Amy Zimbalist (エイミー・ジンバリスト Eimī Jinbarisuto?) is a character introduced the side stories of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. As shown in 00V, Amy is an ace mobile suit pilot for the United Nations Forces, and later for the Earth Sphere Federation Forces. His main mobile suit is the GNX-604T Advanced GN-X.
Personality & Character[]
Amy Zimbalist is a very sophisticated young man and donned a sweet and easy-going persona. Off the battlefield, he is a ladies man and is very flirtatious with women. It is also implied that he holds long grudges, as seen when he has a desire to take out Celestial Being during the ELS War despite their common enemy.
Skills & Abilities[]
Amy Zimbalist started off as an atrocious MS pilot, he could barely get a Shell Flag to walk. However, his piloting skills were found to be more compatible with GN Drive-type Mobile Suits and was allowed to pilot one of the rare Advanced GN-Xs. By A.D. 2314, despite the Advanced GN-X being three generations older than the new GNX-803T GN-XIV, Amy kept piloting it, unwilling to have it be converted into the latter.
History[]
- Note: The events listed below may not be in chronological orders.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00V[]
Volume.009[]
There is probably not a person in the world who hasn’t heard the name Amy Zimbalist. This hero of the UN Forces earned the nickname “Steel Cowboy” from his fans and “Devil of Unification” by his detractors. He came into prominence after Celestial Being was defeated. The UN’s plan for the unification of the world included the abolition of national military forces - a mission in which Amy distinguished himself and was soon recognized as an ace pilot and assigned an GNX-604T Advanced GN-X.
His nickname of "Steel Cowboy" came about due to his unique piloting style with the Advanced GN-X. His Advanced GN-X has customized internal settings, with the safety limiters of all its vernier systems disabled. This resulted in the mobile suit moving wildly around the battlefield like a runaway horse. Generally, such an unstable machine is incapable of effective combat, but Amy has no issue controlling his Advanced GN-X and this resulted in the nickname. Due to his excellent performance in mobile suit combat, some even referred to him as a "Gundam reborn".
Volume.011[]
A gorgeous, mysterious, Chinese lady suddenly appeared before Amy and asked if he was interested in battling a Gundam in a simulator as part of a game. Amy was hesitant at first but accepted the invitation when the lady goaded him by saying that he is letting his "Steel Cowboy" nickname down. During the simulation, Amy piloted his Advanced GN-X and his enemy is an unknown Gundam with seven swords and two GN Drives. Unfortunately, Amy was swiftly defeated when he was caught off-guard by one of the Gundam's weapons, and he was visibly upset when coming out of the simulator.
The lady thanked Amy for his help and remarked that they had obtained sufficient data. She then asked him to keep the day's event to himself and noted that telling others about it would only put him in a negative light. Several months later, Amy heard about the Celestial Being's revival and and finally understood the lady's parting words. He then identified one of the new Gundams deployed by the Celestial Being as being similar to one he battled in the simulator, and realized that he had unknowingly assisted in the Gundam's development.
Volume.012[]
The ESF had Amy participate in a mock battle against the MSJ-06II-ED Tieren Zhizhu, a mobile suit that specializes in protecting the Orbital Elevators. With this mock battle, the ESF wanted to show that even an ace pilot like Amy cannot penetrate the Orbital Elevator's defense. After several minutes of tensed stalemate, Amy and his Advanced GN-X gave up, admitting defeat. However, days later, Amy told Robert Spacey in an interview that he would have destroy the Orbital Elevator if he was being serious, and this resulted in Amy being severely reprimanded by his superiors.
Volume.013[]
Amy and his Advanced GN-X was sent to a remote asteroid base as punishment for his various misconducts that put the ESF in a bad light. The base was later attacked by the GN-006/SA Cherudim Gundam SAGA, which moved swiftly through the cramped interiors. Aware that the base's narrow passageways do not suit his combat style, Amy decided to wait outside for the Gundam. Amy attacked the Cherudim SAGA as soon as it appears, and thought that his chance had arrived when the Gundam's rifle ran out of ammo after a few shots. However, the Gundam quickly switched to a new gun, and this repeated several times, causing a frustrated Amy to yell that the Gundam was cheating. Amy's Advanced GN-X then reached the operating limit of its GN Drive-Tau and powers down, but the Gundam did not attack further and quietly left.
Volume.014[]
Assigned to the anti-CB reconnaissance team, Amy embarked on a solo operation in the GNX-704T/FS Ahead Forcing Scout Type. After spending nearly a week in the mobile suit, Amy lamented about how the isolation is taking a mental toll on him. He also questioned why the cockpit is not enlarged further to fit two people, and felt that the small space would be useful to deepen relationships, bringing about love. Amy did not think that his fellow passenger might not be a female. His mobile suit was reaching its limits too, and he decided to disregard his superior's order to not return until he located the secret CB base. Unexpectedly, the Ahead Forcing Scout Type's sensors detected a weak heat source within an asteroid. Amy then delivered a warning as per protocol and when there was no reply, he used all of his machine's remaining particles to fire the GN Beam Cannons, destroying the asteroid. At the same time, his machine completely lost its ability to move. He then send out a distress signal, and prayed that his comrades would soon arrive to rescue him.
Volume.015[]
Amy and his Advance GN-X fought Klaus Grado in his personal AEU-09/LS Klaus's AEU Enact Landstriker Package. Klaus had the purpose of separating Amy, who was guarding the base, and in the gap Katharon blew up the base. After the fight, Amy found out that his opponent, Klaus, belongs to the Katharon's third Middle East branch, and swore that he would take revenge on him. However, they never met again.
Volume.019[]
Amy volunteered to replace Hiling Care for a mission to infiltrate and destroy a CB's island base. His reason for doing so was that he could not let a cute girl like her be sent on such a dangerous mission. Furthermore, he also felt that testing the GNX-612T/AA Superbia GN-X as part of the mission is akin to being in a coffin. This was the first time anyone had called Hiling "cute", and for a moment, she considered if she should let Amy pilot the Superbia GN-X. However, she decided against it as the machine contains Innovator's technology. Amy then sent her off with a worried expression on his face, and this made Hiling wondered how he would react when she returns from her mission.
Volume.021[]
Amy and Deborah were assigned to be the test pilots for Neo-Hed. After the test, Deborah gave the engineer her frank opinions on the mobile suit. "…Thank you". For the first time, the face of the engineer lit with happiness. But Amy said, "I think it's impossible that it doesn't have a damned head!". After this, the engineer said to Amy, "A head is nothing but a decoration!" They then ended up in a scuffle.
Special (Robot Damashii Product Tie-in Story)[]
Following the large-scale battle at Lagrange 2, the Celestial Being stopped conducting its activities publicly. Despite this, the ESF Forces continued to claim that the battle with the paramilitary organization would never end. This also served to give the ESF Forces an excuse for it to develop new mobile suits, even though it has publicized that it would be reducing its equipment. In fact, the ESF Forces had developed a new mobile suit to replace the GNX-609T GN-XIII. To compare this new machine's performance against existing machines', the two groups were sent on the same test mission. Amy and Deborah participated in this test with their respective Advanced GN-X and were grouped with a number of GN-XIII units as part of the existing machines group. During the test, the GN-XIII units dropped out one by one after felling for the same trap. However, thanks to Amy's and Deborah's skills, as well as the customizations to their Advanced GN-X, the pair evaded the trap and successfully cleared the test. In the end, they even achieved better results than the new machine, stunning the engineers.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00V: Battlefield Record[]
Mission 003[]
Deborah and Amy sortie against a PMC that refused to disarm and abide by the ESF's policies. Prior to sortieing, faulty parts were found in the GN Drive Tau of Deborah's Advanced GN-X and Amy offered his own machine's parts for the repair. Deborah launched in her Advanced GN-X and Amy ended up using a normal GN-X. Amy was later shot down, but his machine crashed into a concealed facility where the enemy leader was hiding. Honoring her bet that she would go out with Amy if he did something great during the mission, she went out with him to an opera the following day. However, she deliberately under dressed for the occasion, and the pair coincidentally met with Robert who then tagged along to the opera house.
Mission 006[]
Amy and his Advanced GN-X accidentally intruded on the GNY-001F2 Gundam Astraea Type F2 testing the new GN Hammer. The Gundam's pilot, Eco Calore, thought that this was part of the test and attacked the Advanced GN-X. On the other hand, Amy was furious for encountering the Gundam and complained about his bad luck. Although Amy managed to evade two attacks from the GN Hammer, he still found the weapon to be fearsome and was aware that a direct hit would severely damage his Advanced GN-X. To dispel his inner fear of the weapon, Amy broadcasted his identity and vows to defeat the Gundam. Lady luck then smiled on Amy, the Gundam began to falter in its movements and soon retreated.
Mission 012[]
Despite objections from the technician, Amy decided to sortie in his Advanced GN-X during the battle against the ELS. Amy's reason for sticking with the Advanced GN-X despite it being three generations older than the latest GN-XIV was simply because it had been with him through happiness and sadness. Amy was supposed to be among the first waves of mobile suit pilots to be deployed against the ELS, but due to a fight he had with his superior days earlier over a topic about "special pilots", he was thrown into the brig. He was supposed to stay in the brig for a few more days, but was released due to the urgency of the situation at hand. The technician took a look at Amy's Advanced GN-X and admitted quietly that it was not a bad machine, he then wished Amy good luck and left.
On the battlefield, Amy fought bravely against the ELS. He initially thought of ELS as "monsters", but upon looking at them found that it is more apt to call them "machines". Throughout the battle, Amy constantly received a message not to attack the Gundams, who were also fighting against the ELS. Amy could not help but think that he might unconsciously pull the trigger on the Gundams if they their back against him. Eventually, Amy found the battle with ELS boring and decided to look for a Gundam. While Amy was distracted and deep in his fantasy, his Advanced GN-X was hit in the back by an ELS mimic of the GN-XIV. Just as his machine was about to be hit again, a sniper shot took out the enemy unit. After the battle, Amy learnt that he was saved by a remote weaponry belonging to one of the Gundams.
Mission 017[]
Sometime after the end of the ELS conflict, a new conflict broke out between humans who were against the evolution of humanity into Innovators and those who were supportive of it. The ESF Forces was not spared, and broke into two factions that correspond to the two sides of the conflict. Amy was part of the ESF Forces faction supportive of the Innovators and fought against the opposition in his ageing Advanced GN-X. On his own, he fought against three GNX-805T/CF GN-XIV Core Fighter Loaded Types. Despite his superior piloting skills, he was hampered by his ageing mobile suit and was forced into a corner. As he was about to be defeated, several powerful, long-range beams suddenly appeared and took out the three enemy units. Zooming in at the source of the beam shots using the Advanced GN-X's optical sensors, Amy could make out the silhouette of a Gundam. Amy tried to take a closer look and moved the Advanced GN-X towards the Gundam, but the Gundam quickly left and was soon out of the Advanced GN-X's sensor range.
Relationships[]
- Robert Spacey
- Robert first met Amy, who was piloting a Shell Flag then, at the Union's Okinawa base right after the final battle with Celestial Being. Robert could never forget Amy's awful piloting then. It took Amy a huge effort just to get the Mobile Suit to walk. Later on, Amy's skills were found to be extremely well-matched to the specifics of piloting GN Drive-type machines.
Picture Gallery[]
Notes[]
References[]