Newtype

A Newtype is the next stage of human evolution in the Gundam universe. The theory behind this minor but groundbreaking metamorphosis is that in order to adapt to life in space, the human body evolved with heightened mental awareness. As such, Newtypes tend to appear among Spacenoids, although not exclusively (Amuro Ray, arguably the most famous Newtype, was actually born on Earth). Appearing in the Universal Century timeline (chronologically the first), they are also present in the After War timeline.

A similar type of human being called Coordinators exists in the Cosmic Era timeline of Gundam SEED, although their evolution is artificial, obtained by genetic engineering. Coordinators' distinguished abilities are more physical as opposed to mental, but they have a similar heightened mental awareness as Newtypes. The series' director Mitsuo Fukuda identified some protagonists (like Mu La Flaga) as Newtypes, even though the term does not exist within the plot itself.

Another very similar to Newtype appeared in the Gundam 00 series. They are called Innovators, who have also evolved through exposure to high grade GN particles, though the only ones that are confirmed to be one are Setsuna F. Seiei and Descartes Shaman. Like Newtypes, they have the ability to communicate to other beings through the utilization of Quantum Brainwaves and also have a heighten degree of awareness but their full abilities are still unknown.

In Gundam AGE, a race similar to Newtypes also exists called X-Rounders.

Distinguished Characteristics
Newtypes have an extremely high degree of spatial awareness, almost a sixth sense. They are capable of telepathically detecting other Newtypes, and are sensitive to the hostile intentions directed at them by others, allowing them to uncannily react to their opponents even before the offender carries out his intended action. Some Newtypes also exhibit telepathic abilities or use psychokinesis. Kamille Bidan, the pilot of the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam was able to channel out sheer emotional rage, summon the spirits of his dead friends, and boost his unit's power for a brief but devastating attack.

The abilities of the Newtype are kept very abstract and treated as mysterious events much the same way the Force is treated in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Newtypes and Society
One of the Universal Century's greatest social conflicts is the exploitation of these advanced humans. Heralded by scientists and philosophers upon their discovery as a beacon of hope for the future of humanity, the various series of the UC timeline show that these humans have merely become cannon fodder for greedy politicians and violent militarists, creating even more war and destruction.

Various characters state that the exploitation of the Newtype is due to fear of them by the Oldtypes, as they represent humanity's next step of evolution and the Oldtypes are merely relics of the past. A great example of this is the signature Gundam pilot of the metaverse, Amuro Ray. Although he is the hero of the One Year War, the first great Mobile Suit war, he barely climbs the ranks in his entire military career and it is implied that this is because of the government's mistrust in his loyalties due to his Newtype status but this maybe due to equality for promotions. Many believe this to be an allegory for the newer generations taking over the previous generation, and the confusion and conflict which comes from this. Well into the very late incarnations of the Universal Century timeline, Newtypes remain as rare an occurrence as they were during the One Year War, facilitating a curious cycle of weapons development, in which highly specialized Newtype-use weapons are developed, and repeatedly phased out, as fielding people capable of using such weapons in significant numbers remains consistently impossible.

Notable Newtypes
The most famous Newtype is probably the legendary Amuro Ray, protagonist of the first series. While Amuro develops into a powerful Newtype, he relies just as much, if not more so, on his superb ability with machinery and his inherent piloting skill than on his Newtype abilities.

The Gundam metaverse's most beloved character Char Aznable is implied to not be a particularly powerful Newtype at all. Char, like Amuro, develops his formidable ability in combat only after years of experience. Char is first and foremost a planner and strategist, fields he excels at without any relation to Newtype capabilities. Although his Newtype abilities were not as powerful as Amuro's, Char was among the best Newtypes of the era, due to the fact that a lot of the previous battles were on the earth sphere.

Canon-wise, the most powerful Newtype pilot is often said to be Judau Ashta of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the pilot of the titular MS. Though he is inexperienced and young, Judau exhibits the highest amount of raw Newtype ability and energy of almost any UC protagonist.

Despite this, Kamille Bidan shows some of the strongest and most unique abilities of the Universal Century. Most of this does not manifest itself until the late portions of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, however how he is affected by contact with Cyber-Newtypes such as Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam, even Elpeo Ple. The strongest points of his power are revealed when he uses Zeta Gundam's Waverider Crash on Paptimus Scirocco in the end of the series. He is filled with the strength of the souls of slain Newtypes. This and a mental death throe by Scirocco destroy his mind, however when he begins to recover in ZZ Gundam he is even more powerful than before. He is able to contact and speak with characters such as Ple telepathically and even sense what they do while still functionally comatose. In the end it is his mind and power joining with Judau Ashta that defeats Haman Karn.

Newtypes in the Universal Century
The word Newtype first came into being when Zeon Zum Deikun, the founder of the space colony-based Principality of Zeon, created his philosophy: mankind was destined to leave the Earth for space, where they would evolve into a new stage of evolution, called the Newtype.

This philosophy was accepted by many people to the point that it became superstition, and it became a name for those with strange and exceptional abilities. Hence when enhanced psychic potential manifested in certain individuals in the One Year War, the idea that Newtypes were evolved humans with psychic abilities as a result of the movement to space began to stick. Unenhanced human beings, by opposition, became known by the retronym Oldtype. In addition, a Newtype MS pilot's ability to accurately recognize the combat situation and other Newtypes from a great distance spurred the development of control devices to link with and operate remote-controlled weapons via EEG waves. This equipment is termed Pyscommu system (short for Psycho Communicator), and machines installed with this equipment demonstrated overwhelming force in combat.

As time passed, the number of new naturally occurring Newtypes remained fairly stable. However, as their destiny had been transformed from the "future of mankind" to living weapons forced to fight in war, artificially created Newtypes began to outnumber them. So by the time of the Second Neo Zeon War (Char's Counterattack), it was doubtful whether these Newtypes were the same as the legendary ones found in Deikun's theory.

Newtypes as soldiers
Not long into their discovery, the combat potential of the Newtype is quickly exploited by various military factions. Various technologies allowed these Newtypes to control remote weapons known as "bits" and "funnels", and other psychically controlled weapons. Some systems even allow Newtypes to control entire Mobile Suits or Armors just with the power of their mind, although this would take an exceptionally powerful Newtype to make possible. Many types of interfaces have also been designed for Newtype use, such as the cinematic Psycoframe.

Cyber Newtypes
Several research projects tried to artificially expand Newtypes' abilities or to bestow them on ordinary people. The Flanagan Institute has a prominent role in these research projects, and successfully deployed several artificial Newtypes in combat missions. The results of these projects were ultimately flawed, however. While many of these Enhanced Humans did have powerful abilities, they frequently suffered from extreme mental instability. The best example of this phenomenon is Four Murasame. Other known Artificial Newtypes include Rosamia Badam, Gates Capa, and Gyunei Guss.

In all English translations, the term Cyber-Newtype is used rather than Artificial Newtype.

Newtypes in the After War Era
The Newtypes of the After War timeline are similar to those in the Universal Century, however they also differ greatly. The After War era lacks an equivalent character to Zeon Zum Deikun, hence there were no prominent theorists or philosophers prior to the discovery of Newtypes. Despite this once Newtypes were discovered the spacenoids began perpetuating a belief similar to the spacenoids of the Universal Century, saying that only the chosen people of space could evolve into Newtypes and perpetuating the idea that this was the greatest fear of the jealous Earth Federation. The Earth Federation responded to the evolution of Newtypes with a violent program to understand their existence. The chief example of this is D.O.M.E. (original name unknown), one of the first Newtypes who was eventually disassembled down to his component parts in order to understand his nature, his consciousness was then implanted into the D.O.M.E. system on the moon.

Realizing the potential within Newtypes the Earth Federation began a program to create Artificial Newypes, along with programs to monitor, train and use Newtypes that they discovered. They began ranking Newtypes in classifications from A to F, however these classifications primarily expressed the degree of potential they had in use for combat, particularly the Mobile Bit System. These classifications failed to express the nature or degree of the Newtype's abilities as a whole. Shagia and Olba Frost for instance, possessed an active telepathic power that allowed them to communicate mentally regardless of distance.

Newtype abilities differ greatly in the After War era, Shagia and Olba Frost have a strong telepathic power, Tiffa Adill has primarily a power of prescience and powerful range at which she can sense other Newtypes, whereas Jamil Neate's abilities were more of a battle sense and his one prescient flash was the last time he was able to use his abilities to any degree, doing so later he can contact other Newtypes minds, but only at a severe level of strain to the point of causing him to physically bleed from the ears.

Truely natural Newtypes in the After War period are revealed to be rare, as many were created as Artificial Newtypes even without their own awareness. The Newtypes that evolved however were not only not limited to spacenoids, but in fact not limited to humans and Newtypes evolved in other sentient lifeforms. The main example here is the White Dolphin, a dolphin who evolved into a Newtype and was able to contact Tiffa Adill telepathically. The White Dolphin experienced Newtype flashes much like characters in the Universal Century and was even powerful enough to contact the extracted neural nets of other dolphins in order to have them backfire on the MS systems they had been built into.

Known Newtypes
Below is a list of known NEWTYPES: (NOTE: This list will probably eventually grown longer and does not include the CYBER NEWTYPES.)

Universal Century

 * Amuro Ray
 * Sayla Mass
 * Mirai Yashima
 * Char Aznable
 * Lalah Sune
 * Kamille Bidan
 * Reccoa Londe
 * Fa Yuiry
 * Jerid Messa
 * Haman Karn
 * Paptimus Scirocco
 * Sarah Zabiarov
 * Katz Hawin Kobayashi
 * Letz Cofan Kobayashi
 * Kikka Kitamoto Kobayashi
 * Judau Ashta
 * Glemy Toto
 * Elle Vianno
 * Chara Soon
 * Mashymre Cello
 * Leina Ashta
 * Roux Louka
 * Beecha Oleg
 * Shinta and Qum
 * Hathaway Noa
 * Quess Paraya
 * Challia Bull
 * Banagher Links

Late Universal Century

 * Seabook Arno
 * Cecily Fairchild
 * Uso Ewin

After War

 * D.O.M.E.
 * Jamil Neate
 * Lancerow Dawell
 * Olba Frost
 * Shagia Frost
 * Tiffa Adill
 * White Dolphin