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The Most (And Least) Relatable Gundam Heroes

So one time Heero thought Relena was a bystander who MAY report him to OZ but instead just wanted to befriend him and understand his goals and he should try to kill her time and again?

Relena was kind of forced to become a figurehead for OZ, but she was trying to change them from within, knowing Relena she wouldn't have wanted anyone to die but good ol' Heero is all "Harumph! She's part of OZ now! Must kill people in OZ!"

I'd compromise with you if it was just that one instance Heero didn't know about Relena and tried to safeguard Operation Meteor's identity, but he does it constantly because he's jaded.

Again, at the end of the day they are villains, saying they are "[MORE] noble" doesn't make them out to be perfectly just. Meanwhile there's the "heroes": Wufei who angrily just went around killing (mostly) enemy troops saying they were "weak" and to prove his own strength, just kind of roundaboutly achieving the neutralization of war with the other pilots by killing a lot of people, peace didn't really seem to be on his mind. Duo, who is at least an honest soldier and acknowledges that his fate to be a 'God of Death' and kill people for the end goal of peace mostly loafs off and forgets his purpose in the latter half, and Heero, who as I mentioned just kind of gets caught up in the fighting like Wufei, occasionally casting his sights on Relena and just gets in the middle of battles with peace as an afterthought. The whole Zero system bullcrap made for a lot of contrived drama that warped things in the back half, but Heero was still kind of an ignorant jerk besides that. There's also Quattre's nihilist stint where he was trying to deal with the fact that most people won't understand the Gundam pilots' actions until once everything is settled as the media kind of pins them as evil and some of his deeds get met with scorn, but he at least was fixated on his original goal and was lead astray by the hope being sucked out of him, that was an actually interesting part of the series. Then Trowa had brief amnesia where he couldn't really help not getting into battle and forgetting what his mission was.

@penguin Seabook has fans, interesting.

As to the person that mentioned Mikazuki, I think he's unrelatable on purpose. When I watched IBO I had a good sense Orga was always a bit afraid of the guy. Even his best friend in the show can't relate to him. Think he's unrelatable on purpose.

^Don't confuse not understanding he's supposed to be unrelatable and finding him unrelatable. Certainly, that doesn't make him a bad character, something I never said. But people finding him unrelatable when he is meant to be unrelatable seems like mission accomplished. How sad that we had the intended response. Personally I think finding a character unrelatable a valid reason to call them unrelatable.

^Well from the way you phrased it, it seemed like you were condemning everyone who found him unrelatable. I seemed to have honed in on your true concern nonetheless. Certainly one shouldn't automatically equate unrelatable and bad, but not all of those who have called him unrelatable here said he was a bad character. And those who thought he was a bad character didn't do so because he was unrelatable. They thought he was bad for the same reason they found him unrelatable, i.e. he is a unhesitating killing machine (Feel free to correct me if I am incorrect in my assumption, those it may concern).

This was an interesting list, with a lot of well thought out explanations.

For me personally, I find a lot more of the side-character pilots more relatable than the heroes. Though there are a couple of the heroes that I do root for completely (such as the aforementioned Sei, as well as Turn A Gundam's Loran).

That said, here's my list of most relatable and least relatable.

Relatable (in no order):

1. Athrun Zala: While Seed is given a lot of flack, and I do mean a lot, there are most definitely some bright spots and Athrun drives most, if not all, of them. His position on the Zaft side, and his role as the deuteraginist, helped give him more chances to stand above and beyond many of the other characters, but it was his personality, and his desire to do what was right for his people (which drives him through both Seed and Destiny) was wonderful and made him the hero to root for throughout both series.

2. Allelujah Haptism: I'll get this out of the way now, but I really like the pilots of many of the transforming mobile suits. As a fan of Macross (I do rank that franchise a little higher than Gundam when it comes to mecha series) this alone can invest me in a character. Allelujah's background, and entire character arc over the course of 00, however, is what really appeals and makes him relatable; spoiler[ as does his relationship with another super soldier-esque candidate and the ending to their story as they leave to find their place in the world.]

3. Loran Cehack: When I started Turn A Gundam, I didn't really expect much from Loran, but over the course of the series, he grew on me and really proved to be a relatable protagonist. Torn between his feelings for both the world he came from and the one he was adopted into, his actions throughout make it very hard not to root for him.


Least Relatable:

1. Shinn Asuka: While I can understand the distaste leveled at Kira, and Kamille, no one, and I mean no one, has turned out to be a worse, less relatable, protagonist than Destiny's Shinn. Despite having valid reasons to be angsty and frustrated with life, his actions from the start of the series, up until the last few episodes (where they do a half-hearted job of trying to "redeem" him) are horrible and go beyond just someone lashing out. He's practically a megalomaniac all on his own.

2. Mikazuki Augus: As this whole thing is about relatable and least relatable, I thought I'd include Mikazuki on here. Despite greatly enjoying Iron-Blooded Orphans, there's something about the series protagonist that just doesn't click and make him relatable. He's not an atrocity of a character like Shinn is (far, far from it), but he doesn't have the traits that have made other heroes/pilots in the franchise relatable to me.

Quote:

a Coordinator, the Gundam Seed universe's word for Newtype

Coordinator isn't the Seed universes word for Newtype.

Kira is also a Newtype, in addition to being a Coordinator!

Has Ms. Orsini ever done a list of likable/unlikable Gundam Love Interests yet?