Lady Une – MechaBay | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Lady Une was a Colonel in the OZ Specials and served as the personal assistant to Treize Khushrenada during the After Colony conflicts. Suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Une has two personalities; one sadistic and ruthless, the other diplomatic and peacefully inclined. Utterly loyal to “Mr. Treize”, she is devoted to making his vision a reality. After the Eve Wars, she became the leader of the Preventers organisation.

Biography

Early service with OZ

Lady Une is introduced early in the series as Treize’s adjutant and right-hand woman; it is almost instantaneously obvious that she is smitten with him. She earned a reputation as a fierce and ruthless commander, becoming known for her unwavering loyalty to Treize and her willingness to carry out any mission he assigned.

On Treize’s orders, Une assassinates Vice-Foreign Minister Darlian—who had been working towards peace with the colonies—using a bomb disguised as a makeup kit.; she then tries to kill his adopted daughter, Relena Peacecraft, the only non-military witness. As a favour to Relena’s brother, Zechs Merquise, Treize prevented Une from completing this assassination.

Confrontation with the Gundam pilots

Following Heero Yuy’s misguided assault on a peace conference, Une assisted Treize in manipulating the sole survivor, General Septum, into making an anti-colony statement on television. She then pushed Septum out of a plane and shot him, removing the last high-ranking officer standing between Treize and control of the Alliance.

Furious at Treize’s manipulation of Heero, Chang Wufei tracks Treize and Une to the former’s ship, intending to pay them back. Desperate to save her boss, Une confronts Wufei in an extensively modified Leo. While she succeeds in surprising him, her machine is ultimately no match for Wufei’s high-tech Shenlong Gundam and she is defeated

Following Wufei’s attack on Treize, Une was made the head of OZ’s anti-Gundam task force. She relentlessly pursued the five Gundam pilots, eventually trapping them in Siberia. Demonstrating the brutality for which she is famous, using OZ’s missile satellites to threaten the pilots home colonies if they do not give in. This prompts Heero’s surrender and attempted suicide; in the confusion following his self-detonation, the others make good their escape.

Development of split personality

After a failed assassination attempt by Relena at a conference, Treize criticised Une for her lack of subtlety. Deciding to give her training in diplomacy, he sent her to the colonies as his ambassador, telling her to demonstrate the more feminine side of her nature.

It is during Une’s sojourn in the colonies that we become aware of the dual nature of her identity. Devastated by Treize’s criticism, Une’s mind fractures, creating two versions of herself that operate in ignorance of one another. The new personality, peaceful Une, was calm, poised, and willing to negotiate. She met with colonial leaders, made impassioned speeches about pacifism, and even spoke with the Sanc Kingdom’s ambassador, Milliardo Peacecraft.

As the public face of OZ in outer space, peaceful-Une makes considerable inroads, eventually winning colonial acceptance of OZ. However, behind the scenes, her military personality continued to operate, forcing the captured Gundam scientists to build the Mercurius and Vayeate.

Conflict and recovery

These professional victories are sadly marred by increasing personal difficulties as Une and her pacifistic alter come into increasing conflict with one another. The peaceful personality supported Chief Engineer Tubarov’s Mobile Doll programme, whilst the military personality, like Treize, was completely contemptuous of it.

In the aftermath of Quatre’s lunatic rampage and Trowa’s apparent death at his hands, Tubarov launches a coup against Une, then cuts off the air supply to the remaining pilots. While Une is able to save them, she is shot by Tubarov and sent into a coma.

Une spends most of the second half of the series unconscious. She misses Tubarov’s death, Zechs’ seizure of power in the colonies, and Treize’s escape and subsequent military takeover of Earth. Perhaps saddest of all, she misses Treize’s confession that he loved her too.

Return to service

Awakening late in the series, she discovers that Treize is no longer on Earth; he has journeyed to space to fight a war against the now antagonistic Zechs. During her recuperation it appears that her two personalities have fused, creating a new Une, who combines peaceful-Une’s thoughtfulness and distaste for violence, with Lady Une’s military skill and ability to get things done.

Stealing Heero’s abandoned Wing Gundam, Une journeys to space, arriving just in time to save Treize from a shot from Zechs’ Libra super-weapon. Treize gently removes her from the wreckage and the two share a moment, before he sets her down in his command center, MO-II.

On MO-II, Une resumed her former position as Treize’s right-hand, essentially functioning as his chief-of-staff. She directs the battle against, and is the sole witness—via radio—to Treize’s final duel with Wufei, and resultant death. Une’s reaction suggests she was aware of Treize’s intent to lose, but she still takes it hard.

Post-war activities

When the colonies and Earth unify into the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, Lady Une joins the Preventers, a group of people given mandate by the ESUN to prevent conflicts from escalating. She took the codename “Gold” within the organisation.

When Mariemaia conquers a defenseless Earth and occupies Brussels, Belgium, Lady Une broke into the shielded presidential bunker where Mariemaia and her grandfather Dekim Barton were hiding. She expresses disbelief that Mariemaia thinks that she is following her father’s ideals, when she is really being twisted by Dekim’s.

When Heero/Wing Zero manages to destroy the protective bunker shields, Une protects Mariemaia and Relena from falling rubble. She tells a confused Mariemaia that she personally can’t allow Treize’s daughter to die. After Dekim Barton’s death at the hands of a loyal soldier, Une ordered the soldiers to take Mariemaia to a doctor. Afterwards Lady Une, perhaps in honor of Treize, decides to adopt Mariemaia and raise the girl as her own.

Personality & traits

Lady Une suffers from a case of dissociative identity disorder. The reasons behind her psychiatric problems are unclear, it’s only presumed she suffered a great emotional shock and/or found parts of her mind in strong conflict with each other; she created various alters that reflect those emotions. She has 3 alters: Military-Une, Peaceful-Une, and the 3rd version that is a combination of both, all reflecting a part of herself that she wants to be.

Military-Une is her dominant alter. She’s cold, arrogant, shrewd, and callous. She does not seem to share Treize’s belief in honor or chivalry, and will use any methods (no matter how reprehensible) to get the job done. This personality was known for its ruthless efficiency and complete dedication to accomplishing Treize’s orders, regardless of the cost.

Peaceful-Une is the opposite of her military-part in almost every way. As such, she has more liberal views and presents herself as a beautiful and charming lady that grabs the attention of all the men. She often uses her charms to get the necessary attention to convey her political views. This personality genuinely believed in pacifism and diplomatic solutions.

Eventually, both of Une’s personalities merged, following her lapse into a coma; the 3rd and final alter of Une combines the best traits of both her selves: Lady Une’s military skills and drive with peaceful-Une’s belief in humanity and diplomatic skills for pacifistic negotiations.

Skills & abilities

As a soldier in the OZ Specials, Lady Une has received elite combat training. Unlike Treize, she is not a duelist, preferring guns and high-explosives (with which she is most proficient). She is a competent, if overly vicious, field commander.

Her alternate peaceful side has obviously had some diplomatic training, and is an excellent public speaker; perhaps the best analysis of her skill in this area is the fact that the alliance between the colonies and OZ falls apart following her removal as ambassador.

She is also skilled at piloting mobile suits, and on one occasion, she challenged the Shenlong Gundam piloted by Chang Wufei with her Leo, and they fought on even terms.

Relationships

Treize Khushrenada

Lady Une’s relationship with her superior Treize is key to her character. She is his most trusted assistant, performing every action from preparing his bath, to taking out his political rivals. She is deeply devoted to and unconditionally in love with the man, and Treize seems to play that, using her to perform the nastiest, most important jobs he can, as he knows she will not betray him.

However, this is later proven to be untrue. When Une’s multiple personalities incapacitate her in battle, Treize sends Zechs to save her, commenting that she is one of the few people who, like Zechs, truly understands him. When Une is shot and left for dead (although unknown to him at the time, merely comatose), Treize is deeply saddened.

After Une was recovered and returned to Earth by his surviving forces from space, Treize visits her in the hospital, overjoyed that she is alive, and leaves roses, confessing that he was always a little in love with her although he did not know it himself.

Mariemaia Khushrenada

After Treize’s death, Une took responsibility for his daughter Mariemaia, eventually adopting her. During the Mariemaia Rebellion, Une protected both Mariemaia and Relena from Dekim Barton’s extremism, ultimately helping to end the conflict peacefully.

Mecha

OZ-06MS Leo

Une primarily piloted the standard OZ-06MS Leo during her service with OZ. Desperate to save her boss, Une confronts Wufei in an extensively modified Leo. While she succeeds in surprising him, her machine is ultimately no match for Wufei’s high-tech Shenlong Gundam and she is defeated The mobile suit was equipped with additional modifications for her confrontation with Chang Wufei, including enhanced armour and an atmospheric rocket pack.

XXXG-01W Wing Gundam

Near the end of the Eve Wars, Stealing Heero’s abandoned Wing Gundam, Une journeys to space, arriving just in time to save Treize from a shot from Zechs’ Libra super-weapon. She piloted the Wing Gundam during the final battle, using it to shield Treize from the Libra’s main cannon. The mobile suit was completely destroyed in this action, but Une survived the impact.

Behind the scenes

Lady Une was voiced by Sayuri Yamauchi in the Japanese version, who passed away in 2012. Enuka Okuma provided the English dub voice for both Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz.

Lady Une’s glasses appear to be only for cosmetic reasons, as she appears fully capable of perfect sight without them, even abandoning them entirely after awakening from her coma. The character’s name is derived from French un, lit. “one” in feminine form.

Her first name is never identified in any media. It is unknown if her first name is in fact Lady, or if it is merely a title within OZ.