Trowa Barton

Mobile Suit(s) of Choice: Gundam Heavyarms
Mobile Suits Piloted: Gundam Heavyarms, Gundam Wing, Gundam Wing Zero, Vayeate, Taurus

Sex: Male
Age: 17
Allegiance(s): Colonies

"Those who have laid eyes on a Gundam shall not live to tell about it."
~Trowa Barton

Trowa Barton, the Actual Person
Introverted and silent, Trowa Barton is a true stoic...almost to a fault. A man of few to no words, Trowa's expressionless face hardly ever changes, twisted almost eternally into a mask of loneliness, pain, and sorrow. Whenever he talks, he does it with striking efficiency, saying exactly what was needed in the perfect amount of words.

When sent to Earth, Trowa quickly hid himself by joining a circus act. Playing the role of a clown, he wears a mask that covers half of his face, yet still manages to express Trowa's feelings. The mask is of a smiling clown with a single tear falling from its eye.

Trowa is tall and upright, never slouching, his lips usually forming a straight line, his eyes seeing everything but seemingly nothing. He's strong, sure, but he really shines in his speed and agility - he can walk along a clothesline just as easily as he can walk down a sidewalk and he can jump over the arm of a mobile suit, spin in the air, land perfectly, pull out a gun, and aim it with startling precision before Hiiro himself can fall out of a mobile suit and pull a gun.

When Trowa was just a baby, his family fled a battle in a horse drawn carriage, his father clutching him and his mother clutching his sister, Catherine. Bombs exploded all around them and eventually one of them flung Trowa from his father's arms. The carriage was destroyed and the baby simply stared at the wreck.

When Trowa was three years of age, he was staring up in to the sky and wondering about space when a truck drove up besides him. The driver, a captain of a group of rebels asked the boy his name. Trowa just shook his head. He didn't have a name. The captain told him that he could at least feed the boy and keep him safe, and Trowa grew up as a soldier in the rebellion, known as "No-name."

One day No-name met a girl in a forest - Midii Une. Midii gave Trowa a cross for saving her and was always fiddling with an electronic device around her neck. Midii had complex emotions about Trowa - she hated him, but she loved him at the same time.

Once when they were traveling, Trowa glanced out the window and stared longingly at a circus tent and the young girl with brown hair who was staring and yelling at the trucks as they drove by. Noticing his engrossment in the circus and the girl with brown hair (Catherine, for those of you who aren't as quick...), Midii asked Trowa if it brought back memories. Trowa said no - he had been a soldier all his life.

Time passed and Trowa, Midii's cross around his neck, stood in the snow, the Captain at his side. They were attempting a surprise attack, one that the Captain was quite surprised of. However, before they could actually start, Federation mobile suits appeared and started firing at them. Dismayed and confused as to how they knew, the Captain refused to withdraw when Trowa suggested they did and instead said he'd draw their fire. As it turns out, they had been betrayed by soldiers who were originally in the rebellion and had considered and suggested joining the Federation. They fired on the Captain, but before they could kill him Trowa returned and blew them away.

Trowa suggested they retreat, but the Captain just stared with disbelieve. Trowa had just wasted the very people that had raised him. Trowa replied that they had leaked information, but the Captain knew they hadn't. Trowa simply replied that he killed the enemy he saw before him. He was practicing what they had taught him.

Captain: "You....you're not human, are you?"

Trowa: "No...I'm not. I've always been a soldier."

The surprise attack ended in huge failure. Back at the snowy camp, MIdii was serving food when she came across Trowa, who was just sitting there. She scolded him for not being able to look sad since he had just killed his friends. Trowa replied that he had used all his sadness when he was a baby. Midii asked him how long he was going to keep doing this, how long he'd keep killing his own heart, how long he'd wear the mask that never cried...Trowa replied until the day he died.

Suddenly, planes flew overhead and dropped bombs. Trowa, grabbing Midii's hand, fled with her on a motorcycle. The Captain attempted to hold off the Federation's forces, but when Trowa returned, he found the Captain lying dead on the ground. Trowa just stared at the man who was the closest thing he had to a father. Suddenly, Trowa realized what was going on.

He accussed Midii of the device around her neck being a transmitter, allowing the Federation to hear every move they made. Midii told him he was right....but Trowa was still alive. Trowa ripped off the cross around his neck and threw it on the ground, realizing it was because of that that he was still alive. Trowa pulled a gun on Midii and Midii told him that once Trowa had said they were the same....but they were completely different. Midii wasn't happy like Trowa was. She wasn't free like he was.

Trowa didn't have a name, didn't have a past, didn't even have companions. He had nothing that could be taken from him. Midii, on the other hand, had a sick father and three younger brothers. Because of them, she had been forced to join the Federation and become a spy and cause the deaths of many people. Because of that she couldn't even tell the person she liked that she liked him. Trowa asked her if that was all she had to say, then bid her goodbye. He fired two shots. The cross and the transmitter that Midii had worn around her neck fell to the ground, each with a smoldering bullet engraved in them. Midii called after him, screaming, "No-name, No-name!" But Trowa kept going.

And Trowa eventually made it to space, where they were waiting for him.

Trowa himself said it best when he said with every battle he had been killing his own heart. After fighting for so long and never knowing his family or name, his heart had become almost completely void of all feeling. His life had one meaning - to fight. Which is why he killed with such coldness and savage brutality. To him, an enemy was an enemy and an ally was an ally....it didn't matter whether or not he had once known them, whether they had once been comrades, or even the very people that had raised him.

So when Hiiro injured himself in Siberia when he self destructed Wing and the Gundam pilots stopped receiving missions, Trowa figured his life had lost all meaning...to continue living through it would be to continue forcing himself through unneccessary suffering. Or so he thought...

Trowa, soon after arriving on the Earth, met two very important people in his life, two people who would have perhaps the greatest impact on his life - Catherine Bloom, the circus' knife throwing girl, and Quatre Raberba Winner, the kind hearted, gregarious, free spirited pilot of the Gundam Sandrock.

Catherine was fascinated with Trowa ever since she witnessed him calm down a vicious lion and pet it, taming it instantaneously without saying a word to it. From then on, she tried to get through to Trowa, to break his cool interior and get him to open up. She acted almost like an older sister, bringing him food and so on. On the exterior, she had no effect on him....but when her tears were the only thing keeping Trowa from killing himself in a meaningless kamikaze attack, it was obvious that she had gotten through to him.

Quatre and Trowa first met each other at the Corsica base. After both receiving the same mission, they met each other on the battleground and assumed each other enemies. As they fought, their Gundams grinding against each other in a meaningless grapply, both knew good and well that they shouldn't be fighting each other...and when both stepped out of their Gundams, a very important, complicated friendship was born.

Determined not to let his emotions get in the way of his missions, Trowa tried his hardest to ignore Quatre and not let his kindness break his cool exterior. However, when Quatre's father was killed and Quatre, broken hearted and only a few steps from insane, appeared in space and started destroying colonies in the immensely powerful Wing Zero, it was Trowa's sacrifice that brought him back to his senses. Trowa piloted the Vayeate right into the path of a buster rifle shot meant for Hiiro. Refusing to get out of the Vayeate, Trowa instead piloted it straight upwards as Quatre, held back by Hiiro, watched helplessly. Trowa explained that it was disappointing the path things had taken and that it was kind people like Quatre that were hit the hardest....he just hoped something would trigger Quatre's kindness and jolt him back into his old self....something.

And with that, Quatre calling his name, Trowa's Vayeate exploded and Trowa, a smile on his face, floated helplessly into space. Ironically, the only thing he was thinking was: "Hiiro....don't be too hard on Quatre."

Trowa was assumed dead; after all, there was basically no way he could survive exploding in the cold depths of outer space. Despite that Quatre wanted to confirm his death. While the other pilots and the scientists worried about Trowa, they still had a war to fight...searching for Trowa's body would have no point.

However, amazingly, Trowa survived. Floating through space with his oxygen supply depleting rapidly, Trowa fortunately floated towards some sort of spacecraft. Unfortunately, the oxygen supply must have run out a few minutes before he reached the craft, for when Trowa stepped on to it and shed his space suit, he had lost his memory. Eventually, Trowa found himself wandering the streets of the colony, ignoring the rain soaking him, with an awkward smile on his face.

Soon Catherine Bloom found Trowa and realized he had lost his memory. Posing as his big sister (which was ironic, since she actually was his big sister...neither of them knew that, though), she took him back to the circus where he continued his act as a clown, oblivious to his bloodstained past. Still, he suffered from random fits of shuddering and odd, unexplainable feeling of utter helplessnes and coldness.

Soon, when visiting the circus with Hildy, Duo Maxwell recognized Trowa. Duo attempted to talk to Trowa, but Trowa didn't recognize him and Catherine, insanely defensive of Trowa, shooed him away. Duo then told Quatre of Trowa's whereabouts and Quatre went to visit him. Quatre also had a hard time talking to Trowa, who was horribly afraid for some reason. Catherine once again tried to force Quatre away, but Quatre wouldn't give up. When a fight broke out outside the colony, Quatre was forced to go and fight...and Trowa, watching him go, knew in his heart that fighting with Quatre was where he truely belonged. Saying goodbye to Catherine, he left to fight with Quatre, Noin, and the other Gundam pilots, and soon, while piloting the Wing Zero, he regained his memory (Zero System screwed with his mind and Quatre brought him out that state, and then he had his memory back).

Trowa also held an interesting relationship with Hiiro Yuy, although its probably not as important. After Hiiro self destructed in Siberia, it was Trowa and Catherine who nursed him back to health. Trowa admired Hiiro's strength, courage, and the way that everything Hiiro did, no matter how sporacting or spur-of-the-moment it seemed was planned out perfectly. And the two, being so similar in their lives and even in their personalities, were able to understand each other perfectly, even though they rarely shared a word.

At the end of the series, Trowa's sense of pointlessness and lack of meaning is gone. Thanks to Quatre and Catherine, Trowa learned the lesson that his past had refused to teach him - to love. With the support of Catherine, his long lost sister (although I'm not sure if they ever actually realized it...I'm sure they both knew in their hearts) Quatre, his best friend, and the rest of his good friends, Trowa continues to fight...not so that he can die...but because he has a home to return to.

"I've continually fought, and with each battle I've been killing my own heart. And my heart has been completely void of feeling for quite a long time now.."
~Trowa Barton

Trowa Barton's Mobile Suit Piloting Skills
Trowa, of course being a Gundam pilot, has astonishing mobile suit piloting skills. While he can still pilot other mobile suits (even though he doesn't pilot an insanely long list of them like Hiiro), he really shines when he's piloting Heavyarms, his signature mobile suit and one of his closest friends. The two actually have a good relationship together...they teach each other things and they're reliable comrades until the very end. Trowa also does this really cool move in Heavyarms that deserves mentioning simply because it's so freaking awesome...it's a total shame he only does it once.

What I'm talking about above is the move he does in Antarctica in the series. He pulls out the blade on Heavyarms' right arm, holds the arm outward, and starts spinning really fast. This creates a deadly sort of cyclone, and then he leaps on the enemy, still spinning with the blade sticking out. He continues to spin, the knife making cuts to the enemy mobile suit as it revolves around Heavyarms. He then leaps back up, the knife pointing straight into the sky, Heavyarms standing tall and proud in an elegant pose. The enemy mobile suit is chopped into hundreds of pieces, but it takes it a while to explode, as if the suit itself was stunned and amazed by this technique.

Trowa also pilots the Vayeate, Wing, Wing Zero and Taurus mobile suits and does an exceptional job in all of those, even though he doesn't pilot them for very long.

"One should never give up until the end. That is what Heavyarms has taught me."
~Trowa Barton

PJ's Opinion of Trowa Barton
Simply said and put, Trowa Barton rocks. He's definitely one of my favorite characters - he's chocked full of that loneliness and introversion that I love to see in characters, especially heroes. That's what makes it all the much better when he comes to the realization that he's not alone and makes it so much fulfilling to witness him in action.

Trowa is also complex and confusing, which of course makes him such an enjoyable character to watch (even though it made this bio a little tougher to write >_<;;). It's just, plain and simple, fun to watch the man do things. I love seeing how characters (especially Catherine) react to him and how they get along with him.

And best of all, he's an actual person. He has actual feelings and isn't some stupid neanderthal without concern for others. He actually cares for the people around him. When Catherine was crying against his breast, he put his arm around her. When Hiiro was lying on the ground, drowning in a pool of his own blood, Trowa picked him up and carried him to safety. And when Quatre was going insane, angered and frustrated by the way the Colonies had sided with Oz, Trowa cared enough about Quatre to do everything he could to bring the old Quatre they all loved so much back.

Trowa's a great addition to the five Gundam pilots as well as the Gundam Wing universe...the series wouldn't be the same without him.

"Now that you've seen me, you must die."
~Trowa Barton

Written by PJ