I think the further development of the Zabis that you talk about was as enjoyable for me as Char’s own. I do enjoy a good tale of the politics of power, along with Gihren’s very obvious fascist leanings I think it’s interesting how many other parallels to real world rulers and power struggles can be drawn.
The origin (ha) of Zeon itself strikes me as having a lot in common with African and South American nations as they struggled against their colonial rulers. Deikun himself has the air of a revolutionary independence leader with genuine convictions, while Degwin (and, I think, Kycillia) sees an independent Zeon as a vehicle for their own personal power and enrichment without much regard for ideology at all, which brings to mind situations like Mobutu’s brutal toppling of Lumumba in the Congo.
Dozle and Garma meanwhile are more like Stalin loyalists in the USSR, convinced through naïveté, stubbornness or selective blindness that they’re still pursuing the same noble goals of the revolution even while evidence to the contrary starts mounting. And Gihren is obviously the most dangerous of all as a man of conviction, but of horrifying conviction.
In this regard, I think The Origin makes Char’s story even sadder. With his initial thirst for revenge leading him to commit some pretty questionable actions, to his soul-searching and moderation following the events of MSG, and finally his end as very nearly another Gihren when he comes to believe it impossible to accomplish his goals by any other means. His entire life, really, was lived for his father, but Deikun himself never really had to deal with the realities of conflict and leadership the way Char did, so his idealism was always going to be impossible for him to live up to.
