Characters / Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Kingdom Of Foundation

aka: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom The Foundation

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Character Index
SEED Main Characters | SEED Destiny Main Characters
Factions: Three Ship Alliance/Terminal/Compass | Earth Alliance | ZAFT | Orb Union | Kingdom of Foundation
Others: Other factions and characters

Spoilers for all previous Gundam entries in the Cosmic Era continuity, including Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, will be left unmarked.

A new emerging nation in the Cosmic Era introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, having gained independence from the Eurasian Federation with the support of ZAFT. They initially assist Compass in the postwar period, but appears to have a connection with the late Chairman Durandal and/or his Destiny Plan...

In General

• BFS: Each Ru.dro-A comes equipped with a black anti-ship sword.
• Caped Mecha: The Shi-ve.A and the four Ru.dro-As each have a red "beam mantle" that not only acts as a defensive tool, but can also be used as slashing weapon.
• Child Soldiers: Implied that they all were these (or still currently for the younger members). The novel confirms that they were raised in a type of education facility.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: They are a smaller nation with powerful technologies, comprised of members hailing from other parts of the world, where the bulk of their forces used second-hand mobile suits (namely the DINN and GINN) purchased from other nations, rather than their own domestic models for their rank-and-file. On a more personal level, the Foundation as a whole are genuinely evil rather than having many redeeming qualities compared to Le Creuset (who is very evil but has Pet the Dog moments) and Durandal, whose plans they are taking and tailoring for their own benefit rather than a misguided attempt to direct mankind. Unlike Le Creuset who fights the Clyne Faction on relatively even terms technologically and Durandal who can challenge the ideals of Kira and Lacus, Orphee and the Black Knights rely on an overwhelming technology advantage and mind powers to fight Compass while Aura uses force rather than having any arguments to challenge Lacus.
• Crapsaccharine World: While it seems that the Kingdom has Coordinators and Naturals living in peace, in actuality, Coordinators run the kingdom. In the novel, Athrun and Meyrin discover the bodies of protestors and the reason why - a sign demanding an end to the Destiny Plan, proving everyone’s misgivings about it back in Destiny.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Foundation's Femtek armor, being built to fight against beam warfare makes it an excellent choice against the Rising Freedom and the Strike Freedom Type II. However, against pilots like Athrun and Shinn, who specialize in Melee and pilot units like the Infinite Justice Type II and the Destiny Spec II. which both specialize in melee, the Foundation's mobile suits gets quickly destroyed.
• Death by Irony: The Black Knights mocked Shinn's inability to fight well with a sword and for using the outdated Destiny against them. Except for Shura, all of them were killed by Shinn while Redelard had her unit disabled enough for Hilda to finish her off. Double irony for Liu as he gets killed by the Destiny's own sword.
• Expy: Their supremacist beliefs, visions for a new world order, conception through genetic engineering, and their Psychic Powers make the Black Knights practical dead ringers for the Innovators/Innovades.
• Fantastic Racism: They're Coordinators with the same mindset as Patrick Zala, Blue Cosmos, or LOGOS.
• Godzilla Threshold: After the events of SEED Destiny, Mobile suits running on nuclear power/ equipped with N-Jammer Cancellers were banned for both casual use, suppression, and warfare. The Foundation trying to revive the Destiny Plan piss off Compass and their backers enough to the point where not only are some of the most powerful suits from SEED Destiny reinstated, but the Strike Freedom, Infinite Justice, Destiny and Impulse in particular are rebuilt from the ground up with significant boosts in strength and equipment. The abilities of the Mighty Strike Freedom require Lacus's permission and if she is allowing such weapons to be used, it is a sure sign the Foundation are too dangerous to leave unchallenged.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Inverted. The Royal Guard all use swords and are very much villains.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The entire Royal Guard are all elite, skilled pilots in their own rights with powerful mental abilities who are more than capable of giving Kira and co. a run for their money; all of them end up contributing to their own defeats when their mind powers end up backfiring:
  • Shura was doing well enough against Athrun, but when he tried to read his mind, the image he saw (Athrun thinking of his girlfriend naked) ended up completely throwing him off his game to the point where he stops focusing on the battle as much as he's stuck wondering why the hell anyone would think of that during a fight to the death.
  • The four Ru.dro-A pilots try to use their mental attack to have Shinn "fall into darkness" like Kira did earlier in the movie. Unfortunately for them, said "darkness" was blocked off by Stellar Loussier's soul who instantly fights back to protect Shinn and proves too much for them to handle, leaving them wide open for Shinn to take advantage of. The novel doubles down on this as when they synchronize their thoughts, they feel the same thing each other feels. This backfires on them badly as they did not consider that Shinn would actually hurt them so when Redelard gets killed, the other three fighting him all experience the same shock she felt when she died.
• Logical Weakness:
  • The Accords' ability to mind control are far from perfect, as it can be overcome by those (aside from) with indomitable will, supernatural connection with the deceased (Shinn), or any irregularities, or in this case perverse thoughts, coming out of the target's mind to throw the user off-balance (Athrun). Not only that, but they don't have any defenses against their own reactions to said resistance, making them the exact same sitting ducks they were trying to make their opponents into.
  • The Femtech armor on their personal MS makes their machines not only almost impervious to long-range beam weaponry (but NOT point-blank shots or beam sabers), but able to use it as a power source... So during the final battle, not only does Compass whip out every single banned machine they have access to (Meaning almost endgame-level MS from the end of SEED Destiny), but their tactics entirely rely on physical armaments and/or extreme close combat when dealing with them (In particular, the Mighty Strike Freedom is equipped with an Red Frame-style katana because the original MS's nature of being a long-range unit means that, for how powerful it was in the preceding series, it's ironically the WORST choice against Foundation's machines.)
  • The Accord's psychic abilities allow them to link their minds, creating a network of sorts, allowing all of them to work together in perfect sync. They see everything, share their thoughts, effectively becoming one being with multiple bodies. However, this also means that if anything happens to any one of them, the entire network suffers the same fate. When the Black Knights tries to Mind Rape Shinn, it backfires horrifically and leaves them opened for Hilda to cut down Redell in one go. Her last second screams before death ends up mentally scarring every other Black Knight there and leaving them wide open, allowing a golden opportunity for Shinn to finish them.
• Mecha-Mooks: The four Ru.dro-As are usually accompanied by unmanned GINNs and DINNs (officially referred to as the GINN-R and DINN-R) to compensate for their lack of firepower.
• Multinational Team: Their members, judging by their names, possibly hail from multiple locations, from the Atlantic Federation (Daniel Harper) to as far as the Republic of East Asia (Liu Shenqiang).
• Mythology Gag: Their use of GINNs and DINNs as unmanned drones recall Mobile Suit Gundam Wing's Mobile Dolls, which are used by a rival faction (Romefeller Foundation, White Fang).
• No-Sell: All of the mobile suits used by the Black Knight Squad have "Femtek (FT) Armor" that makes them all but impervious to long-range beam weaponry and unlike Phase Shift, does not require power to use. Shinn got around this by firing point blank, as Griffin found out the hard way.
• Obviously Evil: They're so blatantly nefarious in aesthetic and demeanor that the synopsis and trailers didn't even bother hiding their true nature.
• Palette Swap: Aside from having the Foundation emblem on their left shoulders, the only difference that the GINN-F and DINN-F have from their original ZAFT counterparts are their color schemes, being navy blue instead of gray and purple respectively.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: They gave Blue Cosmos A Taste of Their Own Medicine by firing a nuclear warhead on to their military base. Given this is how they started the First Bloody Valentine War that resulted in countless of Coordinator deaths, it's poetic justice to say the least.
• Psychic Powers: The Accords possess psychic abilities, being able to sharing a mental link with other Coordinators and can even outright put them under a form of Mind Control. This understandably catches the heroes off-guard for a while until their will and The Power of Love overpowers their mental attacks.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their sigil is red and black, and they are clad in wardrobe bearing the same colors. Suffice to say, they're an Obviously Evil nation.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The fifth trailer has a brief shot where the Ru.dro-A "Sapphire" has bright red eyes.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Their ace suits are named after Hindu deities - Shiva for Shura's commander suit, and Rudra for the Black Knights' members. This also extends to Cal-re.A for Orphee and Ingrid's MS.
• Remember the New Guy?: Created for the movie, they have not been a part of any economic bloc in the Cosmic Era. They weren't even seen among smaller nations like the Kingdom of Scandinavia or Orb! Possibly justified by the implication it's a newly founded nation which was only just breaking away from the Eurasian Federation during the events of Destiny so it didn't have enough influence or power to matter alongside the neutral nations until the events of the film.
• Speed Echoes: The Ru.dro-As are capable of creating after-images similar to the ones used by the Destiny Gundam. And then in the finale, Shinn proceeds to outdo them at their own game, when he uses the Destiny Gundam to create far more after-image clones before overwhelming them.
  Shinn: This is how you fight with duplicates!!
• Suave Saber: Members of the Black Knight Squad all carry sabres.
• Synchronization: The Black Knights can synchronize their minds to achieve perfect coordination as one unified life form to enhance their fighting tactics. This is also a huge weakness as they share each other's emotions and even pain where Liu, Daniel and Griffin suffers the shock Redelard felt when she gets killed. Griffin gets it the worst as Shinn kills him last, dying as he experienced the deaths of Redelard, Liu and Daniel first-hand.
• Teens Are Monsters: The Black Knights are all teenagers except for Ingrid and Orphee who are 20-years old, albeit a year late from being a teenager. Except for Ingrid, they all have a cruelty streak from their inherent abilities and powerful weaponry. Overlaps with Kids Are Cruel for Aura if it wasn't for the fact that she is actually a lot older than she looks.
• Underestimating Badassery: After beating the Rising Freedom and Immortal Justice with the technology gap, the Black Knights casually mock Compass for counterattacking them with the Destiny Gundam. That very machine along with Shinn Asuka's skills was what caused three of them to die and assisted Hilda with killing one of them too.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Except for Shura and possibly Orphee, all the Black Knights rely on having a significant technological advantage and mind control powers. Even with the technologically inferior Infinite Justice Type II and Destiny Spec. II, that was more than enough for Athrun and Shinn to close the technological gap and defeat the Black Knights with their skills and experience.
• Viler New Villain: For all his crimes, Durandal was acting out of a genuine but misguided desire to direct mankind to a better world, while the Foundation acts out of a belief they are superior to everyone else and thus should rule over all. Their beliefs in genetic superiority has also made them very racist towards Naturals, something Durandal was not.
• Villainous Friendship: The Black Knight Squad are implied to have a genuine comradery with each other: Liu, Griffin, and Daniel all scream in agony when Redelard is killed, while Ingrid and Orphee react negatively to Shura's death.

Leadership

Aura Maha Khyber

Main ship: Gullveig

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Lizzie Freeman (English)

The Foundation's queen, and a former geneticist associate of Gilbert Durandal and Ulen Hibiki.

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• Abusive Parents: Aura's true personality is that of a controlling and emotionally abusive mother who demands total and absolute obedience with no questions asked. Though she shows genuine affection and care for the Black Knight Squad, who sees them as her children, the same cannot be said for Lacus; whom she has used to manipulate world governments.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: The fifth trailer has a scene of her petting Redelard and Daniel on the head as they lay on her lap.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Orphee. The two work together to control the world, with complete trust on a united goal.
• Chemically-Induced Insanity: Downplayed. An accident with anti-aging chemicals Aura was researching turned her into her current child form. She did not go inherently insane from the ordeal but the humiliation of being turned into a child contributed (but definitely not the only cause) to her power-hungry character in the present day.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • To Rau Le Creuset. They are both the Big Bad of their organizations and blonde-haired commanders who have had their age altered through artificial means that they do not intend. An accident made Aura younger while Creuset ages faster due to being a clone. Aura stays on the backlines in a battleship while relying on her technological advantage while Creuset constantly fights on the front-lines using typical ZAFT Mook machines against his opponents before getting the Providence Gundam. Their biggest difference is how they treat their underlings and younger people where Aura may be genuinely caring but is also extremely controlling and demanding, even hitting Ingrid. Creuset unquestionably killed Flay but he did treat her relatively well for a POW and gave Athrun and Yzak good treatment as their commander. Creuset also genuinely cared for Rey very well by bringing up the boy when he could.
  • To Durandal and Lord Djibril, being the Non-Action Big Bad who runs an evil organization except she's more of an evil empress rather than a corrupt chairman or a terrorist leader. Furthermore, while Durandal conceived the Destiny Plan as a means of ending all conflict, and Djibril was a Natural extremist that sought to exterminate the Coordinators, Aura is herself a Coordinator that seeks to implement her own version of the Destiny Plan and establish a Coordinator-dominated society over the Earth Sphere.
• Corrupted Character Copy: In keeping with the Cosmic Era's reinterpretation of characters of the Universal Century, she on the surface would fit the Mineva Lao Zabi role of being the blonde child leader of a faction, but this is indeed only surface level. Mineva was in effect a figurehead and the real power was always with Haman Karn, whereas Aura is very much the genuine leader and Orphee is her loyal subject. Mineva was also genuinely a young child whereas Aura is a 50 year old woman who managed to reverse her aging. Related to this, Mineva would often try and act older than she was whereas Aura acts like she actually is a child throwing a temper tantrum when things don't go her way.
• Dirty Coward: For all of her queenly bluster, Aura attempts to flee for her life the moment Murrue and her crew were about to ram her ship with the Millennium.
• Fountain of Youth: She's actually 50 years old. Aura researched this trope but did not intend to use it on herself. An accident caused her to be covered in the product which reverted her into her current form.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Don't let her childlike appearance fool you, further highlighting her nature as an authoritarian and controlling monarch. Even would be dissidents who criticize the Destiny Plan may end up dead.
• Gone Horribly Right: Aura was researching anti-aging solutions to alleviate the low-birthrate of Coordinators. An accident drenched her in the chemicals where she began de-aging over the course of a few months until she de-aged to her current child form.
• High-Class Fan: She carries one.
• The High Queen: She is the ruling monarch of the Foundation.
• It's Personal: Oh, she really, really hates the late Ulen Hibiki. Whom she saw as a bitter rival in the field of genetics who always got in her way. However, since Hibiki is no longer around, she instead directs all her hatred towards Kira Yamato, who is his son and legacy. Kira contributing to Durandal's death at the end of Destiny gives her further reason to hate him. She even passes up a golden opportunity to destroy ORB because Kira mocked and taunted over her failures to kill him previously causing her to fire Requiem at him which was easily evaded by the Millennium.
  Aura: How long will you stand in my way, Hibiki?!. I will shoot down the Freedom, obliterate Orb, and bury both your children beneath their ruins!!
• Ironic Name: Despite her holy-sounding namesake and regal appearance, she proves to be no better than the likes of the Blue Cosmos leaders and previous PLANTs chairmen in the racist department.
• Makeup Is Evil: She wears lipstick and eyeshadow that's even darker and thicker than Agnes'.
• Manipulative Bastard: Called this in-universe by Ulen Hibiki as she not only wants to manipulate genes, but also everyone else too.
• Mirror Character: A clear cut one to Patrick Zala. Both of them have a Master Race view on Coordinators. Aura seeks to impose her version of the Destiny Plan where Coordinators rule over the Earth Sphere.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: A stark contrast to Durandal's version of his Destiny Plan where Coordinators and Naturals will be treated as equal partners. Aura's version wants all Naturals subjugated while Coordinators remain a Master Race.
• Older Than She Looks: She's actually much older than she appears to be. An accident with her anti-aging research had her drenched in the chemicals which caused her current appearance. She is old enough that she considered Durandal to be considerably younger than her.
• Pet the Dog: Aura's anti-aging research appeared to have good intentions as she wanted to use it to address the issue of low birth-rates in the PLANTs.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: She's a crazy old lady in a child's body, coming at full display as soon as she starts throwing tantrums the moment things are going down south for her.
• Revenge Before Reason: Aura's childish temper was the start of her own defeat as she demanded that Requiem fire at the Millennium over Orb, despite that being almost impossible given the target's size while Orb would be a much more strategic move. Even Orphee found the order to be unreasonable but still carried it out nonetheless.
• Villainous Breakdown: Once the Mighty Strike Freedom wipes out the Foundation's fleet in one shot, Aura goes ballistic.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: Despite her childlike appearance, she's described as mature and intelligent. This is because she's actually 50 years old. However it's subverted in that Aura deep down can actually be quite childish, and is only mature when things are going her way. She notably passes up a chance to secure an easy win in immediately destroying Orb by impulsively wasting the shot on Kira (who can easily dodge it) because he opens a channel and taunts her.
• Young and in Charge: The Foundation's very young ruling queen. Except she's really around 50 years old.

Orphee Lam Tao

Main mecha: NOG-M2D1/E Black Knight Squad Cal-re.A

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Alejandro Saab (English)

The 20 year-old Chancellor of the Foundation.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite being a Hate Sink throughout most of the movie, his final battle with Kira eventually ends with him lamenting how he doesn't understand why he was so thoroughly rejected by both Lacus and the world when he'd been taught all his life that it was his destiny to save it and be with her. The novelization even has him constantly rejecting any internal realization about what Lacus says until his very final moments with Ingrid when he seems to finally recognize her feelings for him.
• An Arm and a Leg: His Cal-re.A loses its left arm while dueling against the Mighty Strike Freedom, and Orphee himself loses his right arm when the Futsunomitama is impaled deep into the right portion of the mobile suit's chest just an inch away from the MS' cockpit, as evident by blood gushing out where the blade cleaved his right arm.
• Char Clone: Lack of mask aside, Orphee has several traits of Neo Zeon Char, such as his overall appearance, being one of the main villains, and piloting the closest thing to a CE-equivalent of the Sazabi. His outfit, supernatural abilities and devolves him into being an Embryo clone.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Rau and Rey. He's a blond-haired, blue-eyed CE Char Clone and a Manipulative Bastard who pilots a white MS. Though unlike the previous two, his personal MS is not a Gundam-type, he is fully loyal to Aura, and he's madly in love with Lacus. Orphee is also considered an experiment gone right as an Accord compared to Rau and Rey who are both considered failed clones.
• Custom Uniform:
  • His outfit has fur around the collar, unlike the ones worn by Shura and the others. His cape is also longer, reaching his knees.
  • His pilot suit is white in the chest area with red stripes on the shoulders, and the helmet has red and white highlights.
• Drone Deployer: As per tradition. The Cal-re.A, which is partially based of the Strike Freedom, has eight sets of folding DRAGOONs that fold up into the backpack, easily trashing the latter's versions.
• Entitled to Have You: He believes himself to be the only one worthy enough for Lacus.
• Evil Counterpart: To Kira. Both of them are the military leaders of their respective opposing factions. Kira is an emphatic and a role model leader among the ranks in Compass, Orphee is a megalomaniacal Control Freak at his core, who like Aura, views people, Coordinators and Naturals alike to be subjugated. Kira and Lacus have a stable relationship through loyalty, trust, understanding, and compassion for each other. Orphee only views Lacus as an object of his own gratification, to the point he is close trying to rape Lacus, only to be rejected. His feeble attempts to sway Lacus to his side ultimately became his downfall. Orphree has a superiority complex because of his genetics while Kira has always been humble and empathetic even after learning of his origins. Both even pilot high-performance mobile suits capable of deploying DRAGOONs, with the small caveat that his Cal-re.A is actually based off of the Strike Freedom, deliberately making it an overall improvement on the latter's capabilities. Lastly, Orphee used his powers to force a connection with him and Lacus, whereas she and Kira had a more naturally based connection when they first met on the Archangel, and she was clearly interested in the boy who only wanted to be himself, endearing himself to her without even trying.
• Expy:
  • Of Ribbons Almark. A genetically modified megalomaniac leader of fellow test tube babies that believes his "birth" grants him the right to rule over the human race.
  • Similarly, of Paptimus Scirocco, both being villainous men with very dangerous Psychic Powers that they use to charm women, although Orphee is a Single-Target Sexuality version. For bonus points, both Scirocco and Orphee have targeted powerful pink-haired leaders that (ultimately) are able to resist and reject their seduction]]
  • Outside of Gundam he is also one to Embryo from Cross Ange, a fellow show with Fukuda's creative involvement. Both are despicable Evil Blonde Big Bads hellbent on controlling people's destinies and raping their ideal women, who eventually die in a mecha Cock Fight with the Official Couples at the end of the story.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Sees Kira as the root cause of all his problems when in reality, it is just Orphee's ego and jealousy of Lacus choosing Kira over him.
• Hate Sink: He is a petty, pathetic megalomaniac with a fragile ego who follows Embryo's footsteps by attempting to rape Lacus and utterly fails in the end due to his childish ego being hurt. Whatever cool he had is lost in battle as he and his side loses impotently.
• Hopeless Suitor: He’s utterly enamored with Lacus, believing they are destined to be together because they were both Accords.
• Hypocrite: He deems Kira unworthy of Lacus's love when Orphee himself is everything what Kira isn't — he has a massive superiority complex, he even views Lacus as his object of gratification to the point he attempts to rape her, and is willing to have blood in his hands to ensure the Foundation succeeds in taking over the world. He also uses his PsychicPowers to force a connection to Lacus, whereas she formed an instant bond to Kira aboard the Archangel because she realized they were BirdsOfAFeather.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Orphee continues to try to woo Lacus while she's held captive by the Foundation. Eventually, her continued rejection of his advances culminate in him forcing himself on her, but a few scathing words from Lacus convince him to back off.
• If I Can't Have You…: Double subverted. Orphee considered it but because he is an Accord created to love Lacus Clyne, his mind was initially unable to even consider killing her, even if that would be the most strategic move at the time. It's not until she joins the battle with Kira in the Mighty Strike Freedom that he finally has enough and decides she has to die as well.
• Ignored Epiphany: The novelization shows several instances of him actually internally recognizing what Lacus says for the briefest of moments before his ego and inability to understand anything outside of his tiny worldview rejects it, with him justifying it as simply her lording her superiority over others. He also flat out asks why no one loves him to her, but rejects her answer to him as well and thus triples down on killing both Kira and Lacus. During his final moments with Ingrid, it appears that he might have finally realized the error of his ways, though by then it's both too late and too ambiguous to truly tell.
• Irony: As an Accord, he has the ability to connect and share his feelings with others via Psychic Powers. However, he has a severe Lack of Empathy problem which causes him to be unable to understand the feelings of others, especially Lacus and Ingrid. Though his final moments with Ingrid indicates that he finally figured it out before she confesses to him.
• The Leader: He is the head of the Black Knight Squad.
• Ironic Name: The Cal-re.A still has Black Knight in its name, despite the machine itself being white.
• Lack of Empathy: His biggest issue is the same one Durandal had, that being his lack of ability to connect with the feelings of other people on a fundamental level. He expresses his love for Lacus, but can't comprehend why she doesn't love him but loves Kira instead. He also can't comprehend why she chooses to defy the Destiny Plan even despite her very clearly explaining why she does. And that's not even getting into how until his final moments, he was unable to figure out Ingrid's love for him.
• Light Is Not Good: The Cal-re.A is almost entirely white, and Orphee is on the villains' side.
• Love Makes You Evil: Orphee was already quite evil throughout the film but his jealousy of Lacus choosing Kira over him made him worse.
• Man Behind the Man: One look behind his smile and demeanor is enough to imply he's pulling some of Aura's strings. The film reveals that Aura and Orphee are completely on the same page.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Considers himself the Well-Intentioned variant as he believes that Compass is fighting to retain their wealth and authority and that the Foundation is advocating for true peace. Their methods and beliefs on the other hand clearly states the opposite.
• Number Two: As the chancellor, he serves as Aura's right-hand.
• Oblivious to Love: He dies wondering why he can't be loved, unaware of Ingrid's feelings for him despite her choosing to die with him. Though, the novelization hints that in their final moments, he in fact might have realized it as his final expression towards her is said to have softened considerably.
• Pretty Boy: He's got long shining blonde hair and sky blue eyes in the same vein as Rau Le Creuset and Rey Za Burrel.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Attempted. He couldn't get past stripping a single boob before Lacus hurts his feelings with her "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Of the Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. He will never get the woman of his dreams (i.e. Lacus), even as he dies.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: A villainous example. His own obsession towards Lacus contributed to his own, and the Foundation's downfall — the Black Knights and Aura all die during the Final Battle against Compass. His futile attempts to win Lacus' love all end in vain after being rejected so many times; lamenting why he can't be loved not realizing Ingrid is the only person who has genuine feelings for him.
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Lacus. The fact he shares a psychic connection with her as an Accord makes it extra creepy.
• Superior Successor: The Cal-re.A is partially derived off the Stolen Strike Freedom's data, and overall is superior to it in just about every way. From having similar but stronger versions of the Strike Freedom's weapons like the DRAGOONS, to also including Femtek technology that would allow it to No-Sell almost all of the beam-based weaponry used by the Strike Freedom. When Strike Freedom evolves into Mighty Strike Freedom, this is no longer the case for Cal-re.A.
• Undying Loyalty: His strong loyalty towards his "mother" Aura is the closest thing to a noble trait he's shown to have in the movie.
• Yandere: His Fatal Flaw. Orphee's futile attempts to win Lacus' affections ultimately caused his own, and the Foundation's downfall.

Members

Shura Serpentine

Main mecha: NOG-M1A1 Black Knight Squad Shi-ve.A

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), Zeno Robinson (English)

The 18 year-old Secretary of Defense for the Foundation and the head of Aura's royal guard.

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• Ace Pilot: All five members of the royal guard are shown to be exceptional pilots, but Shura is the best of them.
• Alliterative Name: Shura Serpentine.
• Animal Theme Naming: Serpentine, after snakes. He even has the shifty eyes of one.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: All of the Black Knights barring Ingrid are this but Shura stands out more in this trope compared to the rest.
• Blood Knight: Displays this trope the most out of the Black Knights.
• Brains and Brawn: He is in charge of the Foundation's armed forces and is the field commander of their Black Knights Squadron, making him the Brawn in contrast to Ingrid's Brains.
• Char Clone: Shares traits with One Year War Char. They both use a red-colored Mobile Suit and are the best pilots of their factions, even engaging in a sword duel in their respective media. Shura is even called Captain occasionally, the same rank Char held in Zeon. He's even voiced by a previous Char Clone too.
• Close-Range Combatant: Favors this with his Shi-ve.A where it has plenty of close-combat options.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's melted alive when Athrun slashes his Shi-ve.A in half.
• Custom Uniform: His pilot suit is blue in the chest area, with blue patterns on the helmet.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: His Shi-ve.A's Flechette Storm can deplete a mobile suit's energy quickly via draining its Phase Shift armor.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Athrun dreams up a naked thought of Cagalli that allows him to resist Shura's mind-reading/control attempts at him. Instead of acting perverted, he recoils out of fear and disgust that someone could actually have something like that on their mind during a fight to the death..
• Even Evil Has Standards: Of all the Black Knights, Shura shows more restraint and scruples compared to his superior(s) and his own underlings:
  • He freaks out when he sees a vision of a naked Cagalli manifesting from Athrun's thoughts, and immediately calls him out for thinking of something inappropriate while fighting on the battlefield, no less.
  • Played for laughs on how he sees Athrun. He initially respected Athrun, seeing him as the standard of a great soldier, only for Athrun constantly to disrespect him; from playing double with Kira by piloting the Strike Freedom to the above incident, which causes him to lose respect for Athrun. He's upset that Athrun refuses to follow his standards.
  • More sympathetically, even Shura was quite disgusted when he saw civilians being used as suicide bombers.
• Evil Counterpart: To Athrun, as both use mobile suits that feature the color red and are heavily melee-focused. Also one to Yzak where they are both silver-haired individuals who considers themselves rivals to Athrun, but Shura starts off seemingly as an ally then becomes an antagonist while Yzak starts off as an antagonist before allying himself with the Three Ships Alliance.
• Flechette Storm: Shi-ve.A is equipped with two in its chest, which are used to utterly shred the Rising Freedom. It also would've worked against the Strike Freedom, had Athrun not bodyblocked the attack with the Infinite Justice Type II's Z'Gok armor.
• Foil: To Athrun. They are both considered the best of their squad-mates and specialize in close combat in and out of the machine, Athrun being best with a knife while Shura is an excellent swordsman. Their main differences are that Athrun only fights so he can protect his people and country while Shura does the same except that he very much enjoys destroying his opponents. In combat, Shura wants to keep his battles honorable and is very arrogant in his strength while Athrun uses every trick in the book and is a very humble person who does not flaunt or show off his skills unnecessarily.
• Hypocrite: Demands honorable duels against his opponents but uses a Mobile Suit where the technological gap is too great for Compass's units to overcome while also not hesitating to use psychic powers in order to gain a further edge over them. In the first half of the story, he considers the fight against Kira a disappointment, calling him weak and an unworthy opponent after defeating him. Never mind that Kira had just woken up from the Mind Control, and was in a state of utter shock at what he had done, and then was immediately attacked by several other Black Knights destroying his weapons and inflicting great damage to his suit, before he could even register what was going on. Only then did Shura attack an already weakened Kira who was still in the midst of a Heroic BSoD. Then later on, during their rematch, Kira was successfully holding his own against Shura when he recovered, only for Orphee to arrive in the most powerful mobile suit alongside a small fleet, where he then team up with him to attack Kira. Afterwards, When Athrun arrives to save Kira, the two break off to fight their respective opponent, Shura freaks out and demands Athrun to not have lewd thoughts on the battlefield when he tried reading his mind to get the unfair edge in the first place.
• Irony: He considers Athrun the only person worthy of his skills, and essentially fights him to a standstill; He gets killed when, in an attempt to Mind Rape the latter to gain an unfair advantage, he gets unexpectedly bombarded with the nude image of said rival's love interest, throwing himself off his game enough that he starts making blunders he never would have normally if he had just continued the fight like normal.. Also, his respect to Athrun is not returned at all, using every dirty trick in the book against Shura.
• Mana Burn: His Shi-ve.A's Flechette Storm is a perfect counter to Phase Shift at it shoots out a large number of physical projectiles that rapidly deplete the armor and energy of a battery-powered mobile suit. This is how the Rising Freedom falls.
• Multi-Melee Master: His Shi-ve.A is designed for melee combat, and is armed to the teeth with beam sabers and swords.
• Near-Villain Victory: On two occasions, his Shi-ve.A had Kira on the back rope, and was about to finish him off, were it not for luck and Athrun's help.
• Number Two: He and Ingrid both serve as Orphee's right-hands.
• Smug Super: Just as much as Liu and Griffin in this regard, if him being smug and frustrating Shinn during their fencing session means anything.
• Sour Prudes: Implied. Attempting to Mind Rape Athrun and instead seeing a vision of a naked, erotic Cagalli is enough to throw Shura off of his game.
• This Cannot Be!: He expressed disbelief that Athrun was able to beat him before his MS explodes.
• Unknown Rival: Shura acknowledges Athrun as his greatest opponent and considers it a big honor to fight him, expecting nothing less than an honorable duel. Athrun sees Shura as just another Black Knight to defeat. He even uses this against Shura to bait him into staying away from the Z'Gok when he pilots the Strike Freedom temporarily and uses every dirty trick to throw Shura off his game.
• Villainous Breakdown: Shura flips out once he sees a naked vision of Cagalli in Athrun's psyche and finding out that she's remote controlling the Infinite Justice Type II.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Snow haired and one of the prominent antagonists of SEED Freedom.
• Worthy Opponent: He sees Athrun, who's a "complete soldier" skilled in all forms of warfare and not just an MS pilot as the only one who might be a challenge to him. It's completely one-sided, however, as Athrun barely acknowledges Shura.

Ingrid Tradoll

Main mecha: NOG-M2D1/E Black Knight Squad Cal-re.A, AMO-01 Ziggurat

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Amanda Lee (English)

The Foundation's 20 year-old Secretary of State and Redelard's older sister.

---

• Attack Drone: She controls the large DRAGOON "Ziggurat" from inside the Cal-re.A.
• Brains and Brawn: She is in charge of the Foundation's administration, making her the Brains to Shura's Brawn.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She has feelings for Orphee, but she doesn't express them due to his being intended for Lacus. In novelization though, her last interaction has her doing just that telepathically, with the hint that maybe Orphee might have reciprocated as he looks warmly at her in response.
• Custom Uniform: Her pilot suit is white in the chest area with blue stripes on the shoulders, and the helmet has blue highlights with white feather patterns.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Threatened to harm Lacus because she stole Orphee's attention away since she was in love with Orphee herself.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: She has feelings for Orphee, who only has eyes for Lacus due to Aura's machinations. The novelization hints that at the last moment he finally saw her feelings.
• Morton's Fork: Feels this way about Orphee when he gets rejected by Lacus Clyne in the novel. She did not want to see Orphee hurt from the rejection but if he got his wish fulfilled to be with Lacus, she did not want that outcome either as it meant that Orphee would choose Lacus over her.
• Number Two: She and Shura serve as Orphee's right-hands.
• Only Sane Man: Heavily downplayed. The novel confirms that Ingrid listened to Lacus's words about needing people because you love them and is the only one to understand that people can choose their own destiny. She still follows through with Orphee's plans regardless but also fully rejects Aura and the Foundations' ideals in her final moments where she confesses her feelings to him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The stoic Blue to Redelard's Red.
• Satellite Love Interest: Her role in the movie is never expanded beyond being in love with Orphee.
• Together in Death: Ingrid chooses to die with Orphee above the exploding Requiem rather than try and escape, using her last moments to comfort him and reassure him that he is indeed loved.
• Token Good Teammate: She's the only character on the Foundation's side who isn't actively malicious towards anyone. So much so that she's the only one who rejects their ideals of her own free will in her last moments with Orphee.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Ingrid believes that she has no other choice but to stick with the Foundation and that she was unable to defy her fate. She even believed that if she was of no use, the other Black Knights would consequently lose their reason to exist.

Redelard Tradoll

Main mecha: NOG-M4F1 Black Knight Squad Ru.dro-A "Garnet"

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen (Japanese)

Ingrid's 15 year-old sister who fights as part of the Foundation's Black Knight Squad.

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• Annoying Laugh: Agnes describes her laugh as this in the novel and not without good reason this time.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Zigzagged. Redelard is Ingrid's younger sister but only mocks those not in her circle and never does so to Ingrid herself.
• Blood Knight: One of two.
• Condescending Compassion: Mocks Shinn for his inability to fight with a sword and claimed that "he lasted longer than usual" against Shura, their best swordsman. Does this to Agnes too in the novel when she teases her about fighting Compass.
• Custom Uniform: Her pilot suit is pink in the chest area, with red flames on the helmet.
• Cute and Psycho: She acts peppy, but on the battlefield she's as ruthless as the rest of her teammates.
• Death by Irony: Loves boasting of her strength and looks down on especially Shinn. Ends up getting heavily disabled by Shinn and gets killed by Hilda who is skilled but still on the lower-end of combat prowess out of Compass.
• Genki Girl: In every appearance, she's very enthusiastic, always smiling. This also extends to her being one of the leading pilots of the Black Knights' Squadron.
• Leeroy Jenkins: This is her fighting style - she's noted as impulsive and intuitive, loving to boast of her strength.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The peppy and excitable Red to Ingrid's Blue.
• The Smurfette Principle: Zigzagged. Redelard is the only female Black Knight who directly fights as Aura is a non-combatant while Ingrid supports Orphee in his unit rather than directly fight herself.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Literally. Disoriented after Shinn rushes over her, Redelard didn't realize Hilda was hiding behind him to finish her off until it was too late.

Daniel Harper

Main mecha: NOG-M4F4 Black Knight Squad Ru.dro-A "Sapphire"

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese)

A 16 year-old member of the Black Knight Squad wearing a face mask.

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• Aerith and Bob: One of the few named characters with an ordinary-sounding name.
• Ax-Crazy: Implied - if his hunched back, eyes and mask is anything to go by.
• Blood Knight: While he normally seems lazy, once he's in combat, he is brutal.
• Custom Uniform: His pilot suit has a skull pattern on the helmet.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Implies his insomnia and tendency to go Ax-Crazy.
• Facepalm Of Doom: Shinn uses the Destiny Gundam Spec II's "Palma Fiocina" palm beam cannon to finish him off.
• The Generic Guy: Ignoring his malevolent appearance, Daniel is this personality-wise compared to the others. He has no real outstanding personality traits or scenes like Redelard, Liu and Griffin's condescending attitude, Shura's Blood Knight tendencies and Ingrid's love for Orphee.
• Malevolent Masked Man: His mouthplate further adds to his... exhausted appearance.

Liu Shenqiang

Main mecha: NOG-M4F3 Black Knight Squad Ru.dro-A "Spinel"

Voiced by: Kentaro Tone (Japanese)

A 17 year-old member of the Black Knight Squad.

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• Ace Pilot: Enough to sever the arm of Mu's Murasame from his Spinel Ru.dro-A. Also, there's an incident before the movie where he took down the Strike Freedom.
• Custom Uniform: His pilot suit has red lightning bolts on the helmet.
• Faux Affably Evil: He may appear polite and professional, but he is nothing but condescending as he makes fun of others.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Shinn kills him by stabbing the Spinel's cockpit with the Destiny Spec II's Arondight.
• Jerkass: Of the condescending kind.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While the pilot is unknown, Liu managed to defeat the Strike Freedom in an incident before the movie's events.

Griffin Arbalest

Main mecha: NOG-M4F2 Black Knight Squad Ru.dro-A "Emerald"

Voiced by: Win Morisaki (Japanese)

An 18 year-old member of the Black Knight Squad.

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• Animal Theme Naming: The Griffin, a mythological bird.
• Combat Pragmatist: He tries to crush the helpless Shinn with his mobile suit's hand after Shinn bails out from the defeated Immortal Justice. Fortunately for Shinn Griffin is stopped by Hilda yanking his arm away with her heat rod.
• Custom Uniform: His pilot suit has yellow snake patterns on the helmet.
• Death by Irony: He is one of two characters in the movie to mockingly call Shinn the "Freedom Killer". Guess who ends up killing him during the Final Battle...
• Karmic Death: Scoffing at Shinn's status as an Ace Pilot, Griffin gets elaborately killed by him in the Final Battle.
• Psychotic Smirk: There is something so creepy about the way he smirks at Lacus when she and Orphee pass by. He's probably not sane in the head, on or off the battlefield.
• Smug Super: While he is cocky, he has the piloting skill to back it up. His first pre-release dialogue features him mocking Shinn by claiming that the "Freedom Killer isn't anything special."
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Shin first hit his Emerald Ru.dro-A with the Destiny Spec II's Battle Boomerangs to cripple it before getting blasted at point-blank range from behind.
• Underestimating Badassery: He's rather open about how he doesn't think much of Shinn's piloting ability, despite the latter's reputation as one of ZAFT's top Ace Pilots during the previous war. This ends up getting him killed by Shinn during the final battle.

The Traitor (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Main mecha: ZGMF-2027/A GYAN Strom

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Kelly Baskin (English)

Agnes Giebenrath is 18 year-old former ZAFT pilot who fights for Compass alongside Kira, Shinn, and Lunamaria.

---

• Adaptational Jerkass: Believe it or not, the novelization of the SEED Freedom makes Agnes worse rather than keeping her unpleasant attributes the same. The novel explicitly confirms her attraction to Kira as nothing more than wanting to climb the ranks of Compass and to be known as the one who stole Lacus Clyne's lover rather than any attraction to Kira's character or skills, regardless of how shallow it may be. With her betrayal, the novel confirms her shock after betraying Kira had nothing to do with almost killing him. In fact, the novel stated she felt triumphant when doing so. Even when she joins the Foundation, Agnes is still unhappy there because they give Lacus more attention than her and because she is not receiving any more favorable treatment there than she did at Compass.
  Agnes after destroying the Rising Freedom in the first novel: How pathetic. To think such a man could ever harm me is unforgivable. Serves you right!
• Ace Custom: Agnes' version of the GYAN Strom is at least painted in its white and periwinkle paintjob, while the standard production ones come in dark blue.
• All for Nothing: Her defection to the Foundation ends up being rendered moot at the end of the movie. She sides with the Foundation out of her attraction to Shura, but when all of the Black Knights, including Shura are dead, Agnes ends up all alone without anyone to turn to. The novel makes it worse as Agnes fumes she is not being treated any more favorably than she was at Compass when she defects.
• All There in the Manual: An interview from Fukuda states that Agnes's ultimate goal in the ZAFT academy was being the lover of Athrun Zala and also explained her brief interactions with Rey.
• Alpha Bitch: On the short novel "Moonlight Valkyrie" Agnes is this on their time on the ZAFT Military Academy. She is an ace student who is known for her pretty looks and top scores but is very abrasive towards Shinn's performance (who at that time isn't a good student.), would downplay others' achievements and even stole Luna's boyfriend (that didn't last a month) out of sheer pettiness.
• Ambiguous Situation: Did Agnes really steal Lunamaria's first boyfriend in the academy, or did was he attracted to Agnes anyway? Information from Fukuda (see the All There in the Manual above) indicates that Agnes stole Lunamaria's boyfriend as a hobby while the novelization implies that Lunamaria's boyfriend went to Agnes of his own volition by both the girls. Even though the former is much more likely given Agnes's personality, the true reason is unknown.
• Badass on Paper: Slightly downplayed as she is a genuinely skilled pilot. Agnes is a red coat ZAFT elite where she graduated at the top of her class, is known as the Moonlight Valkyrie and featured very prominently on magazines as a powerful and capable pilot on the lunar front. However, Yolan believes that to all be ZAFT propaganda and she has no known achievements on the field. Even her "victory" against Kira Yamato in SEED Freedom is from striking down his practically destroyed Rising Freedom. Even if Kira was holding back against Shinn, Shinn can still claim he defeated Kira on relatively even terms rather than betraying an almost defenseless Kira. In the end, Agnes loses against Lunamaria who is not only less skilled than Shinn, Athrun and Kira, but also is one of those "losers" Agnes detested.
• Beneath the Mask: Inverted. Agnes puts on a "good girl" act with her higher ups and technician crew and belittles those she deems beneath her at every chance she gets. Overlaps with Stupid Evil as she exposes her true self, even in front of higher-ups she wants to impress. Examples are she badmouthed Shinn and Lacus when she tried to convince Kira to become her lover and openly bullying Shinn in front of others like Rey, Lunamaria and Yolan in the academy and Kira and Mu in Freedom.
• Berserk Button: Has two which were pressed by Shinn (unintentionally) and Lunamaria (very intentionally)
  • Anytime she sees Shinn achieve any amount of success.
  • Her ego will not allow her to accept when a man does not want her. She loses her temper when Lunamaria brings up in their final battle that Kira rejected her.
• Birds of a Feather: To the Foundation and their ideals. Agnes shares their ideals of how people should only love each other if they prove useful, something she likes doing out of pettiness like stealing Lunamaria's boyfriend and breaking up with him and even backstabbing Kira for not loving her. Even in her academy days, Agnes believes that everything boils down to genetics and that effort will not make a difference.
• Breaking Old Trends: Agnes is the first Houko Kuwashima-voiced character in the Cosmic Era to survive the series; Natarle pulled a Taking You with Me on Azrael, Rau killed Flay, Via is a Posthumous Character from the get-go, and Kira killed Stella in a desperate attempt to stop the Destroy.
• Brutal Honesty: Deconstructed. Agnes tells Shinn that being a refugee of the destroyed Orb will not cause their enemies to show them any mercy and he should not be passed for being a survivor. Agnes self-justifies herself as being right but she says it in such a horrible manner that her point fails to stick and only shows more of who she is as a person.
• The Bully: To Shinn and those she considers beneath her that Lunamaria stopped being friends with Agnes because of this. It would be no surprise if Agnes's attitude caused some of Shinn's arrogance in SEED Destiny.
• Can't Catch Up: Graduates as the top of her class in the ZAFT academy, implied to even outrank Rey. Come the film Freedom and she can barely hold a candle to Kira, Shinn or even Lunamaria who defeats her in the final battle.
• Chainsaw Good: Her GYAN Strom has a beam buzzsaw around the edge of its giant shield.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Befitting a movie of the 21st Century version of the Universal Century, she's this to Quess Paraya, a talented but spoiled girl with Girlish Pigtails who tries to win over the hero, only to turn against him when he spurns her advances. The biggest differences between the two is that Agnes doesn't get better Mobile Suits while Quess did and Agnes also survives the war, unless you count the Gundam Evolve shorts. In a way, she is similar to Wang Liu Mei who starts off with Celestial Being and then sides with the A-Laws so that she can become an Innovator. Agnes likewise starts off in Compass and then joins the Foundation, believing they will put her on a pedestal like her glory days in the academy unlike Compass who treats her well but not in the way that fuels her ego.
• Cruel Mercy: Her ultimate fate. After her betrayal towards Foundation when Kira rejects her advances, she only finds solace in Shura, who is then also killed at the end of the movie, and her Gyan Strom is completely decommissioned by Lunamaria in the final battle, and Lunamaria doesn't even bother to kill her, for she had already lost everything.
• Custom Uniform: Her pilot suit is light blue with turquoise highlights, and the helmet has distinct crescent moon designs.
• Cute and Psycho: Unlike her teammates, Agnes is perfectly fine with using lethal force and her betrayal of Compass later on shows that she is just as petty and shallow as she acts from start to finish.
• Dude Magnet: During the launch scene at the start of SEED Freedom, Agnes had no less than five guys to help her into her Gyan. She also successfully stole Lunamaria's boyfriend (at the time) during their days in the academy.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Agnes is a self-important example; she thinks she should have Shinn's position because she was the top graduate in their class at the ZAFT military academy as well as for her services that earned her the nickname "Moonlight Valkyrie" (along with coming from an influential PLANT family).
• Entitled to Have You: She knows Kira and Lacus were together, but Agnes believes she would be a much better choice because of her military accolades and because she actually fights alongside Kira. The novel demonstrate that Agnes feels entitled to be loved unconditionally for having a high social standing and that she deserves to be loved, despite how she treats others.
• Establishing Character Moment: Agnes starts out being fawned over by a large (and all male) support crew and basking in the attention, before heading into battle where she proceeds to mostly ignore Kira's orders to not escalate the battle by going off on her own and refusing Shinn's request to cover him, instead demanding he cover her instead. While Kira uses his typical precise disabling and Shinn does his best to try and follow suit, Agnes then proceeds to start slaughtering some of the enemy troops by using her GYAN's shield as a buzz saw with no mercy and machine guns the remains for good measure. Which basically shows just how well she's fits into Compass: not very well at all.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Inverted. Agnes wears some pretty heavy eyeshadow but is with Compass. Played straight when she betrays them later.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The novel's ending reveals that Agnes had genuinely loved Shura for who he is and her feelings for him were very much real.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Agnes loves rubbing into Shinn and Lunamaria's face how they were pawns for Durandal but one thing she never does is speak ill of their deceased friend and comrade Rey Za Burrel. This might stem from her respect of him back in their academy days and definitely is not because of him being deceased, given Agnes is one to Speak Ill of the Dead with Shinn's family in her prequel novel. In Volume 2 of the novel, Agnes stating that she will even fight Lunamaria subtly implies that she still somewhat considers her a friend deep down, even after defecting from Compass.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Agnes genuinely believed that Lunamaria only dated Shinn for being a FAITH-level pilot as the two girls used to share an interest in elites and "high-spec men". She was absolutely taken aback that Lunamaria saw Shinn for more than just status and that she loved him, even if he was a man that would make no one jealous for dating him.
• Fantastic Racism: Looks down on Naturals as confirmed in the "Moonlight Valkyrie" novel where she believes effort is something only Naturals do and has had past thoughts of striking them down. Her quote under the Hypocrite trope sums up her beliefs towards them.
• Femme Fatale: She's well-aware of how attractive she is, and the "Moonlight Valkyrie" short novel reveals that, back at the ZAFT military academy, she wasted no effort in getting any guy who caught her interest, regardless of whether or not they were already in a relationship. Lunamaria was one such girl who had her boyfriend stolen by Agnes during this period of time.
• Foil: To Shinn, Lunamaria and Lacus.
  • Like Shinn, she's a ZAFT recruit who has fought and defeated Kira on dubious terms. Unlike Shinn, who is an Ace Pilot in a Gundam and a hardened battle veteran who becomes one of the best pilots the Cosmic Era has known, she's only a recruit (with the closest thing to piloting a Gundam is delivering the Immortal Justice) and while she's the top graduate of her class, she did not do much worthy of great significance in a real battle, owing to getting put somewhere else as propaganda material. Despite this, she keeps rubbing her top graduate and poster girl status to Shinn who did not so well back when he was a ZAFT academy student. It culminates in her defeat at the hands of Lunamaria, who, despite being not as skilled as Shinn, still proved she's better at mobile suit combat than her. Even in their academy days, their commitment to work and effort are worlds apart as Agnes easily reached the top scores with little to no effort while Shinn had to work very hard to get the scores he needed to go from being a struggling student to a prestigious red coat. Their fight and defeat of Kira Yamato differs between their characters where Agnes waited for Shura to destroy the Rising Freedom and dealt the final blow by backstabbing him. Kira may (or may not) have been holding back but either way, Shinn can claim that he fought Kira on relatively even terms and defeated him with sound strategy rather than betraying him at a moment's notice. This reflects in their present character: Shinn atones for past mistakes and works very hard alongside Compass and develops as a person while Agnes only sticks around Compass for her own selfish interests and has not changed one bit since her academy days, retaining her arrogant demeanor.
  • Like Lunamaria, she is a ZAFT recruit. They both initially had absurdly high and materialistic views on men^note Revealed in the "Moonlight Valkyrie" prequel novel who looked down on less-skilled students like Shinn and graduated with good enough grades to become an elite red coat. What differs the two is that Lunamaria's experiences aboard the Minerva changed her worldview where she has become a lot more mature and less materialistic, being disgusted with her past self and ashamed of Agnes's old (and current) behavior. The experiences hardened Lunamaria's skills where she got to become a pilot for the Impulse Gundam and received a prestigious Order of Nebula medal. Agnes has not changed one bit ever since graduation and still keeps her shallow mindset into her adulthood. Their difference in experience and skills could not be better compared where Lunamaria manages to easily defeat Agnes in combat at the end of the film.
  • Like Lacus, she has a great public image, parents who are high in society, and feelings for Kira. Unlike Lacus, who is very proactive in trying to keep the peace, she hardly does much, owing to her parents keeping her away from the frontlines of the second war. Also, Lacus is far more gentle and caring to Kira than her. It culminates with her defecting to the Foundation once she realizes Kira will never fall for her. With how they treat others, Lacus is kind to everyone she meets whether they are a Natural or Coordinator while Agnes is arrogant and condescending to those she considers below her and is only nice to those she can benefit from.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She is this to most of the members in COMPASS. She annoys Lunamaria, insults Shinn, and even Kira, the Nice Guy incarnate, gets annoyed with her flirting at him. Even the stoic and rational Rey in the "Moonlight Valkyrie" novel does not want to spend time with her more than he has to. In fact, almost all the characters on the Minerva except for Vino have had nothing but bad experiences with her.
• Gatling Good: The GYAN has two gatling guns mounted in its chest, and they fire beams, which shreds any hapless grunt with ease.
• Glory Days: Agnes always brings up how she got the top marks in the academy to flaunt her superiority to Shinn and Lunamaria, conveniently ignoring how Shinn went on to do great achievements of becoming a FAITH member and even getting two Order of Nebula medals^note  which is the highest honor a ZAFT soldier can obtain. Even Athrun and Rau had only obtained one in their tenure. while Lunamaria managed to receive one herself. It says a lot more about Agnes that the closest she got to using a Gundam was delivering the Immortal Justice to COMPASS by having her parents pull some strings while Shinn got to pilot three Gundams from his genuine skills: The Impulse, Destiny, and Immortal Justice. Four if counting the Destiny Gundam Spec. II. All in all, Agnes behaves like a bully who peaked in high school while achieving nothing noteworthy in the interim between their military academy graduation and SEED Freedom.
• Glory Hound: Agnes's modus operandi is using the people around her to climb the ranks of society while discarding those she deems as worthless. The main reason she's interested in Kira is to secure her own advancement within Compass.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She's not happy that Shinn, who was a worse student than her at the ZAFT military academy, was chosen as the Immortal Justice's pilot over her. What made it worse was Kira all but confirmed he trusted Shinn more than he did to her. She also detests Lacus Clyne for being the one to receive attention from highly-ranked men like Kira and Orphee. When Lacus was kidnapped as a prisoner, Agnes finds it infuriating that a hostage needed for their plans receives more attention than her. This grudge stemmed back in the start of Destiny where she was jealous of Shinn and Lunamaria for being assigned to the Minerva while she was stuck on the lunar front.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Agnes believes this as she thinks that effort is just something Naturals do and that putting effort into anything is a waste of time.
  Agnes: Losers will always be losers.
• Hate Sink: Agnes is a detestable person from start to finish, making Flay Allster (whom she shares her voice actress with) look more decent in comparison. She doesn't care about the feelings of other people, and tries to insert herself with other men who already have relationships like with Lunamaria's ex-boyfriend, and even Kira of all people. When Kira rejects her, she sides with the Foundation and takes interest in on Shura. Ultimately, her betrayal becomes All for Nothing in the end when the Black Knight Squad, including Shura, are all dead, leaving Agnes all alone without anyone to turn to. It is a sign of her character where almost all tropes associated with her are entirely negative.
• Hopeless Suitor: She pines for Kira, whose heart will only ever belong to Lacus. This is partially what spurs her Face–Heel Turn.
• Humiliation Conga: The second Compass begins their counterattack against the Black Knights, everything goes downhill for Agnes. Kira rescues Lacus and they rekindle their love, using it to defeat Orphee and Ingrid and Athrun defeats her new lover Shura. Perhaps the worst part is that the two she considers "losers" are the one to deal the most damage. Shinn easily takes out three of the Black Knights and heavily damages the fourth one while Lunamaria, arguably the least skilled out of the four Gundam pilots of Compass, is the one to defeat her in the oldest active Gundam with the Impulse. She is left on the moon with her destroyed unit and is forced to watch the Foundation crumble before her eyes.
• Hypocrite: Speaks ill of Shinn and Lunamaria for being Durandal's lap dog but she has beliefs similar to the Destiny Plan.
  Agnes's POV from the Moonlight Valkyrie novel: The idea that effort is sacred was just a fairytale for Naturals. Everything boiled down to genetics, and no amount of effort could change that.
  • Also, tells Shinn that Kira wouldn't trust someone who "could stab him in the back", then later Agnes does just that to Kira.
  • Agnes detests Lunamaria for "lying" about how Shinn is impossible to deal with but started dating him and even considers Lunamaria a bad friend and a traitor. She conveniently forgot that she was an even worse friend by stealing Lunamaria's then-boyfriend back in the academy for no particular reason. In Agnes's defense, Lunamaria stopped considering her a friend long ago but never told her in the first place.
  • She feels that she shouldn't be left alone without a partner when she is the one who goes around finding a partner with the highest "value" and dumps them whenever a bigger "catch" appears. She also yearns to be loved by someone else unconditionally, yet superficially breaks up with any man who does not meet her impossibly high standards.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: The novel states that Agnes has a jealousy of Lunamaria because she possessed something that Agnes could never attain for herself: Someone who loves her unconditionally.
• I Just Want to Be Special: She always wants to be the center of attention and clings to her status as a top ZAFT academy graduate and her title as the "Moonlight Valkyrie" despite both achievements having little relevancy by her time with Compass.
• Informed Ability: Agnes is said to be a popular girl back in the academy days, yet the only one who seems to like her back then was Vino and Lunamaria's boyfriend, while everyone else who interacts with her either detests her or learns on how horrible Agnes really is, like Lunamaria. Most of her popularity came from during the events of Destiny like her boyfriend in the novel and Freedom with all the men helping her get into her GYAN. This may be a justified trope as Agnes herself mentions she puts on a different image when around those in her social circle.
  • Downplayed with piloting skills. It is said that Agnes is a good pilot, and to be fair she is decent against Mooks and did well in simulations back in the academy. Against any named character she literally has to attack an opponent who was already down, like Kira, and she gets defeated by Lunamaria. She is stated to be top student, yet does not display the same skills of the other red coats such as Shinn, Lunamaria and Rey.
• It's All About Me: Whenever someone takes the attention away from Agnes or one-ups her, it riles her immediately. That's why when she learned that Shinn (whom she belittles back in the Academy) becomes a FAITH-level pilot and Luna became his girlfriend, Agnes was seething with envy. When Agnes learned Minerva was shot down and Durandal's plan was condemned, she was delighted and even mocked Shinn and Luna's defeat. In fact Agnes is notably the only character thus far to join Kira's side purely for personal gain. She has no real loyalty to the ideals of him or the Clyne Faction or Orb, she just joined for her own glory because Kira Yamato is a famous hero and his side typically wins so she wants the perks of that. When she defects to the Foundation, Agnes is only unhappy because she is not receiving any special treatment there. When Compass is revealed to be alive and running, Agnes is infuriated that they are here to threaten her position as a "winner" rather than be relieved that they are alive.
  Agnes in the first SEED Freedom novel: Why couldn't they see her worth? She wasn't meant to be left alone, isolated like this. She had graduated from the officer's academy with top marks. Her parents were high-ranking government officials, and her social standing was far superior to Lunamaria's. She was beautiful, competent, and destined to lead. She deserved to be loved by everyone.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Another main motivation for her switching sides to the Foundation and explicitly stated in the novel.
• I Hate Past Me: Invokes this to Shinn and Lunamaria. She is fully aware of how he is ashamed of being the "Freedom Killer" and their allegiance to Durandal in the past, rubbing it in every chance she gets.
• If I Can't Have You…: Agnes' decision to betray Compass is partially motivated by Kira rejecting her as a romantic partner. She's so offended that after crippling the Rising Freedom she still tries to kill Kira after he evacuated his Gundam.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Agnes is a snob of stratospheric scales, but surely she really cares for her Compass teammates and will have their backs when the chips are down, right? Nope. Agnes shows she's just as superficial as she acts once it feels like she's getting better recognition by the people in the Foundation, turning her back on Compass without hesitation or remorse.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Deconstructed. Agnes may have been right that giving Shinn a passing grade in the ZAFT academy for being an Orb refugee would not do him favors on the battlefield as the enemy would not care. The way she says it is so awful that even though Yolan and Lunamaria agreed with the point, it only made them be disgusted with her behavior as she used being in the "right" to further belittle Shinn.
  • Played straight where Lunamaria concedes that it was not her old boyfriend Hulegu's fault that he chose Agnes over her. Agnes herself points out that Hulegu was drawn to her in the first place.
• Kick the Dog: Possibly the most stand-out example in the Cosmic Era.
  • Bullies and belittles Shinn in their academy days for his poor performance and being a refugee of Orb. She continues to do so in the present day for his then-allegiance to Durandal to berating him for losing a sword fight against Shura.
  • Even during battle, refuses to help Shinn protect civilians in favor of fighting for her own glory.
  • Goes against Kira's orders of not killing enemy soldiers and proceeds to kill them in the most brutal way.
  • Stole Lunamaria's then-boyfriend in their academy days, even though they were both friends at the time.
  • Badmouths Shinn and Lacus right in Kira's face in an attempt to get the Immortal Justice and steal Lacus's lover from her.
  • Tries to seduce Kira even though Kira himself is not interested, and she does it in front of Lacus to drive a wedge between them.
  • Betrays Compass for petty reasons and destroys the incapacitated Rising Freedom. Even that was not enough as she tries to kill Kira from her GYAN.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Agnes is the one to finish off the defenseless Rising Freedom right after its Phase Shift Armor ran out and being completely sliced apart by Shura. She even tries to kill Kira after the Rising Freedom got destroyed. Emotionally, she tries (and fails) to take advantage of Shinn's insecurities of who he used to be and how he tried to kill Kira to replace him as the pilot of the Immortal Justice.
  • Emotionally does this to Shinn in the prequel novel. Agnes begins berating Shinn who is already down from failing a pilot simulation battle and when she learns that he is an Orb refugee, she doubles down and begins to insult him even more.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Agnes sides with the Foundation just to spite Kira for rejecting her, then takes interest in Shura. By the end of the movie, Shura, along with the rest of the Black Knight Squad, are all dead, rendering her betrayal moot, and leaving Agnes all alone, reduced to a sobbing mess.
• Love Makes You Evil: Betrays Compass due to a combination of being spurned by Kira and becoming attracted to Shura. This ultimately becomes her Fatal Flaw, with Shura's death, her defection is effectively rendered meaningless.
• Makeup Is Evil: She wears some pretty thick eyeshadow and lipstick, and ends up defecting to the Foundation later.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: A selfish example. Agnes betrays Compass over being "mistreated" by her standards. Shinn was picked to pilot the Immortal Justice while she was "only" given an Ace Custom which was already leagues ahead of the GOUF Ignited. When Kira refused to cheat on Lacus to be with her, Agnes did not take this well and decided to betray Compass over petty reasons.
• Narcissist: A textbook case. Agnes is obsessed with her own grandiosity and only cares about herself and how people see her. She loves comparing herself on a pedestal to other people, believing that Shinn and even Lacus and Kira are utterly beneath her. She is completely taken aback that Kira would be the one to reject her at all.
• Nepotism: Agnes being placed on the moon's backline of defense was because her parents wanted her to be away from danger. Unlike most instances of this trope, Agnes did not seem pleased with this outcome.
• Never My Fault: When she learns that Shinn is a refugee of Orb, she doubles down and uses it as ammunition against him in the prequel novel, yet blames everyone else for reacting badly to her words under the pretense that she is "right". Even in the novel's ending with everything she did, Agnes still believes that nothing was her fault.
• Nice to the Waiter: Her only positive trait is that she's at least on friendly terms with her mechanic team, whether it's in COMPASS or the Foundation, as they seem to genuinely enjoy working with her. Subverted as the "Moonlight Valkyrie" novel confirms that Agnes is only putting on an act to keep up the "good girl" image.
• No Sympathy: She does not care one bit about how the death of Shinn's family affects him.
• Nominal Hero: Starts off as this as she is only in Compass for glory and advancing her own career by association with Kira. The novel confirms that she has no real attachment to the people in Compass anyway.
• Noodle Incident: It is unknown what happens to her most recent boyfriend Leonard Valway in the "Moonlight Valkyrie" novel. All that is known from the first SEED Freedom novel is that Agnes had a brutal betrayal by a former lover which has not been expanded upon.
• Not Good with Rejection: It's implied that Agnes has never had any boys turn her away when she starts showing interest in them, which makes Agnes utterly affronted when Kira firmly rebuffs her. Even though there was a Noodle Incident regarding Leonard, she considers Kira's rejection to being the "ultimate betrayal" and considered his treatment the equivalent to hell.
• Odd Friendship: More like odd respect. Rey may be the only person Agnes has come to genuinely respecting, never speaking ill of him and holding him in relatively high regard. The odd comes into play where she fancied him as a partner but failed to yet never held a grudge against him, nor did she belittle him for being friends with Shinn who she detests. Rey ignoring Agnes's advances and his friendship and respect to Shinn never affected Agnes's high opinion of him, a significant contrast from Kira where she betrays Compass because of him rejecting her and respecting Shinn more than her.
• Psycho Pink: The pink-haired Token Evil Teammate of Compass who ended up betraying them after Kira spurned her advances.
• Red Baron: She's nicknamed "The Moonlight Valkyrie".
• Remember the New Guy?: She spent her days at the ZAFT military academy alongside Shinn and Lunamaria, with promotional art showing her interacting with Rey. Despite this, she was neither seen nor mentioned before the events of the movie. It is explained on the "Moonlight Valkyrie" short novel that she wasn't deployed in the front lines and instead was used for propaganda due to her looks and her performance in the academy. In-universe, it is very unlikely anyone in the Minerva (except for Vino) would want to talk about Agnes, given her personality.
• Rich Bitch: Downplayed. Agnes is definitely an unpleasant and rude person but she never flaunts her wealth and prefers to brag about her superiority from her academy days while belittling those she looks down upon.
• Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: She is known to only be interested in men with high ranking and connections, high skills or be very wealthy, preferably all four while having at least one is the "minimum" criteria. The only times Agnes dates someone "normal" is to steal them from another girl. Lunamaria confirms in the novel that she only sees men for their "specs".
  Excerpt from the SEED Freedom novel, Volume 1: But what Agnes saw in Kira was his "specs" — the supreme commander of COMPS, the pilot of the Freedom, Lacus Clyne's partner — with little to no genuine interest in his personality.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Agnes bullied Shinn back in the ZAFT military academy and has not changed one bit since then.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Downplayed. Agnes uses her parents influence to allow her then-boyfriend, Leonard Valway, to pilot the Rising Freedom so that it gets transported to Compass safely. Other than that, Agnes never uses her parents' influence to get what she wants.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: She thinks because she's pretty, she has the right to be with any man she chooses to pursue (and if they were already in a relationship, surely they would immediately leave that other person to be with her). The fact that Kira totally rejects her does not sit well with Agnes, enough to contribute in her decision to betray Compass.
• Slave to PR: Averted. She considers herself this as she feels it is her "duty" as "an elite born to lead" to be nice to those in her circle.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Due to being a pretty and popular ace student during her time at the ZAFT academy, Agnes' ego got inflated to the point that she believes that everything revolves around her. She even considers acting nice to people as a "favor" that she is giving to others. When she entered COMPASS, Agnes isn't regarded as special as she believes, with Kira shunning her being the last straw that leads her to betraying her comrades. And then everyone she defected to gets killed in the final battle, with Lunamaria incapacitating her GYAN Strom while sparing her life, irreversibly shattering her ego. The ironic part is that Agnes may be one of the least qualified pilots within Compass as her Moonlight Valkyrie title is confirmed to be merely propaganda. Kira is/was a ZAFT White Coat with a legendary reputation. Mu is the famous Hawk of Endymion which was also given for propaganda reasons (along with pulling a then-impossible feat at the time) but Mu is also an Ace Pilot himself with plenty of experience under his belt and much higher ranking than Agnes. Lunamaria participated in many more front-line battles and holds the prestigious Order of Nebula medal while Shinn holds two of those medals, was part of FAITH and was hand-picked by Kira himself to pilot the Immortal Justice. Her ego is so inflated that she considers herself more important and valuable than her employer, Lacus Clyne, who has supported Kira and Athrun in two wars, many battles and provides Compass all their resources and political ability while Agnes herself is just a pilot on the lower end of skills and loyalty.
  Agnes monologue of Lacus after Kira rejects her: I'm far more valuable than some woman like that!
• The Social Darwinist: The sole reason why she betrays and belittles everyone - if they're weak, they're beneath her. She will only switch sides for the strongest person - doesn't matter if it was Durandal, Compass, or even the Foundation. But it does bite her in the ass when there's no one left to turn to.
• Sole Survivor: She's the only character on the Foundation's side shown to still be alive at the end, as Lunamaria spared her.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Agnes is very haughty and cruel to those that don't meet her standards but deep down, wants to be loved.
  Agnes: I have value! I deserve to be loved!
• Spoiled Brat: What she is at the end of the day - she was spared from most of the frontlines in the second war, thanks to her parents but was used as propaganda for ZAFT as "The Moonlight Valkyrie."
• Stupid Evil: Agnes is talented in getting men to do what she wants but she clearly does not consider how her targets think. Her attempt at seducing Kira fails when she talks ill of Shinn and Lacus right in his face, and that's not even considering that Kira already has Lacus and is incredibly faithful to her. Vino may be head-over-heels for her since she puts on a "good girl" act around the technicians but everyone else which includes Rey, Lunamaria and Yolan know her true self as she constantly badmouths Shinn in front of others. Even when defecting to the Foundation, Agnes is the only one out of them to wants to be rid of Lacus, despite how detrimental losing her to their plans are.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Averted. Her willingness to use the Gyan's gatling cannons at center mass and beam saber buzzsaw means that unlike her teammates, she's willing to use lethal force.
• Token Evil Teammate: Amongst Compass, she's notably mean-spirited and doesn't abide by Kira's Thou Shall Not Kill policy. She even goes after Kira despite him being in a relationship with Lacus and betrays Compass outright when he rejects her.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Agnes's absurdly high and petty standard of men had influenced Lunamaria back in her military academy days where she used to admire Agnes's savvy and sharp words and they would agree whether potential partners are considered worthy of them or not. In the present day, Lunamaria detests Agnes for such a shallow worldview and finds the way she talks to others unbearable.
• Unknown Rival: Constantly compares herself to Lacus and believes that she is superior to her in every way. As far as the movie and novel shows, Lacus has not spoken to or interacted with Agnes once. A different example is that Agnes considers Shinn a rival to her advancement in Compass and makes it clear to Kira that she wants to take his place as the Immortal Justice's pilot. All Shinn sees is a bully who constantly belittles him so that he gives up the Immortal Justice to her.
• Villain Protagonist: Not a villain yet but Agnes is the protagonist of the Moonlight Valkyrie prequel novel that is from her perspective.
• Villain Respect: Rey Za Burrel seems to be the only person who Agnes consistently has an iota of respect for. Agnes genuinely respects Rey's skills as a pilot and pianist and found it fitting that he became a FAITH member. She even considered fancying him as a potential partner in the prequel novel. Even when she belittles Shinn and Lunamaria for following through Durandal's Destiny Plan, she never spoke ill of Rey who is arguably Durandal's biggest supporter.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Jerkass with good publicity is more accurate rather than being a villain as she is working with Compass. Agnes is known as the "Moonlight Valkyrie" and puts on a good girl persona when around the technicians but everyone who knows her personally is aware of her negative character. Plays this trope straight as she becomes a villain by betraying Compass for the Foundation.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Deconstructed. Agnes thinks she is this with Lunamaria. In reality, her extremely poor treatment to her made Lunamaria stop considering Agnes a friend and losing all respect of her. Agnes only thinks Lunamaria as a friend to be her Yes-Man to fuel her ego like sending her magazine articles where she is covered and getting angry when Lunamaria doesn't respond since she was fighting with the Minerva at the time. The only time Agnes somewhat considers Lunamaria a friend is thinking of her by name when the Foundation prepares for Compass's counterattack.
  Excerpt from the SEED Freedom novel, Volume 2: Anyone who got in her way, even Lunamaria, would not be forgiven!
• We Used to Be Friends: Zigzagged. Lunamaria immediately stopped considering Agnes her friend after she stole Lunamaria's first boyfriend from her. However, Agnes still somewhat considered Lunamaria her friend during the Second War. Justified in Agnes's case as Lunamaria never told Agnes this and continued to act cordial with her during their military academy days, not wanting to give Agnes the satisfaction of her being affected by the incident.
• With Friends Like These...: She may nominally be Shinn and Lunamaria's teammate, but she treats both of them with open derision. Agnes also considers Lunamaria this for never replying to her messages during the Second War whenever she gets featured on magazines as the Moonlight Valkyrie.