i'm crazy over char aznable so i'm softlaunching this essay here with the rough draft version i sent to a friend
this focuses on cca because it was written in the aftermath of me watching it for the first time. i'll add more about the way he is in 0079 and zeta eventually. I love char aznable because even when he's at his absolute best he fucking sucks.
im sure i'll have even more thoughts on this after i rewatch cca and maybe go through some of the novels if i decide to read them. but ive kind of seen two broader fandom takes of like, regardless of if ppl think char was right or wrong, either that he was 100% committed to his goals and political vision above all else OR that he ONLY cared about getting back at amuro/getting amuros attention/getting amuro to stop him (with there being an entire spectrum of reads on his motivation for that). and im like wellllll annoying nuance guy voice i think its a little more nuanced than that and i think that having it be one or the other again flattens his character a lot in a way thats boring To Me.
ultimately i see char as someone who is very desperate for interpersonal connection but is also very bad at it, hes so emotinally stunted by war and everything else - he's a newtype but a weak one. and, he has ruined the life of nearly everyone he was close to in one way or another (and his political agenda is for sure a big part of this and how he justifies it to himself). the one person he hasnt gotten killed/turned into a vegetable is amuro. char respects amuro, sees him as an equal, and is the one person he was able to fully connect with and understand on the same level as lalah. from char's perspective, amuro was the one to betray him. amuro, who pushed him to become a leader and once understood that the earth federation is corrupt and dangerous (he was basically imprisoned by them ffs), abandoned their shared goal to become a little good boy attack dog/status quo defender, as the revolutionary organization they fought for and believed in, the organization amuro encouraged char to become the leader of, was absorbed back into the earth federation.
so yes, i think char genuinely cares a lot about the liberation of spacenoids. i think he also has complexes about feeling that he has to uphold his father's legacy, and obviously hated being a leader. both of these things make his depression + trauma + interpersonal messiness cocktail worse. and i do think he's justified in wanting to meteor/nuke the shit out of the atrophying earth federation that just has not changed through all these wars (we saw so much throughout cca and they make it rly apparent right from the start in zz just how much social and class inequality is maintained by the feddies). but i think all of his trauma and messy shit and detest of leadership has given him nihilism brainworms and he's unable to coherently envision a future past axis drop. he's embraced becoming a human sacrifice, the future will be for the children! except the child who SO strongly believes in the same future char believes in is also really good at being a child soldier so chars gonna keep grooming her into one, and hes also going to stand by idly while one of his ace pilots grooms her sexually, too. and again, he's just so bad at connecting with people emotionally that he cannot figure out what she wants from him (A PARENTAL FIGURE WHO WILL PROTECT HER AND TAKE HER SERIOUSLY LOL AND MAYVE SET SOME BOUNDARIES WITH HER TOO? and he does none of these things). through quess he is betraying the future generation that, according to his ideology, he should be taking care of.
and, side note that the same class divisions between newtype, oldtype, and cyber newtype are emerging even within his own inner ranks and he doesnt seem to notice.
anyways. char is a hot fucking mess and thats all actively preventing him from being single-minded and coherent in his goals. and i think char wants amuro to just like. engage with him in any meaningful way whether thats joining him or fighting him as an equal. i think he wants amuro to, if he's against forcing everyone into space, to present his own alternative vision of the future. but amuro doesnt even really have that, beyond saying that if we all wait patiently and are niceys to each other everything will work out. hes a fucking liberal and he doesnt share the same sense of urgency & justice & hes back in space not as char's trusted ally, he's back under the command of fucking bright noa the very guy who made him fully become a child soldier in the first place. amuro cant even begin to engage with char on the level char wants him to until char practically makes the damn nu gundam for him. he IS begging and i dont think its arrogance or whatever i think it is, again, that despiration he has to just be able to connect with someone and be understood, and maybe even to be told that there is some other way that doesnt require him to martyr himself that will still bring about the lasting change he desires.
and ultimately i love this dynamic because i love when characters stagnate and regress and are hypocritical in interesting ways. and i love seeing char suck and fail to uphold his own principles, and having his desires contradict each other in a way that dooms him.
i also agree with a lot of critiques ppl have abt the end of cca but i also thinks it works as a cynnical commentary on how a massive media franchise like this has to maintain the status quo under capitalism to be able to keep selling a profitable product. we can never have a future without war because the war sells toys. and so on. i also find it funny that many of my criticisms of cca are the complete oposite of the "mainstream" i suppose, i wish that amuro was less heroic i wish he was worse on screen. and i really do think that char and amuro burning up in the atmosphere together because even though they understood each other better than anyone else they still couldn't understand each other is the perfect end to their arcs.