Sandbox / Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – Main Characters

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Main Duo

Tropes that apply to both

• A Birthday, Not a Break: Neither girl has had any luck having a "Happy Birthday".
  • According to Cradle Planet, some of Suletta’s birthdays, while she lived on Mercury, would involve her pulling risky maneuvers to save the miners. Suletta hasn’t celebrated her birthday in years. Interestingly, it hasn’t been clarified if Suletta’s birthday is even her own or it was originally Eri’s birthday.
  • Miorine’s 17th birthday was nothing short of a tragedy as she felt forced into breaking Suletta's heart in a desperate bid to keep her out of her mother's schemes. To make matters worse, the whole thing was clearly set up by Prospera almost as a taunt, with the signal to go ahead with the plan being a "Happy Birthday" jingle just to rub it in. Miorine would come realize her actions were a mistake, but Suletta and her would reconcile.
• Ambiguously Bi: Their developing relationship with each other is one of the central points of the series' story concluding with them being Happily Married, but nothing concrete is ever said about either of their sexualities. Besides their growing interest in one another, there are passing implications with some of the male cast, such as Suletta's brief interest in Elan #4, or Miorine implying something could have developed between her and Shaddiq if he had been less reticent. Miorine also never brings up Incompatible Orientation to protest against her Arranged Marriage, in spite of how much she hates it, though such protests likely wouldn't have swayed her father.
• Arranged Marriage: An odd example. Miorine's father has made her hand in marriage and, by extension, future control over his massively powerful and profitable company the prize granted to the school's top pilot. After Suletta defeats Guel and claims the top duelist rank at the end of the first episode, Miorine declares Suletta to be her fiancée. Despite ostensibly using Suletta as a guardian while she plots an escape from the whole situation, Miorine repeatedly goes out of her way to help her new groom, displaying a drastic shift in character noted by those who have known her longest. By Episodes 10 & 11, Miorine has stated outright that she no longer desires to run away because Suletta entered her life and became her groom, while Suletta has grown to appreciate her role and proudly starts to refer to herself as Miorine's groom. While the formal arrangement is broken by Miorine's bargain with Prospera in Episode 17, she ultimately reconciles with Suletta in Episode 22, and they are Happily Married by the time of the epilogue.
• Battle Couple: If only by the technicality that they got engaged after the first episode thanks to the rules of the school, even if they didn't plan to go through with it. While Suletta is the only one fighting in the field, Miorine plays a role by coming up with battle plans and acting as Mission Control. In the duel with Guel she also helps by interrupting the people who were trying to cheat.
• Boy Meets Girl: Girl meets girl about to suffocate in space. Girl saves girl, then again comes to her aid against an abuser and gets accidentally engaged. Girl has her heart shattered to pieces and loses girl. Girl finds girl again, reaches out her hand, and they end up Happily Married. A tale as old as time.
• Brains and Brawn:
  • While Suletta isn't a fool, she lacks political savvy and knows little about the current state of the Earth Sphere, so she lets Miorine do all the planning. Meanwhile, since Miorine is a terrible pilot, she has to rely on Suletta whenever the need for a Mobile Suit battle arrives, while she acts as Mission Control.
  • Episode 11 showcases their stark difference in physical fitness when Miorine chases Suletta to get her to tell her what is bothering her. Suletta easily outpaces her to the point Miorine looks like she is nearly ready to collapse, and when Suletta comes back to see if Miorine is okay, Miorine takes the opportunity to grab Suletta. While Suletta says she tricked her, Miorine rebukes her by saying it was being cunning.
  • In Episode 22, Suletta regains her Holder outfit by defeating Guel in a fencing duel. She also manages to get Miorine out of her depressive spiral, helping Miorine resolve to support her plan to confront Lady Prospera. Additionally, in the plan, Suletta acts as a distraction, managing to single-handedly destroy a number of Quiet Zero’s defenses, while Miorine’s group is meant to infiltrate and shutdown Quiet Zero. In Episode 23, Miorine is able to successfully figure out how to shutdown Quiet Zero while Suletta fights off Aerial.
• Cannot Spit It Out: A shared character flaw between the both of them. Suletta tends to collapse under the strain of most social situations, and will bottle up her emotions and discomfort to the boiling point instead of talking out her problems with people, save for asking her mother for advice. On Miorine's part, she has no issue with being up-front when she needs to be in tough situations, but this doesn't extend to personal matters, and she's noticeably terrible at taking the initiative to express personal feelings unless she's pushed into it or realizes that she has to say something. In Episode 22, they finally have a heart-to-heart that allows them to mend their relationship. Episode 24 shows that they are happily married and openly affectionate towards each other.
• Cyborg: At the end of the series, Miorine apparently has devices planted on the back of both her and Suletta's heads, so they can communicate with Eri.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Suletta is a full-blown idealist, always willing to help others, see the good in them, and choosing to go out of her way to do so. Miorine is jaded and mistrusting due to the machinations of the Benerit Group and the circumstances of her engagement, choosing to close herself off and not bother with anyone else's affairs. At the end of the series, Suletta's idealism has rubbed off on Miorine. While Miorine recognizes that attempting to making lasting positive changes is possible, it will involve making mistakes. However, she is more optimistic that she can face those mistakes with her wife and friends at her side.
• Despair Event Horizon: Both of them face theirs at different times in the show.
  • Suletta's moment is at the end of Episode 17, when she loses the final duel against Guel because of Miorine's sabotage, and also loses the Holder title, Aerial, and her engagement to Miorine, as per the duel conditions. The moment her pilot suit returns to the standard colors, she's left screaming and crying in despair. Episode 18 pushes her even further past it when she learns of her origins and is cruelly abandoned to cry in the middle of space by both Prospera and Eri. Suletta is able to begin recovering in Episode 19 thanks to Earth House's unconditional support.
  • Miorine's comes at the end of Episode 19, when Prospera takes advantage of Miorine's trip to Quinharbor to stage a fake terrorist attack in Miorine's name using Aerial Rebuild. This causes further tension between Earthians and Spacians while Miorine was trying to make peace by showcasing GUND-Arm's medical GUND prostheses. She's pushed further in Episode 21, when she witnesses firsthand what Quiet Zero is capable of when Prospera uses it to utterly decimate an entire Space Assembly League fleet in an instant; she's crushed by the overwhelming guilt she feels for assisting in Quiet Zero's completion. Miorine is pulled out of this spiral by Suletta in Episode 22, when Suletta reassures her that for all their mistakes, their meeting and bonding wasn't one. Miorine nearly crosses this again in Episode 24 when she briefly believes Suletta is dead. She quickly recovers after Suletta regains consciousness.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything they went through, Suletta and Miorine end the series happily married, and they have formed a family with Elnora and Eri. Suletta is recovering from the effects of Calibarn, and spending her time playing with the children in the area where she and Elnora are recovering. Suletta is also implied to have begun establishing schools as she dreamed of. Meanwhile Miorine is making efforts to peacefully negotiate with protestors, accepting that mistakes will be made. However, she will move forward and face her mistakes with her wife and friends by her side.
• Everyone Can See It: Friends and foes alike all appear to be very aware that their affection for each other runs far deeper than either of them seem to realize at first.
  • Earth House all seem to ship it to varying degrees, and after Suletta's breakdown following the events of Episode 18, they automatically (and partly incorrectly) assume it's because Miorine broke off things with her for good.
  • Guel immediately catches on to Suletta's feelings for Miorine after Suletta rejects his Love Confession, and is quick to express that he's happy for them.
  • Shaddiq notes how much Miorine has changed since meeting Suletta as far back as Episode 7. When Miorine faces him again in Episode 22 after lacking any of her typical fire in their previous meeting, Shaddiq correctly guesses it was Suletta that snapped her out of her depressive spiral.
  • Prospera easily exploits this to manipulate the both of them. She tells Suletta that it's fine to kill people if it means keeping the people she loves safe, specifically naming Miorine, and in the wake of the attack on Plant Quetta, Suletta continues to believe her mother because it allowed her to save Miorine's life. With Miorine, her desperation to pull Suletta away from Prospera's influence causes Miorine to willingly become a pawn in her plans, and she uses Suletta's freedom as a bargaining chip to get Miorine to agree to complete Quiet Zero and run for the presidency of the Benerit Group.
• Expy: The two of them are very often compared to Utena and Anthy of Revolutionary Girl Utena: they are a Lady and Knight pairing of an idealistic and tomboyish warrior with boundless skill, and a prim aristocrat who is the heir to a great power but holds little agency in using it beyond her utility to various cruel suitors, down to the circumstances of their first meeting and engagement being near-identical. That said, over the course of the series, it becomes clear that the situation is a lot more mixed, to the point of some fans comparing it to a Role Swap AU. Unlike Anthy but a lot like Utena, Miorine is reckless, headstrong, forthright in her attitude, and constantly fights her role in the system despite frequently playing right into it. Meanwhile, unlike Utena but a lot like Anthy, Suletta is an introverted Extreme Doormat with little self-worth being manipulated by an older relative, and the bearer of a far more supernatural power—not to mention, both are referred to as "witch."
• First Girl Wins: Their meeting is the first on-screen interaction either of them have, and the first episode ends with them engaged. They eventually end up Happily Married.
• Foil: Suletta and Miorine are opposites of each other in many ways: Suletta comes from a poor and harsh background and is labeled a "country bumpkin", while Miorine is the daughter of a powerful man and is called a princess. Suletta is shy but friendly, while Miorine is confident but abrasive. While Miorine is looking for personal freedom from the whims of her father and other powerful men, Suletta really wants to help others even if there is no benefit for herself. Even their physical appearances fit this trope, with Suletta's darker skin tone, medium-length red hair and tall stature contrasting with Miorine's fair skin, waist-length white hair and short stature.
• Forgiveness: In Episode 22, while it isn’t said aloud, Miorine and Suletta admitting to each other that they've made mistakes, along with how easily they are able to talk to each other later, indicates they have forgiven each other. Shortly afterwards, Miorine reconciles with Earth House and to a lesser extent her father. In Episode 24, they also seem to forgive Elnora and Eri for their previous actions as well.
• Friendless Background: Both Suletta and Miorine did not have much luck in the friend department prior to meeting each other.
  • Due to Mercury being just a mining colony Suletta had no other children her age to interact with, leading to her socially awkward disposition. One of her objectives in going to school is gaining any kind of friends, but the task proves to be difficult thanks to her lack of social skills and not having a good first impression with many of the people she has interacted with. After she gets detained by the School and is awaiting expulsion back to Mercury, the only one willing to visit her outside of Miorine is Elan, who shows no hostility toward her or her current predicament.
  • Miorine admits openly that she has only ever focused on escaping to Earth and never bothered making friends. She also prefers to spend her time in her greenhouse over interacting with other students. Additionally, the fact that Suletta, someone she only met that day, was the only one willing to stand up for her when Guel was destroying her greenhouse says a lot. It also doesn't help that Miorine has inherent trust issues, as she fears anybody being friendly with her is just an act to get close her father.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Suletta has red hair that's usually tied back into a ponytail, while Miorine's hair is long, white, and usually unbound. The hair contrasts continue into the epilogue where Suletta retains her hair length but now has it unbound, whereas Miorine cuts her hair completely short up to her neck.
• Happily Married: They're shown wearing matching rings in the epilogue, and Eri refers to herself as Miorine's sister-in-law.
• High-School Sweethearts: Suletta and Miorine meet in the equivalent of a high school, and they ended up engaged. Over the course of the series, they become closer and more affectionate towards each other, eventually fulfilling their engagement and marrying by the epilogue.
• Holding Hands:
  • Episode 22 provides extra focus on them holding hands after Suletta manages to get Miorine to come out of her room following their heart-to-heart.
  • One of the final shots of the series focuses on them holding hands as Miorine helps Suletta stand up. The Episode 24 end card also shows the two of them happily holding hands, one version set at Asticassia in Miorine's greenhouse, and another at the hillside in the epilogue.
• Idiot Hair: Both Suletta and Miorine have these, but different aspects of the trope apply to them separately. For Suletta, her cowlick represents naivete, a little bit of spaciness, and social awkwardness; for Miorine, it reflects her recklessness, impetuous nature, and tendency to leap before she looks.
• Lady and Knight: Same-sex example. After becoming the Holder and her fiancée, Gundam pilot Suletta more or less becomes the refined and princess-y Miorine's champion when it comes to the school's dueling game. While Suletta was initially unsure and hesitant, she soon grows to be proud and love her status the more she and Miorine's feelings for one another develop, promising to stay by Miorine's side forever and to never lose a duel. This takes a tragic turn in Episode 17 when Miorine, trying to free Suletta from Prospera's machinations, betrays Suletta by shutting down Aerial as Suletta was about to defeat Guel. This results in Suletta losing her engagement, Aerial, and the Holder title, timing it to prevent Suletta from challenging Guel again to win any of it back. In Episode 22, Suletta regains her Holder status, and she becomes Miorine’s knight again after they reconcile.
• Marriage of Convenience: Miorine initially wants Suletta to keep her position as her fiancée until she can escape to Earth, since any other person that wants her to be her fiancé[e] would obviously want to go through with the marriage rather than help her run away. However, by episode 11, they both express a desire to stay together forever; by 17, Suletta is openly enthusiastic about their impending marriage. Tragically, it is at this point that Miorine resolves to push Suletta away, bargaining with Guel to resume their engagement as part of a plot to remove Suletta from Prospera's influence. In Episode 22, they reconcile to an extent, with Suletta retaking her Holder uniform from Guel, and presumably the status which comes with it. Episode 24’s epilogue indicates they are indeed happily married and content.
• Meet Cute: The very first scene of Episode 1. Suletta arrives at school and just happens to stumble upon Miorine's escape attempt. She saves Miorine from suffocating in space, but Miorine is infuriated rather than grateful, headbutting Suletta and yelling at her. According to the novelization, Suletta is captivated the moment she first sees Miorine's face.
• Misery Builds Character: Season Two puts both of them through the wringer.
  • Suletta is betrayed by Miorine with Guel's help to remove her from her mother's influence. Then, she is abandoned by Aerial and her mother after they tell her she’s a clone that is no longer needed. Suletta is only able to begin recovering thanks to Earth House’s unconditional support; thanks to them, Suletta is able to pick herself up, and realize why Miorine and her sister treated her like they did when Lady Prospera uses Aerial to reignite tensions on Earth. After the destruction of Asticassia, she resolves to help as many survivors as possible, working rescue and relief efforts throughout the fallout of the attack. When presented with a chance to pilot a Gundam to confront Lady Prospera, Suletta resolves on her own to do so, realizing how much her older sister had been shielding her all her life. This culminates in Suletta taking the opportunity to speak with Miorine again, regaining her status as the Holder from Guel before having a heart-to-heart with Miorine.
  • Miorine pushes Suletta away, believing it to be for her own good, leaving Miorine as Lady Prospera's principal puppet and making her feel responsible for a terrorist attack that Prospera falsifies at Quinharbor on Earth while Miorine was attempting to negotiate with the Earthian protest leaders. She descends further into misery after finding out Asticassia was destroyed following her ordering Guel to corner Shaddiq there, and Lady Prospera reveals she completed Quiet Zero — rendering all Miorine's actions meaningless in the first place — which she uses to kill numerous SAL pilots. Miorine is left believing she will only commit more mistakes that will get more people killed. Suletta is the only one to get through to her with a heartfelt conversation about their mistakes, and she regains the resolve to confront her own mistakes with Suletta by her side.
• No Social Skills: Despite appearances, both Suletta and Miorine have their issues with socializing, but in different ways.
  • Suletta was the only child on Mercury growing up, all of her knowledge of the outside world came from anime, manga, and video games, and her best friend/little sister is an 18-meter tall Mobile Suit that is extremely limited in the ways it can communicate with its pilot, despite being a conscious, thinking being. As a result, she has a lot of trouble speaking to other people and tends to panic easily outside of battle.
  • It's less apparent at first with Miorine, since she's much more confident when it comes to actually speaking to people than Suletta is, but due to her emotionally isolated upbringing—compounded by Delling's neglect and her own decision not to reach out to or try to rely on other people—she has a very poor understanding of how to actually interact with others as equals, and tends to be brash, pushy, and somewhat thoughtless in her interpersonal relationships. This is a large source of the conflict she has with Chuchu and most members of the Earth House at first.
• Odd Couple: Suletta's shy and innocent personality is a strong contrast to the abrasive and prideful Miorine, but despite a rocky start they rapidly begin to grow closer to each other.
• Official Couple: Their relationship is in large part what the entire show is built around, from them getting engaged in the first episode, their growing closer to each other, the transition of their marriage from one of convenience to one of genuine emotion, and the massive trials that the rising conflict places between them and any kind of happy ending together. Nonetheless, by the final episode, they are both quite clearly Happily Married, rings and all.
• One Head Taller: Suletta is one of the tallest female characters in the show while Miorine is one of the shortest. The result is a striking eight-inch height difference between bride and Holder.
• Poor Communication Kills: Their shared weakness of having No Social Skills is what causes the majority of their interpersonal conflicts with each other.
  • By Episode 10, Miorine completely immerses herself in GUND-Arm Inc, and leaves Suletta in charge of taking care of her greenhouse, which Suletta is happy to do because she sees that responsibility as an extension of Miorine's trust. However, when Miorine makes multiple decisions without consulting Suletta, including hiring gardeners, Suletta interprets this as Miorine seeing no further value in her. It doesn't really help that Miorine doesn't actually explain the reasoning of her decisions, and that she's too distracted to realize that her responses to Suletta make her come across as indifferent to Suletta's feelings. For her part, Suletta is too stunned and heartbroken to properly convey to Miorine that her well-intentioned actions come across as hurtful.
  • This continues in Episode 11, on separate tracks: Suletta can't vocalize her growing insecurities about her place in GUND-ARM, while Miorine continues on with business as usual; it takes Nika talking to Miorine, Suletta talking to her mother, and Miorine overhearing that conversation for them to finally move past the problem.
  • In Episode 17, they fall into One Dialogue, Two Conversations when Miorine asks Suletta whether she would abandon Aerial if Miorine told her to do so. Suletta says no, stating that Aerial is like family to her. Naturally, Suletta means "I have my limits and would never give up Aerial—I won't give up on the people I care about", but Miorine, already dispirited by her encounters with Prospera and knowing that Suletta is still beholden to Prospera's whims, assumes that Suletta's answer means "no, no matter what you say to me, I won't give up this incredibly dangerous lifestyle that has already led to me killing multiple people". With no more ideas of what she can possibly do to get Suletta to finally realize the truth about Prospera or give up on risking her life, Miorine ultimately decides to take the choice out of Suletta's hands and colludes with Guel and Prospera to sabotage Suletta's final duel in order to force Suletta to stop endangering herself.
  • In Episode 22, they more or less bridge the communication issues, both admitting they've made mistakes, and resolving to move forward together despite them. Episode 24 presents them as happily married and openly affectionate towards each other which indicates they apparently have overcome their previous communication issues.
• The Promise:
  • After their first heart-to-heart in Episode 11, Miorine asks Suletta to keep a number of promises, including her never leaving her side and to continue winning duels which Suletta agrees to.
  • In Episode 22, Suletta promises Miorine that she will accompany her to Earth to face the mistakes she has made. They also promise to grow more tomatoes together. Come episode 24's epilogue, they're working on fulfilling the former at least.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Suletta is emotional and passionate, if a bit shy sometimes, while Miorine is more authoritative, intellectual, and reserved. It even carries over to their respective color motifs; Suletta's associated with red, Miorine with blue.
• Rescue Romance: Happens at least twice with each taking turns saving the other:
  • The two first meet when Suletta rescues Miorine after spotting her floating in space (unaware that Miorine was trying to escape to Earth), giving Miorine a bad first impression of Suletta. Their relationship starts to properly develop, however, when Suletta comes to Miorine's aid and stands up to Guel when he trashes Miorine's greenhouse, leading to Suletta winning the subsequent duel against him, the title of Holder and, with it, Miorine's hand in marriage.
  • Despite being the Holder/Miorine's groom, Suletta initially did not think too much about their engagement. This changes after the incubation party in Episode 7, where Suletta is caught in a trap set up by the Benerit Group to publicly defame her as a Gundam pilot, leading to Miorine stepping up and starting her own company to protect Suletta and Aerial. Afterwards, Suletta becomes more openly accepting of the engagement, immersing herself in her role as Miorine's groom and growing more affectionate towards her.
  • In Episode 22, there's more of a mental/emotional rescue than a physical one. After making numerous mistakes, Miorine has hit rock bottom in a depressive spiral that no one was capable of helping her out of. Until Suletta re-enters her life, getting through to her and giving her the strength to move forward.
  • In Episode 24, after Suletta nearly sacrificed her life to stop the threat of Quiet Zero and the Space Assembly League, Suletta is left floating in space. In a Book Ends to their original meeting, Miorine, with help from Chuchu, is the one to rescue her.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: At first their relationship was strictly a transactional one, with neither wanting to go through with their engagement and only maintaining it until both get what they want. However as the story progresses, both of them start developing genuine feelings for each other, going out of their way for the others' sake beyond any necessity of simply maintaining their arrangement. In Episode 23, Miorine makes it clear to Prospera that she does indeed plan on marrying Suletta. The epilogue in Episode 24 reveals they are Happily Married.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: While they never look bad, Episode 7 proves that both Suletta and Miorine can look great at formal events, as they're wearing beautiful dresses.
• Ship Tease:
  • Episode 7 has Miorine stepping in front of an entire conference, boldly declaring herself Suletta's bride, before proposing a start-up company and even begging her father for financial assistance (actions which both directly contradict her previously stated goals) all to save Suletta and Aerial. In subsequent episodes, Suletta appears to take their engagement far more seriously.
  • Episode 10 has Suletta behaving head-over-heels for Miorine while the latter is away on business, counting the hours until her return, and is visibly distraught when Elan plants the seed of doubt in her in that their marriage would only be political and Miorine's heart wouldn't be in it.
  • Episode 11 has Miorine giving Suletta an impassioned rant on how much the latter has changed her life for the better, reinforcing her choice from episode 7, and even asks her to promise to stay by her side forever.
  • Episode 17 has the two expressing their mutual feelings, but never directly to each other. Suletta explicitly rejects Guel's confession because of her feelings for Miorine, and later says that she wants to ask Miorine to stay by her side forever, complete with wanting to have a wedding with rings and dresses. Miorine, when speaking with Guel after Suletta rejects him, makes it clear that she's going to do whatever it takes to make Suletta happy, even it means breaking her heart by sabotaging said duel, causing her to lose everything that she held dear, and acting like their relationship meant nothing to Miorine at all in order to permanently push Suletta away from Prospera and the dangers of Quiet Zero.
  • In Episode 22, Suletta accepts a challenge to a duel with Guel before she can have a heart-to-heart with Miorine, allowing him to return the Holder uniform and status to her upon his defeat. Granted the chance to talk with Miorine again, they discuss how they've both made mistakes, but Suletta makes it clear her meeting Miorine was not one. Giving Miorine the courage to rise and face her mistakes, their talk culminates with Suletta offering Miorine her hand and Miorine accepting it, the camera focusing and lingering on their hands linking together. They would later share a tranquil moment where they promise to grow more tomatoes together.
  • In Episode 23, Miorine is shown anxiously looking at the keychain Suletta gave her while Suletta is fighting Quiet Zero, and she’s about to begin her part of the plan. She delivers a scathing "Reason You Suck" Speech towards Prospera for her treatment of Suletta, and when she offers Lady Prospera mercy she outright states she plans on marrying Suletta.
  • In Episode 24, Miorine saves Suletta while she is floating in space, initially believing her to have perished, causing her to break down in tears. When Suletta wakes up, Miorine's tears turn to joy, telling Suletta to answer her sooner and affectionately calling her an idiot.
• Skilled, but Naive: Both, but for different reasons.
  • Suletta is a genuinely excellent pilot, but she might as well have grown up inside of Aerial's cockpit. Not only does she have messy social skills and relatively little common sense, but the fourth episode reveals that she has very little knowledge of the "formals" of mobile suit mechanics, being baffled by a test that Miorine (who is shown to be a terrible pilot) refers to as the bare basics.
  • Miorine, despite being much more cynical than Suletta, is also quite sheltered. She is a polymath of a manager and administrator who can memorize a manual in minutes and turn a company running out of what's practically a garage into a legitimate contender, but she doesn't have a sense of just how cutthroat and cruel the business of war profiteering can be. This is quite visible in episode 19, where despite her overall plan being good on paper and wholly beneficial, she isn't aware of just how high the tensions between the two factions are running, which leads to her being nearly stonewalled in what should by all rights be a slam-dunk of a negotiation. It also leads her to underestimate just how dangerous Prospera actually is, which lets Prospera use Miorine's trip to Quinharbor as an excuse to stage a terrorist attack that completely scuttles Miorine's attempts to peacefully resolve matters with the Earthians.
• Spanner in the Works: Both Suletta and Miorine prove to be major problems for the three branches' plans and Lady Prospera.
  • In just the first episode, Suletta defeating Guel in a duel completely derails Vim Jeturk's plot to assassinate Delling and secure Guel's marriage with Miorine.
  • Miorine derails the Witch Trials taking place during episode 2 by confronting her father and challenging him to a duel for her freedom of choice and Suletta's sake, giving Lady Prospera and Jeturk opportunities to make Delling sound even more unreasonable and untrustworthy while presenting themselves as reasonable counterpoints and alternatives. She even gets her way, buying a reprieve for Suletta and Aerial and choosing them as her champions for her duel. She does it again during the incubation party in Episode 7 by starting up her own company to protect Suletta and Aerial from the joint scheme of Zenelli, Jeturk, and the Peil CEOs to expose them.
  • Suletta and Miorine's teamwork in episode 9, combined with Earth House lending a hand, put an end to Shaddiq and Sarius Zenelli's plans for Aerial: the events of the episode ensure that Shaddiq can no longer interfere with Miorine since he lost the duel and by proxy has to leave GUND-ARM Inc. alone, which means that Sarius has lost one of his primary direct levers for getting rid of Aerial.
  • In Episode 22, Suletta is able to help Miorine regain her resolve after Lady Prospera had successfully managed to break her spirit, and they resolve to confront her together. Subsequently, Lady Prospera definitely did not expect Suletta to oppose her, and doesn't appear to suspect that Suletta is just the diversion while Miorine's group attempt to shut down Quiet Zero.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: While technically "fiancée" rather than "girlfriend", "Wife" by the epilogue, Suletta and Miorine are this towards each other.
• Unwitting Pawn: Suletta is completely out of the loop on her mother Prospera's plans, and mostly just goes with the flow of what she's told to do because she trusts her mother. Miorine knows something's fishy about Prospera, but knowing she's against Delling turns it into an Enemy Mine situation. And even that turns into another example of how the girls have been left in the dark, as Prospera and Delling are actually working together in finalizing their project, Quiet Zero.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • In Episode 11, Miorine is surprised to hear that Suletta thinks little of herself, believing in turn that Miorine doesn't trust her. After giving Suletta a Dope Slap, she confesses just how much Suletta means to her and how Suletta's motto and presence in her life became the thing that gives her strength. She talks about how Suletta becoming her groom changed her life, how she's found joy and fulfillment in a life she used to scorn, and how she no longer wishes to run away.
  • Suletta returns the favor in Episode 22, after Miorine reveals her fear of making more mistakes that might cost more people their lives. Suletta reflects on some of the mistakes she's made in the past, stating that she intends to move forward regardless. She then makes it clear to Miorine in no uncertain terms that their meeting and forming the bond they have was not a mistake. This finally gets through to Miorine, allowing her to find the resolve to move forward with Suletta.

Suletta Mercury

Miorine Rembran

Mobile Suits

Units that have shown to have some level of personality appear on this list.

XVX-016 Gundam Aerial

Pilots: Suletta Mercury, Miorine Rembran (stolen), Elan Ceres (testing only), Prospera Mercury

"You can't come here."

^{Pictured is its Bit-On Mode. Click to see Shield Mode} 

^{Click to see the Aerial Rebuild} 

The primary Gundam of the series and Suletta Mercury's sister. Suletta enrolls with her in the academy and pilots her to participate in the duels.

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• Ambiguous Situation: While episode 14 seemingly makes it clear beyond doubt that Aerial and Ericht are one and the same, and that any time Aerial has talked to Suletta it's actually been Eri, episode 23 casts some doubt on this. When Ericht is about to kill Suletta's friends, the data storm suddenly subsides. Ericht is just as surprised as everyone else, and seemingly yells at Aerial itself to not intervene, suggesting that Aerial might have intent and agency separate from Ericht.
• Attack Drone: The signature trait of a Gundam in this series, and Aerial is the prime example. Notably, she's the first instance in the franchise of a protagonist suit starting with such equipment, with it being typically reserved for a Mid-Season Upgrade at the earliest. Aerial can even take over other Gundam's drones, with plans for her own personalized drones called GundNodes being planned as of Episode 18 which are seemingly planned to function similarly to the Rig Ring to allow Aerial to further spread the range of her Data storms.
• Beam Spam: Aerial's primary method of offense. Alongside her beam rifle, each of the eleven GUND Bits comprising her shield is able to act as a beam-equipped Attack Drone strong enough to remove limbs from a mobile suit, letting her overwhelm the enemy with a barrage of blasts.
• Benevolent A.I.: To Suletta, at least, having sworn to herself to always protect her. Those she fights might question how "benevolent" she is, given how brutally Aerial defeats them. Ultimately revealed to not be an AI at all; the intelligence inside Aerial is the result of Ericht Samaya being uploaded into it, effectively functioning as an Operating System. Even the benevolent part starts to be questionable after a while; in the Cradle Planet novella, Eri is fully on board with Prospera's revenge plans, and once Suletta has fullfilled her purpose, she discards her like everyone else did, though ostensibly still out of a desire to protect her.
• Beyond the Impossible: Aerial's ability to reach high Permet Scores with no discernable data storm affecting the pilot is repeatedly found baffling by those familiar with Gundams, to the point that Prospera uses this as her primary argument that Aerial isn't one. It's eventually revealed this is due to Aerial's ability to control the data storms that usually make piloting Gundams a lethal affair, turning what's commonly regarded as a "Curse" into a powerful weapon, being able to control other Gundams at Score 6, and operate without a pilot at Score 8. For comparison, regular people suffer severe strain at 3, and going up to 4 for any considerable length of time is a death sentence.
• BFG: Her main armament after her reconstruction into the Aerial Rebuild is a huge rifle that can extend and dock with all of the GUND bits to fire a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Bigger Stick: Even accounting for her pilot's skill, it is fairly clear that Aerial is by far the most powerful mobile suit at Asticassia, with all three of her duels thus far showing Aerial to massively outclass her opponents: in her first duel against Guel's Dilanza, Aerial took her opponent apart in mere seconds though the use of Gun-Staves, and in her second, despite going up against a more powerful Darilbalde and being handicapped by the sprinkler system, Suletta and Aerial still manage to hold their own quite handily. This even applies to other Gundams, as Aerial's ability to increase her Permet Score to arbitrary levels with no harm to her pilot allows her to fully override any system that uses a Permet link, from negating the dedicated anti-GUND "Antidote" countermeasure to weaponizing data storms to cripple enemy Gundams and hijack control of their bits.
• Big Little Sister: Suletta refers to Aerial as her 'little sister' despite the machine being a huge mobile suit. Chronologically, Ericht is eight years older than Suletta, but the Virtual Ghost shown within Aerial is still a young child, so her integration may have kept her mind from maturing.
• Big Sister Instinct: Though Suletta calls Aerial her little sister, this still applies. Aerial is extremely protective of Suletta, often activating functions and sometimes taking control away from Suletta to protect her. The confirmation that it's Ericht inside of Aerial makes it even more obvious.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: When Suletta is endangered by Sophie, who in this case is a terrorist but at least has Suletta's sympathies, Ericht outright maims her to the point of the GUND overwhelming Sophie. It's unknown if Ericht stopped because of Suletta's begging or because Sophie was already dead, but it has become clear that the little girl we knew from the prologue will kill anyone who threatens Suletta or what she cares about, and any other standards don't seem to matter — including not being upset with Prospera over what was done to her, but instead over what Suletta was being used for.
• Brain Uploading: According to Prospera, Ericht Samaya's biometric code was transferred to the Lfrith via data storms since Eri's body couldn't withstand the harshness of space; the Lfrith was then remodelled into Aerial to serve as Eri's new body. As a result, Aerial doesn't have an AI, she has an uploaded intelligence, Eri, acting as her operating system.
• Companion Cube: Subverted; you'd think from the lack of response that Aerial is just a machine that Suletta treats as a person. The short story interquel makes it very explicit that Aerial is sapient, as it's told through her perspective, she just has very little ability to communicate. As she hits higher and higher Permet Scores, Eri's consciousness begins to manifest more outwardly. Initially, Suletta can barely talk to her in some capacity, with their communication growing clearer once she reaches Score 6, at which point she is also able to manifiest in a ghost-like form. Finally, at Score 8, she can just control Aerial on her own.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To her immediate lead Gundam predecessor, the ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos. While there is at least a similarity such as having a degree of sentience, there are more differences. First, Barbatos is exclusively equipped with physical weapons, while Aerial's weapons are all beam-based. Next are their opposing fighting styles, Barbatos is a Close-Range Combatant, being equipped with variations of massive maces as its main weapon, while Aerial is a Long-Range Fighter due to her Bit Staves (all 11 of them) being equipped exclusively with beam cannons for offense. Lastly, Barbatos is never equipped with a shield for defense, while Aerial is equipped with a massive one named Escutcheon, which also has multipurpose functions (such as separating into Bit Staves). There's also the matter of the relationship between the Pilot and the MS. When Mika piloted the Barbatos, it was him figuratively making a deal with the devil every time he connected to the Alaya-Vijnana system, while Suletta can draw the full potential of Aerial without suffering side effects. Mika also only treated the Barbatos's room as a warm place to sleep, not thinking much of it until he climbed into the cockpit, as compared to how Suletta and the Aerial view each other as family, with their relationship being treated as a sibling pair fighting as one unit.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Downplayed. Her emphasis on Attack Drones and beam weaponry means that she loses her overwhelming advantage in the rain, as water can dissipate shots from long-range beam weaponry. That said, she's still a highly advanced mobile suit that can be deadly even in close combat. Duels are also fought with Power Limiters to prevent casualties and structural damage, so the rain may not be so crippling when Aerial is prepared for actual combat.
• A Day in the Limelight: The short story Cradle Planet gives an overview of Aerial's perspective from Suletta's early childhood up until going to the academy.
• Deconstruction: Most mainline Gundam series have the Gundam be a forefront of warfare and combat, turning the tides of conflict almost singlehandedly in some way or another as one of or the ultimate weapon(s) of their respective stories. Aerial is a major crux of the storyline — but only settles officiated duels, as she is significantly restricted from doing much of anything else due to the non-warfare nature of this series while the human cast handle a great deal of politics and social circumstances revolving around her. Even more so, the Gundam as a title is referring to the GUND-Format system and is the real catalyst of the plot; this results in Aerial being such a big deal by her raw hardware rather than being built to be the deadliest thing around, and arguably isn't since anyone can technically make a Gundam if they replicate the GUND-Format which isn't inherently exclusive. Only the literal ban on GUND prevents this. Reconstructed somewhat with the reveal that Aerial isn't just a well-made example of the GUND-Format, but its pinnacle, the data storms inherent to the system having been used to transform a human being into a mobile suit - none other than Ericht Samaya. This unique status allows Aerial to bypass all the known flaws with the GUND-Format, while also achieving feats unthinkable by any other machine in the setting.
• Deflector Shield: When deployed in their drone formation, Aerial's Stave Bits can project an energy field between them capable of dispersing beam shots.
• Diverting Power: Aerial is heavily dependent on its GUND Bits for most of its signature combat functions. This gives it unparalleled flexibility for a mobile suit as they can be recombined and rearranged in various ways to attack, defend, or otherwise boost specific functions. However, it cannot do all these things at the same time, and deploying the Bits in one formation means that they're not operating in a different formation. As noted in Logical Weakness, Aerial can struggle when trying to multi-task with them.
• Drone Deployer: Has Stave Bits that can either serve as drones, combine with Aerial and her beam rifle, or combine to become a shield.
• Empathic Weapon: Aerial appears to be fully sentient; the Interquel short story and the Opening Song are both told from Aerial's perspective, and Suletta can communicate with her on some level.
• Evil Costume Switch: Aerial Rebuild has a noticeably darker color palette and more militaristic aesthetic compared to her original design. Fittingly, Rebuild’s first appearance is what heralds the darker tone of the second cour, as well as foreshadowing Aerial as the Final Boss for Suletta to overcome for the show’s final arc.
• Evolving Weapon: Aerial begins the show astonishingly powerful and only grows moreso as the series progresses, as Suletta's piloting skill allows Aerial's data storm network to grow, hitting higher and higher Permet Scores without her even realizing, which in turn allows Ericht's consciousness to reassert itself more and more. Prospera's ultimate goal hinges on Aerial hitting Permet Score 8, at which point Eri becomes so fully realized she doesn't even need a pilot to move any more — and at the very end, Suletta's resolve allows her to reach a Permet Score even higher than that.
• Fem Bot: Once again, Suletta considers the Aerial her little sister. She always calls the mech "Aerial", like a proper name, not "The Aerial" like an object. Lady Prospera also freely calls Aerial her daughter, at least in front of Suletta. This is because, with Ericht within Aerial, Aerial basically is Prospera's daughter.
• Field Power Effect:
  • At higher Permet levels she is able to project a field that greatly enhances Suletta's spatial awareness to the point that she seems to gain a sixth sense, being able to tell exactly where people are.
  • She can also project a data storm field that disrupts all Permet tech within the area. Gundam's are especially vulnerable to this. At higher scores she is able to even seize control of whatever remote weapons the opponent might have and, in the case of an opposing Gundam, even the suit itself.
• Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: By Suletta's assessment, Aerial does not believe her conspiring with their mother's plan is right, but cannot think of anything else that's better.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In order to protect Suletta and Prospera from Peil and the League's interplanetary laser weapon, Aerial uses herself and the Quiet Zero drones to project a massive energy shield over the area. The blast is stopped, but the drones are vaporized and Aerial is ripped apart. The last we see is her wrecked cockpit, powerless and unresponsive.
• Hive Mind: Several sequences strongly hint that it's not just Aerial herself that is sentient, but even her Stave Bits as well; Suletta at least seems to make a distinction between Aerial and "everyone", referring to the Stave Bits. And when Aerial later appears to Elan as a ghostly silhouette of a child, all of Aerial's Stave Bits appear as silhouettes as well, implying they all may have some degree of sentience, or at least are subsystems of the main AI. Episode 18 has Eri claim that they are all Repli-Children like Suletta, though their function is described as expanding her consciousness, with only Eri herself and Suletta being their own individuals.
• "Instant Death" Radius: At Permet Score 6 or higher, she's capable of hijacking other drones and Gundams at will. The horrific side effect of this is that it also forces the data storm onto the other Gundam pilot, and such a high Score is almost immediately lethal, as poor Sophie finds out. While she can hijack the drones and/or bits of non-Gundam Mobile Suits just as easily, the pilots don't seem to suffer any form of blowback from it.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Aerial shows many signs of intelligence, but no hardware specifications or technology designed to achieve such have been mentioned anywhere as of yet. Episodes 14, 15, and 16 reveal that it wasn't an accident, Ericht Samaya became the Aerial's "OS".
• Leitmotif: After its upgrade it gains the theme "AERIAL REBUILD".
• Logical Weakness: Aerial's bits can either fire beams, or protect her. Emphasis on the words "either" and "or" because they cannot do both at the same time, and she has to devote all bits to offense or defense. Shaddiq's team exploits this weakness by having the team fire from multiple directions and keep Aerial's bits busy protecting the machine, preventing them from returning fire. When Aerial reaches Permet Score 6, she can use smaller groups of bits to generate shields between themselves and still return fire. She also seems to have much more flexibility in her offense and defense post-Rebuild.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Her eleven bits can combine into a shield.
• Man of Kryptonite: Episode 6 reveals that she also possesses an Anti-GUND pulse weapon similar to the Antidote utilized by Grassley Defense Systems, which she uses without Suletta's input to cripple the Pharact. That it disabled the Pharact which was operating at Permet Score Four, while Antidote only works up to Three suggests it's superior to Grassley's technology at that. Episode 14 reveals this is actually not an anti-GUND weapon, but Aerial using data storms to completely override other Permet Links, able to not just cripple, but take over opposing craft. By episode 21, when Aerial is hooked up to Quiet Zero and using the Gundnodes, she can take over any Permet Links within its sphere of influence.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Just as Prospera's alias is derived from Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Aerial's comes from the wind spirit Ariel. Like the spirit, Gundam Aerial has become a vital instrument of revenge by an exile who calls upon her to help their child marry the child of their usurper. The GUND Format even causes a phenomenon called "data storms", in reference to the eponymous storm that the spirit conjured to force a ship onto Prospero's island. Aerial is likewise capable of controlling the data storms at will.
  • Aerial’s name can be parsed down to "Eri", her AI Ericht Samaya’s Affectionate Nickname.
• Mecha Expansion Pack:
  • The Stave Bits can dock themselves around the Aerial's body to grant her increased mobility and performance. This is known as the "Bit-On" form and is Aerial's default form.
  • There's also the optional Mirasoul Flight Unit, which replaces the standard backpack for additional propulsion, while the beam sabers stored on the latter are transferred onto the former.
  • Quiet Zero could be considered Aerial's final add-on, a colossal space fortress built for the sole purpose of extending the range of her data storm to potentially interplanetary distances. Besides the ability to seize control of entire fleets within its radius of effect, it comes with a veritable army of Gundnodes and their expansion packs, making her a threat to the entire solar system.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Following extensive damage after the team duel with Grassley House, Aerial is rebuilt into the Aerial Rebuild near the end of the first season. Her reconstruction adds on new boosters for increased mobility and trades her old rifle for a much bigger weapon that can dock with all eleven bits to form a beam cannon.
• Morph Weapon: Downplayed. The Stave Bits themselves are unable to change forms; however, they can change how they configure themselves depending on the situation, able to act as attack drones, form a deflector shield, attach themselves to the Mobile Suit's body to increase its performance, and even attach themselves to Aerial's rifle to grant her increased power.
• Next Tier Powerup: Like other Gundams, Aerial's full capabilities are gated behind Permet Scores, but unlike other Gundams, she can increase her score on her own and without notification. Following the duel in Episode 9, in which Aerial defeated the anti-Gundam Antidote field, continued coordinating her bits, and moved faster than she ever has before, Lady Prospera notes that Aerial achieved a Permet Score of 6, which isn't something Suletta or the viewer would normally be aware of. Once she has achieved Score 8, Eri claims to be capable of controlling the Aerial on her own, without the need for a pilot.
• Only the Chosen May Pilot: Double Subverted; while anyone can pilot Aerial like any other mobile suit and can even use her GUND-format functions (as Elan proves), so far Suletta has been the only person who can communicate with Aerial and get a response from her at all, indicating that Suletta alone can draw more potential from her than anyone else. Episode 16 reveals that she can and will reject pilots she doesn't like, putting Elan #5 through painful data storms before ejecting him from the cockpit. This gets tragically and horrifically turned on its head after she reaches Permet Score 8, which Eri claims allows her full autonomous control of Aerial, no pilot needed; wishing to sever Suletta's dependency on her, Eri hits Suletta with a data storm flare just like what she did to Elan #5.
• One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Aerial is unique among Gundams because her pilots receive all the benefits with no negative consequences. This doesn't come from Suletta being tolerant or immune to the negative effects of GUND-ARM technology, as Elan's brief time in the cockpit revealed he felt no pain piloting Aerial compared to his standard Gundam Pharact, even after raising the Permet level, and the usual Volcanic Veins didn't activate either. The "missing factor" that makes her safe to pilot is initially a mystery, too—in Episode 8, after interviewing Lady Prospera, Miorine complains she forgot to ask what it was. The conversation between Prospera and Belmeria in Episode 14 flat-out states that it's because Ericht is acting as Aerial's OS and is the one mitigating the storm's effects, not Suletta. However, Suletta IS needed as the only pilot skilled enough to push its Permet Scores higher and higher, which is necessary for Eri to fully awaken.
• Power Parasite: Aerial can exceed other Gundams' Permet Score by so much she can hijack their drones.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: By transferring her biometric data into the Data Storm, Ericht Samaya is essentially Aerial's OS. Since the Stave Bits are also child clones, it's powered by almost a dozen forsaken children. Suletta is the 13th, completing the witch's coven needed to operate it.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: The bulk of the series leads up to revealing Aerial's former humanity and her regaining sapience, but the same process makes Aerial a Person of Mass Destruction at Prospera's beck and call.
• Punny Name: Her name can be parsed as "Eri-L", a disturbing hint as to the true nature of its OS.
• Purple Is Powerful: Not Aerial herself, but any Gundam she takes control of with her data storm has its shell units turn purple.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: When she gets upgraded to the Aerial Rebuild, her design is noticeably more rugged and muted, reflecting the darker tone-shift that the show takes in episode 12.
• Story-Breaker Power: Aerial was one of the most powerful mobile suits in existence even at the start of the series. Her base-level armament is top-of-the-line, her Attack Drones can cut an enemy suit into pieces in seconds, she's extremely fast, she has a Deflector Shield, and she's backed up by the best pilot on Mercury. Multiple stories in the early seasons have the antagonists struggling to come up with a countermeasure to her, and without much success. Once Suletta starts leapfrogging up the ladder of Permet Scores and Aerial gets refurbished in the first season finale, even other Gundams equipped with live ammunition don't pose much of a threat to her, as she can ignore the typical Gundam counter of Antidote, take control of remote equipment in a large radius, and even force potentially lethal data storms onto other Gundam pilots. For that exact reason, after the five-on-five battle, the series treats Aerial's victory against any other suit as an inevitable result, focusing instead on the various schemes that characters make around her and the devastation that such a powerful suit wreaks on her enemies—and after episode 17, Aerial leaves Suletta and becomes the final opponent Suletta herself must face.
• Technopath: Aerial can control any Permet tech within a designated area, and it is not limited to mobile suits—anything that makes use of the technology is vulnerable to this ability, including drones or vehicles. This is something Prospera makes use of to set up a False Flag Operation by taking control of a tank and having it fire on Aerial.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: There are a number of them to emphasize that Aerial is a she, not an it.
  • One notable difference between Aerial and other Gundams in the franchise is that her faceplate has large, rounded 'eyes' (compared to the narrow slit look of most Gundams), nearly as large and round as the ones on the G-Self, as a sign of femininity.
  • She also has the Mobile Suit equivalent of long fingernails, and while having claws isn't new in Gundam, Aerial is unique in that hers are distinctly not pointed or offensive looking, rather looking like unpainted cosmetic nails that a person would have.
  • Aerial's frame is also noticeably narrower around the waist when compared to other contemporary MS, the Lfrith included.
• Undying Loyalty: To Suletta. Albeit she's on board with Prospera's revenge plan, she's decidedly not happy that Suletta got caught up in them. Once she achieves Permet Score 8 and Eri awakens in full, she pulls a Cruel to Be Kind on Suletta, rejecting her so that she can live her own life beyond Prospera. This however, completely shatters Suletta.
• Unrobotic Reveal: Aerial can think like a human because she is made from one.
• The Voiceless: While Aerial does have external speakers and can utilize communications channels, she does not have a voice synthesizer module of any kind, nor can she move without a pilot, restricting her to manipulating the cockpit monitors for communication, and at best, emitting a soft electronic hum. Suletta seems to understand her fluently regardless. We do hear children's laughter when Aerial attacks and Suletta claims to hear her voice more clearly in Episode 6 though, so she might have other means of communications not yet shown. In Episode 9, Suletta seems to be able to communicate directly with her, but according to Miorine's screen, it looks like Suletta is just talking to herself. This changes once she achieves Permet Score 6, as it allows her to fully manifiest a ghostly apperance that is visible and capable of normally communicating with those interfacing with her.

XGF-02 Gundam Lfrith

Pilots: Elnora Samaya, Ericht Samaya

^{Pictured is its Bit-On Mode. Click to see Shield Mode} 

One of the first Gundams, developed by the Vanadis Institute in an attempt at finding a solution to the lethal side-effects to the GUND piloting system.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Given that Lfrith disappears from the story after the prologue, Mercury is stated to not have the means to construct a Gundam from scratch, and Ericht's relationship to the Gundam matching how Suletta describes her relationship with Aerial, it seems likely that Lfrith was rebuilt as Aerial. This is confirmed in episode 16. Prospera explains that Eri's mind was "synched" with Lfrith's data storm, leading her to refit the machine to become Eri's new body, Aerial.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Like with all Gundams, pilots using Lfrith's GUND system are in danger of killing themselves from the mental and physical taxation. Lfrith was intended to solve this problem, though they weren't making much headway until the 4-year-old Ericht accidentally became her pilot.
• Deflector Shield: The shield that its bits can combine into can generate a shield capable of deflecting attacks, even before fully combining.
• Drone Deployer: It has drones that can be stored on its back for increased thrust, deployed as attack drones or combined into a shield.
• Last of Their Kind: At the end of the prologue, Lfrith is the last known Gundam in existence and is eventually rebuilt into the Aerial, with all the rest supposedly being scrapped due to the Gundam ban. Emphasis on "known". Over time, the show reveals that there are other Gundams out there, including ones made by Ochs Earth who have been operating in secret since the Vanadis incident. There is also the Calibarn, a pre-Lfrith Gundam model in storage.
• Like a Daughter to Me: While Lfrith doesn't appear to have an innate personality like Aerial, the Vanadis scientists who created her all considered her their daughter, and Ericht saw her as a little sister.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Its bits can combine into a shield.

X-EX01 Gundam Calibarn (Unmarked Spoilers)

Pilots: Suletta Mercury

An early Gundam model, lacking data storm filters that later models would be outfited with. This made it extremely dangerous to pilot, and earned it the nickname "Monster".

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• Attack Drones: Doesn't have them, unlike every other Gundam in the show, perhaps further signifying its age. It does eventually get to borrow Aerial's GUND-Bits (and it is compatible with them, since they can dock on Calibarn's body and even turned white to match its color scheme), but it lacks any to truly call its own though its HG kit also includes the Aerial's GUND-Bits.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The Calibarn is a downright ancient prototype older than even the original Lfrith units (perhaps one of the earliest GUND Format mobile suits, if not the first) that is brought out of storage as one of the only machines available that could fight against Quiet Zero without being overridden.
• Captain Ersatz: To the Tallgeese, as it is an exceptionally old, almost fully white-colored mobile suit dragged out of storage whose life-threatening lack of safeguards allows for incredibly high performance, with exceptional speed and maneuverability if anyone can handle it. And like the Tallgeese, its main weapon is a single, powerful long-barreled beam cannon.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Once combined with Aerial's GUND-Bits, both Suletta and Ericht working together allow Calibarn to ascend beyond Permet Score 8, signified by it emitting a rainbow radiance.
• Flawed Prototype: Calibarn lacks the data storm filter that other Gundams are equipped with, which makes it a lot more dangerous to pilot. Suletta only makes it because being a clone of Ericht gives her increased resistance (though not her sister's outright immunity) against data storms, and the strain ultimately leaves her with visible scarring and long-term nerve damage.
• Flying Broomstick: Going with the theme of Gundam pilots being Witches, the Calibarn's primary armament is a combined gun-thruster shaped like a witches' broom.
• Fragile Speedster: The Calibarn lacks the defensive shields of Aerial but makes up for it with loads of thrusters to maintain breakneck agility. Aside from the main back thruster, it also has a massive booster in its main weapon as well as even using thrusters in the knees (something normally only used for vector thrust) to gain speed.
• Leitmotif: "Liberation from the Curse"
• Meaningful Appearance: Fitting for a Gundam named after the sword that could only be wielded by the rightful king of Britain, the Calibarn shares its red and white colour scheme with the English flag.
• Meaningful Name: Calibarn is a portmanteau of Caliban, the name of Prospero's slave in The Tempest who is often depicted as monstrous, and Caliburn, the sword King Arthur pulled from the stone. The former name reflects both its reputation as a "monster" and the fact that it is piloted by Suletta Mercury who Prospera used as a tool for her plans, while the latter reflects Suletta's heroic nature, and how, like Arthur, only she can wield the Calibarn.
• No-Sell: As a Gundam, it's able to prevent any of Quiet Zero's attempts to hijack it as long as it's at least Permet Score 5, and this ability is why the Calibarn is brought out to battle it in the first place.
• Odd Name Out: Unlike every other Ochs Earth and Vanadis-developed Gundams, Calibarn does not have any Mythical Motifs of Norse Mythology, instead being a direct Shout-Out to The Tempest and King Arthur.
• Only the Chosen May Pilot: Because of her resistance to Data Storms, only Suletta can pilot the Calibarn and survive.
• Red Is Heroic: The shell units on the Calibarn glow bright red, compared to Aerial's white and the GundNodes' blue.
• Power at a Price: Its lack of a data storm filter is both the Calibarn's biggest boon and its biggest flaw — on the one hand, it will almost certainly kill its pilot since there's no protection from a data storm while piloting it, but it also allows the Calibarn to put out power at lower Permet Scores that is comparable to other Gundams operating at a higher Score. To wit, Suletta in the Calibarn at Score 5 can go toe to toe with Aerial operating Quiet Zero, which at minimum is at Score 8.
• Super Prototype: Its lack of data storm filters means Calibarn can maintain a higher Permet Score than most Gundams while using the same amount of Permet. This lets it resist data storms that would shut down modern Gundams and increases its response time while being piloted.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: The Calibarn is mobile suit dubbed a "monster" that can easily kill its pilots, and is primarily white with dark red highlights to contrast with Aerial's Primary-Color Champion color scheme.