Mecha Character Profile: Haman Karn – Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
The Gundam series often featured villains with rich backgrounds and philosophical ideals that mostly went against the protagonists. Not very often do we see a woman with such a fierce identity. One such character is Haman Karn—the first leader of Neo Zeon herself—the Queen who still commands the hearts of many fans even to this day.
I. Background:
– Haman Karn was born on the 10th of January, Universal Century of U.C. 0067, inside the large asteroid of Axis Zeon. Her father – Maharaja Karn, led the exodus of the Axis after the One Year War in U.C. 0079, making Haman’s life mostly spent in the Axis with her strong ambition that one day she will be able to revive the Zabi Royal Family to rule Zeon once more including reforming societies through a monarchist government system with a hint of aristocratic meritocracy operating behind the scenes. At a young age, She also cared for the last and youngest Zabi Royal Family member – Minerva Lao Zabi.
– Haman also met Char Aznable – Zeon’s top ace pilot, and they became close to each other during their career. Still, during Char’s mission to Earth in U.C. 0083, he revealed that his ideas and goals differ from Haman’s, which she ended up disappointed with, ending their friendship. At the age of 20, she also played a big role as the Anti-Earth Union Group tried to convince her that the Titans were also a threat to Axis Zeon but failed, which led to her first combat debut during the Gryps War piloting a cutting-edge AMX-004 Qubeley fighting with both Titans and AEUG, she would also fount Char Aznable in disguise as Quatro Bajeena piloting Hyaku-Shiki at the time too.
– After the Gryps War, she made Axis Zeon gain more advantage strategically and tactically. Sending envoys to various space colonies eventually led to the invasion of Earth again as the renamed Neo Zeon, marking the start of the First Neo Zeon War. She also met Judau Ashta, whom she was interested in recruiting due to his Newtype powers since she had quite a handful of extremely loyal subordinates. However, during the last days of the war, one of her subordinates – Glemy Toto, betrayed her, which disrupted her plan. After he is defeated, Haman goes one-on-one with Judau in a mobile suit battle, leading to her death when she sacrifices herself instead of surrendering to Judau.
– Haman Karn was born on the 10th of January, Universal Century of U.C. 0067, inside the large asteroid of Axis Zeon. Her father – Maharaja Karn, led the exodus of the Axis after the One Year War in U.C. 0079, making Haman’s life mostly spent in the Axis with her strong ambition that one day she will be able to revive the Zabi Royal Family to rule Zeon once more including reforming societies through a monarchist government system with a hint of aristocratic meritocracy operating behind the scenes. At a young age, She also cared for the last and youngest Zabi Royal Family member – Minerva Lao Zabi.
– Haman also met Char Aznable – Zeon’s top ace pilot, and they became close to each other during their career. Still, during Char’s mission to Earth in U.C. 0083, he revealed that his ideas and goals differ from Haman’s, which she ended up disappointed with, ending their friendship. At the age of 20, she also played a big role as the Anti-Earth Union Group tried to convince her that the Titans were also a threat to Axis Zeon but failed, which led to her first combat debut during the Gryps War piloting a cutting-edge AMX-004 Qubeley fighting with both Titans and AEUG, she would also fount Char Aznable in disguise as Quatro Bajeena piloting Hyaku-Shiki at the time too.
– After the Gryps War, she made Axis Zeon gain more advantage strategically and tactically. Sending envoys to various space colonies eventually led to the invasion of Earth again as the renamed Neo Zeon, marking the start of the First Neo Zeon War. She also met Judau Ashta, whom she was interested in recruiting due to his Newtype powers since she had quite a handful of extremely loyal subordinates. However, during the last days of the war, one of her subordinates – Glemy Toto, betrayed her, which disrupted her plan. After he is defeated, Haman goes one-on-one with Judau in a mobile suit battle, leading to her death when she sacrifices herself instead of surrendering to Judau.
II. Skills & Abilities:
– Haman at a young age is a charismatic girl with determination, people idolized her in the Axis Zeon but when she grew up she became a bit more cooled and hardened as a leader. She may seem like a good leader who cares about the well-being of her soldiers. Still, deep inside, those are cover-ups for her true cold-hearted attitude, secretly desiring powers and being able to discard anyone she doesn’t see fit for her cause.
Her piloting skills are also phenomenal. With AMX-004 Qubeley as her mobile suit, she strikes fear into the enemies, even beating the disguised Char Aznable—Quattro Bajeena in his Hyaku-Shiki during the Gryps War, thinking she killed him. She is also quite a war leader, able to lead her troops throughout the conflict and even the Neo Zeon forces to invade Earth later.
It is also shown that Haman, at a younger age, might also have had some romanticized feelings for Char Aznable. However, he always disagreed with her the more she tried to recruit him to work toward her goals. Although she changed her mind, she could never fully recover her disappointment and regrets toward him.
She is also a strong new type, which has given her advantages when manipulating the fear and ambitions of others, which are also her favourite ways of handling people. This is why she has quite a handful of subordinates who are extremely loyal to her. Although her manipulation does not work on Judau Ashta – the protagonist Newtype that she tried to recruit a lot of times but failed, eventually she was a bit romanticizing towards him too until the last moments before sacrificing her own life, thinking that she might not have become so tyranny and corrupted if she met such a good by as Judau in the first place, indicates that she fell in love with him.
III. Gallery:
See Also:
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