Gundam's chalk full of decisive & important battles but some just eclipse the others. Today we'll dive into the top 5 battles/wars that changes the course of history throughout Gundam.
5. The Final Battle of the 7th Space War from After War Gundam X
Starting out with a greatly overlooked series. The 7th Space War is Gundam X's One Year War, including a Zeon & Federation fighting over spacenoid Independence. The Zeon stand in takes Operation British to the extreme, dropping enough colonies to devastate the Earth's population down to just 98 million. For context that's pretty much the populations of California, New York, Washington & Texas. This battle set the stage for Gundam X to happen and nearly Axis'd the earth out of existence, turning the whole planet into a barren wasteland.
4. The Earth Chaos War from G Gundam
A war we know almost nothing about, this war ended all wars in the Future Century. The growing socio-economic-political crisis on Earth didn't end after the Earth Chaos War, nearly leading to a 2nd. A predominate military leader of the time proposed the Gundam fights as a means to avoid another disastrous war. While we don't know what battles took place, the war itself changed everything at a breaking point in humanity's history. While the Earth is still getting literally walked all over, no major wars have come since the First Gundam Fight, that was of course brought to you by Space Mountain Dew.
3. The 4th Solar Power War from Gundam 00
Another war we have very little information about is the 4th Solar Power War from Gundam 00. We have a little information but no detailed battles. This is a pivotal moment in this time line. Setting the stage for Celestial Being to start their armed interventions. It also acts as a message about the importance of energy. While the earth has an ample power supply of clean energy, it's not distributed to the middle east, turning it into a war torn region.
2. The First & Second Battle Of Orb from Gundam Seed
The First Battle of Orb is important for 2 main reason. First it confronts the "neutrality" of the country, creating & harboring the Archangel & Earth Alliance military forces in secret. While you can take this as a bit of social commentary, it also brings to light how out powered Orb was at this point. Sure they had advanced technology but they were vastly outnumbered but machine closes enough to make their technology advanced moot. 2nd is Shinn Asuka. Had this battle not happened, Seed Destiny's story line would not have happened. The Second Battle of Orb is inter sting not only for bringing Cagali back from her damsel in distress role but shows how much Orb had catch up in terms of production. Instead of 3 M1 Astrays we see an army of them with specialized equipment & the MVF-1111C Murasames as well.
Honorable Mentions
The Battle of Heliopolis from Gundam Seed
The Other Solar Power Wars from Gundam00
The Neo Zeon Wars from the Universal Century
1. The Battle of A Baoa Qu from Mobile Suit Gundam
The OG final battle, the battle that sets the stage for the rest of the Universal Century. This battle's result is felt for the next 20 years. The battle that started it all, leading to Stardust Memories, Zeta, ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Unicorn, Narrative & Hathaway's Flash. The final confrontation between the "true" Principality & the Federation, breaking the autonomy of the spacenoids down to a sham republic. We see the end of so many things in this battle, the near destruction of the Zabi family, the end of the Principality, the end of the Gundam, the White Base & Char Azanable, at least in name.
