Quatre Raberba Winner

Infobox animanga character
name = Quatre Raberba Winner
series = Mobile Suit Gundam Wing


caption = Quatre Raberba Winner, Gundam Pilot
first =
last =
creator =
voiced by = Ai Orikasa (Japanese)
Brad Swaile (English)
alias =
age = 15 (series) / 16 (Endless Waltz)
born = Unknown AC 180
death =
nationality = L4 colony cluster
relatives =
divider = yes
aux1 name = Allegiance
aux1 = Gundam Pilots,
Maguanac Corps,
Sanc Kingdom
aux2 name = Rank
aux2 =
aux3 name = Mobile weapons
aux3 = XXXG-01SR Gundam Sandrock,
XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero,
OZ-13MSX2 Mercurius,
WMS-03 Maganac Rashid Kurama Custom,
OZ-07AMS Aries,
OZ-12SMS Taurus,
XXXG-01SR2 Gundam Sandrock Kai

nihongo|Quatre Raberba Winner|カトル・ラバーバ・ウィナー|Katoru Rabāba Winā|derived from French "quatre", lit. "four", a fictional character, is one of the central characters in the anime series "Mobile Suit Gundam Wing" and its various spinoffs. He is the fifteen-year-old pilot of the mobile suit Gundam Sandrock. His voice in the TV series and movie is provided by Ai Orikasa (JPN), Brad Swaile (ENG), Yang Jeong Hwa (KOR), Luis Tenorio (Latin America), and Pascal Grull (FR).

Biography

Background

Quatre was born into the wealthy Winner family, the youngest child of thirty, and the only son. As the sole heir to an enormous fortune, he grew up with all his needs provided for by servants, and a forty-strong private army, the Maganac Corps, to protect him. In spite of his pacifist upbringing, Quatre took up arms to defend the space colonies on which he was raised.

Events in ""

In this manga story it is revealed that when the colonists first arrived into space, pregnant women had problems giving birth to newborn babies. This resulted in artificial reproduction, with babies gestated in test tubes. This problem was later solved, except for within the Winner family who had been in space since the formation of the colonies. However, unknown to Quatre, he was born naturally, although his birth mother died during childbirth. His twenty-nine sisters were all test tube babies.

Originally, Quatre did not feel loved, feeling that he was just artificial and his father could easily replace him; he was never told that he was born naturally. In the year After Colony 193, he allowed himself to be taken hostage when the Maganac Corps commandeered a Winner family resource satellite to produce their mobile suits. This is how he met them and Instructor H, who was on the satellite at the time. It transpired that all of the Maganacs were also test tube babies, but acted together as a family. When the Maganacs allowed for Quatre to talk to his father, Quatre accused his father of creating him artificially to be a servant for the convenience of the Winner family. Rasid, the leader of the Maganacs group, slapped Quatre and told him to have more pride in himself.

When Quatre overheard Yuda, a treacherous member of the group (whose name and codename "Iscariot" most likely allude to Judas Iscariot), sending their coordinates to the Earth Alliance troops, Quatre captured him and tied him up. However, he failed to secure the ropes properly; Yuda broke free and tried to shoot Rasid, whom Quatre tried to protect, resulting in a shoulder injury.

Quatre's injury wasn't serious, but Rasid was in no shape to lead the troops. Quatre, wanting to prove to be useful and proud of himself, and even hoping for the chance to join the Maganacs' family, took command after Rasid gave him permission. With his leadership skills, Quatre helped hold off the Alliance's mobile suits, enabling the Maganacs to get to Earth safely. As a result, he was officially accepted as the Maganacs leader and Quatre promised when he met them again he would be stronger. Two years later, he kept his promise.

Episode Zero also revealed that the goggles that Quatre wore in the Gundam Wing series are actually the symbol of the Maganac leader. Quatre only wore these goggles when leading the Maganac Corps into battle.

Events in "Mobile Suit Gundam Wing"

Initially, his primary mission was to destroy OZ facilities, principally in Middle Eastern areas, assisted by the Maganac Corps. A chance encounter with mobile suit pilot Trowa Barton led to the two of them developing a friendship of sorts, although the reticent Trowa struggled to reciprocate Quatre's concern for his well-being.

After further encounters with other Gundam pilots, Quatre and Duo Maxwell fled from battle and headed out to space. To create a diversion to facilitate their escape, Quatre was forced to sacrifice Sandrock, a decision which he did not take lightly, as he had come to see his war machine almost as a friend.

After escaping from the sadistic Lady Une, Quatre departed for his home colony, where he witnessed the death of his father at the hands of the OZ sympathizers in the colony. Consumed by grief, Quatre used the resources of the Winner estate to construct the Wing Gundam Zero, a powerful mobile suit based on the original Gundam blueprints, which he intended to use to bring about an end to the war. However, he was unprepared for the mental stress caused by the Wing Zero's neural interface; it drove him to the point of insanity and caused him to destroy an OZ-occupied mining station and a civilian colony. During a second assault on a colony, Trowa managed to bring Quatre back to his senses by sacrificially blocking Wing Zero's attacks with his own mobile suit.

Returning to Earth, Quatre, along with fellow Gundam pilot Heero Yuy, visited the pacifistic Sanc Kingdom and befriended Lucrezia Noin, a former OZ officer now trying to defend the Kingdom. Quatre decided to join her cause, along with the Maganac Corps and the newly-rebuilt Sandrock. Unfortunately, they were unable to prevent the Kingdom from falling, and had no option but to flee to space once again.

When the paramilitary organization White Fang emerged as a threat to Earth, Quatre and Noin worked to assemble the Gundam pilots into a united force, at last fighting together as a team. At the request of Heero, Quatre reluctantly became the Gundam unit's field commander. Sandrock was upgraded for space combat; and, despite Quatre's protestation, was also fitted with Wing Zero's ZERO System. Though initially hesitant, fearing that he would once again lose his sanity, Quatre learned to master the ZERO System. The tactical advantage that it gave him helped him to lead the Gundam unit to victory over White Fang.

Events in "Endless Waltz"

In Quatre's flashback scene, it is revealed that during construction of the Sandrock, Instructor H chose to have Quatre ignore the original Operation Meteor. This was because he couldn't rob Quatre of his kindness.

Since the Gundams were no longer needed Quatre and Duo planned to dispose of them by sending them on a ship into the sun. Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton readily obliged while Chang Wufei refused. But after Mariemaia makes her speech, Quatre felt guilty about being hasty in disposing the Gundams so he and the Maganac Corps went to retrieve the Gundams. After successfully modifying the engines, Quatre is able to send it back towards Earth and at Heero's request he sends Wing Zero to him. Later with Duo and Trowa the three went to intercept the Mariemaia army on Earth without killing them until their Gundams are too damaged to continue fighting. Afterwards Quatre officially took over the Winner Foundation and both he and the Maganacs Corps are busy working on finishing the construction of X-18999.

Personal information

Quatre is of Arab descent. His last name Winner (written in Arabic as Fayez), could suggest that he is of a Jordanian origin since its one of the most known families in Jordan. The first name (Quatre) is from French and translates to the number four. His middle name suggests Berber heritage, which would partially explain his appearance as some Berbers carry European DNA.

His encounter with Wing Zero notwithstanding, Quatre seems the most well-adjusted of the Gundam pilots, generally displaying a kind, humble personality. As a believer in the ideal of pacifism, he is a reluctant soldier who expresses sorrow when forced to kill his enemies. He thinks first before he acts, regrets the bad decisions he makes, and always tries to seek forgiveness. He also has a fondness towards animals and loves to play with them.

Quatre is also implied to have a form of extrasensory perception or something similar, which he refers to as the "heart of outer space" ("uchuu no kokoro" in Japanese). This ability remains largely unexplored throughout the series, leaving many fans to speculate as to its depth and overall usefulness. Much of this debate is rooted in episode 10, which seems to imply that the "Space Heart" is a form of limited telepathy or empathy. In another case, in episode 26, he appears to be able to read Heero's thoughts (of 'the person on Earth': Relena) by touching his heart. However, this discussion is further complicated by a cryptic remark made at the end of the series, in which Quatre states that: "I understand now. The space heart is him [Heero] ." Ironically enough, this would seem to imply that, for most of the series, even Quatre remains largely ignorant as to the exact nature of his abilities.

Quatre plays the violin and the piano, and confides to Lucrezia Noin that music relaxes him.

D Gundam

Quatre is amongst a number of characters whose personality has an effect on SD Gundam works. In these series, depicting sentient creatures based on Gundam mecha designs, Sandrocks are often depicted as effective team leaders due to Quatre holding the same role in later episodes of Gundam Wing.

Possible character reference

The character of Quatre, from appearance (blonde hair, European features, eye-gear) to penchant for long speeches involving peace for the colonies, is highly reminiscent of Quattro Bajeena, also known as Char Aznable. Furthermore, their names are similar, both being derived from the generic sound of the word for the number four in the Romance languages. Char also means "four" in Persian.

However, Zechs Merquise is generally considered the stronger Char archetype of the series, and references to Quatre's particular kindness and sensitivity, even to an extrasensory level; black-and- "white mobile suit" and engineering ability allowing him to easily design himself a second; scene struggling adrift in the desert and troubled reunion with his father all strongly hint at the protagonist of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series himself, Amuro Ray, in addition to Amuro's later ν Gundam.

The character of Quatre may have been devised as a thinly-veiled reference to one of the Gundam series' best-known characters. However, his appearance, general temperament, and role as the very unexpected leader of a group of rebel Arabs could also possibly allude to T. E. Lawrence.

External links

* [http://www.gundamofficial.com/www_ac/gw/characters/char_quatre.html Profile of Quatre on the official "Gundam" site]
* [http://www.absoluteanime.com/gundam_wing/quatre.htm Profile of Quatre on Absolute Anime]

References

* "Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero" by Katsuyuki Sumisawa et al. ISBN 1-56931-702-X.