Characters / Gundam Char Aznable

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Char Aznable

Born in the Side 3 then-Republic of Zeon, the man who would become known as Char Aznable's life was shattered when his father died under mysterious circumstances, leaving Degwin Zabi, head of the Zabi family, as the new leader of it, much to Char's anger. Blaming the Zabis for his father's death, Char plotted against them, biding his time as a subordinate of theirs while he consolidated his own power and waited to strike.

Though often side-tracked, Char is the longest lasting enemy of the heroes of the Universal Century and despite stints as an underling to other villains, or even as a mentor to the protagonists themselves, remains a massive threat which comes to a head in the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.

For his depiction in the alternate-retelling manga/ONA The Origin, see here.

As the character majorly appears in three works throughout the Universal Century timeline, tropes associated with him have been gathered onto one page, starting with a "General" section and then following with ones specific to installments he appears in:

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Char in General

• Ace Pilot: Char is a notably brilliant tactician and thanks to a combination of intellect and skill, is able to outmaneuver and kill the vast majority of mobile suit users and goes toe-to-toe with some of the best pilots in the series, such as Amuro Ray and Haman Karn.
• Affably Evil: Char's persona is nothing but social, charismatic, and pleasant (if occasionally condescending). The problem is, when the mask drops, you're left with someone who always believes Murder Is the Best Solution. He tends to pinball between this and Faux Affably Evil depending on what's going on.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Amuro Ray view each other as Worthy Opponents but thanks to their past, both bitterly believe the other needs to be killed.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Char's main goal in Mobile Suit Gundam was revenge on the Zabis for ruining his life and killing his father. By the time of Char's Counterattack he's replaced Gihren as the fascist dictator of Neo Zeon and is in some ways more dangerous than Gihren ever was.
• Broken Ace: Char is a talented mobile suit pilot and charismatic speaker, but underneath it all he's a hollow shell of a human being, broken by the tragedy that befell his family and weighed down by his lack of a moral compass as well as what he sees as his duty to bring humanity to the next point in its evolution.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Don't work with him. Don't trust him. It never ends well.
• Chronic Villainy: Char tries to reform in Zeta, but his cynical nature and penchant for manipulating the people around him eventually draw him back into villainy.
• Disaster Dominoes: Ironically for a character whose end goal was to help his people (however twisted the methods he used were), Char's legacy ended up being one of escalating hostilities between Earth and space. His vendetta against the Zabis kicked it off, as while to Char it was nothing more than a blood feud, at the end of the OYW he'd inadvertently created a power vacuum in Zeon that shaped their destiny for decades to come. The events of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, the rise of Haman Kahn in Zeta, the Near-Villain Victory of Haman in Gundam ZZ, and ultimately Char's own rise to ultimate power in Zeon (and subsequent fall) were all dominoes set off by Char's assassination of the Zabis in the original MSG. Even his death didn't stop this domino effect, as evidenced by the events of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
• Dragon Ascendant: It's not exactly a straight line since he tries a stint as an Anti-Hero in between, but in the original Gundam he's The Dragon and by Char's Counterattack he's become its main villain.
• Dub Pronunciation Change: In Japanese his name is pronounced like the French pronunciation of "Char"^note  although "aa" is standard transliteration for "ar", anyway, so "Shaa", as in Aznavour; however nearly all English dubs use a hard R, as if it were short for "Charlotte".
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed. While Char genuinely has cared for others, such as Lalah, Sayla, Kamille, and Mineva, he generally puts his own needs and wants as a priority.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Though he's a villain, Char does have boundaries even he won't cross:
  • In addition to his personal gripes with the Zabi family, Char finds Gihren and his barbaric dictatorship disgusting and believes that Zeon deserves better. Even when leading Neo Zeon himself, he doesn’t quite reach the exact same levels.
  • He's nothing but kind and courteous (even apparently helpful) to Mineva Zabi, despite his murderous issues with her family and guardian.
  • As Quattro he detests the atrocious war crimes committed by the more brutal Titans like Jamaican and Bask Om, despite not having much to say about his assistance, allegiance, and indifference to the Zabis while they did the same on a far bigger scale. Although the Titans were meant to be part of the Federation, which isn't SUPPOSED to be as murderous. Nonetheless, Char has no need to say anything as plenty of other characters make the same point, and it's extremely hollow coming from him of all people.
• Evil Is Bigger: To showcase his prowess as an antagonist Char eventually ends up with mobile suits much larger than his opponent (Gelgoog, Zeong, Sazabi) which show him as a sort of Final Boss to the series and pit him as the Goliath against the Gundam's David. The MS he used most while a good guy, the Hyaku Shiki, by contrast, was a fairly small and slender suit dwarfed by much larger enemies.
• Evil Is Petty: Char does have big ambitions, but that doesn't stop him from also being very petty when he has the opportunity. In MSG he gloats to Garma (who considered him not just a friend but his best friend) about setting him up to die, and in Char's Counterattack, when the Sazabi is totaled, Char's escape pod has been seized by Amuro, and there's no hope for escape for him Char starts arguing with Amuro even when it's clear he'll ultimately get nothing out of it beyond frustrating Amuro more. In fact, once Amuro constantly counters his ideological arguments, Char starts hitting below the belt regarding Quess and Lalah.
• Expy: It's rather ironic given the number of expies he's spawned, but Char himself was actually based on a villain from one of Tomino's earlier works — Prince Sharkin from Brave Raideen.
• Fatal Flaw: He's a Newtype with a decided Lack of Empathy for the people around him, even when they're his own allies. He's also extremely petty and known to hold lifelong grudges. While his plot against Zeon high command ends up working out for him in the end, later entries show his inability to reflect or let things go is such a serious flaw that it ends up killing him.
• Freudian Excuse: In Mobile Suit Gundam, his sister remembers him as "kind" and can barely believe what he's become. Due to the unrelenting pursuit of revenge against those he sees as having wronged him, starting with the mysterious death of his father as a child, he's mainly characterized by his varying degrees of callousness and myopic behavior that allows for very limited consideration of others.
• Friend to All Children: Perhaps the one fully benign trait he has, whenever it's present. While there is some ulterior motive in being kind to them, he does right by the those involved in the first two places.
  • He takes in Shinta and Qum because he wants to provide for someone after failing to prevent Blex's assassination.
  • Char only truly becomes hostile towards Haman when he sees how she raised Mineva to follow after the Zabis that he hated. Before he joined the AEUG, Char was shown to be genuinely fond of the then-infant Mineva, and even after he takes over the Zeon remnants by the events of Char's Counterattack, he notably leaves Mineva out of his scheming.
  • To show the degradation of his moral fiber by the time of Char's Counterattack, Char all but recruits the 13-year-old Quess after she first helps save his life, keeps her motivated though pretend fondness and reassurances, and expresses outright annoyance for her presence by the end of the film not to mention how he doesn't give any indication of noticing when she died during the final battle.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Rival in Gundam, The Mentor in Zeta, and the Big Bad in Char's Counterattack.
• Hypocrite: Too many examples to list, but two cases stand out, because of how they define Char for the rest of the franchise:
  • While watching Gihren's speech from a bar, he mockingly answers Ghiren's question of why Garma had to die by calling the latter a spoiled brat. Which is rich coming from a guy who ultimately causes the Earth Sphere untold catastrophe for decades to come, none of which he ever considers for a moment may be his fault, because of his numerous personal vendettas and pathological inability to try not to be a selfish jerk.
  • He accuses Amuro of murdering Lalah when he was the one who arranged for her to be a soldier and a Newtype weapon. What makes this extra hypocritical is that he continuously tries to bribe and order Sayla to abandon the White Base and the war for her own protection, ignoring the fact that she's got her own sense of loyalty and friendship towards them beyond being part of the Federation and the White Base, and thus, her own reasons to fight alongside them.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Leds his glare an extra degree of coldness, and helps underline his characterization as The Sociopath. Subverted as he keeps them covered for more than 90% of MSG and Zeta.
• It's Personal: Char starts off running solely on You Killed My Father and even when he later attempts to move into Spacenoid politics and rhetoric, he's far more motivated by being The Resenter against people like Haman and Amuro — it's during the first part of Zeta, where he doesn't have a truly personal animosity against anyone, that he's at his most hollow.
• Jerkass: Char can be extremely callous at his worst and even insensitive at best. This persists even in Zeta Gundam, when he's trying to do better.
• Knight Templar: Believes humanity is doomed staying on the Earth and will take extreme measures to force them to migrate to space, which boils up to insanity in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack when he threatens to destroy the planet and kill any who remain to force his master plan.
• Lack of Empathy: One of his most consistent character traits is that he doesn't understand emotions and has difficulty seeing people as anything more than tools. He's trying to be better as of Zeta, but even there he at best acknowledges that people feel a certain way, without comprehending why they do or why he should care, which leads to several otherwise-avoidable tragedies. By Char's Counterattack, he's given up trying completely in favor of pure manipulation.
• Manchild: Despite Char's sophistication, along with all his other psychological issues, he's not very mature or capable of adult relationships or of looking after anyone, and actually becomes worse with each installment. By CCA his Parental Issues are so bad he's simultaneously trying to make Earth uninhabitable and looking for a "mother" while he has Nanai "nannying" him and he's manipulating a 13-year-old girl!
• Manipulative Bastard: Unfortunately for everyone around him and most of humanity, Char's far more successful when he's doing this, which he is in all his appearances, than when he's not.
• Messianic Archetype: Deconstructed. As the son of a martyred spacenoid visionary who prophesied the coming of a new, evolved type of human being, and being one of those prophesied evolved humans himself, Char sees it as his duty to be mankind's messiah and usher in the world of Newtypes his father envisioned. Unfortunately, he has no real compassion for people as individuals, leading him to remorselessly use and manipulate everyone around him while still seeing himself as working For the Greater Good.
• Moral Myopia: If you're Char, it's okay to kill dozens or hundreds of people who had nothing to do with your father's death while trying to take revenge for him. It's also fine to side with people who are killing billions in the meantime. Needless to say, Char's underlying psychological issues and utter moral bankruptcy exaggerate this one. A lot.
• Morality Chain: Kamille, despite a rocky relationship, to the point where Char prioritizes Kamille's safety over his own multiple times in the finale of Zeta. The Char's Counterattack PSX game makes it clear that Kamille completely losing his mind at the end of the Gryps conflict was what motivated his Face–Heel Turn.
• Morality Pet: Downplayed with Lalah, inverted with Sayla, and played straight with Mineva.
  • He's much fonder of the gentle and devoted Lalah Sune than he is of nearly anyone else, but he is also the one responsible for Lalah's employment as an experimental Newtype weapon, and only promises to be guided by her while she's alive, without changing any behavior. Her death seemingly affects his motivations to try and create a better world for spacenoids in Zeta, but while Char mentions her, he doesn't bring that up.
  • Char is the only person the normally strict and righteous Sayla will bend and break the rules for, but although she desperately wants to be a Morality Pet to him, she can't.
  • Mineva is excluded from Char's normal habit of manipulating others when the need arises, although possibly because he Wouldn't Hurt a Child. Due to his Heel–Face Revolving Door, she counts as this and a Morality Chain.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Legendary French/Armenian singer Charles Aznavour. (It's more obvious when one looks at the phonetization (Shā Azunaburu). Amusingly, it wasn't Aznavour's original name, either. And bittersweetly, Aznavour did a hell of a lot more for his war-torn people than Char ever managed to dream of.
• Never My Fault: A recurring and arguably worsening feature.
  • Blames Amuro for killing Lalah, despite that it's largely his own doing that she was out there in the first place, she was Taking the Bullet for him, and he constantly tried to deter Amuro from fighting back to protect the White Base by using the fact that Lalah was piloting the Elmeth.
  • Is incensed by Haman using Mineva as a puppet ruler, and by Haman's way of doing things in general, when he also ruthlessly used Mineva's father, aunt, and young naive uncle (murdering the latter two) for his own purposes, and which could have been avoided had he not run off to Earth and left her, a then-16-year-old girl, as the one in charge of Axis.
  • Throws Amuro's ambivalence towards Quess and, of course, his Accidental Murder of Lalah, when the latter is easily picking apart Red Comet's rhetoric.
  • He has an early Establishing Character Moment lampshading this with the famous line from his first scene, though exactly what it means won't become clear till much later.
    "Nobody wants to admit to the mistakes of their youth."
• Nom de Guerre: Constantly. He goes by the aliases of Char Aznable and later Quattro Bajeena to infiltrate first the Zeon military and then the Federation and its splinter group AEUG. Even when he's leading Neo Zeon in 0093, side materials say he goes by the name "Char Deikun" (as seen in his "CD" sigil on the Sazabi) rather than returning to his birth name. The only one who calls him "Casval" is his sister.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Char possesses an overarching goal and puts in place a number of strategies to achieve it, but is also quite happy to let events unfold around him and merely take advantage of the chaos to see his plot through.
• The Proud Elite: He's the Spacenoid equivalent of nobility and knows it. Further, due to either his upbringing or his nature, he believes his status as Zeon Deikun's son gives him the right to look down upon and judge all of humanity. He's not totally hard-hearted, and does seem to care about Sayla, Lalah and Mineva in his damaged way, but at the end of the day he still puts himself and his "mission" as the son of Zeon first.
• Red Baron: Thanks to his infamy as a devastating Zeon Ace Pilot, Char is known as the "Red Comet"
• Red Is Violent: Char is able to do many things. Living peacefully without killing people is not one of them. His red Color Motif has become infamous for this trope. The closest he gets to doing something else — addressing the Federation assembly at Dakar in Zeta — he's wearing blue and gold.
• Red-plica Baron: Char is based partially on the Red Baron himself, Manfred von Richthofen. Both are aces famous for their striking red vehicles.
• The Resenter: Initially only to the Zabi family, but eventually becomes one to Amuro due to a combination of Lalah's death and Amuro outperforming him at every turn.^note  Notably, he gets along fine with Amuro in Zeta (though not without condescendingly needling him), when Amuro is having problems and Char has the upper hand as "Quattro" — he's resentful of Haman for successfully leading Axis and using Mineva the way she did, instead. By the end of Zeta and especially in Char's Counterattack, he becomes a mix of this and condescension for humanity in general. This trope defines him so much Amuro finally calls him out for his need to always look down on/feel superior to someone.
• Rival Final Boss: The Rival to Amuro throughout the original series and his final opponent in Char's Counterattack since they both die shortly thereafter.
• The Sociopath: He's a ruthless liar, has a poor emotional affect, no sense of shame or fear, a large, ongoing need for stimulation, Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and not the slightest problem killing or manipulating others. It not only defines who he is, his poor sense of morality and empathy cause most of his problems. However, despite being a textbook sociopath, he has displayed some care and affection towards a few people, despite his major problems with relationships and tendencies to superficiality. It could be said that he has some good intentions, but his poor emotionality and lack of a moral compass, understanding of others, or valuing human life leads him to the wrong conclusions and the wrong actions taken — usually the death or murder of one or any number of people, which reinforces exactly why he is this trope.
• Spell My Name With An S: Some earlier foreign releases, like the 90s translation of the series novelization, directly transliterate his first name from Japanese to "Sha".
• Unbuilt Trope: Char may have spawned his own archetype, but his portrayal in the original anime more resembles a deconstruction of it. Instead of being an excellent long-term schemer, Char is an opportunist who is mostly able to advance his goals through a combination of simply biding his time for the right moment and luck. His quest for revenge is built upon his belief that the Zabis killed his father, something which is disputed and never confirmed, and he technically only partially succeeds at it, with both his kills being rather pointless since Garma viewed him as a friend and Kycilia wouldn't have survived anyway]]. His Lack of Empathy also repeatedly proves a hindrance to his goals by causing him to alienate potential allies, and he's only able to put up a caring face for so long before it starts to slip. By the end, Char has bungled his way between several different factions, and only steps up as the villain in Char's Counterattack because he has little else to live for other than his rivalry with Amuro.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Char is a charismatic speaker and very well-liked by his followers, even managing to disband the Titans thanks to a Rousing Speech in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
• Weak, but Skilled: As a Newtype Char is rather on the low end of the scale, managing none of the empathic feats virtually every other Newtype demonstrates. He makes up for it by being incredibly skilled as a mobile suit pilot and orator.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: A running theme in Char's story is things falling into place for him with no action taken on his part. It does very little to encourage him to the positions of responsibility people around him keep urging him to take.

Tropes exclusive to him in Mobile Suit Gundam

Voice Actors: Shūichi Ikeda (JP), Michael Kopsa (EN, TV series), Steve Blum (EN, Movies),

Main mecha: MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type (red), MSM-07S Z'Gok Commander Type (red), MS-014S Gelgoog Commander Type (red), MSN-02 Zeong

One of Zeon's most infamous aces (and the franchise's most iconic character), the enigmatic Char Aznable is responsible for the attempt at stealing the Gundam in the first place. Pursuing the White Base for much of the series, Char makes it clear that he has his own agenda, even as his rivalry with Amuro Ray develops from a professional one into something both deeply personal and very ugly.

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• Ace Custom: Repeatedly slaps red paint jobs and larger engines onto grunt suits. The later Gelgoog was built precisely to his specifications.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He's the son of Zeon Zum Deikun and about as blue-blooded, and as coldblooded, as you can get. Notable in that despite the slightly different characterizations of his father, Zeon was never shown to be as out and out cold nor violent as Char is.
• Attack Drones: The Zeong's hands are detachable, and can be flown independently of the rest of the suit. The head can also detach.
• Benevolent Boss: While not quite A Father to His Men like Dozle and Ramba Ral, Char is very patient, understanding, and polite to his underlings. Char actively discourages the risky behaviors of his minions and several deaths, like Crown burning up in reentry, came from them ignoring Char's orders. Even if it's all a ruse on Char's part to cultivate a likable image of himself via Pragmatic Villainy; there's no real advantage to him mistreating them so he usually doesn't.
• Breakout Character: He's essentially become the face of the franchise.
• The Bus Came Back: Char takes a leave of the series after episode 13 on account of Kycilia reassigning him. Ramba Ral, M'Quve, and the Black Tri-Stars all take his place as the major villains up until he comes back in the appropriately named episode 26, "Char's Return."
• Can't Catch Up: A subtler example than many, but it is there. Throughout the show Char consistently upgrades to bigger and badder mobile suits, yet is consistently matched or outright defeated by Amuro and the Gundam, who remain one crucial half step ahead of him.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Char betrays everyone he's ever worked for. This trend continues into later installments in the franchise.
• Cool Helmet: His iconic white helmet in the first series.
• Cool Mask: His (even more) iconic white mask. He wore it so he could infiltrate the Zeon military and exact revenge upon the Zabis. Other Zeon soldiers apparently think that he wore it because his face was horribly burned.
• Cognizant Limbs: The Zeong's head and hands can all be operated separately from the torso, as noted under Attack Drone. The suit has to be destroyed piecemeal to actually take it down.
• Custom Uniform: One of the most famous ones out there.
• Cyber Cyclops: All of his suits, from the Zaku II to the Zeong.
• Didn't See That Coming: He planned Garma's murder so that he couldn't be reasonably blamed. He didn't realize that he would be unreasonably blamed and removed anyway.
• The Dragon: Following Kycilia's hiring him away from Dozle, and the death of her previous Dragon, M'Quve, Char assumes this role to Zeon's princess.
• The Dreaded: The mere appearance of his Zaku panicked Paolo Cassius, the original commander of the White Base who had kept his cool until then in spite of being mortally wounded. Him summarily trashing the Gundam in spite of the superior performance of the titular robot (and failing to destroy it only because it's Nigh-Invulnerable) would cause a collective Oh, Crap! every time he appeared.
• Duel to the Death: Against Amuro. They both survive.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Doesn't really activate his Newtype abilities until the last couple of episodes. This in turn, allows him to pilot the Super Prototype Zeong during his final battle with Amuro.
• Empowered Badass Normal: For most of the series, he's a perfectly ordinary pilot who can outfight anyone else in space. Then he develops his own Newtype abilities in time for A Baoa Qu.
• Enigmatic Minion: To the Zabis. It's obvious from early on that he has his own agenda that is not mutually compatible with theirs, but just what he's after, and why he's working for them at all is not explained until near the end.
• Establishing Character Moment: It's only when the enigmatic Char murders someone he treated as a friend (along with other innocents in the vicinity) and calmly laughs while using it to Kick the Dog that you really get a sense of what's under the mask.
• Evil Laugh: His chortles of sheer malicious glee as he sends Garma to his death are a defining moment of his character, as noted directly above.
• False Friend: Char was Garma Zabi's classmate from military academy. Garma considered Char his best friend, while Char repeatedly attempted to and eventually succeeded in arranging Garma's death in the war against the Federation.
• Finger Firearms: The Zeong's lasers are built into its fingertips.
• Flawed Prototype: The Zeong is only 80% complete, and is missing its legs. This isn't nearly as crippling as it sounds, since the suit's rockets enable it to be fully functional in space without the legs (although going to Earth would presumably cause some problems).
• Fragile Speedster: His Zaku II isn’t fragile per se, but when compared to the insanely tough Gundam, it hits this trope full force.
• Giant Hands of Doom: The Zeong's hands, which are both remotely piloted, and have lasers in the fingers.
• The Heavy: Drives the action of most of the episodes in the series, even as Gihren drives the overall plot. They seem to share the role.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Has become more and more like the Zabis, even as he plots their deaths. By Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack he's become eerily like Gihren himself.
• Improbable Age: He's twenty years old, and already one of Zeon's best aces and the captain of his own squadron of ships.
• Karma Houdini: Though he loses Lalah, loses to Amuro in the end and ultimately his side loses the war, Char completes his objective of the assured death of the Zabi family heads and gets to leave the conflict with only his pride shaken and a scar on his face. This has both good consequences, and very bad as the timeline progresses.
• Kick the Dog: "Garma, if you can hear me— You were a good friend. But blame this on the misfortune of your birth."
  • He later gilds the lily during Garma's funeral; watching it and drinking at a bar, he remarks that Garma died "because he was a spoiled brat", implying that it wasn't even just because of Garma's Zabi blood that Char killed him, but also because he despised him as a person.
  • In the episode "Icelina- Love's Remains" when the White Base crashes, some of the civilian refugees attempt to escape and Char guns them down. (However the visibility was extremely poor and they'd been warned not to leave due to something exactly like this happening. A much more minor KTD.)
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: The trope originator, AKA 'Char Custom Rule' or 'Red = Three Times Faster'. It's worth noting that his final suit, the Zeong, is actually purple with red highlights.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Char's entire motivation is vengeance upon the Zabi family for the assumed assassination of his father, and he treats his subordinates well enough. Too bad he'll kill anyone and do anything to get his way to his goals, and personally pisses off Amuro for their differences. He ends up nearly bordering on Anti-Villain compared to the likes of Gihren and some of the more deranged and monstrous Zeon commanders out there, but doesn't reach it due to his own crimes and Kick the Dog moments, Garma in particular. Subverted when you realize that Char fully aided the Zabis with their apocalyptic war to kill half of humanity, including his fellow Spacenoids, and never mentions a word of protest about that. For all his loathing for the family, he's completely unable to differentiate himself from them.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Gelgoog and especially the Zeong, which is faster, better armored, and better armed than anything the Federation has to offer.
• Malevolent Masked Man: First of the franchise. Especially if your last name is Zabi, though it's not like he does much good to most anyone else. In the finale of the series, he voluntarily removes his mask in Sayla's presence. And in the third compilation film, this courtesy is also extended to Lalah, showing that both women are people he's genuinely fond of.
• Manipulative Bastard: Starts with Garma and never stops. At the end he tries to get Amuro to work with him because "it's what Lalah would have wanted".
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Char technically gets what he wants in the end, that being the annihilation of the Zabis, but most of them die entirely independent of him or his actions. The only ones he does kill are Garma, who genuinely liked him, and Kycilia, who would have died anyway even if Char hadn't killed her (right after Char beam rifles her, her ship is shown getting blasted to bits by the EFF before it can even leave the hanger). Neither of them could have been involved in his father's death, since they were both children when it happened. Also, because Zeon gets crushed in the end, Char loses his best hope at realizing his father's ideals.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Repeatedly. Zaku —> Z'Gok —> Gelgoog —> Zeong.
• Misplaced Retribution: Possibly, as it's never been made clear if the Zabi family actually assassinated Char's father Zeon Deikun, or if other parties killed Zeon and the Zabis just got scapegoated for it. Some adaptations even make it ambiguous as to whether Zeon's death even was an assassination at all.. Whatever the truth, Garma never personally wronged Char and in fact idolized him.
• Never My Fault: "Nobody wants to acknowledge the mistakes of their youth." Unlike most other characters in the show, who do, he goes on to make plenty.
• Oh, Crap!: When Char first goes up against the Gundam, he's shocked by the fact that it shrugs off Zaku Machine gun fire like it was nothing, but what really horrifies him is the sight of the Gundam striking down Slender's Zaku in one shot with its beam rifle.
  Char: ...Slender? A Zaku suit destroyed with only one shot?! But, how could this happen? How could a Zaku be defeated like that?! That Mobile Suit would have to be carrying a beam cannon as big as a battleship!
• Overranked Soldier: Extremely young for his rank (Lt Commander at 20), which he obtained through his sheer badassery as an Ace Pilot.
• Princess in Rags: Male example, who thinks Zeon is his by right. He was the son of the leader of a republic, but the effect is the same. Would Char be Char if his father was some less-powerful person he believed the Zabis had killed? Who knows...?
• Psychic Powers: His Newtype abilities start to awaken from his proximity to Lalah. He's nowhere near as powerful as she or Amuro though.
• Put on a Bus: While Char's easily the most recurring villain, after Garma's death he's reassigned in episode 13. The heroes have to contend with M'Quve, Ramba Ral, and the Black Tri-Stars before Char comes back in episode 26.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Amuro's red.
• Revenge Before Reason: Char's quest for revenge ends up being both fruitless and pointless, since he never gets close enough to Degwin or Gihren to exact his revenge on them. The only Zabis he actually manages to kill are Garma and Kycilia, who having been 10 and 13 respectively when Deikun died, almost certainly weren't involved in his death at all. Furthermore, immediately after Char kills Kycilia, her ship is shown getting destroyed by Federation, showing she wouldn't have survived anyway even if Char hadn't gone back to beam rifle her.
• Revenge by Proxy —> Sins of Our Fathers: Pursues a vendetta against the Zabis on his father's behalf, as he thinks Degwin murdered his father. He extends this to Garma and Kycilia for being his children.
• The Rival: To Amuro.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His initial incentive to fight alongside the Zabi family is to take power out of their hands, by any means necessary. This is because Degwin - the Zabi family head - both potentially murdered his father and claimed that said father's last words were "to nominate him as the next prime minister of Zeon", while Char is almost certain his father's last words were "I know it was you who killed me". Char understands the need for patience and saving face to achieve this result, and he gets very close to realizing it.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With his younger sister Artesia, who seemingly got 98% of the conscience and all of the empathy in the family.
• The Sociopath: Char has the limited emotional affect, Lack of Empathy, need for stimulation, consummate lying and manipulation abilities, lack of shame or fear, Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and a highly, highly questionable conscience. Murdering Garma (who considered him his best friend) is enough to prove all of this. Over the course of his franchise appearances, he checks all the boxes.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Oddly, Char starts at this and ends at the end too.
• Stepford Smiler: Watch Char and Garma's earlier scenes together after listening to the sheer glee Char takes in getting him killed. He acts every inch the thoughtful and supportive friend, but inwardly Casval is screaming.
• The Starscream: To the Zabi family. He wants Zeon to win the war, but he doesn't want them to be in charge of it. Garma Zabi suffers first, as Char, playing a friend and adviser in his pursuit of the White Base betrays him at the last and most crucial moment by leading Garma's vessel in front of the concealed White Base and exposing his rear wall to a fatal strike from the Federation vessel. He then goes on to betray Kycilia Zabi atop the highest stakes for both sides of the war; Kycilia tried to have him killed as a kid, but after figuring out his identity gave him a job, restored his rank, gave him a promotion (from Lieutenant to Captain) as well as a ship to command and three new mobile suits (Z'Gok, Gelgoog and Zeong). This fails to loosen the intent to destroy her and her family from his head, and he repays her with a bazooka to the face. In a sense, Kycilia was too pragmatic for her own good; seeing the advantages of Char's abilities and passion yet not recognizing the immediate danger she placed her self in.
• Strong Family Resemblance: To his sister Artesia.
• Super Prototype: The MSN-02 Zeong, a prototype MS built specifically for Newtype pilots. In terms of performance it outclasses the Gundam in almost all respects.
• Sword Fight: With Amuro in the finale.
• The Unapologetic: Seemingly lacking any shame or remorse, Char seeks vengeance for his father's supposed murder by the Zabis by definitely murdering his friend Garma, who had nothing with do it, along with the entire crew of a Gaw. He contacts Garma to brag and laugh at him before he dies, then leaves the service with no thought whatsoever for the people he'd been commanding. It's part of being The Sociopath, but Char never makes a sincere apology or shows regret about anything, rationalizing whatever he does as part of war, vengeance, or being someone else's fault.
• Villains Out Shopping: Attends a society party with Garma early in the series, then has an unmasked tea break with Lalah at Side 6 much later and watches some TV with her. They're watching Amuro and company in battle, but it's still one of the most peaceful moments in the entire show.
• We Can Rule Together: Tries this with Amuro at the very end, saying they should work together; Amuro's not interested. The fact Char also said "You're too strong; I'm going to kill you" shortly before and tried it for the two-dozenth time or so in this series probably didn't help.
• Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: He pretends to be a loyal friend and adviser to Garma, only to call curtains on him later.
• You Killed My Father: His hatred for the Zabis comes from believing this.

Tropes exclusive to him in Zeta

Voice Actors: Shūichi Ikeda (Japanese), Tom Edwards (English)

Main mecha: RMS-099 Rick Dias, MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki

Warriors are destined to fight as long as they live.

A top AEUG pilot and former Zeon ace, Quattro Bajeena acts as a mentor figure to Kamille and the younger MS operators in the crew. He firmly opposes the Titans, as they not only commit atrocities under the false justification of supposedly keeping the peace, but their tyranny echoes the former Zabi regime he originally helped put to an end. But while his goals are noble, they belie a concerning inclination towards combat and a near inability to interact with others outside the context of the war effort.

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• Anti-Hero: Char as Quattro is still a Blood Knight and a Sociopathic Hero at worst but he's still fighting the much more evil Titans. This is also his most sympathetic take on Zeonic Ideology; believing Humans Are Flawed but capable of doing good which stands in contrast to his more nihilistic view on them in other series. Though he doesn't share Kamille's remorse when killing his enemies, he does take care to minimize civilian casualties.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Does this regularly with Kamille.
• Becoming the Mask: Played straight as far as Kamille is concerned, as however limited his empathy he is, he goes out of his way to teach Kamille, give him advice, and reassure him when the need arises. But ultimately, while Char tries to become a better person as Quattro Bajeena, a combination of his struggling with a Lack of Empathy in spite of his best efforts, most people acknowledging him 'only' as Char and forcing him into a role of leadership he didn't want, and becoming disillusioned with the idea of Earthnoids and spacenoids coexisting peacefully, Char abandons the AEUG at the end of the series.
• Berserk Button: While he has no love for the Zabi family, he goes completely ballistic when he realizes that Haman has turned Mineva into a puppet.
• Big Brother Mentor: He mentors Kamille in this matter throughout most of the series, and even when Kamille's at his most confrontational, he always at least considers Quattro's input, and this dynamic is kept up all the way to the end of the series.
• Blatant Lies: Char, who betrayed his supposed best friend Garma to his death and assassinated his superior officer Kycilia, has the gall to tell Haman that he has never betrayed anyone in his life.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The golden MSN-00100 Hyaku-Shiki. It's an antibeam coating.
• Blood Knight: Several characters suggest that Char enjoys fighting or that he cannot live without war.
• Can't Catch Up: A mild example. He's still one of the best (if not the best) pilots in the series, but he's fairly weak for a Newtype, and Zeta Gundam is absolutely saturated with powerful Newtypes who can compete with him one-on-one and expect to win. He's still a respectable ace, but nowhere near the Final Boss he was in Mobile Suit Gundam. Ironically, according to Expanded Universe materials, much like Amuro was meant to get Alex Gundam, Quattro was supposed to get the top of the line Gundam MK-III, but a Neo Zeon attack resulted in it being damaged before it could reach him.
• The Chains of Commanding: Ultimately, in order to gain more power for the AEUG, Char is forced to compromise all of his personal principles; losing his ability to start over a new life as Quattro and attempting to ally himself with a Haman-led Neo Zeon, who still holds onto the Zabi principles he hated.
• Character Shilling: Happens a lot, but never to the point of Informed Attribute - he's still the Red Comet. Read: I Just Want to Be Normal below for the reasons to why.
• Clark Kenting: What his "disguise" amounts to. It works in that very few people in the Federation-controlled regions actually know what Char Aznable looked like under the mask - and certainly would never expect him to join AEUG - but even in the first episode you see people guessing that they're being attacked by the Red Comet when he still handles his mobile suits as well as he does. Unsurprisingly, the few people who have seen Char's face aren't fooled by his disguise for long.
• Color Motif: One guess, three letters. His uniform, his normal suit (though it's the same shade as his last one), and his first mobile suit all comply.
• Cool Shades: Part of his disguise as Quattro. ...Pretty much his entire disguise as Quattro, actually.
• Custom Uniform: The AEUG doesn't exactly have strict rules, but Char's still the only one walking around in bright red. His sunglasses and sleeveless jacket are almost as iconic as his cape, mask, helmet and gold trim of before. He also has another salmon-pink normal suit.
• Cyber Cyclops: Played Straight with the Rick Dias, but Averted for the Hyaku Shiki (It was initially designed to be a Gundam after all). It's the only Char suit, in the main cartoon canon at least, to not be a mono-eye. It allows the suit to stand out from the rest of Char's more sinister looking antagonist suits, which is fitting for his Anti-Hero status.
• Enemy Mine: He and Amuro still don't get along most of the time they're onscreen together, but realize that their differences can wait. Their famous rivalry simmers down considerably during this period.
• Fair-Weather Mentor: He honestly likes Kamille and tries to guide him, but being weighed down by his own issues makes him a hit-or-miss at best mentor. He's not an outright Anti-Mentor because his intentions (at least at this point in time) are good, and he's not The Obi-Wannabe because he's not actively trying to lead Kamille or anyone else, but he's still got way too much baggage and is only entrusted with mentorship of others because of his charisma and family name. This is tragically proven in the fate of Katz, whom Hayato inexplicably entrusts him with and he then proceeds to more or less ignore completely — despite initially making grand verbal promises of mentoring the kid.
• Fantastic Racism: While not overt about it, Char's interpretation of the Rhetoric of Zeon has some shades of this. Some of his statements about Earthlings seem to imply he views them as having an inherent malice to them stemming in part from their birthplace. In series it's very clear he views the Titans as evil because of their actions rather than where they were born, but in his next appearance this becomes a major part of his characterization.
• Flawed Prototype: The Hyaku-Shiki was supposed to be the transforming Delta Gundam, but the technicians couldn't make the Wave Rider mode work properly. As is, it's still a high-end mobile suit that Quattro can control like his own arms and legs, but it's his skill alone that manages to keep him alive in the thing, considering how much higher everything he goes against is on the tech scale.
• Foil: To Bask Om - both are veterans of the One Year War, both are in positions of power in their respective organizations, and both primarily appear wearing eyewear. However, Quattro learns not to hold grudges from that time period, as evident by the fact that he fights alongside members of White Base (even Amuro, despite the fact that neither have gotten over Lalah Sune); Bask, on the other hand, is never given a reason for his Colonel Kilgore elements in the show^note while supplementary materials give him a reason, no reason is given in Zeta. Also notable that even at his worst, Quattro is still nowhere near as bad as Bask.
• Four Is Death: Quattro means "four". In a more meta sense, it's also the fourth name the character has gone by. Although Char is alive at the end, "Quattro Bajeena" has not only vanished but is dead. Char never uses the alias or the persona again.
• Fragile Speedster: The Hyaku-Shiki is fast, maneuverable, and well-armed, and its anti-beam coating should make it resistant to beam weaponry. Yet the show repeatedly demonstrates that it simply doesn't have the durability of other Super Prototypes, like the Zeta Gundam, The O, and the Qubeley, and it is frequently manhandled at close ranges; the impression is that anyone less than a legendary One Year War veteran wouldn't last very long in it. Although when you consider that the Hyaku-Shiki was to be a Transforming Mecha as the Delta Gundam (see Super Prototype below), he was just probably shortchanged.
• Good Is Not Nice: Although Quattro is generally pleasant and cooperative, his Lack of Empathy and subsequent failings also drives Kamille to scream at him and hit him, repeatedly – especially after his emotional issues push troubled Reccoa to defect to the Titans. Although he never follows up on any of his disgust, Jerk with a Heart of Gold Kamille is this to his senpai; conversely Char is probably closer to Nice Is Not Good. Still, it's only towards the end of the show that he starts acting in ways that foreshadow Char's Counterattack at all.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: A mix. Char's forehead scar doesn't disfigure him at all, and would probably be of the impressive variety if he weren't trying to obscure it the entire time. As it represents his unfinished business with Amuro and gives him another excuse to keep his eyes covered, there's nothing actually "good" about it — he is a 'marked man' and carries his villainy from the OYW with him, however much he tries to be "Quattro". See Scars Are Forever.
• Hero with an F in Good: He's making an effort to be good, but his difficulty in showing empathy for others and numerous other psychological issues ultimately end up undercutting it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Char was last seen attempting a mutual kill against Haman in the final stages of the Gryps Conflict. He fails - they both survive.
• Hypocrite: Whether it's lecturing Amuro on getting over Lalah, getting mad at Haman for manipulating a member of the Zabi family, or being outraged by Axis-Zeon's treachery, Char spends most of the show calling people out on things he has no right to call them out on. Although if you will consider the next trope, it probably makes sense that he was trying to distinguish himself as "Quattro" from his time as "Char."
• I Just Want to Be Normal: He's way happier as a battlefield pilot and Big Brother Mentor for the AEUG than a political figure - which is a bit of a problem for everyone else, since as the Red Comet and the son of Zeon Deikun, he'd be a really useful political figure. In fact, Haman outright hates him for it. The last handful of episodes show Char's frustration at not being allowed to go out and fight, as by this point he has become the AEUG's de facto leader. At the same time, he clearly feels that someone has to do it, and is being crushed by having to be that someone.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He defected from Zeon when it was under Haman's leadership and is clearly devoted to the cause of freeing the space colonies from the Titans' oppression. While his Lack of Empathy is still a problem, the majority of his actions as Quattro are fundamentally altruistic.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: To Kamille.
• Mr. Fanservice: Due to a coloring error that ended up sticking, Quattro's version of the AEUG uniform foregoes sleeves and leaves his bare muscular arms on display. ^note Henken has the "proper" take on the uniform, as he has white sleeves. If you go searching online, you can still see early promotional art of Quattro with white sleeves as intended. This trope is played up even more in promotional materials and figures, such as art for A New Translation, that give the idea his uniform is actually more along the lines of Sensual Spandex and fits his legs accordingly.
• No Sympathy: Even when attempting to empathise with people, Quattro at best manages to hit this trope, acknowledging why they feel the way they do, and still not caring or responding appropriately the majority of the time.
• Oblivious to Love: Due to his Lack of Empathy, Quattro tends not to realize when women are in love with him until they make it absolutely clear to him.
• Open Secret: Quattro's true identity being Char. As explained below, if people aren't outright aware, they are extremely suspicious. Amuro is the only person who refuses to humor him on this and calls him Char in all their conversations (he does, however, do him the courtesy of referring to him as "Lt. Quattro" when speaking to other people). When Haman Karn openly names Quattro as Char, Kamille snarks that at that point it's not much of a secret.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Quattro's shades, in general. The fact that his AEUG uniform is also carrying the same color scheme as his Zeon outfit emphasizes it further.
  • Somewhat justified in that there are only two (living) people in the entire universe who actually saw what Char looked like under the mask. (Although probably more knew what he sounded like)
  • Even then, it's implied that most people in the AEUG know who he really is, but keep quiet since he isn't admitting it himself.
  • Bright Noa accidentally cuts through his disguise almost immediately, as he refers to him as Captain Quattro on instinct (Captain was Char's rank in the Zeon military). Char corrects him by saying his rank is Lieutenant.
• Punny Name: Octopussy was the last James Bond film before Zeta was produced. The odds that this isn't how Tomino came up with "Quattro Vageena" are slim.
• Redemption Demotion: When Char took on his role as Quattro, his performance tanked. He can still take down mooks with ease but against named characters, he'll often get kicked around. The Watsonian versus Doylist reasons are easy to understand. In-Universe; suit design has improved considerably while his Hyaku-Shiki is a Flawed Prototype, Newtypes are quite advanced and powerful while he's still fairly weak, and the AEUG simply doesn't have the resources to give him a powerful suit like Zeon and Neo Zeon did. Out of universe, Quattro being narratively on par with Char would just end conflicts too easily and overshadow Kamille's role in the story as The Hero.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Kamille's Red. Ironic considering Char's Color Motif is Red and Kamille's is blue. Red to Haman's Blue.
• Replacement Goldfish: Attempts to have the same sort of Morality Pet relationship with teenage Newtype Kamille that he had with Lalah Sune in the One Year War, this time as a Morality Chain. It works out just as well, with both he and Amuro lampshading comments about history repeating.
• The Reveal: Astonishingly downplayed. In the tv series the man gets up before the Federation assembly at Dakar and willingly tells the entire world in a broadcast that he's not only Char Aznable of Zeon but also Casval Rem Deikun...and it essentially has no effect on anything at all; likely why it was cut from the compilation movies.
• Scars Are Forever: Ironically, in MSG people only believed he was keeping his face covered due to some disfigurement, as a dying officer told an unmasked, bleeding Char — he now actually has a prominent scar on his forehead, between his eyebrows, from that climactic Sword Fight with Amuro in the last show. The wound was saved from being fatal by his old mask. The large Eighties-style sunglasses that he has to replace the mask tend to hide most of the scar. ^note By contrast, we see Amuro shirtless and there's no trace of his matching arm wound from the same fight, even when it was in a far less dramatically-significant place. The fact that it is forever and that Char does nothing about it tend to point to it as more-than-something of a Mark of Shame.
• Secret Identity: Casval Rem Deikun, arguably Edouard Mass, and Char Aznable. He keeps racking them up.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: He's the only guy in the AEUG with a sleeveless uniform.
• The Sociopath: Downplayed as compared to Mobile Suit Gundam or Char's Counterattack, but it's not like a personality disorder is the sort of thing that goes away. His limited emotional affect is on full display, his Lack of Empathy is practically crippling at times (and called out repeatedly by Kamille), and he remains a self-confessed Blood Knight and a Secret Identity guy who can't help the self-glorification with flashy mobile suits and ridiculous Custom Uniforms.
• Spell My Name With An S: Quattro's last name has many romanisations, including but not limited to Bajeena/Bagina/Vagina/Vageena/Vajeena. The Gundam Perfect Files, which are usually a good source on proper romanisations (particularly for Gundam series that have not been licensed in America) spells it as Vageena. For obvious reasons, English speaking fans refer to him as Quattro Bajeena, which is Bandai Entertainment's chosen romanisation.
• Spoiler Opening: Even before it is explicitly confirmed in the story, the narrator always refers to Quattro as Char. The ending credits don't even bother, either, just saying "Char Aznable".
• Super Prototype: The Hyaku-Shiki (It apparently began life as the MSN-001 Delta Gundam as detailed in Mobile Suit Variations, supposed to have its own Wave Rider mode prior to the Zeta — hence the verniers at its back. However, because said mechanics wouldn't have been practical or even worked at the time, what they finished building was reworked into was turned into the Hyaku-Shiki. The concept was revisited in the Delta+).
• Sunglasses at Night: In space, as opposed to at night, though he removes them when he needs to wear a normal/pilot suit helmet.
• Taking the Bullet: When the Hambrabi team unveil the "Sea Serpents", a whip-like grappling weapon, they nearly defeat Kamille. Quattro saves him from a fatal strike by using the Hyaku Shiki to block it, an action that nearly kills Quattro when he's knocked into Earth's gravity.
• Taking You with Me: Tries it on Haman. They both survive.
• Theme Naming: Quattro is the fourth name The Red Comet has used, after Casval Rem Deikun, Edouard Mass and Char Aznable.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Though he's never completely sympathetic, Char was at his most heroic here. Zeta toned down his arrogance, gave him a number of Pet the Dog moments, and his rivalry with Amuro cooled to a point of mutual respect. Even his characteristic Lack of Empathy, while better hidden, was used to show the difficulty that Char has connecting with other people. When he returns to his old ways Amuro is furious, but also disappointed that Char abandoned his attempts at being a better person.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: His mobile suit is still called the Hyaku Shiki even in English translations instead of the "Type 100". Justified in supplementary materials, as the scientist who designed it was Japanese (specifically a Tuckerization of Mamoru Nagano).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His failure to properly handle the affections of Haman and Reccoa due to his inability to connect to others results in a major antagonist on one front that goes onto ZZ, and a traitor that defects to the Titans respectively.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Though he never remarks on his thoughts on the deaths of the Zabis that he had looked so forward to previously, it becomes rather obvious that Char-as-Quattro simply isn't very "into it" at the AEUG. Compared most of the cast's earnest beliefs or Character Development in their growth, Quattro is so much more passive than his Char self that it inclines he simply doesn't know what to do after fulfilling his life's goal and ended up with the AEUG to try to fill that in. Then the Gryps Conflict happened, and any sense of resolution gets horribly upended by Char's dark return.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Mega Bazooka Launcher, which is neither a bazooka nor used to launch things.

Tropes exclusive to him in Char's Counterattack

Voice Actors: Shūichi Ikeda (Japanese), Michael Kopsa (English)

Main mecha: MSN-04 Sazabi

Having been MIA since the final battle of the Gryps conflict, Char went into hiding for several years, accumulating power and support from different colonies that sought retribution for being mistreated and neglected by the increasingly corrupt Earth Federation. After making his rise to power public, Char wastes no time in spearheading the second Neo Zeon war that aims to eliminate the Federation and the conflicts it creates, even if it means having to also eliminate everyone on the planet to do so.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Nanai and Quess are both very much in love with him (though Quess's particular love is more an insane case of Mad Love) but in either case Char doesn't return the favor.
• An Arm and a Leg: Char's suits have often been dismembered, but here the Sazabi losing its arm marks the turning point in the final battle and it all goes downhill for him from there.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Char embraces his position as Zeon Zum Deikun's son in this film. He's also at his most flat out crazy. Make of that what you will.
• Attack Drones: The Sazabi's funnels.
• Big Bad: After stints as a Dragon with an Agenda and an Anti-Hero, Char finally steps up as the leader of Neo-Zeon and the primary threat to not only the Earth Federation, but the survival of the human race as a whole.
• Bigger Stick: The Sazabi (and its novelization upgrade, the Nightingale), which is equipped with every major piece of military technology we've seen developed across the course of the Universal Century. No other machine, save Amuro's Nu-Gundam, stands a chance against it.
• Can't Catch Up: Char has always been just a step behind Amuro in terms of piloting ability and raw Newtype power, and events of the film are no different. Downplayed, as being a step behind the single most talented pilot in all of Universal Century is nothing to sneeze at.
• Colony Drop: His master plan. He plans to drop the Axis asteroid into Earth to force mankind to migrate into space with the hopes they can evolve into Newtypes.
• Color Motif: Red again.
• The Corrupter: By this point in his life, he's lost all the ability he had in Zeta to influence people's lives for the better and can only drag others down with him into his whirlpool of self-destructive negativity. This is emphasised much more strongly in Beltorchika's Children, which compares Char's corruptive influence on Gyunei and Quess to Amuro's resolve to be a better man for the sake of his not-yet born son. Even the heroes are influenced by Char's corruption; when Kayra charges too far ahead, it's said to be unusual behavior for her, and she laments how all the followers of Neo Zeon have been "twisted" right before Gyunei shows up to prove it.
• Cult of Personality: Char's had one of these going since the days of the One Year War, when the Zabis promoted him as a war hero to encourage others to join up. Char capitalizes on both that cult, and his status as Zeon Zum Deikun's son, in order to hasten his rise to power and secure it once he's there.
• Cyber Cyclops: The MSN-04 Sazabi is intended to evoke older Zeonic mobile suits, most notably the Zaku IIs that Char originally became famous flying.
• Dark Messiah: Char presents himself as Neo-Zeon's saviour, and regards himself as one for the rest of the world. His methods however, go beyond the pale.
• Deuteragonist: Hathaway and Quess might be along for the ride, but Char is the most important character in the film after Amuro Ray. There's a reason his name is in the title.
• Evilutionary Biologist: While not a scientist, he believes that forcing humanity to leave Earth and have them live in space will ultimately allow them to evolve into Newtypes, which technically is part of how it works.
• Evil Is Bigger: Both the Sazabi and Nightingale are monstrously huge Mobile Suits that are just shy of being outright Mobile Armors, especially the barely-humanoid Nightingale. They'd fit right in with Scirocco's justifiably-oversized suits.
• Evil Mentor: To Gyunei, who he successfully twists from a Colony Drop victim into a ruthless soldier who helps drop colonies, and Quess, who is transformed under his influence from an idealistic Spoiled Brat with daddy issues into a sociopathic Tyke Bomb.
• Fallen Hero: From his Quattro Bajeena days. He's not only reverted to how he was in Mobile Suit Gundam, he's gotten worse.
• Frontline General: Char sets grand strategy, but leaves tactical battlefield considerations to Nanai and his other officers, preferring to sortie himself in the Sazabi.
• Glorious Leader: In much the same vein as Gihren Zabi and Haman, using his reputation, and promises to restore his father's legacy as the cement that holds his incarnation of Neo-Zeon together. Unlike them, he thinks all the capes and speeches are embarrassing and only goes through the motions because it’s politically necessary.
• The Heavy: The film is called Char's Counterattack for a reason. Without him there wouldn't be a plot. Helpfully, he's also the Big Bad.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He, like Gihren Zabi, pushes the rhetoric of the Spacenoids being a superior evolved race who're above the squabbles of the humans. There's even the implication that he, like Gihren, is mostly using the Zeon rhetoric for his own ends. Char's Colony Drop is of course meant to invoke Zeon's infamous act in their declaration of war.
  • He's also become like Scirocco in that he's using his charisma to the point of manipulating a young teenage girl's feelings for him, just like Scirocco's manipulation of Sarah.
• Honor Before Reason: Only as far as Amuro is concerned, but he plays this trope straight constantly throughout the film: Sending his enemies the blueprints for the Psycoframe as he thought it would be pointless to defeat Amuro if he wasn't piloting a competitive Mobile Suit, refusing to use his funnels against Amuro's Re-GZ, not ordering Gyunei to crush him while he's unarmed and out of his Mobile Suit inside the colony, and not taking the opportunity to destroy the Nu-Gundam when he finds it unoccupied while Amuro is inside Axis. Amuro does not reciprocate.
  • It could also be argued that there was no reason not to give these advantages to Amuro, since strategically he would have won in the end anyways. As his goal was to ram Axis into the Earth, so long as he prevented Londo Bell from disabling all of its nuclear thrusters, his personal defeat at Amuro's hands wouldn't matter. Unfortunately, he wasn't counting on those same Psycoframes to resonate and cause the Axis Shock.
• I Surrender, Suckers: And the Federation completely falls for it.
• Ironic Echo: In the Beltorchika's Children novelization, when Quess confronts him about being a substitute to Lalah he tells her to save one of Alpha Azieru's funnels to use on him if he betrays her. This echoes a scene from Zeta where fellow Manipulative Bastard Paptimus Scirocco tells Reccoa Londe that she can stab him in the heart if he ever betrays her.
• It's Personal: Despite all of the grand motivations and visions he announced to the world, Char very much also wants revenge against Amuro because of what happened to Lalah. Gyunei happens to figure out this aspect of his motivation later on, which costs Char Gyunei's loyalty.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Continues to manipulate everyone emotionally for his own gains, and unlike with Lalah, they all lack his concern.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Finally runs out here, and following another climactic defeat at Amuro's hands at that. The Axis Shock finally rids the Universal Century of Char once and for all.. or at least, the real Char.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: His uniform and his mobile suit are his usual red, though his pilot suit is gold.
• The Lost Lenore: Char is not over Lalah. Everyone Can See It, he's still blaming Amuro, and according to Gyunei, she's been haunting his sleep through several bedmates. It seems to play a substantial part in fueling his Sanity Slippage.
• Manipulative Bastard: His mastery of manipulation is at its peak here, as he deftly exploits the motivations of everyone around him to get them to do whatever he wants them to do.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The Sazabi is Char's ultimate upgrade... But only in the movie, as the novelization gives him the Nightingale.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: When Gyunei is trying to drive away Quess, he mentions rumors Char likes teenage girls due to his obsession for Lalah. In reality, Char has no romantic interest in Quess and calls her feelings for him "annoying". Bizarrely, he even says he wanted Lalah as a mother figure. It's strongly implied, however, that he reciprocates so well to Quess's adoration because they are on the exact same level emotionally, and his adult partner Nanai becomes very jealous of Quess's presence, to the point of slapping her and bitterly saying "that little girl...", although it's unclear whether she means Lalah or Quess.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The political ideology he preaches and the image he presents is eerily similar to that of Gihren Zabi and Glemy Toto, the UC's Hitler analogues.
• Necessarily Evil: Thinks what he's doing is necessary for the future of mankind.
• Never Found the Body: Following Axis Shock, when the Sazabi's cockpit is recovered there is no sign of his body. He appears to have Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence when his Psychoframe reacted with Amuro's, causing them both to be turned into pure psychic energy. His remaining memories and consciousness then were used to create Full Frontal.
• Never My Fault: Char refuses to accept any of the blame for what happened to Lalah, holding Amuro responsible for the entire affair. While it's true that it's Amuro who killed her, it was Char who turned her into a weapon, first handing her over to Kycilia Zabi's Newtype project, and then personally supervising her deployment. Though even when Amuro pointed it out to him back then, he believed it was justified in helping Lalah awaken as a Newtype. He also tries to hold humanity responsible for his actions in the film, saying that he's doing it to save them from themselves.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zigzagged. After pretending to be a visionary and Reasonable Authority Figure, he tells Amuro he doesn't care "about any of that". How much is him actually telling the truth and how much is him lying both himself and Amuro is up for debate, as in the very end of Char's Counterattack, he sheds tears at the idea of the entire Earth sphere having to face the consequences of their actions if he doesn't put a stop to it. He's still convinced that what he's doing is right, but isn't as fully committed to it as everyone under his command would believe.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He saves Gyunei at the beginning of the film when Amuro has him dead to rights. He later states that it was because Gyunei is too valuable a pilot to lose.
• Psychic Powers: Char's been a weak Newtype since MSG. Here he's able to use the Psycommu system, the Biosensor, and the newly developed Psychoframe technologies to massively amplify his power level, making him a deadly threat to everyone but Amuro, who has the same technology, and greater innate psychic ability.
• Pure Is Not Good: Lalah Sune calls him "pure" in Amuro's Dream Sequence, as he's idealistic to a very tragic fault and runs more on his emotions
• Putting on the Reich: Not quite to Gihren's level, but still very much there.
• Rival Final Boss: He's Amuro's last opponent in the Universal Century timeline.
• Sanity Slippage: Char was never a nice guy. But even so, he's become far less stable, and far less empathetic than he was in MSG, let alone Zeta.
• Super Prototype: The Sazabi, which is equipped with the new Psycoframe technology.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was already badass, but given his relatively poor performance in Zeta, this could definitely be argued.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Especially notable from coming off of Zeta. Char is at his bleakest here, killing thousands of people with his Colony Drop and conspiring to kill even more to force the population into space. Char's manipulative tendencies are at the forefront as he uses Quess to his own ends as a super-weapon and all of his kinder acts to his comrades can easily be seen as a pragmatic means to control them. At the end of the day a not insignificant part of his goal is to have a final duel with Amuro and he'll endanger any amount of people to let that happen.
• Tragic Villain: Ultimately, Char is a broken man who's attachment to the past has caused him to go mad. And his motivations are fuelled by his vengeance against his rival Amuro.
• Visionary Villain: Char has a vision for the future. It involves an uninhabited earth, and the entire population moving out into space, where they will evolve into Newtypes.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Mounted on the Sazabi's waist.
• You Are What You Hate: Despite his vendetta against the Zabis in the original series, Char has more-or-less become a fascistic dictator in the same vein as Gihren. Like Gihren, he uses a Master Race philosophy to justify committing war crimes, and while he does hold some beliefs in the Zeon ideology, like Gihren he's also using it for his own personal ambitions, that being to finally settle his score with Amuro.