[Faerie]

Originally Posted by IkuzeMinna

He doesn't need to, others are doing it for him already. Seriously, "Princess Aurora"? I bet Zechs is behind it.

I can sort of see them sitting together, in a dark corner of a shady bar, in a dead serious discussion if "Aurora Princess" sounds like a good codename, and if "Wind of Cyrene" is maybe too simple-sounding... sigh...

[QUOTEIkuzeMinna;3696480]As far as showing affection goes, Heero is leagues ahead of Zechs, which isn't really difficult but anyway. But maybe it's just Relena? After all, she was hugged by Zechs, whereas Noin was only helped out of her MS by him. [/QUOTE]

It's sort of sad when you are described as less affectionate than a guy who is arguably emotionally retarded himself... xD Poor Zechs. Well, at least he makes good-looking offspring, I guess...

It's just that the women in Wing never got their hands on Tallgeeses or Gundams. But the fact that they were still able to keep up with the guys in grunt suits definitely bears testimony to their strength and skill. And let's not forget that the Gundam pilots are highly trained professionals.

That's sort of what I mean.. and sorry- the reason I didn't mention the other Wing girls explicitly, is because they only occasionally jump into a suit, but then normally do well, considering the suits are vastly inferior.

Girls in Gundam normally either:
- have very good skills, but usually no suits to match this/ just grunt suits (examples: Noin, Soma, Sochie, even Haman etc)
or
- no/lower skills, but superior suits (pretty much every girl in Seed/Destiny, can't think of any exceptions right now, Louise, Nina etc)

It's rare to find both (can't actually think of an example), which kind of means that they are never fully appreciated for what they can do.

To sum it up: I know there are a lot of skilled girls out there, the niggle is with how they never seem to get their hands on the superior equipment and consequently aren't in the spotlight, leaving their skills a little under appreciated.

First of all, let's not confuse misogyny with sexism, please. The women in Gundam aren't hated, they just don't get the same treatment as the guys in terms of skill, importance or suits. Or lack of fanservice. >_>

Sorry, my mistake, non- native speaker here. Happens
Apart from that, yes, that's my point.
I guess it can't be avoided, as it's a shounen series (and to be fair guys get the same kind of treatment in pretty much every magical girl anime out there), but I'm sure the occasional good pilot with a good suit wouldn't hurt.
Some hopes for Quaterine.

Second, why don't you just say "Lunamaria" and be done with it?

Ahaha! Not to single her out but... Yes, she's probably the worst offender. As much as I thought she wasn't that bad of a character, until the whole Shinn debacle... she is P A T H E T I C when it comes to her supposed "skills". It's a miracle ZAFT actually pays her.
Followed by Cagalli (Kira's leftovers, Mwu's leftovers... heck, she even willingly donates her new, shiny suit to Mwu), even Stellar is a big bundle of ineptitude.
Even Nina and Louise don't look as bad when compared to the Seed girls.
Prime examples of "good suit, but low skills"

At least in Wing the women had other roles they had to fulfill. The only one of them who was an experienced MS pilot was Noin and I'll eat my shoe if she isn't considered on par with the guys. If you can fight 250 enemies in an outdated, space MS while the others prance around in Gundams, you rule.

I suggest giving the Seed girls suits to the Wing girls and see what happens (Noin would look good in Gaia). It's good to see them appreciated, because it's quite easy for them (and other kick-ass pilots in the series) to fall under the table, if you don't pay close attention to what they actually DO achieve in their crappysuits.

Still, I agree. I'd like to see a woman among the main pilots sometime. Too much testosterone is getting boring.

I'm still hoping it'll happen one day. Then again, I hoped that when Soma came around, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.... she fancied being a moeblob instead. AGE isn't giving me much hope on that front either from the previews.... sigh- one day

Originally Posted by Nishiio

I'm just afraid of some of things people already mentioned. I haven't seen TOO many mecha/action anime so when someone mentions "female pilot" I really just think of Asuka from Evangelion, whom I hated because 1) she's psycho and 2) she was just there for eyecandy. That's hardly what I want to see for a well-characterized female pilot.

Or, as you mentioned, we'll have a female pilot who's just completely incompetent. Don't even get me started on the characters of Gundam SEED, ugh...

Do the creators just have trouble writing female characters, I wonder? o__O

Evangelion is a whole different story though. everyone was psycho there, and none of the pilots were really "strong" in the sense that Gundam pilots are. Asuka was supposedly an ace though, and I'm pretty sure it was somewhere mentioned that her 02 was the weak one of the bunch.
Arguably, Asuka appeared like a strong girl, until, well, she wasn't anymore. We all know the story That said, Shinji is hardly more likeable, Rei is just weird in a different way, and well. Basically, EVA is a bit special, I guess.
Can I ask, who did you like out of the EVA bunch?

I'm pretty sure that yes, Gundam writers so far have always had trouble writing girls, and I'm not sure what the cause of that is. Didn't one of them even mention this in an interview or something? I believe that was one of the staff for Wing, even...?!
As for good examples of female pilots- well, Klan from Macross comes to mind spontaneously. I will try to think of some more and edit.