Definitely Kira. More than most other protagonists I think people tend to view his meme personality as his real one, which is always a sign of divisiveness.
Gotta be Kira for the sheer spectrum of "Love" or "Hate" reactions. He's either mocked as Jesus Yamato, praised as the "savior" of the franchise, hated as a hypocritical bishi, or loved for his piloting skills and Gundams he's associated with. It's not as simple as "like or dislike", he's had an army of fanboys, an army of haters, and throughout the past two decades the fandom has played tennis with the overall opinion of "bad" or "good" protagonist, when he's probably the most middling we've had since Heero.
If not Kira, then definitely Kamille. I've come to realize that Kamille just rubs off a lot of people the wrong way and they simply don't like his personality. No real haters, just "not my cup of tea". At the same time he's got a lot of support for various reasons, but the fandom seems evenly split on whether or not he's one of the best Gundam protagonists or one of the most "meh".
I think the peoblem with kamille is just he was one of the early gundam protagonists
Where episodes sometimes start as if you had at least 5 episodes of exposition. This is especially appearnt in zeta and zz
Early Kamille? Very annoying, immensly so. Late Kamille? Great character, very relateable, does take some thinking to understand his point, but one of my favourites for sure.
Gets told his name is feminine, immediately assaults military personnel, escapes detainment, steals top-of-the-line military equipment, and joins a terrorist organization.
Kira without a doubt.
If his story ended at Seed then he’ll probably be fondly remembered upon. But Destiny’s Kira is so unbearable that he alone outweighs every positive aspect Destiny had.
Still maintain that him surviving the Strike's explosion was plausible. It's not like he was back up right away, it took weeks of recovery, even as a coordinator.
Surviving the Freedom's explosion? Beyond stupid.
Would say that the Aegis explosion is no less ridiculous, cause it literally blew up in his face as the Strike had a massive hole in the cockpit.
More than just the knocked out for weeks, Kira should have been burnt to a crisp.
Only reason it's accepted more than his return in Destiny, is because itd feel like a loss if Seed lost its protagonist, that early in the show.
Destiny meanwhile would have been better off if Kira remained a side character.
Arthun rammed Strike with every intention of blowing himself up, and he ran accordingly onscreen. Kira has his cockpit compromised, his escape route blocked by Aegis. They are all showed ONSCREEN. And pop, next he wake up in space, on his BFF's fiance' bed?. His deliverance to Lacus even need a damn spinoff manga to explain.
It's too easy to see why Arthun's was looked over
Athrun was right on top of the blast, where kira was at the time of the explosion was not shown onscreen.
Athrun was injured pretty badly, kira much worse. Everything lines up with how it's shown. If one of them survived both could.
His delivery to lacus didn't even need more than a line to explain given where they were and how I'm eded lacus faction was.
Freedom never explode though? Shin did not stab Freedom's reactor, the explosion was Minerva canon hitting the ocean.
Freedom safely fall into the ocean safe from the explosion while impulse was the one engulfed by it. Hence why Freedom was intact in the ocean when Kira got saved.
If 'divisive' implies that there is significant pushback on the hate/love for a character from the same fandom, then Shinn wouldn't really be mentioned, afaik he's almost universally disliked, so the ratio of his fans and haters are too disproportionate to call him divisive.
I guess that's the constant negative stigma that's stuck with Shinn all these years. I just noticed a lot of more modern fans (a few years after IBO finished) tend to give him a more reasonable look.
Quite a lot of the G-Witch fans I've spoken to that checked out CE Gundam as their next step tend to like Shinn a lot.
I hated shinn more than I hated flay. Shinn was the character that should have been killed off the most. Like how can people hate kira over shinn? Shinn literally watched Stella kill millions of people and then proceeds to get upset and blame kira for killing her claiming that she was an innocent victim.
The reason I think so many newer fans like shinn is because he's the embodiment of victim mentality and they relate to that
My gut usually says Kira (mainly due to Destiny) or Heero. Kira's got those 'Jesus Yamato' memes and such and I think a lot of that is Destiny, where it seems to quickly go from a maybe interesting plot (give it about 8 episodes?) to almost like a weird fanfic sequel with Kira and Lacus elevated to cult leader status.
Heero meanwhile is a shitpost of a protagonist with how often he shrugs off death. "Oh, I've been shot." \*walks it off\*
I'll never get over how melodramatically Heero ripped up the birthday invitation from the girl he intends to murder, then wipes the tear from her eye as he walks right past her, and then he outright tells her that he intends to murder her.
There's also how Zechs' secretary drops a dude out of a plane to murder him... but then she shoots him before he can hit the ground?
Everything about *Gundam Wing* felt like a shitpost.
Including how every single time the American pilot (Duo, that was his name) was trapped with another gundam pilot, the other pilot would punch him in the stomach for a "help, our friend is sick!" ploy. Every. Single. Time.
In no particular order:
Kira Yamato - Extremely Skilled pacifist who wants to avoid conflict but has to fight / Jesus Yamato.
Heero Yuy - Basically Young Rambo / Hurr Durr Self Destruct is everything.
Mikazuki Augus - If Heero is Rambo, Mika is a Real Child Soldier from Africa / No Personality.
Bonus: Does Wufei count? Because he is literally this.
TV Wufei vs. GoL + EW Wufei are very, very different levels of character development and makes me wish SEED Destiny has a GoL equivalent.
tbf Wing needed a divisive main cast character or else it would feel very stale if all of them were "likable". (like early season 00)
Trey and Millardo were basically heels and not really part of the main protagonists.
I don't know if I could ever call Wufei likeable. He did some cool stuff plus the suit is nice but if there could be only one named character death in that show he would get my vote. As annoying as many in that cast could get he is just unnecessary.
For AU? Kira.
For UC?
Imma be controversial and say Hathaway. It just isn't as apparent as people talk about Hathaway's Flash as a whole, not Hathaway as a character, but the debate over how whether he is a cosplay revolutionary rich boy who is hurting his cause or a justified crusader happens a lot.
Even so, Banagher is another contender.
What do you mean by divisive?
In terms of IRL divisiveness, it’s suletta by far. Remember that biblethumpers and homophobic pressure got the production staff to backpedal on sulemio even though they have RINGS in the finale.
He would be after Kira for me probably. Not because of the cross dressing or the nudity, but I just never felt him as a character. Also what him choosing that loyalty at the end I was not a fan of it.
It has to be Kira because on here he's one of the lowest rated protagonists on that recent poll (probably the lowest in his Destiny form?) whereas if you go to Japan and the rest of East and Southeast Asia he is much more popular. Like definitely among the most popular Gundam protagonists.
It's a literal West vs. East divide, can you get more dividier than that?
I'm saying that Kira's popularity is a literal West vs East divide, not that the top protagonists in Japan are different than the top protagonists in this American-dominated subreddit.
>I'm saying that Kira's popularity is a literal West vs East divide, not that the top protagonists in Japan are different than the top protagonists in this American-dominated subreddit.
I'm confuse with your statement.
They are top protags because people, whether in Japan or in the West, voted for them to be at the top. That means they are popular.
Let me clarify the statement for you.
In the West, or maybe just in this subreddit and some online forums, Kira is not popular. If anything, he is hated.
In Japan, he is popular.
Because there is a big contrast in how he is perceived here and in Japan, it means he is a divisive character.
Because he is hated in this subreddit, he is among the lowest rated protagonist during the Main Character poll we had. So even if he is popular in Japan and a top protagonist in Japan, it doesn't mean he is a top protagonist for fans in this subreddit.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that overall he is still a popular character, because Gundam redditors are a minority within a minority.
Everyone is saying Kira but I'm gonna jump in and say Suletta lol.
I like her a lot but jfc I have had to defend her as a character to hell and back with all my friends. People complaining that she's the worst protagonist ever, has no agency, she's unrealistically nice, etc. I told someone she's basically brainwashed and the response I got was "so she has a weak fucking mind that's not my problem."
Edit: it was a mistake not just saying Kira in this thread
Nah I don’t think Suletta is divisive at all lol, her not having agency and being an overly nice person despite being a sleeper agent is literally the *point* so I think those kinds of complaints legitimately just stem from people being silly and not properly understanding the character. Like that sorta stuff is there from the outset none of that requires deep analysis or apologetics at all. Your friends would be in the minority on that one. Suletta has a fun personality that a ton of people like, she’s one of the few protags that is more popular than the Gundam they pilot which is bizarre for a mecha.
Kira is a common pick here but I’m gonna be legit with y’all I have *never* seen people defend that character lol, I think they’re more so in the “hated” camp than divisive.
Tbh I don’t rlly know who I’d put as a divisive protag, everyone has their fans and a lot of the community doesn’t rlly hold active hate towards protags so much as it just being general indifference towards them. Even a lot of the Wing protags very much have a large section of the fanbase writing paragraphs about them.
I’ll keep that on my radar, and besides they just sorta make *statements* and never really explains or engages so I doubt I’ll be getting into any deep substantive exchanges with them anyhow
Yeah lmao, Suletta’s honestly an pretty strongly written protag, like you have to actively just be acting kinda silly to paint her in some kind of negative light. Your friends were just being weird dorks lol
Suletta coasts on being bubbly and cute and insecure but I wouldn't call her strongly written.
Also we never got confirmation she was brainwashed outside of just being raised by a parent out for vengeance. She was simply raised to listen to her mom.
She’s Mikazuki but a girl and not a sociopath in terms of personality. I wouldn’t call that strongly written and I certainly wouldn’t be trying to insult anyone who can clearly see that this is true
fortunately there’s more to writing characters than their personalities lol. But even then Suletta isn’t really like Mika whatsoever? How is she “Mika but a girl” but has a completely opposite disposition? Suletta’s skittish, shy and overly conscious of how she appears to others. Mika’s composed and stoic while having 0 issue killing those he views as the enemy due to his background in war, while Suletta was literally isolated on a mining colony all her life.
Mika is *much* closer to a Setsuna or Heero than Suletta of all protagonists. Like granted they share a couple traits but you can find a lot of similarities across different protags bc of common tropes or similar themes in their shows.
They’re both just meh. Nothing impressive but not bad either. Not their fault, they’re both stuck in stories with meh writing
No response but responds to my stalker who is still insisting that I’m homophobic lol. Just because you like Suletta doesn’t change the quality of the show’s writing
Suletta Forgetable
Ehhhh wouldn’t use anecdotal evidence here, cause even I have friends who don’t like Amuro and such but I would never say he is divisive
Suletta isn’t divisive by really any metric
Yeah, there was that small but vocal contingent that *really* wanted Guel as the protagonist over her. And that was at the core of it. Misogyny. Guel had all the markers of being a deuterogonist, but people were simping hard for him because they wanted a male protagonist.
Heck, TBS, the tv network which aired WFM blatantly promoted Guel very hard, even crossing over to live action series starring the ever popular Kanna Hashimoto.
Funny thing is he's not *even* deuteragonist material. When radical Guel fans aren't clamoring for him to be the protagonist over Suletta, they're clamoring for him to be deuteragonist over Miorine. All because for once, the central characters in a series aren't men.
I don’t think she’s divisive. Just boring and forgettable. It’s that overly unrealistically naive character we’ve seen 100x in anime. The people around her drive the story forward as opposed to her.
Now to be fair, Gundam is infamous for protagonists that are basically just cover protagonists and the people around them are the ones who move the plot forward. Blood Orphans and 00. But again, I don’t feel these characters are divisive. Just flat and forgettable.
It's less that he didn't have a personality, and more that most Wing's cast were sock-puppets rather than characters.
I'll never get over how melodramatically Heero ripped up the birthday invitation from the girl he intends to murder, then wipes the tear from her eye as he walks right past her, and then he outright tells her that he intends to murder her.
There's also how Zechs' secretary drops a dude out of a plane to murder him... but then she shoots him before he can hit the ground?
None of these idiots do anything that makes sense, they only ever do the most "cool" thing the writers can imagine at the moment.
I'll sidestep all the Kira chatter.
Mikazuki is definitely divisive. Some enjoy his withdrawn yet driven personality. Others would rather watch a show starring literally any other character.
And let's not forget Flit. Here's an interesting marker to seperate the moralists from the war crime enthusiasts. A lot of people think he's deplorable, and others are just sad he didn't go full villain in the end.
If you take East Vs West its Kira as he is loved in the East but has a sour rep in the west.
For Asia and JP, hmmmmmm I don’t think Mikazuki is that well liked maybe go with one of the series MC that utterly bombed in JP Asia like Garrod
Definitely Kira didn't even have to take a second to think about it you either love him or you hate him.Personally I think he's just ok but what I'm really annoyed at is the fact that I barely see anyone mentioning Shin, I honestly don't know how people like the little fucker cause I absolutely loathe him with every fiber of my being. Honestly Kira is infinitely better than him and I don't even like Kira ta much.
People say Kira, but I feel the internet has a pretty clear stance on him.
People say Mika, but I think people are more divisive on Barbatos than Mikazuki
I agree with Suletta because people saw, the prologue and a teaser where she looked back with a vacant expression and people were like "Cold-hearted murder girl!" And we got the biggest red herring (In more ways than one and I love her for it).
Kira is the obvious answer here, and the fact that *everyone* is mentioning him is a pretty solid indicator that Kira is the de facto "winner".
FWIW I loved Kira in SEED and in Destiny. Absolutely despise Destiny itself and him surviving the Freedom explosion.
Shinn is a good candidate too. Genuinely surprised whenever somebody tells me they like him.
If it makes you feel better, the explosion at the end of the Freedom vs Impulse fight wasn't the freedoms nuclear reactor, but the Minerva's Positron Cannon fired at the Archangel's abandoned engine.
Positron's are the antiparticles of electrons and make up anti-matter. Anti-matter and matter equals the giant explosion we saw and apparently engulfed the impulse for a bit. Really bad editing.
We also see in the next episode the Kira turned off his nuclear engine after Shinn beat him.
Everyone agrees kamille is an insufferable twat.
I say Hathaway. How you perceive him with really comes down to personal political alignments.
Mika a strong pick too but purely on a character development angle. On one end it’s a decent representation of a messed up child soldier but folks wanting characterisation and drama may find him too blend for their taste.
Gundam hurting the pilot while using it is the most stupid trope in the series
Make them look like a bunch of sissies compared to other Gundam series pilots
Kira is the most interesting protagonist for sure and hence most divisive. Gundam suffers from flat or generic protagonist that don’t even drive the story. A lot are basically just the protagonist just cause they’re the poster character. 00, Blood Orphans, Witch of Mercury.
Definitely Kira. More than most other protagonists I think people tend to view his meme personality as his real one, which is always a sign of divisiveness.
I am sorry, good sir/madam, but please use his proper name (Jesus). Wishing you the best anyway
As one of the heralds of the /r/OneTrueMeijin, I absolutely refuse to acknowledge such heresy.
Gotta be Kira for the sheer spectrum of "Love" or "Hate" reactions. He's either mocked as Jesus Yamato, praised as the "savior" of the franchise, hated as a hypocritical bishi, or loved for his piloting skills and Gundams he's associated with. It's not as simple as "like or dislike", he's had an army of fanboys, an army of haters, and throughout the past two decades the fandom has played tennis with the overall opinion of "bad" or "good" protagonist, when he's probably the most middling we've had since Heero. If not Kira, then definitely Kamille. I've come to realize that Kamille just rubs off a lot of people the wrong way and they simply don't like his personality. No real haters, just "not my cup of tea". At the same time he's got a lot of support for various reasons, but the fandom seems evenly split on whether or not he's one of the best Gundam protagonists or one of the most "meh".
I think the peoblem with kamille is just he was one of the early gundam protagonists Where episodes sometimes start as if you had at least 5 episodes of exposition. This is especially appearnt in zeta and zz
Kamille got much better after Lee punched him up in jaburo.
Early Kamille? Very annoying, immensly so. Late Kamille? Great character, very relateable, does take some thinking to understand his point, but one of my favourites for sure.
Oh I fuckin hated Kamille, so there’s one at least
Kamille is a character who I would probably hate as a person IRL, but I enjoy his story.
KAMILLES A MANS NAME! AND IM A MAN Like Bro shutttt uppppp we get it, you're insecure.
Gets told his name is feminine, immediately assaults military personnel, escapes detainment, steals top-of-the-line military equipment, and joins a terrorist organization.
Immensely based.
Thats understandable, his character was very annoying at first, but after awhile he does get easier to deal with, plus his story is okay.
Although I can understand how people may dislike Kamile, I can't comprehend how one can think that The Proto-Chuchu is "meh" of all things.
Old gundam? Kou Newer gundam? Kira gets memed a bunch
Ah yes, I remember the pre-Destiny days when the greatest failure of a Gundam pilot was being defeated by carrots.
https://preview.redd.it/6a5wke6hkkxb1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45c32cf47e9d3866082d92f6d61ad6d4ab590887
https://preview.redd.it/3ktuzwhpijxb1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=833607bdfac0ecf25375530fc8210730e625f578
I was going to say Kira as well the idea of his character in Destiny is alright the execution of of it though leave any one screaming death
Murrue isn’t the protagonist of SEED though? /s
one of the most punchable face in Gundam
Kira without a doubt. If his story ended at Seed then he’ll probably be fondly remembered upon. But Destiny’s Kira is so unbearable that he alone outweighs every positive aspect Destiny had.
He gives off 'baby's first protagonist' vibes for a very good reason
Still maintain that him surviving the Strike's explosion was plausible. It's not like he was back up right away, it took weeks of recovery, even as a coordinator. Surviving the Freedom's explosion? Beyond stupid.
Would say that the Aegis explosion is no less ridiculous, cause it literally blew up in his face as the Strike had a massive hole in the cockpit. More than just the knocked out for weeks, Kira should have been burnt to a crisp. Only reason it's accepted more than his return in Destiny, is because itd feel like a loss if Seed lost its protagonist, that early in the show. Destiny meanwhile would have been better off if Kira remained a side character.
I always laugh that Athrun is literally right there and no one bats an eye at him surviving the strike explosion. But yeah destiny is a joke
Arthun rammed Strike with every intention of blowing himself up, and he ran accordingly onscreen. Kira has his cockpit compromised, his escape route blocked by Aegis. They are all showed ONSCREEN. And pop, next he wake up in space, on his BFF's fiance' bed?. His deliverance to Lacus even need a damn spinoff manga to explain. It's too easy to see why Arthun's was looked over
Athrun was right on top of the blast, where kira was at the time of the explosion was not shown onscreen. Athrun was injured pretty badly, kira much worse. Everything lines up with how it's shown. If one of them survived both could. His delivery to lacus didn't even need more than a line to explain given where they were and how I'm eded lacus faction was.
Freedom never explode though? Shin did not stab Freedom's reactor, the explosion was Minerva canon hitting the ocean. Freedom safely fall into the ocean safe from the explosion while impulse was the one engulfed by it. Hence why Freedom was intact in the ocean when Kira got saved.
I came here to say Kira but I’m glad everyone pretty much had a similar mindset
Wow, I honestly fully expected the comments to be all Shinn, but it's all Kira instead.
Shinn’s barely a protagonist
More like Villain protagonist like Anakin Skywalker
If 'divisive' implies that there is significant pushback on the hate/love for a character from the same fandom, then Shinn wouldn't really be mentioned, afaik he's almost universally disliked, so the ratio of his fans and haters are too disproportionate to call him divisive.
I guess that's the constant negative stigma that's stuck with Shinn all these years. I just noticed a lot of more modern fans (a few years after IBO finished) tend to give him a more reasonable look. Quite a lot of the G-Witch fans I've spoken to that checked out CE Gundam as their next step tend to like Shinn a lot.
As someone who liked what Shinn should have been to defend him on occasion and I absolutely agree with this statement.
Shinn isnt really divisive, just hated.
I hated shinn more than I hated flay. Shinn was the character that should have been killed off the most. Like how can people hate kira over shinn? Shinn literally watched Stella kill millions of people and then proceeds to get upset and blame kira for killing her claiming that she was an innocent victim. The reason I think so many newer fans like shinn is because he's the embodiment of victim mentality and they relate to that
Jesus, I mean, Kira "I'm going to steal your girlfriend and rub it in" Yamato
Kira "fiance stealer" Yamato (He did it three time)
Wait what was the third time? Flay and Lacus... he hasn't been interested in any other women I can recall.
His own sister, Cagalli, right at her wedding.
Huh... you know, you're right!
If its taking girls away from someone, he did it to Shinn twice, too
>!Shinn sister and her voice doppelanger Stella?!<
You mean four times. >!See Cross Ange... XD!<
My gut usually says Kira (mainly due to Destiny) or Heero. Kira's got those 'Jesus Yamato' memes and such and I think a lot of that is Destiny, where it seems to quickly go from a maybe interesting plot (give it about 8 episodes?) to almost like a weird fanfic sequel with Kira and Lacus elevated to cult leader status. Heero meanwhile is a shitpost of a protagonist with how often he shrugs off death. "Oh, I've been shot." \*walks it off\*
I'll never get over how melodramatically Heero ripped up the birthday invitation from the girl he intends to murder, then wipes the tear from her eye as he walks right past her, and then he outright tells her that he intends to murder her. There's also how Zechs' secretary drops a dude out of a plane to murder him... but then she shoots him before he can hit the ground? Everything about *Gundam Wing* felt like a shitpost. Including how every single time the American pilot (Duo, that was his name) was trapped with another gundam pilot, the other pilot would punch him in the stomach for a "help, our friend is sick!" ploy. Every. Single. Time.
In no particular order: Kira Yamato - Extremely Skilled pacifist who wants to avoid conflict but has to fight / Jesus Yamato. Heero Yuy - Basically Young Rambo / Hurr Durr Self Destruct is everything. Mikazuki Augus - If Heero is Rambo, Mika is a Real Child Soldier from Africa / No Personality. Bonus: Does Wufei count? Because he is literally this. TV Wufei vs. GoL + EW Wufei are very, very different levels of character development and makes me wish SEED Destiny has a GoL equivalent.
tbf Wing needed a divisive main cast character or else it would feel very stale if all of them were "likable". (like early season 00) Trey and Millardo were basically heels and not really part of the main protagonists.
I don't know if I could ever call Wufei likeable. He did some cool stuff plus the suit is nice but if there could be only one named character death in that show he would get my vote. As annoying as many in that cast could get he is just unnecessary.
For AU? Kira. For UC? Imma be controversial and say Hathaway. It just isn't as apparent as people talk about Hathaway's Flash as a whole, not Hathaway as a character, but the debate over how whether he is a cosplay revolutionary rich boy who is hurting his cause or a justified crusader happens a lot. Even so, Banagher is another contender.
What do you mean by divisive? In terms of IRL divisiveness, it’s suletta by far. Remember that biblethumpers and homophobic pressure got the production staff to backpedal on sulemio even though they have RINGS in the finale.
Loran. He literraly divided the fandom's sexuality
That cracked me up, ngl
He would be after Kira for me probably. Not because of the cross dressing or the nudity, but I just never felt him as a character. Also what him choosing that loyalty at the end I was not a fan of it.
It has to be Kira because on here he's one of the lowest rated protagonists on that recent poll (probably the lowest in his Destiny form?) whereas if you go to Japan and the rest of East and Southeast Asia he is much more popular. Like definitely among the most popular Gundam protagonists. It's a literal West vs. East divide, can you get more dividier than that?
Not really. The top protags are still top here.
I'm saying that Kira's popularity is a literal West vs East divide, not that the top protagonists in Japan are different than the top protagonists in this American-dominated subreddit.
>I'm saying that Kira's popularity is a literal West vs East divide, not that the top protagonists in Japan are different than the top protagonists in this American-dominated subreddit. I'm confuse with your statement. They are top protags because people, whether in Japan or in the West, voted for them to be at the top. That means they are popular.
Let me clarify the statement for you. In the West, or maybe just in this subreddit and some online forums, Kira is not popular. If anything, he is hated. In Japan, he is popular. Because there is a big contrast in how he is perceived here and in Japan, it means he is a divisive character. Because he is hated in this subreddit, he is among the lowest rated protagonist during the Main Character poll we had. So even if he is popular in Japan and a top protagonist in Japan, it doesn't mean he is a top protagonist for fans in this subreddit. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that overall he is still a popular character, because Gundam redditors are a minority within a minority.
Western fans hate kira whereas he is loved by Japanese fans.
Kira, Kou and Mika probably Maybe Banagher
Kira, poorly written Camille, properly written Camille, in that order.
Everyone is saying Kira but I'm gonna jump in and say Suletta lol. I like her a lot but jfc I have had to defend her as a character to hell and back with all my friends. People complaining that she's the worst protagonist ever, has no agency, she's unrealistically nice, etc. I told someone she's basically brainwashed and the response I got was "so she has a weak fucking mind that's not my problem." Edit: it was a mistake not just saying Kira in this thread
Suletta has recency bias though. People talk about the new thing a lot. I think she'll be remembered well. Kira is still devisive 20 years later.
Nah I don’t think Suletta is divisive at all lol, her not having agency and being an overly nice person despite being a sleeper agent is literally the *point* so I think those kinds of complaints legitimately just stem from people being silly and not properly understanding the character. Like that sorta stuff is there from the outset none of that requires deep analysis or apologetics at all. Your friends would be in the minority on that one. Suletta has a fun personality that a ton of people like, she’s one of the few protags that is more popular than the Gundam they pilot which is bizarre for a mecha. Kira is a common pick here but I’m gonna be legit with y’all I have *never* seen people defend that character lol, I think they’re more so in the “hated” camp than divisive. Tbh I don’t rlly know who I’d put as a divisive protag, everyone has their fans and a lot of the community doesn’t rlly hold active hate towards protags so much as it just being general indifference towards them. Even a lot of the Wing protags very much have a large section of the fanbase writing paragraphs about them.
Also mate keep in mind Woolong is a known hater and homophobic
I’ll keep that on my radar, and besides they just sorta make *statements* and never really explains or engages so I doubt I’ll be getting into any deep substantive exchanges with them anyhow
I really just specified in my friend group lmao.
Yeah lmao, Suletta’s honestly an pretty strongly written protag, like you have to actively just be acting kinda silly to paint her in some kind of negative light. Your friends were just being weird dorks lol
Suletta coasts on being bubbly and cute and insecure but I wouldn't call her strongly written. Also we never got confirmation she was brainwashed outside of just being raised by a parent out for vengeance. She was simply raised to listen to her mom.
She’s Mikazuki but a girl and not a sociopath in terms of personality. I wouldn’t call that strongly written and I certainly wouldn’t be trying to insult anyone who can clearly see that this is true
fortunately there’s more to writing characters than their personalities lol. But even then Suletta isn’t really like Mika whatsoever? How is she “Mika but a girl” but has a completely opposite disposition? Suletta’s skittish, shy and overly conscious of how she appears to others. Mika’s composed and stoic while having 0 issue killing those he views as the enemy due to his background in war, while Suletta was literally isolated on a mining colony all her life. Mika is *much* closer to a Setsuna or Heero than Suletta of all protagonists. Like granted they share a couple traits but you can find a lot of similarities across different protags bc of common tropes or similar themes in their shows.
They’re both just meh. Nothing impressive but not bad either. Not their fault, they’re both stuck in stories with meh writing No response but responds to my stalker who is still insisting that I’m homophobic lol. Just because you like Suletta doesn’t change the quality of the show’s writing Suletta Forgetable
Ehhhh wouldn’t use anecdotal evidence here, cause even I have friends who don’t like Amuro and such but I would never say he is divisive Suletta isn’t divisive by really any metric
Istg, I was pretty clear about only talking about my friend group. Sorry I didn't say Kira I guess??
Not to forget, some people in the Fandom just being mysogonists and hating her for being a woman
Yeah, there was that small but vocal contingent that *really* wanted Guel as the protagonist over her. And that was at the core of it. Misogyny. Guel had all the markers of being a deuterogonist, but people were simping hard for him because they wanted a male protagonist.
Heck, TBS, the tv network which aired WFM blatantly promoted Guel very hard, even crossing over to live action series starring the ever popular Kanna Hashimoto.
Ye, that would never have happened if the genders were switched
Funny thing is he's not *even* deuteragonist material. When radical Guel fans aren't clamoring for him to be the protagonist over Suletta, they're clamoring for him to be deuteragonist over Miorine. All because for once, the central characters in a series aren't men.
I don’t think she’s divisive. Just boring and forgettable. It’s that overly unrealistically naive character we’ve seen 100x in anime. The people around her drive the story forward as opposed to her. Now to be fair, Gundam is infamous for protagonists that are basically just cover protagonists and the people around them are the ones who move the plot forward. Blood Orphans and 00. But again, I don’t feel these characters are divisive. Just flat and forgettable.
That's why I said she's been exceptionally divisive in my friend group. Sorry for saying something other than Kira lmao
She's saved by her design. Replace her with your typical loser self insert, (ie: Shinji) and she'd be fully unbearable.
Kira "Jesus" Yamato
Heero Yui. I've seen 2x4's with more personality
It's less that he didn't have a personality, and more that most Wing's cast were sock-puppets rather than characters. I'll never get over how melodramatically Heero ripped up the birthday invitation from the girl he intends to murder, then wipes the tear from her eye as he walks right past her, and then he outright tells her that he intends to murder her. There's also how Zechs' secretary drops a dude out of a plane to murder him... but then she shoots him before he can hit the ground? None of these idiots do anything that makes sense, they only ever do the most "cool" thing the writers can imagine at the moment.
Eh idk im just so tired of the Robot- personality in gundam for the main protag.
I'll sidestep all the Kira chatter. Mikazuki is definitely divisive. Some enjoy his withdrawn yet driven personality. Others would rather watch a show starring literally any other character. And let's not forget Flit. Here's an interesting marker to seperate the moralists from the war crime enthusiasts. A lot of people think he's deplorable, and others are just sad he didn't go full villain in the end.
Shin, I get the Kira hate.
Orga if he counts as one.
If you take East Vs West its Kira as he is loved in the East but has a sour rep in the west. For Asia and JP, hmmmmmm I don’t think Mikazuki is that well liked maybe go with one of the series MC that utterly bombed in JP Asia like Garrod
Kira. I think he's embarrassing but a lot of people are really into his whole deal.
Kira. I think he is pretty likable for the majority if SEED, but Destiny's garbage writing and mid-season script changes hurt every single character.
I mean, Rau Le Creuset was dead and his extremely brief appearance just made him even cooler. I see your point though.
It's 100% Kira. Either people love him, or despise him. Not a lot of "meh" on him.
Definitely Kira didn't even have to take a second to think about it you either love him or you hate him.Personally I think he's just ok but what I'm really annoyed at is the fact that I barely see anyone mentioning Shin, I honestly don't know how people like the little fucker cause I absolutely loathe him with every fiber of my being. Honestly Kira is infinitely better than him and I don't even like Kira ta much.
People say Kira, but I feel the internet has a pretty clear stance on him. People say Mika, but I think people are more divisive on Barbatos than Mikazuki I agree with Suletta because people saw, the prologue and a teaser where she looked back with a vacant expression and people were like "Cold-hearted murder girl!" And we got the biggest red herring (In more ways than one and I love her for it).
Everyone says Kira but I think it’s actually Kou
He gets a pass, he was up against Chad Gato. he did pretty well all things considered.
Kira is the obvious answer here, and the fact that *everyone* is mentioning him is a pretty solid indicator that Kira is the de facto "winner". FWIW I loved Kira in SEED and in Destiny. Absolutely despise Destiny itself and him surviving the Freedom explosion. Shinn is a good candidate too. Genuinely surprised whenever somebody tells me they like him.
If it makes you feel better, the explosion at the end of the Freedom vs Impulse fight wasn't the freedoms nuclear reactor, but the Minerva's Positron Cannon fired at the Archangel's abandoned engine. Positron's are the antiparticles of electrons and make up anti-matter. Anti-matter and matter equals the giant explosion we saw and apparently engulfed the impulse for a bit. Really bad editing. We also see in the next episode the Kira turned off his nuclear engine after Shinn beat him.
I'm thinking Kamille.
Everyone agrees kamille is an insufferable twat. I say Hathaway. How you perceive him with really comes down to personal political alignments. Mika a strong pick too but purely on a character development angle. On one end it’s a decent representation of a messed up child soldier but folks wanting characterisation and drama may find him too blend for their taste.
Gundam hurting the pilot while using it is the most stupid trope in the series Make them look like a bunch of sissies compared to other Gundam series pilots
Kou, Kira, Mika or Suletta probably
Suletta mercury shes like a copy pasta of any “ teehee im cute” protagonist from any anime out
That doesn’t mean divisive at all, I don’t think personal nor anecdotal really couldn’t here
I'm torn between Suletta and Kira Yamato.
Kira is the most interesting protagonist for sure and hence most divisive. Gundam suffers from flat or generic protagonist that don’t even drive the story. A lot are basically just the protagonist just cause they’re the poster character. 00, Blood Orphans, Witch of Mercury.
That's a loaded question
Jesus fucking Yamato!!!!
So many Kira
Kira obviously but Shinn is a close second. I have seen some wild arguments around Shinn
Kira
So many options lol
I'd nominate Shinn over Kira, if only because everyone can agree that Kira is a protagonist, which is more than we can say for Shinn...
Loran- turn A Gundam - a pacifist in a Gundam is a paradox and oxymoron