Setsuna F. Seiei

Setsuna F. Seiei is the main protagonist from the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 anime and manga.

Setsuna is a Gundam Meister of the paramilitary organization Celestial Being and is humanity's first Innovator. In season 1, he pilots GN-001 Gundam Exia and he pilots GN-0000 00 Gundam and co-pilots its upgrade, the GN-0000+GNR-010 00 Raiser with Saji Crossroad in season 2.

Appearance
Setsuna has a messy black hair and has a brownish, chestnut eyes.

Personality
Having grown up as a child soldier, brainwashed to murder his own parents, and later cast away when he was no longer deemed useful, Setsuna became taciturn, introverted, and wholeheartedly against war at a very young age. He believes deeply that there are key disturbances that prevent the world from coming together in peace and harmony, to the point of developing a habit of labelling specific people and/or forces as sources of conflict towards the world's path to peace. He has little tolerance for diplomats and politicians, believing that their negotiations only prolong wars and cause more strife. He has got a vendetta to settle and his past battle experiences stir up old bitter feelings, increasing his combat potential as a beneficial side effect. Though a self-proclaimed atheist, he often questions the motivations of God with people and worldly events.

Having been saved by a Gundam when he was about to be killed as a child, he came to view the Gundams as the manifestation of the idea of salvation itself. He idolizes the Gundams so much that he wants to embody the Gundam himself, a means to eradicate all conflict. Ever since being saved and recruited into Celestial Being, he has devoted his being to realizing the organization's ideals and would not hesitate to fulfill them. However, Setsuna notes the irony of him being someone who is good at nothing but dishing out violence, despite his earnest yearning for peace nonetheless.

Setsuna is notable for his relationship with Princess Marina Ismail; one of mutual admiration and intrigue, with him finding her total devotion to peace through peaceful means and ability to easily bond with others to be admirable, while she finds his ability to make hard choices and execute them firmly to be strong. As a result, both lingered in each other's thoughts often and like to know each other better. Their interaction however, is easily confused by others around them to be romantic. In a letter to the princess, Setsuna revealed more of his feelings and thinking. Setsuna wanted to understand the lesser aspects of humanity. He wanted to know why the world is filled with people with innate dark intentions and inconsiderate of other people's suffering. He wanted to know why did people keep fighting to live in such a violent world. He wanted to find these answers along with his Gundam in hopes to bring mutual understanding and peace.

After a 4 year hiatus, Setsuna has taken an unofficial role as the leader of the Gundam Meisters. He is now able to assert and express his feelings to people without reservation. Setsuna's ideals are still the same, but his recent experiences have led him to believe in the importance of self-change and the need to fight for a better and brighter future, rather than merely go about eradicating sources of conflicts. His determination and strong self-confidence motivates and inspires people around him. He becomes more understanding and compromising, but he is also capable of making hard-but-necessary decisions that would lead people to dislike him. He has no problems making life-defining decisions for other people when they can't make the choice and would kill if necessary.

After Setsuna became an Innovator, he once again became withdrawn and closed his heart to people once again. The crew members had trouble dealing with his change in attitude, but they did their best to adjust to him because they believe he'll eventually turn around. Sumeragi reasoned it was probably because he had become different from the others among the crew and was confused with his Innovator abilities, which later proved to be true. After the ELS Conflict, Setsuna had since become a friendlier and warmer person in his eternal mission to promote mutual understanding.

Abilities
Setsuna is skilled in many ways of war and fighting. Trained by Ali al-Saachez at a young age, Setsuna already knew how to work with a wide range of firearms, close-quarter-combat, use of explosives, infiltration, and other areas of guerrilla warfare by the age of 10. As CB's Gundam Meister, he uses his former combat training in his KPSA days to reflect Exia's combat style. He's been trained by CB to know some MS technical skills to maintain and repair his Gundam.

His 4 year hiatus (AD 2312 - Season 2) with Celestial Being didn't dull his MS piloting skills at all. Due to the power of 00 Gundam's concentrated GN particles with Trans-Am Raiser, Setsuna's brain has been gradually enhanced to utilize quantum brainwaves. He's able to sense quantum brainwaves (QBWs) near him and track users of QBWs. Eventually, he naturally evolves into humanity's first true/genuine Innovator.

Setsuna's Innovator capabilities aren't completely defined as he's the first naturally evolved Innovator. It has yet to be revealed if he can communicate with Veda or Celestial Being technology like the Innovades can. He can anticipate movements and actions of his opponents and sense impending danger from far distances. As an Innovator, he has heightened reflexes, a longer lifespan than normal humans, and can communicate his thoughts via quantum brainwaves.

After Setsuna joined the ELS, his body is not entirely human. The ELS reformed his body based on their bio-technology, forever retaining his youthful appearance with a metallic shine. It can be inferred that Setsuna became a hybrid of an Innovator and an ELS.

Trivia

 * Setsuna's name could be denoted to state his personality. Translated it means 'Moment from eternity' indicating Setsuna's place as the first Genuine Innovator.
 * Setsuna is part of the Kurdish people.
 * Coincidentally, both Setsuna's Japanese and English voice actors have also voiced Death Note character Light Yagami. Setsuna's Japanese voice actor, Mamoru Miyano, has also won the "Best voice actor award" for both roles at the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair. However, he never won any awards in the most prestigious event of anime industry, the Anime Grand Prix (Animage), either as Light Yagami or as Setsuna F. Seiei.
 * In the first ending theme Setsuna appears eating an apple in clear reference to Miyano's (as well as Brad Swaile's) role as Light Yagami.
 * Setsuna's English voice actor, Brad Swaile, previously played Amuro Ray from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, Quatre Raberba Winner in Gundam Wing, Dearka Elsman in Gundam SEED and Auel Neider in Gundam SEED Destiny. As a result of this, at times, Setsuna sounds more or less exactly like Amuro in Season 2. However, while voicing Setsuna when he is young, Swaile sounds more like he did playing Auel. Amuro and Setsuna being voiced by the same voice actor is also an interesting irony compared to their Japanese voice actor. In the Japanese dub, Amuro Ray and Ribbons Almark are voiced by Tohru Furuya, a fact that has become the base of many fan-jokes (Ribbons Almark pilots the 0 Gundam, which is very much based on the RX-78-2 Gundam).
 * Setsuna's personality is very similar to that of Heero Yuy from Wing.
 * Setsuna's real name may be based off Soran Ebrahim, a Kurdish child actor who portrayed the protagonist of the film [Turtles Can Fly].
 * Setsuna did develop a second brain through the GN particle exposure, as mentioned in a Great mechanics DX interview. This second brain is known as a Quantum brain, it is made up of a network of GN particles/Quantum brainwaves.
 * Although not official, Setsuna displays a strong dislike for GN Fang-equipped mobile suits in Super Robot Wars Z2, which can be inferred to be due to the ruthless armed interventions carried out by the Trinity Gundam Meisters. He refused to accept the "Gundam with Fangs" as a true Gundam, until its pilot kindly informs him that the weapons are not in fact GN Fangs, but fin funnels.
 * Setsuna is the first Gundam protagonist of Middle Eastern descent (although he has a Japanese name as an alias).
 * Setsuna is described as someone who does not believe in God. He believed in Gundam (especially his own) as his savior.
 * Alongside Gundam Wing's main character Heero Yuy, Setsuna is an example of the few Gundam protagonists that do not show romantic scenes with a female ​​character throughout their story in the motion picture. But it is obvious that Heero has some sense of affection for Relena Darlian, while Setsuna's feelings for Marina Ismail are still questionable, and could be interpreted as feelings similar to what he once had for his mother. His kiss with Nena Trinity can not be categorized as a romantic scene due to the fact that Setsuna did not consent to it (nor did he approve of Nena to begin with). However, the manga adaptation of the 00 Movie features additional take on Marina and Setsuna's reunion. The two were reunited and married metaphorically as if they were themselves fifty years back before the ELS Conflict.
 * Besides the Exia Repair and Exia Repair II, Setsuna's Gundams' weaponry would consist of seven swords. Exia's main armaments consists of the GN Sword, a pair of GN Blades, two GN Beam Sabers and two GN Beam Daggers. The main weapons of his next mobile suit, the 00 Raiser consists of the GN Sword III, two GN Sword IIs, two GN Beam Sabers and a pair of bladed GN Shields. Lastly, the 00 Qan(T)'s main armaments consist of the GN Sword V and six sword bits.
 * Unlike most of the others Gundam series' protagonist (e.g.: Kira Yamato, Amuro Ray, Garrod Ran, etc.), Setsuna was taught how to fight even before he became a Gundam Meister.
 * When in the last fight of both seasons against a mobile suit with GN T Drive Setsuna's Gundam always ends up losing its head and left arm, this pays homage to how the RX-78-2 Gundam lost it's head and left arm in it's last fight.
 * In Super Robot Wars Z2, Setsuna's Ace Bonus (bonus that earned after reaching 70 kills) is 50% more damage against units with Solar Furnaces and Gundam-type units. This may be based on Setsuna's obsession with Gundam.
 * A joke about Setsuna's obsession with Gundam occurs in Super Robot Wars Z2 Hakai-hen in scenario 34. In that scenario, Setsuna amazed with Ranka Lee's ability to stop the rampaging Zentradis with her song, Seikan Hikou. He then said (in Japanese): "An overwhelming power that can change everything. Is that song also a Gundam?"
 * Setsuna establishes a respectful rivalry with Heero Yuy in Super Robot Wars Z2 Hakai-hen and keep the relationship in the game's sequel, Super Robot Wars Z2 Saisei-hen. The peak of their rivalry is when Heero said that Setsuna have surpassed the Gundam, which is then replied by Setsuna by saying that Heero's praise is the greatest compliment he had received.
 * In scenario 55 of Super Robot Wars Z2 Saisei-hen, the last scenario of Macross Frontier storyline, Setsuna managed to exploit 00 Raiser's Trans-Am Burst System to aid Ranka Lee in her attempt to communicate with an army of extraterrestrial race known as Vajras. This is a contrary to what happens in Awakening of the Trailblazer, where he was not able to use the same method to communicate with the ELS.
 * While Setsuna's pilot suit is usually blue, in both of his return appearances in Season 2 and the movie while working undercover, he is seen with a black suit.
 * In Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, Setsuna has a special quote if he uses a Combination SP Attack with the DLC character Graham Aker where the two reveal their star signs to each other. Setsuna as an Aries, whose element is the sun seems to be a reference to the GN Drives being solar reactors and the seemingly infinite radiance they produce. It is also backed up that his being saved by the 0 Gundam occurred at sunset.


 * Setsuna and his personal Mobile Suits (Exia, 00, 00 Qan-[T]) were among the inspirations for Ultraman Zero, a recurring character of the Ultra Series who also Shared the same voice actor. In comparison to Setsuna;
 * Both of their weapons of choice are known for being swords. Exia's habit of throwing its GN Beam Daggers and GN Short Blade parallels that of Zero's Zero Sluggers.
 * Their final form involves having their skin turned metallic.
 * Both are kind but do not really show it.
 * These similarities were taken further in the 2014 game Lost Heroes 2, where both Ultraman Zero and 00 Qan can perform the combination attack called GN Ultimate Zero Sword. Afterwards, they ended it with their quote "We are Gundam/Ultraman!" while Zero remarks how Setsuna can't decide the catchphrase properly, prompting the latter to apologize.
 * Both have interacted with a character voiced by Yuichi Nakamura - Graham Aker/Mister Bushido and Ultraman X.
 * Setsuna's English voice actor Brad Swaile is credited as "Brian Swaile" on Right Stuf's North American DVD release of Mobile Suit Gundam 00.