OVA
Description
Milliardo Peacecraft, known also by the alias Zechs Merquise, is a central figure in the After Colony timeline of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and its sequel Endless Waltz. Born as the eldest child of King Peacecraft and Queen Katrina of the Sanc Kingdom, a nation committed to total pacifism, his early life was defined by the ideals of peace championed by his father and the colonial leader Heero Yuy. When the United Earth Sphere Alliance invaded the Sanc Kingdom when Milliardo was seventeen, his parents were killed and the royal palace was destroyed. His infant sister Relena was secretly taken to safety, while Milliardo escaped the carnage. Devastated by the loss, he abandoned his birth name, donned a silver mask, and assumed the alias Zechs Merquise, infiltrating the very military organization responsible for his family’s death—the Alliance and later OZ—to exact revenge from within.
As Zechs, he trained under Treize Khushrenada at the Victoria Academy and quickly rose to become OZ’s most elite mobile suit pilot, earning the nickname the Lightning Count for his exceptional speed and precision in combat. His early motivations were driven by vengeance, but as he climbed the ranks and eventually achieved his revenge by executing the officer who led the attack on his kingdom, he found himself increasingly conflicted. Despite his reputation as a fearsome soldier, Zechs felt deep pride and self‑loathing, believing that his life as a warrior had betrayed the pacifist legacy of his father. This internal conflict shaped much of his personality: outwardly stoic and chivalric, he was inwardly tormented by guilt and a sense of unworthiness. When his mask shattered in battle, he symbolically shed his OZ identity and began to reclaim his true name, Milliardo Peacecraft, hoping to become an ambassador for peace for the restored Sanc Kingdom.
However, his attempts at diplomacy were short‑lived. After the Sanc Kingdom was destroyed a second time, a disillusioned Milliardo was approached by Quinze Quarante and accepted leadership of the colonial rebel group White Fang. In this role, he sought an extreme solution to end all war: he planned to drop the massive battleship Libra onto Earth, triggering a nuclear winter that would force humanity to abandon conflict out of sheer devastation. This radical plan placed him in direct opposition to the Gundam pilots, especially his longtime rival Heero Yuy. His rivalry with Heero was central to his development; each meeting deepened their mutual respect and philosophical clash over the nature of peace and sacrifice. In their final battle during the Eve Wars, Milliardo was spared by Heero, and rather than let Heero self‑destruct to destroy the remains of Libra, he sacrificed himself, apparently dying in the explosion.
In Endless Waltz, set a year later in After Colony 196, Milliardo is revealed to have survived. Believing his hands were still too stained with blood to truly find peace, he nonetheless returns when a new conflict arises, joining the Earth Sphere Unified Nation’s peacekeeping organization, the Preventers, under the codename Wind. He fights alongside his trusted friend and eventual wife Lucrezia Noin, piloting the Tallgeese III to oppose the remnants of the Barton Foundation without killing anyone. This return marks his final arc: having once sought peace through devastating force, he now chooses to protect peace directly, though he remains a figure haunted by his past. His notable abilities include his unparalleled piloting skill, which allowed him to master the dangerous prototype mobile suit Tallgeese, the Gundam Epyon with its ZERO System, and later the Tallgeese III. He was also a capable strategist and leader, inspiring fierce loyalty in followers like Noin and the White Fang. His key relationships include his sister Relena, whose pacifist ideals he both admires and feels unworthy to embrace; Treize Khushrenada, his mentor and friend whose philosophy of honorable warfare shaped much of his own; and Heero Yuy, his destined rival who ultimately mirrored his own struggles. Through his journey from masked avenger to radical peace‑maker to repentant protector, Milliardo Peacecraft remains a complex figure defined by the tension between the warrior he became and the prince he was born to be.
As Zechs, he trained under Treize Khushrenada at the Victoria Academy and quickly rose to become OZ’s most elite mobile suit pilot, earning the nickname the Lightning Count for his exceptional speed and precision in combat. His early motivations were driven by vengeance, but as he climbed the ranks and eventually achieved his revenge by executing the officer who led the attack on his kingdom, he found himself increasingly conflicted. Despite his reputation as a fearsome soldier, Zechs felt deep pride and self‑loathing, believing that his life as a warrior had betrayed the pacifist legacy of his father. This internal conflict shaped much of his personality: outwardly stoic and chivalric, he was inwardly tormented by guilt and a sense of unworthiness. When his mask shattered in battle, he symbolically shed his OZ identity and began to reclaim his true name, Milliardo Peacecraft, hoping to become an ambassador for peace for the restored Sanc Kingdom.
However, his attempts at diplomacy were short‑lived. After the Sanc Kingdom was destroyed a second time, a disillusioned Milliardo was approached by Quinze Quarante and accepted leadership of the colonial rebel group White Fang. In this role, he sought an extreme solution to end all war: he planned to drop the massive battleship Libra onto Earth, triggering a nuclear winter that would force humanity to abandon conflict out of sheer devastation. This radical plan placed him in direct opposition to the Gundam pilots, especially his longtime rival Heero Yuy. His rivalry with Heero was central to his development; each meeting deepened their mutual respect and philosophical clash over the nature of peace and sacrifice. In their final battle during the Eve Wars, Milliardo was spared by Heero, and rather than let Heero self‑destruct to destroy the remains of Libra, he sacrificed himself, apparently dying in the explosion.
In Endless Waltz, set a year later in After Colony 196, Milliardo is revealed to have survived. Believing his hands were still too stained with blood to truly find peace, he nonetheless returns when a new conflict arises, joining the Earth Sphere Unified Nation’s peacekeeping organization, the Preventers, under the codename Wind. He fights alongside his trusted friend and eventual wife Lucrezia Noin, piloting the Tallgeese III to oppose the remnants of the Barton Foundation without killing anyone. This return marks his final arc: having once sought peace through devastating force, he now chooses to protect peace directly, though he remains a figure haunted by his past. His notable abilities include his unparalleled piloting skill, which allowed him to master the dangerous prototype mobile suit Tallgeese, the Gundam Epyon with its ZERO System, and later the Tallgeese III. He was also a capable strategist and leader, inspiring fierce loyalty in followers like Noin and the White Fang. His key relationships include his sister Relena, whose pacifist ideals he both admires and feels unworthy to embrace; Treize Khushrenada, his mentor and friend whose philosophy of honorable warfare shaped much of his own; and Heero Yuy, his destined rival who ultimately mirrored his own struggles. Through his journey from masked avenger to radical peace‑maker to repentant protector, Milliardo Peacecraft remains a complex figure defined by the tension between the warrior he became and the prince he was born to be.