There was a topic about this some time ago. Mark Simmons/toysdream was so kind as to give us all sorts of juicy insights into the little nuggets Tomino gives us in the Zeta novels. However, this wasn't my first time coming across a topic on the matter.
A long time ago on a forum far away, I saw someone running their mouth about the Zeta adaption. This user made all sorts of claims about how radically different it is from the animated counterpart. Camille was alleged to be far more vicious, even going so far as to kill Yazan Gable (who is practically immortal in the show) during a firefight. The user also said the books end on a much darker note, with Gates Cappa and Rosamia blowing each other away when her "Camille is my brother!" programming kicks back in and she moves to defend the comatose Camille from Cappa's Bound Doc. The final lines of the novels allegedly depict Fa piloting the Zeta back to the Argama in place of a motionless Camille, thinking him asleep. However, she failed to notice that his helmet was open when she came across the Zeta, which had its cockpit hatch open as well. I'm sure you can make the intuitive leap there.
You may realize I don't entirely buy all of this. I know the original trilogy made a habit of dumping juicy background information that is applicable to the animated setting as well, only to veery off into uncharted territory. As such, I wouldn't find it all that hard to imagine Tomino repeated the process here. If Beltochika's Children is any indication, he has a habit of doing it, in fact. I realize that Tomino likely has more creative control over his text works than his animated ones (such as taking a pruning shears to the Zeonic roster for the novels, which would have made the show's producers gag). Still, it's hard to imagine he would go all-out with such a horrific finale. Then again, Zeta is infamous for its dark tone and visceral style.
To make a long post at least moderately short, I'm looking for any semblance of corroboration on these outlandish claims. I realize I'm asking for a lot here, as the greater part of the forum is likely to be as in the dark as I am. But it's worth asking.
Does anyone have maybe a bullet list or rough outline on hand to give us an idea of how the Zeta novels flow? I'm sure people could spend days going over every little deviation if it's anything like the original novels, which is why I'll spare anyone that tedious task by asking for a more general outlook.
Anyone in the know about the Zeta Gundam novels?
Anyone in the know about the Zeta Gundam novels?
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I don't remember what happened to Yazan, but otherwise that's pretty much how it ends. Dark, huh?
Up until the end, though, the story actually tracks the animated version fairly well. There's some rearrangement of events - for one thing, Char stays on Earth after he and Blex go to Dakar, and Kamille picks him up after falling to Kilimanjaro. Thus the whole Four storyline, and Char's Dakar speech, are wrapped up before Haman enters the picture. On the whole, though, the changes are no more radical than in the movie version.
-- Mark
Up until the end, though, the story actually tracks the animated version fairly well. There's some rearrangement of events - for one thing, Char stays on Earth after he and Blex go to Dakar, and Kamille picks him up after falling to Kilimanjaro. Thus the whole Four storyline, and Char's Dakar speech, are wrapped up before Haman enters the picture. On the whole, though, the changes are no more radical than in the movie version.
-- Mark
If I might use a bit of Internet slang: OMGWTFtoysdream wrote:I don't remember what happened to Yazan, but otherwise that's pretty much how it ends. Dark, huh?
Up until the end, though, the story actually tracks the animated version fairly well. There's some rearrangement of events - for one thing, Char stays on Earth after he and Blex go to Dakar, and Kamille picks him up after falling to Kilimanjaro. Thus the whole Four storyline, and Char's Dakar speech, are wrapped up before Haman enters the picture. On the whole, though, the changes are no more radical than in the movie version.
-- Mark
I never though Tomino would actually go that far. Shows how naive I am. I find a bit of dark humor in the fact that Tomino has a track record for killing off his protagonists whenever he's allowed a text format. It makes one wonder. Looking at Beltochika's Children and the original Gundam novels, I assume he also takes takes the opportunity to tinker with the MS library on both sides, be it cutting them out like the latter or replacing some suits for similar-yet-new ones as in the former.
All in all, it sounds like the Zeta novels would actually flow a bit more smoothly than the series, resolving a lot of sub-plots before Haman comes into the picture. With more time to focus on Axis and the subsequent fallout, methinks it would make for a tighter narrative.
As always, I can't begin to thank you enough for the invaluable source of information that you are, Mark.
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