| “ | I am really a man who can make the impossible possible. | „ |
| ~ Mu la Flaga's last word during Jachin Due |
Mu La Flaga is a major supporting character in Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny and Gundam SEED Freedom.
He was voiced by Takehito Koyasu in Japanese and Trevor Devall in the Ocean Group Dub of the anime series and later the Gundam SEED Freedom film and Tom Wayland in NYAV Post redub for the HD Remastered version of both anime series.
Personality
Mu has a carefree and boastful spirit. He is lighthearted and friendly, willing to accept a Coordinator like Kira Yamato into the crew of the Archangel. Mu does not show any actual hatred towards Coordinators, but is genuinely surprised and impressed by their abilities at their peak. Mu is casually boastful of his abilities, with his motto being that he can make "the impossible possible". Mu also tends to be somewhat of a ladies' man, being very friendly to the females aboard the Archangel and often making nicknames for them.
When Mu is brainwashed by Logos and becomes Neo Roanoke, his personality drastically changes. He becomes more of a leader to his subordinates aboard the Girty Lue. Although a ruthless and cunning leader, Neo commands a great deal of trust from his subordinates; he demonstrates some sympathy for the Extended pilots, who are viewed as equipment by most of the Earth Alliance Forces.
However, he is not above manipulating them and does so upon orders from Djibril or for the sake of their performance in battle. These incidents include but are not limited to: Wiping memories of Stella from Sting and Auel after her capture and promising Shinn that he would not send Stella to battle before immediately having her pilot the GFAS-X1 Destroy Gundam. Despite this, he still deeply cares for the trio, expressing shock and horror at Auel's death and sadness over Stella's demise.
Neo is considered the complete opposite of Mu, willing to deceive others in order to achieve his goals. However, it is interesting to note that Neo talks in the same light-hearted manner as Mu and makes similar silly comments. Once Neo defects to Orb, he tends to take more of a supportive role to Athrun and Kira as he tries to regain his memories
Background
Mu was born to an aristocratic family. However, his father, Al Da Flaga, believed he was "genetically impure" because of the DNA of his "inferior mother"; Seeking a new successor, Al had himself cloned. Both of Mu's parents later died when their home was burnt down by his father's clone.
Mu later joined the military and eventually become a veteran mobile armor ace, and a longtime rival of ZAFT officer Rau Le Creuset, with whom he demonstrates a strange extrasensory connection. He is famous in many parts of the Cosmic Era universe as the "Hawk of Endymion" for destroying five ZGMF-1017 GINN mobile suits with his TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero mobile armor at the Battle of Endymion Crater, a feat previously considered impossible. However, Mu knows that this title is nothing more than a formality just to cover up what had actually happened in the battle.
The Battle of Endymion Crater also leaves him as the only remaining OMNI pilot capable of handling the Moebius Zero, the wire-guided gunbarrels of which require a high degree of spatial awareness not commonly possessed by Naturals.
Skills and Abilities
His high spatial awareness allows him to be extremely proficient in employing the remotely controlled gunbarrels of the TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero; he was part of a very small group of pilots capable of handling the Moebius Zero, and the only one of those to survive the Battle of Endymion Crater. He uses these abilities to effectively duel Dearka Elsman's GAT-X103 Buster Gundam even though his Moebius Zero is less powerful and less technologically advanced, and later against Shinn Asuka's ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam and Rey Za Burrel's ZGMF-1001/M Blaze ZAKU Phantom as Neo using the TS-MA4F Exus, Moebius Zero's newly-created successor.
His mobile suit piloting skill is also excellent, and he was able to dispatch the normal grunt units with ease. However, it was only until he received the ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam, which could be equipped with remote weaponry, was he able to unleash his full potential while piloting a mobile suit.
Throughout his war record, he has been noted to have an extrasensory link towards Rau Le Creuset as Mu, and Rey Za Burrel as Neo. Although he did not sense it, Kira seems to also have a one-sided link to this, being able to trace Neo during their encounters at Dardanelles and Berlin.
History
First Alliance-PLANT War.
Battleof Heliopolis
Lieutenant Mu La Flaga was assigned to escort the five specially-trained Earth Alliance Forces pilots to the colony of Heliopolis, where five GAT-X mobile suits were in development. However, the pilots and the intended captain of the assault ship Archangel are killed in ZAFT's assault, and the ship Mu had been assigned to was also destroyed. He engages Rau Le Creuset in battle in his Moebius Zero and, when the Zero is damaged, Mu joins the crew of the Archangel. Although he is the most senior surviving Earth Alliance Forces officer, he declines command of the ship and instead encourages Lieutenant Murrue Ramius to take the role of captain, allowing him to continue piloting the Moebius Zero in the Archangel's defense.
While on the Archangel, Mu advises the protagonist, Kira Yamato, on the finer points of both mobile suit combat and coping with the stress of a combatant's life. He also provides the benefit of his greater experience to Murrue, contributing a great deal of the strategies employed by the Archangel early in the series, and serving as a pragmatic midpoint between Murrue's idealism and combat commander Natarle Badgiruel's strict reliance on military regulations.
Desert Dawn
The Desert Dawn is a resistance group of guerrilla fighters, led by Sahib Ashman and members recruited from nearby towns like Tassil, Moula, and the city of Banadiya. This rebel group of Arabs are mostly from Arab Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. Their main enemy was the ZAFT Northern African Occupation force, led by Andrew Waltfeld. They were later assisted by the Archangel Corps to free North Africa from ZAFT control during the First Alliance-PLANT War.
Refuge at Orb
Operation Spitbreak
Upon the Archangel's arrival at JOSH-A, Mu is transferred off of the ship and ostensibly assigned a position as a flight instructor in California. However, at the last minute he chooses to temporarily not board his transport yet and turns back, possibly because of his growing romantic rapport with Murrue. As a result, he was able to discover both ZAFT's impending attack and the Cyclops system installed beneath the base; his return to the Archangel to warn its crew, along with Kira's arrival in the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, enables the ship to survive the battle and the detonation of the base.
Battle of Orb
Following the incident at Alaska, he and his crewmates defect from the Earth Alliance, and the Archangel takes refuge at Orb. There they have a conversation with Uzumi Nara Athha about what has been going on, and the crew rest in Orb and take time to reflect.
However, their peace in the santuary is short-lived when the Blue Cosmos-controlled Earth Alliance threaten the Orb Union for their Mass Driver, after the one in Panama gets destroyed. Shortly before the Battle of Orb, he began an openly romantic relationship with Murrue. The Archangel allies with the Orb Union, and he moves out in the rebuilt Strike Gundam, engaging his former allies now enemies.
In the final battle, he and the rest of the Archangel retreat to outer space while Kira and Athrun hold off the Earth Forces to help in the escape.
In the HD Remastered version of Gundam SEED, Flaga pilots the GAT-X105+AQM/E-YM1 Perfect Strike Gundam, a combination of the Strike Gundam and three of its Striker Packs, during his first battle in Orb. However, after this, he abandons it in favor of the separate packs.
Rise of the Three Ships Alliance
Later, during the Battle of Mendel, him and Kira confront Rau Le Creuset at the abandoned Mendel colony and learn of Rau's origins as a clone of Mu's father Al Da Flaga, explaining their extrasensory awareness of one another and the root of Rau's plans to guide humanity into wiping itself out.
Battle of Boaz
Operation Peacemaker
Following the destruction of Boaz, he would aid protecting the PLANTs from the nuclear attack force.
Enraged at the attack on their homeland, ZAFT returns fire with GENESIS, and Mu and his team would witness the destructive power.
Second Battle of Jachin Due
Mu was apparently killed at the Second Battle Jachin Due when the Strike is destroyed shildeing the Archangel's main bridge from the Dominion's "Lohengrin" positron cannon. However, in the Gundam SEED: Special Edition compilation of the series, the footage of the destroyed Strike was edited so that Mu's helmet no longer appeared amidst the wreckage, retconning his death from definite to assumed in order to allow for his return in sequel series Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
Second Alliance-PLANT War
As Neo Roanoke
Neo Roanoke (ネオ・ロアノーク Neo Roanōku?) is introduced in Gundam SEED Destiny as a captain in the Earth Alliance Forces 81st Autonomous Mobile Group, commonly known as the Phantom Pain. In this capacity he takes orders from Lord Djibril and is in direct command of the three Extended pilots Sting Oakley, Stella Loussier, and Auel Neider. Neo and his stealth warship, the Girty Lue, engage in repeated battles with the ZAFT battleship Minerva over the course of the series, including interfering in ZAFT's efforts to prevent the Seven colony drop.
Although a ruthless and cunning leader, Neo commands a great deal of trust from his subordinates; he demonstrates some sympathy for the Extended pilots, who are viewed as equipment by most of the Earth Alliance Forces. However, he also manipulates them over the course of the series, and repeatedly breaks promises made to or involving them at orders from Djibril. He allows Stella's memories of being rescued by Shinn Asuka to be erased, after promising her he would not; later in the series he assigns Stella as the pilot of the GFAS-X1 Destroy Gundam after promising Shin that he would not send her into battle again, and plays on her fears to encourage her to fight, an action which leads to Stella's death at the Battle of Berlin.
True identity
Because of the mask he wears, Neo's face is not revealed until late in the series. Initially he pilots a TS-MA4F Exus mobile armor which is very similar in design to Mu's Moebius Zero, albeit more refined. In skirmishes with ZAFT during the Armory One incident, Neo demonstrates an extrasensory awareness of Rey Za Burrel similar to Mu's awareness of Rau Le Creuset; in battles in later episodes, Kira Yamato also displays a degree of similar awareness of Neo. Kira's recognition of Neo prompts him to disable Neo's GAT-04 Windam during the Battle of Berlin; Neo is unmasked in the process, and Murrue Ramius, observing his striking resemblance to Mu, brings him on board the Archangel.
The crew of the Archangel determine that Neo's physical data is a 100% match to their records of Mu. Neo initially denies being Mu or knowing anything about him; however, over the course of the next ten episodes there are several instances in which he demonstrates a degree of unconscious familiarity with the ship, as well as having a knee-jerk emotional reaction to Murrue's presence, resulting in growing confusion about his identity.
Second Battle of Orb
Ultimately, however, after Murrue releases him from the Archangel and provides him with a FX-550 Skygrasper for transportation, Neo chooses to return to support the Archangel against the Minerva during the Second Battle of Orb, much to Murrue's surprise and delight, in the course of which he repeats Mu's assertion that he can "make the impossible possible" and has a brief flashback of the emergency landing Mu made on the Archangel during the Battle of JOSH-A. Following the battle, Neo confides in Murrue his doubts about his identity, confessing that he's returned because something within him knows about her, and asking to remain on board the Archangel. Murrue consents to his request, and Neo is thereafter commissioned as a captain in Orb's military.
Recovered Memories
Neo is given the ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam from Cagalli Yula Athha when the Archangel returns to space and docks at Copernicus City. He goes to Kira, Athrun, Lacus, and Meyrin's rescue, when they run into an attempted assassination on Lacus on a recon mission. However, as he arrives in the Akatsuki, Meer Campbell, is shot dead by her own bodyguard. Neo later regrets for not getting there in time, as he speaks with Murrue about that incident.
Battle of Messiah
During the attack on Station One, he uses the Akatsuki to protect the Archangel from the Minerva's Tannhäuser positron cannon in a mirror of the events of the Second Battle of Jachin Due; this time, the Akatsuki's reflective armor enables the Mobile Suit to survive the blast, and in the process, Neo regains his memories as Mu. Speaking to Murrue, he promises never to leave her again. Following the destruction of Station One, the recovered Mu joins Athrun Zala in destroying the Requiem before it can be fired upon Orb.
At the end of Gundam SEED Destiny: Special Edition, Mu and Murrue are seen together at Orb, watching the sunset.
Trivia
- Mu's voice actor Takehito Koyasu has also voiced Zechs Merquise from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Additionally, Mu as his Neo Roanoke persona bears many similarities to Zechs: both are the Earth based Char-clone with exceptional skills and wear similar shell shape masks, albeit polar opposite personalities. Additionally, Koyasu also voiced Gym Ghingham from Turn A Gundam and Frederick Algreus from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE.
- Mu's original English voice actor Trevor Devall is the only voice actor from the original Ocean Group dub to reprise his role for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom.
Quote
| “ | Hurry! We're not exactly done fighting!" Kojiro: "I know! Man, is this ship cursed, or what?" | „ |
| ~ Mu La Flaga |
| “ | Don't worry. You guys can win. Because I have the knack of making the impossible, possible. | „ |
| ~ My La Flaga |
| “ | It's tiring being the man who makes the impossible possible... | „ |
| ~ Mu La Flaga |
Gallery
To be added