Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam/Kamille Bidan

Kamille Bidan (カミーユ・ビダン, Kamīyu Bidan) is the main protagonist of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. 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 Earth Federation's tyrannical Titans elite unit, an organization to which his malevolent (and thus deeply resented) father, Franklin Bidan, belonged.

Personality

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. He also showed willingness to fight by stealing a gundam to step on a Titans officer. He also tends to be brash, thoughtless, somewhat self-important, and prone to acting on his own judgement, in addition to being arrogant in his own right. This leads to him getting more than his fair share of abuse, both mental and physical, at the beginning of the series, like being beaten badly by Wong Lee, and being slapped quite a few times for his bad attitude. However, he eventually comes under Char Aznable's influence as the series progresses. This mentor-protege relationship plays a great role in shaping Kamille from an emotionally vulnerable, angst-ridden teenager to a true soldier. In the manga Mobile Suit Gundam in UC 0099: Moon Crisis Kamille apparently develops a distaste for battle due to his war experiences and dedicates himself to protecting life by becoming a doctor.

Zeta Gundam

After a scuffle with a Titans officer Jerid Messa, Kamille is detained by them at their base in the Gryps space colony. During an Anti-Earth Union Group 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 begins tapping the mysterious "Bio-Sensor" in the Zeta Gundam as his Newtype abilities grew, and unleashing a power never before seen. This was displayed when Kamille used the power to destroy Yazan Gable's Hambrabi. Kamille's anger towards Yazan's enjoyment of killing people and saying Kamille would join them soon triggered the Bio-Sensor and the Zeta Gundam was covered by a purple glow. Kamille used the power to extend the length of the Zeta Gundam's beam saber and sliced Yazan's Hambrabi in two though Yazan was able to eject in the escape pod. 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 impaling the Zeta Gundam into Scirocco's PMX-003 The O, a dying Paptimus Scirocco still managed to unleash a mind-crippling blow to Kamille Bidan, leaving him in a psychotic state.

ZZ Gundam

At the start of the series Kamile is brought to the Shangri-La colony in side 1 for medical treatment. His condition has worsend since the end of the battle, as now he is in a vegetative state, unresponsive to anyone or aything around him. When the Argama is taken over by their old enemy Yazan Gable and a group of Shangri-La junk dealers, he is taken hostage. However one of the junk dealers, Judau Ashta, is a latent newtype and his presence causes the comatose Kamille to concisouly move for the first time since the start of the First Neo Zeon War. Kamille motions Judau to take his hand and the two experience a newtype reaction, possibly implying that Kamille sensed Judau's powers and awakened them. After the incident is resolved Kamille is transferred off the Argama to a hospital in the colony and remains there with Fa Yuiry, who eventually retires from the AEUG, to watch over him. Some time after the Argama leaves Shangri-La, Fa and Kamille travel to Earth, the two settling in Dublin, Ireland, where Kamille is interned at a hospital with Fa as his nurse. When the war brings the Argama to Ireland they renuite with Kamille and Fa and learn that, while he is still vocally unresponsive, Kamille has clearly recovered much of his mental facilities. He plays a key role in saving Elpeo Ple and the Argama from a Neo-Zeon attack, comunicating to her as well as the rest of the gundam team through telepathy and guiding them to victory. Later as the bulk of Neo Zeon heads towards Dublin, Kamille begins to have convulsions as he senses the rebirth of the Psyco Gundam Mark II and that its pilot, Ple Two, is close to awakening. When it's discovered Haman Karn is dropping a colony on Dublin, the Gundam team decide to smuggle Kamille out of the city, knowing that he would try and fight to save the people. Kamille resigns from the fight only when Judau reasures him that he will do all that he can to save the people; sensing that Judau has inherited his will, Kamille vocally responds for the first time since the series beginning, though it is only a soft "yeah" it signals Kamille's full recovery, as he has been put at ease with the knowledge that the AEUG is in good hands. Despite this when the situation turns bad for the AEUG and Karaba Kamille desperately rushes to aide them, but his efforts are in vain as the colony hits before he can do anything, killing millions.

Fa once again finds him and comforts him, and the two then watch as their friends fly into space, still determined to defeat Haman. At the end of the First Neo Zeon War it appears that Kamille has completely recoverd from mental faculties as he is seen running along a beach with Fa in the series finale. This may indicate he had finally found a chance for a peaceful life along side his old friend, partner, and now girlfriend, Fa Yuiry.

A New Translation

Gundam metaverse creator Yoshiyuki Tomino noted on the official website of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation that he intends 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 new ending resulting in Kamille managing to resist Scirocco's crippling mind attack and reuniting with Fa at the conflict's conclusion. This outcome has been a long thought about alternate ending to Kamille's story, although 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 possible completely retcons Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ