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Mobile
Suit(s) of Choice: Gundam Sandrock
Mobile Suits
Piloted: Gundam Sandrock, Gundam Wing Zero, Mercurius, Taurus,
Aries
Sex: Male
Age: 15
Allegiance(s): Colonies
"You guys are
afraid of dying, aren't you....well, in that case, YOU
SHOULDN'T BE FIGHITNG AT ALL!"
~Quatre Raberba Winner
Quatre
Raberba Winner, the Actual Person
Kind hearted, caring, and loving, if you were to receive
mercy from a Gundam pilot (or at least the opportunity for
mercy), it would be from Quatre. Having the ability to appreciate
true beauty, Quatre brings something on to the battlefield...an
alien presence that may not belong in such a setting. Or maybe
it's exactly what bloodstained battlegrounds need...
The thing that Quatre brings on to the battlefield is kindness. He fights not to complete the mission with striking efficiency, not to satisfy his own sense of integrity, not to kill or maim, but to benefit others. Even to his enemies, he is remarkably kind. He always gives them the opportunity to surrender (even though very few enemies accept his offer) and never kills if he can avoid it.
When people started to colonize space, the change in surroundings caused certain problems that began to cause birth defects in newborn babies. For a while, babies had to be born of test tubes in order to avoid the birth defects, but eventually the people began to adapt. However, the Winner family, which had been living in space since the colonies had been founded, were still suffering the effects of defective births. Quatre's parents, however, (especially his mother, Quaterine) were determined to have a genuine baby of their own. And they did....at the cost of Quaterine's life.
Quatre grew up to be a sulky, rude, mean, non-caring teenager. Attending an endless pity party for himself, all he did was brood over the "fact" that he was a test tube baby. One day, while on a shuttle headed for the Earth, Quatre ran into the group of criminals known as the Maganac Corp. They hijacked his plane, just as they had hijacked numerous other Winner satellites in space. Quatre, however, couldn't have cared less. When his father asked Rashid, the leader of the Maganacs, if he could talk to Quatre, Quatre once again danced across the delicate subject of "being a test tube baby." Rashid slapped him across the face.
Quatre was amazed and stupefied. Rashid explained himself by ordering Quatre to have more pride in himself, then revealed that he himself was spawned from a test tube. Quatre just stared in wonder.
While on one of the satellites, still a "hostage" of the Maganacs, Quatre met Instructor H. Instructor H told Quatre about the Maganac Corp., all of which were test tube babies. Then, as he was leaving, he notified Quatre that he might have to come and hide out at his place sometime. He hoped he would be ready then. Quatre just watched him go.
Then Quatre overheard Judas, a Maganac Corps soldier, revealing their location to the Federation over a radio. He put Judas out of commission, tied him up, and presented him to the Maganac soldiers who were, of course, furious. Suddenly, Judas broke free of his guns, grabbed the gun from the belt of a nearby Maganac, and fired at Rashid. Quatre, sensing this, jumped in-between Rashid in the bullet, but he was only able to stifle the blow - the bullet ended up hitting both Quatre's shoulder and Rashid.
Suddenly, Federation Leo troops approached their location. Quatre volunteered to fight in place of Rashid, and when it looked like the odds were completely in the Federation's favor, Quatre offered to draw and destroy the entire enemy by himself so that the Maganac Corps could escape. As they escaped, Quatre promised he would meet the Maganac Corps again, and Rashid ordered that Quatre Raberba Winner be forever known as Quatre-sama - or, Lord/Master Quatre.
Quatre, backed by both his family's aristocracy and the support of the Maganac Corps, seems to never fight completely alone. He's always got the company of his fellow soldiers, and the sometimes hesitant support of his own family.
Early on in the series, Quatre forms a strong bond with the cold introvert, Trowa Barton. When the two meet at the Corsica Base, their first instinct is to fight, although both are completely aware that it's not the right thing to do. Its Quatre who finally gets out of his Gundam and tells Trowa, who then exits his own Gundams with his hands in the air, that they shouldn't be fighting. Quatre then tells Trowa to put his hands down.
Trowa often tries to ignore Quatre. When Quatre offers to travel with him to the New Edward's base, Trowa turns him down at first - but apparently, he gives in, since the two arrive side by side at their destined location. However, when push comes to shove, the true bond and love between the two of them really shines. When Quatre was going off the deep end and under the control of Zero System, it was Trowa's noble sacrifice and a riveting speech that was finally able to reel Quatre back in to sanity. And when Trowa was suffering amnesia, Quatre was there by his side to help him through it.
When Quatre escapes into space, he ends up arriving at his father's front door. His father, a pacifist and aristocrat, was not too happy with the violent behavior in which Quatre has been acting, and was very harsh to Quatre on the outside. But, to Quatre's surprise, his sister, Iria, tells him that their father has actually been cheering Quatre on since the very beginning.
Its around that time that Oz tricks the colonies into thinking that the Winners have been acting as dictators of the natural resource satellites, when in truth they have been practically giving resources away. Oz actually just wanted to use the satellites as weapon manufacturing bases, and Mr. Winner saw this. Having been thrown out of office as the head of the natural resource satellites, he walks to the nearest one, detaches it from the colony, and begins floating it off into space.
Quatre and Iria chase after him in a shuttle, trying to get him to back out of what he's doing, but he's adamant. When Quatre tells him to run away, his father bows his head and says that what he's doing is escaping. Suddenly, the beam cannons equipped on the colony open fire and destroy the drifting satellite.
Quatre watches in terror. Realizing that the colonies are satisfied with such a turn of events, he snaps. It is then that, after finding blue prints left behind by Instructor H, he builds Wing Zero and uses it to destroy colony after colony. However, his kindness shows through as he announces the colonies he'll be destroying, giving the innocent adequate time to evacuate. Hiiro and Trowa, Hiiro being held captor by Oz and Trowa posing as an Oz officer, soon both show up and battle with Quatre in the insanely powerful Wing Zero. It is then that Trowa's sacrifice is made and Quatre comes to his senses.
Throughout the rest of the series, Quatre fights with one goal in mind - the overall well being of humanity. Equipped with his greatest weapons - kindness, strength, pity, and love - Quatre fights alongside the other four Gundam pilots, struggling in delicious irony for a world devoid of war.
"To outer space!
Every one of us!"
~Quatre Raberba Winner
Quatre
Raberba Winner's Mobile Suit Piloting Skills
As with all the other Gundam pilots, one of the main reasons
Quatre was even chosen for the job was because of his outstanding
skills behind the controls of a mobile suit. As shown in his
backstory (which can be read in this bio if you scroll up, if you
haven't already), Quatre was able to just leap into a mobile suit
(probably for his first time) and single handedly beat a fleet of
Oz soldiers. Or, at least, that's what we assume. Whether he
defeated them or ended up fleeing, the amazing thing is that he
survived.
Quatre, being the loving, caring guy he is, is very much in love with his Gundam, Sandrock. And it seems as though Sandrock is very much in love with its pilot, as well. When Quatre self destructed in order to distract forces from Duo and Wu Fei's shuttles, Sandrock stopped moving - all on its own, not with Quatre controlling it to do so or anything - opened up the cockpit, hovered the shield over the open door to protect him, and then set him down on the ground. Then, without a pilot, the giant robot walked forward and self destructued.
Quatre also has no difficulty when faced with mobile suit variation. He's flown numerous suits before, those of which range all over the power scale. No matter where the suits place on that scale, however, Quatre fights in it with exceptional skill.
"Its
beautiful....really beautiful. Do they know how beautiful Earth
is...?"
~Quatre Raberba Winner
PJ's
Opinion of Quatre Raberba Winner
Quatre is a very important role in this series. The show simply
couldn't have gotten from point A to point B and expressed the
message it had to give on war without his presence. Quatre
represents every kind person that's ever been thrust into a
battlefield and found himself holding a bloodied knife afterword,
every combatant that kills not because he wants to but because he
has to, every warrior that fights even though they're completely
aware that this could all be resolved in a much simpler, less
violent way.
And not only that, I like Quatre a lot. Sure, sometimes his whining can get sort of annoying, but a lot of the time he's a great guy to have around. He's always thinking rational, he avoids killing when he has to (and wiith so many characters that are so damn obsessed with killing, its nice to see some variation), and he's very well developed. The episodes where Quatre creates Wing Zero and goes insane while piloting it are simply wonderful for his character development.
Its also fun to see all the relationships Quatre develops - he seems to be an all around loved guy. Hiiro, Trowa, Duo, Noin, even Dorothy, and many more all seem to fall in love with Mr. Winner. The only pet peeve I have about his character (besides the annoyance of some of his whining) is that I would have liked to have seen more of his relationship with Dorothy. That would have been a nice development.....ah, well.
Maybe in Endless Waltz....?
"Just trying to
crush the brains first."
~Zechs Merquise, upon explaining his constant attacking of Quatre
Written by PJ