Gunther Prozen
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Gunther Prozen is a character featured in the Zoids Battle Story, as well as the anime series Zoids: Chaotic Century and Zoids: Guardian Force, based on TOMY's Zoids model franchise. Voiced by Dave Kelly in the English dub of the anime, he is a primary antagonist in nearly all of his appearances.
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[edit] Personality
[edit] Battle Story
Gunther Prozen is an ambitious, manipulative man who desires absolute power. While already a high-ranking member of the Guylos court, his desires stretch to controlling all of Planet Zi. He is ruthless, not caring what he does in order to fulfil his aims; starting wars, destroying whole cities and unleashing horrific weapons of mass destruction are all steps he has taken in his conquest.
Despite this, Prozen has strong nationalist traits. He believes in the restoration of the Zenebas Empire, albeit with himself, its rightful heir, as its leader.
[edit] Anime
Similar to his battle story counterpart, the anime version of Prozen is highly ambitious and self-serving. He believes the Helic Republic to be nothing but a band of rebels usurping the Empire's land, and desires to rule the Empire and all of Planet Zi. He gradually climbs his way to the top of the political hierarchy, conspiring behind the scenes, stepping on everyone who gets in his way and casting people aside when he no longer needs them.
Prozen is manipulative as well, feigning concern for the ailing Emperor Zeppelin to gain favour in the eyes of his peers. He stops at nothing to gain what he wants, even hiring assassins to kill the Crown Prince Rudolph in order to take his throne. He appears to hold fascist ideals, believing that only the one who holds the most power deserves the right to rule.
[edit] Zoids
[edit] Death Saurer
Both the Battle Story and Anime versions of Prozen are associated with the Death Saurer.
In the Battle Story, Prozen used a Bloody Death Saurer, a special Death Saurer (painted red instead of black) to spearhead the ascension of the Neo Zenebas empire. The Bloody Death Saurer self destructed, wiping out an entire city and most of the Helic and Guylos armies in the explosion, causing heavy damage to both sides and allowing the Neo Zenebas to rise from the ashes and seize power.
In the anime, the Death Saurer was a legendary Zoid created by the ancient Zoidians, which Prozen revived in secret using Zoid cores gathered by his minion Raven and his Geno Saurer. The Death Saurer proved impossible to control, even possessing Prozen himself with its evil will, posing a significant threat to all of Zi. The Republic and the Empire teamed up to defeat it, with Van Flyheight striking the killing blow with his Blade Liger.
[edit] Battle Story
Gunther Prozen was born sometime before ZAC 2050, being the son of Emperor Zenebas and a high-ranking member of the Guylos court. Prozen's parentage was apparently unknown to all but his mother and later himself; not even Elena Muroa (who would later become President of the Helic Republic under the name Louise Camford) knew of his true parentage.
Because of his mother's family, Prozen became very influential within the Guylos Court, eventually becoming Minister for War. When Emperor Guylos died in ZAC 2094, leaving his six-year old Grandson Rudolph as his only heir, Prozen was appointed as his Regent. Prozen used the position to take de facto control of the nation and begin a massive rearmament program. He also formed an elite unit known as the Eisen Dragoons, controlled by his son Wolff. This unit was composed of Zenebas nationals and loyalists, and answered to Prozen directly. Finally, he created his own bodyguard unit, the Prozen Knights, who were armed with modified Iron Kongs.
In ZAC 2099, Prozen launched an invasion of the Western Continent, starting a new war between the Empire and the Republic. The goal of this war was not conquest, however, but rather to allow the two nations to batter each other and deplete their forces. To this end, he unleashed weapons such as the recreated Death Saurer and the rampaging Death Stinger to simply cause as much damage as possible.
When the Helic army invaded the Dark Continent of Nyx in ZAC 2101, Prozen saw his chance. The Eisen Dragoons and the Prozen Knights launched a coup, taking control of the Imperial capital from the remaining Guylos forces. However, the Guylos and Helic forces teamed up, then launched a counteroffensive on the capital, nearly defeating Prozen's forces. As a last-ditch effort, Prozen activated his own Zoid, the Bloody Death Saurer to use on the combined forces.
Before he could use the Death Saurer, however, the Zoid was attacked by prince Rudolph in a Saber Tiger, as well as Karl Schwartz in an Iron Kong. While the Tiger was easily defeated, the Iron Kong managed to severely damage the Death Saurer, mortally wounding Prozen in the process. Not willing to be defeated, Prozen deliberately overloaded the Death Saurer, destroying the capital and the two armies.
In the aftermath of the destruction, Wolff Muroa formed a new Zenebas Empire, his Eisen Dragoons forming the core of its new army.
[edit] Chaotic Century
Gunther Prozen is very similar to his battle story self, his power hungry personality easily showing through to the audiences. He is the person responsible for Van's father, Dan Flyheight's, death and the one who raised Raven and recaptured Shadow for his use.
Prozen's debut is revealed later in the anime, as the Division Commander of the Third Panzer. Prozen's column had discovered the location of the frozen Shadow. Quickly realizing the possibilities inherently present in the Organoid, he ordered the deaths of the Republic soldiers protecting it, including Dan. Utterly demolishing all but Dan and a few of his best troops, Prozen ordered his troops to charge the Gustav hauling the capsule. While Shadow emerged, having been released by one of Dans' troops, Dan himself rammed Prozen's column and self-destructed, wiping out an entire platoon of Iron Kongs. Prozen somehow survived the blast, escaping with Lieutenant Harden. He happened across Raven, whom Dan had been shepherding. Raven drew Dan's magnum and leveled it, trying to fire. Prozen calmly walked over to the child and slapped the gun from his hand, remarking casually that the safety had been on the entire time.
Raven soon came under his care, and took upon that name only at Prozen's request, his real name having been burned from him at the sight of Shadow killing his family. Raven eventually became Prozen's finest warrior, surpassing Harden and the rest of the then-Commander's guard. Eventually, Prozen rose in rank to become an Admiral and eventually Regent. At some point in that time, his men captured Shadow and brought him before Raven, allowing Raven to tame him.
His ambitions eventually took him to the council that advised Zeppelin II, the Emperor of the Guylos. Upon the death of the Emperor, Prozen seems to have made little to no effort to convert Rudolph to his scheming, instead simply trying to eliminate him. His plan was thwarted by Rosso, who kidnapped the young Emperor from the grips of the Royal Guard.
The scheming Regent then seized utter control of the Empire, even managing to get himself coroneted as the new Emperor, albeit only for a few seconds.
After several attempts to use Imperial assets to kill Van's and Fiona's group, Prozen used a clone of the Death Saurer to create the Geno Saurer and other weapons, and lured the group to the Death Saurer's Birthing area, but lost control of and was possessed by the weapon. Somehow, he moved it to the capital building and hid it under the grand stage. After declaring himself Emperor, he used the Death Saurer to annihilate most of Guylos' capital. The timely arrival of Van, Fiona, Irvine, and Moonbay, along with Captain Thomas and a column of Gordoses ultimately prevented Prozen from leaving the area. The further intervention of the Baron of Wings and Storm Sworder crippled the Death Saurer's Charged Particle Intake fan and allowed Van to destroy the monstrosity, seemingly consuming Prozen in the ensuing fireball.
[edit] Guardian Force
Prozen is presumed dead by most the characters, but is eventually revealed to have survived the explosion of the Death Saurer and somehow merged with its core. He's absent for the most of the series, and calls himself the Dark Kaiser when he reappears, intent on taking control of the original Death Saurer. However, he finds that Hiltz had manipulated him, and that Prozen could never control the Death Saurer; he was simply going to used as part of its core. He later dies when the Death Saurer is destroyed.
