Christina Mackenzie

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Christina Mackenzie
Mobile Suit Gundam character
Christina Mackenzie, as seen in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
Profile
Aliases	Chris
Age	21
Date of birth	UC 0059
Nationality	Earth Federation
Information
Allegiance	E.F.S.F
Rank	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Mobile weapons	RX-78NT1 "Alex"

Christina Mackenzie (クリスチーナ・マッケンジー, Kurisuchīna Makkenjī^?) is a fictional character in the Universal Century Gundam Universe. She is a main character in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. She is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara.

[edit] Background

An Earth Federation Lieutenant (Junior Grade), Christina Mackenzie is the mobile suit test pilot selected to test the NT-1 "Alex" Gundam due to her exceptional piloting ability despite being a new graduate from the Academy. Her hometown is Side 6's Libot colony, the site of a secret Federation mobile suit R&D facility.

Chris is the neighbor and friend of Alfred Izuruha, being the closest thing to a big sister for Al. At the beginning of War in the Pocket, Chris just returns from Earth, and is assigned to collect field data for the new NT-1 unit, which is "designed for a pilot from White Base". One night, she sees a young man sneaking around Al's house, and thinking he's a burglar, she knocks him out from behind with a baseball bat. The man turns out to be Bernard Wiseman, who Al claims to be his "older brother". Despite the rocky start, the Chris and Bernie get along well, and if the reaction of Chris' parents is any indication, their attraction to each other is fairly obvious.

In a tragic twist of fate, Bernie is actually a Zeon soldier and a junior member of a commando team sent to the colony to destroy the Gundam Alex. Chris manages to fight off the attack, leaving most of the team dead. Bernie, the sole survivor of the battle, later launches a surprise attack on the Gundam in a lone Zaku. Chris launches to fight and is drawn into an ambush site, sustaining injuries herself and heavy damage to her Gundam. When the two mobile suits charge each other for a final attack, Chris impales the Zaku's cockpit with her beam sabre and unknowingly kills Bernie. The resulting explosion also incapacitates the Gundam. Al, who comes in a rush to stop the fight, only arrives to witness the result of their battle.

After a brief recovery, she leaves the colony to head back to Earth. While farewelling Al, she asks Al to say goodbye to Bernie for her. Al keeps the fact that Bernie was killed to himself.

Little is known about MacKenzie's fate after the war. In Char's Counterattack a scene towards the end features a group of people on a beach watching remains of the Asteroid Axis burn up in the atmosphere, one of whom is a woman referred to as "Chris" by one of the other beachgoers (who may or may not be a full-grown Alfred Izuruha), but there is no official confirmation that this is the same person.

[edit] In other media

Chris is tragically best known for unknowingly killing her love interest, Bernie. This is a powerful image, as it is easy to see similar tragedies occurring throughout the One Year War. As a result, she and Bernie appear quite often in other media that involves the Universal Century.

She is among the Earth Federation characters that appear in the SD Gundam G Generation series of strategy games, and depending on which title it is in the series may a) kill Bernie as in the OVA, b) convince him to switch sides, or c) not meet him on the battlefield at all. She is also a rentable pilot (i.e. she can be hired to pilot one of the player's mobile suits for one battle).

In the Gihren's Greed series of games, Chris also appears on the Federation side. In the OVA Chris was implied as being an exceptional pilot, and that is reflected in her statistics. Her shooting stat, for example, is well above average. She appears once research on the Alex is complete, but may be temporarily unavailable due to injury (as depicted in Gundam 0080). On the Zeon side, it is possible for Bernie to successfully capture both the Alex and Chris. What becomes of Chris should this occur is unknown, but it is reasonable to assume she is held prisoner for the remainder of the war.

Because of Gundam 0080's generally weaker Mobile Suits than the powerhouses of other Universal Century series, Bernie and Chris do not appear very often in the Super Robot Wars. Chris is often part of the player's forces from the beginning, and Bernie usually joins during the course of the game. They last appeared in Super Robot Wars Alpha, where Chris aided Amuro Ray in testing new mobile suit technologies at Cheyenne Base, the Alex being written as a structural testbed for the Nu Gundam itself, and Bernie (if procedures were taken to recruit him during the game) becoming a playable character after the defeat of Haman Kahn in the later stages.

In many mecha games based on the Universal Century, such as Encounters in Space, Gundam: Lost War Chronicles or Gundam Climax U.C., Bernie and Chris often have special dialogue when opposing each other on the battlefield. For example, in Lost War Chronicles, Chris exclaims "Bernie?! You're a Zeon?!" while in Climax U.C. Bernie calls on Chris to stop fighting as he doesn't want to hurt her. In the final stage of Climax U.C. (where the player must battle the main Gundams of the U.C. Gundam series), Chris is notable as being the only female Gundam pilot (It can also be noted that she has the weakest stats of all the Gundam pilots).

She is also the unfortunate butt of many jokes in various 4-koma comics based on the Gundam and Super Robot Wars series.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In most strategy games where she appears, Chris' shooting ability is above average. This is in contrast with Bernie, who has higher melee ability than shooting.

• While Sayla Mass piloted the original Gundam on a few occasions in the anime, Chris is the first female Gundam pilot.

• Many jokes about Bernie in various 4-koma comics by necessity often include Chris. Many of them involve the fact that she pilots a far more powerful Mobile Suit than her (apparent) boyfriend. 4-komas based on the Super Robot Wars also poke fun at Bernie for the fact that, despite being part of a team that includes numerous Gundams and powerful Super Robot warriors, he still pilots a comparatively very, very weak Zaku. Chris is often portrayed as trying to convince him to switch to a more powerful Mobile Suit (normally without success), trying to cheer him up or helplessly sighing as he tries to point out the good points of his old Zaku.