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[Sergarr]

I always wanted to ask: what does the word "Gundam" actually means?

[Neonivek]

I always wanted to ask: what does the word "Gundam" actually means?

Well each series defines Gundam in different ways... Most commonly being made out of Gundamium.

However my research has lead me to believe that the original word actually is just a combination of two words... Gun and Dam... and Dam means something I don't know and could just be a totally made up word.

[Parsely]

I always wanted to ask: what does the word "Gundam" actually means?

Depends on which show you're watching. In UC it's the name of the alloy that the titular mechs are made of: Gundanium. It's mined from asteroids, can only be produced in zero-gravity, and is a resource which the Federation have monopolized. It's several times stronger than titanium which renders it highly resistant to normal weapons, but the really important property is that it's electrically neutral, which renders it completely invulnerable to beam weapons, the most powerful arms in that universe.

[Sinistar]

An opinion that is shared with many other people, apparently. Including me, because I think that the Gundamn is the weakest part of the original show. Having it kick an unreasonable ton of ass while all of the other characters/mechs are gimped to make it look better gets old fast. And you're right, it's more of a Gundam fetish than a module fetish. The symptoms are pretty much identical though.

Huh, I always liked original Gundam series for the reason Gundam kicking a reasonable amount of ass... To me, it always seemed like they are going with the "a small unit of elite crew with superior equipment can take down a much larger army of basic cannon fodder" design philosophy. Mind you, there was only one "elite pilot" (Amuro) but Gundam itself was superior - if nothing else, it fielded a hand-held beam weapon, something unheard of before. And despite that, as Neonivek mentioned, there were still cases when people actually had a pretty realistic chance of beating the Gundam (but failed due to variety of reasons) - Ramba Ral comes to mind first (and just mentioning his name brings manly tears top my eyes, dammit), but there is of course also the obvious Red Comet. If anything, it felt to me it was actually Amuro who was over-powered (let's not forget at one point the Gundam couldn't keep up with his reflexes...) but even that kinda makes sense with him being Newtype and all.
Of course, we can also spin this the other way - when Gundam wasn't around, Zeon pretty much had a free reign, kicking Federation's ass anywhere, anytime (Belfast...), but again we can attribute this to them having superior equipment and crew compared to ordinary Federation fodder...

Buuuuuut I might be biased. I just like original series that much.

[Parsely]

By the time the White Base has left Earth in the original show Amuro has such a reputation that pretty much every pilot in Zeon has heard of him. There are even cases where entire units of mobile suits have fled just because they thought the white mobile suit was there.

When you watch other OVAs depicting the average pilot (such as 08th MS Team) you kind of realize that Amuro really is just an unmitigated badass. The battle with Norris Packard is actually kind of representative of how mooks feel when they're up against an ace, he singlehandedly wipes out more than three units in the space of minutes because he's just that good.

[Furtuka]

I always wanted to ask: what does the word "Gundam" actually means?

Depends on which show you're watching. In UC it's the name of the alloy that the titular mechs are made of: Gundanium. It's mined from asteroids, can only be produced in zero-gravity, and is a resource which the Federation have monopolized. It's several times stronger than titanium which renders it highly resistant to normal weapons, but the really important property is that it's electrically neutral, which renders it completely invulnerable to beam weapons, the most powerful arms in that universe.

actually Gundarium in the UC is named after the Gundam instead of the other way around. The original term's origin in universe isn't really known, but during early production it mutated from uh I believe one of the working titles was "Freedom Fighter Gunboy" or something like that which then got shortened to Gundom, which was then changed to Gundam. I suppose its meant to bring to mind a weapon strong enough to hold back a flood or something.

[Parsely]

I always wanted to ask: what does the word "Gundam" actually means?

Depends on which show you're watching. In UC it's the name of the alloy that the titular mechs are made of: Gundanium. It's mined from asteroids, can only be produced in zero-gravity, and is a resource which the Federation have monopolized. It's several times stronger than titanium which renders it highly resistant to normal weapons, but the really important property is that it's electrically neutral, which renders it completely invulnerable to beam weapons, the most powerful arms in that universe.

actually Gundarium in the UC is named after the Gundam instead of the other way around.

Right, that only ever came up during Zeta's run IIRC.

[Furtuka]

The naming reason for Gundams in SEED is hilarious by the way. In it they go with the acronym option, and the Gundams are named after their OS. However not all the Gundams actually have the same OS, resulting in...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver system
General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver synthesis system
Generation Unsubdued Nuclear Drive Assault Module complex
Generation Unrestricted Network Drive Assault Module
Gigantic Unilateral Numerous Dominating AMmunition
GUNNERY UNITED NUCLEAR-DUETERIONADVANCED MANEUVER SYSTEM
Guider UNmanned Deployment Autonomic Manipulation

[Lord Shonus]

To clarify, in the original Gundam series, the Zeon "Zaku" was the first mobile suit built, and it was decisively winning the war for them. Earth started a crash program to counter the threat, designing three mobile suits to counter the Zaku. GunCannon, GunTank, and GunDam. Tank proved to be kind of shitty, and Cannon was too overspecialized for long-range bombardment. RX-78 Gundam, however, proved to be a multirole powerhouse that not only rendered the Zaku into cannon fodder, but had an edge over the many, many specialized Zeon MS designs purely due to the ease of reconfiguring it for a different mission. The Gundam was used as the basis for the less capable mass-produced GM suit, and exact duplicates (along with minor variants) of the prototype were also built.

Fast forward to Zeta, and Earth's newest prototype is designated the "Gundam Mark II." Other than a similar design aesthetic, the name seems to be more of an homage to the famous original, in the same way that the A-10 is the "Thunderbolt II" and the F-35 is the "Lightning II" (named after the war-winning P-47 and P-38 fighters of WWII). Roughly halfway through the series, the lead builds a new suit using the Mk. II as a base (along with features from other AEUG suits), resulting in what he named the "Zeta Gundam."

In this chronology, "Gundam" is simply an "honor" designation given to the first suit of a new generation, much as the flagship of Starfleet in Star Trek is always "NCC-1701 USS Enterprise." I don't recall the word "Gundanium" ever being mentioned in the UC timeline, and a cursory check shows it to only exist in the "After Colony" timeline of Gundam Wing.

[Furtuka]

Actually the UC does have Gundarium, but it isn't brought up much and as Guni and I discussed earlier, it actually named in honor of the Gundam instead of the other way around.

[Darvi]

How many % of a Gundam is actually made of gun?

And for that matter, how much of it is dam.

[LordSlowpoke]

by weight or by volume

this is actually important

[Darvi]

By mass.

[Furtuka]

How many % of a Gundam is actually made of gun?

And for that matter, how much of it is dam.

Depends on the Gundam. For example the Heavyarms Kai is about 70% Gun and only 30% Dam, while the old RX-78 is about 18% Gun and 82% Dam.

[Tack]

So some 24 50-post spreads ago, people were talking about how they liked their subs translated.

However I didn't see anyone address whether they liked "Niisan" and "Neesan" left in, replaced with "brother" and "sister", or switched out for their name.
Name seems most popular, if a little disconcerting sometimes.

Figured people's personals on it would e interesting, so here I've brought it up.