Zechs Merquise

Zechs Merquise is a character that features in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Biography

Born Milliardo Peacecraft (which is taken from the French word milliard), he is the male heir and prince of the Sanc Kingdom. When the Sanc Kingdom was attacked by the United Earth Sphere Alliance in AC 182, the entire Peacecraft was killed with only Zechs and his sister Relena as the only survivors. After Relena was adopted by Mr.Darlian, Zechs moved away from the Sanc Kingdom and joined the Alliance, concealing his true identity by wearing a mask and adopting the name Zechs Merquise.

Zechs later joins the Alliance's special forces team OZ where he became its undefeated ace pilot , earning the title the Lightning Count or Lightning Baron in the Japanese version, and given direct orders from his commander and personal friend Treize Khushrenada. Though Zechs is well-trusted by Treize, his main goal throughout the series is avenge his family and to restore the Sanc Kingdom. However, because of his actions since the fall of the Sanc Kingdom, Zechs believes that he is unworthy to lead the nation upon its restoration because by shedding blood, he has gone against the nation's pacifist ideology. Instead, Zechs looks to his sister Relena to serve as the Sanc Kingdom's new leader and works to protect the country after it is revived.

Zechs Merquise presumably received his nickname, the "Lightning Count", when he was sent on a Specials mission to repress a terrorist organization's attack on the Earth Alliance base at the J.A.P. point in the Pacific Ocean, in the year After Colony 191. Piloting the newest model Aries mobile suit, Zechs claimed that he only needed one minute to crush the rebellion, saying "...this battle will end the moment I land." Treize, witnessing Zechs' fight, commented that Zechs was not just talk and that he "fights like lightning."

The surviving terrorists retreated towards the Darlian estate. Zechs, leaving the defense of the base in the hands of Treize, pursued them. One of the fleeing terrorists encountered Relena, who had wandered away from her house. The terrorist then took Relena hostage, an act that was presumably one of the goals of the terrorist attack (The man told Relena, "I know you're the Darlian's brat! Never thought... I'd find you so easily!"). While wondering whether she was going to die right there, Relena saw a "shooting star", which was Zechs approaching in his Aries. After the terrorist identified that his hostage was the Darlian girl, Zechs, recognizing Relena as his sister, dismounted his mobile suit. While the terrorist was gloating about his victory and his capture of the latest model Aries, Zechs shot his gun-wielding hand. He then allowed the man to flee, not wishing to kill in front of Relena. Zechs then began reminiscing about Relena's first steps, not realizing that he was still brandishing his gun. While holstering his weapon, Zechs reminded himself that he no longer had any right to even touch Relena because he had abandoned his Peacecraft name and his father's pacifistic ideals. He then addressed Relena as "princess" and asked her if she was all right. Relena, bewildered as to why she was being called a princess, asked Zechs if he was then a knight on a terrible dragon. Zechs replied that he was a "prince of the stars", and left.

After his first encounter with Wing Gundam, Zechs searches for a mobile suit that can defeat a Gundam, and finds the OZ-00MS Tallgeese (AKA "Prototype Leo"). Before he receives the suit, he is involved with Operation Daybreak, in which OZ crushes the United Earth Sphere Alliance, and Zechs kills the commander who destroyed the Sanc Kingdom. Zechs tries to pilot his newly-acquired Tallgeese during his attempt to liberate the Sanc Kingdom, but the Tallgeese's dangerously high thrust rate is nearly fatal for the Lightning Baron, and he retreats. Eventually, Otto, Zechs' right-hand man, takes the Tallgeese against orders and crashes it into the Alliance base, destroying the base and killing himself in the process.

Zechs, now piloting the Tallgeese, duels Heero in Siberia, but it was cut short after Lady Une threatens to shoot down the colonies unless the Gundam pilots surrender. Doctor J appears on the monitors, offering his and the Scientists' surrender instead. Zechs is shocked to discover that the pilot of the Wing Gundam is just a teenage boy, who self-destructs his Gundam in response to the surrender. After that, Zechs took parts of the destroyed Wing Gundam and began secretly rebuilding it. Later, Zechs learns that Heero Yuy, the Wing Gundam pilot, is still alive, and offers him a rematch at Antarctica. Heero accepts, piloting Trowa Barton's Gundam Heavyarms instead. This rematch is interrupted by Relena, who learns that Zechs is actually her older brother, Milliardo. Eventually, they flee and Zechs surrenders to the OZ forces.

Zechs destroys numerous Alliance mobile suits during battle, and at the end of the fight, Zechs' mask shatters. Zechs is eventually taken in by Sweeper member Howard, and after he repairs and upgrades the Tallgeese, suggested that Zechs should go to space. There Zechs he encounters two new mobile suits, the OZ-13MSX2 Mercurius and the OZ-13MSX1 Vayeate, piloted by Heero and Trowa, respectively. He then introduces himself by his real name, Milliardo Peacecraft, goodwill ambassador from the Sanc Kingdom.

After saving Lady Une when the Barge cannon is about to be fired at a colony she was staying at, and overhearing that the colonial leaders saying that they believe that the only way to avoid war is to arm themselves and embrace OZ, Zechs dons the mask once again and begins destroying OZ mobile doll carriers in space, until he discovers that OZ was planning to destroy the Wing Gundam Zero, which they have confiscated. He battles against numerous mobile dolls, and self-detonates his critically damaged Tallgeese, destroying any remaining mobile dolls with the Wing Zero.

After his brief encounter with an out-of-control Chang Wufei, Zechs hears that Relena is dissolving the Sanc Kingdom and surrendering herself to the Romefeller Foundation. Zechs rushes back to the Sanc Kingdom, and battles with the new mobile suit, the Gundam Epyon, piloted by Heero Yuy. After the battle where the two are defeated simultaneously by their own advanced cockpit systems, Zechs and Heero agree to trade their Gundams.

Zechs becomes depressioned after seeing the Sanc Kingdom collapse again, and feels that he has no use for the Epyon. A mysterious man named Quinze introduces himself, and offers Zechs to be the new leader of the colonial rebel faction, the White Fang. Zechs accepts. As the White Fang leader, Zechs single-handedly destroys the space station, Barge, with his Epyon, and uses White Fang's space battleship Libra to fire on a remote place on Earth (despite Relena's best efforts to talk him out of it) as a declaration of war to the recently-installed World Nation leader and his former friend Treize. The two former friends and their forces engage in the final battle of what is now known as the "Eve Wars". Zechs intends to drop the heavily-damaged Libra onto Earth to cause an endless winter.

Zechs duels Heero again, this time to determine Earth's fate. Heero wins, but spares Zechs' life for Relena's sake. Without any ammunition left, Heero is about to self-destruct his Gundam to destroy the main generator until Zechs intervenes and destroys the generator himself, with the blast enveloping the Epyon. Zechs is presumed to be killed at this point but Noin, at his grave, says that she didn't bring any flowers to his grave simply because she believes that Zechs is still out there somewhere.

In Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (AC 196) Zechs returns to what is now the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and volunteers to be a Mobile Suit (MS) pilot for 'Preventer' (an elite intelligence bureau designed to stop aggressive conflicts before they are executed) during the attempt to overthrow the government by ramming a Space Colony into Earth by Mariemaia Khushrenada, Treize's pre-adolescent daughter. He pilots the mobile suit OZ-00MS2B Tallgeese III, the callsign Preventer Wind. While destroying the first wave of Mariemaia Army's mobile suit carriers, Zechs explains his mysterious return to Dekim Barton.

When Zechs targets Dekim's base with the Tallgeese's mega rifle, Dekim threatens to drop a colony filled with people onto Earth. The Gundam pilots stop this, allowing Zechs to complete his mission. However, Dekim escapes. At the end of the conflict, Zechs disappears again with his faithful companion Lucrezia Noin, going to the moon carrying Tallgeese III on board the shuttle.

In other media

Video games

• Zechs Merquise(Milliardo Peacecraft) is a pilot in both Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 1, and 2 with the Epyon as a Playable Mobile suit. In Milliardo's story mode in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2, he battles Puru in her a Quebeley Mark II, and get's surprised by her mobile suits use of "compact gun platforms" and asks what they are. Puru tells him that they are called "Funnels", afterwards he has a conversation with Puru, Judau and Roux who fill him in on newtypes, psycommu and the use of funnels. Because Milliardo strongly believes in chivalrous close-range combat, he dissaproves of funnels(in Kira and Strike Freedom's case DRAGOONs)being used in combat.

Appearances

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:

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