History YMMV / MobileSuitGundam

* MemeticBadass: Char ("[[LawOfChromaticSuperiority Da Red wunz go fasta, ya gitz?!]]) and Bright ("[[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Slapping spineless wimps]] into '''[[TookALevelInBadass MEN OF DESTINY]]''' since 1979).

%%* TheWoobie: Miharu Ratokie.

* VindicatedByHistory: It's tough to believe that this show was canceled early due to poor ratings. And it's now the progenitor of one of the most renowned franchises in anime history.

* CommonKnowledge: One of the most well known things about Gihren is that he takes being compared to Hitler as a compliment, with even some official products exaggerating this into him outright being a fanboy of the dictator and deliberately trying to imitate him. While Gihren is certainly evil and does shrug off the comparison, it's made clear in the scene itself he only has a vague idea of who Hitler is since World War II is ancient history in-universe, with the real message of the scene being that Gihren is emulating him to the letter despite this.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Despite the fact that Amuro decided to pilot the Gundam because ''Fraw Bow convinced him to'' (and later [[spoiler:Ryu's Death]] coped him to become a pilot), many of them swept away that fact since they ultimately prefer Bright's (infamous) slap as a ''real "helping" hand'' (no pun intended) for him instead, as he said that Amuro "can't be a real man without taking a few lumps".

** Also from the original show, the very concept of the newtype is something that just suddenly appears near the shows end and with everyone suddenly talking about it as if it had always been there. The movies rectifies this by having it introduced and properly discussed much earlier.

* {{Asspull}}: In the original animation, Amuro pulls out a heat-resistant film in the RX-78 Gundam to cover the whole mobile suit and save himself from burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. This was retconned in the remakes with a Heatproof Field which is a venting system that pumps out air to create a thermal shield in front of the Gundam.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** [[DeadpanSnarker Kai Shiden]] is labeled a DirtyCoward by most of the crew early in the series for his bitter complaints about the situation they're in, despite the fact that he repeatedly undertakes dangerous assignments when necessary.[[note]]And after the war, he's left the danger of a MS cockpit for the safe career of ''war journalist''[[/note]] While the other characters eventually realize their mistake, the majority of the ''fandom'' seems to have ignored that and consider him a spineless jerk.
** Bright Noa slapping Amuro, which is eventually seen as a trademark "GetAHoldOfYourselfMan" move to whiny crew members.

** Although Char may be a DarthVaderClone, there's one thing that he had before Vader - [[LukeIAmYourFather a familial connection to one of the heroes]][[note]]''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', where Vader was revealed to be Luke's father, was released roughly 4 months after the last episode had finished airing[[/note]]. He even encourages Sayla to join him, like Darth Vader did with Luke!

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: With a number of characters.

** Gihren Zabi. There's such charisma and depravity to him that he really stands out as the series's most evil character.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: At least for the ''The War For Earth'' video game; we didn't get another Gundam with live-action characters [[Film/GSaviour until the year 2000]].

* HarsherInHindsight: A significant arc is the Federation trying to drive out the Zeon after they set up a major military base in Odessa, Ukraine. A number of plot points during this arc are still relevant today, but things became much more poignant when the [=GundamInfo=] [=YouTube=] channel posted the ''Soldiers of Sorrow'' movie, which covers that arc, mere hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

** Episode 33. A Zeon officer scoffs Char's claims about the Gundam, only to have his forces thoroughly trounced by said Feddie mech. Then he receives a hail from Char, and his first thought is [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam "did he come to]] [[MemeticMutation laugh at me?"]]

* HypeBacklash: After listening to UC fans promote Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, it can be somewhat disappointing for some fans of other Gundam series to watch the show. Not because it's bad, but because it cannot live up to the hype its fans create for it. The same can be said for individual characters such as Char Aznable and Amuro Ray.

* WhatAnIdiot: Hayato deserting when Amuro wasn't executed for deserting. Logic clearly was not involved. Thankfully for both of them they weren't part of the regular military at that point and Ryu even reasons to Bright that they were on the spot draftees, so it would be too harsh to apply strict military rules to them.
** The traitorous commander that was intending to sabotage Operation Odessa. Somehow he didn't think to check what Amuro may have said to his subordinates beforehand, ''and'' thought that shooting the Gundam's pilot dead in his office would be easier to cover up than just throwing his exposed collaborator under the bus. This gets him shot and arrested less than a minute later by actually-competent soldiers without Amuro having to do anything more.
* TheWoobie: Miharu Ratokie.

** [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Da red wunz go fasta, ya gitz?!]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Many found that Char crossed it when he [[spoiler:arranged Garma's death]]. What really makes Char's crossing of the moral event horizon work is that he didn't just kill [[spoiler:Garma, he also killed the entire crew of the Gaw that Garma was on. And ''this'' is coming from a man who had been shown to genuinely mourn the loss of his subordinates.]] Chew on that for awhile.

** [[TheEvilPrince Gihren Zabi]] is the eldest son of the Zabi family and de facto dictator of the Principality of Zeon. A cold, Machiavellian personality who takes being compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as a compliment and fully believes that DespotismJustifiesTheMeans, Gihren doesn't care about anyone's lives, including those of his own family members, and is willing to do anything to conquer the world. He turns his little brother's funeral into a political rally while the rest of his family looks on in horror; preaches a philosophy [[StrawHypocrite which he doesn't buy into himself]]; uses a ColonyDrop to exterminate vast swathes of Earth's population; deploys chemical weapons against the very colonies he claims to be liberating; and later blasts his own father and General Revil into oblivion just so they won't reach an armistice. When his sister Kycilia, no angel herself, confronts him about what he's done, Gihren's sneeringly offhanded disregard for her anger cements his status as an utterly hollow psychopath. Had he won, he admits that he would have reduced Earth's population to less than a billion and kept it that way so that they could never rise up against him. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Various]] side [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamThePlotToAssassinateGihren stories]] involving him only add to his list of crimes--he helped Ginias Sahalin and his [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Apsalus Project]]; and arranged, through his secretary, Cecilia Irene, two elaborate false assassination plots with himself as the supposed victim in order to frame Kycilia and garner public support for clamping down on his political opposition. When Det. David Schiller became an UnwittingPawn in one of these schemes, he was rewarded by seeing his entire family, members of the anti-Zabi faction, imprisoned or executed. Decades after his introduction, Gihren remains the standard to which ''Gundam'''s other monsters aspire to, with [[FountainOfExpies numerous equally monstrous expies influenced by him]].

** [[TheEvilPrince Gihren Zabi]] is the eldest son of the Zabi family and de facto dictator of the Principality of Zeon. A cold, Machiavellian personality who takes being compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as a compliment and fully believes that DespotismJustifiesTheMeans, Gihren doesn't care about anyone's lives, including those of his own family members, and is willing to do anything to conquer the world. He turns his little brother's funeral into a political rally while the rest of his family looks on in horror; preaches a philosophy [[StrawHypocrite which he doesn't buy into himself]]; uses a ColonyDrop to exterminate vast swathes of Earth's population; deploys chemical weapons against the very colonies he claims to be liberating; and later blasts his own father and General Revil into oblivion just so they won't reach an armistice. When his sister Kycilia, no angel herself, confronts him about what he's done, Gihren's sneeringly offhanded disregard for her anger cements his status as an utterly hollow psychopath. Had he won, he admits that he would have reduced Earth's population to less than a billion and kept it that way so that they could never rise up against him. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Various]] side [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamThePlotToAssassinateGihren stories]] involving him only add to his list of crimes--he helped Ginias Sahalin and his [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Apsalus Project]]; and arranged, through his secretary, Cecilia Irene, two elaborate false assassination plots with himself as the supposed victim in order to frame Kycilia and garner public support for clamping down on his political opposition. When Det. David Schiller became an UnwittingPawn in one of these schemes, he was rewarded by seeing his entire family, members of the anti-Zabi faction, imprisoned or executed. Decades after his introduction, Gihren remains the standard to which ''Gundam'''s other monsters aspire to, with [[FountainOfExpies numerous equally monstrous villains influenced by him]].

** [[TheEvilPrince Gihren Zabi]] is the eldest son of the Zabi family and de facto dictator of the Principality of Zeon. A cold, Machiavellian personality who takes being compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as a compliment and fully believes that DespotismJustifiesTheMeans, Gihren doesn't care about anyone's lives, including those of his own family members, and is willing to do anything to conquer the world. He turns his little brother's funeral into a political rally while the rest of his family looks on in horror; preaches a philosophy [[StrawHypocrite which he doesn't buy into himself]]; uses a ColonyDrop to exterminate vast swathes of Earth's population; deploys chemical weapons against the very colonies he claims to be liberating; and later blasts his own father and General Revil into oblivion just so they won't reach an armistice. When his sister Kycilia, no angel herself, confronts him about what he's done, Gihren's sneeringly offhanded disregard for her anger cements his status as an utterly hollow psychopath. Had he won, he admits that he would have reduced Earth's population to less than a billion and kept it that way so that they could never rise up against him. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Various]] side [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamThePlotToAssassinateGihren stories]] involving him only add to his list of crimes--he helped Ginias Sahalin and his [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Apsalus Project]]; and arranged, through his secretary, Cecilia Irene, two elaborate false assassination plots with himself as the supposed victim in order to frame Kycilia and garner public support for clamping down on his political opposition. When Det. David Schiller became an UnwittingPawn in one of these schemes, he was rewarded by seeing his entire family, members of the anti-Zabi faction, imprisoned or executed. Decades after his introduction, Gihren remains the standard to which ''Gundam'''s other monsters aspire to, with [[FountainOfExpies numerous equally monstrous expies influenced by him]].

** [[BigBad Gihren Zabi]] is [[TheEvilPrince the eldest son]] of the Zabi family and de facto dictator of the Principality of Zeon. A cold, Machiavellian personality who takes being compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as a compliment and fully believes that DespotismJustifiesTheMeans, Gihren doesn't care about anyone's lives, including those of his own family members, and is willing to do anything to conquer the world. He turns his little brother's funeral into a political rally while the rest of his family looks on in horror; preaches a philosophy [[StrawHypocrite which he doesn't buy into himself]]; uses a ColonyDrop to exterminate vast swathes of Earth's population; deploys chemical weapons against the very colonies he claims to be liberating; and later blasts his own father and General Revil into oblivion just so they won't reach an armistice. When his sister Kycilia, no angel herself, confronts him about what he's done, Gihren's sneeringly offhanded disregard for her anger cements his status as an utterly hollow psychopath. Had he won, he admits that he would have reduced Earth's population to less than a billion and kept it that way so that they could never rise up against him. [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Side]]-[[Manga/MobileSuitGundamThePlotToAssassinateGihren stories]] involving him only add to his list of crimes--he helped Ginias Sahalin and his [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Apsalus Project]]; and arranged, through his secretary, Cecilia Irene, two elaborate false assassination plots with himself as the supposed victim in order to frame Kycilia and garner public support for clamping down on his political opposition. When Det. David Schiller became an UnwittingPawn in one of these schemes, he was rewarded by seeing his entire family, members of the anti-Zabi faction, imprisoned or executed. Decades after his introduction, Gihren remains the standard to which ''Gundam'''s other monsters aspire to, with numerous equally-monstrous expies influenced by him.

** Zeon gets a lot of love from the fanbase. From its rhetoric to its frequent and impressive weapons. Even the Zakus, as disposable as they are, really has a cool warlike design that endures to this day.

** Although Char may be a DarthVaderClone, there's one thing that he had before Char - [[LukeIAmYourFather a familial connection to one of the heroes]][[note]]''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', where Vader was revealed to be Luke's father, was released roughly 4 months after the last episode had finished airing[[/note]]. He even encourages Sayla to join him, like Darth Vader did with Luke!

** [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Da red wunz go fasta, ya gitz?!]]

** When Gundam had a BreakthroughHit in the West with ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' on Cartoon Network, Sunrise decided to push the Universal Century shows out and started at the beginning. Unfortunately, the dated animation and EarlyInstallmentWeirdness tone of this show didn't appeal to many newcomers 20 years later. Echoing it's original run in Japan it got shuffled to Saturday night Creator/AdultSwim before fading away, never airing all the episodes.

** "AHMURO. I ORDA YOU T’LAUNCH GUNDAMN. GED OUT THERE"[[explanation]]Bright’s inexplicably thick british accent, along with the... shall we say, very loose translation, strange accents, awkward line delivery and widespread mispronunciation of the titular mech have made the VHS dubs of the movies the stuff of legend[[/explanation]]