In every major Gundam series, the Gundam is the most advanced piece of Mobile Suit in the universe. The technologies used in these machines are right at the bleeding edge of what is possible to make at the time. Needless to say, the Gundam in Gundam: The Witch from Mercury also adheres to the same principle.

Gundam Aerial and every other Gundam that appear in this series are without a doubt the most advanced piece of engineering known to mankind. What makes the Gundam from this series unique, however, is the fact that each and every one of them have different origin stories. So let’s dive deeper into every Gundam in The Witch from Mercury.

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XGF-02 Gundam Lfrith

Let’s start with the Gundam that started it all, the XGF-02 Gundam Lfrith. This is the Gundam that was entirely built by the original Vanadis Institute. Yes, they did receive fundings and other resources from the Ochs Earth Corporation, but Gundam Lfrith is still the culmination of the hard work, hopes, and ideologies of the researchers at the Vanadis Institute. It represented the next step in human evolution, and it was the last Gundam made with such pure intention.

Although Gundam Lfrith only appears on the Prologue episode, its influence can be seen throughout the series. First of all, after the events of the Prologue episode, Gundam Lfrith is further developed into what is now known as the iconic Gundam Aerial. Not only that, the prototype data for Gundam Lfrith is used by various companies and organization to produce similar, albeit inferior, version of Gundam Lfrith, the most notable ones being the EDM-GA-01 Gundam Lfrith Ur, piloted by Sophie Pulone, and the EDM-GA-02 Gundam Lfrith Thorn, piloted by Norea du Norc.

XVX-016 Gundam Aerial

After the destruction of the Vanadis Institute and the massacre of its researchers, the only survivors of that accident are Elnora Samaya, her daughter Ericht Samaya, and Belmeria Winston. Elnora and Ericht managed to escape by using the newly developed Gundam Lfrith, while Belmeria happened to not be at their HQ at the time. Gundam Lfrith suffered quite a few damages during the skirmish against the government forces, but Elnora managed to use it to seek refuge on Planet Mercury.

While in Mercury, Elnora, along with the Shin Sei Development Corporation, further developed Gundam Lfrith. They spent decades improving every facet of Gundam Lfrith, with the most notable improvement being the integration of Ericht Samaya’s consciousness into the system, which allowed an unprecedented control and accuracy over the Gund Bits. The end result is the most stable, versatile, safe, and powerful Gundam in the universe. An entirely new mobile suit called XVX-016 Gundam Aerial, piloted by Suletta Mercury.

Gundam Aerial stays the same for the majority of the first season of the series. However, it suffers major damage during its duel with Shaddiq Zanelli and his team. So Elnora, now known as Prospera, brought Aerial back not only to repair it, but also to upgrade it. The result is XVX-016RN Gundam Aerial Rebuild. We can see its performance for the first time during the Plant Quetta incident.

FP/A-77 Gundam Pharact

As it turns out, Elnora is not the only one who keeps researching and building the state-of-the-art mobile suit known as the Gundam. Fellow survivor of the Vanadis Institute incident, Belmeria Winston, was recruited by a giant company called Peil Technologies. By combining Peil Technologies’ resources and Belmeria’s knowledge over the Gund Project, they manage to create a new Gundam from the ground-up. They called it the FP/A-77 Gundam Pharact, piloted by Elan Ceres. Or rather the enhanced humans that are based on Elan Ceres.

Although Gundam Pharact still uses the same Permet system as Gundam Lfrith and Aerial, its overall appearance is highly different from the other Gundam. After all, Gundam Pharact uses the same design philosophies as the other mobile suits from Peil Technologies. That is why unlike the other Gundam, Gundam Pharact has a much slimmer waist and legs, but with a much broader hip and shoulder, which is pretty much the signature design of Peil Technologies’ mobile suits, such as the F/D-19 Zowort line.

X-EX01 Gundam Calibarn

At roughly the same time as the development of the original Gundam Lfrith, the Ochs Earth Corporation, the parent company of the Vanadis Institute, also developed their own version of Gundam, using the data obtained from Vanadis. Unlike the people at Vanadis that intend to use Gundam Lfrith as the next step of human expansion to space, the Ochs Earth simply wanted to create an advanced war machine. So rather than focusing on pilot safety like the Vanadis has been doing with Lfrith, they pour their intention on raw firepower instead. The result of this development is the X-EX01 Gundam Calibarn.

Although the people at Ochs Earth Corporation managed to create the Gundam that they wanted, Gundam Calibarn proves to be a much more dangerous monster than they ever thought of. The lack of pilot safety features means Gundam Calibarn will devour the mind of every pilot that dares to enter its cockpit. It is said that lots of people lose their lives trying to control this monster. So Ochs Earth decided to abandon this project.

One thing leads to another, the Space Assembly League manages to get their hands on Gundam Calibarn and has been keeping it hidden since. Fast-forward to the last few episodes of the second season, and we finally see Gundam Calibarn in action, with Suletta Mercury as its pilot.

MDX-0003 Gundam Schwarzette

Following the Plant Quetta incident, the Shin Sei Development Corporation, or rather its president Prospera, agreed to share the development data of Gundam Aerial. She even agreed to joint development of an entirely new Gundam with one of the biggest companies under the Benerit Group, the Jeturk Heavy Machinery. The result is the MDX-0003 Gundam Schwarzette, a Gundam that focuses more on close-quarter combat.

Similar to Gundam Pharact, although the brain of Gundam Schwarzette is similar to the other Gundam, the body is based heavily on Jeturk Heavy Machinary’s design philosophy. That is why Gundam Schwarzette has much more bulky legs, claw-like feet, and a halo on its head, which is pretty much the design signature of the Jeturk’s mobile suit, such as the MD-0064 Darilbalde. Although Gundam Schwarzette is technically still in active development, it saw action in the last few episodes of season two, with Lauda Neil as its pilot.

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