Patrick Zala

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Patrick Zala
Patrick Zala in Gundam SEED
Genetic type:	Coordinator
Age:	48
Nationality:	PLANT [GS]
Allegiance:	ZAFT [GS]
Rank:	Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council (former) [GS]
Family:	Lenore Zala (wife, deceased) Athrun Zala (son)
Height:	6'5
Weight:	117kg (257.4 lbs)
Blood type:	O
Mobile Suit:	None

Patrick Zala is a fictional character in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. He is an antagonist in the Cosmic Era timeline of Gundam, a fictional anime metaseries. Kinryu Arimoto voices him in Japanese, while Andrew Kavadas voices him in English.

Patrick Zala is the radical leader of the PLANT Supreme Council and father of Athrun Zala. He loses his wife Lenore in the Bloody Valentine Tragedy and blames all Naturals for her death.

[edit] Gundam SEED

His grief over the death of his wife, Lenore Zala, made him a man driven by hatred and revenge. This makes him easily manipulated by ZAFT High Commander Rau Le Creuset, whom Patrick believes to be his right-hand man. Instead, Le Creuset plans to destroy all of humanity, Naturals and Coordinators alike.

Patrick makes it clear to PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne at a council meeting at Aprilius One that all Naturals should be wiped out for the sake of all Coordinators, whom he believes have evolved into a race that is superior to the Naturals.

His rise to power as the Chairman of PLANT gives him great military power, which he uses during Operation Spitbreak. The aftermath of this disastrous operation drives him to near insanity; he has his closest friend Siegel Clyne assassinated, attempts to have Lacus Clyne killed, and later ruthlessly shoots his own son Athrun when he refuses to divulge the location of the missing mobile suits Freedom and Justice.

Patrick eventually has ZAFT build the GENESIS superweapon and uses it in an effort to destroy all Naturals. After revealing its destructive power, he delivers a speech in which he refers to Coordinators as "the new mankind." Patrick soon manages to destroy the Earth Alliance space fleet along with their lunar base at the Ptolemaeus Crater with GENESIS, effectively winning the battle. He then decides to fire on Earth, even though ZAFT's space fleet is still in the line of fire of GENESIS.

ZAFT Commander Ray Yuki strongly objects to destroying all life on Earth, but is fatally shot by Patrick, who then continues as planned. Mortally wounded, Commander Yuki manages to shoot Patrick several times, thus sealing his well-deserved fate.

As he lies dying in Athrun's arms, Patrick tells his son to fire GENESIS on Earth and make his vision of a Coordinators' world come true. Instead, Athrun self-destructs the ZGMF-X09A Justice at GENESIS's power core to destroy the superweapon, vaporizing Patrick's corpse in the process.

[edit] Post-Gundam SEED

Patrick Zala's legacy lives through some Coordinators who support his genocidal policies, including ZAFT Green veteran Sato. In Cosmic Era 73, they continue his legacy with a mass killing of Naturals in the Junius Seven Colony Drop, which became known as "Operation Break the World". Ultimately, these decisions lead to the Second Bloody Valentine War.