Haman Karn

From the The Gundam Wiki, the ultimate guide to Gundam

Haman Karn (ハマーン・カーン hamān kān, often called Haman Khan) is a fictional character from the anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. Haman is voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara (Japanese) and Jennifer Bain (English).

Biography

As the daughter of Admiral Maharaja Khan who led the exodus to Axis, Haman took over her late father's role at the recommendation of Char Aznable, in U.C. 0082. At age sixteen she found herself in charge of a community of dispirited Zeon exiles. Despite being so young, Haman's charisma and determination allowed her to rally Axis Zeon for their eventual return to the Earth Sphere. As regent to the young girl Mineva Lao Zabi, last of the Zabi royal family, Haman was the true leader of the Axis Zeon faction (which she later re-names Neo Zeon), based in the asteroid of the same name. Her goals were chiefly the revival of the Zabi Royal Family, and social reform throughout the Earth Sphere. From her various speeches and her general disposition, we can surmise that she favours a monarchist system of government with a style of aristocratic meritocracy operating beneath it. Garnering ideas from Zeon Zum Deikun, as all Zeon-based factions do, Axis Zeon also desired to overthrow the 'old ways' and the 'institutions of the past', and to do away with the trade barriers and tariffs that had plagued the Sides before the outbreak of the One Year War in U.C. 0079.

The shrewd and ambitious Haman was a skilled pilot, a very powerful Newtype, and the former girlfriend of AEUG ace pilot Quattro Bajeena, also known as Char Aznable. Char Aznable was initially sent to earth in U.C. 0082 to act as what she called a "forward scout", but she expressed disappointment when Char reveals that he did not agree with goals and would no longer help her.

Haman's personal mobile suit was the AMX-004 Qubeley, which was equipped with a miniaturised psycommu system and 12 remote weapons known as "funnels". Her aptitude with the psycommu was extremely high.

The Gryps War

Haman's Axis Zeon group used its political and monetary influence as well as its numerical superiority to maintain a high ground compared to both the Titans and the AEUG, and both factions found themselves courting Axis Zeon over the course of the Gryps conflict. The monetary influence that Axis Zeon exerted was principally due to the fact that Axis used a representative money and commodity money system based on actual gold and silver, which proved itself superior to the fiat money system used by the rest of the rest of the Earth Sphere which had been in recession since the end of U.C. 0079.

The AEUG entered negotiations with Axis in the hopes of making the Titans a mutual enemy of both factions. However, when Char Aznable tried to attack Haman during their meeting aboard Axis' capital ship, negotiations broke down between the two factions, and Axis instead allied itself with the Titans. At a convenient time Axis eventually exited the alliance with the Titans. The war culminated in a battle between Haman, Char and Paptimus, ultimately ending with Kamille in his Zeta Gundam showing up to fight Scirocco's PMX-003 The-O, while Haman in her Qubeley, defeats Char's MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki.

Although Haman usually acted as if she had gotten over Char's rejection of her ideas and her affections, she tried at least twice to convince him to rejoin Axis Zeon. Their past relationship can be seen in the manga Char's Deleted Affair: Portrait of a Young Comet (C.D.A.). At the end of the Gryps conflict, she appeared slightly saddened when it seemed that she had actually killed Char.

The First Neo Zeon War

In the aftermath of that war, which was referred to from that point as "The Gryps War", Axis was in a position of strategic and tactical advantage, and Haman's dreams were about to manifest in reality. Spearheading the next move, she ambitiously sent envoys to various colonies, and subsequently landed a full-fledged occupying force in the Earth Federation's capital at Dakar, spreading her influence throughout North Africa. Whether her reforms would have lifted the indigenous populations out of their backward state of development is unknown, since the blow-back of her own machinations began to visit her in the form of the AEUG remnants on the Argama, and their rising star pilot, Judau Ashta. The two encountered each other on multiple occasions, as Haman attempted to convince Judau to join her. Judau however, refused, being deeply suspicious of her ideas and motivations.

As the push to occupy the Earth slowly ground to a halt due to various elements of resistance, the First Neo Zeon War (as it would later be called) took a turn in a new direction, as Haman decided to use a weapon of mass destruction in the form of an asteroid drop onto Dublin, Ireland, to force a surrender from the Earth Federation. Curiously, the Earth Federation chose not to warn or evacuate Dublin, and instead allowed its own citizens to be killed for the purposes of population reduction. One Earth Federation minister privately expressed his lack of concern with the words, "It doesn't matter, at least we will have less mouths to feed".

After this distasteful sequence of events, Haman seemed to be on the path to victory. Unfortunately for her, one of her subordinates, Glemy Toto, had acquired a taste for power, and had gained enough influence within the organisation to begin to challenge some of the finer points of Haman's philosophy and methods. This subsequently escalated into an actual civil war within Neo Zeon itself, as the 'Glemy Faction' began to fight against the units that were loyal to Haman's leadership.

During this internal confusion, the Earth Federation exploited the Neo Zeon's disarray due to its infighting, by pushing a task-force headed up primarily by the former AEUG personnel on the Argama directly into Neo Zeon's homeland area and attacking Haman's remaining units after the Glemy Faction had been defeated.

Haman found herself cornered, and was both disappointed and frustrated with the cards that fate had seemingly dealt her. In that final battle, The Battle of Axis, Judau Ashta piloted his personal mobile suit MSZ-0010 ZZ Gundam against Haman's AMX-004 Qubeley, fighting her to a stalemate as the Earth Federation fleet bore down on their position.

Here, Judau and Haman's ideologies clashed in the fervour of combat. Judau insisted that people shouldn't simply make decisions 'by themselves', but Haman replied by telling him that she did not feel the need to change herself to satisfy others. The subject of 'Newtypes' was also raised, Judau attempted to intimidate Haman with a vision of 'the will of those sacrificed in vain fights', Haman replying again with an individualist outlook, asking him if he thought that his view of Newtypes should be the only valid one.

Judau implored her to surrender, claiming that Haman was 'trapping herself', but at that point Haman was prepared to see the fight through to the end. Using a play on words, Haman replied that 'trapping' (concealing) herself was actually her strength, and gave an impassioned statement, "All humans are Alone, that is their destiny", shortly before rushing in to clash sabres with the ZZ Gundam one final time.

Judau foresaw the attack, and disabled Haman's AMX-004 Qubeley as Haman also disabled Judau's ZZ Gundam.

Haman realised that despite having disabled her foe, she was herself disabled and surrounded by the Earth Federation Fleet. Lamenting the turn of events, she accused Judau of following a childish and naive path, telling him that it was because of people's childishness, that the Earth would continue to be 'ruled by idiots'. Declining Judau's attempts to talk further, she then took her own life by flying her damaged Qubeley in an asteroid fragment.

In the aftermath of Haman's suicide, surviving Neo Zeon forces surrendered to the Earth Federation.

In ZZ Gundam, Haman becomes interested in a newtype named Judau Ashta. However in the end she is defeated by him during the Battle of Axis and commits suicide.

The Zeta Gundam compilation movies however, effectively write out ZZ with the Axis Zeon displaced from the Earth Sphere, though the Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ TV series are still considered the official canon. Template:Spoilerend

• Haman also made a minor appearance in Gundam 0083.

• Char also briefly mentions her in his speech to the 2nd Neo-Zeon Movement (Char's Counterattack)

• Haman is named after Haman from the Book of Esther in the Jewish Torah/Christian Old Testament. Like her namesake, she is a corrupt usurper who uses a ruler to fulfill his/her ambitions. The only difference is that the Biblical Haman sought ethnic cleansing (particularly of Jews), while the Universal Century Haman sought domination.