Editing Mobile Suit Gundam (section)

== Notable Characters ==
* '''Amuro Ray''': Pilot of the original Gundam and sperglord maximus. Son of Federation engineer Tem Ray, he gets in the Gundam on an impulse instead of evacuating and becomes its pilot full-time when everyone else who knows how to work the damn thing gets killed. Being forced to fight for his life constantly drives him to the brink of madness, but eventually he finds his backbone and his emerging Newtype powers make him the most terrifying thing in the One Year War. After the war ends the Federation keeps him in a gilded cage for fear of him going ''Rambo: First Blood'' on their asses, ''that's'' how scary he is. Even so various good-guy factions wheel him out as their ace in the hole, and he always obliges because part of him never really left that Gundam. So [[grimdark]]. His custom-made robot pet Haro also deserves a mention for being almost as iconic as the Gundam itself.
* '''Char Aznable''': The Red Comet. Amuro's main rival, Zeon ace and Japan's answer to Darth Vader. After he discovers the Federation's secret Mobile Suit program only to let them slip through his fingers, he spends the rest of the series trying to reclaim his status by defeating the Gundam. Secretly '''Casval Rem Deikun''', the true heir to Zeon's ideals forced to live in hiding from the Zabi family. He's also a complete douchenozzle: when Char teams up with Garma (the only Zabi who wasn't some combination of corrupt, bloodthirsty and genocidal) it's just to [[Sindri Myr|SSSINNNDRIII]] him into the White Base's teeth as the first step of his revenge. He tries to get over himself and live by his father's ideals for a while after the war, but humanity's continued dickbaggery gets to him in the end.
** Char's impact on Japanese culture beggars belief; his outfit, half his lines, his penchant for red ace customs and ability to [[Orks|make things "three times faster" just by painting them red]] are [[meme]]s even the densest salaryman will recognize. To give you an idea of how far this goes: you can apply for a Char custom credit card in Japan, and it will earn reward points three times faster than a normal card.
** One consequence of Char's massive popularity is the "Char clone"/"X is a CHAR" phenomenon: every Gundam series will have at least one character who wears a mask or sunglasses, pilots red mobile suits, acts as a rival to the main character, and/or has a secret identity. Some series play this straighter than others, and ''Unicorn'' even got meta with it by having Full Frontal be a literal clone of the original article. 40k has its own Char clone in the form of Commander [[Farsight]].
* '''Ramba Ral''': The "guerilla" expert, though in this case that really means commando raids and ambush tactics. Cool old guy, Zeon's answer to Rommel and the first pilot to really threaten Amuro despite the OPness of the Gundam. He would have geeked the lot of them too, but M'Quve was a dick and refused to issue the mobile suits he needed for a direct assault. Being far too badass to let a little thing like being outgunned by a factor of about a million stop him he leads a deep strike into the White Base and almost captures it, but Ramba [[Meme|forgot to fight in the middle of a fight]] and chooses to an hero rather than be captured. A fan favorite, his infamous "This is no Zaku" line is one of the most quoted in the franchise and the ''Gihren's Greed'' vidya gives him a lot of love. Appears in ''Gundam Build Fighters'' as "Mr. Ral", and it's heavily implied that he's the actual Ramba Ral reincarnated.
* '''Dozle Zabi''': One third of the Zabi triumvirate in charge of Zeon's military and an absolute chad. A father to his men and dedicated family man, he was Char's superior for the mission that found Operation V. Probably the least dickish Zabi after Garma. When the Federation rolls up to destroy his base of operations on the asteroid Solomon, Dozle goes out on a suicide run to buy time for the evacuation; after his Big Zam is destroyed by Amuro, his righteous fury is so powerful it actually manifests before Amuro's eyes as he tries to take the Gundam down with a space AK-47. Needless to say, "The Big Zam should have been mass-produced" is a common sentiment among the fanbase. Even after his death, his daughter Mineva leaves a lasting impact on the Earth Sphere in the decades to come.
* '''Haman Karn''': She's beauty, she's grace, she's miss step on my face. Leader of Axis Zeon in Zeta and ZZ, claiming authority as the regent for a 9-year-old Mineva. Talks a big game about human reformation, but as the series progresses she admits that she mostly cares about power for its own sake. Had a crush on Char once but loves world domination too much to let it go.
* '''Elpeo Ple''': Named after [[Loli|lolicon fetish magazine]] Lemon People, no matter what Tomino says. Naturally she's practically a fetish object when we first meet her in ZZ, then turns out to be yet another Newtype child soldier who dies horribly, in what can only be an epic [[troll]] on Tomino's part. According to production notes she's actually a test-tube baby based on <s>Space Hitler</s> Gihren Zabi's DNA, explaining why she looks like an older version of Mineva. Treacherous Neo Zeon commander Glemy Toto would clone her en masse for his personal army, marking him as a man with excellent taste; "Ple Twelve" makes a suprise appearance in Unicorn as Marida Cruz.
* '''Master Asia''': <s>[[Touhou|Hong Meiling's master]]</s> The Undefeated of the East and the only man badass enough to blow up mobile suits with just a scarf. Trained G Gundam hero Domon Kasshu in his special brand of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]] and fights both alongside him and against him before suffering one of the most tragic and manly deaths in the franchise. G Gundam's version of Ramba Ral and almost as well-loved by the fanbase, having a mix of arrogant, wacky and badass rarely seen outside of [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]. Say it with me now: ''"Look! The East is burning red!"''