Athrun Zala

Athrun Zala grows up as childhood best friends with Kira Yamato, never imagining the two of them will one day end up on opposite sides of a war. As the son of a powerful military leader, Athrun joins the armed forces of the space-dwelling Coordinators and becomes a skilled mobile suit pilot. He is also handy with machines in a quieter, gentler way; he enjoys building small robotic pets for friends, a hobby that shows the kinder side underneath his soldier's training.

When Athrun discovers that Kira, a Coordinator like himself, is piloting a mobile suit for the opposing side, the two old friends are forced into direct combat. After he nearly kills Kira in battle, Athrun is shaken to his core and begins to question whether the cause he is fighting for is even worth it. That doubt follows him through the rest of the war, pulling him away from blind loyalty to his father's politics and toward decisions he actually believes in.

After the fighting ends, Athrun quietly settles in a neutral nation under a false name, working as an aide and bodyguard to its leader, Cagalli Yula Athha. When a new conflict draws him back to the battlefield, he drops the disguise and returns to fighting, now guided by his own conscience rather than orders from above. Along the way, a comrade becomes a true friend, and a soldier who has feelings for him helps him break away from the side he no longer believes in, choices that mark how far Athrun has grown from the obedient young soldier he once was.