Christina Mackenzie (クリスチーナ・マッケンジー Kurisuchīna Makkenjī?) is one of the main characters from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.
Personality & Character
Christina is a young woman of slim build, with long red hair, and green eyes. She is often seen wearing not overly feminine clothing, but is still considered to be very attractive by a good deal of men. In contrast to her delicate appearance, Chris is a strong individual, who can fend for herself, but is not without her soft moments. This is seen with her behavior towards her long time friend Alfred Izuruha. She is also very keen on protecting her loved ones, as she was willing to hit a man(later revealed to be Bernie), whom she thought was a burglar, over the head with a bat, since it was Alfred's house he was going into. Christina can thus be described as a motherly figure, both caring and protective of her friends.
Skills & Abilities
Christina's outer appearance deceives others into thinking she is harmless, but Christina is an exceptional pilot. While she is not a Newtype, she has proven herself to be very skilled on the battlefield: taking out several enemy mobile suits, despite being outnumbered. The fact that she came out of the top of her class, as well as being selected to test pilot the newest Gundam model is also a testament to her skill as a pilot and a soldier. Having been a babysitter at one point, Christina's other skills may include knowledge of how to raise or handle children as well as other domestic skills, such as cooking.
History
An Earth Federation First Lieutenant, Cristina Mackenzie is the mobile suit test pilot selected to test the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex" due to her exceptional piloting ability despite being a new graduate from the Academy. Her hometown is Side 6's Libot colony, the site of a secret Federation mobile suit R&D facility.
Chris is the neighbor and friend of Alfred Izuruha, being the closest thing to a big sister for Al. At the beginning of War in the Pocket, Chris just returns from Earth, and is assigned to collect field data for the new NT-1 unit, which is "designed for a pilot from White Base". One night, she sees a young man sneaking around Al's house, and thinking he's a burglar, she knocks him out from behind with a baseball bat. The man turns out to
Chris (right) and Bernie (left) first meet
be Bernard Wiseman, who Al claims is his "older brother". Despite the rocky start, Chris and Bernie get along well, and if the reaction of Chris' parents is any indication, their attraction to each other is fairly obvious. In a tragic twist of fate, Bernie is actually a Zeon soldier and a junior member of a commando team sent to the colony to destroy the Gundam Alex. Chris manages to fight off the attack, leaving most of the team dead. Bernie, the sole survivor of the battle, later launches a surprise attack on the Gundam in a lone Zaku.
Christina piloting the Gundam Alex
Chris launches to fight and is drawn into an ambush site, sustaining injuries herself and heavy damage to her Gundam. When the two mobile suits charge each other for a final attack, Chris impales the Zaku's cockpit with her beam saber and unknowingly kills Bernie. The resulting explosion also incapacitates the Gundam. Al, who comes in a rush to stop the fight, only arrives to witness the result of their battle.
After a brief recovery, she leaves the colony to head back to Earth. While bidding farewell to Al, she asks Al to say goodbye to Bernie for her. Al keeps the fact that Bernie was killed to himself.
Gallery
.jpg "Gundam Picture (26).jpg (853 KB)")
Notes & Trivia
- An Anaheim Electronics electronics employee resembling Chris can be seen briefly in the seventh episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, With Shining Blue Fire, although there hasn't been any confirmation it is her.[1]
- In Char's Counterattack, a scene towards the end features a group of people on a beach watching remains of the Asteroid Axis burn up in the atmosphere, one of whom is a woman referred to as "Chris" by one of the other beachgoers. However, according to the old Gundam Perfect Web, this person is actually "Christina", the leader of the Newtype cult group from the beginning of the movie.
In other media
- In the Mobile Suit Gundam 0080―Dissappeared Gundam NT game book, she is able to meet Sleggar Law and Tem Ray and, depending on the deployment, face off against Char Aznable, Johnny Ridden etc.
- Chris is tragically best known for unknowingly killing her love interest, Bernie. This is a powerful image, as it is easy to imagine similar tragedies occurring throughout the One Year War. As a result, she and Bernie appear quite often in other media that involves the Universal Century.
- She is among the Earth Federation characters that appear in the SD Gundam G Generation series of strategy games, and— depending on which title it is in the series— may kill Bernie as in the OVA, convince him to switch sides, or even not meet him on the battlefield at all.
- In the Gihren's Greed series of games, Chris appears on the Federation side. In the OVA, Chris was implied to be an exceptional pilot, and that is reflected in her statistics; her shooting stat, for example, is well above average. She appears once research on the Alex is complete, but may be temporarily unavailable due to injury (as depicted in Gundam 0080). On the Zeon side, it is possible for Bernie to successfully capture both the Alex and Chris. What becomes of Chris should this occur is unknown, but it is reasonable to assume she is held prisoner for the remainder of the war. In the Playstation Portable release of the game, Chris could potentially join the Titans if the player's alignment reaches Law.
- Chris also appears in the Playstation Portable game Gundam Battle Universe. Should the player choose to play as a Federation pilot in the 0079 campaign, she appears as an allied ace pilot in the mission 'War in the Pocket', a mission based on the OVA episode of the same name. In the mission, the player must defeat several Zeon mobile suits to trigger the simultaneous appearances of Chris in the Gundam Alex and enemy ace Mikhail Kaminsky in the MS-18E Kampfer. After the player has defeated Kaminsky, they must, with Chris, defeat Bernie's Zaku II Kai in a field full of large Santa balloons. After the successful completion of the mission, Chris becomes available as a guest pilot. Conversely, Chris is an enemy ace in the Zeon side mission 'War in the Pocket', whom the player and their partner must destroy with the aid of first Kaminsky and then Bernie. Chris appears as an enemy for the Zeon campaign in the mission 'The Glory of Solomon', piloting a GM mobile suit alongside Yuu Kajima. This seems to indicate Chris's reassignment as an active service combat pilot after her recovery, although this never occurs in the actual series or the OVA.
- Because Gundam 0080's Mobile Suits are generally weaker than the powerhouses of other Universal Century series, Bernie and Chris do not appear very often in the Super Robot Wars games. Chris is often part of the player's forces from the beginning, and Bernie may be convinced to join during the course of the game. They last appeared in Super Robot Wars GC/XO, where Chris shows Amuro Ray the Alex and the Gundam "G-3" and reprises her role in the OVA. In the sub-scenario of the stage depicting the demise of Bernie's squad, depending on the player's choice, Chris may either kill Bernie or cripple his Zaku and then convince him to join the player's side.
- Chris and Bernie often have special dialogue when facing each other on the battlefield. For example, in Mobile Suit Gundam: Lost War Chronicles, Chris exclaims "Bernie?! You're a Zeon?!"; while in Mobile Suit Gundam Climax U.C. Bernie calls on Chris to stop fighting as he doesn't want to hurt her.
- Chris and Bernie are also the unfortunate butt of many jokes in various 4-koma comics based on the Gundam and Super Robot Wars series, mostly surrounding the fact that while Chris pilots a Gundam in an army composing of other high-powered mobile suits, Bernie pilots a comparatively weak Zaku.
- In the final stage of Mobile Suit Gundam Climax U.C., where the player must battle the main Gundams of the U.C. Gundam series, Chris is notable as being the only female Gundam pilot.
References
- ↑ 『データガンダム キャラクター列伝［宇宙世紀編I］』角川書店、2010年4月、175頁。(ISBN 978-4047154452)
Exteral Links
War in the Pocket characters
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Earth Federation | Christina Mackenzie | Stuart | Richard Lumunba | |
| Principality of Zeon | Killing | Von Helsing | Charlie | Rugens | Carioca | |
| Cyclops Team | Bernard Wiseman | Hardie Steiner | Gabriel Ramirez Garcia | Mikhail Kaminsky | Andy Strauss | |
| Civilians | Alfred Izuruha | Chay | Telcott | Dolores Hayes | Mrs. Mackenzie | Mr. Mackenzie | Michiko Izuruha | Ems Izuruha | |
Template:Universal Century characters