Found this post on the Gundam board about Char's Counterattack, and I like it quite a bit.
Gundam Mk Dead posted...
The mass movement of humanity to space for the good of the Earth has always been a part of Zeon's philosophy.
Char acknowledges it at Dakar, but it doesn't really come to prominence until he becomes the whacked out crusader leading Neo Zeon in '93.
I don't see his move from Zeta to CCA as such a leap, though. His Gryps-era character arc is facing up to the fact that he can never escape his past as Char/Casval. When he wanted to be Quattro, no one would let him. It was always "come back to Axis, Char." Or "lead the AEUG, Char." He's not defined by his own desires but by the expectations of others. People will always force their expectations on him to do what needs doing. After watching the Earth Sphere continue to slide deeper and deeper into what he perceives as a hopeless situation, he takes power and resolves to solve the crisis himself because no one else is going to bother. It's what the Gryps Conflict taught him to do.
The tragedy is that he became someone struck from the same mold as Gihren and Haman when he did so. That his final mobile suit has "zabi" in its name is rather telling. He becomes everything he hated.
--
http://img.imgcake.com/Megalosaro/MaridaSig1jpghu.jpg
http://img.imgcake.com/Megalosaro/MaridaSig2jpget.jpg