Chang Wufei

Chang Wufei
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing character
In-universe information
Alias	Zero-Five
Nationality	L5 colony cluster (Chinese descent)

Chang Wufei (チャン・ウーフェイ, Chan Wufei, Chinese: 張 五飛 Zhāng Wǔfēi) derived from Mandarin Wǔ (five) is a fictional character from the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. He is a central character of the anime and several of the derivative works that make up the After Colony fictional universe. Wufei is the pilot of Shenlong Gundam, one of five advanced mobile suits sent to Earth during the events of the anime. The character's voice in the animated works is provided by Ryuuzou Ishino (Japanese) and Ted Cole (English).

Background and Personality

Chang Wufei is descended from a Chinese clan known as the Long Clan. The Long Clan was long ago banished into the rundown colony A0206 by their government, who were afraid of their power.

Wufei is a loner and prefers to fight alone. He is driven by a warrior's pride, and single-mindedly battles to achieve his objectives. However, his ideals have a tendency to have a naivety to them (i.e., "I will destroy all evil to change the world"). He looks down on those who do not follow the same form of warrior's pride as he does, and has a distaste for those who conduct themselves sympathetically on the battlefield. Contrary to common thought, he does not seem to look down on women in general, being amiable to many women on many occasions, including Sally Po, Lady Une, and in the Japanese version, his colony master (voiced by a man in the English version.) He does, however, look down on women who conduct themselves like the negative stereotype of women on the battlefield, such as Lucrezia Noin's apparent compassion for him due to his young age.

He regards strength and honor as very important; at one point when he lost to Treize in a duel, he thought he wasn't good enough to be a Gundam Pilot. Unlike the other four pilots Wufei doesn't fight for peace, instead he fights for true justice. Wufei prefers to call his Gundam Nataku in honor of the name his deceased young wife Long Meilan (or Meiran) called herself.

History

Episode Zero

This manga story reveals many additional details about Wufei's past. In the year After Colony 194, it was revealed that Wufei was a brainy scholar who was attending a boarding school and did not want to have anything to do with fighting. Wufei was to be married to Long Meilan (or Meiran), as part of the Dragon Clan's tradition of marrying their children at the age of 14. Meilan was thought to be the reincarnation of the Chinese War God Nataku due to her incredible martial art talent, and was considered the strongest in the clan, as well as the Shenlong's intended pilot. However, neither she nor Wufei were happy about this marital arrangement. When Meilan tried to convince him to train with the others to help uphold justice, he easily defeated her in combat quoting that justice only existed for one's convenience.

Wufei met Master O, who told Wufei that he was unable to change Meilan because he only forced his conclusion upon her. Master O then pointed out that with Wufei's strength and skill he could change the course of history, but since Wufei was so smart and refused to fight it would only cause him to watch people suffer and die. Master O then asked Wufei to name the Gundam that he was creating. Wufei chose to use the name of the legendary Chinese God Shenlong, feeling that Nataku was too weak to be the guardian spirit for the Long clan.

These tenuous days ended when the Earth Sphere Alliance attempted to scrap the colony. Both Earth Alliance and OZ special's troops were sent in to deal with these plans. Alliance troops led by Sally Po were under orders by General Septem to murder all of the inhabitants of Colony A0206 with biological weapons in order to wipe out the infamous Dragon Clan. Sally protested to this plan, wanting to try a more humane way instead. But the OZ specials troops under orders from OZ leader Treize Khushrenada went through with their plans of a mobile suit attack on the colony with the biological weapons.

Meilan launched herself in a prototype Tallgeese to defend the colony. Despite orders from both Wufei and Master O to desist as she was not strong enough to handle it, Meilan charged in pointing out that this was a battle to uphold justice. Wufei, not wanting to see his wife die, took the incomplete Shenlong to defend her, despite Master O's warning that it had no weapons. Wufei was able to stop the biological weapons which Sally chose to falsely report to Septem in order to protect the lives of that colony's inhabitants. Wufei then took over for Meilan and ordered her to head back to the colony. However, when an OZ soldier attempted to slam his Leo into the Shenlong so he wouldn't disgrace his master Treize, Meilan took the blow for Wufei, resulting in the destruction of her Tallgeese unit and leaving her mortally wounded.

In the end, Wufei took an oath to call his wife Nataku rather than Meilan and together had one last talk in the field of flowers she tried so hard to protect, before she died in his arms. It was from this day that not only would Wufei live for justice, but he would prefer to call his Gundam; Nataku - as he felt that his wife's spirit lived on within that suit -, vowing that he would change this insane world.

Gundam Wing

Wufei is the pilot of the frightening Shenlong Gundam. Unlike the other 4 Gundam Pilots, he is a loner in the early episodes. He is the first to find out about the trap Treize set for them to assassinate the leaders of the Earth Sphere Alliance, but was too late to do anything about it. Then he and fellow Gundam pilot Trowa Barton head after OZ's leader Treize Khushrenada to kill him. Wufei faced Treize in a sword duel, but lost. Wufei then stayed at the circus with Trowa for a short time, very depressed and thinking he was not good enough for the Shenlong, his Gundam. Because of this he refuses to battle with the other Gundams in Siberia. Sometime afterwards he met former Earth Alliance member, now guerrilla leader Sally Po and with her help Wufei was convinced to go back into fighting again with Shenlong.

Wufei later came to the aid of Quatre Raberba Winner and Duo Maxwell at the Singapore Space Port and convinced both of them that they are doing the right thing, when both pilots were depressed after hearing the colonies leaders denounce the Gundams as enemies. Wufei then showed them that the other Gundam pilots also heard the message they were trying to send of going back into space. Thanks to Quatre self-destructing his Sandrock as a distraction, Wufei is successful in heading into space with Shenlong. But due to Shenlong's incapability of fighting in space, Wufei was unsuccessful in his assault on Barge and only narrowly escaped their beamcannon. Later he allowed himself to get caught by OZ and is sent to OZ's Lunar Base while the Shenlong was taken apart by Chief Engineer Tubarov. Luckily, the Gundam scientists secretly rebuild Shenlong alongside Duo's Gundam Deathscythe. During Colonel Tuberov's rebellion against Lady Une, the air supply to Duo and Wufei's prison cell was cut off. After Lady Une saves their lives Wufei escapes from the Lunar Base with his new Altron Gundam.

He heads back to his home colony, to use their resources to help complete the nearly completed Altron, and spent the next few months training, but OZ troops soon arrive. Master Long, the head of the colony self detonates it, causing Wufei to go crazy in rage, destroying all of the remaining OZ troops. Wufei is then approached by former OZ pilot Zechs Merquise to join his crusade against the Romefeller Foundation, but Wufei refused to join him. Wufei then worked on a one-man crusade to bring down all oppressive forces in space. During this time Wufei was approached by former OZ pilot Lucrezia Noin whom Wufei previously met at the Lake Victoria base on Earth. Noin who was working with Quatre to gather the pilots was turned down by Wufei. Wufei then launched an attack against the White Fang's base Libra but was easily defeated by Libra's superior fire power.

Then after interfering in a battle between the White Fang and the OZ space forces, the Altron was badly damaged and was no longer able to move on its own. Wufei eventually was rescued by Heero Yuy and Sally Po who were on their way to Peacemillion to join up with the others. When White Fang troops were going to attack them, Wufei was ready to face them because he felt responsible, but was convinced by Heero to use his Wing Gundam Zero instead. The ZERO System helped Wufei to understand that Treize and Zechs were the obstacles that he must face in bringing about justice and that working with the other Gundam pilots would help make his job easier. Wufei chose to join the others on Peacemillion and after his Altron is repaired by the Peacemillion crew, Wufei assists the others against the White Fang mobile doll troops. In the final battle, Wufei separates from the others to have another duel against Treize. In what is considered by many to be one of the most emotional and memorable scenes from the series, Wufei is victorious and Treize is killed, though Wufei is furious that Treize allowed him to win. This emotionally breaks him, crying, he remarks 'I didn't think I'd win.' Afterwards, he rejoins the others, and while fighting, recovers Wing Zero's twin buster rifle, and returns it to Heero, who then uses it to destroy the remains of Libra.

Endless Waltz

In Endless Waltz, Wufei, still driven by his warrior's pride, is unable to live in a world where no wars are necessary, and where Treize continues to haunt him, even after his death. Thus, he declined to turn his Gundam over to be destroyed, and instead, lent his services (and his Gundam) to the Barton Foundation and the Mariemaia Army. Unlike Trowa who only joined the Mariemaia Army to infiltrate them, Wufei joined them willingly. During his tenure with the Mariemaia Army, he would clash with Heero on two different occasions, first with Heero piloting a Leo while invading the colony and later when he is piloting Wing Zero on his way to Earth. The battle came to a standstill, but thanks to Heero's words, Wufei remembered the day when his home colony self-destructed, and realized that if the Mariemaia Army won then this sort of incident could be repeated. As a result, Wufei joined the anti-war protesters at Brussels, Belgium, feeling that his war is finally over. Sometime later, Wufei self-destructed his Gundam, with Sally watching. Sally offers Wufei to join the Preventer Agency, and he accepts.

In Wufei's flashback we see how he objected to both Master O and Master Long towards the original Operation Meteor because their home colony was going to be one of the colonies used in the colony drop. Wufei points outs that they should only be targeting the corrupt factors in the Earth Sphere to bring about true justice.