"Some day, I'm gonna find out...just what it is that makes people fight."
While she possesses the most obvious name symbolism of all time, Relena Peacecraft is the body that does carry the major themes of Gundam Wing on its shoulders. Gundam Wing is a significant departure from the other Gundam series in a few ways. Unlike the earlier gundams this does not portray the conflict between two nations, but rather between one huge nation and a scattered group of small nations that it seeks to conquer. The Gundam pilots are all essentially terrorists fighting a tyrannical One World (and space) government. Relena Peacecraft, on the other hand IS the representative of a nation and one that is trying desperately to pursue peace in a time of intractable conflict.
It is through her that the limits and the powers of the appeal of pacifism are embodied. However, she does not begin this way. In the typical Gundam manner, she is swept up from a fairly normal life of being rich and petty until she meets Heero and gets wrapped up in the massive international political system. When her brother abdicates his responsibility to the Sanc kingdom, she has no choice but to buckle down and grow tremendously as a person in a very short time.
She then then finds herself thrown into a variety of roles, ultimately becoming, by way of a massive collusion of events a symbolic and later through the power of her peace-based rhetoric, real power over the one-world government. All the while, her idealism is clashing head on with the harsh violent reality being orchestrated. When she finally triumphs is one of the series big feel good moments. And lets face it, there's no identifying with Heero, so she ends up being the real hero of Gundam wing, despite never stepping foot in a Mobile Suit. Gundam Wing is weird and awesome that way.
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