the core of Tomino's gundam is about imperialist violence and anti-imperialist violence.

In the Universal Century, systemic change requires violence because it's a class war (earthnoids/spacenoids). gundam is specifically all about highlighting the emotional reality of that war

Tomino's principal warnings are that the violence of this inevitable conflict will shape you. repeatedly, throughout the Universal Century, meaningful change is stopped dead in its tracks because of the trauma of the main cast

Kamille had finally come into his own, ideology and all. He and Char, with the A.E.U.G. as their instrument and the Federation's military strength decimated, were primed to accomplish revolutionary things

but then the end of Zeta happens. It's all just too much for Kamille

Char Aznable is set to drop axis on the earth, force the federation to give up their power.

but he gives Amuro the plans for a psyco gundam. He jeopardises his own mission for a shot at a fair fight with his rival. He's unable to let their conflict go

and Amuro. oh Amuro

so consumed by his war trauma, by his craving for peace, that he is incapable of seeing that the Federation's peace is itself violence, and will continue to create new wars as the spacenoids seek sovereignty

and that's where Char's Counterattack ends, with Amuro inspiring others to throw their lives away performing the sisyphean task of keeping axis from falling. He saves the symbol of the spacenoids' plight. it will continue to loom over the earth. Nothing changes, the war continues

and now I'm watching Victory, and it's incredibly sad, even before I've got to the part where everybody starts dying.

It's sad because, despite Char being proven right by Victory's premise, it's a setting where the language they need from old conflicts and ideals are all lost

people don't really know about newtypes, nobody has said the words earthnoid or spacenoid yet, the revolution is being led by monarchists again, despite the failure and atrocities of the zabis.

the one constant through it all is the earth federation. it's still going!!

it's so relentlessly sad to see tomino touching on the idea that 50 years on, neo-zeon's revolution has become irrelevant, while the federation chugs on, creating wars, weaponising ignorance, and crushing rebellions while benefiting from them

all of this is frustrating because despite these accomplishments, I struggle to recommend gundam. a lot of it is riddled with deeply hateful misogyny. I'm not going to pretend it's simply an obstacle to overcome or ignore, it's an terrible problem with the core Tomino led shows

Anyway, this thread is just a compilation of my feelings so far with getting into gundam. it's honestly been an incredible journey, even through all the bullshit.

I can't wait to see what absolutely heinous crimes tomino commits in the second half of Victory