post-scarcity gundam socialism

Quess spent her whole life in Earth where she and her stepmother shared a mutual dislike while her father didn’t pay attention to her unless he needed to bring her to something related to his political career. She was also a Newtype who was awed at traveling to space for the first time and formed a connection with Hathaway, who also experienced parental neglect, which was unintentional on Bright’s part, and from the looks of it might be the first time she made a friendship with a kid her age.

A childhood of dismal parenting and being mostly left to her own devices made Quess subconsciously seek out Amuro and then Char to fill out the parental attention and care she did not receive from her own parents. Of course, she also idolized them and had an adolescent crush that caused her to verbally lash out on their lovers. It is war but Nanai slapping her and being responsible for enhancing her Newtype powers with Chan killing her emphasizes they are adults while Quess was just a kid they either dismissed or used. Quess, like any teenager, wants to be taken seriously and at the same time dislikes men because of her father’s dismissiveness.

Amuro recognized what Quess desired and refused to play the role because he can’t give her that, but Char doesn’t recognize it for what it was until Amuro pointed it out to him and showered Quess with affection to turn her into an effective tool. Gyunei claims he cares but in reality he objectified Quess as a prize to be won to prove he is better than Char.

with Kamille responding

it kind of, idk, puts into stark relief the reality of what a newtype is in gundam. It's understanding, it's awareness, but it's not specifically the psychic awareness of others wills and emotions. It's awareness of history, of impact, of consequences, of the world. It's, people like to like, write off newtypes as weird space magic, a relic of the 70s and 80s sci-fi and the obsession with future magic psychics and science indistinguishable from magic, hope for the future and all. But it's, they're both more and less deep than that and more thematically relevant than that conception belays.

it's an overestimation of char's abilities tbh to be like "oh he always wanted to do that" and i think so much of CCA shines because it's such an annoying cry for help. the way he goes to the window to think, "amuro, i'm doing something extremely wicked" for no real discernable reason in the middle of buying off the federation... and the entire first 30 minutes of CCA is literally everyone that worked with char during zeta interacting with each other and hashing out a repeat of the conversation: "hey, there's no fucking way char's going to actually do this, right?" "hey, this seems so out of character, right?" i mean cmon. the whole thing feels like a last ditch-effort and also a suicide attempt (that char doesn't even actually know is a suicide attempt because she doesn't know herself either)

even amuro who has had his mind literally melded with char, who has seen char's inner mind, who knows all of its workings and why he thinks the things he does, is like "hey. there's no way you're going to do this right?" which also i love because the entire dynamic of char and amuro is built off of the newtype ideals of them supposedly being able to 100% get each other inside and out, but the systems of war and enemy ideology prevents that from ever amounting to anything actually meaningful especially after lalah dies. in the last moments of CCA amuro is still completely fucking baffled by char & ultimately that's how humanity is able to reject and repel the axis drop. you can crawl inside of someone's skin and understand them entirely but it still isn't enough to save them, it still isn't enough to take that back with you and into your own body in a meaningful way when the world pits you against each other, when your values prevent that communication. you still have to kill the person you get the most in the world. you still go back to who you are and look at them and say "i don't understand you"

and that's exemplified more in CCA because all of CCA is built on char playing a role she doesn't even want. in zeta before she makes the huge broadcast speech to turn the tides in the favor of the AEUG she remarks to amuro how politicizing on such a huge scale makes her feel like she's going to play the part of a clown. bright keeps him off of the battlefield after that big speech is given because all of a sudden char has turned into a figurehead for the AEUG overnight and him dying on the battlefield will kill their momentum. char is always like "hey, send me out there in the hyaku shiki to help kamille," and they never do.

cut to CCA where char's all ready to go for speech #39840324 with his hair slicked back out of his face and wearing his uniform saying "i feel like a clown." char believe he is right but he also doesn't want to do it. it's just a matter of him picking 'being right' over 'wanting' anything because simply char hasn't been allowed to get anything he 'wants' and so he doesn't know how to do it anymore. the only person who can provide him that comfort is literally amuro because of their newtype connection.

against all odds char feels slightly indebted to amuro for being the only person who's been able to decimate all of his masks so who else is even going to be allowed to kill him? no one else will be killing char for "Being Char" dying at the hands of anyone else it would simply be killing "the guy who is trying to blow up earth." only amuro is allowed that privilege because char can't let down his guard around anyone else; he doesn't know how to & that's the whole crux of reccoa's arc in zeta

"My condolences to the souls of those who get caught in the crossfire."