inside of the girl's heart

Character Analysis

Relena's personality and character at the beginning of the series seems to be how many fans perceive her through out the rest of the show, completely ignoring the immense changes she goes through. This mindset that her character does not change or grow into a better person, could not be farther from the truth and the harsh treatment she receives from fans seems almost disrespectful to her character and what she stands for.

Because of her father's position as the Vice Foreign Minister, Relena seemed to be elevated to a higher status by her classmates at St. Gabriel Academy. She is followed around by a group of girls (who ironically enough are never given real names outside of Girl A, B and C as seen in the closing credits) and is constantly praised for every action she makes. This treatment keeps her from forming any real friendships with those her age or giving her the chance to find someone she can entrust her true feelings to. Bored and tired of her current life, Relena moves through her life in steps of attending school or traveling into space with her father. Her going home at the end of the day to the Darlian estate is something to take note of as well. St. Gabriel is a boarding school and it seems the norm for students to live on-campus in the dormitories (as seen with Heero during his stay at the school). Yet, Relena goes home every single day once the school actives are over. This fact seems to play up even more to her isolation from her peers and her own self-isolation she has suffered from since childhood.

The first words out of her mouth in the series after her father asks if she's glad to be coming home to Earth are:

"No, not a bit." ~ Episode 1, "The Shooting Star She Saw"

She seems selfish right off the bat, telling her father to make some free time for her on their next trip together into space. Relena is saying these words to her father for a reason: she wants his attention. Sure he might take her into space with him, but she always ends up by herself and they never have any time with just the two of them alone. (Just see her in episode 5, we aren’t shown one scene of the two of them together. She even ends up deciding to go shopping on her own while her father is in another meeting.) She might be selfish, but what child doesn't want their parent's attention? And for Relena, who is only looked upon as some untouchable goddess at her school, she just wants to be seen by her father and others as "Relena.” A 15-year-old that wants her father to come to her birthday party. But while she is selfish in those wishes, she knows that the Minister’s job is more important than her petty wants. Maybe she hopes that in acting a little childish in front of him, he’ll get the message she just wants some time together.

So when Relena is walking along the spaceport's beach and sees a body, she finally gets her first experience at being "seen" and truly being a nuisance to someone. This mysterious boy, known only as Heero Yuy, who when he first wakes up asks her: "Did you see?", completely enthralls Relena and she instinctively wants to know more about him. This boy whom she has never met is worried about her seeing him and not the other way around. That is what starts the change in both Relena and how she sees the world around her. This is why you see her introducing herself to the wind after Heero drives away; it's because she usually doesn't have to introduce herself to others. They either already know who she is, or they just ignore her. As an alternative, it could also back the things revealed in her story in the Episode Zero prologue manga. How she regrets never introducing herself to a boy who looked just like Heero (though Relena and Heero don't seem remember this meeting later on) back when she was 11 years old.

The invitation scene. This scene seems to ensure that Relena and Heero's fates will be destined to cross again and again. He wordlessly takes her invitation and rips in half, only promising that he'll kill her after wiping away her tears.

"I'll kill you." ~ Heero Yuy. Episode 1, "The Shooting Star She Saw"

With those three words, Heero unknowingly pulls Relena closer to him. First he was worried about her seeing him and now that he seems to be putting her life in his hands; Relena wants be around him even more. She can only ask herself just what kind of person he his, to make such a threat as to kill her. No one had ever said anything like that to her before and then and there, she seemed to have decided to herself that she didn’t care if she did die. If risking her own meaningless life meant her getting out of her mundane daily routine, she'd do anything.

Relena continues to follow Heero, wanting to learn more about him and using his promise to kill her as a reason to to stay near to him. Leaving her own birthday party early to find him and then even sending him to an Alliance hospital when he's injured from his first meeting with duo Maxwell. In episode four, after Heero disappears from his hospital escape with Duo, Relena is shown yelling Heero's name out in to the ocean.

"Heero! I'm right over here! So come and kill me!" ~ Episode 4, "The Victoria Nightmare"

This is one of those times where the causal viewer sees this and thinks she has gone nuts. But you have to remember, Heero has promised to kill her only a day ago. There is just something so different and indescribable about him from anyone she has ever met before in her life. He's reckless (jumping from the hospital's window in hopes of suicide) and he cannot be a normal 15-year-old boy (the way the Alliance treated him while under their care). So how can this isolated girl not be almost overwhelmed by Heero Yuy and do something "crazy?" I think this scene if anything, is showing how Relena is slowly coming out if her shell. She's becoming a little more reckless herself and even yelling out loud, which I doubt she has done for a very long time. Which this can be proved in comments made by Mrs. Darlian in the Episode Zero manga of Relena being very quiet and reserved, even around her family.

It isn't until her father dies that she discovers the truth about her past and is told who her real enemy is: OZ. Relena then goes on to meet Doctor J and learn about Heero’s secrets. He is as different as she thought, but at the same time they are both very much alike. By the time she returns home to Earth, she's torn between the knowledge of her past and the present family that raised her. She does tell Mrs. Darliain that she will always be mother to her, after the two of them are reunited after the Minister’s death

"You're my real mother. You'll always be my mother." ~ Episode 6, "Party Night"

But this confession seems to be the last step for Relena to start to change as a person, being that we never see or hear from Mrs. Darlian ever again. It might be a part of Relena's childish wish that things can still remain the way they were before her father’s assassination, though they never can be. Here she is no longer Relena Darlian, the rich daughter of the Foreign Minster, but just Relena; stuck between a cloudy past and a very uncertain future.

When Relena's school holds a party for the students, she finally meets up with Heero again who is almost ready to leave for his next mission. She uses this chance with the two of them alone, to inform him of the information she has learned from Doctor J.

"So even you can be astonished. Since the first time I met you it was only me who was astonished." ~ Novel 1 Departure - Chapter 2 Intrigue Conceived - Part 2 Battle in the Saint Gabriel School

This knowledge that she has learned so much about him already, surprisingly settles quickly with Heero and he willingly agrees to have one dance with her at the party. And as said by Relena in the novel adaptions, it wouldn’t have been a good idea to kill her right then, not with so many people around for the party. During their dance Relena tells Heero that she's just like him; like Doctor J told her, Heero's enemy is OZ, the same organization Minister Darlian told Relena to look out for before his death. Even though she might not know, but some way they are now both fighting for revenge of someone killed: The Gundams for Heero Yuy and the colonies and Relena for her father. Now not only is her life in Heero's hands, but now they have a common target. She’s starting to understand him, the reasoning for his actions and what kind of person he his. Even after she is warned that he is dangerous to her life, she doesn't stop her pursuit. Relena has no doubt he is truly a kind person like Doctor J told her, underneath the solider exterior. This thought is proven when OZ attacks the school in hopes to eliminate her. Heero saves her without a second thought from falling rubble, only to become confused with his conflicting emotions. When he quickly leaves after the enemy is destroyed, Relena can only wonder why he is running away once again.

Things don't seem to change much for Relena after the attack. She goes on with her normal life, to soon hear that Gundam 01 (whom she knows is Heero) has killed the Alliance Peace Leaders. She breaks a vase filled with flowers in reaction and maybe in some way this symbolizes the peaceful world Relena has been living in so far is finally breaking before her eyes. She has been able to stay in this “fake” world of hers, but she can no longer be blind to the war. Now that she sees how involved Heero is in it.

Finally in episode nine, Relena finds Heero again, this time enrolled at a different school with the same boy who tried to kill him in episode two, Duo Maxwell. She has chased after him this time for one reason: in hope to find the strength in herself through him. If everything she knew all along has been a lie, Heero is one of the few stable things left. She doesn't need to talk with him though or to even see him constantly during her visit; knowing that he is near and doing what he deems right is enough to help guild her in some small way. She even has a scene where she talks to her father’s picture, on how foolish he’d think she was being for chasing after a boy. But she says that Heero is the support she needs at the moment to get over her grief, if only he’d stop running away. She’s still a weak little girl and she must find something to keep her going, otherwise she might not be able to find her revenge for her father. By the end of episode ten, Heero has once again disappeared, but Relena doesn't need to follow him this time. She has been able to find her own strength somehow and has decided to head for her own battlefield, as Heero is heading for his.

"Off to fight again Heero? Well, I'm off to my own battle ground." ~ Episode 10, "Heero, Distracted by Defeat"

Relena's attack on Lady Une is confusing, both for Relena personally and the viewer. She only pulled a gun on someone once before, and she was so overwhelmed by her father's death, I doubt she was really thinking what she was doing. But this time, she planned out her attack before hand. Again, she's acting on her hate for Lady Une than thinking of what will happen once it's all over. While watching the scene though, you never really expect her to pull a gun out, and it seems out of character for her. Yet the whole scene better shows that even if Relena has been able to find 'strength,' she's still confused on where she should go from here and where it is she belongs. When Noin saves her on the street, a doorway opens for Relena.

"Grandfather, roses just don't look good on me either. I'd look better soaked in the blood of OZ!" ~ Episode 11, "The Whereabouts of Happiness"

In the time between Relena traveling to the Cinq Kingdom, she finds Heero one more time, this time to try and save him. He's fighting Zechs for no reason and both men know the battle will only end when one of the sides dies first. Relena has the letter written by Mrs. Noventa for Heero with her and tries to tell Heero he doesn’t have to fight any more and that he should just live on peacefully. Unfortunately, this act is very stupid on Relena's part. She could have gotten herself and Heero killed by Zechs; but she felt she had to deliver the letter to Heero at any cost. It's hard to say if Relena's actions do anything to affect Heero, but I think it helps to reassure Relena that he has at least heard these words written for him.

We don't see Relena after that until a few months later, when she is now the sovereign and Princess of the reborn Cinq Kingdom. Things have changed drastically for Relena, her appearance is completely different and she has now seemed to accept the pacifist ideals of the Peacecrafts as her own. She is now Relena Peacecraft. She still strongly believes in Heero and the other Gundam pilots and in what they are fighting for, even if she doesn’t agree with the constant battles being fought. She even speaks out at a conference with supporters of the Romefeller Foundation on how the Gundams will come to fix the mistakes they have made. She sees through the empty words about God that Treize speaks and is upset with how blind the population could be. Yet, Relena still remains faithful to her family’s beliefs through her reign as sovereign, only agreeing to Noin and Heero's suggestion to keep arms because of Romefeller's increasing military hold of the area.

"Someday I'm gonna find out. What it is that gives everyone the urge to fight." ~ Episode 31, "The Glass Kingdom"

She swears to herself, to find out why it is people enjoy war and fighting so much. War has only brought her the death of a father and created soldiers like Heero that can't live a normal life, so how could people enjoy it? When Romefeller attacks the kingdom and Relena sees that to continue on fighting will only bring more bloodshed to the Treize faction soldiers as well as Heero and the others, she surrenders the Cinq Kingdom to the Foundation. She believed that in doing so, she could save the many lives sacrificing themselves for her and her kingdom.

Throughout her reign as Queen of the Romefeller Foundation, Relena upholds her ideals of total pacifism, while gaining more and more support. When Treize comes to tell her that she is released of her duties, she agrees without any problems. Her only goal was then to stop her brother from destroying the Earth.

Relena seems to be helpless during her time trapped on Libra. She is unable to talk sense into her brother and Dorothy locks her in a room. She continues to believe that she might be able to stop Milliardo, but when Heero comes to save her and they speak to Milliardo one last time; Relena finally understands that her brother cannot be stopped through talking. Her ideals of pacifism will not work this time and she is seeing another instance in which pacifism cannot solve everything. During her time with Heero on Libra, their relationship deepens and Relena finally tells him how strong she thinks he his by always giving her strength. When the two of them are in Peacemillion's hanger, Heero tells her to believe him and to go let him fight one more time. She doesn't back down knowing that he’s leaving to die in battle and Heero comes to understand her feelings towards him at that moment. Even if Relena has strength in herself without Heero, she doesn't want to accept a future without him there. It's not until he closes her helmet and pushes her way that she must accept his decision. She will believe in him that he will come back to her alive.

"I do, believe in you. Yes I do." ~ Episode 48, "Takeoff Into Confusion"

It is not until the final battle with Mariemaia one year later that Relena (who has again taken up the Darlian family name) finally starts to understand that not just discarding weapons will bring peace, but vengeance, anger, hate, and greed felt by people must be thrown away as well. She tells Mariemaia and Dekim, that she no longer considers herself a Peacecraft, she doesn’t need that name or her family’s ideals tagged on her any longer. She now knows that the way to gain peace is not through a principle or an assertion (as she had tried during the war as the Princess of Cinq and later Queen of Romefeller) but in the hearts of the people who hope for a peaceful world. Even so, she continues to keep the ideals held by the Peacecrafts in her heart, but understands their faults and that they are not necessarily needed in the way she thought to help build a peaceful world.

So by final act of Gundam Wing, Relena is no longer the lonely girl we met at the beginning of the series, who could only see what was right in front of her. She has become a very mature and selfless person, with the power and strength to join all the people in the Earth Sphere Unified Nation in peace. The way she acts and looks at the world is completely different and it's easy to forget that when it comes down to it, she is still just a teenager. Though for the majority of the series she was too idealist in her views on stopping wars; because she never backed down on those beliefs, she was able to bring the peace after the war and truly understand the mistakes in her ideals in Endless Waltz.

Willing to sacrifice her own life without a second thought Relena unknowingly became a symbol of hope and integrity with the power to inspire the entire world.