History Characters / MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercuryDuelingCommittee

* DeathSeeker: Guel starts grappling with this over the course of the second season. [[spoiler:He's more than willing to starve himself to death while Dawn of Fold has him captured, at least until he hears that Jeturk Heavy Industries is in jeopardy. Even so, his fighting style becomes significantly more reckless, even for him -- Shaddiq very well could have ''killed him'' if he'd miscalculated during their fight in Episode 20, he willingly lets Lauda stab his Dilanza so that he can crush the Schwarzette's shell unit, and the relaxed way he speaks to Lauda after the fact indicates that he's more than fine with dying as penance for his sins, especially for Lauda's sake. Luckily for him (and for Lauda's conscience), Felsi shows up in a Demi Trainer with a gun that fires suppressant material, which she uses to keep Guel's suit from exploding]].

* DeathSeeker: Guel starts grappling with this over the course of the second season. [[spoiler:He's more than willing to starve himself to death while Dawn of Fold has him captured, at least until he hears that Jeturk Heavy Industries is in jeopardy. Even so, his fighting style becomes significantly more reckless, even for him -- Shaddiq very well could have ''killed him'' if he'd miscalculated during their fight in Episode 20, he willingly lets Lauda stab his Dilanza just to get in close enough to crush the Schwarzette's shell unit, and the relaxed way he speaks to Lauda after the fact, indicates that he's more than fine with dying as penance for his sins, especially for Lauda's sake. Luckily for him (and for Lauda's conscience), Felsi shows up in a Demi Trainer with a gun that fires suppressant material, which she uses to keep Guel's suit from exploding]].

* CombatPragmatist: After his experiences at the end of the first season, Guel is notably less focused on "honorable" behavior when he pilots Mobile Suits, though he's still careful not to cross certain lines. [[spoiler:He flat-out admits that he's not going to win against Suletta with fair play in Episode 17, and goes all-out with whatever tricks he can manage to misdirect her, not even bothering to worry about the Darilbalde's AI. Later on, when he's forced to clinch with Shaddiq in their fight in Episode 20, he uses the opportunity to disable Sabina with the Darilbalde's detachable blades from an angle she didn't see, and lets Shaddiq get in one last shot on the Darilbalde in order to slice all of the Michaelis's limbs off, leaving Shaddiq a sitting duck for capture.]]

** In Episode 23, it was revealed that he was very accepting of his half brother Lauda.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: After his first defeat, his original {{Jerkass}} tendencies quickly die down. He showcases a sense of honor as well as being a GracefulLoser, and the rest of the show gradually sees him tame his hot-tempered streak for a calmer and more focused outlook on life.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:In Episode 23, when Prospera is about to kill Miorine and Belmarie, #5 saves them by shooting her helmet.]]

** He refuses help from Shaddiq after being kkicked out of Jeturk House, due to viewing Shaddiq as a coward.

* CharClone: He's TheRival, he has a red mobile suit for most of his appearances, and a few scenes even have him employing very Char-like moves, such as kicks. He also follows the general CharClone tendency of being increasingly outclassed in power as the show goes on due to lacking the protagonist's level of supernatural ability, despite his own improvements in skill. This hits its natural endpoint in episode 22, where him and Suletta have a fencing duel in homage to Amuro and Char's in the original. That said, he is very unlike Char in personality: while Char was underhanded and manipulative, Guel is straightforward and blunt.

* HonorBeforeReason: He insists on fighting his duels straight, even though basically any form of subterfuge is explicitly allowed, because for him those duels are for proving his own strength. When his family cheats anyway, he is both angered and saddened, and it's a notable change in his behavior when [[spoiler:he admits to himself that fair tactics won't let him beat Suletta in Episode 17 -- he doesn't hesitate to slice off Aerial's antennae when she shuts down.]]

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Towards the end of the series, his treatment of Suletta shifts in this direction. Though she considers him a friend and understands his feelings towards her, she only truly loves Miorine, and he knows this. Hence, though he does show regret for never really having had a chance with her, he still does everything he can to make sure she has a good life. This is most visible in [[spoiler:the aftermath of their last duel, where, upon returning the Holder's Mark to her (actively ensuring she will marry Miorine), he smiles and privately laments his own foolishness]].

* CharClone: He's TheRival, he has a red mobile suit for most of his appearances, and a few scenes even have him employing very Char-like moves, such as kicks. He also follows the general CharClone tendency of being increasingly outclassed in power as the show goes on due to lacking the protagonist's level of supernatural ability, despite his own improvements in skill. This hits its natural endpoint in episode 22, where him and Suletta have a fencing duel in homage to Amuro and Char's in the original.

* JerkJock: Fulfils this archetype in Asticassia as their popular resident bullying jock with expert mobile suit combat prowess.

* CainAndAbel: The Abel to Lauda's Cain, when the latter becomes fixated in killing Miorine with Schwarzette.

** He starts off as the school's top pilot, entitled to getting away with anything he wants; when he goes to pester Miorine, his fiance, he gets his ass smacked by a new transfer student when she stands up to him. He is then challenged to a duel and soundly defeated by said student which results in him losing his perfect record, his status as the best duelist in school, and his engagement to Miorine, which derails his father Vim's plans to take over the Benerit Group by assassinating Delling Rembran while Guel was still engaged to Miorine.

* {{Expy}}: The series is heavily influenced by ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', but Guel uniquely resembles Kyouichi Saionji. They are both brutish jocks that are a product of their environment, start the series as the current dueling champion and fiance of the Bride, are quickly defeated in the first episode, seek revenge claiming it was a fluke, lose again, and are eventually humiliated and cast out and reduced to living in the woods while reflecting on their actions.

* {{Turncoat}}: [[spoiler:After failing his mission to steal Aerial, #5 flees to Grassley House rather than let Peil execute him for failure.]]

* DwindlingParty: Over the course of the show, the committee of five members are reduced to the two members who aren't heirs to the dueling houses, due to the other three being preoccupied. And while other members of Jeturk and Grassley Houses do hang out there, it's not for long, and not far into the second cour, it is just down to Secelia and Rouji holding down the fort.

** In the second cour, ''insulting'' Vim or Jeturk Heavy Industries has become a new one [[spoiler:following Vim's death at Plant Quetta. This is partially because Guel caused his death (albeit accidentally), and partially because Guel has come to view Jeturk Heavy Industries as his last link to his father.]]

* BorrowedCatchphrase: The second cour demonstrates that, much like Miorine, he's adopted Suletta's mantra of "move forward, gain two" as the driving force to change himself and grow. He obliquely references it during Episode 20 [[spoiler:as he disables Shaddiq's Michaelis with a crafty sneak attack]]:

** The end of the first cour sees him [[spoiler:murder Vim without knowing his identity until the last moment while trying to escape from Plant Quetta when Dawn of Fold attacks it]]. This leaves him practically catatonic until a few episodes into the second cour, [[spoiler:by which point Dawn of Fold is holding him as a hostage. He eventually shakes it off, just in time to fail to save a girl that's severely injured when the Dominicos Corps attack the current Dawn of Fold base; he eventually makes his way back up to space and Asticassia, ready to rebuild Jeturk Heavy Industries after all it's lost and even confess his true feelings to Suletta. However, Suletta (gently) rejects him, and when Miorine gets him to agree to a duel with Suletta in order to save Suletta from Prospera, the PTSD from his experiences completely unsettles him in the cockpit, and it takes everything it has for him not to completely fall apart.]]

* CombatPragmatist: After his experiences at the end of the first cour, Guel is notably less focused on "honorable" behavior when he pilots Mobile Suits, though he's still careful not to cross certain lines. [[spoiler:He flat-out admits that he's not going to win against Suletta with fair play in Episode 17, and goes all-out with whatever tricks he can manage to misdirect her, not even bothering to worry about the Darilbalde's AI. Later on, when he's forced to clinch with Shaddiq in their fight in Episode 20, he uses the opportunity to disable Sabina with the Darilbalde's detachable blades from an angle she didn't see, and lets Shaddiq get in one last shot on the Darilbalde in order to slice all of the Michaelis's limbs off, leaving Shaddiq a sitting duck for capture.]]

* HotBlooded: He is confident in his piloting skills and eager to pick fights. The events of the first cour settle him down somewhat, but he still has shades of this; the moment he learns that Shaddiq [[spoiler:is responsible for the chaos at Plant Quetta and the Rumble Ring]], he rushes to confront him.

* MiseryBuildsCharacter: Guel's character arc generally follows this trajectory over the course of the show. He goes from a JerkJock and BigManOnCampus to an ActionSurvivor who lost everything he had, and in the process of dealing with all these changes and trauma, Guel's positive qualities are better shown to the audience. In the second cour, he's even able to bounce back from a catatonic depression [[spoiler:after killing his father]] and resolves to make things right despite the odds.

** His storyline during the entire first cour sees him humiliated repeatedly: losing three duels in a row (the third loss being his own fault), being abused by his father for losing, and finally getting kicked out of his dorm and forced to live in a tent while getting bullied by other students. He seemingly finds peace [[spoiler:after running away and joining an engineering company as a menial maintenance worker]], but then he gets taken hostage by terrorists. Finally, he escapes the terrorists in one of their own mobile suits, only to end up in a fight against one of his own company's suits, who thinks he's an enemy. Forced to fight back, he finally wins for once, [[spoiler:and discovers at the last moment he's just murdered his own father. His last appearance in the cour is him screaming in grief and horror.]]
** The second cour isn't any kinder to him; [[spoiler:he was taken hostage by Dawn of Fold after the Plant Quetta attack, spending most of the time in a catatonic state until the Benerit Group attacks the current Dawn of Fold base. While he eventually manages to recover enough to try and save a child injured in the attack, she ultimately dies in his arms. Even after his return to the academy, Guel still has a lot on his plate--he has to deal with both Jeturk Heavy Industries' failing prospects and the Benerit Group's scramble to find a new president, as well as deal with his lingering feelings for Suletta. After Suletta gently rejects his feelings, Guel then winds up part of Miorine's plan to free Suletta from Prospera's manipulations, and has to duel Suletta one more time while grappling with PTSD from killing his father and surviving his time with Dawn of Fold. Ultimately, he wins the duel thanks to Miorine sabotaging Suletta, compromising his own honor and breaking the heart of the girl that he loves by taking away everything precious to her. Ironically, he seems relieved after Suletta defeats him in a fencing duel in Episode 22, and he returns her Holder uniform.]]

* WhenHeSmiles: [[spoiler:He smiles in Episode 22 as he remarks what a fool he was after being defeated by her in a fencing match, and he returned her Holder uniform.]]

* BigBadEnsemble: One of the main contenders for the BigBad position alongside Prospera and the Peil [=CEO=]s; [[spoiler:it's his call to initiate the attack on Plant Quetta, which ultimately leaves Delling comatose and gets Vim killed by the end of the first season, and he starts off the second cour by getting Sophie and Norea into Asticassia to help him stage Sarius's kidnapping by throwing the [[BattleRoyale Rumble Ring]] into complete chaos. He continues on this track for the following episodes, using Sarius' disappearance to engineer his attempt to take the presidency of the Benerit Group, and ultimately allowing Norea to rampage across Asticassia in Episode 20 for one last shot at the Group's power bloc]].

** The second cour makes it clear how Shaddiq ''truly'' intends to accomplish his goals -- he wants to [[spoiler:end the corporate-mandated wars on Earth by giving Earthians military assets comparable to the Benerit Group]]. Unfortunately, his actions throughout the cour also re-affirm that he's willing to employ the same violent and amoral methods as the Benerit Group does to achieve his objectives, to the degree that he sets up [[spoiler:two separate terrorist attacks at Asticassia to further his plans. The second one in particular is just him letting Norea loose on campus to conduct a full-on slaughter of defenseless students; he fully intended her actions to force the Space Assembly League to act now that the danger to Spacians is undeniably clear, but in the process, he gets several students either severely wounded or outright ''killed''.]]

* {{Irony}}: When she's initially introduced in the first cour, Secelia spends almost all of her time lounging in the couch and poking fun at the people around her. Over the course of the second cour, various events cause the other members of the committee to disappear or be otherwise occupied, and Secelia steps up as the closest thing the student body has to a leader.

* LovableAlphaBitch: The second cour increasingly reveals that, despite her laziness and gadfly habits, she's the only person on the Dueling Committee, along with her friend Rouji, who seems to have no malicious or ulterior motives. She's a jerk who likes messing with people, but that is as far as it goes, and when it comes down to the wire, she mainly just wants to do her job and help the student body.

* DopeSlap: He gives one to himself during Episode 22 when he asks if [[spoiler:Miorine is okay with going through with a plan that could put Suletta’s life in danger. One look from Miorine made it clear that she and Suletta had the resolve to see this plan through, and he lightly slapped himself on the cheek.]]

** He refuses help from Shaddiq due to viewing him as a coward.
* TheExile: In Episode 6, being defeated by Elan was the straw that broke the camel's back as he is exiled by his father, and his brother is put in charge. After he returns in Episode 16, he is reinstated.

* GoodCostumeSwitch: Upon his return to Asticassia in Episode 17, he now wears a white shirt instead of his dark-colored one reflecting how his experiences have greatly humbled him for the better.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Judging from his angered reaction when he sees that Elan made Suletta cry in Episode 5, Guel's roughness doesn't mean he wants to genuinely hurt her feelings.
* TheExile: In Episode 6, being defeated by Elan was the straw that broke the camel's back as he is exiled by his father, and his brother is put in charge.

** The second cour isn't any kinder to him; [[spoiler:he was taken hostage by Dawn of Fold after the Plant Quetta attack, spending most of the time in a catatonic state until the Benerit Group attacks the current Dawn of Fold base. While he eventually manages to recover enough to try and save a child injured in the attack, she ultimately dies in his arms. Even after his return to the academy, Guel still has a lot on his plate--he has to deal with both Jeturk Heavy Industries' failing prospects and the Benerit Group's scramble to find a new president, as well as deal with his lingering feelings for Suletta. After Suletta gently rejects his feelings, Guel then winds up part of Miorine's plan to free Suletta from Prospera's manipulations, and has to duel Suletta one more time while grappling with PTSD from killing his father and surviving his time with Dawn of Fold. Ultimately, he wins the duel thanks to Miorine sabotaging Suletta, compromising his own honor and breaking the heart of the girl that he loves by taking away everything precious to her.]]

* RobotBuddy: He is almost always accompanied by his personal modified Haro.

** In Episode 22, [[spoiler:he loses to Suletta again, and he immediately returns her Holder Outfit to her. He actual seems somewhat relieved to have lost, most likely because of the fact he wasn’t happy about working with Miorine to cheat in the previous duel, and recognizing Suletta might be the only one who can get through to Miorine]].

* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: {{Downplayed}}. Even if you are caught cheating the council are firm believers of this. To them, anything that happens in a duel such as underhanded tactics is completely fair game, believing that pilots are to use whatever resources they have available to them in order to win.

* LoveConfession: [[spoiler:By the time he comes back to the school in Episode 17, he became emotionally mature enough to properly confess to Suletta without trying to awkwardly walk back like he did before. He gets rejected, but takes it in stride.]]
* {{Misblamed}}: Twice over -- and rather strangely -- by [[spoiler:Shaddiq, who blames him both for Vim's death and for Miorine being involved in the attack on Quinharbor. In the Vim's case, Guel was trying to escape captivity during a terrorist attack that ''Shaddiq himself orchestrated'', and he only killed Vim in self-defense when the latter attacked his mobile suit not knowing his own son was inside it. As for Quinharbor, not only is Miorine not the one responsible for the attack, but it was ''her idea to go there in the first place'' to try for a peaceful resolution.]]

* PetTheDog: Turns out that for all his arrogance he does have a sense of honor. After their first duel, Suletta is arrested under suspicion of having a Gundam, and the Council discusses nullifying the duel and expelling her. Instead of waiting for the final decision that could restore his perfect record, he sends the members of his house to fix Miorine's greenhouse (he couldn't go personally because his father had summoned him) as per the losing condition of the duel, thus acknowledging he lost. After his second defeat, he apologizes to Miorine personally for his actions, and he challenges Elan to a duel the moment he sees that Elan has made Suletta cry.

** In episode 17 it's something closer to this trope: [[spoiler:PTSD from accidentally killing his own father. The only reason he comes out on top this time? Sabotage.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: In Episode 22, it is implied that he was testing [[spoiler:Suletta’s resolve when he told her the only way he would let her see Miorine again would be to defeat him. If she lost, she would need to give up on Miorine which Suletta accepts. Guel appears relieved when Suletta defeats him as he returns her Holder outfit, and he accepts his defeat with grace.]]