Editing Mobile Suit Gundam (section)

=== Universal Century ===
{{topquote|It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century. The furthest space city from the Earth, Side 3, proclaimed itself the Principality of Zeon. It launched a war for independence with the Earth Federation. In roughly one month of fighting, the Principality of Zeon and the Federation Forces caused the deaths of half of their respective populations. [[Grimdark|People began to live in fear of their own actions.]]|Mobile Suit Gundam, opening sequence}}
[[File:McChar.png|200px|thumb|right|The Gundam franchise is renowned for its artistic integrity]]

The OG timeline. Half of Japan's mecha fanbase still creams their jeans over this, which is why every time someone has an idea for a new Gundam series Bandai will crowbar it into the UC continuity instead of letting it stands on its own. The two strongest themes introduced here are "war is hell" and "both sides in a war will have sympathetic soldiers as well as complete dickbags": the Earth Federation was using space as a dumping ground for poor people so they could continue shitting up the planet and disrespected the lives of its soldiers, and Zeon would have some good points if they could stop playing Atrocity Bingo for five minutes. The UC also made itself stand out at the time by actually explaining ''why'' giant robots (called Mobile Suits here) are a viable fighting vehicle; they can perform EVA maneuvers to conserve fuel when fighting in space and the magic "Minovsky particles" used to make things like fusion power and beam guns practical totally bollocks the kind of guided missile spam that would obviously dominate future combat even in the 1970s.

* '''''Mobile Suit Gundam''''': Referred to as "Gundam 0079" or "First Gundam" for disambiguation. As the quote above implies, it's the year 0079 UC and everything is grimdark: the distant space colony Side 3 has gotten sick of being pushed around by a corrupt planetary government, reformed itself as Space Nazi Germany and declared its independence by, among other things, dropping a different space colony on Australia. With their new Mobile Suit technology, the Principality of Zeon has pushed the Federation back at every turn, as space battleships are insufficiently awesome to defend against them. In response the Federation launches a secret program to build their own, superior Mobile Suits, but Zeon discovers the R&D facility and the prototypes end up in the hands of a bunch of cadets, children and civilians. [[Plot Armor|This crew of misfits proceeds to dumpster some of Zeon's best soldiers,]] marking them as potential [[Psyker|"Newtypes"]] and the next phase of human evolution, though they still suffer terribly in the process.
* '''''Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam''''': It is now the year 0087; the Federation won the war in 0080, but continues to oppress the space colonies through the Titans special forces and generally act like dicks. Opposing them is the Anti-Earth Union Group, notably featuring Zeon ace Char Aznable under the most transparent alias imaginable, while the remnants of Zeon look on from distant Axis and wait to pick off the survivors. Notable for incredible animation for its time (thanks to Bandai's piles of Gunpla money) and an ending so depressing even Tomino felt the need to change it in the compilation movies. Also dramatically expanded what Newtypes could do, including what's arguably the series' first super robot, the gigantic Psyco Gundam.
* '''''Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ''''' ''(Gundam Double Zeta)'': Direct sequel to Zeta; having been completely decimated in the final battle, the AEUG's flagship Argama is reduced to recruiting punk kids as mobile suit pilots to stay alive against the forces of Axis Zeon. Fortunately arms dealer Anaheim Electronics comes to the rescue with the ZZ Gundam to level the playing field. Starts out incredibly goofy (protagonist Judau is one of the few newtypes to ''not'' be an instant ace pilot) but becomes more serious in the second half. Also notable for being the first Gundam series where the protagonists' suits are ''all'' Gundam variants.
* '''''Char's Counterattack''''': The big finale of the Federation vs. Zeon story. In this feature film, Char counterattacks, namely by trying to dropping enough asteroids onto the Earth to make it uninhabitable and force everyone to become Newtypes in outer space. The Federation is not a fan of this idea, largely because all their money's on Earth, and sends a task force of veterans from 0079 to stop him and his Neo Zeon rebellion. After some flirtations with it in Zeta and ZZ, this is what pushes the franchise firmly into super robot territory: everyone who matters is a Newtype of some kind, the suits are bigger and more overpowered than ever and everything ends in a cloud of magical sparkles.
* '''''Mobile Suit Gundam F91''''': Timeskips to UC 0123, where the Federation is once again under attack by the new space empire of Cosmo Babylonia. The film follows students Seabook Arno and Cecily Fairchild as they get dragged into the fighting by the asshole leadership of both factions. Intended to be another TV series, ended up crammed into another movie by studio meddling.
* '''''Mobile Suit Victory Gundam'''''': The big fuckup. When this series was being produced, Bandai had just bought Sunrise wholesale and was leaning harder and harder on Tomino and his team to boost model sales, mandating the youngest protagonist yet and incredibly stupid suit designs like the infamous wheelie bike. This just motivated Tomino to troll them by making the series super grimdark, with one of the highest kill counts in the franchise. To this day, Tomino still tells people that they shouldn't watch it in interviews. Ended up "killing" the franchise for a bit, as Sunrise would take it out of Tomino's hands for almost a decade and move to producing alternate continuities using the brand name.