Murrue Ramius

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Murrue Ramius (マリュー・ラミアス Maryuu Ramiasu) is a character from the anime series, Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. She is voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi in the Japanese version and by Lisa Ann Beley in the English version. Murrue Ramius is the captain of the Earth Alliance spaceship Archangel, after the original command crew is killed in a ZAFT assault on the Heliopolis space colony.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Gundam SEED

Assuming command at the suggestion of Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, Lt. Ramius is shown to be a competent commanding officer with an excellent intuitive grasp of her crew's and her ship's capabilities. While she initially suggests that Lt. Mu La Flaga, the most senior officer present, should command the ship, he declines because his role as one of the ship's only pilots means he cannot stay on the bridge. It is further suggested that having been involved with the creation of the ship and the mobile weapons it will be carrying/fighting against, she would have best knowledge of their capabilities. Promoted to Lt. Commander when Archangel rendezvouses with Rear Admiral Lewis Halberton's 8th Fleet, Murrue descends to the planet's surface and lands in Africa, fighting her way through ZAFT forces commanded by Andrew Waltfeld (AKA "Desert Tiger"). The battered assault ship finally makes its way to Alaska, arriving several months after leaving Heliopolis (including an extended repair stopover in the Orb Union).

Captain Ramius deserts the Alliance forces after the Atlantic Federation's betrayal at JOSH-A (they had left her with a largely Eurasian defense force to die, judging Archangel's crew "tainted" by contact with Coordinator pilot Kira Yamato). Reunited with Yamato - now piloting the stolen ZGMF-X10A Freedom - Ramius and Archangel join the Orb forces at the Battle of Orb, trying to defend the island from the Alliance attack.

Just before Orb self-destructs its mass driver, Archangel and Orb's ship Kusanagi launch into space. At Mendel they join forces with the stolen support ship Eternal, a ZAFT renegade group led by Lacus Clyne and Andrew Waltfeld. United against the escalation of violence by both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance, they form the Three Ships Alliance.

In the Second Battle of Jachin Due, the Three Ships Alliance helps end the war and avoiding total devastation to both factions.

Over the course of the war, Murrue develops a romantic relationship with Mu La Flaga. On the final day of the war, Mu is apparently killed protecting Archangel from her sister ship Dominion's positron attack.

Gundam SEED Destiny

Murrue Ramius on the bridge of the Archangel

After the war, Murrue Ramius lives on Orb with Andrew Waltfeld, whose lover Aisha was killed by Kira during the previous war. After a disaster forces Kira and Lacus to move in with Murrue and Andy, the two adults help take care of their orphans as well act as guards for Lacus. Under the assumed name of "Maria Varnes", she works as the head of Morgenroete's Shipbuilding Section B. She meets Talia Gladys, when the Minerva's repairs were assigned to her department.

After the departure of Minerva, she and Andy help thwart an assassination attempt on Lacus. Afterwards, Murrue and the others reunite with many of the original Achangel crew, and flee from Orb in the refitted Archangel. Before leaving Orb territory, they kidnap Cagalli from her political wedding with Yuuna. Murrue once again assumes command of the Archangel and helps Kira, Cagalli, and Lacus in their mission to stop the war. Since the end of the first Bloody Valentine War, Murrue has grown fond of Kira and sees him as a younger brother. She takes the time to offer sisterly advice to Kira when they are alone as well as reinforcing her support for him. Murrue was key factor in helping to keep Kira's spirits up when Lacus leaves the Archangel to oversee and coordinate Terminal's efforts from their primary base of operations. Through a twist of fate, she is reunited with her presumed-dead lover Mu La Flaga when Kira captures Earth Alliance officer Neo Roanoke who turns out to be an amnesiac Mu, rescued and given a new identity by LOGOS. Mu's memories of Murrue fully return when he saves her and the Archangel from the Minerva's "Tannhäuser" positron blaster cannon by using his mobile suit as a shield (much like he did in the last war). This time, Mu survives without a scratch thanks to Akatsuki's (a new high-performance Mobile Suit loaned to him by Cagalli) special beam-reflective coating. Mu then promises to never leave Murrue again and states they should hurry up and finish the battle so they can go home, which Murrue happily agrees to.

Trivia

Her name could be an allusion to Marko Ramius, from "The Hunt for Red October". In the Tom Clancy novel and movie, Marko was the captain of the submarine Red October. While the reference could be a coincidence, the fact that the Archangel now has submarine capabilities, and especially her defection from the EA to Orb (Marko defects from the Soviet Union to the USA) shows that it could be an intentional reference.
Her love interest in the series may be an insider joke; Mu La Flaga is voiced by Koyasu Takehito, Mitsuishi's co-star in Neon Genesis Evangelion. In Eva, Takehito's character (Aoba Shigeru) is one of the 2 male technicians of the MAGI system. While his colleague had a crush on Misato (Mitsuishi), Aoba is indifferent to the beautiful lady.
Mitsuishi and Takehito also worked together in the anime series Weiss Kreuz, in which Mitsuishi's character, who is supposedly killed protecting her love interest, is brought back as the masked villainess Neu, in an amusing parallel to the situation with Neo Lorrnoke in Gundam Seed Destiny.
Mitsuishi and Kuwashima Houko (Natarle) have also worked together in the anime Noir, voicing Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yumura respectively. Although of the two characters Kirika is the more skilled and cooler-headed under fire, it is Mireille, with her more intuitive and emotionally mature approach, who is in charge of their partnership in that series.
She and the Archangel were ordered to surrender twice, once by the Dominion (OMNI Enforcer) under Natarle Badgiruel (her former XO) and once by the Minerva (ZAFT) under Talia Gladys (her respected enemy and former friend). She was later able to defeat both ships after Mu La Flaga shielded the Archangel from their positron beams.
She is the first person the audience sees to pilot the original Strike Gundam. Ironically, it is Mu, her lover, who pilots it last until its destruction.
According to some sources, she was a school teacher before the war who held a reserve commission in the Earth Forces. It's indicated by some of her dialogue with Mu, particularly in SEED phase 47, that in the past she was in love with a mobile armor pilot who was killed in action.
It is also likely that Murrue was an engineer, explaining her involvement in the secret construction of the five prototype mobile suits at the Heliopolis as well as her position as a department head for Morgenroete's Shipbuilding in Gundam SEED Destiny.

Note: In Gundam SEED and most of Destiny, Murrue is referred to as a Captain (Japanese: Kanchou) while during that period of time, her true rank was Lieutenant/Lt. Commander (Japanese: Tai-i/Shousa). The term Captain in this case refers to a nautical title customarily given to person in charge of a ship, namely the Archangel. At the end of DESTINY, she is promoted to Colonel in the Orb military (had she still been in the Alliance, this would be the actual Naval rank of Captain; Japanese: Taisa).

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Murrue Ramius | Rondo Ghina Sahaku | Rondo Mina Sahaku | Yuna Roma Seiran |