The Gundam Wing Villain That Deserves To Be Among Anime’s Greatest Characters

The greatest villains in any series are as memorable as the heroes themselves, from Skeletor to Megatron, and in anime, there’s Blackbeard the Pirate in One Piece and Griffith from Berserk, among countless others. Trieze Kushrenada is made from a different mold compared to those megalomaniacs, and to this day, fans are still debating if he’s the hero of Gundam Wing. Operating by a strict code of chivalry, honor, and a desire to improve humanity, Trieze has the makings of a classical hero, and that’s why he’s such an effective villain.

Trieze Kushrenada starts Gundam Wing aligned with the United Earth Sphere Alliance as the head of OZ and is part of the Romenfeller Foundation, which, naturally, puts him in direct opposition to the Gundam pilots fighting for the space colonies. Instead of going head-to-head or even openly working against the pilots, Trieze quietly manipulates Heero into killing off his rivals, conquers most of the planet, and sways most of the Romenfeller Foundation to his way of thinking.

The man does more in a handful of episodes than most anime villains do in entire story arcs.

Best of all, Trieze accomplishes all of this with a sense of style and grace, to the point that when directly confronted by Heero as war is about to break out, he partially sways the Gundam pilot to his way of thinking. Heero can’t stop fighting, and Trieze wants to end all conflict; the two find philosophical common ground without killing each other. Moments like that elevate Gundam Wing, and it’s all thanks to Trieze Kushrenada and his noble but flawed goals.

The real villain of the series isn’t Trieze or even Zechs, his one-time best friend, but the very concept of war itself. It’s through war, a grand, glorious, and beautiful war, that Trieze hopes humanity will evolve and never engage in open conflict again. A noble thought, but the reality is very different; from the first episode of Gundam Wing to the last, he never wavers in his convictions, not even at the end, when he’s dueling Wufei.

The Gundam pilot asks Trieze if he knows how many lives have been lost because of his machinations. Surprisingly, Trieze responds with the exact number of casualties and even starts listing the names of the fallen soldiers. Though he’s saddened by the staggering number of losses, Trieze considers it a necessary step in his grand plan to help improve humanity.

Gundam Wing pulls off the impossible and, in Trieze Kushrenada, gives us a villain who’s ultimately more noble and heroic than the supposed protagonists of the story. He’s not the first complex villain in the franchise, and not even the only one in his series, as with a few small perspective changes, Zechs could also be the story’s hero. This is why, over 20 years later, I still find fans engaging in debates about Trieze over social media.

The means don’t quite justify the end, but Trieze is so charismatic, charming, and disarmingly polite that it’s easy to overlook the bloodshed he orchestrates as part of his grand design. Gundam Wing, unlike a few entries in the franchise, doesn’t give us any easy answers, and most of the cast don’t fit easily into the boxes we’re used to, but that’s what makes it one of the greatest series of all time. Trieze Kushrenada is still, to this day, a unique, complex villain, and best of all, at the end of the story, he’s succeeded.