Garma's Fate

[MetalNeptune479]

Suppose Garma escaped the Gaw carrier from his failed suicide attack, covertly rendezvous with Icelina, and eloped with her away from Icelina's Father or Zeon's reach. What if Char caught eye of Garma Years after the One-Year War, with the latter living a humble, but content existence with Icelina? Would Char make an attempt to kill Garma or ruin him, or would Char have ignored Garma, satisfied that he at least rid himself of the Zabi family's worst offenders?

[Seto Kaiba]

"Out of Zeon's reach" means "into Federation territory"... and as Garma is a well-known public figure as the de facto head of the Zeon occupation force in North America and the youngest child of Zeon's head of state Degwin Zabi, there's basically zero chance he'd be able to remain a free man.

The million dollar question is whether the Federation citizenry would simply lynch him themselves or hand him over to the Federation authorities to be interrogated and likely put on trial for war crimes. The best case scenario is him being forced to hand over all actionable intelligence he had access to as head of the Zeon North American occucation force and then imprisoned for life. The Federation wouldn't be likely to allow him much, if any, freedom since as a Zabi he'd naturally be a rallying point for Zeon resistance or could easily end up being lynched by Federation civilians bitter over the One Year War. Any later confrontation between him and Char would likely occur with a military prison's bulletproof polycarbonate visitation window between them to ensure his safety.

I think Char would probably still want to kill him, but would have to accept that Garma was beyond his reach.

The alternative is that he'd end up dead well before Char ever found him, lynched by the general public or assassinated by his own siblings to prevent him from giving up intelligence that might damage Zeon's strategic outlook. If they didn't kill him before he could talk, he might end up condemned as a traitor.

[MetalNeptune479]

"Out of Zeon's reach" means "into Federation territory"... and as Garma is a well-known public figure as the de facto head of the Zeon occupation force in North America and the youngest child of Zeon's head of state Degwin Zabi, there's basically zero chance he'd be able to remain a free man.

The million dollar question is whether the Federation citizenry would simply lynch him themselves or hand him over to the Federation authorities to be interrogated and likely put on trial for war crimes. The best case scenario is him being forced to hand over all actionable intelligence he had access to as head of the Zeon North American occucation force and then imprisoned for life. The Federation wouldn't be likely to allow him much, if any, freedom since as a Zabi he'd naturally be a rallying point for Zeon resistance or could easily end up being lynched by Federation civilians bitter over the One Year War. Any later confrontation between him and Char would likely occur with a military prison's bulletproof polycarbonate visitation window between them to ensure his safety.

I think Char would probably still want to kill him, but would have to accept that Garma was beyond his reach.

The alternative is that he'd end up dead well before Char ever found him, lynched by the general public or assassinated by his own siblings to prevent him from giving up intelligence that might damage Zeon's strategic outlook. If they didn't kill him before he could talk, he might end up condemned as a traitor.

Kay, now suppose Garma kept within Zeon Territory, covertly reunited with the Zabi Family, but was not only put under protective custody, but was still confirmed KIA within the public eye and most of Zeon military, save for a select few who were privy to Garma's survival. What if Garma went into exile with the Zeon Remnants after the one Year War in place of Char, while Char was a wanted man within Zeon after the events in New York?

[MythSearcher]

Federation territory isn't really that much of a problem?
Say, if EF registered him as dead because of WB's record, and Char thought of him as dead because, well, he saw and heard his Gaw crashing into WB, and he hid himself somewhere on Earth without contacting anyone and whoever joined him didn't contact anyone else.

Earth is big, and the EF didn't seem to care much about people living in random remote locations as long as you don't ask for their help. They don't bother to scan their own territory every now and then.
So if Garma can somehow find a place with a clean water source, farm enough food for himself and whoever is with him, it sounded like he can get away with it.

Though I highly doubt he got any of the required survival skills to do so, so I'd also say he will end up dead pretty soon.

[Seto Kaiba]

Kay, now suppose Garma kept within Zeon Territory, covertly reunited with the Zabi Family, but was not only put under protective custody, but was still confirmed KIA within the public eye and most of Zeon military, save for a select few who were privy to Garma's survival.

Why, though?

There would be no political or strategic advantage to arbitrarily sidelining Garma like that. Garma's death was a gargantuan blow to Zeon's morale that hit the highest levels of its homeland leadership especially hard. It might not have been a big deal to Gihren or Kycilia, but sovereign Degwin and space force commander Dozle were very deeply affected by the news and it likely did no favors to the North American branch of the Earth Attack Forces that had been Garma's command. Why needlessly crush morale like that and embolden the enemy by making an announcement that the well-liked head of the Zeon occupation force in North America was dead? Garma would not have gone along with that, sure as sure. His frantic, almost manic, need to prove himself and live up to the lofty standards of his elder siblings was his main motivation in life. It's what got him killed. He would never let himself be benched like that, especially not in a way that implied that he'd definitively failed to prove himself a worthy member of the Zabi family by winning glory on the battlefield.

If Garma were still alive at the end of the war, for whatever reason, he would almost certainly end up a political prisoner of the Earth Federation in the name of preventing him from being used (voluntarily or otherwise) as the symbol around which the remnants of the Principality of Zeon's forces might rally. IMO, there wouldn't be much chance of using him in a positive light to prevent various subsequent Neo Zeon activities since he wasn't seen in the same light as the great commanders like Gihren, Dozle, or Kycilia.

What if Garma went into exile with the Zeon Remnants after the one Year War in place of Char, while Char was a wanted man within Zeon after the events in New York?

As much as the man himself would want to deny it, Garma Zabi was a sensitive soul and not terribly sharp. He'd probably have done something dumb to get himself killed during the battle of A Baoa Qu, like trying to lead from the front against the overwhelming Federation assault forces or at least let himself be dragged along by his sister Kycilia and then blown up along with her on the Chimera when Char finally caught up with her.

As sensitive a soul as that boy was, if he did survive and was evacuated on one of the ships headed for Axis I'd be betting VERY heavily on him dying from despair the same way that his sister-in-law Zenna did. The events of the One Year War's conclusion would have destroyed him. He really did look up to his siblings, and seemingly hadn't noticed that most of his family and their retainers were complete monsters. Dozle's death at Solomon would've been a huge blow to him, but learning that his oldest brother murdered their father and thousands of loyal Zeon soldiers in a bid to grab power would have crushed him utterly. Kycilia executing Gihren for his crime and then being assassinated by Char would have been a whole other layer of trauma. I could absolutely see him wasting away from despair like Zenna did or even committing suicide. He didn't have the fire to become a fanatic like Haman Karn or live as a space pirate like Cima Gaharu or a renegade like Aiguille Delaz.

Federation territory isn't really that much of a problem?
Say, if EF registered him as dead because of WB's record, and Char thought of him as dead because, well, he saw and heard his Gaw crashing into WB, and he hid himself somewhere on Earth without contacting anyone and whoever joined him didn't contact anyone else.

Depending on which version of the story you look at, he was either in New York City or Los Angeles... neither of those places are somewhere you can hide effectively if everyone knows your face. It's not like what happened with Shiro Amada, where he was a virtual nobody who went missing way out in the sticks in Southeast Asia. In this case, we're talking about one of the biggest urban areas on the planet and one of the most recognizable people in the Earth sphere.

[MythSearcher]

Depending on which version of the story you look at, he was either in New York City or Los Angeles... neither of those places are somewhere you can hide effectively if everyone knows your face. It's not like what happened with Shiro Amada, where he was a virtual nobody who went missing way out in the sticks in Southeast Asia. In this case, we're talking about one of the biggest urban areas on the planet and one of the most recognizable people in the Earth sphere.

That's why he cannot go to urban areas.
The best chance he got is go to the middle of nowhere and farm for whatever he and his followers needed, with basically no technological support.(Since he cannot manufacture them nor buy them.)
And North America isn't as urban as nowadays, New "Yark", for example, are in ruins(at least the part they were fighting in). Most of the land is turned into farmland to feed the population of the Earth and some space colonies.
In this path, his lack of survival skills would be his first barrier, the next would be the colony drop in 0083.
That is why I say his chance of survivability is really low.

Also, you'd be surprised by how much a pair of glasses or sun-glasses can do to mask your identity, there's research done about people recognizing photos and it really helps if glasses are put on or off. Sun-glasses are even better.
Without hair gel, likely won't be able to take a bath/shower in weeks, he'd be unrecognizable pretty quick as long as he doesn't run into town shouting he is Garma Zabi.

[Kuruni]

Here's better one. He survive, grow up, realize how fucked up his family is, then declare to atone for their wrong doing.