Line #49 Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam


1	! Spoilers for all previous ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' entries in the Universal Century continuity, including ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' and ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam'', will be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!
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4	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20150304195728_662968_2.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:280:''[[SoundtrackDissonance Don't Stop,]] [[NeverTrustATrailer Carry On!]] [[BaitAndSwitchCredits Don't Stop, Shining On!]]''.]]
6	->''Even in space, humans still continue their long history of warfare...''
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8	''Mobile Suit Victory Gundam'', or just ''V Gundam'', is an anime television program set in the Franchise/{{Gundam}} universe. It consists of 51 episodes, and was directed by Gundam creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. It is the fourth complete series set in the Universal Century timeline, and is widely regarded as the most depressing show of Tomino's U.C. saga.
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10	''Victory Gundam'' takes place in the year U.C. 0153 of the timeline, seventy-nine years from the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam One Year War]]. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's rebellion]] 60 years ago and the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Crossbone]] [[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam Vanguard]] 30 years ago have reduced the [[TheFederation Earth Federation]] to complete impotency. The authoritarian [[TheEmpire Zanscare Empire]], taking advantage of the situation, proceeds to invade Earth so that they can bring it under their control. In response, a group called the [[LaResistance League Militaire]] rises up to defend the Earth in the Federation's place. Uso Ewin, [[ImprobableAge the youngest Gundam protagonist yet]], finds himself the pilot of the League Militaire's frontline mobile suit, the [[TitleDrop Victory Gundam]], in an attempt to defeat the Zanscare forces.
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13	!! Contains examples of:
14	* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Uso Ewin, who at 13 succeeded the 14-year old [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Judau Ashta]] as the youngest protagonist in the Universal Century. He was also the youngest period before [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray Prayer]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE Kio Asuno]] came along.
15	* AlasPoorVillain: Several characters in the Zanscare side get these. Good examples are [[spoiler: the kind-hearted pilot that Uso killed in battle and deeply regretted it]], [[spoiler: the StarCrossedLovers Karinga and Kisharl who end up ''killing each other'']], and [[spoiler: the BattleCouple of Renda and [[BadassBiker Duker]]... who mix this with awesome, as [[TogetherInDeath their souls are seen riding together on a Harley towards the afterlife]].]] Even [[spoiler: Chronicle and Katejina, despite all that they've done, receive sorrowful ends.]]
16	* AmazonBrigade: The girls from the Shrike Team. And Marbet isn't amused that their boss is... her ex-boyfriend Oliver.
17	%%* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shakti, Marbet and the Massarik brothers.
18	* AristocratsAreEvil: The Zanscare heads are themed after British aristocrats, and are mostly just bad bad people.
19	* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} in a few episodes where the protagonists must refrain from destroying the enemy mobile suits during [[spoiler:the second Earth invasion arc]] in order to prevent their reactors from going nuclear and contaminating the landscape. While reactors that get pierced by beam weapons do make a big explosion from the plasma their I-field is containing suddenly releasing itself into the environment, this would cause the pressure within the reactor to drop, ''decreasing'' the rate of fusion and pretty much ensuring that there ''wouldn't'' be a nuclear explosion. Further muddling things is that the show can be wildly inconsistent when this happens, with some simply falling apart after being hit while others go nuclear after even a mild hit. The strangest instance of this is when they explode after being hit by a Shot Lancer, a weapon specifically designed to prevent this kind of reactor explosion.
20	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Some have called this on the beam rotor technology, pointing out that non-physical propellers would not displace air nearly enough to generate lift. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary materials]] indicate that the beam rotors do not work by displacing air at all, rather, the spinning of the beams acts as an external Minovsky Drive, generating a slight anti-gravity effect around them. It's not nearly as powerful as the fully internal Minovsky Drive System incorporated into the Victory Gundams, but still saves a ton on fuel consumption.
21	* AttemptedRape: The only way to interpret Lieutenant Lupe Cirneau's method of "interrogating" Uso after he is captured by BESPA.
22	* AwesomeButImpractical: Early on the series, Uso uses a massive Gatling gun with equivalent destructive power to the beam weapons, but it runs out of ammo quickly and the massive recoil makes it impossible to aim properly.
23	* AxCrazy: Lupe Cineaux and Fuala Griffon. [[spoiler:Katejina as well by the ending.]]
24	* BadassBiker: Duke. His girlfriend and partner Renda as well.
25	* BaitAndSwitchCredits: The first OP "Stand Up To The Victory" fits this very well. While there are hints of some of the oppression to come in the lyrics, it's mostly very upbeat for a very brutal show.
26	** Zig-zagged with the second OP "Don't Stop! Carry On!". The opening lyrics do not shy away from how bad things are, but the main chorus encourages fighting on to grasp hope.
27	* BattleCouple: Duker and Renda, who tend to head into battle together.
28	* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler:Katejina]] is very, very surprised when [[spoiler:Uso]] actually tries to [[spoiler:kill her]].
29	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Zanscare Empire are defeated and Uso and Shakti live happily ever after, but at the cost of the lives of the Shrike Team, Odelo, the Reinforce Jr. crew, and Uso's parents. Katejina is also revealed to have survived the war, but as a cripple for the remainder of her life.]]
30	* BlackComedyRape: The bizarre incident in Episode 29 where Lupe attempts to molest Uso in a bathtub. It ends with the poor kid clinging to the top of a curtain, stark naked except for a pair of handcuffs, whilst the Zanscare soldiers below yell at him to come down.
31	* BloodierAndGorier: Notorious for having bloodshed by the ton, especially for a UC series (and remained the bloodiest show in the entire franchise until ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'', ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' and ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans Iron-Blooded Orphans]]'' came along).
32	* BornLucky: Uso, despite his absurd skill for his age, frequently wins via the Hand of God.
33	* BrownNote: The League Militaire at one point employs a giant microwave array to generate headaches and diarrhea among the Zanscare forces, leaving them unable to respond to their attack effectively.
34	* TheBusCameBack:
35	** Madame Chambarley, another senior official in the League Militaire, returns in episode 34, 28 episodes after she'd departed from the group
36	** Fuala Griffon is exiled in episode 15. She returns in the Zanneck in episode 40 and finally appears herself in episode 41, 26 episodes later.
37	* CombiningMecha: The V and V2 Gundams use the Core Block system [[ContinuityNod similar to]] the ones used by the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Gundam/Guntank/Guncannon trio]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Double Zeta Gundam]], [[SequelEscalation except now they can combine mid-air without extra pilots to control the separate parts]]. This was also a feature in some Zanscare empire designs, but was progressively dropped as the series progressed.
38	* ContinuityCameo: An old Jovian merchant by the name of Grey Stoke (with his worn-out mobile suit called the Gump) fights alongside Uso Ewin in a sidestory and does so awesomely. The catch? [[spoiler:The man is revealed to be an elderly [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Judau Ashta]], with the Gump being a jury-rigged ZZ Gundam.]]
39	* ContinuityNod: On the whole, ''Victory'' goes out of its way to downplay major callbacks and references to the greater UC timeline especially with it being set so far into the future. Though side materials tend to dip into the continuity nods a bit more, the anime has a couple.
40	** The Gaunland is a throwback to ''Zeta Gundam'', being a modified Alexandria-Class, one of the Titans' main ships.
41	** The Reinforce docks with the La Vie en Rose IV, likely a successor the the La Vie en Rose from ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory''.
42	* CoolBigSis: Marbet and the Shrike Team girls, specially Mahelia Merill.
43	* CoolBike: By WordOfGod, this is the motif for many of Zanscare's machines, resulting in them having two wheels in most of their designs (for examples, Keilas Guilie cannon's particle generators and Contio's shot claw mounts). The straight examples are two models of armored bike, bike-like mobile armor Galicson, and battleships that can tranform into gigantic bike, Adrastea and Lysithea.
44	* CoolShip: The Reinforce Junior, a repurposed and refitted Squid-class Zanscare battleship that serves as our heroes' main getabout in the series. The original Reinforce, for the record, was much less cool - it was a small, elderly Federation cruiser that only lasted a few episodes before being wrecked and used as parts for the Junior.
45	* CrapsackWorld: The absolute low point of the Universal Century... which is saying something considering the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam many]] [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam conflicts]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ it]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack has]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 suffered]]. People die constantly and the current dominant power is an evil empire staffed by AxCrazy fanatics who butcher and massacre civilians on a regular basis, with the Earth Federation becoming a shell of its former self and most nation-states, cities and global cooperation being non-existent due to years of constant wars.
46	* DarkActionGirl: Zanscare has quite a few female aces in their ranks: Fuala, Lupe, [[spoiler:Katejina]], Renda.
47	* DarkerAndEdgier: Even more than ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]''. It has a very cynical atmosphere and has lots and lots of violent and often pointless deaths, far more than Zeta could even aspire to.
48	** There is a manga version of the scene of Uso confronting the Bikini girls... In the anime, looks like he only knocks them all out except the last girl he cleanly vaporized with the beam saber, in the manga version, you can see some of those girls mutilated with lots of blood and guts floating everywhere.
49	* DaysOfFuturePast: The Zanscare Empire really dug into its whole ''Ancient Regime'' pretentions, complete with wigs and guillotines. The Earth Sphere circa UC 0153 is also reminiscent of Japan's Sengoku period, with the squabbling colonies ignoring an [[spoiler:seemingly]] increasingly inept Earth Federation.
50	* DepopulationBomb: The [[DoomsdayDevice Angel Halo]] basically does this on a planetary scale. It doesn't just take out humans, either, but everything with a reasonably-functional brain.
51	* DisposableWoman: There's a ''lot'' of this, with the Shrike Team being the most (in)famous examples.
52	* DrinkingOnDuty: PlayedWith. Fuala goes to a bar when she's off-shift to drink and even starts a friendly conversation with Uso's group, not knowing who they are. However, combat breaks out and she's forced to cancel her leave to engage. Though she's not intoxicated, she expresses discomfort and annoyance as she's in a high-speed ariel battle after having drunk alcohol.
53	* TheEmpire: The Zanscare Empire is a pretty classic example of this.
54	* EasyLogistics: Interestingly, this is the greatest advance of this era; The Zanscare's Beam Rotor's as well as the League Militaire's Minosvky drive systems allowed them to fly without refueling (and thus operate independently) since propulsion is powered directly by nuclear reactors, [[GameBreaker giving the users a major tactical advantage.]] That said, nobody ever appears to run out of Hangers and/or Boots for their CombiningMecha, no matter how often they're trashed or used as decoys.
55	* EvilChancellor: Fonse Kagatie is the Prime Minister of Zanscare and source of all evil in it.
56	* TheFederation: The Earth Federation is still running things and is truly useless [[spoiler:for most of the series]].
57	* EyeCatch: The mid-episode intermissions feature Uso's Haro gradually getting larger and larger over the series... two frames at a time. One of the bonus features in the box set is the complete short from all 51 pairs of frames.
58	* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Katejina]]
59	** SNRI had been previously developing Mobile Suits for the heroes in [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 F91]] and [[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam Crossbone]], but by ''Victory'' their base on Side 2 is transformed into BESPA and they're firmly on the side of the Zanscare Empire.
60	* FateWorseThanDeath [[spoiler:Katejina]] survives... but is blinded, broke, and amnesiac. However, since she crossed the MoralEventHorizon more than once, that can be considered her just punishment. [[spoiler: WordOfGod, however, has said that this is also her best chance at salvation, so this trope won't necessarily hold for long.]]
61	* FlawedPrototype: The Abigor, namely its life support functions and thrusters. Its fighting ability, on the other hand...
62	** Interestingly, the same flaws showed up on the water based Galguyu, [[AllThereInTheManual which copied its transformation ability]], and as a result it leaked.
63	* FreezeFrameBonus: When Tomache crashes into the hangar in episode 32 trying to land his Gun-EZ, a whole host of random objects can be seen being thrown out for a split second. Objects include a vacuum cleaner, a Haro, a Zaku head, alarm clock, a UFO and a mini ''Anime/Zambot3''.
64	* GoodCostumeSwitch: The Gaunland is a member of the Alexandria-class, a battleship originating in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' created by the villainous Titans. However, while the Titans' ships utilized SecondaryColorNemesis, the Gaunland goes for a red and white color scheme akin to most Protagonist ships like [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the White Base]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam the Argama]], or [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory the Albion]].
65	* GrandTheftPrototype: Uso gets involved in the Zanscare war when he accidentally paraglides into Chronicle's prototype mobile suit in midair and ends up inadvertently hijacking the thing while trying to get safely back to the ground. A few episodes later, Chronicle makes a good effort at stealing the V Gundam.
66	* GratuitousFrench: The League Militaire. Which makes sense thematically, given the generally DaysOfFuturePast atmosphere.
67	* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold[=/=]WhatYouAreInTheDark: A manga sidestory is about this. [[spoiler:During a sortie gone wrong, Uso stumbles upon a colony-turned-GenerationShip filled with Newtypes [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tired with all the bloodshed in the Earth Sphere]]. He even meets an elderly [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Judau Ashta]], who is the mastermind behind the whole thing shortly before the colony leaves the rest of mankind forever.]] And in the end, only Usso knows the truth about it.
68	* GratuitousGerman: Most Zanscare mobile suits (probably due to Zeon's German references) have German names: Motorad -- motorbike, Ein(e)rad - unicycle. There is also a mobile armor called the Birkenau.
69	* GunshipRescue: Duker's Lysithea-class ship attacks the White Ark when it's on vacation. As the battle gets grim, the Federation Londonberry team intervenes with a group of gunboats aiding Uso and forcing Duker and his men to retreat.
70	* HeelFaceTurn: Anaheim Electronics who had previously been selling their technology to [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn Neo-Zeon]] and the terrorist organization [[Literature/MobileSuitGundamHathawaysFlash Mafty]] have once again decided to back the underdogs of a conflict which this time around is the heroic League Militaire.
71	* HelicopterBlender: Zanscare beam rotors are admirably suited for this, especially as the blades are made of ''beams'', making the usual drawback of this trope (flimsy physical blades that ''will'' break and cripple the copter if attempted) not apply.
72	* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Katejina]] sends in the Bikini Babe Assault Team to attack Uso, who goes into one before he kills the entire team. [[spoiler:Katejina]] needed to be insane to think such an idiotic excuse for a plan could work...
73	* HistoryRepeats: This series drives home just how much the Universal Century has failed to deliver on the original aspirations of those who founded it. A motif that is revisited in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn''.
74	* HolyHalo: The Angel Halo, naturally. The Zanneck that shows up late in the series also has a halo motif, most notably in the twin particle accelerators it uses to charge its [[WaveMotionGun Mega Beam Cannon]].
75	* HumanShield: In episode 32, Marbet expresses shame in using Tomache and Odelo (both having very recently been trained as MS pilots) as shields in combat. Uso feels that this is just residual guilt over [[spoiler:Oliver's death]] and that Marbet treated the duo like teammates in the field rather than shields.
76	* HumongousMecha: If you weren't expecting this one then you're watching the wrong frachise.
77	* {{Hypocrite}}: For all the Spacenoid talk about preserving Earth from environmental damage, none of them seem to note that the number one cause of pollution on Earth is indiscriminate bombing by Spacenoids.
78	* ImprobableAge: Uso pilots Gundams at age ''thirteen''. JustifiedTrope, though: Uso's skill as a pilot come from being raised with mobile suits, like some children being raised surrounded by guns. It's mentioned that he used actual mobile suit simulators as [[IKnowMortalKombat video games]]. His status as a Newtype ''and'' having a mom who ''designed and built'' these suits certainly helps as well.
79	** PlayedForDrama with characters noting the horror of children becoming involved in the war.
80	** One Mook even kills himself with a mouth held hand grenade after getting shot down by Uso (who also has him at gunpoint) because he's so horrified that things are so bad on earth that supposedly he can't stand the thought of earth forces being so desperate they use children as fighters/pilots.
81	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Subverted. [[spoiler:After 50 episodes of all the teenage protagonists consistently surviving with little more than scratches, the barely teenaged Odelo bites it in the last episode as Katejina's final victim. The other kids and teens (including Odelo's girlfriend Elischa) get relatively happy ends with peaceful futures]].
82	* ImprobableWeaponUser: From [[HelicopterBlender beam rotors]] and [[RazorFloss beam strings]] to motorbike-battleships and [[MonowheelMayhem the Einerad]], the Zanscare Empire is right up there with Anime/MobileFighterGGundam for the franchise's 'Weird Wargear' award.
83	* {{Irony}}: The Zanscare Empire apparently has an obsession with the absolute monarchies of pre-Revolutionary Europe. Yet their similar obsessions with guillotines and their utterly brutal tactics call to mind the Terror that followed the French Revolution.
84	* TheJuggernaut: The Adrastea-class motorbike-battleship is enormous, absurdly heavily-armed, and tough enough that even [[spoiler:a kamikaze attack from a Victory-2 Core Fighter]] barely slows it down, and that is ''before'' it activates its prow beam shield. The rest of the Motorad Fleet's ships also follow this trope to a slightly lesser extent, and it takes the League Militare a not-inconsiderable number of episodes to stop the damned things.
85	* KavorkaMan: Oliver Inoue is a subversion: he's quite plain, but aside of the LoveTriangle with Marbet and Junko, he's a pretty decent dude.
86	* KillSat: The Keilas Guilie fleet's suspiciously phallic Big Cannon. Later, Fuala pilots a suit-sized (and ''slightly'' less phallic) version.
87	* KillerRabbit: Boy, this series' Haro is badass.
88	* LampshadeHanging: Uso's ridiculous age for piloting is frequently commented on.
89	* LaResistance: The League Militaire is an independent militia formed to fight the Zanscare in place of a withered Earth Federation. They're meant to be the good guys... it doesn't quite work out that way.
90	* LaserBlade: It's Gundam; beam sabers are the ''sine qua non''.
91	* LatexSpaceSuit: The pilot suits.
92	* LeaveNoWitnesses: When searching for the League Militaire, Lupe asks some questions at a bar. She bribes a tipsy man with alcohol to learn some information about a number of new trucks that appeared in the area. She then kills him, his friend, and the bartender to ensure nobody could tip the guerillas that BESPA was onto them.
93	* LightIsNotGood: Zanscare's 'Angel Halo' superweapon.
94	* LightningBruiser: The V2 itself - 20 gs of max acceleration is nothing to sneeze at; for reference, the Saturn V could at best give 5 g's of acceleration, while most state of the art fighter jets can at most corner at 10 g's (any more and they would crush the pilot).
95	* LoveHurts: Every single couple on both sides of the war ends up with one of the two dead, unless they both die, and not even married couples are safe.
96	* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Luckily because weaponry has advanced to the point where a beam shield (or [[SpinToDeflectStuff beam rotor]]) is the ''only'' thing that will protect you.
97	* MadeOfPlasticine: The Titular Victory Gundam. It is barely SuperRobot, and it is the Gundam that is most damaged in any series. A running joke seems to be 'How long will it take for Uso to just abandon the busted legs?' over the course of every episode.
98	** Ironically, the final shot of the last episode show both the Victory and the Victory 2 in the scenery, which would make it one of the few gundams to have survived intact the entire series.
99	* MarshmallowHell: Uso, when Mahelia gave him a ride... In fact, to see Uso get a face-full of boobage seems to be quite a RunningGag.
100	* MeaningfulName: The name of the Shokew (pronounced "Shakkoo") series of mobile suits comes from the Japanese word for snow goggles, "shakoki", referencing the odd-looking, squinty eyes typical of Zanscare MS, apparently designed to invoke the famous shakoki-dogu clay figurines of ancient Japan.
101	* MechaExpansionPack: The V Gundam has the Dash pack, while the V2 has the Assault and Buster packs. In an interesting play on the trope, the V2 packs can actually be combined with each other when necessary.
102	** Each of the V Gundam's variants mounts multiple Hardpoints on its arms, legs, and waist armor (8 for the Victory, 10 for the V-Dash and V2) that allow its crew to select from several different weapon systems (including beam rifles, V.S.B.R.s, missile pods, gatling guns, rocket launchers, and even a smartgun) that can all be mounted to any of the hardpoints in almost any combination, making the V Gundam series into a SwissArmyWeapon.
103	* MegaCorp: The League Militaire is revealed to be funded by a reinvigorated Anaheim Electronics.
104	* MidseasonUpgrade: The V2 Gundam.
105	* MinovskyPhysics: It is part of Universal Century, after all.
106	* MindRape: The effects of [[spoiler: the Angel Halo]]. More exactly: it basically uses [[spoiler: twenty-thousand Newtype "psychikers" to amplify the powers of a single Newtype (in this case, Queen Maria Armonia) who can then use it to MindRape the whole of the Earth Sphere if she so desires.]] Zanscare planned on using it on Earth to [[spoiler: regress people to an infantile state of mind so they'd all die off and leave the Earth "purified".]] Fortunately for everyone involved, they had the bad judgement to place [[spoiler: none other than Messiah of the series, Maria's daughter Shakti,]] in control of it. Earlier, when testing its effects, [[spoiler: they tried to use it to cause Uso to lose his will to fight, first by bombarding him with images of peace and happiness, then with scenes of terror and pain.]]
107	* MonowheelMayhem: The Einrad, a colossal monowheel used as a transport vehicle for the Zanscare Empire's mobile suits, provides a definite emphasis on the 'mayhem', and its improved version, the Twinrad, is even more dangerous.
108	* MoodWhiplash: Uso and his girlfriend Shakti are stock child anime characters... set in a bleak and brutal series.
109	** There are quite a few bizarrely comical moments midway through the series: League Militaire using microwave frequencies to incapacitate Zanscare forces, groin kicks and your typically overexaggerated facial expressions. Of particular note is episode 29: The episode that introduces the V2 Gundam also has Uso interrogated in a bath by Lupe Cineau (complete with accidental groping) and escaping Side 2 completely naked. In his core fighter. With Haro and Flanders. In the middle of a space battle. In front of his teammates.
110	%%* MultinationalTeam
111	* MundaneUtility: Episode 37 brings us ''giant robot fishing''. [[spoiler:Uso catches a battleship.]]
112	* MutualKill: This ends up being how [[spoiler:Helen]] dies in episode 11. She engages a Tomliat and runs it through with her beam saber, but in its final act, the Tomilat punches the cockpit of her Gun-EZ, killing her as well.
113	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When fighting breaks out around the underwater city of Underhook it's ultimately the Reinforce Jr's torpedos that strike the city first. Their accident causes numerous parts of the city to flood and dozens drown before the city manages to seal off the affected areas.
114	* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: The Zanscare Empire claims the Solar System will be a better place under the rule of their God-Queen. However, said God-Queen is really nothing more than a powerless figurehead for the EvilChancellor and his political party from Jupiter to exploit for their revenge on the Earth.
115	* NuclearTorchRocket: The so-called "reactionless drives" are actually fusion torches crushing [[MinovskyPhysics minovsky particles]] to power ships, and a certain Humongous Mecha. The minovsky particles allow a much greater thrust for much less waste heat.
116	* OneSteveLimit: Played with. Shakti has a photo of a relative named Maria. Uso notes that this is the same first name as the Queen of Zanscare, but Shakti points out that Maria is a very common personal name. [[spoiler:Except it isn't a coincidence at all]].
117	* OutOfOrder: Due to ExecutiveMeddling, the order of the first 4 episodes was rearranged in order to show the eponymous Gundam in the first episode, which does confuse the viewer.
118	* PaperThinDisguise: Subverted. At one point, a captured Zanscare pilot tries to sneak out of the ship via a cunning ruse... wearing a League Militaire helmet on top of his instantly-recognisable 'Yellowjacket' flight suit. Since they're deliberately letting him go [[spoiler:in order to get Uso on board the enemy battleship]], the ''Reinforce Junior'''s crew pretend not to notice.
119	* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: Chronicle Asher is the ace pilot in Zanscare, yet he gets mocked repeatedly for getting shot down by Uso -- [[TruthInTelevision which is what would happen in real life]].
120	* PintsizedPowerhouse: Plenty, including Zanscare's heavily-armed Shy-Tarn base-defence unit and the terrifying LightningBruiser that is the Gedlav monowheel-rider, but the grand prize in the 'powerhouse' department has to go to the mighty Victory-2 Gundam, which is three metres shorter than the original [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam RX-78]].
121	* PowerGivesYouWings: The V2 Gundam's Wings of Light are fantastically powerful, both as defensive shields and offensive weapons.
122	* PsychicPowers: It's UC; Newtypes are a given.
123	* PsychoForHire: Fuala Griffon is a female example.
124	* PunnyName: As evidenced by their logo and "yellowjacket" nickname, "BESPA" is a play off of "Vespa" (Wasp) thanks to "B" and "V" being interchangeable in Japanese.
125	* PutOnABus:
126	** Madame Chambarley departs from Uso's group, after helping them resupply, in episode 6
127	** Fuala Griffon is exiled into space in episode 15.
128	* PuttingOnTheReich: The Zanscare Empire does this in full force. There is also the colony of Macedonia, whose military wear uniforms suspiciously similar to World War II German gear and put our heroes in a forced-labour camp they have to break out of... in an episode called "[[Film/TheGreatEscape The Great Escapade]]".
129	* RazorFloss: The beam string, essentially a luminated electromagnetic wire, is favored by the Zanscare Empire.
130	* RescueRomance: Chronicle saves [[spoiler:Katejina]] from being raped and she falls for him.
131	* ReallyRoyaltyReveal: [[spoiler:Shakti Kareen]] is the long-lost daughter of Queen Maria of Zanscare.
132	%%* RoyallyScrewedUp
133	* SceneryCensor: Uso's handcuffs block the viewer's sight after he boards the White Ark naked. However, Elischa & Martina can see ''everything'' and become... [[https://imgur.com/a/vbdUGPJ especially interested]] in his "pee-pee".
134	* SenselessSacrifice: So many, but [[spoiler:Oliver]]'s kamikaze run into a battleship's tire takes the cake. Not only was the ship on the moon and had already taken off, so it didn't need the tire to function, but the ship simply purges the damaged part and the Zanscare then makes a throwaway remark in the next episode along the lines of "the damage can be fixed in about twelve hours".
135	** It's additionally senseless when you realize that while there are a large supply of Core Top and Boots for the Victory 2, only a grand total of two Core Fighters were built, Uso's and [[spoiler:Oliver's]]... which meant that not only was [[spoiler:Oliver]] sacrificed, but so was a potential second Victory 2 Gundam...
136	* SequelEscalation: In this series the weapons have gotten some serious upgrades; the beam rifles destroy the scenery as if they were Zeta's Mega Beam Rifles, the mega beam rifles are powerful enough to destroy ''six'' mobile suits in one shot, the mega beam cannons can level a city with 3 shots and even the '''vulcans''' can uproot forests. Small wonder that even though armor can endure the now much more violent core explosions, it simply [[MadeOfPlasticine cannot keep up]].
137	* SharedIdentity: The League Militare leader Jin Gehanam who accompanies the cast is revealed to merely be one of several "Jin Gehanams" who hold the name simultaneously.
138	* ShoutOut: At least three members of the Shrike Team are named after famous singers: Connie Francis, Peggy Lee and Music/KateBush.
139	** Two of them - Helen Jackson and Maheria Merill - have their names swapped around with famous singers Helen Merill and Mahalia Jackson, so you could call this ThemeNaming.
140	* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: There are a lot of highly advanced (but hypothetical and unproven) technological concepts given how far the show is set in the Universal Century. Many are so unbelievable that one could feel as though the series is starting to return back to the ''SuperRobotGenre''.
141	* SpectacularSpinning: Once on screen the Tyre-type mobile suits (mobile suits in... you guessed right, tires) are a damn pain in the ass for a while.
142	* SoLastSeason: The Macedonia Colony field's a modified version of the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Heavygun]] as their main mobile suit. While it could perform reasonably well back in ''F91'' the suit is over 30 years old by ''Victory'' and completely obsolete. Notably, it's one of the only mobile suits to still use a physical shield when the more powerful beam shield is used by everyone else. It's little wonder that when the Reinforce Jr. docked at Macedonia, the military immediately went to confiscate the Militaire's more advanced models.
143	* SoundtrackDissonance: The two OP are happy songs that you might expect to hear attached to a public school video about living life to the fullest or some such (or the kind of show [[MoodWhiplash you'd normally expect to find character archetypes like Uso and Shakti]]). And then the actual episodes begin...
144	** Nowhere near as bad as the music playing during some fights. It's so... ''peaceful''. It brings to mind calm meadows and green pastures... while cockpits are being punched in and the pilots crushed to death. It's brutally effective.
145	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Like ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'', this is a by-product of not having an English Release. For example, the ship ''Reinforce Jr.'' was rendered as ''Lean Horse Jr.'' in a fan translation of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Gaiden'', ruining a shout out in the Nanoha series, which depended on a certain character sharing the same name as the aforementioned ship.
146	** Even the staff at Sunrise couldn't agree on how to spell Uso's name. While official sources have apparently settled on "Uso Ewin", he's shown to spell it "Uso Ebbin" in a GratuitousEnglish e-mail he writes in one of the first episodes.
147	** There is some confusion over his first name as well. The spelling "Uso" is used a lot, but the katakana actually read "Usso" (ウッソ), while both ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam'' and ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30'' uses "Üso".
148	* SpringtimeForHitler: A good chunk of the plot decisions were made by Tomino in a deliberate effort to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun kill the Gundam franchise and drive away the core fanbase]], since he was [[CreatorBreakdown going through depression]], and [[ExecutiveMeddling was tired of Sunrise and Bandai making demands of him to write yet another Gundam series to sell toys]]. Ironically, it is because of all these decisions that Victory is sometimes viewed as one of his better series.
149	* SubsystemDamage: The Gundams are far from untouchable; a few well placed hits can impair hand operation for example which adds to the realism.
150	* StarCrossedLovers: Many examples. [[spoiler: Marbet and Oliver (they get married, then he dies); Elischa and Odelo (he's killed in battle right before the end); Chronicle and Katejina, even though it was one-sided (Chronicle dies in battle, and Katejina... well..); Uso's parents, in a way (both die in the second half of the series and were unwillingly separated due to their work in La Resistance); there were even two one-shot characters from the Zanscare side, Karinga and Kisharl, who were entirely made of this trope...]]
151	* StockFootage: Averted. Aside from the occasional full-screen explosion, this series makes relatively little use of stock footage, which is surprising when you consider when it was made.
152	* StupidityInducingAttack: The "Angel Halo", Zanscare's ultimate DoomsdayDevice. Designed to permanently reduce the ''entire population of Earth'' to an infantile mental state... or worse.
153	* SuperPrototype: Averted with the Victory Gundam - the mass-produced Victory Hexa had slightly superior performance, though not quite enough to qualify Uso's suit as a FlawedPrototype, either. The Victory-2, the most powerful suit of the Universal Century, plays it slightly straighter, since it never quite gets around to being mass-produced.
154	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Early on, Uso tries to drive off a Zanscare attack on a city in a stolen Zanscare mobile suit. The defenders see a Zanscare suit, assume he's another enemy, and open fire on him. And then get so focused on attacking Uso that they get picked off by real Zanscare units.
155	* TeamMom: Marbet Fingerhut, in addition to being an ActionGirl. [[spoiler:And she's pretty much the only ActionGirl who survives in the series. Both she ''and'' the baby she's pregnant with]].
156	* TransformationIsAFreeAction: The series features a lot of TransformingMecha and this trope is applied haphazardly across the board. In the very first episode, Cronicle intercepts the Boots for the Victory Gundam and blows them up before it can complete its combination/transformation. Attacks during transformation aren't uncommon but there are many times wherein a mech can transform in a heated battle without too much trouble.
157	* TransformingMecha: The Victory (and V2) Gundam can operate as a fighter, provided that it doesn't have both the arms and the legs attached at the same time. The Zanscare side has the Zolo/Zoloat (a case of two modules combining into a single Mobile Suit) and the Tomliat (attack helicopter to Mobile Suit).
158	* VestigialEmpire: The Earth Federation by this point in the UC timeline is shown as inept and weak that a ragtag militia is all that stands in the Zanscare Empire's way. [[spoiler:At least until the Feddies get their act together.]]
159	* WarIsHell: More so than in any other Gundam series.
160	* WeaponizedExhaust: The V2's Wings of Light.
161	* WouldHurtAChild: The Zanscare Empire seem to have no problem sending Uso (a teenage boy) to the guillotine, since he's from the opposing side.
162	* YouHaveFailedMe: The Zanscare empire has a very punitive approach to failure which they use to keep their soldiers in line. The guillotine is a common sentence for soldiers that underperform or in [[spoiler:Fuala's]] case, exile into space.

Context Anime / MobileSuitVictoryGundam