Kamille Bidan
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| Kamille Bidan | |
|---|---|
 Kamille Bidan with RX-178 Gundam Mk-II. |
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| Age: | 17 [Zeta] 18 [ZZ] |
| Nationality: | Green Noa I |
| Allegiance: | Anti Earth Union Group [Zeta] |
| Height: | 168 cm |
| Weight: | 54 kg |
| Hair Color: | Silver Blue |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Mobile Suit: | RX-178 Gundam Mk-II [Zeta] MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam [Zeta] RMS-099 Rick Dias [Zeta] |
Kamille Bidan (カミーユ・ビダン Kamīyu Bidan?) is the main protagonist and hero of the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. He is voiced by Nobuo Tobita in the original Japanese version and Jonathan Lachlan-Stewart in the English dub.
[edit] Biography
Kamille is a troubled young man, growing up in a time of prejudice and oppression. He grew up in the Gryps (formerly called Green Noah) space colony - which was then the field base of the tyrannical Earth Federation's Titans elite unit, an organization to which his malevolent (and thus deeply resented) father, Franklin Bidan, belonged.
Kamille particularly hated his feminine-sounding name - and thus asserts his manhood by developing a hobby in amateur mobile suit creation. This he might have inherited from his parents: both are Federation officers and among the main engineering team that designed the Titan's prototype unit, Gundam Mk-II.
After a scuffle with a Titans officer Jerid Messa, Kamille is detained by them at their base in the Gryps space colony. During an AEUG raid to steal the new prototype Gundam Mk-II mobile suits, he escapes and helps the AEUG steal all the Gundam Mk II units. Under the tutelage of AEUG officer Quattro Bajeena and former Titans officer Emma Sheen, Kamille later becomes one of AEUG's top pilots while maintaining his civilian status - first in his stolen Gundam Mk II and later in his personally designed MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam.
During the course of the war with the Titans, Kamille witnesses the death of his parents, lover and friends. As such, though a generally nice person, he tends to act on his emotions and personal judgement rather than logic. This has placed him in deep rivalries with men like Jerid Messa and Paptimus Scirocco.
Kamille's life is changed again when he meets a strange young female Titans pilot. Her name was unknown, and was referred to as Four Murasame because she was the fourth Newtype to come from the Murasame Newtype Labs. The two fall in love and were torn apart time and again. Being a cyber-newtype, she was unstable and attacked Kamille anytime her Psyco Gundam is near. Like Lalah Sune before her, she cements Kamille's side of the rivalry with Jerid: while finally escaping Titans clutches, she died in battle with Jerrid to save Kamille's life. Ironically, despite this potential cause of antipathy, Kamille later shows no real signs of a genuine hatred of Jerid: he treats him much like any other Titan pilot. It's likely that this develops because Kamille thinks that hating Jerid is, at this point, useless.
As the battle of the AEUG and the Titans approach its fateful conclusion in the First Gryps war of UC 0088, Kamille began tapping the mysterious "Bio-Sensor" in the Zeta Gundam as his Newtype abilities grew, and unleashing a power never before seen. In his final battle with Scirocco, Kamille proved to be the stronger mind, having gained the strength of all the people he loved who had died during the war. Despite having his PMX-003 The O impaled by the Zeta Gundam, a dying Paptimus Scirocco still managed to unleash a mind-crippling blow to Kamille Bidan, leaving him in a psychotic state. After the battle Kamille talks nonsense about how big the stars and comets are.
By the end of the First Neo-Zeon War, Kamille has apparently recovered his mental faculties, and may have found a chance for a peaceful life along with his childhood friend and current carer/partner, Fa Yuiry. In the manga Moon Crisis, Kamille is briefly seen practising as a doctor on the Moon, with Fa by his side.
Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino noted on the official website of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation that he intended to retcon Kamille's tragic fate at the end of the Gryps War to something a little more optimistic, in order to better balance out the series' bleak tone. The 3-part film adaptation and recollection of the original TV series and met rather wide success in Japan, with the omission of Scirocco's crippling mind attack and the movie ending with Kamille and Fa in a long embrace at the conflict's conclusion. Tomino has made it clear that what happens after the new ending is up to the fans' imaginations, as it is uncertain if this is a retcon or to be treated as an alternate universe to the main Gundam history as Kamille's new ending completely retcons the events in Double Zeta Gundam and possibly alter Char's Counterattack.
