Sort of. I've actually been planning an All About Gundam post for a while, which I hope to have up soon, but there are a number of commonalities between all Gundam series (which is one reason I'm doing a write-up, as it is the longest-running and most well-developed series of AUs on the same themes I've ever seen, and without the language barrier would eat SF fandom).
Basically, in all Gundam series: there are space colonies. There is a war between the colonies and Earth. And there are-- well, in different series they're called different things; the original name is Newtype. Newtypes are humans who have been genetically enhanced. They are faster, stronger, smarter, better at synthesizing and integrating situations on the fly. And they have freaky-weird-random powers, such as telepathy, empathy, astral projection, the ability to leave a really bitchy and vengeful ghost, and suchlike. Also each show depends on Mobile Suits for combat, for the reasons sub_divided said. Therefore your standard Gundam series is these things chopped up different ways and complicated: the ramifications of a mad tech advancement and the destruction it can bring, plus a fight over colonialism, plus serious racial conflict between Newtype and Natural.
Gundam Wing's particular angle of the AU is to de-emphasize the genetics aspect. There's only one Newtype in the entirety of Wing, and that's Quatre. (See above re: freaky-weird powers). This means that, unlike in all the other series, the colonies do not automatically have an even shot in a war. In Gundam Seed, for example, twenty-four million people spend large portions of the series kicking the asses of six billion.
Treize, as sub_divided said, wants to return to a mode of battle where personal skill counts for something. This is still achievable (although it is not ideal) with mobile suits until the advent of the Gundams, which are so overwhelmingly well-armored, have such good weapons, etc. that they are a new and deadly step up in the arms race and come dangerously close to the old paradigm in which war could destroy the human race.
A separate brief Gundam note-- another series tradition is the mysterious masked leader, who is brilliant, charismatic, hiding a politically disadvantageous identity, etc. Char Aznable is the prototypical Gundam masked man. If you combine Zechs and Treize, you get Char; it's unusual in a Gundam series for the role to be split this way.
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Date: 2007-11-10 12:43 am (UTC)Basically, in all Gundam series: there are space colonies. There is a war between the colonies and Earth. And there are-- well, in different series they're called different things; the original name is Newtype. Newtypes are humans who have been genetically enhanced. They are faster, stronger, smarter, better at synthesizing and integrating situations on the fly. And they have freaky-weird-random powers, such as telepathy, empathy, astral projection, the ability to leave a really bitchy and vengeful ghost, and suchlike. Also each show depends on Mobile Suits for combat, for the reasons
Gundam Wing's particular angle of the AU is to de-emphasize the genetics aspect. There's only one Newtype in the entirety of Wing, and that's Quatre. (See above re: freaky-weird powers). This means that, unlike in all the other series, the colonies do not automatically have an even shot in a war. In Gundam Seed, for example, twenty-four million people spend large portions of the series kicking the asses of six billion.
Treize, as
A separate brief Gundam note-- another series tradition is the mysterious masked leader, who is brilliant, charismatic, hiding a politically disadvantageous identity, etc. Char Aznable is the prototypical Gundam masked man. If you combine Zechs and Treize, you get Char; it's unusual in a Gundam series for the role to be split this way.