Lunamaria Hawke

Lunamaria Hawke (ルナマリア・ホーク) is one of the three elite pilots of the Minerva. Her name may have derived from or was a corruption of Lunar maria (singular Lunar mare) which are basaltic plains on the moon, mistaken by early astronomers to be seas, hence termed maria since maria is Latin for seas.

Personality
Lunamaria is a sociable person who is both cheerful and charming. However, she can be quite stubborn and can be prone to jealousy during certain situations. To her friends and loved ones, Lunamaria is very supportive and kind. She is also especially caring to her little sister, Meyrin. To her superior officers, she is respectable and is willing to follow orders, even if she doesn't agree with the orders emotionally. After her sister's apparent death, a larger aspect of Lunamaria's personality is shown, as she is seen as a forgiving person towards Shinn, who was ordered to kill Meyrin.

Skills & Abilities
As a red ace, Lunamaria is already a strong pilot, with her skills focusing on long ranged combat, but she does have talent in close ranged combat. Strangely, Lunamaria's skill with a gun outside a mobile suit is drastically different, as she is unable to make an accurate shot. This due to her habit of twitching her wrist, while pulling the trigger. However after learning of this habit, her skills may have improved. Other than that, she can fly a helicopter and is an excellent spy, who is quite good at intelligence gathering.

Gundam SEED Destiny
Lunamaria attended the ZAFT military academy with her sister Meyrin, Shinn, and Rey Za Burrel. She wears a customized version of the Red Uniform, replacing the standard female-issue skirt with a pink miniskirt. Over the course of the Second Bloody Valentine War, Lunamaria develops a crush on Athrun Zala, but later on falls in love with her friend and colleague, Shinn Asuka.

Armory One Raid
While hanging out with Vino Dupre during the Minerva's prelaunch ceremony, Phantom Pain forces steal ZAFT's three newest mobile suits the ZGMF-X24S Chaos, ZGMF-X88S Gaia, and ZGMF-X31S Abyss. Lunamaria and Rey then backup Shinn, who was fighting all three mobile suits by himself. Although she does her best, the internal damage to her ZAKU Warrior had caught up with her and forces her to land it safely in the Minerva.

When an unknown Zaku Warrior boards the Minerva, Lunamaria restrains the two passengers from the ZAKU Warrior, who identify themselves as Representative Cagalli Yula Athha and her bodyguard Alex Dino, who request personnel assistance. By accident and a slip of Cagalli's tongue, Lunamaria learns that Alex is, in fact, Athrun Zala and this is confirmed by her sister, Meyrin Hawke.

Break the World Incident
During the Minerva's pursuit of the Mirage Colloid battleship, the Girty Lue, the Minerva faces the Extended Pilots, lead by Neo Roanoke. During their battles, Lunamaria typically faces the ZGMF-X88S Gaia, piloted by Stella Loussier. As they usually battle each other, the two develop somewhat of a rivalry.

When terrorists, who are following the ideals of the late Chairman Patrick Zala, attempt to drop the Junius Seven Colony onto Earth, the Minerva participates in the colony's demolition with the Joule Team. After returning Athrun and Cagalli to Orb, the Minerva stays there for repairs. While there Lunamaria shows concern for Shinn, due to his mixed feelings about his homeland, especially when the Minerva is forced to leave when Orb Union joins the Earth Alliance.

Spying on the Archangel
On route to the Black Sea, Athrun Zala who has reenlisted into ZAFT, as a member of FAITH, joins up with the Minerva in his ZGMF-X23S Saviour. This allows Lunamaria to freely express her developed interest in him, but ironically Lunamaria is naive to her sister's interest in Athrun and she is somewhat irritated and jealous by Meer Campbell spending time with him.

After the appearance of the ZGMF-X10A Freedom and the Archangel, Lunamaria is given a secret mission by Captain Talia Gladys, which was to spy on Athrun and gather information on the Archangel crew. After following Athrun in a helicopter where he is accompanied by Cagalli, Kira Yamato, and Miriallia Haw. Over the discussion, Lunamaria learns that Meer Campbell, who is acting as Lacus Clyne, is actually a fake and that the real Lacus was nearly assassinated by ZAFT special forces.

After giving Captain Gladys the recorded information, Lunamaria asks if this mission was given to her because there were doubts about Athrun's loyalty, But Talia responds that the mission was given to gather information on the Archangel's intentions. After this, Talia then orders Lunamaria to not tell anyone and to forget everything about this mission, which Lunamaria follows. Despite this however, Lunamaria developed doubts about both Athrun and ZAFT's intentions.

Relationship with Shinn
After the Battle of Crete, Lunamaria's ZAKU Warrior was damaged beyond repair and she is severely wounded. Upon arriving at Gibraltar, she fully recovered and becomes the new pilot for the ZGMF-X56S Impulse, due to Shinn receiving the ZGMF-X42S Destiny, for his accomplishment in Operation: Angel Down.

When ZAFT officials tell Lunamaria of Athrun and Meyrin's sudden betrayal, in a ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited which the two used to escape in, Lunamaria is both in shock and in denial believing they couldn't do something like that. Shinn then later informs her that he was the one who destroyed the GOUF and apologizes to her. Lunamaria then starts to cry with Shinn tearfully holding her.

Before the battle at Heaven's base, Lunamaria chooses to forgive Shinn, knowing that he was just following orders while blaming LOGOS for the cause of their deaths. She gets a hug from him and then they kiss and Shinn promises to protect her, thus starting a romantic relationship between them.

Later Accomplishments
After the Battle at Heaven's base Lunamaria, Shinn, and Rey are awarded the Order of the Nebula a medal given to ZAFT's most outstanding soldiers. During Operation: Fury, Lunamaria launches from the Minerva, to shoot down a shuttle that is carrying the leader of LOGOS Lord Djibril, but she fails to do so. After the operation, Lunamaria discovers that both Athrun and Meyrin are alive.

When Lord Djibril unleashes the Requiem on the PLANTs, Lunamaria blames herself for failing to shoot him down and is determined not fail this time. When Rey gives her the task of destroying the Requiem's main control system, Shinn was concerned for her safety, but she convinces him to believe in her. With Shinn protecting her with the Destiny, she successfully enters Requiem's control base and destroys it. Afterwards her comrades cheer her on and she and Shinn embrace.

Battle of Messiah
When Chairman Gilbert Durandal announced the Destiny Plan, which would judge people by their genetic destiny and not their individuality, which according to him will lead to peace, Lunamaria doubts the plan and tries to discuss the matter with Shinn, but due to Rey's interference, she is unable to. When the battle begins, Lunamaria attempts to attack the Eternal, but stops in midway when her sister Meyrin contacts her from the Eternal and asks her why she is fighting. Before the sisters can discuss things, Lunamaria is forced to retreat.

Lunamaria then battles Athrun, blaming him for taking her sister Meyrin away. He badly damages Lunamaria's mobile suit, the Impulse, with his ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam. Shinn then arrives, going into SEED Mode and attacking Athrun. After realizing the terrible mistakes being made by both Shinn and herself, as she witnesses the fast and furious fight and argument between Shinn and Athrun, Lunamaria then interposed herself between the two, begging them to stop fighting so desperately. However, Shinn is far too blinded with rage to really understand what Lunamaria has done, and charges madly at a shocked Lunamaria for the kill; but Athrun enters SEED Mode, blocking Shinn's attack, and saving Lunamaria. Athrun then cripples Shinn's Destiny Gundam and Shinn crashes on the surface of the moon.

Lunamaria lands her damaged Impulse nearby and ends up holding a tearful Shinn in her arms, realizing that he was being manipulated by Rey and Chairman Gilbert Durandal, as well as the fact that he could have hurt and even killed her unknowingly. The two watch the Requiem superweapon explode and then the ZAFT fortress Messiah, crash into the Moon.

Aftermath
In Gundam SEED Destiny "Final Plus", both stranded pilots are rescued by Athrun Zala in the Infinite Justice. At the end of "Final Plus", Lunamaria is present with Shinn alongside Athrun and Meyrin, Kira and Lacus as he pays tribute to his deceased family in Orb. After Shinn makes peace with Kira, Lunamaria and Shinn then smile at each other and then leave together.

In Gundam SEED Destiny: Special Edition, Lunamaria is seen with Shinn and Meyrin, who were traveling to an important meeting between Lacus Clyne and the PLANT Supreme Council.

Trivia

 * Lunamaria's bad aiming (the scene where she missed Djibril's shuttle in particular, not her terrible pistol aim) became a running gag in Super Robot Wars series. Her status always has more melee points despite her using the Gunner ZAKU and the Accuracy command either costs her more SP than usual or learned very late. In SD Gundam G Generation Wars, Luna initially has 25 points in melee but only 13 in shooting. The gap however isn't as severe in certain SRWs.
 * Her ZAKU Warriors are similar looking to Char Aznable's MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type. In Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, Lunamaria commonly pilots Char's Zaku as her default machine.
 * Lunamaria's relationship with Shinn after Stella died mirrors that of Fa Yuiry's relationship with Kamille Bidan in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
 * Lunamaria's English voice actor Maryke Hendrikse also voiced Spitfire in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which is much stranger considering that Chantal Strand voiced Diamond Tiara, Matt Hill voiced Soarin' and Tabitha St. Germain voiced Rarity. Who in turn, those actors portrayed Lacus Clyne, Kira Yamato and Flay Allster.
 * In August 8, 2011, Lunamaria's voice actress Maaya Sakamoto got married to Kenichi Suzumura, none other than Shinn Asuka's voice actor.