Icelina Eschonbach

Icelina Eschonbach (イセリナ・エッシェンバッハ, Iserina Esshenbahha) was a civilian woman whose love for Garma Zabi and subsequent death seeking vengeance against Char Aznable demonstrated how the One Year War destroyed innocent lives. Her tragedy highlighted that war’s casualties extended beyond soldiers to include civilians whose personal connections to combatants drew them into violence.

Romance with Garma Zabi

Icelina met and fell in love with Garma Zabi, commander of Zeon’s Earth Attack Force. Their relationship represented love transcending political circumstances, personal connection amidst military operations, and Garma’s humanity beyond his role as a Zabi family member. It suggested the possibility of normal life even during warfare. For Garma, Icelina offered respite from military duty and family political intrigue. For Icelina, Garma represented romance complicated by his position as an enemy commander.

Social Complications

Their relationship existed in complex circumstances. Garma was Zeon nobility and military commander, whilst Icelina was an Earth civilian living under Zeon occupation. Her father held a position under Garma’s military government, meaning the relationship mixed genuine affection with political complications. Despite these complexities, their feelings appeared genuine – Garma found personal happiness with Icelina beyond his role as the youngest Zabi.

Garma’s Death

When Char Aznable betrayed and killed Garma, Icelina was devastated. She lost the man she loved, and when she learned of Char’s treachery and role in Garma’s death, she transformed from a civilian in love to someone seeking vengeance. She could not accept Garma’s death as merely a casualty of war. His death destroyed Icelina’s world and drove her to action completely at odds with her civilian status.

Quest for Vengeance

Consumed by grief and rage, Icelina pursued vengeance against those she held responsible for Garma’s death.

Confronting the White Base

Icelina tracked the White Base, seeking Char (who had already departed). During the confrontation, she accused the crew of murdering Garma, then infiltrated the White Base under the guise of meeting with leadership. She stole a mobile suit intending to destroy the ship and confronted Amuro Ray in the Gundam.

Tragic End

Icelina’s vengeance quest ended in her death. She piloted a mobile suit despite having no training, confronting Amuro and demanding vengeance for Garma. Her inexperience made combat futile, and she died seeking revenge against those who hadn’t actually killed Garma. Icelina’s death was a tragedy of misdirected vengeance – she died attacking people uninvolved in Garma’s death, manipulated by grief into violence that cost her life.

Significance

Icelina Eschonbach represented multiple tragic dimensions of warfare.

Civilian Casualties

Icelina showed how war killed non-combatants not through direct combat, but through personal connections to soldiers. Grief transformed civilians into combatants, leading them on vengeance quests that ended in futile deaths. Her fate demonstrated that war’s casualties extended far beyond the battlefield.

Misdirected Vengeance

Her story demonstrated grief’s power to blind people to reality, and how the desire for revenge led to attacking wrong targets. Icelina’s fate showed that vengeance solved nothing and only created more tragedy, and that war’s chaos made truth difficult to discern. She died attacking people who hadn’t killed Garma, never reaching the actual culprit.

Love’s Vulnerability

Icelina’s romance and death showed that love offered no protection from war’s brutality, and that personal relationships couldn’t transcend conflict’s violence. Caring for soldiers made civilians vulnerable to the war’s ripple effects. Warfare destroyed even genuine human connections, turning love into the source of devastating grief.

Garma’s Humanity

Through Icelina’s grief, audiences saw Garma as a person capable of love, not just an enemy commander. His death became personal tragedy, not just tactical victory. The narrative demonstrated that enemy soldiers were human with relationships and futures, and that the cost of killing extended beyond the soldier to those who loved them.

Behind the Scenes

Icelina Eschonbach was created for Mobile Suit Gundam to explore the personal costs of warfare through civilian characters. Director Tomino Yoshiyuki used her character to demonstrate that:

1. Enemy soldiers like Garma were human beings with loved ones
2. Killing in warfare had ripple effects beyond the battlefield
3. Civilians could be destroyed by war without ever being legitimate targets
4. Vengeance was futile and tragic

Icelina’s death whilst piloting a mobile suit she couldn’t properly operate emphasized the senselessness of her end – grief and vengeance led her to death that accomplished nothing and targeted people who hadn’t actually wronged her.

Her story reinforced Gundam’s anti-war themes – that war destroyed innocent people and that even “justified” killings (Garma’s death was Char’s revenge) created new tragedies through those who mourned the dead.

Appearances

• Mobile Suit Gundam

See also

• Garma Zabi – Love interest
• Char Aznable – Garma’s killer, target of vengeance
• Amuro Ray – Confronted during vengeance quest
• SCV-70 White Base – Target of attack
• One Year War – Conflict

External links

• Icelina Eschonbach on the Gundam Wiki