I'd say the Bryalant guy in unicorn laying waste to everyone in like 40 seconds, but someone informed that they do name the pilot somewhere in the manga or something.
It's hard to think of anyone that holds up to Stark Jegan Pilot, but some of the nameless GNX pilots in 00 are able to go toe to toe with the Gundams for a while, and flat out defeat the Thrones. Nowhere near as dramatic and they had a numbers advantage, but still a pretty impressive showing given that the 00 crew fought a literal army earlier in the series.
The GN-X pilots aren't even grunt pilots per se. They're basically the 30 best ace pilots from the world's 3 major blocs, chosen to pilot 30 special state-of-the-art machines.
Yeah, but they're also faceless nobodies from the perspective of the viewer, which is what I think OP was going for with the question. Obviously someone like Graham or Yazan or Noin or Amida or any of the other popular choices for best non-Gundam pilot dance all over them, but they're all major characters.
I mean the tide only really turned once the plot device button was unlocked for CB. Before than they wern't eactly doing great without the TRANS-AM system.
Well, I mean, the Gundam Meisters run the Trans-Am System basically the whole time, though. If anything it shows how good the other pilots are once they operate on a more level playing field.
They're as much grunt pilots as the Stark Jegan pilot is a grunt pilot, considering both were (at least at the time for the GN-X) limited-production ace MS.
Are you talking about when the Thrones dropped in to save them or when they converted from Veda to the standalone OS? Both have good explanations within the universe. 00 is like one of the most well written AU shows, especially Season 1.
So...yes I won't disagree. But outside of Char and Amuro, most UC protagonists are just "powerful newtypes" with a psychoframe that basically translates into believing in the power of love/friendship/whatever and screaming loudly means the Gundam magically autopilots itself a victory.
Unicorn was the biggest offender that comes to mind. Starts out going hard as fuck with the Jegan scene and spending a lot of time in the cockpit showing pilots interacting with their controls and showing off skill. Then immediately devolves into Banagher just magicking his way through every fight with Shonen screaming taking the W.
Nah this is why AWGX is actually peak. It disregards the actual combat necessity of shonen shit to say “sure they can use magic nonsense, but what does it really matter?”
AWGX will always be one of my top 5 for being the anti-Unicorn
I really find AWGX to be a very aromantic depiction (especially for the 90s with contemporaries of MSGW and MFFG) of the conflict cycle. Tomino is always winking at you when he's glamorizing war, and, boy, does he wink in AWGX.
Real man, that's honestly one of my favorite scenes. Those ReZELS and Jegan worked so well and honestly had Riddhe. Too bad his machine is literally god or some shit and destroyed em.
There are many grunt pilots that are given spotlight. Most of Cima's team in 0083 were putting in work before they got played and had nowhere to fall back to. Hugues Courand from battlefield Record 0081 prelude where he takes on multiple Bigros in his GM. You can say Shiro, considering what he did in his ball. Also the EZ8 wasn't anything special. It was a mechanic's special of a mobile suit.
If i have to say, it has to be Robin Diez or as most know him the crazy guy with the Byarlant Custom in Unicorn.
The guy was an Titans Ace to the point of being assigned a Byarlant back then, and after being made into a mere mechanic he kept upgrading and tuning that Byarlant with the result being visible in Unicorn.
Exactly this, I remember watching the show as kid and even then I was fully expecting these guys to be killed and massacred, but no they survived and lived happy lives. Lol
Literally has 4 names members out of 30, zero casualties, consistently pulls through for Quatre and the Gundam Team, willingly risks dying to get the Gundams back to the Pilots to stop Maremaia, and still gets home.
The Maganac Corps is outright the second biggest chads in Wing and only are beaten out by motherfucking Treize Kushrinada's existence.
Lived through Operation Stardust, *and* bagged Mora. Delaz might've gotten his Colony Drop, and Jamitov his Titans, but Keith is the only one who *won.*
All he did was scream Kou\~\~, Kou\~\~, Kou\~\~, one of the most annoying characters, ever. Okay, Hayato and Kai were the same, but they did not scream, Amuro, Amuro, Amuro. Keith should have died long ago, but he was a Hayato/Kai substitute, so he lived quite long.
The non-Graham members of the Solbraves.
Admittedly the Brave was an ‘elite grunt’, sure. Even so, they managed to take on huge swarms of shapeshifting aliens pretty comfortably, and with very few casualties.
Hell, they managed to use some pretty spectacular combat tactics to deal with an ELS swarm that otherwise would’ve overpowered and assimilated Celestial Being. The power of tactics over, well, power!
The Brave is a gorgeous machine, for sure. All the best features of an Overflag and a GN-X in a ‘no compromises’ high-performance variable MS.
It’s a beauty for sure, and one of my favourites in the AD ‘verse.
In my head canon for wing some of the suits are built by the former spirit airlines and Boeing companies. Even in a high risk market like aviation, where safety and build quality need to be the highest priority, shit happens lol
Yeah that’s one of the most impressive display of Grunt piloting in all of Gundam. Those guys need a raise and some kind of upgraded suit better suited to their skill set.
Graham is a named ace part of the main cast of 00, and although his OverFlag is significantly inferior to the Gundams, it still was a top of the line unit for the Union.
So probably doesn't count.
He's not the best but Akihiko was absolutely doing his best with the Graze Custom and Shino continued it with the Ryusei Go. Just an absolute all timer of a grunt suit that slowly turned into ol' Reliable.
You know, in reality, most of Char's awesomeness was mostly in grunt suits in the One Year War. He got a little special treatment but no one off suits until the battle of (whatever the hell that rock based was named. Gundam has way too many of them).
Johnny Ridden would be another good pick of someone did a lot with a little. Again, tiny upgrades but no special units.
I mean, his Zaku was basically a regular Commander type with the safety limiters turned off, and I’m pretty sure his Z’gok was just painted red with no other changes. I don’t think he got a proper elite suit until the Gelgoog.
Amida Arca from IBO, she never used a gundam, had no Alaya-Vijnana system and still kicked ass with Grunt mobile suits and took Mika and Julia to school when they first met.
People misuse the word grunt all the time on this sub. They just mean non main character on a main show.
People keep mentioning the stark jegan pilot but other the riddhe, londo bell is stacked with "elite" pilots. People forget that Londo Bell is an entire special forces fleet.
He was in a leadership position but he was in the field running missions all the time. He had no ulterior motives. He just followed orders and took care of his men. A grunt in a high position is still a grunt. Aina was the only one who saw him as anything else.
I’m not sure anyone can beat shiro on this. dude uses a ball to defeat a zaku. and later on uses a gundam ground type (a grunt suit) that is heavily modded with scrape parts to defeat an ace gouf.
oh and a friggin ma.
The nameless blonde pilot from the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet in IBO season 1 that full sent his Graze Ritter after Tekkadan’s shuttle even after the rest of his team withdrew. Takes balls to chase after a shuttle protected by two Gundam frames & sword fight/grapple one of said frames mid-reentry.
Crazy that the dude actually held out enough in *melee* combat against the Barbatos of all suits for it to actually be dead to rights (If it weren’t for Mika’s quick thinking).
I love Bernie, but I think you are overselling him. Chris was a test pilot with minimal live combat experience. Bernie died in the process of dealing critical damage to the Alex, but the suit was still salvageable (as evidenced by the Tristan).
Hm you could argue that Treize wasnt a regular pilot, Heero and Duo were mainly gundam pilots, so I dont know.
Zechs was befor the Tallgeese a regular grunt pilot.
Looking at some on these posts, I think we should clarify who counts as a grunt. Are we talking no name characters, one off characters, or any pilot that wasn't a major character?
Otherwise, I'd say Cucuruz Doan did pretty good. He beat an unknown number of GM pilots, Amuro, and most of his old unit in a worn down Zaku.
Otto from Gundam Wing. Man single-handedly conquered a whole country using the Tallgeese, sacrificing his life so Zechs wouldn’t have to. “Long live King Zechs!”
Am I missing something? Why has no one said Bernie
He almost took down the armored 78 nt prototype and put it out of commission
His mission actually succeeded he just got killed as well. Also are some of these other grunts even confirmed to be grunts? Bernie had almost no track record and presumably some grunts were still high ranking, just not newtype level
If I recall Yazan was so good that most people thought he was a Newtype, when in reality he's just an extremely skilled (and bat shit insane) normal.
Honestly I wonder what can Yazan do in something like a Gundam Mk V. He seems to be completely at home with ultra high speed mobile suits like Gaplant and Hambrabi.
Well I mean you're either a Newtype or you aren't. Yazan was about to awaken to his abilities but basically Pokemon evolve-cancelled that shit. He theoretically still has those abilities, but just kinda blocks them out.
Iirc the only completely normal oldtype pilot in the entire multiverse thats yazans equal or better is fucking Gundam X finale Garrod, thats how nuts yazan's skill is. The dude is more immortal than Patrick and is better at close combat than almost the entire cast of IBO
Grunt? I think that pilot hardly qualifies as such, between being part of Londo Bell and piloting a non-stock Jegan.
Nameless ace would be more fitting. It’s like how we perceived the Byarlant Custom and Efreet Schneid before we got actual info on the characters, only difference here is that the Stark Jegan pilot bit the dust and wasn’t worth adding further development to his/her character.
In a similar sense, Breniff Oguz/Breniss Ox. Top scoring One Year War Ace and used unmodified suits in standard colors. Although receiving a HiMo Zaku R1 and Gelgoog Cannon would probably disqualify him.
I feel like Shinn Matsunaga and Johnny Ridden are good picks, and my personal favorite is Shiro Amada. Cuz while yes the Ground type Gundam is a Gundam, it's technically a glorified GM with a Gundam head.
Whoever was drivin' Guncannon 203 in UC0081. Dude strafed, rushed & stomped Eric B.'s Gelgoog. Then took out a Zaku II for kicks.
The petite mobile crews takin' out full sized suits on the moon in Zeta.
The Earth Elite pilot that drags out a duel with Mikazuki in Iron Blooded Orphans. When Tekkadan arrives at earth; these 2 have an atmospheric battle. This guy actually managed to keep Mikazuki busy.
Bernard Wiseman. Only one more kill to be an ace pilot.
https://preview.redd.it/7nhj2lvg6y6d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82367905ed22dd0046aae53c18eea8df8a3450d6
They literally only pilot Gundams throughout all of seed, definitely not grunts.
Grunts means actual foot soldiers piloting relatively standard mass produced mobile suits (or something even more low tech). What you're thinking of are side characters.
Yzak and Dearka are the elite of the elite pilots, they just happen to live in a world where Athrun, Kira and Shin exist. So they get pushed to the side, but it’s not because they are weak or grunts, there’s just a couple of pilots above even them.
Even at the beginning of Destiny when their were fighting with their Zaku, the pilots of the Minerva were mesmerized by how efficient they were at fighting the enemy.
Norris Packard without question. He was an ace but he was a soldier thru and thru. A grunt who's only ambition was to complete the mission at any cost. And in this he has never failed. He raised the Gouf Custom to god tier and it's still my favorite mobile suit and my main in any video game. I'd love to have seen what would've happened if they put him inside something more powerful.
Have you ever been in the military? You need to learn the definition of a grunt. The Gouf Custom was given to several other pilots. A grunt in leadership is still a grunt. Norris was as expendable as any of the lower enlisted in his unit.
Then besides MCs everyone else is a grunt by that idiotic definition. Amuro was a grunt, Setsuna is a grunt, Kira Yamato started off as a grunt. They’re all expendable and sent to fight in operations that aims to sacrifice them for the greater cause.
Also I didn’t know you need to be in the military to know a Japanese anime series definition of a grunt. TIL I’m not fit to watch Gundam anymore.
I'd say the Bryalant guy in unicorn laying waste to everyone in like 40 seconds, but someone informed that they do name the pilot somewhere in the manga or something.
Robin Diez, former Titan who apparently was good enough to get assigned a Byarlant back then.
Is he the guy in asshimar who talked to kamille and later betrayed titan?
That would be Ajis Aziba.
Ah i see!
I think that guy you're talking about died.
Manga spinoffs keep doing this to us
It's hard to think of anyone that holds up to Stark Jegan Pilot, but some of the nameless GNX pilots in 00 are able to go toe to toe with the Gundams for a while, and flat out defeat the Thrones. Nowhere near as dramatic and they had a numbers advantage, but still a pretty impressive showing given that the 00 crew fought a literal army earlier in the series.
The GN-X pilots aren't even grunt pilots per se. They're basically the 30 best ace pilots from the world's 3 major blocs, chosen to pilot 30 special state-of-the-art machines.
Yeah, but they're also faceless nobodies from the perspective of the viewer, which is what I think OP was going for with the question. Obviously someone like Graham or Yazan or Noin or Amida or any of the other popular choices for best non-Gundam pilot dance all over them, but they're all major characters.
I mean the tide only really turned once the plot device button was unlocked for CB. Before than they wern't eactly doing great without the TRANS-AM system.
Well, I mean, the Gundam Meisters run the Trans-Am System basically the whole time, though. If anything it shows how good the other pilots are once they operate on a more level playing field.
That was my point.
They're as much grunt pilots as the Stark Jegan pilot is a grunt pilot, considering both were (at least at the time for the GN-X) limited-production ace MS.
> given that the 00 crew fought a literal army earlier in the series. and won (got away) by screaming "gundam" a few times :) i hate that so much
Are you talking about when the Thrones dropped in to save them or when they converted from Veda to the standalone OS? Both have good explanations within the universe. 00 is like one of the most well written AU shows, especially Season 1.
PLEASE MOVE EXIA!!! GUNDAAAAAAMMM!!!!
And people wonder why I think seed is the worst media in the franchise. Feels like a shonen jump show more than gundam.
So...yes I won't disagree. But outside of Char and Amuro, most UC protagonists are just "powerful newtypes" with a psychoframe that basically translates into believing in the power of love/friendship/whatever and screaming loudly means the Gundam magically autopilots itself a victory. Unicorn was the biggest offender that comes to mind. Starts out going hard as fuck with the Jegan scene and spending a lot of time in the cockpit showing pilots interacting with their controls and showing off skill. Then immediately devolves into Banagher just magicking his way through every fight with Shonen screaming taking the W.
That’s why 8th MS Team, 0080 and 0083 are my favorites. No new types.
Nah this is why AWGX is actually peak. It disregards the actual combat necessity of shonen shit to say “sure they can use magic nonsense, but what does it really matter?” AWGX will always be one of my top 5 for being the anti-Unicorn
Ditto. Midway through rewatch for a Salvage Union game I'm spinning up and I resoundingly concur.
It’s not even that I don’t like super robot; I love it. It’s more the obtuse crossover between the two that irritates me.
I really find AWGX to be a very aromantic depiction (especially for the 90s with contemporaries of MSGW and MFFG) of the conflict cycle. Tomino is always winking at you when he's glamorizing war, and, boy, does he wink in AWGX.
So Tomino was in the middle of Garzey's Wing at that point, but the director of X had been on the staff of Zeta, ZZ, and CCA, among others.
GNX pilots stay static and shoot three devastating beams shots at a time (because they did not receive any animation love and ended up very boring).
The unnamed Murasame pilots that downed the Chaos Gundam
They have name Ikeya,Go and nishizawa.They also have appearance in Seed Freedom as >!Lacus rescue team with Kisaka as their leader.!<
Bow that you mentioned it. I wondered why they looked familiar.
Makes sense for capable pilots like that to be transferred over to Compass.
No,They are still orb's pilot from pilot suit they were using in movie.
Orb are reinforcements because they knew something's messed up with the Foundation, not to mention they got their intel from Terminal.
They really showed us what Orb's military was capable of.
Honorable mention to the those 3 grunts from Nahel Argama that faced off against Banshee. Those 3 had some great teamwork to get close.
They had Riddhe dead to rights. Too bad his machine helped close the skill gap.
Unicorn super roboted all over my real robot with its magic nonsense.
And it was awesome
Real man, that's honestly one of my favorite scenes. Those ReZELS and Jegan worked so well and honestly had Riddhe. Too bad his machine is literally god or some shit and destroyed em.
Those 3 were obviously Londo Bell vets, basically just unnamed conterparts of the Tri-Stars in the Ra Cailum
There are many grunt pilots that are given spotlight. Most of Cima's team in 0083 were putting in work before they got played and had nowhere to fall back to. Hugues Courand from battlefield Record 0081 prelude where he takes on multiple Bigros in his GM. You can say Shiro, considering what he did in his ball. Also the EZ8 wasn't anything special. It was a mechanic's special of a mobile suit.
If i have to say, it has to be Robin Diez or as most know him the crazy guy with the Byarlant Custom in Unicorn. The guy was an Titans Ace to the point of being assigned a Byarlant back then, and after being made into a mere mechanic he kept upgrading and tuning that Byarlant with the result being visible in Unicorn.
Byarlant's not really a grunt though - it's a pretty high-spec prototype with a total production run in the low single-digits.
yeah it’s more of an ace suit. not sure why so many ppl bringing it up. I guess anything not a gundam is grunt suit to them.
This is a franchise that has "Mass Produced" in the names of mobile suits that could all fit on like one ship. It's always going to be hazy.
>The guy was an Titans Ace to the point of being assigned a Byarlant Did you miss the part where the question was about grunt pilots, not aces?
The Maganac Corps ?
Have to admire an outfit that lasts an entire series with ZERO casualties.
In a universe where the ZERO system is installed in not one but TWO Gundams.
THREE at the end of the series. (When Heero sneaks off to save Relena he installed ZERO in Sandrock Kai.)
And the mobile dolls. Few armies and fighting forces in the franchise stand a chance against an assembled legion of mobile dolls.
Exactly this, I remember watching the show as kid and even then I was fully expecting these guys to be killed and massacred, but no they survived and lived happy lives. Lol
Crying in Shrike Team. But yes, respect for the Maganac corp.
Literally has 4 names members out of 30, zero casualties, consistently pulls through for Quatre and the Gundam Team, willingly risks dying to get the Gundams back to the Pilots to stop Maremaia, and still gets home. The Maganac Corps is outright the second biggest chads in Wing and only are beaten out by motherfucking Treize Kushrinada's existence.
"Maganac" was derived from the filipino word "Mag-anak" which means "family".
Keith from 0083
Lived through Operation Stardust, *and* bagged Mora. Delaz might've gotten his Colony Drop, and Jamitov his Titans, but Keith is the only one who *won.*
I feel like Burning might take the cake there tho, even if he bit it
All he did was scream Kou\~\~, Kou\~\~, Kou\~\~, one of the most annoying characters, ever. Okay, Hayato and Kai were the same, but they did not scream, Amuro, Amuro, Amuro. Keith should have died long ago, but he was a Hayato/Kai substitute, so he lived quite long.
The non-Graham members of the Solbraves. Admittedly the Brave was an ‘elite grunt’, sure. Even so, they managed to take on huge swarms of shapeshifting aliens pretty comfortably, and with very few casualties. Hell, they managed to use some pretty spectacular combat tactics to deal with an ELS swarm that otherwise would’ve overpowered and assimilated Celestial Being. The power of tactics over, well, power!
This.
damn their units are very streamlined
The Brave is a gorgeous machine, for sure. All the best features of an Overflag and a GN-X in a ‘no compromises’ high-performance variable MS. It’s a beauty for sure, and one of my favourites in the AD ‘verse.
Does Noin count? She started off in an Aries aka "Flying C4" before she got that hot little Taurus.
Flying C4 🤣
Am I lying though?
Nope that the best comparison I’ve seen lol
Stemmed from a buddy going "Are Leo's clad in armor made of C4?" It stuck.
Yeah Wing was bad for that. Leo takes one bullet in an arm, Explodes completely.
In my head canon for wing some of the suits are built by the former spirit airlines and Boeing companies. Even in a high risk market like aviation, where safety and build quality need to be the highest priority, shit happens lol
Probably not since Noin has plot armor due to being an essential character. If OP counts Mobile Dolls then maybe Vayeate and Mercurius?
Nah... Noin is main cast. In terms of ranking... She is kind-of a grunt. She is a cadet instructor.
Valder in his Leo almost singlehandedly suppress a coup
The 3 Murasame pilots from OOrb that took out the Chaos
They made a cameo in Gundam Seed Freedom.
on the movie?
Yep
Yeah that’s one of the most impressive display of Grunt piloting in all of Gundam. Those guys need a raise and some kind of upgraded suit better suited to their skill set.
I forgot his name but he piloted the efreet schneid that attacked Torrington in unicorn and would fight the byarlant custom pilot twice and lived
Fred Reber, he piloted the Pixy too. And he was part of Slave Wraith.
Holy shit! I did not know it was Fred Reber in that suit! That is fucking awesome they brought him into UC0096!
Yeah, once you know it’s him it’s easy to make the connections of why the Efreet Schneid had manny daggers
Totally makes sense.
That guy in the Jegan in F91. He held out longer that any other Jegan pilot in history
The one piloting Psycommu Zaku from Thunderbolt (Hickam?) seemed to be quite competent.
Not a grunt pilot.
Now when you mentioned, you're right. I defaulted to Zaku pilot = Grunt pilot, as in regular, non MC pilot. But Psycommu Zaku was a test unit.
Billy is a newtype though. He’s got an advantage
Idk if it counts but doesn't Graham just pilot upgraded Flags?
I strike like an avenging angel! Counts in my book
YES he is my answer. As far as his enemies can tell he's just another grunt pilot. "All this to fight a mere Flag?!?!" as Lockon said, incredulously.
Graham is a named ace part of the main cast of 00, and although his OverFlag is significantly inferior to the Gundams, it still was a top of the line unit for the Union. So probably doesn't count.
He's not the best but Akihiko was absolutely doing his best with the Graze Custom and Shino continued it with the Ryusei Go. Just an absolute all timer of a grunt suit that slowly turned into ol' Reliable.
I was about to say this. Tekkadan got some good mileage out of their Graze.
You know, in reality, most of Char's awesomeness was mostly in grunt suits in the One Year War. He got a little special treatment but no one off suits until the battle of (whatever the hell that rock based was named. Gundam has way too many of them). Johnny Ridden would be another good pick of someone did a lot with a little. Again, tiny upgrades but no special units.
I mean, his Zaku was basically a regular Commander type with the safety limiters turned off, and I’m pretty sure his Z’gok was just painted red with no other changes. I don’t think he got a proper elite suit until the Gelgoog.
Corin Nander and his custom Capule.
He did survive a fight with the Wing Zero, and it took Turn X to finally take him out.
the Byarlant dude in Unicorn
Amida Arca from IBO, she never used a gundam, had no Alaya-Vijnana system and still kicked ass with Grunt mobile suits and took Mika and Julia to school when they first met.
Char technically piloted a grunt suit
There was that one guy who brought out a Zaku I Sniper in Unicorn.
Yonem Kirks of the Simbu Base Corps.
That dude at Gryps in the Gaza C with an eye patch who said "yeah, fuck this" 😂
Ooo, you got an episode number? Kinda wanna see him, I'm always a sucker for Axis Zeon pilots.
I wanna say 47 or 48. It's right about where AEUG gets a hold of the colony laser
It's EP47 @ 9:12
South Burning, imo.
Speaking of 0083, Monsha was a beast. Not sure about his grunt status though because he was being considered for the Gundam
Norris packard in his gouf custom single-handedly dismantled the 8th ms team
Norris isn't a grunt
This guy…is an ACE!
Neither is Robin Diez and he is a fan favorite in this thread.
Robin Diez Nuts lmao
Take your upvote and leave.
Dee-yez.....not Deez
People misuse the word grunt all the time on this sub. They just mean non main character on a main show. People keep mentioning the stark jegan pilot but other the riddhe, londo bell is stacked with "elite" pilots. People forget that Londo Bell is an entire special forces fleet.
I thought OP was asking about pilots in grunt suits
He was in a leadership position but he was in the field running missions all the time. He had no ulterior motives. He just followed orders and took care of his men. A grunt in a high position is still a grunt. Aina was the only one who saw him as anything else.
SPEAK TO THE HEATHENS
I’m not sure anyone can beat shiro on this. dude uses a ball to defeat a zaku. and later on uses a gundam ground type (a grunt suit) that is heavily modded with scrape parts to defeat an ace gouf. oh and a friggin ma.
The nameless blonde pilot from the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet in IBO season 1 that full sent his Graze Ritter after Tekkadan’s shuttle even after the rest of his team withdrew. Takes balls to chase after a shuttle protected by two Gundam frames & sword fight/grapple one of said frames mid-reentry. Crazy that the dude actually held out enough in *melee* combat against the Barbatos of all suits for it to actually be dead to rights (If it weren’t for Mika’s quick thinking).
Bernard Wiseman, hands down. Defeated a Gundam Ace with only a Zaku Kai
I love Bernie, but I think you are overselling him. Chris was a test pilot with minimal live combat experience. Bernie died in the process of dealing critical damage to the Alex, but the suit was still salvageable (as evidenced by the Tristan).
Zechs piloted an Aries and Leo, does that count?
And later a prototype Leo. I think it does.
If Zechs count for piloting Leo, doesn't Treize, Heero, Duo count too
Hm you could argue that Treize wasnt a regular pilot, Heero and Duo were mainly gundam pilots, so I dont know. Zechs was befor the Tallgeese a regular grunt pilot.
Heck yea!
Gm custom still a grunt though. https://preview.redd.it/a58166flil6d1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aac3c6607e394a7346b3d8e5b346c0c85abd580c
Looking at some on these posts, I think we should clarify who counts as a grunt. Are we talking no name characters, one off characters, or any pilot that wasn't a major character? Otherwise, I'd say Cucuruz Doan did pretty good. He beat an unknown number of GM pilots, Amuro, and most of his old unit in a worn down Zaku.
Otto from Gundam Wing. Man single-handedly conquered a whole country using the Tallgeese, sacrificing his life so Zechs wouldn’t have to. “Long live King Zechs!”
Do Hayato or Kai count?
That Gelgoog Jäger from War in the pocket was pretty cool!
Am I missing something? Why has no one said Bernie He almost took down the armored 78 nt prototype and put it out of commission His mission actually succeeded he just got killed as well. Also are some of these other grunts even confirmed to be grunts? Bernie had almost no track record and presumably some grunts were still high ranking, just not newtype level
Yazan gable? I don't think he'd be classified as a grunt though
that guy is a straight up ace pilot
Homie is the best normal human pilot we ever saw, kinda unfair to normal pilots He even managed to outlive most of the usually plot armor MC cast lol
If I recall Yazan was so good that most people thought he was a Newtype, when in reality he's just an extremely skilled (and bat shit insane) normal. Honestly I wonder what can Yazan do in something like a Gundam Mk V. He seems to be completely at home with ultra high speed mobile suits like Gaplant and Hambrabi.
Yazan almost became a Newtype and he basically said, "Fuck that!"
Well I mean you're either a Newtype or you aren't. Yazan was about to awaken to his abilities but basically Pokemon evolve-cancelled that shit. He theoretically still has those abilities, but just kinda blocks them out.
Iirc the only completely normal oldtype pilot in the entire multiverse thats yazans equal or better is fucking Gundam X finale Garrod, thats how nuts yazan's skill is. The dude is more immortal than Patrick and is better at close combat than almost the entire cast of IBO
Elan in the Zowort.
Noin kept up with Gundams in a universe where grunts didn’t even threaten gundams.
Grunt? I think that pilot hardly qualifies as such, between being part of Londo Bell and piloting a non-stock Jegan. Nameless ace would be more fitting. It’s like how we perceived the Byarlant Custom and Efreet Schneid before we got actual info on the characters, only difference here is that the Stark Jegan pilot bit the dust and wasn’t worth adding further development to his/her character.
Tenneth A Jung from one year war
In a similar sense, Breniff Oguz/Breniss Ox. Top scoring One Year War Ace and used unmodified suits in standard colors. Although receiving a HiMo Zaku R1 and Gelgoog Cannon would probably disqualify him.
That dude that jumped into the Talgeese 1 to fight the gundams, knowing it would kill him, deserves an honorable mention I think.
Does Bernard Wiseman count?he's a grunt pilot.
The venerable Patrick Colasaur. Dude has immortality and relentless charm as his feats
Commander wolf from age series?
God damn super pilot
The pilot of the byerlant custom
The Bylarant pilot during the Torrington base attack
The nameless Byarlant custom pilot. Supposedly a Titans veteran pilot who single handily saved Torrington Base from Zeon remnant attack.
Kajima Yuu has be one from UC. Not a lot of pilots survived from the 1 year war all the way up to CCA.
Is he considered a grunt though? It's not like the Blue Destiny units were GMs.
He technically piloted GMs too. I would say he enters more on the “Test pilot” category
As in, the character is a grunt? or the suit they use is a grunt suit?
Sayla in her GM in Gundam the Origin.
Ummmm.Byaralant custom pilot. Duuuuhhhhh
Im so sad that no one remembers ECOAS especially daguza mackle and conroy haagensen :(
I would say Gundam 0080 had cyclops team which were bad ass grunts!
does known aces in grunt pilots count? like Yuu Kajima?
Nah it definitely wasn't Walker, who got one spotted. I'd say Otto would count, since he did liberate the Sanc Kingdom.
I'm actually impressed with both Chalia Bull
In thinking definition of grunt being someone unnamed I would like to throw the Bccue pilots that fucked up the Blu Duel in Stargazer
ITT people who have no idea what the term grunt pilot means
I feel like Shinn Matsunaga and Johnny Ridden are good picks, and my personal favorite is Shiro Amada. Cuz while yes the Ground type Gundam is a Gundam, it's technically a glorified GM with a Gundam head.
Does the nightmare of Solomon Anavel Gato count?
Would Shiro Armada count?
Whoever was drivin' Guncannon 203 in UC0081. Dude strafed, rushed & stomped Eric B.'s Gelgoog. Then took out a Zaku II for kicks. The petite mobile crews takin' out full sized suits on the moon in Zeta. The Earth Elite pilot that drags out a duel with Mikazuki in Iron Blooded Orphans. When Tekkadan arrives at earth; these 2 have an atmospheric battle. This guy actually managed to keep Mikazuki busy.
Shiro from 08th ms team. I’m arguing that even though he’s the commander of the unit he is still a grunt in all the ways that matter.
Bernard Wiseman.
Bernard Wiseman. Only one more kill to be an ace pilot. https://preview.redd.it/7nhj2lvg6y6d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82367905ed22dd0046aae53c18eea8df8a3450d6
Couple of the murasame commanders whom fked up Minerva and Chaos respectively.
yzak and dearka
They're coordinators, definitely not grunts lol
They literally only pilot Gundams throughout all of seed, definitely not grunts. Grunts means actual foot soldiers piloting relatively standard mass produced mobile suits (or something even more low tech). What you're thinking of are side characters.
They definitely piloted a phantom+gouf and warrior+phantom in Destiny though
Yzak and Dearka are the elite of the elite pilots, they just happen to live in a world where Athrun, Kira and Shin exist. So they get pushed to the side, but it’s not because they are weak or grunts, there’s just a couple of pilots above even them. Even at the beginning of Destiny when their were fighting with their Zaku, the pilots of the Minerva were mesmerized by how efficient they were at fighting the enemy.
Norris Packard without question. He was an ace but he was a soldier thru and thru. A grunt who's only ambition was to complete the mission at any cost. And in this he has never failed. He raised the Gouf Custom to god tier and it's still my favorite mobile suit and my main in any video game. I'd love to have seen what would've happened if they put him inside something more powerful.
He wasn’t a grunt, you even called him an ace. He piloted a custom MS l, not the grunt MS either.
Have you ever been in the military? You need to learn the definition of a grunt. The Gouf Custom was given to several other pilots. A grunt in leadership is still a grunt. Norris was as expendable as any of the lower enlisted in his unit.
Then besides MCs everyone else is a grunt by that idiotic definition. Amuro was a grunt, Setsuna is a grunt, Kira Yamato started off as a grunt. They’re all expendable and sent to fight in operations that aims to sacrifice them for the greater cause. Also I didn’t know you need to be in the military to know a Japanese anime series definition of a grunt. TIL I’m not fit to watch Gundam anymore.
Ian from gundam code fairy, best zaku rabbit type pilot.
He was an ace. I would say he counts taking into account his unit was only painted differently and not customized.
If I remember right Jared almost killed Camile a few times using a Haysak and then a Murasai
does the Byarlant in Unicorn count?
Wasn’t he not a grunt?
does mula flaga count?
Who are we referring to?
Yazan?
what's your definition of "Grunt Pilot"? like, do you mean someone who pilots/piloted a grunt suit?
Char
Would Yazzan count?