Athena is named for the Greek war goddess, Bolinoak Samaan is named for a Mesopotamian god, and The O is a play on Theo, a name derived from the Greek word for 'God'.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: Possibly "too oldtype to connect" (or "too crazy to care"), but Yazan shakes off the Newtype images projected from Reccoa as being illusions.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Katz, who the AEUG never should have put in uniform. He's a reasonably skilled pilot in the G-Defenser, but he's still a child playing at being a soldier, and ultimately, Reality Ensues hits him in the face hard.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Let's see, Jerid did eventually come to even footing with Kamille in some parts of the show and eventually became a personal body guard to Jamitov. Also Kai became freaking James Bond! Hayato got a level too, he pretty much become a cool and confident Team Dad for Karaba on Earth.
  • Transforming Mecha: The Zeta Gundam and the greater majority of Mobile Suits; in fact, Zeta still holds the record of having the largest percentage of transforming robots in the entire saga.
    • Paptimus Scirocco's Messala is in fact the first transformable mobile suit ever seen in a Gundam series.
  • Tsundere: Fa Yuiri is a Type B a.k.a. Type Dere: mostly cute and gentle, unless around Kamille.
  • Tyke Bomb: Four and to a greater extent, Rosamia.
  • Unfortunate Names: Quattro Bajeena, Jamitov Hymen and Paptimus Scirocco's "The O" mobile suit.
    • Some romanizations in the Super Robot Wars games make Quattro Bajeena Quattro Vagina.
    • As bizarre as it sounds, this may actually be Theme Naming. The disfunctional, controlling relationships between men and women are a major theme of this series, made explicit by Reccoa's Famous Last Words. Three of the most disfunctional, controlling main characters having names based on female anatomy actually kinda fits.
    • While Jamitov and Quattro might be theme naming, Gundam Historica 11 confirms The O is named for Theo, a name which derives its meaning from the Greek word for God.
    • Some fans have taken to calling Paptimus Papsmear Circus. If it appears in a fanfic, it's nearly always Yazan who comes up with it. Needless to say, Paptimus is less than amused.
  • Unusual Euphemism: From the Zeta-to-English dictionary:
    • Correct (verb): to beat the crap out of a subordinate for reasons ranging from gross incompetence to tardiness.
    • Recreation (noun): having a screaming row with your Tsundere girlfriend for the third time that morning.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: After 49 episodes of having his motives shrouded in mystery, Paptimus Scirocco's ambitions are revealed to be driven by this in the last episode.
  • Vasquez Always Dies: Four Murasame dies very tragically, once again showing that if you fall in love with a Gundam protagonist, you can expect love to hurt a whole lot. Emma doesn't make it, either. Fa Yuiri, on the other hand, is quite broken by the events of the series, but recovers and helps Kamille get better from Scirocco's Mind Rape.
    • As far as this series goes, it may as well be renamed Newtype Always Dies. Recall that that last person mentioned is NOT a Newtype, and keep in mind which young girl survives Gundam ZZ... Also kind of note how they die. It seems becoming a Newtype gives you an inescapable urge to leap in the way of dangerous objects if you're Ho Yay or female.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: In a borderline and probably one of the most sad examples of this trope, Camille gets Mind Raped by Scirocco in the finale, not only making him forget everything that had ever happened to him, but also dimishing his mental capabilities, making his mental state somewhere between a vegetable and a young child.
  • Wham! Episode: Literally happens when Katz slams into a piece of space debris and dies. This begins the mass culling of the cast in the Kill Them All ending of the series.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Yazan's wingmen, Dunkel and Ramsus.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Rosamia and her fear of colony drops. "The sky is falling! NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!"
    • To be fair, any sane person: (which Rosamia decidedly is not) would also be afraid of colony drops. The difference is that the poor girl panics over them even when there's no logical reason to think one's going to happen.
    • This gets hilarious in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, where the first time she does this, it's completely justified, just not in the usual way (to elaborate, the thing falling from the sky was gonna be a lot worse than a colony).
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Again, Four and Rosamia. They're artificial Newtypes, so that's expected in a sense.
  • Worf Effect: Char, ultimately. Despite being one of the most experienced pilots, piloting two of the most advanced Mobile Suits in the series, he is usually knocked out or suffers damage. Hell, despite being arguably a better pilot than either Haman or Scirocco, he can't score ANY decisive blows on them.
    • Char has more experience than Haman and Scirocco, but the two of them are both stronger as Newtypes, and their respective mobile suits were each superior to Char's Hyaku Shiki. Also, they initially double-teamed him, and by the time Kamille entered the fray, Hyaku Shiki was already heavily damaged.
  • World Half Empty: This show was cynical even when compared to the rest of the UC Gundam series. Considering how UC is most of the time, that's saying a lot.
  • Yandere: Just about any woman who encounters Scirocco, but most notably Sarah and Reccoa.
  • You Are Not Alone: In a very depressing way of playing this straight, Emma tells this to Kamille at the very start of the last episode. The depressing part about this is that up to that point, Kamille has lost his mother, his father, his lover, his (sort-of) little sister and almost all of his friends and comrades. To top it off, Emma says this while dying. The important thing to note is that Emma is completely right: the Zeta Gundam's biosensor, coupled with Kamille's newtype powers allow him to channel the powers of the dead to defeat Scirocco once and for all in the finale.
  • You Are Number Six: Four.
  • You Keep Using That Word: Rick, as in Rick Dom, actually comes from the word "reconstructed". The Rick Doms were Doms which have been reconstructed with vernier jets to work in space. The Rick Dias, on the other hand, is not a reconstructed version of any mech.
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