Quatre Rabera Winner

Quatre Rabera Winner is one of the main characters in Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing, the pilot of Gundam Sandrock.

Standard Notes: This is my opinion of this character. Very little of this is fact; this is my analysis of Quatre Rabera Winner based on what I have seen of him, which is about half of the original Japanese series (I, being the purist I am, refuse to watch the dubs), and the research I've done online since first being introduced to Gundam Wing. Also, I could not know the Gundam Wing characters as I do if it were not for Tavestry, who first introduced me to them, and Becky, who is one of the Top Ten Gundam Wing fangirls of all time, I do believe.

He's sweet, he's cute, he's blonde. He's ARABIAN?!

I still love the fact that my cousin (who's 11) thought that Quatre was the leader when GW came out on Cartoon Network.

And I laughed at the idea. Because Quatre is so quiet and soft-spoken. I have often said of him that he is so effeminate that all you would have to do is stick him in a dress and put some makeup on him to make him a girl (it helps that his Japanese voice actually IS a woman).

And I still don't think Quatre's a LEADER. Those men he has working for him work for him because (A) he's rich and (B) they view him as something to protect. Sort of like Heero and Relena. He protects her innocence; the Maguanac (sp?) fighters do the same for Quatre.

But I do think Quatre is sort of...the GLUE.

Each of the pilots was sent down BY THEMSELVES. They know NOTHING of the others, or the others' missions.

It is Quatre who keeps everyone together, in a loose semblance of a team. Quatre with his romantic notions of the "Space Heart" and the like, is what holds them to each other. He is their bond, and I shudder to think what would happen if he was lost to them.

Quatre fights for a simple reason - to end the war. He acknowledges that the war must be fought, even if he dislikes that fact, and if it is not fought then it will never be over. Once the war is over, there can be peace again. A pacifist who fights? Well stranger things have happened (see Prince Phil, Slayers. You don't get much stranger than THAT).

In this, the young blonde boy shows himself more practical and more realistic than his father. Quatre may be quiet but he is strong and confident. Let's face it, it takes a lot of confidence to wear pink shirts when you're a guy (just kidding, couldn't help it). He's literally the strong, silent type, and if he doesn't seem that way it's simply because he's also very sensitive to others. He thinks about other people as other LIVES, not just as obstacles or enemies. He is an Angel in the midst of a battlefield, offering mercy before outright killing.

Quatre fights an honorable fight with a clear, pure heart. If it wasn't Gundam Wing, I'd say stick that boy in some mystical yoroi. He may be Arabian but he fights like a Samurai - intelligently and with honor. (Maybe that's why his shirt is pink? To represent the color of sakura (cherry blossoms), a traditional symbol of the samurai?)

Quatre's father is willing to bend because he doesn't want to fight. I don't think this is cowardice; the elder Winner certainly didn't seem afraid of much to me. He simply is a zealous pacifist. And like all zealots, he's let his dedication to his cause blind him. No matter how noble the cause; he was still blinded by it, so that he could not see reality.

We may not like it, but war is sometimes inevitable. There must be war to balance peace, bad times to balance good, rain to balance sun. Quatre accepts this. You have to have rain to have a rainbow. He hates it, hates the need to fight, hates the fighting itself. But he will do whatever it takes, including risking his own life, to see this war end.

If you could convince Quatre that taking his own life would end all war for humanity forever, or even just end this war, now, against OZ, he'd ring a little bell and have a servant bring him a gun and have a cleaning crew standing by to mop up the mess he'd make.

And he understands that WHY he wants peace - so people can be happy. He makes friends so easily, so quickly accepting them into his heart. He is trusting and, moreover, he knows that these men (Trowa, Duo, Heero and Wufei) are his comrades. They are soldiers. Around him, they can be human, if just for a little while.

He is a bright little bit of human sunlight in a dark world, bringing truth and, eventually, peace to all of mankind.