#zero system

So I had a shower thought that I needed to write down this morning, which means you get to see how my brain works in writer mode.

To establish some background: I am treating everything that happened on screen in Wing, Endless Waltz, and the initial manga and background resources published for both series as canon.

I'm giving Glory of the Losers a soft canon because it's a completed work that helps fill in some details, but Frozen Teardrop and Preventer Five are *not*, since they're both ongoing works and mostly deal with events post AC 196 which are...squishy, at best.

(Though I admit that FT’s “Zechs” AI kiiiiinda supports my argument.)

So let's talk a bit about Heero.

Heero Yuy: Built Different, But Not That Different

For the folks who are less familiar with the lore around the After Colony setting and / or haven't watched Wing since it was on Toonami 30 years ago holy shit, Heero is the dude in the bike shorts and tank top who serves as the lead singer of our terrorist boy band.

Heero was the son of a man named Odin Lowe, who first served in the Alliance military as a special operations operator, then joined OZ, and later joined the colonial rebellion after he arguably started the entire mess by murking Heero's namesake, his aide (who happened to be the father of Treize Kushrenada), and their families on the order of...Treize's racist grandpa.

Wow.

Not going to wade too far out into the deep end, but Wing hits different when you realize the top brass of OZ / the Romefeller foundation are essentially the Zabi family with a better wardrobe department.

Heero was raised by Odin to follow in the family business of fucking up everyone's shit, but lost his father around the age of 8 after a job went horribly wrong.

Lost and alone, he would eventually end up in the orbit of Doctor J, mobile suit and cybernetics expert, who decided that when life gives you a child soldier, you make Gundams.

Under Dr. J, Heero trained in "Mobile Suit Operation, combat, and body control."

That said, “body control” and training on how to use Leos (and eventually the Wing Gundam) don't explain how Heero survives multiple MS self destructions, an uncontrolled ascent from an ocean shelf to the surface without getting the bends, getting par-boiled in an at best semi-controlled atmospheric re-entry, and combat maneuvers which exerted 10+ Gs.

(For those not versed in biology, gravitational physics or piloting, human bodies typically begin to struggle with sustained forces of 2G, and even with the best current technology available for maintaining proper blood flow and sustaining autonomic functions, forces of 4+ G begin to affect the brain and vestibular system, and cannot avoid GLOC (Gravity Loss Of Consciousness) at forces of 9G and above. Even pilots who have specifically trained in high G-force operations, much like Heero's 'body control', can sustain full consciousness and awareness for ~5 seconds at 9Gs before beginning to 'grey out', and use of a high tolerance G-suit and "Anti-Gravity Sustaining Maneuvers" (special breathing techniques to help deliver more oxygenated blood to your brain) only extends that time by about 15 seconds. Potentially lifesaving in real world combat maneuvering, but not so great in a situation where you boosting towards earth on a high speed, minimal transit intercept course.)

So how can Heero survive what others, even fellow Gundam pilots, cannot?

We get some hints in Wing episode 3, where Heero is being held by Sally Po after his capture in an alliance / OZ base, and his bloodwork and X-rays are so alarming that she immediately calls for additional security for the infirmary where he's being held.

Given Dr. J is an expert in *cybernetics*, and some sources also claim he could perform "genetic modifications" (probably stemming from preventing rejection of cybernetic implants or lab grown tissues without nuking the patient's immune system).

So there is a very good chance that Heero isn't just in peak physical condition and trained in AGSM - he is *literally* built different, likely with some forms of genetic modifications to increase the oxygenation of his blood and promote faster healing with enhanced white blood cell production, lactic acid mitigation, and improved cognition under high strain. He is also likely to have some subtler forms of cybernetic augmentation such as laminated bones, some form of self-recharging internal air tank to provide oxygen to his brain when his lungs can't, and possibly heightened nervous system transmission rates or modifications to both his slow and fast twitch muscles to enhance his reactions.

(If you're a Halo nerd, Heero is probably equivalent to a Spartan-III, maybe even a Spartan-IV. I'm also taking some inspiration from Timothy Zahn's *Cobra* sci-fi setting and the enhancements given to cybernetic soldiers in that setting.)

These are all things which can be done without making Heero stand out visually, or even with a cursory medical inspection, but go a long way to explain most of the crazy shit he does.

However, it does *not* affect how his brain works. At most, everything we are supposing is going to help keep him *awake* without tripping balls due to oxygen deprivation or oversaturation.

So if Heero's got a standard human brain, is there anything in his background that explains why he was the first (and maybe only, depending on how you consider Quatre and Zechs’ experiences) to truly control and master the ZERO system?

Honestly? No.

Remember, Heero was raised as a child insurgent, soldier, and assassin. Much like Trowa, who grew up "nameless" and traveling from battlefield to battlefield, he spends a key portion of his developmental years killing people and fighting for fighting's sake, eventually gaining a mentor and sponsor in Dr. J, but never really having a normal life or developmental path.

At most, the dying words of his father encouraged Heero to "live by your emotions", which he interpreted as "MURDER IS OK" until he saw firsthand the collateral damage his work caused with that little girl and her dog.

Boy has trauma for days. If anything, he should have been as vulnerable to the manipulations of ZERO as any other pilot, possibly more given Heero's constant insistence that his life didn't matter as long as the mission was accomplished.

So what is the key to his mental resilience?

Treize (motherfucking) Kushrenada.

The Cost of Victory

Young Treize probably could have become a manipulator, ideologue, and genocidal zealot on the scale of Stalin or Hitler if a few things went left instead of right, or if Racist Grandpa had been more of an influence.

Thankfully for the AC setting, Treize took on all the political education and insular bastardry, military theory, STEM training, and decided to add a healthy dose of Liberal Arts.

(Elective courses matter!)

Because he made an active effort to always remember the human cost of conflicts, particularly those men who died as a result of his actions and orders, and because he studied a great deal of philosophy and sociology, Treize was much more of a modern day Marcus Aurelius than a Julius Caesar.

This not only extended to his personal philosophy and the people he gathered around himself, but to the weapons he preferred and the weapon systems he would create.

This is in contrast to the Gundam Engineers, who essentially built Mobile Suits (culminating in the Tallgeese) to answer a call for "how can we create the ultimate weapon", and then developed Wing Zero and the ZERO system out of their own fear of said ultimate weapon (or, more realistically, it's de-tuned successors) being used to oppress them.

The ZERO system, for those who could use a reminder, is a highly advanced software suite, possibly bordering on a truly sapient artificial intelligence. It processes all of the available data from a battlefield, regardless of if the pilot is in a 1 on 1 duel or multi-planetary military campaign, predicts outcomes based on potential actions and reactions the pilot and their enemy may attempt, and presents it it to the pilot either through a HUD interface or some kind of direct neural induction into the pilot's brain along with what the system has decided is the best way to achieve victory. Even if it comes at the cost of the pilot's life and its own destruction.

This is a major reason why the Engineers designed the thing (and apparently wrote the ZERO OS), then realized that ever using it was an absolutely terrible idea.

But that didn't stop them from saving copies of all their research and blueprints, including Wing Zero, or stop those copies from falling into the hands of others, namely Quatre and Treize.

Where Quatre just said "Okie-doke, let's get this massacre machine up and running", Treize appears to have actually examined the ZERO system and its' intent before making his decision to create the Epyon as an equal and opposite counter - including his own answer to ZERO: The Interface.

This system, also sometimes called the EPYON system even though it was also prototyped and tested in the early stages of designing the Tallgeese III (and in some sources, was also installed in the Tallgeese II), can also show the pilot how to win, but that is not the system's primary goal.

The primary goal of the Interface is to show the pilot who they are fighting and what their defeat truly means.

Thanks to Treize having virtually unlimited access to military records and intelligence databases, he ensured that the Interface would be able to instantly identify each combatant on the field by fighting style, unit loadout, ship / MS / vehicle designations, or in a worst case, brute force feature matching and visual recognition.

Much like ZERO, the Interface appears to be on the borderline of sapience, but we never see any of the Interface equipped machines move or act of their own accord - possibly because of Treize deliberately blocking the system from doing so because of his beliefs that human beings must take responsibility for their actions, and not simply allow machines to fight for them.

Once the Interface understands who the pilot is fighting, it will still provide them with all the data required to win, but it also makes sure the pilot understands what will happen to them.

ZERO seeks victory no matter the cost.

EPYON ensures the pilot understand a victory's cost.

We know that Treize at least briefly used the Epyon during the mobile suit's testing and shakedown, so it is reasonable to assume he also made use of the Interface, rather than simply relying on his basic controls. While the cost of defeating a testing dummy or simulated targets is low, it seems quite likely that the Interface was able to see the intent of Treize's plans for both the Epyon and the escalating conflict between the Earth and Colonies, particularly with the increased use of mobile dolls, and let him know that he could "win" peace, but it would require his own loss (and likely death) to do so.

So, once Epyon was fully operational, Treize handed it to the person he thought would be best suited to use the machine to help further his goals:

Heero Yuy.

You Cannot Look Away

Heero was, at the point where he intersected Treize, in pretty rough shape. The Sanc kingdom was beseiged by the rest of the planet under the banner of OZ and Romefeller, the colonial independence movement had been badly beaten down and the Operation Meteor pilots repudiated by the colony citizens, He had blown up the Wing Gundam (again), arguably lost his second duel to Zechs Marquise, and saw the only way out of the spiral to attempt to kill Treize Kushrenada, accurately seeing him as the man driving events forward, but not truly understanding what Treize's goals were.

This means that when Heero showed up to kill Treize, the last thing he expected was for Treize to toss him the keys to a new ride.

So - after some cryptic yet heartfelt conversation, he climbed into the cockpit - and put on the Interface.

Where Wing (and later Wing Zero) used a fairly standard MS cockpit setup as derived from the original Tallgeese, Treize had designed the Epyon to make use of a special piloting suit which included a VR headset.

Much like modern IRST / augmented reality pilot helmets, the Interface helmet provided Heero with complete view of the battlefield, HUD, and "scrubbed" the cockpit out of his vision, truly giving the perception of 'being' the suit - something that greatly complimented Epyon's focus on close combat.

It also meant that when the Interface shared its' data with Heero, he had no choice but to see and understand the cost of his decisions, and the human cost of every move he made.

One can only imagine how overwhelming this would be for a completely unprepared pilot - particularly since Heero was not in a position to remove the helmet mid battle.

(I also suspect that the piloting suit, and the later piloting suit which Zechs also wears in the Tallgeese III, is also built with a great deal of anti-G force compensation and medical sensors which could administer medication and first aid to the pilot while in combat. Same goes for the piloting suit Quatre used after building Wing Zero, and which the boy band would wear in the later stages of the conflict, but Heero's augmentations make these capabilities redundant.)

Indeed, in both the show and print adaptations, Heero stumbles out of Eypon's cockpit after their first battle together absolutely shaken and nearly catatonic from the experience of combat.

Despite that, when Romefeller begins their invasion, Heero straps in and heads right back out, because the Interface has helped him understand what happens if he does not fight - or if he fights with no regard for his life, or the lives of others.

Plus, killing drones is a great way to style on the haters.

By the end of the fight for the Sanc Kingdom, Heero is not just in a position where he empathizes with the "losers", but he has lost. No matter how powerful Epyon, Wing, and Noin's Taurus are (or the handful of Treize loyalists who came to their aid), Romefeller has swarms of Virgos which they can continue to funnel into the battlefield at zero human cost. They can throw money at the problem until it goes away, overwhelming and eventually crushing any resistance under an endless tide of Mobile Dolls.

Relena didn't have an Interface or ZERO system, but she didn't need one to understand the immense human cost that would be inflicted on her and the rest of the people she was responsible for if the battle continued, and so she choose to surrender, accepting Romefeller's terms to end the fight.

(Though I will note that there's a very big difference between Surrender and Submission - something that Duke Dermail and most of his aligned leadership would come to understand when Relena began to hijack their agenda.)

So - as Heero hears the orders to stand down, and prepares to flee in search of a new enemy - or perhaps the enemy he always *should* have been fighting, with his newfound clarity over how the world is being manipulated...

Here Comes A New Challenger.

I haven't talked much about Zechs Merquise (aka Milliardo Peacecraft) because his story doesn't really start to fold into this discussion until this point.

While Zechs did sacrifice his beloved Tallgeese to obtain the Wing Zero (or Proto Wing Zero, if you prefer), he really doesn't spend a great deal of time with it.

In terms of timing, we see Milliardo leave the name of Zechs behind in the wake of his interrupted duel with Heero in Antarctica (which, I'm sorry Heero stans, was absolutely his W), then get shitfaced with Howard for a few days before it's Time To Go To Space.

Once Milliardo arrives, he meets with some colony representatives and a few remaining resistance leaders, fights Heero and Trowa at the controls of the Mercurius and Vayate, respectively (and picking up the 3-peat), and finally picks up the Zero and maybe spends a day and a half learning about his new ride (possibly with Howard dusting off his copies of the WZ Hayes' manual) before he tries to reason with Wufei (and fails like everyone else) and then learns that Romefeller is beating down the Sanc Kingdom.

Rushing to their aid (and already too late), he never seems to be too heavily influenced by ZERO, but I wouldn't go so far as to call him in complete control, either. He's been looking for a reason to fight despite his 'ambassador for peace' act this entire time, and OZ / Romefeller finally gave him the best excuse he could ask for. With the driving goal of "saving" the kingdom that his parents could not, he throws himself into the battle and seems to rely on ZERO's overall strategic guidance, augmenting it with his own tactical skills and instincts before he encounters an unexpected variable:

The Epyon.

These two pinnacles of Mobile Suit Design fight to a standstill, with Milliardo and ZERO unable to find a winning strategy that Heero and the Interface cannot counter - just as Treize had always intended.

Exhausted physically and mentally, and with Milliardo feeling the additional strain of "failing" to rob his sister of her agency (bro has NOT figured out that Relena isn't three years old anymore), the two pilots land and stagger out to face each other, exhausted, until Heero offers to trade pink slips.

Why does he do this?

I think that "EPYON told him to" or that ZERO was telling Milliardo to give up the suit is a bit too simple - once again robbing the characters of their agency, though it is a little more plausible in Milliardo's case because ZERO was designed to do exactly that.

In Heero's case, I think he may have heard about the Wing Zero from Doctor J before it was captured and brought to the moon by OZ, and he already knows what it can do - and what it was likely doing to Milliardo's mind.

Milliardo now understands *how* to win, but I think his understanding of why he is fighting beyond shallow surface reasons is far less obvious - and it certainly seems as if he doesn't truly understand what his victory may cost, since he's happily been murking fellow members of OZ, the Aliiance Military, and anyone else he feels is in his way since 8 o'clock on day 1. Even his claims of seeking revenge for his parents ring increasingly hollow by this point. He's much like Heero had been in his youth - fighting for the sake of fighting, because he's not really good (in his own mind) for anything else.

By offering Epyon, and the Interface, he's offering his rival a new perspective, and a way out. To truly understand why and what he is fighting for, and who his real enemies are, much as Heero did, and maybe hoping that getting his *weltangshauung* radically adjusted will result in Milliardo becoming a true ally in their shared battle, and not just a random actor.

The Way Forward

Heero and Wing Zero mesh in ways no one else had or could precisely because Heero has already been down the road of absolute self sacrifice in the name of victory, as well as a much more complete understanding of who he fights, why he fights, and what it costs them all thanks to the Interface.

Wing Zero no longer has a pilot who can be subtly (or not so subtly) manipulated into taking the action that ZERO wants, and instead makes ZERO show him what *he* needs and wants to know. He doesn't need a helmet to keep him from escaping the reality of his actions - that has been firmly rooted into the core of his identity, and at last has the ability to not just live by his emotions of anger and defiance, but the full emotional spectrum, because he no longer sees anyone's life as cheap or disposable, particularly his own.

It makes him an incredible fighter, but also makes him reflect on what he can and cannot do - particularly in regards to fighting a larger war.

Heero knows he isn't a leader, so he gets Quatre to trust himself enough to grow into one.

He isn't a tactician - that's really where Wufei and Trowa shine, so he helps them fit into the puzzle.

Heero may live by his own emotions now, but he's not good at sharing those feelings and bringing a diverse group together - but Duo is, so he helps him get the band back together.

(Side note: I will pay $5 to anyone who can record Mark Hildreth and Scott MacNeil doing the "So what have we got?" "106 miles to Chicago, a full tank of gas, etx" and "We're on a misson from God" blues brothers lines as Heero and Duo.)

MEANWHILE…

So - what happens once Milliardo uses the Interface, and gets Epyon's (or more properly, Treize's) take on his path?

Based on what we see in the relative aftermath of the Sanc Kingdom's second fall? I'm pretty sure he was shown that he's on exactly the path Treize hoped he would take - and fucking hates it.

For all their battles back and forth over the direction that OZ would take, the role of a soldier, and the path of chivalry vs. how to actually win a war, Milliardo and Treize have a deep and genuine friendship born out of years of shared experiences and respect for each other's skills and intelligence.

So for Milliardo to realize that he's not only watching his best friend has set himself up to literally take the fall for the entire world, but to ensure that Treize believes it would be best for him to meet that end at Milliardo's hands? It's horrifying - not just because he may be forced to kill one of a handful of people in the world who truly know him, but because in Trieze's idealized view of the world, it would be the right thing to do.

In Treize's mind, true peace can only come when people fully understand not only each other, but the terrible cost of war along with it.

Milliardo, I think, likely agrees with this - but thanks to his prior experience with ZERO, he also knows that performative duels and displays will only serve to inspire the world with a romantic ideal of battle, lionizing the fight itself and not grasping the meaning and reason behind it.

To him, victory must be achieved in a way that does not bring glory to the losers, but that drives home exactly how devastating and ruthless unlimited war can become - and the quickest way to stop a fight is to show such power and force that everyone understands the horror that would be unleashed if they continue.

This is why, when approached by the White Fang, Milliardo resists the idea of joining up, let alone leading them. He wants to eat his stew, lick his wounds, and sulk for a while.

He wants to figure out a way to achieve the shared goal of a world that no longer resorts to war without having to sacrifice his best friend (and potentially himself) in a way that is likely to be counterproductive at best.

It is only after Quinze ties the idea of the Gundam being a symbol of rebellion - and reveals the amount of force that White Fang can bring to bear - that he finally says yes.

He will play the part that Treize intended for him, but Milliardo (or, deep down, Zechs) is rewriting the script.

This is no longer about duels and honor and chivalry. It is about forcing the world to confront the horror and brutality of war.

He is bringing a gun to the knife fight, and we see his utter lack of hesitation to use a battleship grade beam cannon to kill Treize as a sign of how he's still using ZERO's strategies of total victory while he personally relies on Epyon - but not the Interface.

Or at least, not entirely.

From the time we see Milliardo pilot the Epyon as leader of the White Fang all the way to his eventual rebirth as Preventer Wind, we never see him don the Interface's helmet on camera. Instead, he relies on the mobile suit's manual controls for piloting along with the suit's normal camera system, monitors, and HUD feeding him data.

Does he know the cost of battle now? Yes, I think he does, thanks to those events around the Sanc Kingdom and before he returns to space - and intends to pay with his own life. His own ways of escalating the growing conflict all set him up as not only the figurehead of the Colonial resistance and the White Fang, but as the target who must be taken out.

Milliardo has decided that he will play the villain to Treize's hero, as intended, but he will do it in a way that will spread the hatred of war that he believes is necessary to move the world towards peace.

Not In Kansas Anymore

So who *is* under the Interface helmet in the last climactic battles of the Eve Wars?

Dorothy Catalonia - War's Biggest Fan.

She's meant as a foil to both Relena and Quatre as a person who is meant to embrace the realities of war and the realities of leadership, yet still comes back for seconds and thirds at the battle buffet.

She doesn't flinch from the cost of war when given the chance to use the Interface to control the White Fang's mobile doll force, and she doesn't really see any glory in losing - if anything, up until Quatre finally levels up in Bard and cross-specs into Battlemaster, she has never truly known a defeat.

It's that loss that finally shakes her, and lets her admit that deep down, for all her performances, she has hated the human cost of war ever since it took her father's life. She embraced mobile dolls as a way to capture the beauty of combat without a human risk - but ignored the fact that others would still be offering up their lives against MD forces.

She wanted to see War as a sport where the greater general (and ideals) would succeed, and ignored why one person fighting alone, no matter what kind of technology they are surrounded by, will inevitably lose to someone willing to ignore the rules (ie: Milliardo) or to someone wise enough to fight alongside allies (Quatre/Trowa) until she is forced to confront the truth, just as the Interface was designed to do.

She will grow, better understanding that Peace must be earned, not given, and eventually reach her own pinnacle in the future.

To the best of our knowledge, she represents the last user of the Interface, and once again receives insight into *why* she has been fighting, not just who or what, and that opens her to growth.

Final Victory

So - all the players are assembled, the curtains are drawn, and the climactic battle begins.

Treize is saved from his own hubris by Lady Une's sacrifice (and apparent ability to bend space and time to her will, because what), then falls to another warrior who has learned to fight for the glory of the losers - though he hasn't really drawn the same conclusions.

(Wufei isn't an essay, he's book - or more properly, an indexed volume of multiple issues.)

Milliardo is set on his course for final, destructive victory, only to see it crumble beneath the force of two ZERO users who have achieved the clarity and complete sense of self needed to make the system work for them rather than through them.

Heero with the help of the Interface, and Quatre by going all the way down the rabbit hole and slowly managing to drag himself back to sanity by his raw and bloody fingertips.

(Sometimes you really do go so insane that you finally land back on sanity. Also see Challia Bull in GQX, but that's literally another show.)

So - with the Interface still fuctioning, but less overwhelmingly present, what does Milliardo do when his options continue to collapse, and even finally conceding to Treize's point and facing Heero in a one on one battle fails?

He, at long last, has to stop and look at himself.

Heero doesn't spare him because Zechs was such a superior fighter, a great leader, or a misguided visionary.

Heero spares him because, in his own words: Releena would be sad.

Because the cost of his victory would be paid by a person who he has come to care deeply for, regardless of how you interpret their relationship, and Heero will not inflict that pain on her.

And Zechs looks deep into the identity he reclaimed for himself, and finds...nothing. What has his fight achieved? Who has Milliardo Peacecraft helped? What kind of insight has this "ambassador" gained?

What peace have his actions brought?

Nothing but more bloody steps in the endless waltz. Nothing save more deaths, more destruction, and a failure of both his own *and* Treize's ideals.

But as Heero asks him about what Epyon is telling him - about what futures ZERO showed him - and he watches the Gundam pilots bring that promised revolution through their own desperate attempts to save the colonies and the earth in spite of it all - he finally has the moment of clarity that was always just out of his reach.

Peace can be won. But only if he truly gives himself - and the Epyon - to that end.

So Milliardo Peacecraft dies again, for the last time.

So Zech Merquise walks (or likely, floats) away for a time to heal, to rest, and to really take the lessons he has learned to heart.

When they fight again, Heero and Zechs don't need either the Interface or ZERO system. Because they have both finally understood what each was trying to show them - and are both able to leave their Gundams (and yes, Tallgeese, particularly Tallgeese III counts) behind for good.

–To start off with a quick overview, there are two mobile suits installed with a permanent copy of the ZERO system: the Wing Zero, which has it built into the cockpit, and the Epyon, which displays the system data via a flight suit helmet (the Epyon’s system was reverse-engineered without the benefit of the original ZERO program, but its effects are identical). There is also a modified version of the system that was utilized to coordinate the movements of Libra's mobile doll fleet– a novel use of the technology that elevated the otherwise limited AI of the Dolls to monstrous effect by giving them the intuition and oversight of a human mastermind.

But! Something worth noting is that the ZERO system isn’t the only battle-enhancing algorithm for mobile suits!

In a brief but significant moment in episode 10, we learn that OZ has a machine-learning program all of its own, and it's installed on the (then newly developed) Taurus mobile suits.

“There is a problem with the Taurus. It has the ability to learn from accumulated battle data. I’d like to trust OZ’s control system, but there’s still the chance that the machine will ignore the pilot’s commands and move on its own. If the command to kill overrides the pilot, the consequences could be significant.” –Doctor J

Who wrote the program for the Taurus suits? The most likely answer is Chief Engineer Tuberov, the man responsible for the Mobile Doll AI system, which is no doubt the successor of the Taurus AI. However, there was a lot of cooperation and cross-pollination of ideas between the original creators of mobile suits; Tuberov, Howard, and the five Gundam scientists were all involved in the earliest days of MS development, so it's not inconceivable that Doctor J is aware of the dangers of the Taurus’ AI because he helped develop it. 

And Doctor J has good reason to consider the Taurus AI dangerous, because if it’s anything like the ZERO system, it’s the absolute last thing you’d want a power-hungry global military organization to have access to.

It’s not safe in the wrong hands; hell, it’s not even safe in the right hands. There’s a reason ZERO wasn’t installed on the finalized Gundams, and was left buried inside the files of a discarded blueprint. 

- ----------------- -

The ZERO system is a GAN : it uses the data sets of previously recorded battles and the pilot's biological feedback to generate potential outcomes for a given fight, and then evaluates those results based on their likelihood and probability of success, in a zero-sum game where "success" is always defined by the total elimination of enemies.

Like all algorithmic processes, it amplifies certain results based on what data it's given and how it is trained. It's possible to use ZERO to predict the most likely, or most advantageous course of action for a pilot's future– as long as that future is combative. And because the system is only trained to recognize Win States, Enemies, and Vulnerabilities, every future is going to be combative.

It's not trained to look for alternative solutions to combat, or make predictions about a life NOT spent inside a mobile suit-- it can only continue to generate pass/fail scenarios that lead, by the most efficient means, to the ultimate win state: the elimination of all enemies, all future enemies, all potential enemies. 

–Whatever the mechanism is that allows the ZERO system to interface with a pilot’s brain, it makes it possible for a good pilot who is aware of the system and is prepared for its effects to mitigate how much control the system has over their mind and body, and successfully moderate the interposition of the machine's priorities and their own– but it takes an enormous amount of mental and physical conditioning to override ZERO, and the strain on the pilot is significant.

The ZERO system gives a pilot the best chance of success by grabbing them directly by the brain chemistry, heightening awareness, speeding up reflexes, and inducing an almost trance-like state of hyperfocus that eliminates “distractions”, and ignores any physical and mental barriers that might get in the way of victory. 

Unfortunately, what constitutes a “distraction” in the eyes of the machine is not always in line with the pilot’s conscience, and what it considers a “weakness” is often the biological feedback of strain and bodily distress. If left unchecked, the system overwhelms the pilot and can make them keep fighting through unsafe levels of exhaustion and injury, and in extreme situations, over-stimulation from the system itself can cause brain hemorrhaging.

While assessing all of the potential outcomes of a given battle, it takes into account every likely scenario up to and including the pilot’s own death. It will tell you if you’re likely to die. It will show you all the ways you are likely to die. If you let it dig too far into your nervous system, it will in fact let you feel how you’ll die, pumping your adrenaline levels up to the screaming pitch you’d experience if it were actually happening. 

Even if a pilot is technically capable of withstanding ZERO, the psychological effect of using it in the first place comes with its own insidious dangers. The temptation to let the machine ride is a powerful one– it makes you faster and stronger than everyone else, it lets you see things before they happen, it allows you to stop thinking about complicated questions of right and wrong, letting you simply focus on the most immediate action necessary for survival and success. It takes away the confusion of competing moral imperatives.

ZERO grants a human the clarity and singularity of purpose of a machine. 

For those seeking refuge in numbness, this is a soporific that allows a pilot to take retributive action against their enemy without feeling– removing grief and replacing it with vindication; and for those who are insecure, or weak and hungry for power, it can be fatally intoxicating. 

ZERO can only show a pilot the quickest way from point A to point B.

It does not take into account any factors besides efficiency. It does not have a conscience, it does not have external priorities, and it does not value life.

If you give it a problem to solve like “how do I win”, no solution is off the table– it will remove any and all obstacles in the way of victory, and by far the most common obstacle is the fact that most people have things that they care about, and things they are unwilling to do.

For instance, the safety of one's allies and innocent third parties is not a parameter the ZERO system is equipped to recognize.

If using your beam canon is the most effective way to clear the battlefield but you're not using it because there's a Colony in your line of fire– well, that's easy to fix. If your concern for an ally is holding you back from fighting without reservation, that's an easy fix too.

- ----------------- -

The scientists responsible for creating ZERO knew what a monstrosity they'd created, and wisely did not implement it in any of the finalized Gundams. But once it was unleashed on the world anyway, they surmised that the only way to use the system wisely was to become, on one’s own terms, what ZERO would have tried to force you to become anyway: a soldier with a clearly defined goal, who is strong enough and skilled enough to complete their objectives, and who has nothing holding them back, and therefore someone who the machine could not easily manipulate.

During their time in space, the Gundam pilots are isolated, scattered, and lack a clear purpose. Their Colonies betrayed them and their loyalties continue to be used against them– in that atmosphere, the convenience of a system that selects the most advantageous target is obvious, but at the same time, a struggling pilot operating alone is at the greatest risk of being overwhelmed by it. This is why the Doctors advise the pilots to become "perfect soldiers"– or else, go insane.

Important Clarification: This is a “perfect soldier” in nearly the opposite sense of how the Romefeller Eyebrow Brigade would define a True Soldier! What the Doctors mean by a “perfect soldier” is simply a fighter with a clear objective and few tactical weaknesses that could be exploited.

The ideal example of this "perfect soldier" is obviously Wufei:

Wufei already thinks in terms of absolutes– he acts according to the strictest assessment of who is Evil, and therefore an Enemy; he fights almost exclusively alone, relying on his own considerable strength to achieve his goal of enacting justice; and he habitually shuns any close attachment that might complicate his path forward.

It's no wonder that when Wufei pilots the Wing Zero, all the system does is confirm what he already held to be true. His goal was always to eliminate anyone trying to escalate militarism, which means defeating both Treize and Zechs. When the ZERO activates, he even fights with his eyes closed. (As a slight concession to ZERO's recommendation, he agrees to cooperate with his fellow Gundam pilots as a team.)

It’s as though Wufei’s brain is already running on the ZERO system. Since he’s already equipped to make his own tactical judgements in the field, he has no need of an external system to tell him what to do. ZERO has nothing to offer Wufei, and there is nothing for it to exploit.

But it's not just Wufei who can resist using the system: even Quatre– who is in most ways the polar opposite of Wufei, and who at his lowest point fell prey to ZERO before anyone was aware of its dangers– is eventually able to master the system. Armed with the knowledge of the system's intent and a clear idea of who to fight, he is able to use it in a way that maximizes his natural strategic abilities and resist its negative effects. After absorbing the insights provided by ZERO, Quatre realizes that he too no longer needs it.

- ----------------- -

So what it boils down to is this: A pilot with superior skills and a firm resolve can operate effectively without the ZERO system, and a pilot with superior skills an NO firm resolve and too many vulnerabilities will find themselves struggling against it to their detriment.

Either way, it is up to the pilot to navigate the available outcomes presented by their surroundings, and choose the best course of action according to their logic and intuition– and wouldn't this still be true with NO artificial source of input?

The ZERO system may enhance human abilities by brute force, but the processes it accelerates are already present within the pilot. In fact, it’s hardly more than a limited, mechanically-accelerated version of what the senses and nervous system do already.

Like all current examples of machine learning, it presents the illusion of an objective, autonomous process that can stand in for human input. But it isn’t a true “artificial intelligence”– and even if it were, it would not transcend or replace the need for human input. It is only a means of sorting and arranging data sets that come from humans, and must be interpreted and acted on by humans, in order to have any physical effect. 

–We know a lot more about the dangers of algorithms and machine-learning and automation now in the 2020’s than we did in the 1990’s, but between the ZERO system and the Mobile Dolls, I think Gundam Wing did a damn good job of illustrating them. 

Ultimately, it is always a human who makes the decisions, and is responsible for the consequences. Surrendering that responsibility to a machine is not only morally reprehensible, it is in fact, not possible– a human built the machine, and a human made use of the machine, and a thousand, thousand collective moments of human decision-making led to whatever outcome the machine facilitated.

The world hasn’t yet arrived at the techno-singularity, either in the present or in A.C.195, and those who are eager to pass the blame prematurely to “AI” are usually those who wish to avoid being held accountable for their actions. 

Perhaps it’s a surprise that the only person to use the ZERO system for something other than combat is Treize. For the confined leader of OZ, the system is a magic eight ball to scry the future with.

At the time of creating the Epyon, the system did not show him a viable path forward, or at least, not one he considered acceptable. Treize interpreted this as meaning he had NO future, but I can’t help but wonder if he was asking the wrong sort of question for a predictive battle algorithm to answer.

...Or maybe, the answer he got was “Ask Again Later”, which, actually, would be correct.