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The Series in general[]

  • Acceptable Targets: Australia tends to become the victim of any possible discussion about the infamous Colony Drop.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Ramba Ral, Crowley Hamon, and any Zabi who isn't Gihren are liable to provoke this response.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The anime is finally getting released on DVD with Japanese audio along with the English audio dub.
  • Catharsis Factor: Fans these days would likely go giddy at the sight of Bright Noa Bright-slapping Amuro twice.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Char
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Char, full stop (in Japan, he is just as iconic as Darth Vader to the Americans). Also Rambal Ral.
    • The mobile suit Acguy has large number of fans who consider its big head, stumpy limbs and plump frame to be Ugly Cute. Its derivatives, the even more bizarre-looking Agg, Juagg, and Agguguy, aren't horribly unpopular themselves considering they were never actually on the show.
  • Evil Is Cool: Zeon gets a lot of love from the fanbase. And there is, of course, Char Aznable. It would be hard for him to be a bigger dick. It would also be hard for him to be a bigger Badass.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: After their reunion and interactions in Zeta Gundam and them sparring each other once more in Char's Counterattack, it's no surprise that a fair number of fans ultimately prefer Char and Amuro to become an Official Couple (moreso than the latter with Beltorchika) considering their long-standing rivalry.
  • Fan Wank: Bright Noa's slap is the one who turned Amuro into a man, NOT Ryu Jose's death.
  • Fashion Victim Villain M'quve(Nice, uh, frills...).
  • First Installment Wins: Pretty much. Of all the UC series it's always this period that gets side stories, video games, and such. Even though Zeta Gundam was even more popular at the time it a shadow at times these days.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment:
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The first foreign country to broadcast the show was Italy, in 1980, shortly after the low-rated Japanese broadcast ended. It did well enough for its predecessor Zambot 3 to get an Italian broadcast a year later. Aside from that and the 2001 English dub, though, the original Gundam hasn't been broadcast in many other countries.
  • Ho Yay: Fans get giddy at the Char and Garma subtext, especially during the shower scene and their arranged plans.
  • Hype Backlash: After listening to UC fans promote Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, it can be somewhat disappointing for some fans of other Gundam AU to watch the show. Not because it's bad, but because it cannot live up to the hype it's fans create for it. The same can be said for individual characters such as Char Aznable and Amuro Ray.
  • Love to Hate: Char is this to the parts of the fanbase who aren't giving him leather pants. Gihren Zabi arguably qualifies as well. There's no doubt he's a total bastard, but he's just so good at it.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Char, he has many moments of Magnificent Bastardry throughout the series, but one of his best is when he leads Garma Zabi into a trap, politely calls him on the phone, explains his motives, tells him goodbye and leaves him to die. YMMV on whether you lose sympathy for Char as some see it as his Kick the Dog or Moral Event Horizon moment.
  • Memetic Badass
    • Job John became an example of this.
    • In the early 2020s; the RGM-79 GM, an EFSF Mass-produced unit, is viewed as one of the strongest Mobile Suit to defeat the Gundam Barbatos from Mobile Suit Gundam: IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS, thanks to that one purposefully-written misinformation of an interview of Tomino declaring that the GM can defeat it.
  • Memetic Mutation: Besides the whole red thing, there's the infamous line Once the Big Zam is mass produced.
    • Let's not forget a certain "Jumping onto White Base."
      • AAAAAAH!
    • ....No mention of the Bright Slap til now? Really?
    • "This is no Zaku boy, no Zaku!"
    • "Milipo Sclint", a Federation character who is believed to be part of the Gundam franchise, which turns out to be a completely made-up character from the Western Twitter circles.
      • "#JusticeForMilipoSclint", a hashtag used to protest the Gundam Wiki/Fandom for removing a page of the fake character.
  • Memetic Loser:
    • If one wants to discuss Colony dropping-related content, Sydney, Australia is one of them.
    • Amuro Ray (During the show's first half) is served as a target to the fans who hated whiny pilots.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Yes, the Federation has corrupt leaders. Yes, Zeon has many good, moral, people who serve it. Yes, the Titans are bad. That being said, it's a little scary how many fans will knee-jerk a SEIG ZEON for a regime that murdered, not millions, but BILLIONS of people and continues to wipe out metropolitan centers every few years... FOR FREEDOM.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Many found that Char crossed it when he arranged Garma's death. As for Gihren Zabi, pick something that he does. Anything.
  • Narm: The crew crying and blaming themselves for Ryu's death. Changed for the compilation movies, fortunately.
  • Never Live It Down: Kai Shiden is labeled a Dirty Coward by most of the crew early in the series for his bitter complaints about the situation they're in, despite the fact that he repeatedly undertakes dangerous assignments when necessary.[1] While the other characters eventually realize their mistake, the majority of the fandom seems to have ignored that and consider him a spineless jerk.
    • In other circles however, he's an Ensemble Darkhorse with a level of popularity that surpasses even Char Aznable.
  • Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Kai Shiden, He get much better as story progress.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny
  • Squick: In the novel version, aside from the gross plot changes, Word of God states that Amuro's crush on Sayla culminated in him making a locket out of her pubic hair.)
    • It should be noted that Amuro himself initially thought this was disgusting, but was pressured into it by Kai and Hayato. It's apparently a combat pilot superstition that if a pilot gets into a relationship with a woman he must take an "Amulet" with him on missions or risk bringing misfortune and death on the entire squad. Though there's also the implication that Kai is just making it up to screw with him.
      • Actually, that tradition does exist, like it's shown in another manga. No, whether it's made of pubic hair or not... that is, well, something else.
  • Too Cool to Live: Ramba Ral
  • Wangst: Amuro can get pretty whiny at times. He has his reasons, of course, but even so.
    • And it should be noted that he stops his petulant whining about two-thirds of the way through the series.
    • Hayato's as bad, or worse. His entire personality is based around resenting Amuro for being better than he is, and whining like a bitch whenever Bright praises the latter's performance. Perhaps his wangstiest moment comes following the latter's desertion, when he's so mad that Amuro wasn't executed for it, that he deserts. You go kid. That'll show them.
  • What an Idiot!: Hayato deserting when Amuro wasn't executed for deserting. Logic clearly was not involved.
  • What Could Have Been: The legendary "Tomino Memo", published in a 1980 book, details the original 52-episode plan for the series. Hitting the high notes: Kycilia attempts to take over Luna 2, but gets killed as Solomon falls. There are a lot more Newtype pilots who end up getting slaughtered (including one who kills Lalah for "consorting with the enemy"). Bright gets the hots for Degwin's Sexy Secretary, who turns out to be a spy and whom he ends up killing. Amuro personally guns down Gihren, and Char refuses to leave A Baoa Qu as it self-destructs, apparently dying. There were also a bunch of new mobile suits, most of which were drawn up and became part of the rejected sequel proposal MS-X.
  • The Woobie: Miharu Ratokie
    • Lalah Sune, too.

The Merchandises[]

The Gunplas[]

  • Epileptic Trees: While some already had a decent HGUC iteration, fans were hoping on whether the Guntank will get a "Revive" treatment while using similar features from The Origin's Guntank Early type.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Among the popular units in this show, the GM itself has yet to be mortalized as a new 1/144 scale High Grade Universal Century kit.

The Action Figures (MSiA, Robot Damashii, etc)[]

  1. And after the war, he's left the danger of a MS cockpit for the safe career of war journalist
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