Forum - View topicThe Most (And Least) Relatable Gundam Heroes
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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That's unfortunate if that's the trend :/ Seemed like the original series and especially Turn A had pretty good female characters. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Heero Yuy was a major reason why I just couldn't get into Gundam Wing when it was on Toonami way back when. A lot of other people in the school were talking about this series, but between it utterly confusing me because I skipped many epieosdes and me finding Heero just an utterly boring character, I found myself having not much to say about the series.
Personally, a protagonist must be relatable right from when you get to understand them. You should not need backstory to make a character relatable, though it can be used later on to strengthen their relatability. But you can't have a protagonist be a jerk and expect people to like him or her simply because reasons are explained later--people are going to tune out long before that happens. (You CAN have a story with a difficult-to-relate protagonist, but in those cases, people tend to gravitate towards a side character, or even the antagonist, who's more relatable, like many Death Note readers and viewers did with L.)
So the Gundam fanbase is one of those vitriolic ones where no one can agree on anything, a lot of them don't really like anything but Gundam, and some people are just so angsty and pessimistic that they can't really write enjoyable material? Sounds a lot like the Sonic fanbase.
Same here. Again, I wonder if that's just because I missed large chunks of the series, but I always found Duo to be the most likable character in Gundam Wing because he was the only character to behave like a normal person.
Superheroes are not relatable?
I'll take your word for it, and I wouldn't be surprised, considering Gundam has always been targeted at malesand is a really old franchise, so female characters in active roles wouldn't really be that big of a deal. I'm thinking of those action cartoons in the United States in the 80's, where you had maybe one significant female character on the heroic side (maybe another one on the villain's side), and she spends a lot of her time getting captured and needing rescued, or overpowered in battle and needing the male protagonist's help, or other situations where the male viewer can insert himself into the protagonist's role and save the beautiful woman. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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If you're talking about superheroes a la "Golden Age" most definitely no. Even X-Men is stretching it. How many can identify with something they were born with an abnormality and have to live through it? Besides the disabled, not many. The average Gundam Pilot is more relatable sans genetic psycho powers. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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That's kind of odd then, as superhero stories would not be so popular if their protagonists cannot be related to. There definitely is a strong dose of wish fulfillment in superhero stories, but I would argue that the most popular ones are definitely relatable to some degree, namely in the decisions they make, the emotions they go through, and their opinions in particular issues.
Take away all of the superpowers, for instance, and Kingdom Come is the story of a man with a flawed but reliable way of serving the public (Superman) getting showed up by an upstart who serves in a different way without those flaws, but with other flaws that don't become evident until later (Magog). Irredeemable is about spoiler[a man who doesn't feel people appreciate him for the good deeds that he's done] (The Plutonian). House of M is about a man in a persecuted minority (Wolverine) adjusting to a world where they're the majority and in power. Relatability is simply understanding a character's emotional state and connecting with them in at least one way. You feel sympathy for a character you relate to, feeling good when they feel good and feeling bad when they feel bad. That can most definitely be done with superheroes. |
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Paiprince
Posts: 593 |
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It also means connecting to someone on a practical level which most superheroes could not. A civilian thrown into war is a more likely situation that the layman can relate to better than some dude who has to ponder how he's going to use his magic powers for good or bad. We could extend this logic to discount most fiction, but that would be off the scope. Even with your examples, we're talking about Gundam pilots, not spandex heroes. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5987 |
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We already have one war raging on we don't need two wars on two fronts. |
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metroid24
Posts: 69 Location: grand junction colorado |
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same here kira is my fav |
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2228 |
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I actually include the original series in that (as well as large chunks of the UC) due to proactive female characters like Aina, Karen, and Elizabeth being in the minority. It's not even the "they're not kickass pilots/fighters" part as there are plenty of characters in fiction who are proactive and three-dimensional without throwing a punch. I think the worst offender in the UC's status quo is what I like to call the "Char Factor" as that man has a laundry list of women who are either victims of his machinations, pawns, or their only defining trait is being associated with them. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16939 |
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Only going to say this once, no more pointless and stupid photos posted, and no more "butthurt" or similar insults to those who's opinions differ from your own. We've had enough Gundam threads the past several weeks and have seen the same comments enough. So just stop. If you're not going to debate the topic CIVILLY don't say anything and just move on.
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Heishi
 Posts: 1325 |
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So...in this heated atmosphere can I say with confidence that I pretty much like all the Gundam heroes despite being unable to relate to?
With the main character of G being one of my favorites? |
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Azmodeus
Posts: 185 Location: Sweden, ass end of nowhere |
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Lauren's top 2 relatable pilots pretty much mirrors my own. Iori Sei is the protagonist of possibly the best toy commercial ever conceived ( depending on if you consider TV games toys), I have been martial artist since 8th grade so Domom Kasshu is an easy pick. I haven't seen 08th but I've heard plenty of good stuff about it, so Shirou is up in the air.
Least relatable would probably be Wu Fei from Wing. In a franchise all about the complexities of war (besides BF), He's the only pilot who wholeheartedly believes in the purest form of "Might makes right". He's a stubborn, arrogant simpleton who needsspoiler[ an entire B plot of the OVA's to come around to one of the simplest theme in the entire franchise.]. Oh well, at least his OVA suit is one of the coolest. |
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Ausdoerrt
 Posts: 481 |
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With all the flak Mikazuki is getting here, I'm not entirely convinced he's supposed to be "the" protagonist. The show is really more about the dynamics of the Orga-Mika duo than "the one chosen Gundam pilot". So much, in fact, that a lot of the "Gundam" stuff feels a bit shoehorned in certain places. At least so far the Gundam frames don't seem to have as much of a role or symbolic meaning as in the earlier series - we'll see if and how that changes in S2.
As for unrelatable, I think just about the whole cast of Wing deserves to be there 
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Monster Hunter
Posts: 335 |
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08th MS Team is the my favorite and my opinion the best Gundam series in the franchise. It is about a team of MS pilots in the Earth Federation. They are normal people fighting in the war to survive. They have no powers nor are they piloting these super powerful gundam MS. They are piloting these mass produced gundam MS but really they are only a little better then a normal GM MS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4kEuNfbTWc This is one of the best fights in all of Gundam history. |
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StregaMember08
 Posts: 15 |
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I'm probably one of the few people that actually relates, or related, with Shinn the most. The kid was basically completely subject to his emotions, something I related to a great deal when I was 17 and watched the series. Not everyone is better than their flaws, with age comes better self-control and understanding of oneself, but back then? Shinn was for me at least the most realistic of the protagonists I'd been exposed to.
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#838774
Posts: 158 |
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I don't find it odd at all. I think Kira is one of the most annoying characters I've had the displeasure of watching in any anime. Just because there is a reason doesn't make it less irritating for viewers. |
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