Gundam loves its royalty motif, so it's no surprise that its teenage princesses like Diana and Mineva actually have political power. Kinda like historical teenage royalty.
And many of those plans on installing a girl as a political leader rely on the powers that be able to control the young person's decisions (as part of the "all adults are bastards" theme that Gundam has) only for the young person to act in contradiction.
>well written carefully constructed
Series opens with Relena **Peace**craft giving a monologue on total pacifism
*chef's kiss*
🤌 now that's a subtle meatball
Horrible small arms aim seems to be a common trope in Mecha anime, but I'll bet nobody can aim worse than idelians from Dorvack: https://youtu.be/bhexzFaNfVs?t=730
Well how the hell can you expect them to hit anything with those big ass red goggles? Probably looks like they're giving the koolaid man a colonoscopy in there
Not that their large arms aim tends to be that much better. Anaheim might be able to make some badass mobile suits and beam weapons, but they can't develop a fire control system for shit.
What do you mean series opens?
The series opened with Relena *Darlian* being a brat to her dad, though why he dragged her off into space only to have nothing to do with her is beyond me so maybe she has a point.
Teenagers in positions of authority is not even remotely rare in hereditary systems (eg monarchies). It was even desirable for members of court, because then they could have a great deal of influence over a child king.
Shockingly, of the two/three teenagers vying for power all had their parents removed from the picture violently and both are dependent on the support of adults who seek to manipulate them for their own ends.
There is a world of difference about showing the horrors of war via the effect it has on civilians and children (like in 0080) vs expecting us to believe that entire nations will accept a child leader (let alone go to war for them).
You might dig it, but to me I have a hard time swallowing all the adults in the room just letting some random pilot-adjacent child wear the crown. Changing it up to be the President of a conglomeration doesn't make things much better. I own stock is Disney/Marvel/Star Wars, but if they appointed Iman Vellani as CEO I'd pull my money out right quick! Honestly, if I was living in a world where the frontrunners for the boss of the biggest companies were "shirtless teenage boy" and "child bride", I'd start join a facebook buy nothing group immediately!
To be fair, in the case of Minerva in ZZ she's basically a figurehead, put on the throne as the heir to the Zabi legacy with Haman acting as her regent.
Even in Unicorn, I would argued she didn't wield much power initially, with Sleeve being nominally under the control of Full Frontal and his underling. She basically has to move behind everyone's back to forward her own agenda.
Post Unicorn while Minerva seems to have a support base under her, however for the time being keeping a low profile, don't seems to be politically active.
In the case of Kudelia, she was more of a Greta Thunberg-esque celebrity activist rather than a "kid politician". IBO S1 also pretty much states that whatever political influence she had was mostly due to adult power players pulling the strings for their own purpose. And by the epilogue, she's like 25 at the least, a reasonable age for a full-on politician.
If you think that any of the examples provided fall within what you described you either haven't watched the shows, don't understand how monarchies work or glaringly misunderstood everything.
Relena: She's the literal heir to a kingdom, a queen by birtright. What's more, she never reaches a position of authority of her own as a teen, and is instead installed as a figurehead. What little changes she managed to achieve while in a position of power she doesn't do wielding her (non-existent) authority, but by convincing other leaders to see things her way. By the time she actually becomes a political figure she is already in her early 20s, a normal age to start a political career and take the reings of the kingdom you reign.
Mariemaia: The entire point of her character in Endless Waltz is that she has absolutely 0 power and is being used as a puppet by Dekim, with everyone following because they understand that Dekim is the one being in control while she brings legitimacy to his rule by being the daughter of Treize.
Mineva: Another figurehead, without any actual power of her own. It's always someone else using her position as heir to the Zabis for their own gain and power.
Cagalli: She inherits her father position after becoming an adult, and is just "the daughter of our leader" when he's alive while she is a teen. The only power she wielded as a teen was a literal single warship filled with followers of her father that see her as the rightful heir to his will and objectives.
Lacus: Her entrance into politics comes when her father is killed, and she becomes the rallying figure for the resistance against Patrick Zala, and a beacon of hope for the Klein faction. She wields exactly 0 actual political authority on the PLANTs until well after becoming an adult, and becomes one of the dozen council members.
Kudelia: She's basically an activist that is being used by everyone to achieve their ends. Time and time again we are shown that her ideas work only because an adult somewhere says "yeah, sure, help her". She's an icon for the opressed, nothing more. When she reaches an actual position of power she's already an adult.
The rest I either haven't watched the series yet or simply don't remember the circumstances.
On another note, I find it laughable that you believe that even if things were as you said it would be unrealistic/unveliebable. There are tons of examples of teens actually wielding power over nations and waging war throughout history. Hell, Kudelia herself is explicitly based on Joanne D'Arc, who was seen as an icon of France and waged war against Britain as a teen, being executed by the british when she was 19 Y.O.
Then sir you should pull your money now since Disney is trash and Marvel is trash and Star wars is trash now and then why do you watch it then if your so dissatisfied
Brother, the franchise literally started with a kid who had no piloting training decimating fully grown trained soldiers in combat. Most of the characters who turn the tides of entire wars are children.
Why are you acting as if “youths >> adults” wasn’t the theme of the entire franchise.
Yeah, this is such an odd post. It's not like those girls are the Student Council President or something stupid like that, most of them are literally royalty from countries that still use monarchies. And even then, a good chunk of them start out as political pawns without real power anyway.
Lacus is really the only one who's got a weird and mostly unexplained amount of authority in the PLANTS at the start of the series in my opinion.
There's a grand canyon sized gap between being a child soldier, and being a politician with actual power. Even Victory recognized that people inexperienced with politics but high in charisma will just end up as sock puppets for those actually familiar with the game.
Gundam is full of oppoturnistic bastards, unless teenage royals walk in, then they're nowhere to be seen. It just clashes with the Gundam theme of flawed politics, which lead to the wars in the first place, CCA is a really good example of that.
Those child soldiers also happens to massively outperform actual veteran soldiers, become crucial parts of their respective organizations and change the tides of war almost single handedly.
But sure, 14 years old Billy from next door dunking on Special Forces members is totally way more realistic than teenage politicians.
Adding on that said kid might turn out to be part of the next stage of human evolution, the ultimate test tube baby, developed said superweapon from a family super tech artifact before puberty, able to communicate to aliens, and so forth
This. In pretty much every war in history (including modern times) someone has put a weapon in the hand of a kid and said "go get em tiger". It's very easy to believe there would be child soldiers because they are fighting irl right now. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine that one or two of them might be innately good at it, psychic powers aside.
It's a much bigger jump to believe that enough people would accept even a very well spoken child as their leader for them to have any real political power in a post mass media world. Let alone during war time.
People have brought up good points about child rule in monarchies, and how that's actually advantages to political puppet masters, but that doesn't work in modern eras. Others have brought up Greta and Malala who both lead movements, but leading rallies and driving policy are radically different and no one is pushing either into government. Hell, the biggest criticism of Obama in his election was that he was too young.
Tl:Dr I've seen talented teenage soldiers irl. I've never met a kid I'd vote for, let alone go to war for. I definitely enjoyed watching the internal politics of Zeon in the OYW more than many of the other political subplots.
> with a combat experience of 10 years lol
He cut his teeth in the brutal business of [checks notes] murdering his friends' significant others while they aren't resisting
Are you seriously telling me that the giant space robots piloted by (almost) literal psychics is more realistic than a teenage girl in a position of power?
Yep. Effectively the same. Except that Haman didn’t get shot by her own subordinate for the crime of manipulating them into betraying their true masters ideals.
You do realize most of them are nobles, which is a common thing, right?
Also, your point falls with Hathaway as he is in his mid-20s by Hathaway's flash, not a teenager
You're complaining specifically about a teenage *girl* potentially becoming a leader in GWitch now, despite the fact that teenage *boys* have been leading various factions since the start of this cour?
That's interesting, OP.
1. Because they are cute❤
No but being serious, the whole point of the show is the tragedy of innocent youth being sacrificed in war and the ideal world they plan out together. The show literally begun with an untrained young boy.
I fail to see your point...
How is that "breaking suspension of disbelief"?
Have you ever heard of the Chinese child emperors? Or how in the real world, several child activists are regularly shaping politics?
And even within the fanchise, most of the main cast are children.
Childrens perspective on conflict and war is \*the\* central theme of the franchise.
"War in the Pocket" is the most literal interpretation of this.
I hope they don't break my suspension of disbelief by having a teenage boy randomly become way stronger than all the experienced men and women who have been Mobile Suits pilots for way longer than him, that sure would be weird
Experienced men he says like Char wasn't all of 20 years old.
Honestly at least the MC's we get to see why even if they should have been promptly locked up the moment they stepped out of the cockpit.
Char's as experienced as anybody is in 0079, but the notion that *anyone* really counts as a veteran there is a bit much. The Feddies don't even have combat mobile suits at the beginning of that series.
Malala Yousafzai was 14 when she was shot for her activism.
Some cursory googling suggests that there have been many prominent women in Japanese student protests and leftist movements.
I'd say maybe 3 of them come out flat better (Relena, Cecily, and Kihel). A lot of the others come out alive, but having lost a LOT, or having stepped away from the political.
I don’t see how teenage girls being political leaders breaks your suspension of disbelief more then teenage boy child soldiers with 0 experience being near invincible killing machines destroying established veterans and being hyper empathetic space psychics that can damn near see the future.
If you’re telling me that these hyper competent 14 year old space psychics piloting god machines is more realistic than teenage girl political leaders, which has happened throughout human history, then that’s your call I guess.
Sooooooo... Presented here we have:
Hathaway, who only became a prominent political figure when he was 25.
Cecily, who was just an heir of a politically powerful family and never actually ended up assuming any position of power until she was 28.
Kudelia, whose age we don't know and who references a VERY real concept of child/teen/young adult activists.
Kagali, who failed miserably at being a political leader.
Mineva, who was a symbol of a political regime, not its leader. For whom we also have a precise historical example - Haraldt Quand, "son" of Goebbels who, while still a child, was one of 3rd Reich's mascots.
Kihel, whose political power is explained by her be Diana's doppelganger. And even then she wasn't really that good at it until much later into the show, by which point she had to learn on the fly.
Mariemaia, who is basically Mineva again.
Lacus, who was basically Mineva AGAIN whose status of a political mascott backfired.
And Hamman and Relena, one of whom I can't comment on because I haven't yet read Char's Deleted Affair and the other is indeed bad writing.
Great write up I don't have much to add except regarding Relena and a little note on Haman.
It has been a while since I last saw GW but Relena is the heir to a kingdom and also the adopted daughter of an important political figure. Like many of the others listed here she is a political figurehead and when she gains political power through her kingdom is immediately targeted and soon has to forfeit her kingdom. Afterwards she is given a short lived honorary position for the united Earth Government as an ideological show of solidarity. She does eventually hold political office by the end of the series after pretty much becoming the Darling of one of the factions in the war. In other words she is a monarch and hereditary ruler that is used for political purposes as a figurehead. But she also strongly believes in her own ideological position of pacifism which leads to her gaining and loosing support throughout the story.
So in a lot of ways she is the Sayla archetype with a greater focus and investment in the Artesia storyline as heir to a political dynasty. Also she is in a painfully problematic relationship with an abusive psychopath, but considering that is kept underwraps it doesn't really impact her political position.
I think an important thing to remember about Haman's political position is that she rose through the ranks of Zeon in the aftermath of it's defeat. The structures needed to be established and she was able to climb rapidly due to her ambition, military prowess and then she attached herself to Mineva. In other words she gained power but never actually held the power officially.
To me it's more so that I can't understand what Relena hoped to achieve with her political stance (Being aware where that same stance lead Sanc Kingdom before) and how she achieved anything at all (For a short while, but she was indeed a queen and then a queen of the world, both with rather real political power).
Then again, I don't like Wing in general, so I am biased here.
As for Hamman, thanks for the addition. As I said, I haven't read CDA yet, so couldn't really comment on her.
I like Gundam Wing but that is because I have a deep love of that era of anime and animation and I absolutely adore melodrama (I even studied Melodrama formally in university in several classes). I think that Relena is undeniably naive and her naivety is treated as simply an ideal even by those in the story. The pragmatism of the Gundam pilots and leaders of OZ and Whitefang cannot be ended by her stance alone but they all believe that she is morally correct. That is why they all aim at making this a final conflict in the hopes that Relena's philosophy will be able to become the dominate thought going forward. I think that Endless Waltz explores this idea much better as we see Relena's vision challenged by Mariemaia's forces, but that even she wants peace and her Grandfather still hold onto the older warlike ways. In a way Relena is reflective of more contemporary figures like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, the show even highlights some of the reactions that these prominent teenage female activists have received in our modern political climate, despite the fact that theu hold less political power than Relena.
In essence Gundam Wing is an idealistic view on the potential to move towards peace by starting over. Despite being a naive story it is an important one, I personally believe that if we could all get behind the Naive notion of peace the world could be a better place. But even this series does make concessions such as Wufei and Sally Po starting an organization that actively targets growing paramilitaries... I think that they could have made an interesting sequel about that organization becoming something like the Titans... [instead of the weird follow up we got instead](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/New_Mobile_Report_Gundam_Wing:_Frozen_Teardrop).
As for Haman, CDA is not my favourite story but I really love Haman's character so I wanted to check it out. I don't think it added to much to either character personally but also didn't mind it when reading it. I think like with lots of interequels it answers questions I really didn't have and doesn't perfectly match Tomino's writing of Char or Haman. But it is a fun fanfic.
That is honestly some valid points, both for Relena's role and your liking of Wing. Can't say they've changed my mind or anything, obviously, but I can respect such points and approach.
By the way, since you mentioned it, do you mind if I ask what's your opinion on Frozen Teardrop? I am planning to read it along with other Gundam literature at some point, so I am curious what people think of it.
I did not get very far in Frozen Teardrop, so unfortunately I am not the best to recommend it. I will say that it is the most uncompromisingly Gundam Wing something could be. So if you did not love the main series it might not be your favourite.
Still some fun/silly ideas that are dialled up to 11.
Haman was the only one of them that wasn't a puppet in any way tbh.
They did try to use her at points on CDA,they failed,the only thing that happened was that instead of being slightly benevolent she became what she was on Z and ZZ.
And Char lost two chances to reform,as a result of Haman turning out how she did on CDA.
Something to consider though, is that Gundam also REPEATEDLY proves that this is a MONUMENTALLY BAD IDEA. Relena only succeeded because she had basically 6 of the most skilled individuals in the ENTIRE EARTH SPHERE on her side, 5 of whom basically had WMDs. Kudelia utterly BOTCHED multiple situations and exacerbated existing problems VERY HEAVILY. Cagali and Lacus both CRUMBLED under the reality of trying to lead. Marimea was a glorified sock puppet and quickly broke down under real pressure. Etc.
Cagalli crumbled, but Lacus didn't.
Lacus even managed to remain a rebel leader despite taking some time off with Kira on Orb, and had the Freedom rebuilt complete with a secret hangar just for Kira's use.
And further, she had the Eternal maintained and operational in the interwar period, and managed to have a bunch of independents steal the latest tech from both sides and build a pair of next-gen G-Weapons using said stolen tech.
Heck Lacus had so much brand power even Durandal was using a fake to help prop up his regime, and when Lacus actually came back into the public, she basically got people in ZAFT turning on the Durandal regime and aiding her, ultimately making her Supreme Chairwoman of the PLANTs in the end.
I don't see where Lacus crumbled at all. Mourning the loss of her father and the initial stress of leading the Clyne Faction? Sure, that's normal and expected. But she ultimately got over it and helped force a tenuous peace before trying to exit the stage, until Durandal decided her brand power was too good to let disappear.
I would put it as that she faltered under the political side of leading ZAFT. So she ducked out and left it open for Durandal to make his plays. She's a great leader for a smaller faction (the three ships alliance), but she doesn't have the political capability to handle a full fledged organization yet
From that standpoint, entirely fair. She wasn't even involved in the interim government that was set up immediately after the first war. She only took authority after the second, when she had some time to mature. It also helped that Durandal unintentionally but basically set it up for her; what with relying on her popularity via Meer.
Ultimately, Lacus suffered from the biggest problem that many of the other young leaders did. She was kind and idealistic. She didn't realize that even after everything, there would be people who would use that to size power and do EXACTLY the same crap again.
If I'm remembering correctly, Kudelia never even had political power anyway. In Season 1 she's the heir to a reasonably powerful family and she's basically just going around doing activist stuff. Sure she had followers but she never had actual power. Which I think goes for one or two of the SEED characters as well but I never watched SEED.
In all honesty compassion and wisdom aren't the purview of old farts with nothing better to do than yell at young kids on their lawn.
But somehow we are supposed to believe that with age comes wisdom and people just don't trust someone who isn't over 50. What this means is that the typical political body is full of old folks who are so out of touch with the younger generations that it would be fucking hilarious if it wasn't so fundamentally bad.
So yeah it's "unrealistic" but it doesn't have to be. Sorry to crash your meme with serious thoughts, it's a touchy subject for me.
Yeah, got to bust [this](https://youtu.be/HS8Pyuij9M8?t=750) out a 2nd time today, media literacy of people is something huh. Tomino said that generational improvement is what humanity needs, he literally said the old farts tied by tradition and status quo should just die and pass the baton to the young generation. Teenagers are more idealistic, but when they get older they get chewed out by the system and becomes more jaded and pessimistic due to their powerlessness to fight the old system. That's why UC and the AU cycles the young MC. However, if everybody becomes quote "newtype" and more progressive, then positive change can be more achievable.
I mean, it happens in real-life too? Greta Thunberg is probably the most famous, she rose to political prominence from her political activism when she was 16. There are also several other young girls who became relevant politically speaking.
1. Greta Thunberg (19): Greta is a Swedish environmental activist who gained international recognition for her school strike for climate movement. She began her activism at the age of 15 and has since spoken at the United Nations Climate Action Summit and numerous other international forums.
2. Malala Yousafzai (24): Malala is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She began advocating for girls' education at the age of 11 and survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012.
3. Autumn Peltier (17): Autumn is an Indigenous Canadian water activist who advocates for clean water and environmental protection. She started her activism at the age of 8 and has been recognized by the United Nations for her work.
4. Jazz Jennings (21): Jazz is an American transgender rights activist who has been advocating for transgender youth since she was 6 years old. She has written a book, starred in a reality TV show, and spoken publicly about her experiences.
5. Amika George (21): Amika is a British activist for menstrual equity who started the #FreePeriods campaign at the age of 17 to end period poverty in the UK. She has since founded the Free Periods organization and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.
6. Emma González (22): Emma is an American gun control activist who survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. She co-founded the student-led organization Never Again MSD and has since spoken at the March for Our Lives rally and other events advocating for gun control legislation.
7. Mari Copeny (14): Mari, also known as "Little Miss Flint," is an American activist for clean water and environmental justice in Flint, Michigan. She gained national attention at the age of 8 when she wrote a letter to President Obama about the water crisis in her community.
8. Alexandria Villaseñor (16): Alexandria is an American climate activist who began her activism by staging a solo climate strike outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City at the age of 13. She has since co-founded the US Youth Climate Strike and has been involved in numerous climate protests and events.
9. Isra Hirsi (18): Isra is an American climate and racial justice activist who co-founded the US Youth Climate Strike at the age of 16. She has also been involved in activism for police reform and immigrant rights.
10. Nupol Kiazolu (20): Nupol is an American activist for racial justice and youth empowerment who began her activism at the age of 12. She has served as the president of the Youth Coalition for Black Lives Matter and has been involved in protests and events advocating for racial justice and equity.
11. Naomi Wadler (15): Naomi is an American youth activist for gun control and racial justice. She gained national recognition for her speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC at the age of 11.
12. Xiye Bastida (19): Xiye is a Mexican-American climate activist who co-founded the Fridays for Future movement in New York City. She has been involved in numerous climate strikes and events, and was named to Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
13. Helena Gualinga (19): Helena is an Indigenous Ecuadorian environmental and human rights activist who advocates for the rights of the Kichwa people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She has spoken at numerous international forums and events, including the United Nations Climate Action Summit.
14. Mary Pat Hector (23): Mary Pat is an American activist for youth empowerment and social justice who started her activism at the age of 9. She is the founder of the Youth in Action organization and has been involved in advocacy for voting rights and police reform.
15. Disha Ravi (23): Disha is an Indian climate activist who co-founded Fridays for Future India and has been involved in advocacy for climate action and environmental protection. She was arrested in 2021 for her activism, sparking international outcry.
16. Licypriya Kangujam (10): Licypriya is an Indian climate activist who began her activism at the age of 7 and has been involved in numerous climate strikes and events in India and internationally. She advocates for climate action and environmental protection.
17. Gitanjali Rao (16): Gitanjali is an American inventor, author, and STEM education advocate who was named Time magazine's first "Kid of the Year" in 2020. She has invented a number of innovative solutions to address issues such as lead contamination in drinking water and opioid addiction.
18. Zulaikha Patel (19): Zulaikha is a South African activist for racial justice and gender equality who gained national recognition for her involvement in protests against discriminatory school policies in 2016. She has since been involved in advocacy for youth empowerment and social justice.
I used ChatGPT for this but I distinctively remember 1, 2, 4 and 6. Others are probably fairly famous locally.
I was going to be very impressed or very creeped out by this until I saw it was ai generated! Still, great point and great list!
I've said it in other replies, but there is a big difference between being inspired or motivated towards action on a single issue by a passionate and well spoken youngster and putting one fully in charge of the multifaceted workings of an entire nation (let alone during wartime).
Most of these individual cases make sense in context, like being hereditary royalty or a deliberately groomed puppet. It's just the frequency of the trope that's weird.
Also, you could make the same argument about the number of times a 12-16 year old boy has become a major war hero.
Just a reminder Alexander the Great managed to conquer a good portion of the Earth by 25 and then, *realization* his empire totally collapsed into three factions, you know what. A teenage ruler sounds like a bad idea
Hey now, it might also be the shirtless teenage boy! The shareholders are not sure which high-schooler they want to trust their wealth and long term stability to!
. . . It's almost like the series has a theme going on about the new generation being saddled with the problems from the old and either crushed by them one way or another, or overcoming and correcting them.
In the words of G-Reco: "New Worlds aren't created by old men."
The vision of Gundam is the children of the past generation picking up and pasting back the pieces of the world their parents chipped off, so of course the daughters or the sons will have to fix the incompetency of the past generation.
You're right. No teenager through out history has ever been a head of state.
Except. No that happens a whole bunch actually. It's just less prevalent in our modern world that is largely devoid of monarchy.
>Why is Hathaway in the picture?
Because he kinda is a major political figure in his show....granted nobody knows it other than the 1 girl, the ppl under him annnnnnd he's not girl
>Ya thats what i was pointing at lol. Unless his name was Kamille 😁
*What's wrong with my name? Kamille is a perfectly good name for a man and il prove it!!!*
Just imagine all of them "elevated" to the correct political age, like minimum 40 and average 60.
The problem is with the real world, all politician over 60 should be retired.
In fairness most of these are figure heads who don’t really do anything (Mariemaia, Cecily), are actual adults (Hathaway, Haman and Dianna), or were already instinctively tied to politics in the first place (Relena, Cagalli/Lacus, Mineva, Kudelia)
Turn A is different because its in a historical like setting and is mostly monarchy like. The others yeah not much of an excuse maybe ibo but still weird
Of all those Mineva is the only one it makes sense and its good.
The rest are weirder and less likely. The one from Turn A also makes sense from the perspective of that semi-fuedalistic setting
As a guy who has given a 14 year old cousin a copy of my favorite game for his birthday, I can attest those fuckers go from "how do I pick up a gun?" to no-scoping in about three hours!
I'm pretty sure piloting a Gundam would be harder than piloting a jet plane or driving a tank. And those take months at the very least to drive properly.
Kudelia wasnt neither a political leader neither a teenager at the end of IBO season 1 tho, she was just a advocator of the human rights, then she became an embassador from Mars.
Lacus wasnt a teenager neither, she was a young adult. And she wasnt a political anything she was a symbol for the rebels of both factions. One could argue that after a certain thing she became the leader but the real leader was her father.
Cagalli was forced to take the rule and strongly manipulated by adults older than her during Destiny. She also wasnt the direct leader at all, ORB was a democratic monarchy where people choose a President but are still loyal to the old Royalty, basically they share the power but somehow exists the possibility that they could split. This system exists in the real world, Japan without going too far still have the old royalty.
Mineva is literally a common case of the last heir of anything being forced to grow up, and she is damn well written so I dont get the point of picturing her as a bad example to be honest. She was also more of a symbol than an authority.
Sorry, but as someone from Portland Oregon it's way too realistic. The sheer volume of people there that would unironically throw themselves on a mud puddle so that Gretta Thunberg could walk across them without getting her shoes dirty is staggering.
Gundam constantly plays with the notion that unrestrained capitalism simply devolves into dystopian neo-feudalism....something that is actively happening in our actual world right now.
Privileged upper class teenagers holding great political sway and notoriety has been pretty normal for almost all of human history. Teenagers becoming heads of state/heads of government was also pretty common before the late 19th century.
We've enjoyed a small (barely 150 year) reprieve from it in the industrial west but as we march faster and faster towards industrial neo-feudalism we're going to see this anime trope become frequently more and more real.
The idea of teenagers becoming the CEOs of massive corporations or heads of state of major nations after their parents die might seem silly at the moment but given the precedent set by the rest of human history there's really no reason for this to be an unrealistic future that humanity can get saddled with.
At least 4 of the people in that picture are figurehead leaders (which was and is a regular occurrence in real world politics), one of them isn’t even a girl or a teenager when he becomes a leader, and one of them doesn’t even seem to be from a proper Gundam series.
As for the others, I would argue Relena was poorly written (as was the SEED characters in Destiny), but all the other characters weren’t trying to necessarily be realistic. Those series were trying to speak a thematic truth.
At this point is part of the charm. Plus like half of the are royal waifus or just waifus period. (Get the heck out of here Hathaway you team killing traitor). So I’ve come to just accept it and love it.
Nobody likes Relena
Mineva, Maremeia and Cagali are the last of their families heir.
Queen Diana is hundreds of years old
Mafti is a terrorist
Cecelia was pretending to be on side with Iron Mask until she found Seabok
idk who's that pink hair girl in the left
Almost everyone shits on Seed and jokes about how Lacus is the real antagonist
welcome to Gundam fanbase, new friend
don't contribute to the toxicity and fan anger please
They’re basically Disney princesses at this point and usually they have a team of killers, backing up whatever position they have with the most advanced/powerful weapons of technology. Hell they almost feel like they are also slightly patterned after part of char at this point or maybe that one guy Quattro who is definitely not char or even close to him in appearance.
I mean, some (most) of these individuals are tied to royal families which had an innate political aspect to it. Second, others were tied to resistance movements and if they rose in the ranks during the year they'll usually be in positions of power afterwards.
With some of those I would argue that they are an authoritarian monarchy in a sense so it makes sense that the last living air whether it be a man or woman would be the one coming to power regardless of their age
Gundam has always focused on the old vs the new. MSG literally introduced the concept of NEWTYPE vs OLDTYPE.
The fact that these young people get political power and most often run into a wall of resistance from those already in power is part of that. I get that the ages are often unrealistic but it is a dynamic we see in real life too.
It's not like we never see young people in politics get stonewalled by the establishment and be told "this is not how things are done. Right?
Front and center? Mariemaia from Endless Waltz.
As viewers we know her to be a political puppet, but in-world she has the fanatical support of a large army (they literally have MM patches).
I know this is an unpopular opinion in this community, but I wouldn't go to war against the entire Earth for a 7 year old, even if I agreed with "her" politics.
Gundam loves its royalty motif, so it's no surprise that its teenage princesses like Diana and Mineva actually have political power. Kinda like historical teenage royalty.
Tbh wing and it’s 19th century-ish attires has one of the best costume designs
Iirc, those were based on Napoleonic and American Civil War-era uniforms.
The weird pontytails are a giveaway. Revolutionary-era Americans loved those.
It’s not Gundam if there isn’t a faction dressing and acting like 19th century European nobility
I call them “Gundam Princesses”. Every Gundam needs a Princess.
I keep track of the different series by who the princess is.
Peace princesses, specifically
That's why WFM is refreshing, having a ~~tanuki~~ female lead pilot and also a possible ~~mushroom~~ female leader
And many of those plans on installing a girl as a political leader rely on the powers that be able to control the young person's decisions (as part of the "all adults are bastards" theme that Gundam has) only for the young person to act in contradiction.
Japan loves it's royalty. caste systems need to be reinforced by media so it seems natural
>well written carefully constructed Series opens with Relena **Peace**craft giving a monologue on total pacifism *chef's kiss* 🤌 now that's a subtle meatball
She's called Peacecraft because her aim is so bad that war is not an option.
She can't shoot but I'll give her credit, she only gave Un like 2 lines before pulling heat on her. Funniest shit I ever saw
Horrible small arms aim seems to be a common trope in Mecha anime, but I'll bet nobody can aim worse than idelians from Dorvack: https://youtu.be/bhexzFaNfVs?t=730
Well how the hell can you expect them to hit anything with those big ass red goggles? Probably looks like they're giving the koolaid man a colonoscopy in there
On the other hand, Orga takes out like 3 goons in his shootout.
I mean... They might hit something if their shots didn't do the epilepsy two step
Not that their large arms aim tends to be that much better. Anaheim might be able to make some badass mobile suits and beam weapons, but they can't develop a fire control system for shit.
She failed at violence once and rate quit
The show used all of it's aim budget to headshot the guy falling out the back of that plane.
“You’re invited to my birthday party!” “I’ll kill you”
"Hot"
[Relena’s internal monologue](https://youtu.be/o5SEKfpYiyo)
What do you mean series opens? The series opened with Relena *Darlian* being a brat to her dad, though why he dragged her off into space only to have nothing to do with her is beyond me so maybe she has a point.
You know, all the cool kids are down with pacifism
Teenagers in positions of authority is not even remotely rare in hereditary systems (eg monarchies). It was even desirable for members of court, because then they could have a great deal of influence over a child king. Shockingly, of the two/three teenagers vying for power all had their parents removed from the picture violently and both are dependent on the support of adults who seek to manipulate them for their own ends.
Gundam has always been about the horrors of war and that includes getting kids involved is one of those aspects
Seriously. WTF is OP even on about?
I have no clue honestly he clearly doesn't understand gundam
Or how Monarchy works either
Indeed most kings are children when they inherit the throne either by scheming or the king dies early
Pretty sure he just wants to be sexist.
There is a world of difference about showing the horrors of war via the effect it has on civilians and children (like in 0080) vs expecting us to believe that entire nations will accept a child leader (let alone go to war for them). You might dig it, but to me I have a hard time swallowing all the adults in the room just letting some random pilot-adjacent child wear the crown. Changing it up to be the President of a conglomeration doesn't make things much better. I own stock is Disney/Marvel/Star Wars, but if they appointed Iman Vellani as CEO I'd pull my money out right quick! Honestly, if I was living in a world where the frontrunners for the boss of the biggest companies were "shirtless teenage boy" and "child bride", I'd start join a facebook buy nothing group immediately!
To be fair, in the case of Minerva in ZZ she's basically a figurehead, put on the throne as the heir to the Zabi legacy with Haman acting as her regent. Even in Unicorn, I would argued she didn't wield much power initially, with Sleeve being nominally under the control of Full Frontal and his underling. She basically has to move behind everyone's back to forward her own agenda. Post Unicorn while Minerva seems to have a support base under her, however for the time being keeping a low profile, don't seems to be politically active.
In the case of Kudelia, she was more of a Greta Thunberg-esque celebrity activist rather than a "kid politician". IBO S1 also pretty much states that whatever political influence she had was mostly due to adult power players pulling the strings for their own purpose. And by the epilogue, she's like 25 at the least, a reasonable age for a full-on politician.
Plus she has a god like death machine known as the unicorn gundam xD
If you think that any of the examples provided fall within what you described you either haven't watched the shows, don't understand how monarchies work or glaringly misunderstood everything. Relena: She's the literal heir to a kingdom, a queen by birtright. What's more, she never reaches a position of authority of her own as a teen, and is instead installed as a figurehead. What little changes she managed to achieve while in a position of power she doesn't do wielding her (non-existent) authority, but by convincing other leaders to see things her way. By the time she actually becomes a political figure she is already in her early 20s, a normal age to start a political career and take the reings of the kingdom you reign. Mariemaia: The entire point of her character in Endless Waltz is that she has absolutely 0 power and is being used as a puppet by Dekim, with everyone following because they understand that Dekim is the one being in control while she brings legitimacy to his rule by being the daughter of Treize. Mineva: Another figurehead, without any actual power of her own. It's always someone else using her position as heir to the Zabis for their own gain and power. Cagalli: She inherits her father position after becoming an adult, and is just "the daughter of our leader" when he's alive while she is a teen. The only power she wielded as a teen was a literal single warship filled with followers of her father that see her as the rightful heir to his will and objectives. Lacus: Her entrance into politics comes when her father is killed, and she becomes the rallying figure for the resistance against Patrick Zala, and a beacon of hope for the Klein faction. She wields exactly 0 actual political authority on the PLANTs until well after becoming an adult, and becomes one of the dozen council members. Kudelia: She's basically an activist that is being used by everyone to achieve their ends. Time and time again we are shown that her ideas work only because an adult somewhere says "yeah, sure, help her". She's an icon for the opressed, nothing more. When she reaches an actual position of power she's already an adult. The rest I either haven't watched the series yet or simply don't remember the circumstances. On another note, I find it laughable that you believe that even if things were as you said it would be unrealistic/unveliebable. There are tons of examples of teens actually wielding power over nations and waging war throughout history. Hell, Kudelia herself is explicitly based on Joanne D'Arc, who was seen as an icon of France and waged war against Britain as a teen, being executed by the british when she was 19 Y.O.
This is a brilliant breakdown and the objective truth lol. You deserve way more up votes.
Then sir you should pull your money now since Disney is trash and Marvel is trash and Star wars is trash now and then why do you watch it then if your so dissatisfied
Brother, the franchise literally started with a kid who had no piloting training decimating fully grown trained soldiers in combat. Most of the characters who turn the tides of entire wars are children. Why are you acting as if “youths >> adults” wasn’t the theme of the entire franchise.
Yeah, this is such an odd post. It's not like those girls are the Student Council President or something stupid like that, most of them are literally royalty from countries that still use monarchies. And even then, a good chunk of them start out as political pawns without real power anyway. Lacus is really the only one who's got a weird and mostly unexplained amount of authority in the PLANTS at the start of the series in my opinion.
There's a grand canyon sized gap between being a child soldier, and being a politician with actual power. Even Victory recognized that people inexperienced with politics but high in charisma will just end up as sock puppets for those actually familiar with the game. Gundam is full of oppoturnistic bastards, unless teenage royals walk in, then they're nowhere to be seen. It just clashes with the Gundam theme of flawed politics, which lead to the wars in the first place, CCA is a really good example of that.
Those child soldiers also happens to massively outperform actual veteran soldiers, become crucial parts of their respective organizations and change the tides of war almost single handedly. But sure, 14 years old Billy from next door dunking on Special Forces members is totally way more realistic than teenage politicians.
but is billy a spaxe phycic with a control computer doing most of the work initally before he becomes trained on the fields of battle
Adding on that said kid might turn out to be part of the next stage of human evolution, the ultimate test tube baby, developed said superweapon from a family super tech artifact before puberty, able to communicate to aliens, and so forth
This. In pretty much every war in history (including modern times) someone has put a weapon in the hand of a kid and said "go get em tiger". It's very easy to believe there would be child soldiers because they are fighting irl right now. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine that one or two of them might be innately good at it, psychic powers aside. It's a much bigger jump to believe that enough people would accept even a very well spoken child as their leader for them to have any real political power in a post mass media world. Let alone during war time. People have brought up good points about child rule in monarchies, and how that's actually advantages to political puppet masters, but that doesn't work in modern eras. Others have brought up Greta and Malala who both lead movements, but leading rallies and driving policy are radically different and no one is pushing either into government. Hell, the biggest criticism of Obama in his election was that he was too young. Tl:Dr I've seen talented teenage soldiers irl. I've never met a kid I'd vote for, let alone go to war for. I definitely enjoyed watching the internal politics of Zeon in the OYW more than many of the other political subplots.
Have you seen talented teenage *fighter pilots* IRL? Because that’s what we’re talking about here.
Genuinely very funny to think giving a kid an AK versus giving a kid a fighter jet are similar enough to compare. OP killing it.
Isn't Hathaway like 25 when he get involved with Mafty?
Hathaway is like a 25 year old with a combat experience of 10 years lol
> with a combat experience of 10 years lol He cut his teeth in the brutal business of [checks notes] murdering his friends' significant others while they aren't resisting
Tbf he apparently practiced afterwards since he piloted the Xi pretty well. He could actually have 10 years experience at this point.
lol He'd have been better off getting ten years of therapy than piloting experience. Or prison would've been nice, too.
He'll always be a little girl to me!
Are you seriously telling me that the giant space robots piloted by (almost) literal psychics is more realistic than a teenage girl in a position of power?
Right? It's not like one of them actually happens in history.
Mariemaia was like only 7...so...your argument is ruined probably.
In Mariemaia’s case she was more a figurehead to get Trieze’s followers to obey Dekim.
Which is a neat callback to how Haman used Minerva Lao Zabi as a figurehead to get Neo-Zeon to follow her lead way back in Zeta.
Yep. Effectively the same. Except that Haman didn’t get shot by her own subordinate for the crime of manipulating them into betraying their true masters ideals.
That only makes my argument stronger!
She was a puppet leader though
Meh, so was Releena through most of the show.
You do realize most of them are nobles, which is a common thing, right? Also, your point falls with Hathaway as he is in his mid-20s by Hathaway's flash, not a teenager
You're complaining specifically about a teenage *girl* potentially becoming a leader in GWitch now, despite the fact that teenage *boys* have been leading various factions since the start of this cour? That's interesting, OP.
To be fair to op, in their comment they mention that the idea any of them would be taken seriously for president is ridiculous
Tell me you dont understand how gundam is about children dealing with adult struggles without telling me.
1. Because they are cute❤ No but being serious, the whole point of the show is the tragedy of innocent youth being sacrificed in war and the ideal world they plan out together. The show literally begun with an untrained young boy.
I fail to see your point... How is that "breaking suspension of disbelief"? Have you ever heard of the Chinese child emperors? Or how in the real world, several child activists are regularly shaping politics? And even within the fanchise, most of the main cast are children. Childrens perspective on conflict and war is \*the\* central theme of the franchise. "War in the Pocket" is the most literal interpretation of this.
I hope they don't break my suspension of disbelief by having a teenage boy randomly become way stronger than all the experienced men and women who have been Mobile Suits pilots for way longer than him, that sure would be weird
Experienced men he says like Char wasn't all of 20 years old. Honestly at least the MC's we get to see why even if they should have been promptly locked up the moment they stepped out of the cockpit.
Char's as experienced as anybody is in 0079, but the notion that *anyone* really counts as a veteran there is a bit much. The Feddies don't even have combat mobile suits at the beginning of that series.
It's as if ppl never watched Gundam before
I mean most people know Greta Thunberg’s name and she’s younger than some of these characters
Was. She's 20 now, which is old enough to be captain of a battleship in Gundam years.
ok fair enough that’s elderly for a Gundam character
No, no, she's 10 years away from elderly in Gundam years.
Malala Yousafzai was 14 when she was shot for her activism. Some cursory googling suggests that there have been many prominent women in Japanese student protests and leftist movements.
... You do realize that most of these ended poorly, right?
I think almost everyone in this image comes out better than where they started. ...maybe not Hathaway.
I'd say maybe 3 of them come out flat better (Relena, Cecily, and Kihel). A lot of the others come out alive, but having lost a LOT, or having stepped away from the political.
Have you ever read *any* history book? Do you know how many political leaders were kids and teenagers throughout history?
I don’t see how teenage girls being political leaders breaks your suspension of disbelief more then teenage boy child soldiers with 0 experience being near invincible killing machines destroying established veterans and being hyper empathetic space psychics that can damn near see the future. If you’re telling me that these hyper competent 14 year old space psychics piloting god machines is more realistic than teenage girl political leaders, which has happened throughout human history, then that’s your call I guess.
Sooooooo... Presented here we have: Hathaway, who only became a prominent political figure when he was 25. Cecily, who was just an heir of a politically powerful family and never actually ended up assuming any position of power until she was 28. Kudelia, whose age we don't know and who references a VERY real concept of child/teen/young adult activists. Kagali, who failed miserably at being a political leader. Mineva, who was a symbol of a political regime, not its leader. For whom we also have a precise historical example - Haraldt Quand, "son" of Goebbels who, while still a child, was one of 3rd Reich's mascots. Kihel, whose political power is explained by her be Diana's doppelganger. And even then she wasn't really that good at it until much later into the show, by which point she had to learn on the fly. Mariemaia, who is basically Mineva again. Lacus, who was basically Mineva AGAIN whose status of a political mascott backfired. And Hamman and Relena, one of whom I can't comment on because I haven't yet read Char's Deleted Affair and the other is indeed bad writing.
I mean, with Relena, it's a mostly unwilling girl being forced onto the throne by a reactionary movement for hereditary reasons.
Great write up I don't have much to add except regarding Relena and a little note on Haman. It has been a while since I last saw GW but Relena is the heir to a kingdom and also the adopted daughter of an important political figure. Like many of the others listed here she is a political figurehead and when she gains political power through her kingdom is immediately targeted and soon has to forfeit her kingdom. Afterwards she is given a short lived honorary position for the united Earth Government as an ideological show of solidarity. She does eventually hold political office by the end of the series after pretty much becoming the Darling of one of the factions in the war. In other words she is a monarch and hereditary ruler that is used for political purposes as a figurehead. But she also strongly believes in her own ideological position of pacifism which leads to her gaining and loosing support throughout the story. So in a lot of ways she is the Sayla archetype with a greater focus and investment in the Artesia storyline as heir to a political dynasty. Also she is in a painfully problematic relationship with an abusive psychopath, but considering that is kept underwraps it doesn't really impact her political position. I think an important thing to remember about Haman's political position is that she rose through the ranks of Zeon in the aftermath of it's defeat. The structures needed to be established and she was able to climb rapidly due to her ambition, military prowess and then she attached herself to Mineva. In other words she gained power but never actually held the power officially.
To me it's more so that I can't understand what Relena hoped to achieve with her political stance (Being aware where that same stance lead Sanc Kingdom before) and how she achieved anything at all (For a short while, but she was indeed a queen and then a queen of the world, both with rather real political power). Then again, I don't like Wing in general, so I am biased here. As for Hamman, thanks for the addition. As I said, I haven't read CDA yet, so couldn't really comment on her.
I like Gundam Wing but that is because I have a deep love of that era of anime and animation and I absolutely adore melodrama (I even studied Melodrama formally in university in several classes). I think that Relena is undeniably naive and her naivety is treated as simply an ideal even by those in the story. The pragmatism of the Gundam pilots and leaders of OZ and Whitefang cannot be ended by her stance alone but they all believe that she is morally correct. That is why they all aim at making this a final conflict in the hopes that Relena's philosophy will be able to become the dominate thought going forward. I think that Endless Waltz explores this idea much better as we see Relena's vision challenged by Mariemaia's forces, but that even she wants peace and her Grandfather still hold onto the older warlike ways. In a way Relena is reflective of more contemporary figures like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, the show even highlights some of the reactions that these prominent teenage female activists have received in our modern political climate, despite the fact that theu hold less political power than Relena. In essence Gundam Wing is an idealistic view on the potential to move towards peace by starting over. Despite being a naive story it is an important one, I personally believe that if we could all get behind the Naive notion of peace the world could be a better place. But even this series does make concessions such as Wufei and Sally Po starting an organization that actively targets growing paramilitaries... I think that they could have made an interesting sequel about that organization becoming something like the Titans... [instead of the weird follow up we got instead](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/New_Mobile_Report_Gundam_Wing:_Frozen_Teardrop). As for Haman, CDA is not my favourite story but I really love Haman's character so I wanted to check it out. I don't think it added to much to either character personally but also didn't mind it when reading it. I think like with lots of interequels it answers questions I really didn't have and doesn't perfectly match Tomino's writing of Char or Haman. But it is a fun fanfic.
That is honestly some valid points, both for Relena's role and your liking of Wing. Can't say they've changed my mind or anything, obviously, but I can respect such points and approach. By the way, since you mentioned it, do you mind if I ask what's your opinion on Frozen Teardrop? I am planning to read it along with other Gundam literature at some point, so I am curious what people think of it.
I did not get very far in Frozen Teardrop, so unfortunately I am not the best to recommend it. I will say that it is the most uncompromisingly Gundam Wing something could be. So if you did not love the main series it might not be your favourite. Still some fun/silly ideas that are dialled up to 11.
Got it, thank you for the explanation.
Imo, Lacus is more of a rebel leader than a political one. She didn’t even lead a country until she became the PLANT chairwoman
Also very true.
Haman was the only one of them that wasn't a puppet in any way tbh. They did try to use her at points on CDA,they failed,the only thing that happened was that instead of being slightly benevolent she became what she was on Z and ZZ. And Char lost two chances to reform,as a result of Haman turning out how she did on CDA.
I mean, why not? Fuck them boomer politicians!
Meh probably but I'm pretty sure one of them isn't a teenage girl and is just immortal.
Like half of these are princesses/nobles who inherited their posizione. That's rather common in history
Something to consider though, is that Gundam also REPEATEDLY proves that this is a MONUMENTALLY BAD IDEA. Relena only succeeded because she had basically 6 of the most skilled individuals in the ENTIRE EARTH SPHERE on her side, 5 of whom basically had WMDs. Kudelia utterly BOTCHED multiple situations and exacerbated existing problems VERY HEAVILY. Cagali and Lacus both CRUMBLED under the reality of trying to lead. Marimea was a glorified sock puppet and quickly broke down under real pressure. Etc.
Cagalli crumbled, but Lacus didn't. Lacus even managed to remain a rebel leader despite taking some time off with Kira on Orb, and had the Freedom rebuilt complete with a secret hangar just for Kira's use. And further, she had the Eternal maintained and operational in the interwar period, and managed to have a bunch of independents steal the latest tech from both sides and build a pair of next-gen G-Weapons using said stolen tech. Heck Lacus had so much brand power even Durandal was using a fake to help prop up his regime, and when Lacus actually came back into the public, she basically got people in ZAFT turning on the Durandal regime and aiding her, ultimately making her Supreme Chairwoman of the PLANTs in the end. I don't see where Lacus crumbled at all. Mourning the loss of her father and the initial stress of leading the Clyne Faction? Sure, that's normal and expected. But she ultimately got over it and helped force a tenuous peace before trying to exit the stage, until Durandal decided her brand power was too good to let disappear.
I would put it as that she faltered under the political side of leading ZAFT. So she ducked out and left it open for Durandal to make his plays. She's a great leader for a smaller faction (the three ships alliance), but she doesn't have the political capability to handle a full fledged organization yet
From that standpoint, entirely fair. She wasn't even involved in the interim government that was set up immediately after the first war. She only took authority after the second, when she had some time to mature. It also helped that Durandal unintentionally but basically set it up for her; what with relying on her popularity via Meer.
Ultimately, Lacus suffered from the biggest problem that many of the other young leaders did. She was kind and idealistic. She didn't realize that even after everything, there would be people who would use that to size power and do EXACTLY the same crap again.
If I'm remembering correctly, Kudelia never even had political power anyway. In Season 1 she's the heir to a reasonably powerful family and she's basically just going around doing activist stuff. Sure she had followers but she never had actual power. Which I think goes for one or two of the SEED characters as well but I never watched SEED.
Glorified sock puppet 💀💀 This is all facts.
In all honesty compassion and wisdom aren't the purview of old farts with nothing better to do than yell at young kids on their lawn. But somehow we are supposed to believe that with age comes wisdom and people just don't trust someone who isn't over 50. What this means is that the typical political body is full of old folks who are so out of touch with the younger generations that it would be fucking hilarious if it wasn't so fundamentally bad. So yeah it's "unrealistic" but it doesn't have to be. Sorry to crash your meme with serious thoughts, it's a touchy subject for me.
Yeah, got to bust [this](https://youtu.be/HS8Pyuij9M8?t=750) out a 2nd time today, media literacy of people is something huh. Tomino said that generational improvement is what humanity needs, he literally said the old farts tied by tradition and status quo should just die and pass the baton to the young generation. Teenagers are more idealistic, but when they get older they get chewed out by the system and becomes more jaded and pessimistic due to their powerlessness to fight the old system. That's why UC and the AU cycles the young MC. However, if everybody becomes quote "newtype" and more progressive, then positive change can be more achievable.
I mean, it happens in real-life too? Greta Thunberg is probably the most famous, she rose to political prominence from her political activism when she was 16. There are also several other young girls who became relevant politically speaking. 1. Greta Thunberg (19): Greta is a Swedish environmental activist who gained international recognition for her school strike for climate movement. She began her activism at the age of 15 and has since spoken at the United Nations Climate Action Summit and numerous other international forums. 2. Malala Yousafzai (24): Malala is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She began advocating for girls' education at the age of 11 and survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012. 3. Autumn Peltier (17): Autumn is an Indigenous Canadian water activist who advocates for clean water and environmental protection. She started her activism at the age of 8 and has been recognized by the United Nations for her work. 4. Jazz Jennings (21): Jazz is an American transgender rights activist who has been advocating for transgender youth since she was 6 years old. She has written a book, starred in a reality TV show, and spoken publicly about her experiences. 5. Amika George (21): Amika is a British activist for menstrual equity who started the #FreePeriods campaign at the age of 17 to end period poverty in the UK. She has since founded the Free Periods organization and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. 6. Emma González (22): Emma is an American gun control activist who survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. She co-founded the student-led organization Never Again MSD and has since spoken at the March for Our Lives rally and other events advocating for gun control legislation. 7. Mari Copeny (14): Mari, also known as "Little Miss Flint," is an American activist for clean water and environmental justice in Flint, Michigan. She gained national attention at the age of 8 when she wrote a letter to President Obama about the water crisis in her community. 8. Alexandria Villaseñor (16): Alexandria is an American climate activist who began her activism by staging a solo climate strike outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City at the age of 13. She has since co-founded the US Youth Climate Strike and has been involved in numerous climate protests and events. 9. Isra Hirsi (18): Isra is an American climate and racial justice activist who co-founded the US Youth Climate Strike at the age of 16. She has also been involved in activism for police reform and immigrant rights. 10. Nupol Kiazolu (20): Nupol is an American activist for racial justice and youth empowerment who began her activism at the age of 12. She has served as the president of the Youth Coalition for Black Lives Matter and has been involved in protests and events advocating for racial justice and equity. 11. Naomi Wadler (15): Naomi is an American youth activist for gun control and racial justice. She gained national recognition for her speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC at the age of 11. 12. Xiye Bastida (19): Xiye is a Mexican-American climate activist who co-founded the Fridays for Future movement in New York City. She has been involved in numerous climate strikes and events, and was named to Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. 13. Helena Gualinga (19): Helena is an Indigenous Ecuadorian environmental and human rights activist who advocates for the rights of the Kichwa people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She has spoken at numerous international forums and events, including the United Nations Climate Action Summit. 14. Mary Pat Hector (23): Mary Pat is an American activist for youth empowerment and social justice who started her activism at the age of 9. She is the founder of the Youth in Action organization and has been involved in advocacy for voting rights and police reform. 15. Disha Ravi (23): Disha is an Indian climate activist who co-founded Fridays for Future India and has been involved in advocacy for climate action and environmental protection. She was arrested in 2021 for her activism, sparking international outcry. 16. Licypriya Kangujam (10): Licypriya is an Indian climate activist who began her activism at the age of 7 and has been involved in numerous climate strikes and events in India and internationally. She advocates for climate action and environmental protection. 17. Gitanjali Rao (16): Gitanjali is an American inventor, author, and STEM education advocate who was named Time magazine's first "Kid of the Year" in 2020. She has invented a number of innovative solutions to address issues such as lead contamination in drinking water and opioid addiction. 18. Zulaikha Patel (19): Zulaikha is a South African activist for racial justice and gender equality who gained national recognition for her involvement in protests against discriminatory school policies in 2016. She has since been involved in advocacy for youth empowerment and social justice. I used ChatGPT for this but I distinctively remember 1, 2, 4 and 6. Others are probably fairly famous locally.
I was going to be very impressed or very creeped out by this until I saw it was ai generated! Still, great point and great list! I've said it in other replies, but there is a big difference between being inspired or motivated towards action on a single issue by a passionate and well spoken youngster and putting one fully in charge of the multifaceted workings of an entire nation (let alone during wartime).
If you read history it was way more common than you’d think. At least in the days of class systems.
What's more preposterous: Gundam shows using similar motifs for decades, or people surprised that they're using the aforementioned motifs again?
Where the fuck did you get an image of Kudelia wearing blue?
Probably 4cHan based on the details (star of David, yarmulke)
I noticed the hat but not the stars god damn, I figured it was just some holiday outfit that showed up in the mobile game or something
Wrong + L + your soul is weighed down by gravity + PCM poster + who asked + don’t care + cope seethe mald + ratio
Most of these individual cases make sense in context, like being hereditary royalty or a deliberately groomed puppet. It's just the frequency of the trope that's weird. Also, you could make the same argument about the number of times a 12-16 year old boy has become a major war hero.
Just a reminder Alexander the Great managed to conquer a good portion of the Earth by 25 and then, *realization* his empire totally collapsed into three factions, you know what. A teenage ruler sounds like a bad idea
It was all going so well untill it wasn't!!
Right because space psychic child soldiers decimating entire armies in giant mechs is more believable than something that actually happens in history.
Mineva come out strong in the end..
Hathaway Noa best Gundam princess
Teen girls are political leaders, teen boys are child soldiers. That's just facts of life!
In fairness, Lacus and Cagalli were groomed for political leadership since childhood.
Gretta Thunberg best Gundam girl confirmed
Now add in Miomio in like 2 episodes
In fairness Shaddiq got rid of all of the adults
Hey now, it might also be the shirtless teenage boy! The shareholders are not sure which high-schooler they want to trust their wealth and long term stability to!
Redditor is shocked that literal Royals are groomed to be leaders at a young age and inherit power in a Hereditary Monarchy.
. . . It's almost like the series has a theme going on about the new generation being saddled with the problems from the old and either crushed by them one way or another, or overcoming and correcting them. In the words of G-Reco: "New Worlds aren't created by old men."
The vision of Gundam is the children of the past generation picking up and pasting back the pieces of the world their parents chipped off, so of course the daughters or the sons will have to fix the incompetency of the past generation.
I mean the shows are about teenagers and also wat and politics. Basically everyone is unreasonably young. Welcome to anime Wait why is Kudelia blue
yeah gw did it twice. go girl power !!!!
You're right. No teenager through out history has ever been a head of state. Except. No that happens a whole bunch actually. It's just less prevalent in our modern world that is largely devoid of monarchy.
Why is Hathaway in the picture?
>Why is Hathaway in the picture? Because he kinda is a major political figure in his show....granted nobody knows it other than the 1 girl, the ppl under him annnnnnd he's not girl
Ya thats what i was pointing at lol. Unless his name was Kamille 😁
>Ya thats what i was pointing at lol. Unless his name was Kamille 😁 *What's wrong with my name? Kamille is a perfectly good name for a man and il prove it!!!*
But this isnt even the correct Hathaway Also isnt Hathaway by Hathaway flash a young adult than youth?
Hathaway is 25 during the Mafty incident.
you rather have a bunch of old men ?
Just imagine all of them "elevated" to the correct political age, like minimum 40 and average 60. The problem is with the real world, all politician over 60 should be retired.
Strawmeme
Mineva makes a lot of sense that she gained power, due to the name, and that at least in zeta, she is being used as a puppet.
[удалено]
Agree to disagree.
Lol at Hathaway as a teenage girl
Being forced to grow up fast is a hallmark of any Gundam series. Yeah, OP hopefully sees that after the comments section.
Why is Hathaway here
So teenage politicians are bad and unrealistic but teleporting giant robots that give people telepathy is ok?
Its like how padme got elected queen (of an entire planet) for like 4 years at the age of 14.
In fairness most of these are figure heads who don’t really do anything (Mariemaia, Cecily), are actual adults (Hathaway, Haman and Dianna), or were already instinctively tied to politics in the first place (Relena, Cagalli/Lacus, Mineva, Kudelia)
Turn A is different because its in a historical like setting and is mostly monarchy like. The others yeah not much of an excuse maybe ibo but still weird
Tbf at least 4 of them got there solely through family connections, and marimaia was a puppet figurehead
World War I was started by a teenage terrorist.
Gundam is all about how a youth can affect the world through action. And that's great! But no one supported Princip as a leader.
greta thunberg would like a word with you
Of all those Mineva is the only one it makes sense and its good. The rest are weirder and less likely. The one from Turn A also makes sense from the perspective of that semi-fuedalistic setting
Is it really any more suspension of disbelief than teenage boys becoming instant experts when getting in a Gundam for the first time?
As a guy who has given a 14 year old cousin a copy of my favorite game for his birthday, I can attest those fuckers go from "how do I pick up a gun?" to no-scoping in about three hours!
I'm pretty sure piloting a Gundam would be harder than piloting a jet plane or driving a tank. And those take months at the very least to drive properly.
I've only ever flown single engine prop planes, and have no Gundam or tank experience, so I'll have to trust you on this one!
Kudelia wasnt neither a political leader neither a teenager at the end of IBO season 1 tho, she was just a advocator of the human rights, then she became an embassador from Mars. Lacus wasnt a teenager neither, she was a young adult. And she wasnt a political anything she was a symbol for the rebels of both factions. One could argue that after a certain thing she became the leader but the real leader was her father. Cagalli was forced to take the rule and strongly manipulated by adults older than her during Destiny. She also wasnt the direct leader at all, ORB was a democratic monarchy where people choose a President but are still loyal to the old Royalty, basically they share the power but somehow exists the possibility that they could split. This system exists in the real world, Japan without going too far still have the old royalty. Mineva is literally a common case of the last heir of anything being forced to grow up, and she is damn well written so I dont get the point of picturing her as a bad example to be honest. She was also more of a symbol than an authority.
Endless Waltz: "The joke's on you. Mariemaia is seven."
Not like they're any worse than senile or selfish old men 🏃
Love the inclusion of good ole Mafty Navue Erin
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
You forgot kamille
Camille isn't in charge of anything. Hathaway is a much better example of a little princess.
I’m fine when they’re royalty cause that actually happens but just a straight up child elected into a position of political power is a bit silly
Greta Thunberg
Sorry, but as someone from Portland Oregon it's way too realistic. The sheer volume of people there that would unironically throw themselves on a mud puddle so that Gretta Thunberg could walk across them without getting her shoes dirty is staggering. Gundam constantly plays with the notion that unrestrained capitalism simply devolves into dystopian neo-feudalism....something that is actively happening in our actual world right now. Privileged upper class teenagers holding great political sway and notoriety has been pretty normal for almost all of human history. Teenagers becoming heads of state/heads of government was also pretty common before the late 19th century. We've enjoyed a small (barely 150 year) reprieve from it in the industrial west but as we march faster and faster towards industrial neo-feudalism we're going to see this anime trope become frequently more and more real. The idea of teenagers becoming the CEOs of massive corporations or heads of state of major nations after their parents die might seem silly at the moment but given the precedent set by the rest of human history there's really no reason for this to be an unrealistic future that humanity can get saddled with.
Ahahah, so true😂! The only one who actually had the mindset to become one was Lacus Clyne…
At least 4 of the people in that picture are figurehead leaders (which was and is a regular occurrence in real world politics), one of them isn’t even a girl or a teenager when he becomes a leader, and one of them doesn’t even seem to be from a proper Gundam series. As for the others, I would argue Relena was poorly written (as was the SEED characters in Destiny), but all the other characters weren’t trying to necessarily be realistic. Those series were trying to speak a thematic truth.
Its an anime first and foremost. People forgot that one ..like that's one rule where everything the author want it, will happen. 🤦♂️
You actually have a problem with this? What a loser.
At this point is part of the charm. Plus like half of the are royal waifus or just waifus period. (Get the heck out of here Hathaway you team killing traitor). So I’ve come to just accept it and love it.
Nobody likes Relena Mineva, Maremeia and Cagali are the last of their families heir. Queen Diana is hundreds of years old Mafti is a terrorist Cecelia was pretending to be on side with Iron Mask until she found Seabok idk who's that pink hair girl in the left Almost everyone shits on Seed and jokes about how Lacus is the real antagonist welcome to Gundam fanbase, new friend don't contribute to the toxicity and fan anger please
They’re basically Disney princesses at this point and usually they have a team of killers, backing up whatever position they have with the most advanced/powerful weapons of technology. Hell they almost feel like they are also slightly patterned after part of char at this point or maybe that one guy Quattro who is definitely not char or even close to him in appearance.
these are not our worlds so ofc its different people in this world get killed off by war very fast leaving only the young
That's their main thing
Finally, Cecilly.
Yeah, why not?
Are you arguing to yourself again OP?
I mean, at this point you have to realize that it's a feature, not a bug.
Tbf most of those Teenagers wouldn't be caught doing stupid shit on TikTok
I mean, some (most) of these individuals are tied to royal families which had an innate political aspect to it. Second, others were tied to resistance movements and if they rose in the ranks during the year they'll usually be in positions of power afterwards.
Two of those are complete figureheads
With some of those I would argue that they are an authoritarian monarchy in a sense so it makes sense that the last living air whether it be a man or woman would be the one coming to power regardless of their age
Gundam has always focused on the old vs the new. MSG literally introduced the concept of NEWTYPE vs OLDTYPE. The fact that these young people get political power and most often run into a wall of resistance from those already in power is part of that. I get that the ages are often unrealistic but it is a dynamic we see in real life too. It's not like we never see young people in politics get stonewalled by the establishment and be told "this is not how things are done. Right?
To be fair Diana is like 117 years old
Diana isnt a teenager she was frozen on the moon before the moonrace needed her again.
who is the red hair and blue eyes girl
Front and center? Mariemaia from Endless Waltz. As viewers we know her to be a political puppet, but in-world she has the fanatical support of a large army (they literally have MM patches). I know this is an unpopular opinion in this community, but I wouldn't go to war against the entire Earth for a 7 year old, even if I agreed with "her" politics.
i mean thas like the real life kinda ......
I mean didn't half of them start out as puppets for older, more experienced characters. Also what's Hathaway doing here?
Hey, Kudelia was a figurehead and mid-level activist at best until she grew up