Maybe Americans going through during WW2 will remain, and nboost the population.
Reds fanfic
- Thread starter E. Burke
- Start date
Bookmark1995
Banned
Siberia, with its shit ton of resources and natural beauty, has tons of potential to become popular and prosperous, especially ITTL when the USSR reforms itself. So I don't see why Vladivostok , as a major military and industrial center, couldn't be "The Jewel of the Soviet Far East".
Why not write an ITTL profile of the city in 2017?
Last edited:
Redshank Galloglass
Banned
Sure, I dunno. I might do a piece on Honolulu and Vladivostok, since I lost all my progress for the individual Honolulu piece.
Although, this could potentially damage the Siberian wilderness, and cause massive ecological damage.
Redshank Galloglass
Banned
Depends. In the 20th century, there's ways to industrialize while keeping it relatively green.
Perhaps I should clarify. If such industrialization happens in, say, the 40's and 50's, the early 60's, it could cause environmental damage, because there was less awareness of how badly it could affect the populace, (and if I remember correctly, the OTL USSR's poor environmental record emerged from the Stalin-era focus on heavy industry,which Molotov might continue post-war to help rebuild the damage caused by the Nazi invasion). After the Green Revolution, when the effects of environmental destruction is better known and alternative solutions could be found, yeah, it probably wouldn't affect it that much, and Vladistok might even become a major example of a green city.
Vladivostok in the 50-70's may be the typical seaport like Hong Kong (crowded, polluted, a stark difference between rich and poorer). By the 80-90's the city may adopt more Green policies as the economy shifts away from heavy industry/mining/shipping toward electronics/environmental remediation. Finance/Insurance/Real Estate may also be a big industry (think Singapore/Dubai).
Redshank Galloglass
Banned
ITTL Vladivostok is going to be one of the premier cities of the green revolution. In conjunction with the UASR , the USSR is going to heavily populate and modernize Vladivostok under green energy policies, while the UASR does the same with Honolulu. they will be seen as shining gems of the word revolution's "social experiments" not only because of massive population, but because the two cities are grand examples of how to do green energy right. as decades pass, the economy of such cities will be more like Traveller76's vision.
I'll be dling an update on it in the future, if anyone would like to collaborate.
Yeah, sure. Just send me a draft, and I can see what I could contribute.
In fact, under Stalin, the foundations of environmental policy were laid. In 1948, when Europe was still restoring the economy from the consequences of a devastating war, in the USSR, on the initiative of Stalin, the USSR Council of Ministers and the Central Committee issued a resolution of October 20, 1948, "On the plan for shelterbelts, the introduction of grass-crop rotations, the construction of ponds and reservoirs Ensuring high sustainable yields in the steppe and forest-steppe areas of the European part of the USSR ". In the press, this document was called "Stalin's plan for the transformation of nature." It has no analogues in the world practice fifteen-year program of scientific regulation of nature, developed on the basis of the works of well-known agronomists.
Under this plan, 8 large state forest shelter belts will be created over a period of 15 years with a total length of over 5,300 kilometers; on the fields of kolkhozes and sovkhozes, protective forests with a total area of 5.709,000 hectares will be created, and by 1955 44.228 ponds and reservoirs will be built on kolkhozes and sovkhozes.
Real problems began under Khrushchev-with his "peaceful explosions" and hasty assimilation of the goal.
Nevertheless, beginning in 1975, five-year and annual plans for the economic and social development of the USSR began to include special sections on nature protection and the rational use of natural resources. At the same time, state planning extended to:
- protection of the air basin; - protection and rational use of water resources;
- protection and rational use of land; - protection and rational use of mineral resources;
- protection and rational use of forest resources; - protection and reproduction of wild animals and birds;
- organization of reserves, natural parks, botanical gardens, sanctuaries.
In the Soviet Union, the basic legislative acts on nature management were developed and put in place, the most important of which were:
- Fundamentals of land legislation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Union Republics (1968);
- Fundamentals of the legislation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Union Republics on health (1969);
- Fundamentals of Water Legislation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Union Republics (1970)
- Fundamentals of legislation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Union Republics on Subsoil (1975); - Fundamentals of Forestry Legislation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Union Republics (1977); - The law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the protection of atmospheric air (1980);
- The law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the protection and use of wildlife (1980).
I got some of my info from here:http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1990/09/ridgeway.html
Bookmark1995
Banned
Monday Morning had finally arrived. My first day of work in the UASR.
I wish I could say I began with a fresh start, a clean slate, but when your enter a nation like the UASR without a clue, wishing for an easy first day of work is like asking the sky not to rain.
The first bit of trouble was early morning, 8 o'clock The day before, we discovered that the showers in the unisex bathrooms were communal. There were no stalls. To say this created awkwardness with the girls on our floor is to say the sky was blue. So us guys and girls decided to flip a coin to see who would go first in the morning. Us guys got the right side up.
However, we soon discovered that to girls, hygiene mattered more than honor. Not only did they break the deal, they locked us out of the bathrooms completely.
"Putain," screamed one kid from Moncton, banging on the door angrily. Behind him us four guys, wearing our pajamas, carrying our toiletries under our armpits, with expressions of anger. Eventually, one kid approached the other kid banging on the door.
"Albert, Rafraichis-toi!" the guy, who I assumed was his friend, screamed, dragging him away from the dented door. Albert eventually walked away from the door in defeat.
"This is stupid," I muttered, "why don't we use the bathroom on any of the other residential floors." The building we were using was only half capacity. More kids were going to arrive.
"Well," George said, opening the guide book, " according to guide, to ensure efficiency, we must use the bathroom on the floor we are assigned ."
"Does the guide say anything about girls hogging the bathroom," I responded. "Let's ask Dave about it."
"I did ask Dave," the kid who had pulled away his angry friend. "He told me that is our job to quote-'overcome our imposed gender boundaries'-unquote. Albert took that as a sign to act like an angry monkey," he said, turning his head to glare at the petulant kid."
"I'm sorry, what was your name again," Ian asked, gregariously. "I'm Ian."
"I'm Bernard," the kid responded. He was a very thin person, with a pale face. Albert, meanwhile, was kind of fat and kind of short. Opposites can be friends as they say. Bernard than gave another frustrated look. "If they don't hurry up, were gonna be late for our job."
"Where's that," asked Ian.
"Me and Albert," Bernard said, revealing his failure to learn proper English grammar,"got jobs at a clothing store on Fifth Avenue. We are going to be working cashier jobs, which are pretty easy." He paused to look at his watch. "But they start at nine." He sighed and continued to wait. I did the same until the least expected person offered our group a solution.
"You know," said Fred, grabbing our attention. "The beach probably has showers of its own. We could use those instead. Since we would be getting there early, we might not run into anybody."
Ian and George's head, hanging in frustration, jumped up with joy at that wise solution. Mine did too, since Fred looked at me with a small but proud smile. Fred said little, but it meant his words would be more powerful than a ten minute speech.
"Not bad, Fred," I said, patting him in the shoulder, to which he gave me an uncomfortable smile which made me stop.
"Let's do it then," Ian said, marching back toward our room. He then gave a sad smile to Albert and Bernard. "Good luck you guys."
"Merci," Albert and Bernard said. We returned to our room to change.
Ian, Fred, and I walked out wearings t-shirts and shorts, with swim trunks underneath them. We also had sandals on our feet, and bags carrying towels, sunscreen, and a few other items.
Fred wore a simple blue shirt with "Gaspe" written on it. Ian wore a yellow shirt that read "Hottest Thing on the Beach", written in red text. I have to admit, it did make me chuckle. I wore a violet shirt with nothing on it.
George wore the exact opposite of what we wore: a business suit with brown jacket and pants, and a green dress shirt, and a red tie that glowed in the light. Unsurprising, considering he'd be working in the beach administrative offices, but completely in contrast with the usual beach attire. Come to think of it, not many people in the city wore a suit like that.
"You look like a million bucks George," Ian said, sizing up the fancy suit. "All the girls we'll be lining up, just to give you kiss." With Ian, he could be both mocking and encouraging. With friends, you can be both. "Just adjust your collar a little."
"Thanks," he said, uneasy. "So let's get going." He said. And so we did.
****
Our shifts all started around 9:30. Since it took about an hour to get there, we elected to leave a little bit earlier than that.
We first had to take a bus from the Lower East Side to Pennsylvania Station, aka Penn Station. The building retained its old, bourgeois opulence from the pre-war years [1], and we were briefly left in awe and the sheer size of the facility. From there, we took the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica, the major hub, and then transferred over to the Babylon line, which would then take us all the way to Wantagh, the hamlet where Hilquit Beach was located. From there, we would hop on another bus that would take us all the way to Hilquit.
Hilquit is one of the most popular beaches in the UASR. So, as you can guess, we had to wait on line for about fifteen minutes to catch a bus, since they quickly filled up with tourists, and they did not allow you to squeeze in by standing up. We finally got on board to the fourth bus we had seen.
Is was truly a bus built for the beach. It was full of people in various kinds of swimwear. Guy in their swim-trunks and briefs, some of them shirtless. Girls scantily clad in their bikinis, which reminded me of my goal. Despite my mom's lessons about being a gentleman, I couldn't help but stare at the women, their bodies made fit in preparation for their eventual entry into the army to join some kind of revolutionary act. I felt like a jerk for staring, but the girls didn't seem to notice, or really mind.
Their eyes, however, had been on George, and more specifically, his suit. Ian joked about how his suit would impress the ladies. I thought that initially, but their stares seems less about admiration, than about confusion. Some of the guys on the bus were also giving George the same look. Either George was really sticking out, or these commies had never seen anybody wearing a suit. Come to think of it, I had never seen anybody in this city wearing a suit and tie. Were these people really so fanatical, they saw suits as anathema?
George was oblivious to all of this (unwanted) attention, since Ian was quizzing him on his trivial knowledge.
"So what's the population of Boston?" Ian asked, reading out of an American atlas George brought with him.
"790,000", George replied, proud of his encyclopedic knowledge.
"Good," Ian said. "Detroit".
"1,900,000".
"Good," Ian continued. "Portland".
"Maine or Oregon," asked George.
"Maine."
"75,000".
"You're a beast," Ian uttered. "You could make a fortune on one of those English game shows [1]." George smiled.
Suddenly everybody broke from staring at George's suit when the bus driver-this one didn't carry a gun-made an announcement over the intercom.
"Now approaching Hilquit Beach, be ready to disembark," he said in that metallic voice. Our arrival was punctuating as we passed under the "Arch of Solidarity," a massive red arch built over the road to the Beach. Painted on the thin arch was a mural that showed two workers shaking hands, their hands meeting near the top of the arch. Suddenly, one of the girls in the front started cheering like a fratboy.
"Yeah, Hilquit Beach, alright," she said excitedly. Suddenly everybody on the bus started cheering like a madman. Ian of course, joined in the chorus of loud cheers. I joined half-halfheartedly, throwing in a few 'woohoos', while George continued to read his atlas, and Fred remained very silent.
****
The history of Hilquit Beach could very well resemble my first summer in the UASR: there were a few setbacks before it could get off the ground. It's construction began in the twilight years of the old United States, originally called "Jones Beach" after some colonial settler. But then, the Second Civil broke out, delaying its construction. When construction resumed, and Mayor Hilquit croaked, the city dwellers decided to rename the place after the man who had changed America simply by asserting his right to serve the people who elected him. But then, as the war with the fascist scum approached, the fun family beach was commandeered by the military into serving a as a training post for any potential battles fought on a beach.
It wasn't until 1950 that Hilquit Beach finally was opened to the public, when it became a symbol of the post-war prosperity of Comintern. It's beaches, military shows, concerts, and other forms of recreation continue to attract millions of beach lovers from here and abroad. As well as people like me, looking for to make some cash.
The bus pulled up to a large parking lot. We stopped in front of this large space reserved for buses. Once the bus was stationary, all the beach lovers started scrambling to get out. We stepped out, and before was absolute beauty: the green hills near the parking lot, giving way to the shining tan sands of the beach, followed by the sapphire blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Feeling hot, we decided to start making plans to meet up.
"Okay gang, here's what we do," I said, the other three joining me into circle. "We all agree to meet up for lunch around 12 in the worker's cafeteria. And let's spend a week observing the girls before we start hunting some tail. Agreed?" Everybody broke out of the circle and we stated heading to our destination.
I checked my watch, it was still about 9:10. I figured I could squeeze in some time for a quick shower. So, I ran over to the shower stalls. On the way, I observed that the beaches were still somewhat empty, the parking lots still not full, meaning that everyone had yet to arrive. The temperature was also quite mild, about 20, so I guessed it would be a slow beach day. Of course, in the Maritime, that can feel like being in the desert.
I also observed some of the beach goers. To my pleasant surprise, Ian's coarse comment of "half-naked chicks," wasn't far off at all. Half the women in this place paraded around without their tops. The ones who I couldn't resist staring at didn't seem to mind at all. Of course, all this was making me very red in the face. Some of the women still maintained the relative modesty. Naturally, I assumed them to be either be from out of town or "respectable," which in this town, is something that is meant to be an insult apparently. Some guys too were running around their birthday suits, some not.
I eventually found the showers. They were all located in a concrete building. I saw that they were empty, which was good, since they also didn't seem to be divided by gender. So, I hopped into a shower, turned on the water, and ran it full blast. Hating the humid climate , I decided to go for cold water. I just started applying the shampoo to my hair, when I heart moist footsteps come up behind me.
"Hi how's it going," a voice asked me as the footsteps continued. A female, somewhat exotic voice. I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold water pouring down my head, and I suddenly stopped applying the shampoo, feeling time slow down.
"Is something wrong," the same voice asked me, a curious tone. I suddenly hear the shower head to the right of mine begin to turn on.
"No, no," I said, "everything is fine," my vowels rising. I suddenly heard some amused laughter coming from my right, almost drowning out the sound of the shower.
"Oh I see, you are canadiense," the same voice said cheerfully.
"What," I said, confused at her expression, so I turned to my right. Entering my vision was 160 cm of girl. She had tanned skin, a thin but muscular physique, long, shaved legs, some...generous tracts of land right above the stomach, and long black hair that gracefully flowed to the middle of her back. Upon her face was an unusually friendly smile. I quickly turned head away
"Sorry, I meant Canadian. Even with these language lessons, my Spanish still come outs when I get excited," she said. I felt a soft hand come upon my shoulder. "I've never met a Canadian," she said with excitement, "come on let's get to know each other real well." I felt her breath near my right ear. "Real well," she purred.
Despite all my bluster, I wasn't prepared for this. I ran out of there in a fluster, shampoo suds still on my hair and running down my face, vaguely hearing the girl's cries for me to wait.
To my chagrin, this would not be the only surprise that awaited me in this damned-red city.
Part 9: A Beach and a Show, Memoirs of the Red Turn (2006), Harold MacDevon
PROLOGUE
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
I wish I could say I began with a fresh start, a clean slate, but when your enter a nation like the UASR without a clue, wishing for an easy first day of work is like asking the sky not to rain.
The first bit of trouble was early morning, 8 o'clock The day before, we discovered that the showers in the unisex bathrooms were communal. There were no stalls. To say this created awkwardness with the girls on our floor is to say the sky was blue. So us guys and girls decided to flip a coin to see who would go first in the morning. Us guys got the right side up.
However, we soon discovered that to girls, hygiene mattered more than honor. Not only did they break the deal, they locked us out of the bathrooms completely.
"Putain," screamed one kid from Moncton, banging on the door angrily. Behind him us four guys, wearing our pajamas, carrying our toiletries under our armpits, with expressions of anger. Eventually, one kid approached the other kid banging on the door.
"Albert, Rafraichis-toi!" the guy, who I assumed was his friend, screamed, dragging him away from the dented door. Albert eventually walked away from the door in defeat.
"This is stupid," I muttered, "why don't we use the bathroom on any of the other residential floors." The building we were using was only half capacity. More kids were going to arrive.
"Well," George said, opening the guide book, " according to guide, to ensure efficiency, we must use the bathroom on the floor we are assigned ."
"Does the guide say anything about girls hogging the bathroom," I responded. "Let's ask Dave about it."
"I did ask Dave," the kid who had pulled away his angry friend. "He told me that is our job to quote-'overcome our imposed gender boundaries'-unquote. Albert took that as a sign to act like an angry monkey," he said, turning his head to glare at the petulant kid."
"I'm sorry, what was your name again," Ian asked, gregariously. "I'm Ian."
"I'm Bernard," the kid responded. He was a very thin person, with a pale face. Albert, meanwhile, was kind of fat and kind of short. Opposites can be friends as they say. Bernard than gave another frustrated look. "If they don't hurry up, were gonna be late for our job."
"Where's that," asked Ian.
"Me and Albert," Bernard said, revealing his failure to learn proper English grammar,"got jobs at a clothing store on Fifth Avenue. We are going to be working cashier jobs, which are pretty easy." He paused to look at his watch. "But they start at nine." He sighed and continued to wait. I did the same until the least expected person offered our group a solution.
"You know," said Fred, grabbing our attention. "The beach probably has showers of its own. We could use those instead. Since we would be getting there early, we might not run into anybody."
Ian and George's head, hanging in frustration, jumped up with joy at that wise solution. Mine did too, since Fred looked at me with a small but proud smile. Fred said little, but it meant his words would be more powerful than a ten minute speech.
"Not bad, Fred," I said, patting him in the shoulder, to which he gave me an uncomfortable smile which made me stop.
"Let's do it then," Ian said, marching back toward our room. He then gave a sad smile to Albert and Bernard. "Good luck you guys."
"Merci," Albert and Bernard said. We returned to our room to change.
Ian, Fred, and I walked out wearings t-shirts and shorts, with swim trunks underneath them. We also had sandals on our feet, and bags carrying towels, sunscreen, and a few other items.
Fred wore a simple blue shirt with "Gaspe" written on it. Ian wore a yellow shirt that read "Hottest Thing on the Beach", written in red text. I have to admit, it did make me chuckle. I wore a violet shirt with nothing on it.
George wore the exact opposite of what we wore: a business suit with brown jacket and pants, and a green dress shirt, and a red tie that glowed in the light. Unsurprising, considering he'd be working in the beach administrative offices, but completely in contrast with the usual beach attire. Come to think of it, not many people in the city wore a suit like that.
"You look like a million bucks George," Ian said, sizing up the fancy suit. "All the girls we'll be lining up, just to give you kiss." With Ian, he could be both mocking and encouraging. With friends, you can be both. "Just adjust your collar a little."
"Thanks," he said, uneasy. "So let's get going." He said. And so we did.
****
Our shifts all started around 9:30. Since it took about an hour to get there, we elected to leave a little bit earlier than that.
We first had to take a bus from the Lower East Side to Pennsylvania Station, aka Penn Station. The building retained its old, bourgeois opulence from the pre-war years [1], and we were briefly left in awe and the sheer size of the facility. From there, we took the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica, the major hub, and then transferred over to the Babylon line, which would then take us all the way to Wantagh, the hamlet where Hilquit Beach was located. From there, we would hop on another bus that would take us all the way to Hilquit.
Hilquit is one of the most popular beaches in the UASR. So, as you can guess, we had to wait on line for about fifteen minutes to catch a bus, since they quickly filled up with tourists, and they did not allow you to squeeze in by standing up. We finally got on board to the fourth bus we had seen.
Is was truly a bus built for the beach. It was full of people in various kinds of swimwear. Guy in their swim-trunks and briefs, some of them shirtless. Girls scantily clad in their bikinis, which reminded me of my goal. Despite my mom's lessons about being a gentleman, I couldn't help but stare at the women, their bodies made fit in preparation for their eventual entry into the army to join some kind of revolutionary act. I felt like a jerk for staring, but the girls didn't seem to notice, or really mind.
Their eyes, however, had been on George, and more specifically, his suit. Ian joked about how his suit would impress the ladies. I thought that initially, but their stares seems less about admiration, than about confusion. Some of the guys on the bus were also giving George the same look. Either George was really sticking out, or these commies had never seen anybody wearing a suit. Come to think of it, I had never seen anybody in this city wearing a suit and tie. Were these people really so fanatical, they saw suits as anathema?
George was oblivious to all of this (unwanted) attention, since Ian was quizzing him on his trivial knowledge.
"So what's the population of Boston?" Ian asked, reading out of an American atlas George brought with him.
"790,000", George replied, proud of his encyclopedic knowledge.
"Good," Ian said. "Detroit".
"1,900,000".
"Good," Ian continued. "Portland".
"Maine or Oregon," asked George.
"Maine."
"75,000".
"You're a beast," Ian uttered. "You could make a fortune on one of those English game shows [1]." George smiled.
Suddenly everybody broke from staring at George's suit when the bus driver-this one didn't carry a gun-made an announcement over the intercom.
"Now approaching Hilquit Beach, be ready to disembark," he said in that metallic voice. Our arrival was punctuating as we passed under the "Arch of Solidarity," a massive red arch built over the road to the Beach. Painted on the thin arch was a mural that showed two workers shaking hands, their hands meeting near the top of the arch. Suddenly, one of the girls in the front started cheering like a fratboy.
"Yeah, Hilquit Beach, alright," she said excitedly. Suddenly everybody on the bus started cheering like a madman. Ian of course, joined in the chorus of loud cheers. I joined half-halfheartedly, throwing in a few 'woohoos', while George continued to read his atlas, and Fred remained very silent.
****
The history of Hilquit Beach could very well resemble my first summer in the UASR: there were a few setbacks before it could get off the ground. It's construction began in the twilight years of the old United States, originally called "Jones Beach" after some colonial settler. But then, the Second Civil broke out, delaying its construction. When construction resumed, and Mayor Hilquit croaked, the city dwellers decided to rename the place after the man who had changed America simply by asserting his right to serve the people who elected him. But then, as the war with the fascist scum approached, the fun family beach was commandeered by the military into serving a as a training post for any potential battles fought on a beach.
It wasn't until 1950 that Hilquit Beach finally was opened to the public, when it became a symbol of the post-war prosperity of Comintern. It's beaches, military shows, concerts, and other forms of recreation continue to attract millions of beach lovers from here and abroad. As well as people like me, looking for to make some cash.
The bus pulled up to a large parking lot. We stopped in front of this large space reserved for buses. Once the bus was stationary, all the beach lovers started scrambling to get out. We stepped out, and before was absolute beauty: the green hills near the parking lot, giving way to the shining tan sands of the beach, followed by the sapphire blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Feeling hot, we decided to start making plans to meet up.
"Okay gang, here's what we do," I said, the other three joining me into circle. "We all agree to meet up for lunch around 12 in the worker's cafeteria. And let's spend a week observing the girls before we start hunting some tail. Agreed?" Everybody broke out of the circle and we stated heading to our destination.
I checked my watch, it was still about 9:10. I figured I could squeeze in some time for a quick shower. So, I ran over to the shower stalls. On the way, I observed that the beaches were still somewhat empty, the parking lots still not full, meaning that everyone had yet to arrive. The temperature was also quite mild, about 20, so I guessed it would be a slow beach day. Of course, in the Maritime, that can feel like being in the desert.
I also observed some of the beach goers. To my pleasant surprise, Ian's coarse comment of "half-naked chicks," wasn't far off at all. Half the women in this place paraded around without their tops. The ones who I couldn't resist staring at didn't seem to mind at all. Of course, all this was making me very red in the face. Some of the women still maintained the relative modesty. Naturally, I assumed them to be either be from out of town or "respectable," which in this town, is something that is meant to be an insult apparently. Some guys too were running around their birthday suits, some not.
I eventually found the showers. They were all located in a concrete building. I saw that they were empty, which was good, since they also didn't seem to be divided by gender. So, I hopped into a shower, turned on the water, and ran it full blast. Hating the humid climate , I decided to go for cold water. I just started applying the shampoo to my hair, when I heart moist footsteps come up behind me.
"Hi how's it going," a voice asked me as the footsteps continued. A female, somewhat exotic voice. I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold water pouring down my head, and I suddenly stopped applying the shampoo, feeling time slow down.
"Is something wrong," the same voice asked me, a curious tone. I suddenly hear the shower head to the right of mine begin to turn on.
"No, no," I said, "everything is fine," my vowels rising. I suddenly heard some amused laughter coming from my right, almost drowning out the sound of the shower.
"Oh I see, you are canadiense," the same voice said cheerfully.
"What," I said, confused at her expression, so I turned to my right. Entering my vision was 160 cm of girl. She had tanned skin, a thin but muscular physique, long, shaved legs, some...generous tracts of land right above the stomach, and long black hair that gracefully flowed to the middle of her back. Upon her face was an unusually friendly smile. I quickly turned head away
"Sorry, I meant Canadian. Even with these language lessons, my Spanish still come outs when I get excited," she said. I felt a soft hand come upon my shoulder. "I've never met a Canadian," she said with excitement, "come on let's get to know each other real well." I felt her breath near my right ear. "Real well," she purred.
Despite all my bluster, I wasn't prepared for this. I ran out of there in a fluster, shampoo suds still on my hair and running down my face, vaguely hearing the girl's cries for me to wait.
To my chagrin, this would not be the only surprise that awaited me in this damned-red city.
Part 9: A Beach and a Show, Memoirs of the Red Turn (2006), Harold MacDevon
PROLOGUE
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Last edited:
I don't mean to steal @Bookmark1995 's thunder by posting so soon after him. But I haven't had a lot of time or energy for AH lately, so I wanted to do something even if it was mostly just for fun. We'll get back to main canon updates soon enough, but in the mean time I've worked up a basic write up for the main Universal Century Gundam in Reds, mostly for fun but also for some worldbuilding opportunities. At least as far as nerd culture might go. As you'll see, it starts off fairly familiar and then becomes wildly divergent. Hope you enjoy.
Mobile Suit Gundam
The Gundam franchise defined the “Real Robot” genre. In Gundam, the mecha were tools like any other, built for a specific military purpose, unlike the previous “Super Robot” shows that followed a superhero motif. As a more grounded sort of sci-fi, Gundam and other examples of the “Real Robot” genre focused on verisimilitude and character interactions.
Gundam itself would come to be a massive metafranchise, with numerous alternate continuities produced across the Comintern-sphere, united only by a focus on a specific kind of mecha, the titular Gundams. Aside from sharing design motifs pioneered by the original, the various types of Gundams have nothing in common thematically. In some continuities, Gundams are more like the older style of super robots, while in others they are ordinary mass produced mobile suits.
We will be focusing on the original Universal Century continuity.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
Originally airing as simply Mobile Suit Gundam on 4 April 1979 in Nippon’s national television network ANN, the original Gundam depicted a group of youths being swept up in an apocalyptic war in a hardish sci fi future. The brainchild of Nipponese animation veteran Yoshiyuki Tomino, Gundam was marketed to all audiences, especially the growing teenage to young adult hobbyist demographic.
Though much of the funding came from the promise of lucrative merchandising opportunities for hobbyist collectives, Tomino’s acclaim within the Nippon’s animator’s guild earned him a great deal of creative freedom for the production, and a generous commercial grant from ANN.
Gundam begins in media res in September of the year 0079 in the future Universal Century calendar (epoch date unspecified). An intro describes a very brief synopsis of the setting: most of humanity now live in Lagrange space colonies, grouped together administratively as Sides. A billion or so more live on Luna or in the outer planets. Nevertheless, Earth remains the spiritual home of humanity, and the seat of the Earth Federation government that administrates it. Nine months prior, a group of colonies on the far side of the moon, the self-styled Principality of Zeon, began a supposed war of independence against the Earth. The narration states that the indiscriminate use of WMDs by Zeon has killed over half the human population in a single month of fighting. The animation depicts a final titanic act of barbarism: the de-orbiting of an 8 kilometer wide, thirty-two kilometer long “Island Three” colony as an improvised weapon of mass destruction.(1)
The protagonist, Ensign Amuro Ray of the Earth Federal Space Force, is being redeployed his home colony in Side 7. En route, he learns that his father has been working on a secret project that may help turn the tide in the war.(2) Meanwhile, the primary antagonist, Zeon Navy Lieutenant Commander Char Aznable has been ordered to capture the Federation’s Project V with hopes of breaking the stalemate.
Char’s forces attack just after Amuro is reunited with his father. A desperate defense by Federation tanks and the obsolete RM-75 mobile suits holds off greatly superior Zakus, forcing them to regroup. But Amuro’s father and the intended pilots for Project V have been mortally wounded. In desperation, Amuro jumps into the cockpit of the RX-78 “Gundam”, and dispatches two of Char’s subalterns.
After a stand-off at the colony’s docks, both Amuro and Char are forced to retreat, neither realizing the other had expended his consumables. Against Char’s recommendations, the commander of the Zeon cruiser orders the destruction of the colony. Nevertheless, the experimental warship White Base escapes, evacuating civilians as well as the prototypes of Project V.
The show follows Amuro and Char’s stories through to the end of the Zeonic War. Amuro’s presence convinces some of his old friends from Side 7 to join the Federal Forces: the embittered Kai Shiden, the naïve Fraw Bow, and the loyal Hayato Kobayashi. Bright Noa, a junior officer with leadership thrust upon him, serves as the commander of the White Base, trying to maintain order and discipline among the fraying crew.
Amuro soon meets the enigmatic Federation political commissar Sayla Mass. Over the course of the apocalyptic conflict with Zeon, Amuro and Sayla become close confidants. Sayla’s growing dissatisfaction with Federation is used as an exposition tool; the Federation is an ugly mess of competing sectional interests, the promise of a global worker’s state long since abandoned to bureaucratic degeneration and capitalist roaders. Both continue the fight because Zeon’s fascist barbarism must be stopped at any price.
Meanwhile, Char cements himself as fan favorite. Over the course of the show, it is slowly revealed that Char is not who he seems to be. As he plots his revenge against Zeon’s ruling Zabi family, his true identity emerges as Casval Deikun, son of the murdered colonial revolutionary Zeon Deikun. Deikun, it is revealed, was murdered by the Zabis in false-flag assassination, turning his proletarian movement’s anger away from the Zabi industrialists towards the Earth’s imperial rule. Side 3 is renamed in Zeon Deikun’s honor, while the Zabis install themselves as Princes (in the archaic sense of first citizen) of a national socialist regime much like Nazi Germany. Which is to say, without any socialism beyond rhetoric about the people.
Char and Amuro face off several more times. Their rivalry becomes more personal after Amuro meets the Indian mobile suit pilot Lalah Sune. This arc revealed the concept of the Newtype: human evolution driven by the changing conditions of life in space, manifesting in an emergent gestalt consciousness and psychic powers.
Amuro, Char, Lalah and Sayla eventually learn of their shared connection as Newtypes, but the rivalry turns bitter with the accidental death of Lalah as the Zeonic empire begins to collapse. Sayla nearly succeeds in her mission to kill the famed “Red Comet” Char, but can’t pull the trigger at the pivotal moment; their psychic connection revealing that their true identities. Sayla was born Artesia Deikun and thus is Char’s twin sister.
Char overcomes his enmity for Amuro, and forgives Amuro and himself for Lalah’s death. The two cooperate to bring down the Zabi family and stop their final vengeance attack: deorbiting the mining asteroid Luna V to kill all life on Earth in a massive impact winter.
Mobile Suit Gundam was a sleeper hit on its arrival. However, the secondary merchandising market for models and tabletop games, and the new Laserdisc home video market gave the show a new life. The strength of fansubs created by college A/V clubs in North America paved the way for an official localization in 1985, widely praised for taking few liberties with the source material.
Growing fan interest led to comic and novel spin offs culminated in a sequel series in 1986.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Set in UC 0087, the sequel series would deal with the aftermath of the Zabi’s War. The Federation’s wartime leader, Jamitov Haiman(3), has extralegally maintained power over the Earth Federation. Though constitutionally installed as Roman Republican style Dictator by the Earth Federation Councilar Congress on 8 February 0079, Haiman has perpetually extended the Final Law for the Preservation of the Federation and the state of emergency that vests him with near absolute power.
Ruling through the Titans, the supposedly counter-insurgency paramilitary arm of the Main Directorate for Federal Security, Haiman has ruthlessly suppressed dissent across the Earth and the Sides. The continual specter of Zeon remnants sustains the dictatorship.
The protagonist, a young spacenoid Kamille Bidan, gets into a run in with the Titans secret police. He meets blond mobile suit pilot named Quattro Bajerna(4), who he learns is an insurgent with the anti-Titan Third Revolution Group. Third Revolution opposes the dictatorship and corruption within the Earth Federation, considering itself to be the loyal opposition against Haiman’s military junta.
Kamille and Quattro steal the new RX-85 “Gundam Mk II” prototypes. Quattro recognizes Kamille’s talent and potential Newtype abilities, but the young man is brash and reckless, almost to the point of insubordinate. Nonetheless, he eventually becomes a part of the crew of the Third Revolution cruiser Argama. Many former heroes of the Federation fill the ranks of Third Revolution, including Bright Noa and Lieutenant Emma Sheen.
Emma and Quattro try to serve as mentors to Kamille in their partisan war against the Titans. The group begins gaining traction against the Titans, uncovering evidence implicating the Titans in the use of G3 nerve agent against a colony undergoing a labor revolt. The dark parallels to the Principality of Zeon continue as Haiman begins losing his grip on the Sides.
Before a four-week mid-season break, the drama comes to a head when Third Revolution learns that the Titans plant to suppress the newly declared Granada Commune on Luna’s far side by dropping a derelict colony on the metropolis. The colony drop is narrowly averted, and the insurgency begins to grow out of hand for the Titans.
Third Revolution takes the offensive. In cooperation with cells on Earth and sympathizers within the Earth Federation civilian government, Third Revolution is able to defeat the Titan security force around the moribund Federation Councilar Congress in Dakar. Quattro addresses the assembly directly in a speech that is broadcast around the Earth sphere. Revealing his true identity as Casval Deikun(5), and the last son of Zeon Deikun, a man much revered by spacenoids and ironically lionized by the Titans as well, Quattro condemns the dictatorship, reveals its litany of atrocities, and calls on the population to resist. The speech, while ham-handed by modern standards, was well regarded for introducing environmental and political themes in a sophisticated manner.
Though the Councilar Congress eventually revokes the Final Law and orders the arrest of Haiman, the Titans refuse to lay down arms peacefully. The insurgency develops into a full-scale civil war across the Earth sphere.
Unfortunately, much of the Earth Federal Forces continue to follow Haiman’s leadership. In a desperate gambit, Third Revolution makes a desperate alliance with the ultra-radical Red Sun Faction based in the former mining asteroid Axis. Red Sun has been waging their own insurgency against the Earth Federation, who they condemn as a degenerated worker’s state.
Red Sun’s forces deploy to support Third Revolution in the desperate defense of Goddard City, the major metropolis on Luna’s near side. A basic cobelligerency agreement is hashed out, and a liaison boards the Argama. Lieutenant Audrey Burne. Audrey is a fanatic of Red Sun’s neo-Deikunist ideology, and name drops Amadeo Bordgia, Murray Bookchin and J. Posadas over the course of the episode.
Red Sun, we learn, had been an active resistance cell within the Principality of Zeon, and gained many converts after war among the embittered and disillusioned conscripts of the Principality’s military. Quattro is haunted by a familiarity with Audrey that he cannot place.
Kamille and Bright travel to Axis to meet the secretive leader of Red Sun, Haman Khan(6). Haman immediately impresses Kamille as a collected and hardened military leader, and he very quickly is taken in by her charisma. Bright, however, is taken aback, saying he felt the ghost of Felix Dzerzhinsky in her presence.
Nevertheless, an alliance and powersharing agreement is brokered, and a combined offensive against the Titan’s orbital strongholds is planned. Over the next arc, Kamile tries and fails to save the tragic Titan cybernewtype Four Murasame. Amuro, now no longer on the sidelines and mostly recovered from his PTSD, confides in Kamille and helps him get over the grief, likening it to his own feelings for Lalah Sune.
In the meantime, Quattro confronts Haman, accusing her of deftly manipulating the conflict so that Third Revolution soaks up most of the casualties while Red Sun wins more of the glory. Haman chides him for being jealous that he didn’t put such a plan into action first. She calls him Edward Mass, the name he originally assumed as a child when spirited away from Side 3 and lived in hiding on Earth.
Quattro confesses that he had refused to believe it before, but now he could no longer deny it. He comments that while his eyes recognized her as his sister, the cold, malevolent aura he felt around her made him doubt his eyes.(7) The two argue, and Haman lays out her motivations. She chides Quattro for remaining closed off to his Newtype abilities. Haman claims to have seen “the narrow path”, the future where human civilization survives and prospers, requiring neither the gun nor the hand to pull the trigger. All other futures, she claims, lead to humanity’s extinction.
Haman invites him to prove her wrong. In an unsettling gambit, she accurate predicts some near future events to demonstrate how she’s opened herself up to her Newtype abilities and the cosmos. Quattro leaves unsettled, unsure whether he’s being gaslighted or if what she says is true. But he remains determined to prove her wrong.
The war soon reaches its dramatic finale, in a titanic battle destroy the Titan’s final weapon, the Gryps colony laser. Dictator Haiman realizes at the last minute he’s been duped by the treacherous Jovian mercenary Paptimus Sirocco, who starscreams him and plots to use the Gryps laser to fulfill his ambitions. Quattro saves Audrey from making a suicidal sacrifice play on Haman’s orders. In tears, she breaks down and reveals she was born as Mineva Lao Zabi; as the last of the Zabi family she feels personal responsibility for all of their sins and wishes to atone. Quattro is finally able to forgive, especially himself, and let go of the pain he’d held in his heart. Kamille and Haman fight Sirocco in their mobile suits. The interplay of technology and psychic powers is devastating, and while the allies ultimately prevail, Kamille is haunted by the experience and left almost comatose.
The series ends with Quattro wondering what Haman has planned. He remarks fearfully that the worst may be yet to come, though the Titan dictatorship has finally been overthrown, the Earth Federation shows no signs of reforming.
Zeta Gundam was well received critically and financially. The prompt localization, airing beginning in Spring 1987 in North America on the United Artists Network (UAN). Strong Laserdisc sales led to the English version being ported to the Anglo-French sphere, though the ideological content provoked backlash against the growing “Japanimation” fad.(8)
Mobile Suit Gundam Starlight(9)
1990’s Gundam Starlight is a direct sequel to Zeta Gundam. Set ten years after the Zabi War, it continues the unresolved conflict of Zeta with new characters joining established heroes Bright Noa, Hayato Kobayashi, and Quattro Bajerna.
In a first for the franchise, Tomino chose a young woman to be the protagonist, Leina Ashta. Unlike previous protagonists, Leina is relatively carefree and cocky compared to the brooding Amuro and Kamille. She sells scrap in Side 1’s Shangri-La colony. Her only experience with mecha is the operation of industrial machinery.
Nevertheless, she finds herself swept up into Third Revolution’s shadowy conflict with Red Sun. Initially not a skilled pilot, she prefers to stealth and non-violent means to achieve success opposed to direct combat.
Aboard the Argama, she is mentored by Bright Noa, who sees a rare spark of leadership talent in her. Gundam Starlight begins relatively light-hearted and comedic, and some antagonists from Zeta Gundam such as Yazan Gable are reduced to almost Home Alone Wet Bandit status.
As the conflict with Haman’s Red Sun develops, Leina starts to get close to fellow pilot Roux Louka. The implications of a lesbian romance are deliberately understated, as the crew felt that while it was still avant-garde, particularly in Japan, in the far future of UC 0089 it would not be.
Unlike previous series, which featured ace pilots flying ace customs, much of the new crew of the Argama would pilot mass produced mobile suits, including the protagonist, who flew a slightly used RGM-86R GM III. The use of a normal mobile suit helped highlight Leina’s growing skill as a pilot, and on a couple occasions she trounced Titan-remnant or Red Sun aces piloting ace custom models. Notably, she used the superior reliability of the proven GM series, earning a victory over Red Sun ace Mashymre Cello because his AMX-101 Gallus broke-down in high-gee maneuvers.
A recurring theme in Starlight is the personal conflict between Haman and Leina. In episode seventeen, Leina infiltrates the fortress Axis to gather intelligence. After meeting Marida Cruz(10), who instantly takes a shine to her, Leina accidentally stumbles upon Haman Khan. The older Newtype instantly recognizes her psychic presence and confronts her.
While the two are instantly drawn to one another emotionally, they are still at odds. Haman sees the naivete of the young Sayla Mass in Leina, and is torn between trying to enlighten her or shelter her. Leina sees the dark reflection of herself in Haman, where righteousness had turned into self-righteousness.
Haman and Leina would meet several more times over the course of the show, each time discussing their philosophical differences and the elephant in the room that was the sexual tension. Both rebuff the other’s entreaties to turn away from their path.
In the second half of the show, the tone turned noticeably darker. The dynamic duo of Quattro Bajerna and Amuro Ray return just as Haman openly declares war on the Earth Federation. As the Federation continues to succumb to the iron law of institutions, more concerned about preserving the petty fiefs of Earth economic interests and the nomenklatura, Haman exploits divisions within the loose anti-Red Sun alliance, and the Federation Force’s continued heavy handedness towards spacenoids.
After the Second Battle of Loum, Haman triumphs over the Federation Space Force’s 8th Fleet. This victory, and the sniveling bargaining by the Earth bourgeoisie afterwards, breaks the back of the Federation’s war effort. Notably it convinces the commander of the Federation’s 4th Fleet, Rear Admiral Ibrahim Revil, son of the famed commander-in-chief of the Zabi War, to defect to Haman’s cause.
Haman unveils her masterstroke. Having subverted the Jupiter Energy Fleet by sympathetic worker’s uprising, Haman broadcasts her ultimatum to the Earth Federation. In her speech, she lists the litany of atrocities committed by the Earth Federation against spacenoid workers from the beginning of space colonization. She condemns the venal, self-interested Earth bourgeoisie, who knew no master other than the law of value, and would use any amount of violence to preserve it. The Earth Federation’s socialist genuflections are empty, she asserts, and only amount to the preservation classes and the value form through state-capitalism. She recasts the Titans from anti-Zeon counterinsurgents gone wrong to a deliberate dictatorship aided and abetted at every turn by the Earth Federation’s industrial and financial leaders, who only washed their hands of the Titans in the most minimal of ways, and continued to try to maintain their dominion through other means. She ends her broadcast demanding the unconditional surrender of the Earth Federation to her reborn Communist International.
While Third Revolution and other spacenoid groups counsel the Earth Federation to surrender, the demand is predictably refused. Haman begins her final offensive, attacking the Earth Space Force’s final redoubt in the Side 3 autonomous zone, once the heart of the Principality of Zeon. Since Third Revolution has bowed out of the conflict, Leina chooses to infiltrate alone against orders.
In Munzo, she has her final peaceful encounter with Haman. After uncovering Haman’s terrible plan, to force the surrender of the Earth Federation via colony drop, Leina tries to dissuade Haman one last time. Leina reverses the usual trend, and invites Haman to run away to some quiet corner of the universe, and let history unfold on its own.
Haman quotes James Joyce, declaring that “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Tempted by her offer, Haman mournfully dismisses it, telling Leina “It’s too late. It always has been too late.”
The final arc begins with Haman watching workers attaching the massive nuclear salt-water rockets to the Zabi home colony bunch.(11) The colonies are plotted on a Lunar gravity assist trajectory towards the Earth, where they’ll impact at cometary speeds. Haman departs Side 3 with her whole host to defend the drop.
Meanwhile, Leina convinces her superiors of the veracity of the threat, and they mobilize a desperate alliance of to prevent the calamity. As the fleets prepare to match velocities to engage, a mass of shrapnel tears through the Third Revolution/Karaba/Earth Federation combined fleet. Anticipating their reaction, Haman utilized the massive thrusters as improvised weapons, ejecting them before burn out and using the last of their fuel to detonate the rockets. The weakened fleet still engages in a race against the clock, trying to attach their own thrusters to divert the colonies.
In the penultimate episode, Hayato Kobayashi sacrfices his cruiser in a suicidal ramming attack, diverting one of the colonies nearly enough. Bright tries a repeat of this trick, only to be stopped at the last second by Haman’s GM. Commenting that someone will need to pick up the pieces, Haman pulls Bright from the stricken Argama.
As the battle approaches the point of no return, the desperate melee has annihilated most of the respective fleets. Amuro and Quattro finish deflecting the first colony by self-detonating their ace custom’s overcharged reactors, turning the colony’s fusion plant into an improvised fusion torch. It is left ambiguous whether their escape pods cleared the lethal radius.
Four thousand kilometers away, Haman and Leina clash with beam sabers over the second colony. Haman and her Companion bodyguards, including Cruz-Two, mount a defense at the single remaining thruster. Leina tries once again to convince her to turn away from the path. Leina is despondent, condemning all the death she has caused so that she can live in utopia. Leina is shocked when Haman proclaims “I have no tomorrow.”
The colony passes the point of no return. Haman discards her beam saber and dismounts her GM. Her final words to Leina are “It’s in your hands now.” Remotely piloting her mobile suit through the psycommu, she utilizes the last of her suit’s fuel to push Leina’s to safety.
The stricken colony plunges through the Earth’s atmosphere, striking in the wastes of the Sahara. The direct fatalities caused by the drop are low, the narration informs us. The resulting impact winter, though, results in the collapse of the Earth Federation. With it’s moral, political and now financial capital exhausted, the Earth is at the mercy of the spacenoids.
Thanks to men like Bright Noa, they prove to be far more charitable than Earth had been to the colonies. The ending narration concludes by stating that mankind’s final brush with the terrible powers of its creation has created a new awakening in the human psyche. The destruction of the old system was completed, and it became clear that such contradictions, oppression and exploitation would destroy humanity if allowed to persist.
A short epilogue plays, showing Leina helping to rebuild the ruined Earth. She wonders aloud why Haman chose to burden herself by arrogantly carrying the weight of the world. Having seen the same visions of the future, Leina wonders if Haman truly had seen all possible futures, or if the dark nature of the times she lived in ensured she could only see the darkness, and couldn’t see the less violent solutions.
While financially successful, Gundam Starlight would prove to be hugely divisive among fans and the broader public. While some appreciated the moral complexity of its heroes and villains, and as if the epilogue wasn’t clear enough, Tomino himself stated “a sympathetic villain is still a villain.”
Due to the body count among named characters (far more than named here), Gundam Starlight cemented Tomino’s “kill ‘em all” nickname, and seemed to be a deliberate attempt to save the franchise from unrestrained sequelitis.
He did not succeed, as Universal Century alone would spawn numerous prequels, interquels, sidequels, etc., in animation and other media, to say nothing of the various other continuities. And almost thirty five years after the debut of the original, Nippon Sunrise would debut a Universal Century continuation series set decades after Gundam Starlight, notable for the sheer amount of nerdrage it would inspire through a retconning of the nature of Haman’s Newtype visions, and the introduction of extrasolar alien antagonists.(12)
(1) Like IOTL, it’s a realistic space habitat designed by Princeton University physicist Gerard K. O’Neill popularized by science fiction.
(2) In earlier treatments and Tomino’s novelization, Amuro was an adult and already serving in the military.
(3) It was Romanized as “Hymen” IOTL but that’s stupid so I’m changing it.
(4) Another stupid Romanization that I’m changing.
(5) Surprising absolutely no one paying attention.
(6) The official Romanization is Karn, but that’s stupid so I’m changing it. Worse, it’s one that got retroactively changed
(7) Haman Khan’s character model being so similar to Sayla’s, and Sayla’s conspicuous absence from OTL Zeta Gundam (she had no speaking parts because her voice actress was on safari and unavailable) has always made me wonder if her role was originally supposed to be taken by Sayla. I’ve decided to take this idea and run with it.
(8) While in the UASR news media worked diligently to change common usage of the Japanese demonym as both a sign of respect as well as help welcome a former enemy as a new ally in the Comintern, this did not occur in the capitalist sphere.
(9) Double Zeta is kind of a dumb name too, so I’m changing it. You might be noticing a pattern by now.
(10) I’m not naming her Elpeo Ple because it’s reference to something that gives me the heebie jeebies.
(11) Finally correctly displaying that O’Neill Island Three colonies, by design, must be tethered as a pair in order to maintain their orientation to the Sun. Unlike Zeon’s colony drops, the inhabitants of this pair were evacuated unharmed.
(12) Think of all the rooting for the Empire crap the Yuzhan Vong inspired in the Star Wars EU, and then imagine what that would do if it was a main canon interpretation. Or more on-point, like everything every non-Tomino produced UC series has done for the Principality of Zeon’s reputation with pandering to modern ultranationalist otakus. Only in this case those otakus are left-wing instead of right-wing.
Mobile Suit Gundam
The Gundam franchise defined the “Real Robot” genre. In Gundam, the mecha were tools like any other, built for a specific military purpose, unlike the previous “Super Robot” shows that followed a superhero motif. As a more grounded sort of sci-fi, Gundam and other examples of the “Real Robot” genre focused on verisimilitude and character interactions.
Gundam itself would come to be a massive metafranchise, with numerous alternate continuities produced across the Comintern-sphere, united only by a focus on a specific kind of mecha, the titular Gundams. Aside from sharing design motifs pioneered by the original, the various types of Gundams have nothing in common thematically. In some continuities, Gundams are more like the older style of super robots, while in others they are ordinary mass produced mobile suits.
We will be focusing on the original Universal Century continuity.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
Originally airing as simply Mobile Suit Gundam on 4 April 1979 in Nippon’s national television network ANN, the original Gundam depicted a group of youths being swept up in an apocalyptic war in a hardish sci fi future. The brainchild of Nipponese animation veteran Yoshiyuki Tomino, Gundam was marketed to all audiences, especially the growing teenage to young adult hobbyist demographic.
Though much of the funding came from the promise of lucrative merchandising opportunities for hobbyist collectives, Tomino’s acclaim within the Nippon’s animator’s guild earned him a great deal of creative freedom for the production, and a generous commercial grant from ANN.
Gundam begins in media res in September of the year 0079 in the future Universal Century calendar (epoch date unspecified). An intro describes a very brief synopsis of the setting: most of humanity now live in Lagrange space colonies, grouped together administratively as Sides. A billion or so more live on Luna or in the outer planets. Nevertheless, Earth remains the spiritual home of humanity, and the seat of the Earth Federation government that administrates it. Nine months prior, a group of colonies on the far side of the moon, the self-styled Principality of Zeon, began a supposed war of independence against the Earth. The narration states that the indiscriminate use of WMDs by Zeon has killed over half the human population in a single month of fighting. The animation depicts a final titanic act of barbarism: the de-orbiting of an 8 kilometer wide, thirty-two kilometer long “Island Three” colony as an improvised weapon of mass destruction.(1)
The protagonist, Ensign Amuro Ray of the Earth Federal Space Force, is being redeployed his home colony in Side 7. En route, he learns that his father has been working on a secret project that may help turn the tide in the war.(2) Meanwhile, the primary antagonist, Zeon Navy Lieutenant Commander Char Aznable has been ordered to capture the Federation’s Project V with hopes of breaking the stalemate.
Char’s forces attack just after Amuro is reunited with his father. A desperate defense by Federation tanks and the obsolete RM-75 mobile suits holds off greatly superior Zakus, forcing them to regroup. But Amuro’s father and the intended pilots for Project V have been mortally wounded. In desperation, Amuro jumps into the cockpit of the RX-78 “Gundam”, and dispatches two of Char’s subalterns.
After a stand-off at the colony’s docks, both Amuro and Char are forced to retreat, neither realizing the other had expended his consumables. Against Char’s recommendations, the commander of the Zeon cruiser orders the destruction of the colony. Nevertheless, the experimental warship White Base escapes, evacuating civilians as well as the prototypes of Project V.
The show follows Amuro and Char’s stories through to the end of the Zeonic War. Amuro’s presence convinces some of his old friends from Side 7 to join the Federal Forces: the embittered Kai Shiden, the naïve Fraw Bow, and the loyal Hayato Kobayashi. Bright Noa, a junior officer with leadership thrust upon him, serves as the commander of the White Base, trying to maintain order and discipline among the fraying crew.
Amuro soon meets the enigmatic Federation political commissar Sayla Mass. Over the course of the apocalyptic conflict with Zeon, Amuro and Sayla become close confidants. Sayla’s growing dissatisfaction with Federation is used as an exposition tool; the Federation is an ugly mess of competing sectional interests, the promise of a global worker’s state long since abandoned to bureaucratic degeneration and capitalist roaders. Both continue the fight because Zeon’s fascist barbarism must be stopped at any price.
Meanwhile, Char cements himself as fan favorite. Over the course of the show, it is slowly revealed that Char is not who he seems to be. As he plots his revenge against Zeon’s ruling Zabi family, his true identity emerges as Casval Deikun, son of the murdered colonial revolutionary Zeon Deikun. Deikun, it is revealed, was murdered by the Zabis in false-flag assassination, turning his proletarian movement’s anger away from the Zabi industrialists towards the Earth’s imperial rule. Side 3 is renamed in Zeon Deikun’s honor, while the Zabis install themselves as Princes (in the archaic sense of first citizen) of a national socialist regime much like Nazi Germany. Which is to say, without any socialism beyond rhetoric about the people.
Char and Amuro face off several more times. Their rivalry becomes more personal after Amuro meets the Indian mobile suit pilot Lalah Sune. This arc revealed the concept of the Newtype: human evolution driven by the changing conditions of life in space, manifesting in an emergent gestalt consciousness and psychic powers.
Amuro, Char, Lalah and Sayla eventually learn of their shared connection as Newtypes, but the rivalry turns bitter with the accidental death of Lalah as the Zeonic empire begins to collapse. Sayla nearly succeeds in her mission to kill the famed “Red Comet” Char, but can’t pull the trigger at the pivotal moment; their psychic connection revealing that their true identities. Sayla was born Artesia Deikun and thus is Char’s twin sister.
Char overcomes his enmity for Amuro, and forgives Amuro and himself for Lalah’s death. The two cooperate to bring down the Zabi family and stop their final vengeance attack: deorbiting the mining asteroid Luna V to kill all life on Earth in a massive impact winter.
Mobile Suit Gundam was a sleeper hit on its arrival. However, the secondary merchandising market for models and tabletop games, and the new Laserdisc home video market gave the show a new life. The strength of fansubs created by college A/V clubs in North America paved the way for an official localization in 1985, widely praised for taking few liberties with the source material.
Growing fan interest led to comic and novel spin offs culminated in a sequel series in 1986.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Set in UC 0087, the sequel series would deal with the aftermath of the Zabi’s War. The Federation’s wartime leader, Jamitov Haiman(3), has extralegally maintained power over the Earth Federation. Though constitutionally installed as Roman Republican style Dictator by the Earth Federation Councilar Congress on 8 February 0079, Haiman has perpetually extended the Final Law for the Preservation of the Federation and the state of emergency that vests him with near absolute power.
Ruling through the Titans, the supposedly counter-insurgency paramilitary arm of the Main Directorate for Federal Security, Haiman has ruthlessly suppressed dissent across the Earth and the Sides. The continual specter of Zeon remnants sustains the dictatorship.
The protagonist, a young spacenoid Kamille Bidan, gets into a run in with the Titans secret police. He meets blond mobile suit pilot named Quattro Bajerna(4), who he learns is an insurgent with the anti-Titan Third Revolution Group. Third Revolution opposes the dictatorship and corruption within the Earth Federation, considering itself to be the loyal opposition against Haiman’s military junta.
Kamille and Quattro steal the new RX-85 “Gundam Mk II” prototypes. Quattro recognizes Kamille’s talent and potential Newtype abilities, but the young man is brash and reckless, almost to the point of insubordinate. Nonetheless, he eventually becomes a part of the crew of the Third Revolution cruiser Argama. Many former heroes of the Federation fill the ranks of Third Revolution, including Bright Noa and Lieutenant Emma Sheen.
Emma and Quattro try to serve as mentors to Kamille in their partisan war against the Titans. The group begins gaining traction against the Titans, uncovering evidence implicating the Titans in the use of G3 nerve agent against a colony undergoing a labor revolt. The dark parallels to the Principality of Zeon continue as Haiman begins losing his grip on the Sides.
Before a four-week mid-season break, the drama comes to a head when Third Revolution learns that the Titans plant to suppress the newly declared Granada Commune on Luna’s far side by dropping a derelict colony on the metropolis. The colony drop is narrowly averted, and the insurgency begins to grow out of hand for the Titans.
Third Revolution takes the offensive. In cooperation with cells on Earth and sympathizers within the Earth Federation civilian government, Third Revolution is able to defeat the Titan security force around the moribund Federation Councilar Congress in Dakar. Quattro addresses the assembly directly in a speech that is broadcast around the Earth sphere. Revealing his true identity as Casval Deikun(5), and the last son of Zeon Deikun, a man much revered by spacenoids and ironically lionized by the Titans as well, Quattro condemns the dictatorship, reveals its litany of atrocities, and calls on the population to resist. The speech, while ham-handed by modern standards, was well regarded for introducing environmental and political themes in a sophisticated manner.
Though the Councilar Congress eventually revokes the Final Law and orders the arrest of Haiman, the Titans refuse to lay down arms peacefully. The insurgency develops into a full-scale civil war across the Earth sphere.
Unfortunately, much of the Earth Federal Forces continue to follow Haiman’s leadership. In a desperate gambit, Third Revolution makes a desperate alliance with the ultra-radical Red Sun Faction based in the former mining asteroid Axis. Red Sun has been waging their own insurgency against the Earth Federation, who they condemn as a degenerated worker’s state.
Red Sun’s forces deploy to support Third Revolution in the desperate defense of Goddard City, the major metropolis on Luna’s near side. A basic cobelligerency agreement is hashed out, and a liaison boards the Argama. Lieutenant Audrey Burne. Audrey is a fanatic of Red Sun’s neo-Deikunist ideology, and name drops Amadeo Bordgia, Murray Bookchin and J. Posadas over the course of the episode.
Red Sun, we learn, had been an active resistance cell within the Principality of Zeon, and gained many converts after war among the embittered and disillusioned conscripts of the Principality’s military. Quattro is haunted by a familiarity with Audrey that he cannot place.
Kamille and Bright travel to Axis to meet the secretive leader of Red Sun, Haman Khan(6). Haman immediately impresses Kamille as a collected and hardened military leader, and he very quickly is taken in by her charisma. Bright, however, is taken aback, saying he felt the ghost of Felix Dzerzhinsky in her presence.
Nevertheless, an alliance and powersharing agreement is brokered, and a combined offensive against the Titan’s orbital strongholds is planned. Over the next arc, Kamile tries and fails to save the tragic Titan cybernewtype Four Murasame. Amuro, now no longer on the sidelines and mostly recovered from his PTSD, confides in Kamille and helps him get over the grief, likening it to his own feelings for Lalah Sune.
In the meantime, Quattro confronts Haman, accusing her of deftly manipulating the conflict so that Third Revolution soaks up most of the casualties while Red Sun wins more of the glory. Haman chides him for being jealous that he didn’t put such a plan into action first. She calls him Edward Mass, the name he originally assumed as a child when spirited away from Side 3 and lived in hiding on Earth.
Quattro confesses that he had refused to believe it before, but now he could no longer deny it. He comments that while his eyes recognized her as his sister, the cold, malevolent aura he felt around her made him doubt his eyes.(7) The two argue, and Haman lays out her motivations. She chides Quattro for remaining closed off to his Newtype abilities. Haman claims to have seen “the narrow path”, the future where human civilization survives and prospers, requiring neither the gun nor the hand to pull the trigger. All other futures, she claims, lead to humanity’s extinction.
Haman invites him to prove her wrong. In an unsettling gambit, she accurate predicts some near future events to demonstrate how she’s opened herself up to her Newtype abilities and the cosmos. Quattro leaves unsettled, unsure whether he’s being gaslighted or if what she says is true. But he remains determined to prove her wrong.
The war soon reaches its dramatic finale, in a titanic battle destroy the Titan’s final weapon, the Gryps colony laser. Dictator Haiman realizes at the last minute he’s been duped by the treacherous Jovian mercenary Paptimus Sirocco, who starscreams him and plots to use the Gryps laser to fulfill his ambitions. Quattro saves Audrey from making a suicidal sacrifice play on Haman’s orders. In tears, she breaks down and reveals she was born as Mineva Lao Zabi; as the last of the Zabi family she feels personal responsibility for all of their sins and wishes to atone. Quattro is finally able to forgive, especially himself, and let go of the pain he’d held in his heart. Kamille and Haman fight Sirocco in their mobile suits. The interplay of technology and psychic powers is devastating, and while the allies ultimately prevail, Kamille is haunted by the experience and left almost comatose.
The series ends with Quattro wondering what Haman has planned. He remarks fearfully that the worst may be yet to come, though the Titan dictatorship has finally been overthrown, the Earth Federation shows no signs of reforming.
Zeta Gundam was well received critically and financially. The prompt localization, airing beginning in Spring 1987 in North America on the United Artists Network (UAN). Strong Laserdisc sales led to the English version being ported to the Anglo-French sphere, though the ideological content provoked backlash against the growing “Japanimation” fad.(8)
Mobile Suit Gundam Starlight(9)
1990’s Gundam Starlight is a direct sequel to Zeta Gundam. Set ten years after the Zabi War, it continues the unresolved conflict of Zeta with new characters joining established heroes Bright Noa, Hayato Kobayashi, and Quattro Bajerna.
In a first for the franchise, Tomino chose a young woman to be the protagonist, Leina Ashta. Unlike previous protagonists, Leina is relatively carefree and cocky compared to the brooding Amuro and Kamille. She sells scrap in Side 1’s Shangri-La colony. Her only experience with mecha is the operation of industrial machinery.
Nevertheless, she finds herself swept up into Third Revolution’s shadowy conflict with Red Sun. Initially not a skilled pilot, she prefers to stealth and non-violent means to achieve success opposed to direct combat.
Aboard the Argama, she is mentored by Bright Noa, who sees a rare spark of leadership talent in her. Gundam Starlight begins relatively light-hearted and comedic, and some antagonists from Zeta Gundam such as Yazan Gable are reduced to almost Home Alone Wet Bandit status.
As the conflict with Haman’s Red Sun develops, Leina starts to get close to fellow pilot Roux Louka. The implications of a lesbian romance are deliberately understated, as the crew felt that while it was still avant-garde, particularly in Japan, in the far future of UC 0089 it would not be.
Unlike previous series, which featured ace pilots flying ace customs, much of the new crew of the Argama would pilot mass produced mobile suits, including the protagonist, who flew a slightly used RGM-86R GM III. The use of a normal mobile suit helped highlight Leina’s growing skill as a pilot, and on a couple occasions she trounced Titan-remnant or Red Sun aces piloting ace custom models. Notably, she used the superior reliability of the proven GM series, earning a victory over Red Sun ace Mashymre Cello because his AMX-101 Gallus broke-down in high-gee maneuvers.
A recurring theme in Starlight is the personal conflict between Haman and Leina. In episode seventeen, Leina infiltrates the fortress Axis to gather intelligence. After meeting Marida Cruz(10), who instantly takes a shine to her, Leina accidentally stumbles upon Haman Khan. The older Newtype instantly recognizes her psychic presence and confronts her.
While the two are instantly drawn to one another emotionally, they are still at odds. Haman sees the naivete of the young Sayla Mass in Leina, and is torn between trying to enlighten her or shelter her. Leina sees the dark reflection of herself in Haman, where righteousness had turned into self-righteousness.
Haman and Leina would meet several more times over the course of the show, each time discussing their philosophical differences and the elephant in the room that was the sexual tension. Both rebuff the other’s entreaties to turn away from their path.
In the second half of the show, the tone turned noticeably darker. The dynamic duo of Quattro Bajerna and Amuro Ray return just as Haman openly declares war on the Earth Federation. As the Federation continues to succumb to the iron law of institutions, more concerned about preserving the petty fiefs of Earth economic interests and the nomenklatura, Haman exploits divisions within the loose anti-Red Sun alliance, and the Federation Force’s continued heavy handedness towards spacenoids.
After the Second Battle of Loum, Haman triumphs over the Federation Space Force’s 8th Fleet. This victory, and the sniveling bargaining by the Earth bourgeoisie afterwards, breaks the back of the Federation’s war effort. Notably it convinces the commander of the Federation’s 4th Fleet, Rear Admiral Ibrahim Revil, son of the famed commander-in-chief of the Zabi War, to defect to Haman’s cause.
Haman unveils her masterstroke. Having subverted the Jupiter Energy Fleet by sympathetic worker’s uprising, Haman broadcasts her ultimatum to the Earth Federation. In her speech, she lists the litany of atrocities committed by the Earth Federation against spacenoid workers from the beginning of space colonization. She condemns the venal, self-interested Earth bourgeoisie, who knew no master other than the law of value, and would use any amount of violence to preserve it. The Earth Federation’s socialist genuflections are empty, she asserts, and only amount to the preservation classes and the value form through state-capitalism. She recasts the Titans from anti-Zeon counterinsurgents gone wrong to a deliberate dictatorship aided and abetted at every turn by the Earth Federation’s industrial and financial leaders, who only washed their hands of the Titans in the most minimal of ways, and continued to try to maintain their dominion through other means. She ends her broadcast demanding the unconditional surrender of the Earth Federation to her reborn Communist International.
While Third Revolution and other spacenoid groups counsel the Earth Federation to surrender, the demand is predictably refused. Haman begins her final offensive, attacking the Earth Space Force’s final redoubt in the Side 3 autonomous zone, once the heart of the Principality of Zeon. Since Third Revolution has bowed out of the conflict, Leina chooses to infiltrate alone against orders.
In Munzo, she has her final peaceful encounter with Haman. After uncovering Haman’s terrible plan, to force the surrender of the Earth Federation via colony drop, Leina tries to dissuade Haman one last time. Leina reverses the usual trend, and invites Haman to run away to some quiet corner of the universe, and let history unfold on its own.
Haman quotes James Joyce, declaring that “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Tempted by her offer, Haman mournfully dismisses it, telling Leina “It’s too late. It always has been too late.”
The final arc begins with Haman watching workers attaching the massive nuclear salt-water rockets to the Zabi home colony bunch.(11) The colonies are plotted on a Lunar gravity assist trajectory towards the Earth, where they’ll impact at cometary speeds. Haman departs Side 3 with her whole host to defend the drop.
Meanwhile, Leina convinces her superiors of the veracity of the threat, and they mobilize a desperate alliance of to prevent the calamity. As the fleets prepare to match velocities to engage, a mass of shrapnel tears through the Third Revolution/Karaba/Earth Federation combined fleet. Anticipating their reaction, Haman utilized the massive thrusters as improvised weapons, ejecting them before burn out and using the last of their fuel to detonate the rockets. The weakened fleet still engages in a race against the clock, trying to attach their own thrusters to divert the colonies.
In the penultimate episode, Hayato Kobayashi sacrfices his cruiser in a suicidal ramming attack, diverting one of the colonies nearly enough. Bright tries a repeat of this trick, only to be stopped at the last second by Haman’s GM. Commenting that someone will need to pick up the pieces, Haman pulls Bright from the stricken Argama.
As the battle approaches the point of no return, the desperate melee has annihilated most of the respective fleets. Amuro and Quattro finish deflecting the first colony by self-detonating their ace custom’s overcharged reactors, turning the colony’s fusion plant into an improvised fusion torch. It is left ambiguous whether their escape pods cleared the lethal radius.
Four thousand kilometers away, Haman and Leina clash with beam sabers over the second colony. Haman and her Companion bodyguards, including Cruz-Two, mount a defense at the single remaining thruster. Leina tries once again to convince her to turn away from the path. Leina is despondent, condemning all the death she has caused so that she can live in utopia. Leina is shocked when Haman proclaims “I have no tomorrow.”
The colony passes the point of no return. Haman discards her beam saber and dismounts her GM. Her final words to Leina are “It’s in your hands now.” Remotely piloting her mobile suit through the psycommu, she utilizes the last of her suit’s fuel to push Leina’s to safety.
The stricken colony plunges through the Earth’s atmosphere, striking in the wastes of the Sahara. The direct fatalities caused by the drop are low, the narration informs us. The resulting impact winter, though, results in the collapse of the Earth Federation. With it’s moral, political and now financial capital exhausted, the Earth is at the mercy of the spacenoids.
Thanks to men like Bright Noa, they prove to be far more charitable than Earth had been to the colonies. The ending narration concludes by stating that mankind’s final brush with the terrible powers of its creation has created a new awakening in the human psyche. The destruction of the old system was completed, and it became clear that such contradictions, oppression and exploitation would destroy humanity if allowed to persist.
A short epilogue plays, showing Leina helping to rebuild the ruined Earth. She wonders aloud why Haman chose to burden herself by arrogantly carrying the weight of the world. Having seen the same visions of the future, Leina wonders if Haman truly had seen all possible futures, or if the dark nature of the times she lived in ensured she could only see the darkness, and couldn’t see the less violent solutions.
While financially successful, Gundam Starlight would prove to be hugely divisive among fans and the broader public. While some appreciated the moral complexity of its heroes and villains, and as if the epilogue wasn’t clear enough, Tomino himself stated “a sympathetic villain is still a villain.”
Due to the body count among named characters (far more than named here), Gundam Starlight cemented Tomino’s “kill ‘em all” nickname, and seemed to be a deliberate attempt to save the franchise from unrestrained sequelitis.
He did not succeed, as Universal Century alone would spawn numerous prequels, interquels, sidequels, etc., in animation and other media, to say nothing of the various other continuities. And almost thirty five years after the debut of the original, Nippon Sunrise would debut a Universal Century continuation series set decades after Gundam Starlight, notable for the sheer amount of nerdrage it would inspire through a retconning of the nature of Haman’s Newtype visions, and the introduction of extrasolar alien antagonists.(12)
(1) Like IOTL, it’s a realistic space habitat designed by Princeton University physicist Gerard K. O’Neill popularized by science fiction.
(2) In earlier treatments and Tomino’s novelization, Amuro was an adult and already serving in the military.
(3) It was Romanized as “Hymen” IOTL but that’s stupid so I’m changing it.
(4) Another stupid Romanization that I’m changing.
(5) Surprising absolutely no one paying attention.
(6) The official Romanization is Karn, but that’s stupid so I’m changing it. Worse, it’s one that got retroactively changed
(7) Haman Khan’s character model being so similar to Sayla’s, and Sayla’s conspicuous absence from OTL Zeta Gundam (she had no speaking parts because her voice actress was on safari and unavailable) has always made me wonder if her role was originally supposed to be taken by Sayla. I’ve decided to take this idea and run with it.
(8) While in the UASR news media worked diligently to change common usage of the Japanese demonym as both a sign of respect as well as help welcome a former enemy as a new ally in the Comintern, this did not occur in the capitalist sphere.
(9) Double Zeta is kind of a dumb name too, so I’m changing it. You might be noticing a pattern by now.
(10) I’m not naming her Elpeo Ple because it’s reference to something that gives me the heebie jeebies.
(11) Finally correctly displaying that O’Neill Island Three colonies, by design, must be tethered as a pair in order to maintain their orientation to the Sun. Unlike Zeon’s colony drops, the inhabitants of this pair were evacuated unharmed.
(12) Think of all the rooting for the Empire crap the Yuzhan Vong inspired in the Star Wars EU, and then imagine what that would do if it was a main canon interpretation. Or more on-point, like everything every non-Tomino produced UC series has done for the Principality of Zeon’s reputation with pandering to modern ultranationalist otakus. Only in this case those otakus are left-wing instead of right-wing.
@Jello_Biafra Since we're on the topic of a cultural output of Japan's ITTL, I figured I'd ask since I've been curious for some time now.
Out of curiosity, what is the stance of the governments in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo towards the use of honorifics in their respective languages? I understand that, at least in Japan's case, this is more of a postwar question and perhaps you'd rather not answer that just yet but the thought came to me the other day on whether or not at least China and Korea will encourage moving away from using them, similar to OTL in China's case, and adopting something to the effect of comrade instead?
Out of curiosity, what is the stance of the governments in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo towards the use of honorifics in their respective languages? I understand that, at least in Japan's case, this is more of a postwar question and perhaps you'd rather not answer that just yet but the thought came to me the other day on whether or not at least China and Korea will encourage moving away from using them, similar to OTL in China's case, and adopting something to the effect of comrade instead?
Bookmark1995
Banned
You're not stealing my thunder at all. In fact, its thanks to your thunder that I can even write my story.
And it means a lot to me that you gave my most recent most a "like". Thank you.
I don't think the use of honorifics would change. Russians still used their honorifics even when they started calling themselves comrades. You know, when they say their first name, and then "son of 'so and so'".
I'm not saying anything. You'll have to wait for the next few chapters to find out what that was all about.
Not really - we do not say "Alexander's son" - we call his patronymic by name - for example, "Svetlana Vladimirovna (Vladimir's daughter)." So they tend to the authorities as a rule, at school we turned to the pedagogical staff (you can see any Russian-Soviet film about School, treatment. The comrade did not get accustomed, and the pre-revolutionary word "Sudar-Sudarynya" (analogous to the master or mistress) is archaic even for neo-liberal or national-conservative Russia). By the way - at school we were called by surnames.
I'll wait - otherwise the situation (for our philistine society) really looks dumb.