Last modified: 2023-07-03 by
Keywords: gundam | federated union of earth | principality of zeon | united nations troops spacy |
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The Gundam works are a series of war-themed TV shows and moves featuring political upheaval and giant-robot-assisted warfare that are set in a future period when a large majority of humanity lives in giant space colonies in lunar orbit. The various works are noted for being relatively realistic as to the nature and cost of war and for having a more overtly political theme than is customary. The principal combatants in the various Gundam works are the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon.
by António Martins-Tuvákin after an original by Eugene Ipavec
The Federation-formally, the Federated Union of Earth--is an UN-style world government that is liberal and somewhat democratic but is also corrupt, overbearing, oligarchic, paralyzed with bureaucracy and rather incompetent-and which gets progressively less liberal and democratic as the series' timeline progresses, on top. The Federation's flag is not featured that often-it never appears in the original series at all. It is, however, shown waving during the title sequence of Gundam episode 0083: Stardust Memory, where the design can be made out very clearly, though the colors are a bit iffy because of poor lighting. The flag seems to be modeled after that of the UN, with the Earth in the center of a blue field, with the diamond-shaped field possibly lifted from the Brazilian flag in a subtle attempt to suggest the Federation's somewhat banana-republic-like tendencies toward instability and repression.
Eugene Ipavec, 21 may 2003
by António Martins-Tuvákin after an original by Eugene Ipavec
This is the flag of the space arm of the Federal Forces, the Earth Federation military. The acronym stands for United Nations Troops Spacy. The U.N.T. Army and Navy presumably also have flags, but they are never shown in the animations. This flag is seen in Gundam 0080 in a newspaper photo announcing the signing of an armistice to conclude the One Year War. The picture is in b&w, but as the symbol of the Federal Forces is shown frequently on spacecraft and uniform patches and is always red-and-gold, is a reasonable assumption that this color scheme carries over to the flag. The symbol is supposed to be a starburst over the crescent Earth-any similarity to an Islamic star-and-halfmoon is unintentional.
Eugene Ipavec, 21 may 2003
by Eugene Ipavec
The Principality of Zeon is a militaristic, totalitarian regime based in a cluster of secessionist space colonies. It starts a vicious, genocidal war of agression against the Federation to gain the total independence of all the colonies, whether they want it or not. The Zeon flag is quite blatantly patterned after that of Nazi Germany, with the Sigil of Zeon in place of the swastika. The sigil represents Eleism, a philosophy that stresses self-determination for the space colonists. The Principality as originally depicted is only a fairly generic fascist regime with a vaguely legitimate cause-the Nazi allusions were only gradually introduced in sequels a decade after the original Gundam 0079 series came out in 1979. The flag can be seen flying off the conning tower of a Zeon sub in Gundam 0083, among other places.
Eugene Ipavec, 21 may 2003