Gundam: The Most Stylish Ship in the Universal Century, of COURSE It Belonged to Char – The Rewloola
The Rewloola-class Space Batteship served as the legendary flagship of the infamous Char Anzable, the Red Comet. Fittingly enough, it’s also red.
Though he may be one of the Universal Century’s most infamous pilots, Char Anzable is also one of its most stylish. This legendary mobile suit pilot earned the nickname the Red Comet. Not only was he fast, like a falling comet – he had a penchant for red. And looking cool.
This was true not just of the cut of his uniform, and the paint scheme of his Mobile Suits—it was the color of his flagship during the Neo Zeon era. The Rewloola was Char’s ship, a sleek craft that seemingly came out of nowhere—along with Anzable himself, heralding the birth of Neo Zeon.
The Rewloola-Class Battleship – Design and Capabilities
Like its commander, the Rewloola-class battleship was built for speed and agility, as well as devastating firepower. To that end, it boasted an eye-wateringly bright array of twelve thermonuclear thrusters. These gave it an impressive top speed, but their incredible output necessitated the inclusion of two large cooling fins along the hull at its midsection. These fins gave the Rewloola its signature look, while also maximizing the ship’s ability to irradiate heat from its engine output.
The Rewloola was no slouch when it came to armament, either. As the flagship of a burgeoning Neo Zeon, the Rewloola had to be. Its main armament was much like its engines‚an array. The main battery was a set of five dual-barrel mega particle guns, which were eventually upgraded to seven. Supplementing this, twenty triple-barrel machine gun emplacements to serve as anti-air firepower, along with a surprising number of missile launchers, hidden on the ship’s hull.
It also carried two separate Mobile Suit capapults, capable of rapidly deploying Zeon MS teams into the fray as well as recovering them via its launch bays. All this, combined with its hefty carrying capacity, made for an absolute behemoth on the battlefields of the latter years of the Universal Century.
A Char-red History
The Rewloola was developed in secret after Char disappeared at the end of the Gryps Conflict. Presumed dead for years, it wasn’t until Anzable reappeared in UC 0093 that anyone became aware of the growing Neo Zeon movement. When Char re-emerged, he did so with a vengeance, bringing the Rewloola to battle almost immediately in an attack on Fifth Luna. Not long after, in the Battle for Axis, the ship distinguished itself in a bold offensive action.
And though it was heavily damaged at the end of the Second Neo Zeon war, the flagship managed to escape, where it would eventually be retrofitted, repaired, and upgraded. It might well have turned the tide for Neo Zeon, except it met a poetic end near where it was born—it was destroyed by the Gryps 2 Colony Laser, leaving the Neo Zeon movement scattered. At least for a time.
And of course, the main thing about being red, it goes much faster than ships painted any other color!
