Zakus, Goufs, Doms

Hey looks like I'm gonna be asking for another opinion between the UC Gundam line and the SEED Destiny line. This time we will be looking at the Zakus, Goufs, and Doms.

Now what are these three again? Well they are pretty famous in name when mentioned and as of now there are two types, UC ver. and SEED ver. But which is better? There will be two categories we will look at and feel free to write down the ups and downs in each and then which of the two series ver. is better.

Category #1 will be technology wise.
Category #2 will be design wise.

tech wise UC Gouf Custom was more realistic than the totally owned gouf ignited in seed, Seed was further ahead and added energy beams to the sword and brought back the whip which was now an energy whip

Okay let's begin.

ZAKU

#Technology-wise

Let's start from Destiny series' ZAKU (ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity) It has wide-variety of weaponry that can be used to adapt in battlefield like Slash, Blaze, and gunner wizard packs.

There also exists variants like: ZAKU Splendor (Served as testbed for Impulse "combine" system), ZAKU CCI (an EWAC unit), Providence ZAKU (Equipped w/ DRAGOON system like Providence Gundam)

And now UC series turn, Zaku from UC Gundam series. While look outdated it's not inferior to its Destiny counterpart in term of weapon technologies. UC series Zakus has wide range of weaponry such as:
-machine gun
-beam & heat tomahawk
-cracker grenade
-rocket launcher
-bazooka
-long rifle (ammo and beam)
-beam rifle
-beam bazooka
-SMG (ammo & beam)
and another shitload of weaponry That'll make this post longer.

Also Zaku from UC series has even wider range of variants than Destiny's (Zaku I, II, III, Super, F, J, Cannon, EWAC, Hizack, Geera Doga, There's even a MA type Zaku called Zaku 50!! And Another variants that not yet to be written here)

TL;DR, In term of technologies I can say it's pretty much a tie for both Zakus.

#Design-wise

Destiny' designs for ZAKU and it's variant looks more dynamic and flexible than UC series (well considering the time the series was made).

Now for UC series' Zakus, it's design give an outdated and old feel on it, also it didn't look really flexible compared to Destiny's at first glance. But this design is looked more realistic with it's 'robotic' feels on it (IMO)

So, different people, different preference about design. But in term of effectivity of the design I think UC Zakus wins. why UC Zakus? Because wider range of variant that constantly upgraded and rehashed to adapt every situation & aspect on combat.

So that's my long post; I aware that I might miss some things, feel free to mention it. Will post about Gouf and Dom later.

Sorry if I'm not talking about categories, but that's a bit over my head. Don't know much about what each unit comes with, nor am I very interested in that stuff. All I can do is talk about how I feel about the units in each series.

When I saw the Doms in the Seed Destiny opening (before they appeared in the actual show), I cursed the screen. To me, including the Zaku, Gouf, and Dom wasn't an homage - it was lazy writing and design. They didn't want to come up with their own suits, so they stole them from the original Gundam.

That said, it was still nice to see the suits in good animation (that isn't 3D).

In term of Design I like UC era design better especially Zaku II. In term of technology, weaponry that is I'm leaning to CE era suits.

hmmm...
in my opinion, Zakus and Goufs in Destiny is more advanced in technology and thus will influence their performance. You know Zakus CE have wizard packs like Blaze, Gunner, Slash, and even Providence Pack making them far superior than UC's Zaku, while Goufs can fly in the atmosphere (I know there are Gouf FLight Type in UC but still the difference is in their sword. Tempest beam sword is obviously more efficient and effective compared to heat saber. Also, Gouf Crusher isn't something that a Gundam can take lightly.)

As for Doms, the difference is just for their weaponry. CE Doms' giant bazooka plus beam shooter is the only meaningful difference to UC Doms I think...

I'm sure the CE Zakus, Goufs, and Doms could take their UC counterparts, but that's an unfair matchup, isn't it? Zakus, Goufs, and Doms were the first mobile suits made by Zeon, right? But ZAFT's Zakus, Goufs, and Doms came very late in the game. If we're going to talk about who would win in a fight, it'd be better to pit the UC Zaku versus the CE GINN.

In that case, I think the Zaku would win. In other words, Zeon's first mobile suits could beat ZAFT's first mobile suits.

Techno wise I'd go with the Seed design packs more power than the UC design.
Design wise I'd go with the UC well I'm a sucker for the old.

But among the three units I'd prefer the Zaku its more versatile than the others.

If you're going to compare first mobile suits, then UC's Zaku Is winover many of ZAFT's first and some later MSs. Why? Simple. If you destroy one Zaku I, it's as if you detonated a nuke...per destroyed Zaku I. They had to fix this with the Antarctic Treaty if I'm not mistaken, but nonetheless, initial Zaku Is were deadly once defeated. Oh, that and they could utilize even some late OYW weapons.

Generally speaking though, CE's aim was to copy...er...pay 'homage' to UC's mobile suits and improve upon them. Comparing the Zakus to the GINN, the GINN is much more maneuverable compared to Zaku IIs and have similar, if not more powerful weapons. The CGUE, of course, is supposed to be superior to the Zaku IIS. Unlike UC, CE had a higher rate of technological evolution.

If one was to compare CE to UC's development, CE went from OYW level technology at the beginning of Seed to Zeta level technology, though they touched a bit into Zeta era technology initially with units like the Aegis Gundam. In Gundam Seed Destiny, CE jumped all the way to CCA level technology and even dipped a bit into F-91/CB level of technology by utilizing Beam Shields, despite the fact that their Beam Shields are somewhat inferior to UC's Beam Shields. On one hand, CE's Beam Shields have protected Beam Emitters, so they won't be destroyed most likely. On the other hand, UC's Beam Shields have commonly been used as replacements for Beam Sabers in desperate times. Honestly, I prefer UC's Beam Shields.

Oh, another issue with CE is that it is too Gundam-crazy early on. UC didn't start with so many Gundams initially and the ones that did show up were later in the OYW, excluding the Gundam [G]s, which were more like GM [G]s with a Gundam head. Also, the entire Colloid Particles are somewhat inferior to Minovsky Particles, mainly since they lack any sort of offensive capabilities and are strictly used for stealth and defense.

In short...why is CE called CE? Because it Copies Everything.

Though most of it is already mentioned, I want to write it out anyways on my take.

Starting with UC:
These Zeon suits in my opinion were more realistic. The design wasn't too fancy and weapons equipped made sense (i.e. the 120mm machine gun which is most commonly used for standard Zeon suits, panzerfausts, standard bazooka, basically projectiles). Also, not all Zeon standard suits were fitted for every environment scenario. Some had to be remodified for either ground or space use. For example, in MS Igloo: The Hidden One Year War ep 3, after Operation Odessa, the Type J Zakus were helpless against the Federation's Ball units because the Type J was built specifically for ground use.

CE:
Every suit paying homage to the UC were able to operate in both space and under gravity. Even the first generation ZAFT suits the GINNs were able to perform the same under gravity as they do in space sans the ability to fly on Earth. Also, CE Zakus, Goufs, Doms were all beam weapon crazy. Although these are because of technological advances, it just seems unrealistic how in only 2 years they were able to mass produce beam weapons to grunt suits while the UC era took at least 7 years even with the captured Zeon technology. The designs copying the original Zeon suits aren't too bad but once I saw the Zaku Warrior, I thought, what? Are the writers running out of ideas? I mean, even though ZAFT suits have the Zeon signature mono eye camera, I thought that the ZAFT suits in SEED were more original than the ones in Destiny.

I have to be honest here, I saw the CE era first and I thought the grunt suits were alright. After I saw the various UC era series, the Zakus, Goufs, and Doms just look totally more menacing than their CE counterparts. Example, the Gouf Custom vs the Gouf Ignited


In 08th MS Team, the Gouf Custom proved to be very intimidating, it held off 2 Gundam Gound Types, Ez8, and destroyed 3 Guntanks all by itself. The Gouf Ignited, it destroyed some other cannon fodder grunts, whatever, nothing special.