List of Cosmic Era human enhancements

This is a list of fictional human enhancements from the Cosmic Era (CE) timeline of the "Gundam" anime metaseries.

Coordinators

Coordinators are genetically enhanced human beings which possess a number of enhanced traits, including faster learning and stronger and faster bodies that are virtually immune to diseases. They are physically and mentally superior to baseline normal humans. Coordinators are feared and hated by normal humans. Hatred and envy of Coordinators stem from their superior abilities. Furthermore, one must not confuse Coordinators with Newtypes, such as in "After War Gundam X". Unlike Newtypes, Coordinators were artificially created, and in some episodes of Gundam Seed, it was revealed that "genetic saturation" with succeeding generations were occurring. Newtypes represented the next stage in natural human evolution, while Coordinators seemed to hit an evolutionary standstill that could only be surpassed with more forced genetic manipulation, (which just compounds the initial problem).

First Coordinator

In Cosmic Era 15, the highly respected man named George Glenn announced the shocking news that he was the first Coordinator, as he was born following a genetic manipulation procedure. Glenn was human "engineered" to be better. He disclosed the entire process to create a Coordinator to the public.

The genetic modifications that create a Coordinator had to be performed in the earliest stages of embryonic development. The Coordinator embryo was then reinserted back into its mother for gestation. These genetic enhancements are then passed on to the Coordinator's children without the need for more enhancements.

Those who were born without any genetic enhancements, be they inherited from the parents or introduced during prenatal development, became known as Naturals. When Natural parents have their children turned into Coordinators, the children are described as first-generation Coordinators, whose own children will then be second-generation Coordinators, and so forth.

Coordinators and Naturals

For many years, after George Glenn's revelation, Coordinators remained illegal. When the ban was repealed in the CE 30s, the "Coordinator boom" started and lasted until the CE 50s. Following the rapid and widespread diffusion of Coordinators, major social unrest followed, throwing the world into chaos. Many Naturals started to oppose the Coordinators out of jealousy for their abilities, stating that they were created unnaturally. Anti-Coordinator pressure groups, most notably Blue Cosmos, labeled Coordinators as "space monsters" and declared that they had to be wiped out "for the preservation of a blue and pure world."

As the major political blocs began building the space colonies, known as PLANTs, these gradually became a new home for Coordinators. The Naturals intended to make the Earth their exclusive domain, although it was not uncommon to find Coordinators and Naturals living peacefully together in nations such as the Orb Union.

By the mid-50s, the situation had deteriorated to the point that Blue Cosmos operatives were in positions of power across the Atlantic Federation, and Coordinators had largely retreated to either neutral nations like the Orb Union or into space in PLANT, where they were more than welcome.

A derogative term among Naturals for Coordinators is "Patchworker," a reference to their "patchwork" DNA.

Issues

As of CE 71, Coordinators are becoming increasingly sterile because they do not have the genetic input which Naturals possess. Additionally, this sterile situation only occurs in 3rd-generation Coordinators. Though PLANT scientists are busy working on a solution, there is no known cure as of the present date.

Another potential flaw of Coordinators is that there is a discrepancy between how a Coordinator fetus is intended to develop and how the child turns out in reality. In many cases, unwanted genetic traits would appear in the baby, arguably due to the inability of the mother's womb to pose as an adequate environment to support the genetic modifications.

"Ultimate" Coordinator

In the early 50's, renowned scientist Professor Ulen Hibiki proposed the usage of an artificial womb to circumvent the natural womb's shortcomings in order create an infant, which has all the intended genetic modifications without any deviations. This gives whoever is the Ultimate Coordinator superiority over the average Coordinators. Many "prototypes" failed, including Canard Pars, the only known one to have survived, before the last and successful "Ultimate Coordinator", Hibiki's son Kira Yamato, was born on May 18, CE 55. Kira grew up completely unaware of his origins until later during the Bloody Valentine War.

True purpose

According to the "GG Unit", an artificial intelligence said to be derived from the memory engrams of George Glenn's brain, Coordinators have strayed from their intended purpose: to "coordinate" the next step of humanity's evolution, as the name indicates. The phrase emerged from the historic speech that Glenn made to reveal his genetic nature in which he stated his view that "I am the regulator... the coordinator". Glenn never intended for Coordinators to view themselves as a superior race, but in his eyes, anyone who works for the betterment of mankind is a true Coordinator, regardless of whether his genes have been enhanced or not. Unfortunately, this enlightened view is not shared by many on either side of the Earth/PLANT conflict, with many believing that Coordinators are the next step for humanity, a crime against nature or even simply a way for vain parents to create their dream child. Glenn does not give any details of how this next stage of human evolution differs from current humans.

Extended human (Biological CPU)

The Extended human was a secret Atlantic Federation development project that aimed to produce pilots for its mobile suits that could fight with the same efficiency as Coordinators. Through the use of drugs and other means, Blue Cosmos was able to create living weapons. Those who could not keep up with progress or were not competitive enough were discarded. They are considered equipment instead of soldiers by the Earth Alliance Forces. When not in battle, an Extended seems like a normal person, but when engaged in combat, he/she would become psychotic. In its earlier stages, the project was codenamed "Biological CPU program".

* First Stage Extended humans had some biotechnological modification and were mentally conditioned to eliminate their sense of fear and increase aggression in combat; the subjects were mostly regular pilots who were given regular doses of the performance-enhancing drug Gamma Glipheptin. This drug had a negative effect on the pilots' mental stability and caused them to behave in undesirable ways during battle; it also had a very brief duration, and as the effect wore off it left the pilots incapacitated with severe withdrawal symptoms as their nervous systems began to collapse without regular doses. Their loyalty to the Earth Alliance was guaranteed by their addiction to Gamma Glipheptin. The first-stage test subjects were Shani Andras, Clotho Buer, and Orga Sabnak; all three were killed in battle during the closing stages of the Bloody Valentine War.

* Second Stage Extended humans were physically and psychologically altered with heavy mental conditioning, performance-enhancing drugs, and extremely harsh combat training. They were more stable than first-stage Extendeds but required regular reconditioning, especially when their block words were used to force actions from them. They also required regular brain "maintenance" to keep them in a high-performance state and to erase any "undesirable" memories they might possess. Sting Oakley, Stella Loussier, and Auel Neider were second-stage Extended humans; all three died in combat throughout the course of the Second Bloody Valentine War. Auel perished at the hands of Shinn Asuka's ZGMF-X56S Impulse in a naval battle near Crete. Stella died after her GFAS-X1 Destroy was attacked by Kira Yamato's ZGMF-X10A Freedom in battle over Berlin. Sting was also piloting a Destroy when he was killed by Shinn's ZGMF-X42S Destiny in the battle for Heaven's Base. It should be noted that Phantom Pain pilot Sven Cal Bayan stated that Extendeds do not live very long.

The second-stage Extendeds appear to be much more mentally stable than the first-stage Extendeds and have been intended to be more "useful"; Sting, Auel, and Stella demonstrated that they were not only fair pilots, but also capable of blending into a crowd and acting (at least somewhat) like normal teenagers, capable of taking orders from superiors better, capable of hand-to-hand combat on an excellent level, and easier to control than first-stage Extendeds. Extended humans could be considered analogous to the Universal Century concept of "Artificial" or "Cyber-Newtypes", who were normal pilots enhanced to have Newtype abilities.

The Extended human program serves to portray Blue Cosmos in a negative light as shameless hypocrites. The organization's claim is that the genetic alteration used in the process of creating Coordinator children is inhuman, yet in truth, these fanatical Naturals do not even consider the fact that their means to create an anti-Coordinator fighting force is far more inhumane than the process and race they deem to be evil. This is proven by the fact that Blue Cosmos kidnapped children, forced them to undergo harsh training, brainwashing and manipulation of their bodies (such as the said brain-conditioning, which involved removal of the brain itself). Those who could not keep up were killed and many of these children died during the training and punishments, much to the horror of the crew of the Minerva who discovered the Lodonia laboratory where the program was carried out.

SEED factor

SEED factor (Superior Evolutionary Element Destined-factor) is a controversial and as yet unproven theory about the continuation of human evolution. Both Coordinators and Naturals can possess "the SEED," and those who do are thought by some to be the next stage of human development. This bears some similarity to the Newtype theory of the Universal Century, but the abilities of those with SEED factor appear to be unrelated to Newtype potential. While acceptance of SEED theory is limited, Orb engineer Erica Simmons and prominent religious leader and peace activist Reverend Malchio are known adherents of the theory.

SEED mode represents the ability for an individual with the SEED factor to enter into a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability. While in this state, the person (usually a mobile suit pilot, but not necessarily) demonstrates heightened reflexes and extremely quick information processing. This ability is usually triggered by extreme situations or from recalling significant traumas, often arising out of a need to protect someone else in a critical situation.

According to an interview with the producer on the official guide book, the producer claims that the SEED mode is like people having superhuman strength during an outbreak of fire and can carry extremely heavy weight out of the fire scene but can never even dream of carrying in normal daily life. [Producer Interview, official guide book]

It is demonstrated visually by cutting to the image of a jewel-like seed, its color matching the color of the experiencer's eyes, dropping from the above and exploding in a shower of light just above the eyes. The physical characteristics are the shrinking of the pupil and growth of the iris. When in SEED mode, a person exceeds his or her normal physical and mental limits. Andrew Waltfeld once likened SEED mode to the berserkers of Norse legend, but this is not entirely accurate. Waltfeld mistakenly categorizes the visual effect of SEED as a berserker warrior. Waltfeld, like some viewers of the SEED shows equate an increase in the number of kills with a loss of control. However, it is more likely that the enhanced senses provided by the SEED factor allow the pilot to more easily best their opponents. For example, in Kira Yamato's battles against Waltfeld, his SEED factor resulted in instantaneous recalculations of his suit's OS and highly inventive tactics as display in Phase 18 during his battle against a squad of BuCUEs. Shinn Asuka also displays a heightened tactical ability when using his SEED as seen during his battle with Kira's Freedom.

There are two observed ways that SEED mode can be activated. When a character suddenly resolves to protect his allies or to strike down his enemies during battle, however, it also happens when a character has entered battle with a particular resolve, he may trigger SEED mode at will. A character's state of mind when he enters SEED mode appears amplified. Entering it through the first way, in response to the stress of battle, is most commonly (but not always) caused by anger or rage. . The heightened awareness and ability allows the person to fight more efficiently, often resulting in a much higher kill count. Those who enter it the second way (or the first way with a calm state of mind) display an increased amount of mental control.

Uses

Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Athha originally entered SEED mode via the first method, though Kira attained the ability to use the second method shortly after he was beaten by Athrun, once he had received the ZGMF-X10A Freedom and had decided what it was he needed to fight for.

In the Second Battle of Jachin Due during the first war, Lacus Clyne may have entered SEED mode after a long philosophical soliloquy about the nature of warfare and death. During the Battle of Messiah in the second war, Lacus sensed Kira was in danger and was in SEED mode yet again.

Shinn Asuka, the only new pilot in "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny" to achieve the SEED mode, always uses the first method in response to his rage over the events of the battle he is in at the time. The first way of entering SEED mode changes in "Gundam SEED Destiny". When Shinn enters SEED mode it is shown that the SEED explodes (with more color) and zooms out from the eye.

SEED mode can only be entered by characters who can commit themselves fully to a battle for some strong reason. For this reason, Athrun Zala and Cagalli have both been unable to demonstrate their SEED abilities in earlier parts of "Gundam SEED Destiny", due to Athrun's doubts about whether ZAFT is really justified to fight this war and Cagalli's reservations about whether her interventionism is the best way to protect Orb from the war. Kira, however, has been able to activate his SEED mode at will all throughout "Gundam SEED Destiny", because he is motivated to protect his friends (and indeed, the entire world) from aggressive powers.

Eligibility

Some fans who are new to the SEED universe think that only Coordinators have SEED abilities, which often leads them to wonder if Cagalli Yula Athha is actually a Coordinator. The explanation for this common mistake is that the writers have a preference for Coordinators and similar individuals; this is also the reason why almost every important pilot in the series is either a Coordinator or an Extended. Hence, Cagalli is apparently the only Natural pilot with SEED abilities. Cagalli's genetic type is never fully explored in the first place. While Cagalli Yula Athha clearly states that she is a Natural and it would appear in the flashbacks that her biological mother is pregnant with her (indicating she was to be born without genetic enhancements, whereas Kira developed in an artificial womb), it is possible that, since she is Kira's twin, she may have undergone some genetic enhancement, though this is highly unlikely.

References