Gundam Naming Squeme

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2005-11-09 12:42am

I was wondering, is there a Method for comming up with the Crazy names of Mobile Suit/armor in the Universal Century and Cosmic Era Mobile Zeon/ZAFT mobile suits? I don't see why they chose Zaku, Jinn, Gouf, Gogg, BuCUE and Big Zam for mobile suit names for Mobile suits/armors over names like Legionary, Defender, Hunter, Barracuda, Timberwolf and Titan. Praticularly because they give there ships Monicers like Vosgulov, Laurasia, Zanzibar and Musai for there warships.

Just asking... And Spanky, please don't kill me for invoking SEED

Zor

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-11-09 02:28am

First, it's a good idea to keep UC and CE continuities seperate, as they are completely seperate from each other. I find it mildly annoying that you just seemed to mix UC and SEED willy-nilly.

Anyway, as far as I know and can tell (partially considering that I ingore SEED almost completely, as well as just because of the sheer lack of Gundam resources in English and to the English-speaking fanbase), there doesn't appear to really be a naming scheme (how your spelling doesn't bring you shame, I have no idea) at all.

For both Zeon and ZAFT, as well as simply just UC and CE (and the others) as a whole, the names of mobile suits and armours are just code names (different from things like ship class names), compared to the units actual model numbers (ex: the Zeon mass production ground combat mobile suit model MS-09 was codenamed "Dom," while the EFSF prototype close combat mobile suit model RX-78-2 was codenamed "Gundam").

For the most part, they just seem to be words: names that were made up. Only occasionally to elements of code names seem to mean anything, such as with the MS-09R Rick Dom, where "Rick" is supposed to represent "refined."

With SEED and ZAFT, it seems to be pretty much the same thing, although with what to me seems like some ambiguity. The Zaft mass production general purpose mobile suit model ZGMF-1017 is codenamed "GINN," but the all-caps and cap-lowercase pairing nature of things like "GINN," "BuCUE," "GOOhN," and "ZnO" seem to imply that the code names are acronyms and syllabic contractions.

There seems to be some times in CE with certain variant models where the variation element of the name is an acronym, such as with the ZAFT Water Adapted Search & Patrol Type mobile suit UWMF/S-1 GINN WASP Type or the Operation Commando Hard Environment Reinforced Type mobile suit TMF/S-3 GINN OCHER Type.

But as far as I know and can tell, there really is no naming scheme for Zeon mobile weapons.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2005-11-09 03:12am

So that's what the word 'squeme' was meant to be. Thanks Spanky.

Dark Hellion · Post by **Dark Hellion** » 2005-11-09 04:18am

The Zeonic naming scheme uses large amounts of German in its code names. Units like the Kaempfer, Gelgoog Jager, Neue Ziel, and others. They also like a linear progression of suit names. The Gelgoog to the Gelgoog command to the Gelgoog marine to the Gelgoog Jager to the Re-gelg (re-engineered Gelgoog).
The Federation seemed to prefer impoving working systems while keeping the same name for as long as possible as well, however, they mainly used marks, so GM, GMII, GMIII. Or Nemo and Nemo II. Gundam to Gundam Z to Gundam ZZ to Nu Gundam.
However, a large number of exceptions exist to both naming schemes. The names are mostly code names given to save time from stating large alphanumeric designations.
The Zanscare Empire used an interesting name scheme that seemed to be based on some type of suffix/prefix system given the repetition of certain syllables, but what they mean is completely unknown, or at least is to me.

Just Another Dumb Guy · Post by **Just Another Dumb Guy** » 2005-11-09 10:14am

Rick in Rick Dom apparently means "Reconfigured", which makes sense, seeing that the Rick Dom is the space-going version of the original Dom.

And the entire Zeon side has the whole Nationalist Social Party vibe going on, so it makes sense that their mecha would be called things like Kampfer, etc.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2005-11-09 11:51am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:First, it's a good idea to keep UC and CE continuities seperate, as they are completely seperate from each other. I find it mildly annoying that you just seemed to mix UC and SEED willy-nilly.

Tomino, alas, disagrees. Everything in Gundam is one glorious whole, maybe with L-Gaim, Dunbine, Zambot, Daitarn and Ideon thrown in (though he hasn't got that far yet).

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-11-09 12:25pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:First, it's a good idea to keep UC and CE continuities seperate, as they are completely seperate from each other. I find it mildly annoying that you just seemed to mix UC and SEED willy-nilly.
Tomino, alas, disagrees. Everything in Gundam is one glorious whole, maybe with L-Gaim, Dunbine, Zambot, Daitarn and Ideon thrown in (though he hasn't got that far yet).

Have a source for that, or are you talking out of your ass?

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2005-11-09 12:40pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Have a source for that, or are you talking out of your ass?

Turn A Gundam - Tomino's attempt to combine all of Gundam under one banner. Ignore the fact that its a stupid idea and blatantly doesn't work (so many contradictions...), its what the man wanted. Thats where the ∀comes from, and its why you see things from various Gundam series in the series. UC, AC and FC being the ones I remember off the top of my head.

There was another interview I recall being posted a couple of years back where he spoke briefly of wanting to unite all his series in one timeline (with Ideon ending it all), though nothings come of it as yet.

Personally, I hate the idea.

ZShade · Post by **ZShade** » 2005-11-09 10:48pm

Turn A's a good show though, ranking only behind Zeta in my personal list of Gundam. Ignoring the unification bit is pretty easy to do, since it's not that important to the story.

ZAFT has a weird love of stupid acronyms by the second series. Examples include the ZAKU (ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity), and the GOUF (Guardian of Unity Forerunner). DOM stands for something goofier, but I can't quite remember what.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2005-11-10 12:55am

ZShade wrote:ZAFT has a weird love of stupid acronyms by the second series. Examples include the ZAKU (ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity), and the GOUF (Guardian of Unity Forerunner). DOM stands for something goofier, but I can't quite remember what.

WTF? Are you serious?

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2005-11-10 01:08am

Darth Yoshi wrote:
ZShade wrote:ZAFT has a weird love of stupid acronyms by the second series. Examples include the ZAKU (ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity), and the GOUF (Guardian of Unity Forerunner). DOM stands for something goofier, but I can't quite remember what.
WTF? Are you serious?

Yes, unfortunatly

Zor

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-11-10 01:09am

Sharp-kun wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Have a source for that, or are you talking out of your ass?
Turn A Gundam - Tomino's attempt to combine all of Gundam under one banner. Ignore the fact that its a stupid idea and blatantly doesn't work (so many contradictions...), its what the man wanted. Thats where the ∀comes from, and its why you see things from various Gundam series in the series. UC, AC and FC being the ones I remember off the top of my head.

There was another interview I recall being posted a couple of years back where he spoke briefly of wanting to unite all his series in one timeline (with Ideon ending it all), though nothings come of it as yet.

Personally, I hate the idea.

It simply won't work, you know. Turn-A's little stunt in no way makes the "one universe" theory valid... because it's not UC. If it had been made as a UC series, well then! But it wasn't.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2005-11-10 05:32am

DPDarkPrimus wrote: It simply won't work, you know. Turn-A's little stunt in no way makes the "one universe" theory valid... because it's not UC. If it had been made as a UC series, well then! But it wasn't.

It's what Tomino, Bandai and Sunrise appear to be taking as canon. Its also why Turn A uses the "Correct Century" timeline. Whether its UC or not doesn't really matter, as Tomino has decided that its to be the "true" timeline.

When I get home tonight I'll try to dig up the specific links, since I belive Tomino said at one point that Turn A is actually UC.

ZShade · Post by **ZShade** » 2005-11-10 10:01am

It's actually pretty easy to fit G Gundam and Gundam X with the UC.

Gundam X is a UC show stylisticly, with NTs, colony drops, and the O'Neill cylinder colonies. Set it a couple hundred years after Victory Gundam, what's the problem with it?

It's mentioned in Turn A that colonies have left the solar system after conversion to generation ships. After being dropped in large numbers during Gundam X, why wouldn't the O'Neill cylinder colonies eventually say to hell with it and leave? The Federation shrugs, builds new colonies, some with new designs, and begins their regular oppression.

Fast forward another several hundred years, and holy crap, the colonies have won a war, setting up a new calendar and a goofy fighting tournament in it's place, leading to G Gundam.

UC tech runs rampant throughout Turn A (Zakus, Kapools, Gallops, Squid-class ships among other designs), with AW tech having a brief appearance (cockpit design for some of the Moonrace MS), and FC tech is rather important (Nanomachines, the Shining Finger).

This leaves Wing out in the cold, but since they supposedly destroyed all of their MS tech, that wouldn't leave anything to survive to Turn A's era. Wing's one contribution is a character who had been cryo-frozen having a flashback of Wing Zero about to fire the buster rifles.

Seed and Seed Destiny, of course, aren't worked in since they were made much later. Reportedly, Tomino actually complained to Seed's director, "You're ruining my vision!"