Yes, those are Gundams. Any more war and we'll start using them.
Rebirth begins through destruction
Premiering on October 4th, 2007, Mobile Suit Gundam 00*
Pronounced "Double-Oh"
, the eleventh series in the franchise, was the first series in the long-running Gundam franchise to be set in the Gregorian calendar. The series is set roughly 300 years in the future – in AD 2307, and the world has divided into three international alliances:
The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (or "Union"), composed of North and South America, Australia, and Japan.
The Human Reform League (or "HRL"), composed of Southern/Eastern Asia (primarily half of Russia, China, India, and the surrounding nations).
The Advanced European Union (or "AEU"), composed of essentially the modern European Union, and possibly some, if not all, of Africa.
Since fossil fuels have become too depleted to be sources of energy, these three superpowers have jointly constructed a massive solar array ring around the Earth, connected by three equally-gigantic equatorial Orbital Elevators (Union’s in South America, HRL’s in the Pacific Ocean, AEU’s in Africa). Despite this cooperation and mutual reliance, they still engage each other in military actions and power plays, all part of a calculated zero sum game; war is still very much a reality.Enter Celestial Being – a shadowy private military organization with the goal of eradicating war completely and permanently. Armed with four incredibly advanced, seemingly-unstoppable Humongous Mecha known as "Gundams", Celestial Being seeks to eliminate war... by attacking all other sides. The three global powers immediately mobilize to match the power of the Gundams, and before long it becomes increasingly clear that Celestial Being's goal of eradicating war will come at a heavy price: they must become the enemy of the entire world.Gundam 00 is split into two seasons; with the first airing from October 2007 to March 2008, while the second from October 2008 to March 2009. The series also spawned several side-stories, detailed here, and a movie wrapping up the universe (called A Wakening of the Trailblazer) came out in September 2010.Check out the character sheet.
The movie reveals that A-Laws is finally being treated like the jerkasses they really were, AND that Celestial Being is finally getting the recognition that they deserve, with a VERY hammy movie that makes them the heroes.
108: The number of enemy suits in Episode 22, Season 2.
Ace Custom: the SVMS-01E Union Flag Graham Aker Custom, from which came the SVMS-01O Overflag, designed specifically to fight the Gundams. Graham later gets the Masauro and Susanowo, bases on the Flag's design.
Ace Pilot: Graham Aker, Sergei Smirnov and Ali al-Saachez are sufficiently skilled such that they can fight the technologically superior Gundams to a standstill.
Actor Allusion: Ribbons Almark, who shares a voice actor with Amuro Ray, pilots both the RX-78-inspired 0 Gundam & the Guncannon-inspired Reborns Cannon/Gundam.
A more subtle reference: in the first ED Setsuna F. Seiei is eating an apple, referring to another role that both Mamoru Miyano and Brad Swaile are famous for.
Aerith and Bob: Subverted. Most of the esoteric names — a staple in the Gundam franchise — are in this case codenames for much more mundanely named characters.
It's played straight with the Innovades.
The Ageless: The Innovators, whose aging is controlled by gene manipulation and nanomachines.
All There in the Manual: The six official 00 related works, 00P, 00F, 00V, 00V Senki, 00N, and 00I fill in various details left unexplained in the series, such as who and what happened to Feldt Grace's parents, what happened in the gap between the two seasons, and so on.
Apologetic Attacker: Graham Aker apologizes for his (attempted) destruction of the 00 Raiser in both his fights against Setsuna. The first time, Setsuna deflects his beam sabres with the 00 Raiser's GN Field, and the second time, he catches the blade with 00 Raiser's bare hands and shatters it, denying Graham victory in both cases.
Sumeragi Lee Noriega slaps Tieria Erde when he goes ballistic on Setsuna F. Seiei after the first Lockon's death.
Feldt Grace does it to Lyle Dylandy for kissing her.
Inverted with Kati Mannequin's armor piercing punch, which she uses against Patrick Colasour; not only does it bring him into line and following orders correctly, it also won his heart.
Ribbons Almark does it on Wang Liu Mei and Regene Regetta.
According to the novels, they are test tube babies, and Nena's glowing eyes after coming out of Veda seems to imply that the siblings are also Innovades themselves.
Artificial Limbs: Lichtendahl had his entire right side replaced with cybernetic parts, since he was severely injured in an attack in the past (which gives a whole new painful meaning to the ''swimsuit'' he was using fairly early on in the series). In season two, Louise Halevy has an artificial hand.
Attack Drone: Arguably even more prominent that in the Universal Century setting. Numerous mobile suits have remote weapons of varying effectiveness, complexity, and purposes, from "reusable missiles" to "remote-controlled shields/rifles".
Backup Twin: Lockon Stratos, in the second season.
Badass Longcoat: Part of the A-Laws uniform in season two, though it's closer to something of a half-skirt.
Badass Normal: Sergei Smirnov, Ali al-Saachez, and Graham Aker all effectively take on the ridiculously Bigger Stick Gundams in utterly average mobile suits (in the first season). Lockon Stratos (both of them) would be this among the Gundam Meisters, given that the other three are: a Child Soldierand eventual Innovator, an escaped Super Soldier, and an Innovade.
Bait-and-Switch Credits: While the series delivers plenty of the action promised in the credits, the credits and indeed the early episodes of season two heavily imply that Tieria Erde would be the one avenging the first Lockon’s death by killing Ali al-Saachez, only for the second Lockon to be the one to ultimately receive the honor.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Any of the scenes when Setsuna uses Trans-Am Raiser. Any characters shown are completely naked and lacking certain features, most notably Setsuna, Lockon, Graham and Saji all lacking something between the legs. Female characters, however, still have breasts, but without nipples.
Beam Spam: Gundam Virtue is the main culprit of this in season one, and the Alvatore mobile armor does it as well during its appearance. In season two, the Seravee Gundam takes it even further while the Cherudim joins the fun, and then both out-do themselves from episode 22 onwards.
Then the Reborns Gundam does it in the series finale.
Beat Them at Their Own Game: At the end of season one, Celestial Being is given a very, very severe beating when Veda is taken from them by the Innovades and their technological superiority is removed. Their response in season two is to literally do the exact same thing to the Innovades. Irony is a bitch.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Sadly averted with Louise Halevy, from episode 18 of the first season onwards. She first loses her hand and can't get it to re-grow through rehab, and when she gets a prosthetic one it's through a treatment that leaves her pale, sick, addicted to painkillers, and mentally unbalanced, contrasting heavily with the cute and lively girl she used to be.
She gets better though...
Become a Real Boy: Both adhered to and subverted. Artificial HumanTieria Erde learns to live like a human over the course of the series, but ultimately sacrifices his physical body and merges with Veda.
Berserk Button: Do not insult the late Neil Dylandy to Tieria Erde's face, ever.
BFG: Several of the mecha are equipped with massive cannons
Tieria Erde's Virtue has not one but two (technically four) giant cannons attached to its back, along with a hand-held Wave Motion Gun it uses to cause even more destruction, and eventually goes Guns Akimbo with. Its Mid-Series Upgrade, Seravee, is equipped with all that to begin with, and gets upgraded with additional cannons.
Lockon Stratos' Dynames has an optional "super sub-stratospheric altitude gun", which is basically a giant cannon designed to shoot massive objects out of orbit... from the ground.
Throne Eins' GN Launcher, which is longer than the Eins is tall when it's unfolded. The other Thrones can also link with Eins to give the launcher a huge power boost.
The Gadessa wields the "Triple GN Mega Launcher", an improved variant of the GN Launcher.
Every mobile armor with a GN Drive has this in some variation, with the first having one that was powered by seven GN Tau Drives and capable of incinerating an asteroid field, and the latest to be introduced having the added perk of being able to bend its beams.
BFS: 00 Raiser's Trans-Am Raiser gives it a massive beam sword (the "Raiser Sword") that is nearly ten thousand kilometers long and requires four "limbs" (both arms and both shoulder-mounted binders) to control.
The GN Sword III upgrade incorporates the functionality of the Raiser Sword into the beam pistol, giving the 00 Raiser a smaller but one-handed version of the massive weapon, putting Setsuna right back into his comfort zone.
Big Brother Mentor: Lockon Stratos aka Neil Dylandy. His twin brother and successor Lyle/Lockon Stratos II did quite the job acting upon this trope by simultaneously lecturing both Allelujah Haptism and Saji Crossroad about love and relationships in episode 18 of season two.
Bigger Stick: The GN Drives used by the Gundams, which allows them to utterly outclass every other mobile suit in existence.
Then the Twin Drive System comes along and utterly outclasses that.
Big "NO!": More than once, by multiple characters, in both regular and Say My Name versions.
Bishōnen: To the point where it's simply ridiculous – many, many male characters are portrayed as absolutely gorgeous, but what else do you expect when Yun Kouga is the character designer?
Bio-Augmentation: The Human Reform League used genetic engineering in an attempt to create an army of supersoliders with telepathic ability. Among the Super Human Research Institute subjects where Allelujah and Soma. This is likely a call back to the earlier Gundam SEED.
Bishonen Line: Gundam Nadleeh, emerging from the hulking mass that is Gundam Virtue; it even has hair.
The mobile suit Alvaaron, hidden inside the monstrous mobile armor Alvatore, also counts.
Black Box: Each of Celestial Being's GN Drives had a black box that no one could figure out. This eventually gives the Gundams the Trans-Am ability.
Blood Knight: Michael Trinity, Ali al-Saachez (self-admitted too!), and Hallelujah Haptism.
Book Ends: Several. During the final battle, Setsuna F. Seiei and Ribbons Almark are both back to piloting their original Gundams, the Exia and 0 respectively. Also, Aeolia Schenberg's broadcast in the first episode and the ESF President's in the last episode show reaction shots of many of the same locations. Finally, the first season ends with a voice-over of Setsuna's letter to Marina Ismail, while the second season has a voice-over of Marina's letter to Setsuna.
Boom, Headshot: Okay, let's count: there's Aeolia Schenberg, Hong Long, Ali al-Saachez, Ribbons Almark, and Tieria Erde. The last two subvert this almost immediately, since Death Is Cheap for Artificial Humans like them.
Bridge Bunnies: Averted. The crew of the Ptolemaios is equal opportunity, with two males and two females.
The Ptolemaios II, however, plays it straight with one male and three females.
Britain Is Only London: Averted. The only bits of British action in the show took place in Scotland.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sumeragi Lee Noriega, who despite often falling into alcoholic depressions is one of the best tacticians in the world. To clarify, her greatest tactical innovations come to her while she's drunk.
But Not Too Foreign: Allelujah Haptism is Russian-ChineseKazakhstani; Sumeragi Lee Noriega (Leesa Kujou) is an American with Japanese-Spanish heritage; Saji and Kinue Crossroad, as well as Billy Katagiri, are Japanese-American.
Calling Your Attacks: Justified in that systems such as Trans-Am are voice-activated.
Not so in season two though, wherein Trans-Am is activated by pushing two buttons. They must shout "Trans-Am!" out of habit; still doesn’t explain why the second Lockon does it though...
Tieria Erde in both seasons likes to update viewers on exactly what he’s doing or about to do with his Big 'EffingWave Motion Gun, although it's likely that, given that the Meisters can freely speak to each other in their cockpits, he is signalling for the other meisters to get clear.
Catch Phrase: "Setsuna F. Seiei, eliminating the target(s)."
"Lockon Stratos, targeted and firing."
Setsuna also has a habit of declaring that "I am Gundam". No one, in-universe or out, seems quite sure what that means.
Towards the end of the first season, the other meisters do understand, somewhat. Setsuna sees the Gundam as the embodiment of justice and the power to end all wars, an ideal he had been striving towards for most of his life. Thus it's not enough for him to simply pilot the Gundam, he wants to become the Gundam or at least all that the Gundam represents.
Char Clone: Deconstructed in Graham Aker. While he is blond, and does have a custom mobile suit, his identity is never in doubt, his badass nickname is just a nickname, and he doesn't wear the mask to hide his identity, but rather due to hideous scars given to him by the ostensible hero of the series. (He also has no Long Lost Relative.)
Chekhov's Gun: Nadleeh's Trial System. In the first season it's used once, briefly, before it stops working. Not even mentioned again until late in the second season.
Code Name: The members of Celestial Being all have one except for Allelujah, Tieria, and apparently the engineers.
Let's be reasonable, who in Celestial Being would've believed them if they said Tieria Erde and Allelujah Haptism were their real names? (To be fair though, Allelujah may as well be his codename since he couldn't remember his real name after the HRL scientists mucked about with his brain. And it's a lot less conspicuous than E-57 or Meister 874...)
The two GN Arms in the first season can combine with any of the Gundams.
The 0 Raiser can combine with 00 Gundam to form the 00 Raiser.
The GN Archer can dock with Arios Gundam, both in mobile armor mode, to form the Archer Arios.
The Seravee Gundam has the Seraphim Gundam as a backpack, which detaches and transforms into a mobile suit form.
Comforting the Widow: Gender-swapped. Hiling Care oh-so-suggestively offers to "comfort" Devine Nova after his brother Bring Stabity is killed, only for her advances to be swiftly shot down.
Contrived Clumsiness: A non-comedic example; Nena bombs a wedding party, killing almost everyone there. When questioned about it, she giggles and says she accidentally pressed the wrong button. The reason she bombed the party was because they were having more fun than her.
Competitive Balance / Crippling Overspecialisation: The four Gundams are tailored for very specific roles, giving them exploitable weak spots. This actually leads (partially) to their downfall in the first season.
Cross-Dressing Voices: An interesting variation: for the sequence in Season two where Tieria Erde poses as a woman, his voice is provided by... his normal seiyuu, Hiroshi Kamiya.
Actually in the Japanese commentary for that episode, Hiroshi Kamiya reveals that another seiyuu called Tanaka-san did the feminine voice for Tieria.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Absolutely every fight against the Gundams for the majority of the first season is incredibly one-sided, various ace pilots and mass-swarm tactics notwithstanding. This is remarked on by Allelujah Haptism, who thinks it feels unfair.
Cute Bruiser: Soma Peries, Nena Trinity, Louise Halevy
Cyber Cyclops: The Enact, Flag, Tieren, Anf, Taozi, Hellion... pretty much every mass-produced mobile suit without a GN Drive (except for the Masurao/Susanowo).
Dark Action Girl: Soma Peries, Nena Trinity, Louise Halevy, Hiling Care. Revive Revival can be one depending on the dub.
Dark and Troubled Past: Gundam Meisters Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos (both of them), and H/Allelujah Haptism. Tieria Erde? No one knows.
And then there is Louise Halevy, whose tragic event is displayed right in the first season.
Don't forget miss Sumeragi, and her little accident, or Lichty, who lost his parents and half his body in an accident, or Felt, whose parents died and who wasn't even informed how. spotting a pattern here?
Darker and Edgier: Very much so, though the movie, and arguably the second season, are more idealistic.
Dead Man Writing: Setsuna F. Seiei's letter e-mail to Marina Ismail at the end of the first season.
Death by Irony: Ribbons Almark, killed by the very boy he saved, inside the very Gundam he used to save him, while said boy was in the Gundam that Ribbons had pulled strings to put him in in the first place. And the whole situation was brought about by using his earlier tactics against him. Irony level: high.
Death from Above: The Memento Mori (both of them) in the second season.
Death Is Cheap: For Innovades apparently. They all seem to have their consciousness and memories backed up by Veda.
Deconstructor Fleet: Gundam 00 seems to have decided that its purpose in life was to deconstruct the entire Gundam franchise.
Deflector Shields: GN Fields. The Defense Rods used by non-GN mobile suits serve as a physical version of the trope.
Disc One Final Boss: Alejandro Corner, whom the main character has an epic Grand Finale-style battle against... halfway through the series. Ends the first season in style, though.
Distressed Damsel: Louise Halevy in the second season, psychologically, if you think about it. In the end, she is rescued and redeemed by Saji and Setsuna.
Do Not Adjust Your Set: Celestial Being hijacks the airwaves to deliver its manifesto in the first episode.
Doomed Upgrade: Meet the AEU Enact, the most advanced mobile suit to date. Meet the Gundam Exia, which curb-stomps the Enact during its demonstration within the first 10 minutes of the first episode.
Happens again in the second season with the GN-XIII, which despite being supposedly more advanced than the original GN-X is regulated to nothing but cannon fodder.
Wang Liu Mei, who's more or less willing to aid anyone who might, in some way, make the world change, including the completely discardedThrones.
Lyle Dylandy is another example, leaking information on the Gundams' operations to Katharon. He's not very good at it though, since Celestial Being already knows he's a member of Katharon and that he's faking being a bad pilot. May be Celestial Being's very own Unwitting Pawn because of this.
Dual Wielding: Another popular trope in 00. Exia, 00/Raiser, and Masurao/Susanowo are the most common examples. Seravee, being Multi-Armed and Dangerous, can wield 6 beam sabers at once, and the Cherudim's GN Pistols II have an "Axe Mode" for if it ever gets into trouble.
Dysfunction Junction: all of celestial being, but especially the meisters.Justified since they look for highly capable people that hate war so intensly that they will become terrorists to stop it. This means that most recruits have a veryDark and Troubled Past.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Everyone finally gets this in the end of the movie, but damn if they didn't go to hell and back to get it.
Early-Bird Cameo: Andrei Smirnov, Sergei's son, was mentioned in the novels long before he ever showed up in season two.
Elite Mooks: The A-Laws, primary antagonists for half of the second season, are an elite unit of Mecha Mooks and remain so until they take over the rest of the world’s military towards the end of the season. Subverted in that they actually present a substantial threat to Celestial Being’s continued survival. For a while anyway.
The Empire: The Human Reform League. Out of all the Superpowers, it is the least benevolent. It secretly conducts supersoldier research on orphans, sides with militants to gain control of Ceylon, and has shades of socialism. It's rivals with the Union and AEU, and the most antagonistic to Celestial Being. On the bright side, they're not as oppressive or ruthless as Zeon or the Ribbon's controlled Federation.
Emotionless Girl: Feldt Grace is the emotionally repressed sort, though she gradually opens up over the course of the first season.
Enemy Mine: Sergei Smirnov and Allelujah Haptism (and Lockon and Setsuna) working to prevent pieces of the orbital ring from falling early on in series.
The ESF, Celestial Being, and Katharon in the final battle.
The most impressive example has to be five different factions (Celestial Being, Kataron, one of the coup d’état factions, the regular ESF Army, and the A-Laws) spontaneously putting aside their completely justified grudges against each other to destroy the wreckage of one of the orbital elevators before it destroys the various towns and cities underneath it.
To be more exact, A-Laws was the one who caused the catastrophe in the first place in order to pin it on the coup d'état faction. Their ground troops were happily closing off the faction's escape route as per their orders when the elevator started collapsing at which point the field commanders pretty much decided letting millions of innocents diewouldn't rest on THEIR consciences.
Energy Weapons: Played with. Before Celestial Being and the Gundams showed up beam weaponry was considered too unconventional for mobile suit combat. Eventually, though, almost everyone had them.
Enfant Terrible: The Innovades. Ribbons Almark himself is a classic example of this trope, presented as a beautiful, young, angelic boy, a facade which cleverly and effectively masks his God complex and rather unhinged state of mind.
Even the Guys Want Him: Lockon Stratos. No, not in the show (except for for Tieria Erde). The "00" fanbase has all but collectively decided that it's perfectly fine to be gay or bi for Stupid Sexy Lockon, so handsome and badass he is.
Tieria too.
Michael: Man, he's so pretty. If he was a girl, I'd be all over him!
Though this one is a subversion. His absolutely ridiculous motif causes everyone to think that he's out of his god damn mind, which might honestly be true looking at some of his more bizarre antics. In addition, while you can't really call him a "bad" pilot, Graham is vastly more competent and dangerous in season one before he adopts the Bushido Bob act, and in the movie after he drops it.
Evil Mentor: Ali al-Saachez was this to Setsuna, and to a lesser degree Ribbons Almark was as well (since he inspired Setsuna to the point where he tried to exploit that admiration TWICE).
Evil Red Heads: Ali al-Saachez and, arguably, Nena Trinity, Bring Stabity, and Devine Nova. Subverted by Patrick Colasour.
Evil Twin: Regene Regetta, or so the story wants you to believe, and Revive Revival.
Expository Hairstyle Change: In the second season, Feldt Grace stops weaing pigtails and puts her hair in a style similar to Christina's, which is apparently a deliberate tribute, and the formerly long-haired Louise Halevy is shown with short hair.
Nena Trinity comes away from her face-to-face encounter with Ali al-Saachez in the second season with a bruised face and a hairstyle mirroring his.
The soft-spoken, orphan-loving, pacifist princess Marina Ismail is an expy of both Relena Peacecraft and Lacus Clyne.
Ribbons Almark's Gundams (0 and Reborns) end up being expys of Amuro Ray's RX-78 – (for the 0 Gundam) and a combination of the Guncannon, Gundam, and Hi-Nu Gundam (for the Reborns) – as a Shout Out to Tohru Furuya voicing both characters.
00V extends the joke further, giving the 0 Gundam a Full Armor form nearly identical to the Full Armor Gundam, as well as introducing a version of the Reborns Gundam with an additional Tank Mode (a tip of the hat to the Guntank, which Amuro piloted once).
There is also something else about Ribbons that should make someone wary of him. He shares a lot of tropes and motivations in common with PaptimusScirocco.
Season two lets loose with the Zeta Gundam references: the A-Laws are an obvious parallel of the Titans, Katharon a parallel of Karaba, and the Regnant clearly gets its design from the Qubeley.
Aeolia Schenberg seems to be an Expy of Hari Seldon of Asimov's Foundation series, given their shared habit of showing up in public announcements despite being centuries dead. In addition, he's also based off Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - one fof the founders of modern rocketry.
Soft spot for a far-younger woman? Suffering under self-serving superiors? Scar over the left eye? Similar vocal characterization? Sergei Smirnov IS Giroro.
Saji Crossroad, Louise Halevy, and Andrei Smirnov, seem to be Expies of Hathaway, Quess, and Gyunei from Char's Counterattack.
Louise Halevy also ends up very similar to Stella Loussier during the second season.
The Union Flags seem to be inspired by the Variable Fighters in Macross. Similarly, the Tierens are a convenient expy to Zakus.
Extra Eyes: Being the first Earth-created mobile suits using (pseudo-)GN Drives, the GN-X and its successors have four eyes arranged in an "X" for added ominous factor.
Eyepatch of Power: Lockon Stratos briefly sports one near the end of the first season. He also wears it for all of his Season 2 non-flashback appearances (dreams, visions, etc.)
Famous Last Words: This series has plenty. Check the trope to see them.
Fanservice: The Exia Repair and Exia R2 certainly qualify. Same goes for Arche Gundam and 0 Gundam ACD (Actual Combat Deployment colors). Same actually also goes for Lyle, though he was already introduced in season 1.
Anew and Louise when Setsuna uses Trans-Am Raiser against them.
Fatal Family Photo: Barack Zirin tells Louise Halevy about his deceased wife after she sees a photo of her in his locker. By the end of the episode, guess who becomes the designated guinea pig of the 00 Raiser's debut.
The Union and AEU in Season 1 play the trope straight. They're actually relatively benevolent governments.
Deconstructed with the Earth Sphere Federation in Season 2. It's true ruler is a tyrannical mastermind, using whatever means necessary to achieve his goals. His minions include The A-Laws, a ruthless and oppressive State Sec. But once Ribbons is defeated, the Federation reforms and becomes extremely benevolent.
False Flag Operation: Happens to Celestial Being when the Trinties show up, and begin their ruthless attacks. Despite beliving they're part of CB, the Trinities are really under Alejandro's control. Despite this, The Gundam Meisters get stuck with the blame, since the world doesn't know what's really going on
Flynning: Averted. Sword fights between mobile suits are kept considerably short in this series.
Four Temperament Ensemble: The Gundam Meisters: Setsuna F. Seiei is Phlegmatic, Lockon Stratos is Sanguine, Tieria Erde is Choleric, and Allelujah Haptism is Melancholic.
Fragile Speedster: All Union and AEU mobile suits have this as their hat, though special mention goes grahams custom flag and the overflags, as in addition to the upgraded engines, the armour was reduced to give the suits that little bit more 'Oomph', as a result it can fly twice as fast as a regular flag and its limbs can move that little bit quicker due to the reduced weight.
Freudian Excuse: Gundam 00 takes this and goes light-years with it.
Full Name Basis: Tieria Erde refers to other people by their full names more often than not, and Setsuna F. Seiei apparently follows his example.
Gambit Pileup: Aeolia Schenberg, Alejandro Corner, Ribbons Almark, Regene Regetta, the Meisters, the world governments and various factions within said governments, and probably more are all going at it at once. It gets messy.
Gatling Good: Averted for perhaps the first time in the history of the franchise. There is not a single gatling weapon in the show, not even the Gundams' now-iconic head guns. The closest things are the Exia's 'beam vulcans', which are just small, rapid-firing particle blasters.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Lockon Stratos flattens Setsuna F. Seiei after the latter gets out of his mobile suit in the middle of combat. Overlaps with Why Did You Make Me Hit You? when he asks Setsuna if he knew why he hit him.
Tieria Erde does this to Saji Crossroad in season two.
A God Am I: Ribbons Almark, who developed his god complex when he saw Child Soldier Soran Ibrahim (who would later grow up to be Setsuna F. Seiei) looking at the 0 Gundam (which Ribbons was piloting) as if it were a god.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Averted by Sergei Smirnov, who despite having a huge facial scar fit for a Bond villain turns out to be one of the most sensible, intelligent and humane characters in the show. He's the only antagonist from season one who decides against joining the A-Laws in the second season.
Played straight by Graham Aker, who in the second season has heavy burns on the right side of his face and hides them with a mask.
Grasp the Sun: Lockon Stratos does this with Earth near the end of the first season. When he can't grasp it he makes a motion of shooting it.
Grey and Gray Morality: In true Gundam fashion, it's rather difficult to tell who the actual good guys are and who the villains are until the last few episodes.
Gun Kata: With Humongous Mecha no less. Dynames does this sporadically throughout the first season, and its successor Cherudim uses Gun Kata against the Arche Gundam in episode 24 of the second season.
Guns Akimbo: Dynames more often than not. Virtue does this in episode 23 of the first season with its GN Bazookas (yes, plural), and Dynames' successor Cherudim also has dual pistols for glorious Guns Akimbo action.
Half-Human Hybrid: The Trinity siblings are part Innovator Innovade, having been engineered with some of Ribbons Almark's DNA.
Handsome Lech: Invoked and Exaggerated by Lyle Dylandy in episodes 3 and 4 of season two, who deliberately plays the part in order to slam home the message that he is not his brother.
Heel Face Turn: Colonel Kati Mannequin, who brings Patrick with her, just in time for the final battle. Soma Peries/Marie Parfacy pulls one even sooner.
He Knows Too Much: Professor Ralph Eifman even got a taunting message to that effect moments before dying.
Kinue Crossroad as well, though that’s more a result of her being in the wrong place in the wrong time and a Horrible Judge of Character.
Heroic BSOD: Once Virtue's OS crashed, poor Tiethatvoiceria-chan was pretty much useless for the rest of episode 21.
Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted by Lockon Stratos in episode 21 of season one, and also by Patrick Colasour in episode 23 of season two.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Billy Katagiri and Graham Aker, Ian Vashti and Dr. Joyce B. Moreno, Daryl Dodge and Howard Mason.
Hot Mom: Linda Vashti, to the point where it's lampshaded when Allelujah Haptism jokes that it should be illegal, considering Linda's apparent age and the fact that she's already bore a teenage daughter. For some numbers to think over, in season 2, Linda is 32 and Mileina is 14. Do the math.
Holly Smirnov would probably also apply, although the last time we see her alive through flashbacks seems to indicate that it was a long time ago, and if she was still around she probably wouldn't be that young.
Marlene Vlady might also apply, except, like Holly, she has been dead for a while.
One of the novelizations states that Shirin Bakhtiar is pregnant with Klaus Grado's child.
Hufflepuff House: The AEU. Ironically, majority of the important characters originally hailed here.
Humongous Mecha: It’s Gundam. Were you expecting something else?
Hypocrite: La Eden's terrorist campaign after Celestial Being showed up, telling them that their actions are done with the backing of the people. Yeah right...
Iconic Outfit: Wang Liu-Mei's qipao shows up in a lot of merchandise and fanart despite being worn only in the first episode.
If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: Why Saji Crossroad didn't kill Setsuna F. Seiei in the beginning of season two, and it has been strongly hinted that this is the underlying reason for Marina Ismail unwittingly stopping Setsuna from killing Ali al-Saachez.
I Got You Covered: All of the Meisters have done this for one-another at some point; most notably Lockon and Setsuna for Allelujah when he needed rescuing from his rescue mission. Strangely, it was Allelujah who spoke the words of encouragement. Hallelujah and Allelujah also tend to do this for themselves.
Cruelly averted when Setsuna failed to have Lockon covered.
Improbable Age: While not as bad as other shows in the franchise, the main protagonist (Setsuna F. Seiei) is only 16 in the first season. This is actually justified, though, by Setsuna's prior history as a Child Soldier.
Possibly lampshaded in an early episode, wherein Lockon orders milk for Setsuna while the other Meisters get tea.
Invisibility Cloak: The Gundams and the Ptolemaios II can use high concentrations of GN Particles to refract light and thus make the Humongous Mecha disappear. Unfortunately for the Meisters, it's too resource-intensive for battle application.
It's Personal: Despite the fact they're supposed to be fighting to end war, Setsuna F. Seiei and Lockon Stratos go absolutely ballistic when it comes to dealing with Ali al-Saachez. Tieria Erde also develops a very strong thirst for vengeance towards Ali later on, going crazy on him when the two finally fight in season two. Nena Trinity also joined in on the Ali hate.
Lyle Dylandy, however, attempts to avert it by not trying to directly avenge his brother, stating that it's not good to let revenge cloud his judgment. However, he does go critical when Setsuna shoots Anew Returner down, and even then it's more about him being in the middle of an Heroic BSOD.
Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Good luck figuring out what’s actually going on until the final few episodes. And even then it's confusing.
Karmic Death: Wang Liu-Mei, Nena Trinity, and finally, Ali Al-Saachez.
Kick the Dog: Pretty much what Ali al-Saachez does. Off-screen past ignored, he kills Kinue Crossroad after telling her about him being probably the worst person in the world, then kills two of the Trinity siblings, and finally makes his big return by razing an entire cityfor fun.
Knight Templar Big Brother: If you so much as look at Nena Trinity the wrong way, her brother Michael will angrily disembowel you with his combat knife. Johann will be slightly less scary, but we can't guarantee he'll stop watching you.
Last-Second Chance: Refused by Ali al-Saachez (are you really surprised?) after Lockon Stratos offered it to him in the episode 24 of the second season.
Let Them Die Happy: Christina Sierra to Lichtendal, letting him believe that he had successfully saved her life with his Heroic Sacrifice... before dying herself.
Living with the Villain: The Union's Billy Katagiri with Celestial Being's Sumeragi Lee Noriega. Also, Saji Crossroad feels this way after ending up on the Ptolemaios.
Love Martyr: Arguably Wang Liu Mei's older brother Hong Long, who is clearly concerned only with protecting and serving his sister throughout the conflict despite her resenting him and treating him like crap.
Type 4: Billy Katagiri, Sumeragi Lee Noriega, and Emilio Ribisi.
Type 3: Feldt Grace, Neil Dylandy, and Tieria Erde.
Type 4: Saji Crossroad, Louise Halevy, and Andrei Smirnov, although this is ultimately resolved in Saji's favor.
Macross Missile Massacre: The missile containers/pods used by Kyrios and, from episode 22 of the second season onwards, Arios are built on this concept, and to a lesser extent the GN Archer. The Ptolemaios 2 also indulges in it from time to time.
Every Union Realdo in episode 15 of season one.
Made of Explodium: Not to the extent of most Gundam series, but mass-produced mobile suits/ships still tend to blow up violently after taking critical damage. Gundams and other elite units initially seem to avoid this, but still suffer the same fate every time a pilot actually dies in the cockpit. Sometimes parts that were sliced off a mobile suit in combat explode as well.
Male Gaze: The first seven seconds of the fourth OP. Squee!
Meaningful Name: The Trans-Am System, as “trans-am” is one of the stages of a phoenix's life cycle, where it gives off a burst of flames right before it dies and is reborn.
The Trinity siblings' family name may fall under this. Aside from there being three siblings, Trinity was also the name of the test site where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Rather appropriate, given the trio’s purpose.
Military Brat: Andrei Smirnov and Billy Katagiri. Feldt Grace and Mileina Vashti can count as Paramilitary examples.
Military Maverick: Mr. Bushido, though A-Laws leader Homer Katagiri gave him special permission to ignore any and all rules, since Bushido would just do whatever he wanted anyway.
Mind Control: Technically it’s more like body control. Ribbons Almark can hijack the bodies of other Innovades and control them like puppets.
Minovsky Physics: GN Particles not only shield the Gundams from weapons, they also act as sensor jammers and even as a method of propulsion, among other purposes. Oddly enough, these are the exact same properties of the Minovsky particles this trope is named after. This is possibly because they were originally intended to actually BE Minovsky Particles. Though later on GN Particles do things that Minovsky Particles never did, like enhance telepathy across the world, cause teleportation effects, and even regenerate dead cells and heal wounds.
Missing Mom / You Killed My Mother: Andrei Smirnov is distanced from his father Sergei because he blames him for his mother's death.
More Dakka: Celestial Being typically responds to challenges by using more gun:
Lockon Stratos' Cherudim went from from a long-range sniper unit to a long-range sniper unit with several Attack Drones.
Allelujah Haptism's Arios takes Kyrios' GN Beam Machinegun, builds one into each arm, and then uses an even bigger handheld version as its primary weapon. Then he dual-wields it, and when that apparently isn't enough it's replaced with a GN Cannon.
Then there’s Tieria Erde’s Gundams: Virtue (four GN Cannons and a Wave Motion Gun) —> Seravee (four even more powerful GN Cannons and twoWave Motion Guns that can combine) —> Upgraded to have two more cannons.
Subverted by Setsuna's Gundams, if only because it uses swords instead.
Mr Fix It: Ian Vashti for Celestial Being. Billy Katagiri fills the role for the bad guys.
Must Make Amends: Essentially Celestial Being in the second season, after it hits them that, far from creating peace, by uniting the world against them they instead led to the creation of a brutal State Sec which has killed tens of thousands of civilians.
This is on top of the fact that the animosity towards them led to the deaths of several of their members in the last episodes of the first season.
As a specific character motivation, Setsuna F. Seiei joined Celestial Being for this express purpose, to atone for his past as a Child Soldier and his Self-Made Orphan status, which ties nicely into Revenge below.
Trans-Am, which turns the machine using it red and increases its output threefold, is clearly a reference to the infamous Gundam meme about Char Aznable's red Zaku being three times faster than the normally colored version.
The party scene from season two, in addition to being one long Shout Out to ∀ Gundam, also contains a brief reference to a similar scene that occurred in the very first Gundam 0079 with Tieria being annoyed by a pair of suck-ups in a manner similar to his fellow purple-haired Bishōnen Garma Zabi.
Ribbons' Gundams contain several gags as an Actor Allusion, since his voice actor also played AmuroRay:
The 0 Gundam is the RX-78-2 Gundam, with clavicle antennae and a GN Drive tacked on. On top of that, the original version is gray, white, and red, which was how Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted the Gundam to look. Infamously, he was over-riden by the sponsors and forced to make the Gundam more colorful, resulting in the iconic tricolor look...which shows up on the Actual Combat Deployment version of the 0 Gundam*
For the curious, Tomino's original color scheme was later adopted as the Gundam's rollout colors, inverting the dynamic that would appear with the 0 Gundam
.
The Reborns Gundam draws heavily from the Nu Gundam, but also has elements of the Guncannon, which Amuro piloted on occasion. This is taken a step further by an MSV version, Reborns Gundam Origin, which adds a Tank Mode as a nod to the Guntank. Its fangs are called "fin fangs", for no discernible reason other than to continue the gag.
Arguably, Ribbons going bare-knuckle in the final battle with Setsuna could be a nod to Char's Counterattack, and how Amuro and Char's duel eventually breaks down into giant robot brawling.
Various aspects of Gundam 00's storyline and technology are apparent analogues to elements from the Bandai-Namco-Sunrise group's own Tales Series, particularly Tales of Phantasia.
Those that have quantum brainwaves sometimes get Newtype flashes.
The Gadessa and the Garazzo are fairly similar (in both tactical function and equipment) to the Mercurius and Vayeate of Gundam Wing.
With Garazzo's spikes and shoulder shield being yet another Zaku homage.
Joshua Edwards from Alaska may be a reference to Gundam SEED, where the Earth Alliance's main base in Alaska was named JOSH-A (pronounced "Joshua").
The Regnant in its mobile suit form bears at least passing resemblance to the Quebeley from Zeta Gundam.
The Gaga (with the booster attached) looks similar to the Neue Ziel from Gundam 0083.
This gag is pushed even further when the Gagas start to kamikaze themselves, especially on battleships, since Anavel Gato died by doing that with his Neue Ziel against a Federation battleship.
Goodman's futile attempt to outrun a beam blast heading for the bridge of his ship is almost identical to the same attempt by Jamaican Daninghan in Zeta Gundam. They even have similar Oh Crap faces.
A scene in Zeta Gundam, where Yazan and two other Titans tie up a Rick Dias, is redone ad verbatim when Virtue is captured in the tenth episode of the first season.
The first compilation movie adds a homage to the Deathscythe Hell Custom from Endless Waltz, courtesy of Dynames.
Mysterious Waif: The slightly telepathic, blind, and possibly paralyzed Marie Parfacy.
Nanomachines: The explanation for how the crew of Ptolemaios can stay in space for extended periods of time without suffering from bone density loss and so on; could also explain how Allelujah Haptism was able to maintain a good level of agility merely minutes after being freed from four years of sitting in a straitjacket)
According to Regene Regetta, the Innovades are essentially created by nanotechnology, with the nanomachines slowing down their aging process significantly.
In above mentioned case with Allelujah Haptism, he and Soma Peries are both Super Soldiers, whose bodies have been enhanced with Nanomachines.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Celestial Being fought to eliminate war and unite the world population and its governments into one. They succeed, only to learn that in doing so they've created an authoritarian regime which uses mass propaganda to keep control and murders countless innocents to "keep the peace". Good job, guys!
No Social Skills: Pretty much all of The Stoics in Celestial Being can trace their social ineptitude to being on their own since they were kids.
Not Good with People: Setsuna F. Seiei, Tieria Erde, Feldt Grace, Soma Peries, Andrei Smirnov.
Not So Small Role: With Ribbons Almark having only a handful of lines and hardly any screentime in the first half of the show, many long-time Gundam fans were wary of the fact that he had such a small role for a character being voiced by none other than Tohru Furuya (using pseudonym "Noboru Sougetsu"), the man who portrayed the very first Gundam protagonist. Of course, after truly gaining the viewers' collective attention with a few foreshadowing lines and the ability to hack Veda, Ribbons turned out to be the Man Behind the Man and the real Big Bad of the series. Fucking Ribbons.
Obfuscating Stupidity: In season two, Lyle Dylandyintentionally downplays his own piloting skills, also acting nonchalant and as a bit of a Handsome Lech. It seems he's doing this to keep people from comparing him to his dead twin brother.
One Degree of Separation: In the first season, Saji Crossroad is Setsuna's neighbor and Louise Halevy is his girlfriend. Guess who becomes his co-pilot and one of his more dogged opponents respectively in season two?
One Union Limit: Subverted and played straight with the The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations and the Advanced European Union. However, the Advanced European Union is always referred as the "AEU".
Surprisingly, some of those things actually do happen... sort of. Lockon is replaced by his twin brother, Tieria is revealed to be an Artificial Human, and in one of the movies THE ALIEN INVASION ACTUALLY DOES HAPPEN.
Opposite-Sex Clone: Ribbons Almark and Hiling Care, Revive Revival and Anew Returner. The English dub explicitly makes Revive female, leaving Ribbons and Hiling but also adding Tieria Erde and Regene Regetta.
Out-of-Clothes Experience: The Twin Drive System exists to invoke this trope (and to make people understand each other, of course). It’s quite emotional when the people meeting sans clothes are lovers (Lockon Srtatos II/Anew Return) and (Saji Crossroad/Louise Halevy), but also quite Narmy when even Setsuna F. Seiei and Mr. Bushido had a naked discussion with each other.
Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Ali al-Saachez, though in a subversion of this trope Setsuna F. Seiei was only one of dozens.
Graham Aker, though it's more about the Gundam(s) than the pilot(s), making it only more twisted.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Soma Pieres got a pink mobile suit in season one and Nena Trinity wore a pink pilot suit; in season two, they switch to red and purple respectively.
Louise Halevy and Saji Crossroad wore a pink jacket and blue vest respectively in season one.
Setsuna F. Seiei's Gundams are all blue, while Feldt Grace's hair is pink; in the second season, they start wearing uniforms with those corresponding colors.
Poor Communication Kills: Seriously. Most of the hatred between the various sides, especially in the second season, revolves around nobody having any clue what the fuck is really happening (including Ribbons Almark). Several important characters die because of it.
This appears to be the Aesop of the series, really.
Power Crystal: The GN Condensers present on GN Drive-equipped mobile suits. The 00 Raiser has the highest number of these, at 8.
Power Gives You Wings: Subverted, as the 0 Gundam's "GN Feathers" is due to the experimental nature of its GN Drive. The 00's Twin Drive, however, plays the trope relatively straight.
Then there’s the Throne Drei's Stealth Field, which quite frankly makes one wonder if Instrumentality is about to commence.
Real Men Wear Pink: Tieria Erde pilots the chunkiest of the Gundams... and spends much of the first season wearing a lovely pink cardigan.
Then he crossdresses.
Real Robot: Goes without saying. Though some would argue, not without some justification, that the Gundams themselves deliberately blur the line between Real and Super, while the Twin Drive units are full-blown Super Robots.
Although Given the fact that the Energy Output of the Gundams is Me V (Mega Electronvolt) a measurement of energy that people still do not understand anything is possible.
Recap Episode: The first half of episode 16 of the first season.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Michael Trinity, Aber Rindt, and several of the Innovades. The protagonists' side has Tieria Erde, of course.
Red Oni Green Oni: The GN drives designed by Aeolia Schenberg and entrusted to Celestial Being emit green particles; the Thrones' GN-X drives emit red particles. At first this seems to indicate that the Thrones are using more advanced technology, until it turns out their drives - the basis for all technologies used by the UN and later the A-LAWS - are only cheap knockoffs that can't match the capabilities of the originals.
Redshirt Army: Not only does Katharon get its collective ass kicked in practically every confrontation with the A-Laws, but by episode 14 it hasn’t even shot down a single A-Laws mobile suit.
Thankfully, by episode 22, Katharon gets to have a few kills while supporting Celestial Being, mainly due to Kati's forces informing them of the anti-field.
The armies of the three world powers in season one also border on this before the appearance of GN-X, although they actually put the Gundams in serious danger a few times.
Done literally with Ribbons Almark's army of Bring and Divine clones in episode 23 of the second season, if the red pilot suits weren't a big enough hint.
Celestial Being had a sects who differed from their methodology and goals. Team Trinity was one group, as was The Innovators.
The ESF Coup detat Faction to the Federation. Inverting the trope, once the Faction forms the Federation becomes increasingly antagonistic.
La Résistance: Katharon, Celestial Being, and the coup d’état factions.
Revenge: ... this. In addition to half of the show's cast being motivated by revenge, in season one Lockon pulled a gun on Setsuna after he finds out that Jihad-kun had been part of the organization who destroyed his family and life. And despite the fact that Setsuna saves Saji from being turned into a rag doll, when the usually calm Saji realizes his next-door neighbor pretty much started the conflict that destroyed his family and life, he pulls Setsuna's own gun on him. Then there's that whole affair with Anew Returner.
Rule of Symbolism: When you think about it, in the final battle the generation 3 Exia should curb-stomb the generation 1 Gundam 0. However looking at it symbolically the power factor becomes irrelevant and besides Ribbons handled better than you would think.
Running Gag: Team Patrick of course, with his ability to trash his mobile suits in increasingly spectacular ways and still survive with nary a scratch. Heck, his only appearance in the third OP was a cameo of his GN-XIII getting demolished by the Seravee. The fandom love him for it though.
Tieria Erde's gender may also count, considering the number of times the show itself has poked fun at it.
Everyone in 00 has one extra life. To get them really dead, you have to kill them twice (eg, impaled by shrapnel, then exploded) in rapid succession.
Samus Is a Girl: Borderline example – the Virtue. When it purges its armor, to the shock of both the HRL and the audience, it reveals a slim robot with long, flowing hair referred to as Nadleeh, a Native American word for someone who has taken up the roles of the opposite gender... implying that Nadleeh is a warrior woman with heart of a man.
Say My Name: Whenever a character dies, there's a good chance that someone screams the dead character's full name. Hell, even a Haro does it at one point.
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Subverted greatly. One prominent example is in one of the first episodes, when Graham sorties in his Custom Flag, which has been modified to keep up with the Gundam Exia. When he turns around, it is stated that he will be exposed to a force of pressure equal to 12G. True to the statement, Graham seems to be hurting whenever he turns around.
Another, more funny, example is in the Taklamakan Desert, when Graham transforms a bit too close to the ground, with the result of his Flag's foot hitting the ground, causing Graham to take down a Gundam using his head. As in, he stumbled and headbashed the Dynames, knocking both down.
In episode 5 or 6, when Saji and Louise are walking around on the outside of a Low-Orbital Station, their guide says that even at 10.000 km height, there's still some gravity. This is true, except the gravitational pull is greatly reduced.
In many scenes, when he Gundams are seen, they are almost 12 times as tall as Setsuna. Assuming that Setsuna is an average person his age in the second season, and knowing the Gundams are 18-19 meters tall, this is actually pretty well-fitting.
Also, whenever mobile suits engage each other in space, and aren't actually in melee combat they only show as tiny specks on the viewscreens until the HUD zooms in on them.
Send in the Clones: Near the end of season two, Ribbons Almark mass-produces an enormous amount of Innovade clones created from Bring Stabity and Devine Nova's DNA for combat purposes.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Billy Katagiri and Graham Aker, Saji Crossroad and Setsuna F. Seiei, Allelujah and Hallelujah can be seen as the two in one body, Dr. Moreno and Ian Vashti, Litchy Tsery and Lasse Aeon, Devine Nova and Bring Stabity.
Both of the Dylandy twins are both sensitive and manly.
Seppuku: Homer Katagiri's suicide can be seen as this.
Sequel Hook: There's a stinger at the end of the last episode showing something strange going on with Jupiter, which ties into The Movie.
These being Ian and Linda Vashti, Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy, Kati Mannnequin and Patrick Colasour, Shirin Bakhtiar and Klaus Grado, and H/Allelujah Haptism and Soma Peries/Marie Parfacy, respectively.
Shout Out: The battle against the Memento Mori in episode 13 of season two is a much darker version of the Battle of Yavin since Nena Trinity sends them the information about Memento Mori's weak point.
Without Nena Trinity, who leaked the plans, that battle would have never occurred and more people would have died. It also kicks off her partial redemption with her Moment of Awesome .
The Seven Swords mode of Exia is a reference to the Hong Kong action movie Seven Swords; Kenji Kawai scored the music for both the movie and this Gundam show.
The Raiser Sword is suspiciously similar to the Ideon Sword.
Setsuna and Graham Aker's rivalry mirrors that of Squall and Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII', from hair colors (Brunette, Blonde) to personalities (Ascended Fanboy, The Stoic) and scars (at least in Graham's part).
A fan video reveals the possibility that 00 Gundam's combination sequence with the 0 Raiser is a homage to GaoGaiGar's Final Fusion sequence.
Shower Scene: Sumeragi Lee Noriega in season one, Tieria Erde in season two.
Sibling Team: Team Trinity and, technically, the Innovades as well.
Averted with the two Lockon Stratos.
Single Stroke Battle: Setsuna F. Seiei with Graham Aker and Ribbons Almark in finales of season one and two repectively.
Sort-of subverted in the fight between Setsuna and Ribbons, as instead of leaping by and someone falling a few seconds later, they just charged head-on into one another and were mutually impaled on their swords. Ribbons' 0 Gundam did explode shortly after though.
Sissy Villain: The Innovades are so gender-queer that it's hard to believe Mamoru Nagano wasn't involved.
Slept Through the Apocalypse: Ian Vashti, after being wounded in an attack on the Ptolemaios, rests for ten days. When he wakes up he learns that he slept through two battles and a crash landing through the atmosphere from orbit.
Smug Snake: Alejandro Corner, Wang Liu Mei, and ultimately Ribbons Almark. Revive Revival was one, hence his breakdown after Setsuna kicked his ass.
Society-on-Edge Episode: The first season had the episode "Trinity", where Team Trinity reflects on the chaos that had happened so far and how the world is disintegrating into varying stages of anarchy. Ironically, their arrival makes things worse.
Split Personality: Allelujah Haptism has a much more violent split personality he calls Hallelujah, born to cope with his deeds as a child.
Split Personality Makeover: Which personality is in control depends on which of his Mismatched Eyes is covered by his Peek-A-Bangs. An odd instance of this trope being true in-universe instead of just a stylistic change.
Split Personality Merge: Allelujah and Hallelujah manage this in the first season finale. And yet again in the second season finale. Soma Peries and Marie Parfacy eventually do the same by the end of the second season.
Star-Crossed Lovers / Dating Catwoman: Almost every romantic relationship seems to either be this, start out like this, or end up like this. Saji Crossroad/Louise Halevy, Soma Peries (Marie Parfacy)/Allelujah Haptism, Sumeragi Lee Noriega/Billy Katagiri, Lyle Dylandy/Anew Returner (may may not consciously be a mole but is anyway). Just about the only persons with feelings for someone who is never on an opposing team are Patrick Colasour, Andrei Smirnov, and Feldt Grace.
Start X to Stop X: The protagonists seek to end global conflict by attacking anyone who causes conflict.
State Sec: The A-Laws - an autonomous force separate from the military, and controls the Federation security apparatus. Like any good State Sec, it answers directly to the Big Bad. Interestingly enough, the A-laws have different levels of trust: Those who are unaware of what's really going on, the top brass who committed the atrocities but remained pawns, and the Innovades, who knew everything.
The Stoic: Setsuna F. Seiei especially, but also Tieria Erde (who defrosts) and to a lesser extent Allelujah Haptism... which leaves the two Lockon Stratos as the only Meister to consistently exhibit an open personality.
Johann Trinity and Bring Stabity qualify as antagonist examples.
Storming the Castle: Celestial Being's assault on Ribbons Almark's asteroid base, the Celestial Being.
The Strategist: Sumeragi Lee Noriega for Celestial Being, Kati Mannequin for the AEU and then the A-Laws and Sergei Smirnov for the HRL. The last one metioned is also an Ace Pilot on his own right, making him a Genius Bruiser.
Stuffed into the Fridge: In order of stuffing: Holly Smirnov, The Dylandy family except for the twins, Commander Emilio Ribisi, the entire Halevy clan except for Louise, Kinue Crossroad, Michael Trinity, Johan Trinity, Sergei Smirnov, Anew Returner, Hong Long, Wang Liu Mei, Nena Trinity.
Super Soldier: Soma Peries is the first successful product of the HRL's Enhanced Soldier program. Allelujah Haptism is also a reject from this program.
Take My Hand: Setsuna F. Seiei in the last two OPs. The third is with Marina Ismail, while the fourth is with an unseen character. Fans naming this unseen character could result in Ship-to-Ship Combat though...
Lockon Stratos saves Tieria Erde from Patrick's incoming attack, getting Dynames and his right eye badly damaged in episode 21 of the first season.
Hong Long does it to protect Wang Liu Mei in episode 21 of the second season. She still gets herself killed shortly thereafter.
Patrick Colasour for Kati Mannequin, kinda. He throws his mobile suit in front of a kamikaze enemy mobile suit headed for Kati's ship. A bit stupid on both their parts — both Patrick and the suicide mobile suit still had guns they could have used. Patrick, being Patrick, survives unscathed.
Talking to Themself: Allelujah and Hallelujah, mostly for the purpose of irritating and tormenting themself. It only gets awkward when Setsuna F. Seiei finds himself in the same room during one of said "sessions".
Theme Naming: Save the 0 and 00, the Gundams are all named after various types of angels and tarot cards.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: In episode 23 of season two the A-laws suddenly decide to use all those anti-beam grenades they had, only for Katharon to show up and suddenly become useful for the first time ever due to the fact they were using outdated mobile suits with non-beam weaponry.
This Loser Is You: Saji Crossroad during the first season, our typical ordinary person who only regards the events of the Celestial Beings and their cause as foolish and our daily headline news, and only considers living a normal life of his own - and he is every one of us viewers of the show!! He gets better in the second season, when Tieria delivers him a Bright Slap - serves him right!
Time-Compression Montage: The third OP takes the entirety of season one and somehow manages to compress it into 30 seconds.
Time Skip: The epilogue of the final episode of season one takes place four years after the events of that episode, and there were several smaller ones over the course of season one. Season two then skips ahead roughly another year after that, and roughly midway through said season there’s anotherTime Skip, this time for four months.
The most popular method of making a mobile suit stronger is slapping more GN Drives onto it. The Alvatorre is the first and most egregious offender, with seven GN Tau Drives.
The 00 Gundam only has two, but they're proper GN Drives and are "synchronized" squaring the power output. Eventually, Ribbons Almark figures out how to do this with two GN Tau Drives, resulting in Reborns Gundam.
To Create A Playground For Evil: Ali Al-Saaches wants to help create a world of endless warfare, so that his slaughter will never end.
Setsuna F. Seiei, in the second season, is much more competent while on foot than he was in season one, probably as a result of playing Tactical Espionage Action with the A-Laws for four years.
Episode 11 of season two sent Saji Crossroad well on his way to Badassery as the pilot of the 0 Raiser.
Setsuna once again, when its revealed in season two, Episode 21 that he's starting to undergo "Innovation".
Also from season two, episode 21: Louise Halevy gets to show everyone her recently aquired Dark Action Girl credentials by killing Nena Trinity.
Transforming Mecha: Every mobile suit derived from the Union Realdo, including the Flag and Enact, as well as Kyrios, Arios, and the GN Archer, have both standard robot mode and aeroplane mode. Though for quite a while only the Gundam models are capable of pulling off said transformation in mid-flight.
The Troubles: The first sign that Celestial Being was having a palpable effect on the world was the ceasefire message sent out by the "Real IRA" group in Ireland. Considering when the show is set (2308), that’s a seriously persistent splinter group.
Two Guys and a Girl: The Aces of the three power blocks in season one. Traditional examples are Sergei Smirnov, Hank Hercules and Sergei's wife Holly; the Trinity siblings; and Setsuna F. Seiei, Saji Crossroad, and Louise Halevy.
Tykebomb: Several. Setsuna F. Seiei is a Child Soldier; the Trinity siblings were test tube babies; Marie Parfacy (aka Soma Peries) and Allelujah Haptism both come from the Enhanced Soldier program; Louise Halevy after the Time Skip
Übermensch: Almost every major character, but especially Tieria Erde, Regene Regetta, and (maybe) Fucking Ribbons.
The Unfavorite: Lyle Dylandy (Lockon Stratos II) seems to hold resentment against his dead twin brother Neil (Lockon Stratos I) for the comparisons and constant fanfare the latter gets.
Unknown Rival: Patrick Colasour plays this role towards Tieria Erde in season one. In season two Graham Aker sadly takes up the role, with Setsuna F. Seiei just being flat out dismissive of him.
Also in season two we get an interesting play on this trope: Soma Peries becomes this to Andrei Smirnov after the latter killed his father, while Andrei himself is this to Saji Crossroad in the last dozen or so episodes (yes, it has something to do withLouise Halevy), who seems to have become friends with Soma Peries.
Uptown Girl: Saji Crossroad, a poor Unlucky Everydude, fall for Louise Halevy, a Spoiled Sweettsundere, whose family is implied to be extremely wealthy and influential. The series seems to subvert the expectation that Louise's family would be hostile to Saji, as Louise's mother quickly takes to him, especially after hearing that he's an orphan, and basically treats him like a second child (which actually makes Louise jealous, a reaction played for comedy). Unfortunately, the series has a large dose of Break the Cutie for both of them.
Verbal Tic: Mileina Vashti ends nearly all her sentences with "~desu".
Vibroweapon: The various GN Blades, and the sonic blades used by Union and AEU mobile suits.
Also the Throne Zwei’s and Arche’s GN Buster Sword.
Villainous Breakdown: Ribbons experiences this after Setsuna first uses his powers to rip Revive Revival a new asshole (as well as when Setsuna's powers weaken him enough for Tiera to steal Veda back from him); Ali experiences this after his machine shuts down, and Revive Revival experiences this after Setsuna delivers the aformentioned asskicking.
Villain Protagonist: Celestial Being to a degree. Fon Spaak fits this trope well.
The Voice: Both Regene Regetta and Tieria Erde ultimately become this after their bodies were shot to death but their consciences upload into Veda.
V Sign: Nena Trinity is prone to doing this whenever she's in a good mood. She stops doing it for a while after Ali killed her brothers, but it makes a return after she screws Wang Liu Mei's plan in a form of Take That.
In the Grand Finale, Celestial Being combines this with space travel. In a subversion, though, Allelujah Haptism and Marie Parfacy left Celestial Being and walked the Earth on their own to find the true meaning of their existence.
Was It All a Lie?: Lyle Dylandy to Anew Returner, after her betrayal.
Wave Motion Gun: Probably the biggest offender in the Gundam franchise so far.
The GN Bazooka. Gundam Virtue makes a giant trench in the desert with it in episode 15 of season one, and in general commits other acts of mass destruction with this weapon. Then it goes Guns Akimbo with it.
And then Seravee upgrades on that.
The Alvatore is equipped with a massive anti-ship cannon powered by seven GN Tau Drives; in its debut the unit detonates an asteroid field with it.
Gadessa's GN Mega Launcher, which rivals the GN Bazooka II in output but also has the advantage of functioning as three separate beam rifles.
The Memento Mori (both of them) is basically the power of a nuke focused into a beam.
The 00 Raiser's Raiser Sword, despite being a BFS rather than a BFG, is this trope in practice.
The Regnant, successor to the Alvatore and Empruss, manages to one-up its predecessors by being able to bend the beam mid-flight at up to 90 degree angles.
The Celestial Being (no, not the group) has the "60m GN Laser" (no, that's not a typo), which drains an entire Tau Drive in a single shot.
Wave Motion Tuning Fork: The Virtue’s GN Bazooka during Burst Mode (also the current page picture).
We Are Not A Couple: Setsuna F. Seiei and Marina Ismail in season two but in a completely deadpan manner, as if the idea genuinely never had occurred to either of them.
When the very same question ("Are you two lovers?") is posed to Marie Parfacy and Allelujah Haptism later on, however, their reaction is up to standard, complete with the usual blushing and stuttering.
Everyone seems to have turned into one by the end of the series, aside from Marina Ismail (who was never an extremist) and Ali al-Saachez (who was never well-intentioned).
What Happened to the Mouse?: The sub-plot involving Feldt Grace's feelings for Setsuna F. Seiei and whether or not they were requited is left unresolved.
A Wizard Did It: There is an increasing trend among the fandom of explaining away apparent plot holes with "GN Particles Did It."
Woman Scorned: In episode 12 of the second season Louise Halevy learns that Saji Crossroad is piloting the 0 Raiser, and reached the (not unreasonable) conclusion that he was with Celestial Being from the start. Naturally, She. Was. NOT. Amused.
Billy Kataragi is a gender-flipped version. Find out that the woman you've had an obsessive crush on for years is working for the terrorist organization that killed your mentor and drove your best friend half-insane? Make more powerful mechs for The Federation to destroy Celestial Being!
Let's not forget that in season 1 he had shown her information about the first joint operation between all three power blocs in the Taklamakan Desert before it was planned to happen.
World of Badass: Say what you will about the characters, but no one can deny that every one of them is Badass in their own right.
Even the Haro's are Badass in this verse. Data storage, top mechanic and capable pilot all in one.
Yandere: Billy Katagiri and Louise Halevy in season two.
Averted in that all characters born on Earth the old-fashioned way have normal hair colors. Only Spacenoids, Innovades, and other Artificial Human have weird Hair Colors.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Laguna Harvey, Aeolia Schenberg, and Celestial Being itself are targeted for elimination after having served their purpose in Alejandro Corner's master plan. Then, in an ironic twist, Alejandro himself suffers this fate in the final episode of the first season after he served his purpose in Ribbons Almark's master plan.
The parade continues in season two when Wang Liu Mei and Nena Trinity are Stuffed into the Fridge after being told "Your role had ended" almost verbatim.
Zerg Rush: If you listen carefully, you can hear the mass-produced Devines and Brings going "kekekekekekeke".
Zettai Ryouiki: Christina Sierra, Nena Trinity, and Feldt Grace to a degree.
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