by Lt. Noin

 
A very long time ago, when I was still on GWML, a topic on the age of the GWing pilots came up. Actually, the thread soon spread to the age of everyone in the series, the question being, why was everyone so young? I personally thought the explanation that the series was targeted to adolescent males and that the age of the pilots corresponded to that of the target audience to be extremely boring to say the least. But I look at GWing as a universe in itself; therefore, if the characters are largely young, I think there is a reason for it in the After Colony universe.

First, we know that there are strange diseases that spread through the colonists, the plague in L2's V08744 being a good example. Also, we don't see too many elderly colonists when compared to all those grandfather-like figures in the Romefeller Foundation. Perhaps these unexpected diseases in the colonies have shortened the life spans of people there; thus, they do things younger than we do. It would sort of be like a reversion to the Middle Ages, in which girls could be married off at ages as young as twelve or thirteen. So why not young soldiers as well? Zechs and Noin were graduated from Victoria Academy at the age of 13. I was probably still thinking about the Baby Sitter's Club back then. And if they had already been graduated by then, they must have been introduced to the military from childhood. This is such a difference from the current law that says only people of 18 years and up can be drafted that the consequences can hardly be imagined. Actually, that is a gross exaggeration, because the consequences have been imagined.

One large example in my mind is the book Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, in which young children who range from six to sixteen are trained to be soldiers and commanders in a battle against an alien race. Card's reasoning behind his young soldiers are easily applicable to Gundam Wing, even though at times it can be difficult to remember just how young characters in both works are. According to Card, then, children are taken to be trained when they are as young as possible because they have a moral sense that is not as fully developed as an adult's, due to their lack of experience. Children tend to see the world in black and white, and in their innocence, they can perhaps be trained to do things that adults would balk at. In the Ender universe, the children can be ruthless in ways that adults could not possibly, as adults are much more aware of the consequences of their own actions, as opposed to the sometimes cruel thoughtlessness of children. So perhaps the scientists took up young children or young teenagers because their minds were still moldable and trained them to become soldiers who would not fear to kill, as they were still not sure what a human life really was. Not only the Gundam pilots are affected by this. Rather, the Specials soldiers all seem to go through this sort of intense training when they are young, Hilde, Noin and Zechs being notable examples.

However, all the pilots, Zechs included, grow up substantially during the series, their notions of war and peace challenged by the ambiguity of Treize and Relena's philosophy of absolute pacifism. By the end of the series, they don't seem like children anymore, but rather, people making decisions about their lives and philosophies. Perhaps this very contemplation of action is what OZ and the scientists were trying to avoid.