According to the Setting Notes, it wasn't just the Zabi's who said this, but Zeon Daikun himself:Zeonista wrote: Gihren Zabi thought it was a good idea, and most beneficial to the Principality's war goals. So he drafted the plan and had it executed. This is not the thread aimed at radical ideology in Gundam, although I remember a few such at Evolution in the past. But as I've said, in the Principality of Zeon morality was made subservient to the cause of militant Zeonism. Degwin Zabi had already proclaimed that the Zeonists were on the side of right, so anything done to further the inevitable victory was good. It must have been a great shock to Degwin to discover that his son not only accepted all the fine words verbatim, but had actually decided to follow through with proactive strategy?
The boldface emphasis is mine. It's not just Gihren's evility which enabled him to get the SAF to murder half the human population, he had the great Zeon Daikun's own philosophy to back him up -- though it's possible Daikun didn't want to "regulate" the population by slaughtering people. And it would explain how Char can claim to be carrying out his father's ideals by dropping rocks on Earth.MSG Setting Notes wrote:After Zeon Zum's death, Degwin Zabi tried to put Zeon Zum's ideals into practice—in other words, the two goals of regulating the excessively large human population, and putting the Federation under Zeon control.
Mmm, I don't know if I'd say the UC is inherently ideological, since ideology is very much in the background of everything but CCA and, perhaps, F91. It's certainly the central theme of CCA, however, as seen with Amuro & Char's philosophical repartee whenever they get close to each other. There's a lot of moral critiques, showing the bad parts of all factions, but I don't really see much of a philosophical underpinning to anything other than those movies.Zeonista wrote:In our post-Cold War POV of 2011 this seems really off, but the Universal Century universe is ideological, and bent on deciding the viability of such ideologies in the most direct way.
Zeonista wrote:Zeonism, like other ideologies both real and imagined, is upheld by the wishes of its supporters. Most of the Zeon characters do believe in the words of Zeon Zum Daikun, believe they are doing the right thing for the future of humanity, and feel that if they can win a war and overthrow the corrupt & uncaring Federation, they can institute independence and reform, and look forward to a better life. Otherwise, why would any of them bother with fighting after Operation Odessa? Which is why Delaz and Gato are willing to try again in 0083.
"Most" of the characters? I can think of a lot more who didn't buy into the Zeon or Zabi ideology than I can who lived and breathed it. So I'm not buying this unless you want to start getting into the nuts-and-bolts quantification, which will be a long, painful discussion. Even in Unicorn, by far the most pro-Zeon show to date, there don't seem to be a lot of dyed-in-the-wool Zeons, but a bunch of people fighting for "their people", whom they feel have been disadvantaged. (I'd argue that they're disadvantaged because they keep fighting the OYW over...but I'm cynical.)