Bernard Wiseman

Bernard Wiseman, Zeon Pilot (http://www.gundamofficial.com/worlds/ uc/0080/characters/chara_bernie.html)

All heroes have great traits that makes them different from others and separates them from the ordinary. A true hero has to stand up for what is right in the world, also to do what is right for the better good of others. Something very heroic that really sets them apart is being selfless and putting others before themselves even in the face of danger. Also they have to have a drive, a cause, a reason for what they are doing, or else most of it will be in vain for no reason at all. They can not be perfect, a hero must have a fault, a weakness, an inner conflict within themselves, for that is truly heroic, to face adversity with your self and overcome it and to come out stronger than before.

Bernard's Zaku (http://www.gundamofficial.com/ worlds/uc/0080/mechanics/index.html)

Bernard Wiseman is a pilot for the Municipality of Zeon. What makes this person so heroic is that he is just an average pilot, not even an ace pilot. He is completely average in all ways, but he is faced with a problem and it is how he deals with the great problem that makes him a lifesaver of heroes. Bernard pilots a mobile suit called a Zaku, he is a part of a special forces team that raids a neutral space colony near Earth. The special forces team is sent to this neutral colony to destroy the Earth Federation's new weapon in the war, their new mobile suit called the NT-1 Gundam. If they do not accomplish this mission the Zeon will use nuclear weapons in order to destroy the weapon, the team fails and Bernard is the only one left. With a strong bond that is formed between him and a civilian boy named Al he decides to destroy the new weapon so the Zeon won't have to resort to using nuclear weapons. He in the end gives his life in order to destroy the gundam and succeeds, leaving the colony safe from the Zeon.

Bernard Wiseman, in the midst of an unbeatable enemy and gigantic odds against him, still pushed through. An average mobile suit pilot, Wiseman somehow found the courage to face up against an ace pilot in a highly advanced machine and to win. There is no way he could have gone up against such imposible odds and win with out being strengthened by courage. He also stood up for something. He knew that if he didn't do anything that the Zeon would nuke the colony, he could not stand for that. So he did what ever it took in order to prevent that from happening.

The next three traits that he shows all tie together. He was actually considering leaving the colony before it would be nuked. Right before he got on the next ship out, that inner conflict of his kicked in. He had the choice to run or fight. Then he remembered and thought of all the innocent people that would die in order to destroy just one machine. He also knew that he might die in the battle as well, but he put the colony before himself, and that was his drive, to save these people who don't even have anything to do with the war since they are a neutral colony. So he took a stand for them. There is one of his faults or "weaknesses", he became compasionate about the innocent, where he could have just gone on the ship where he would still be alive. With that degree of selflessness, it is undoubtably heroic.

Christina Mackenzie (http://www.gundamofficial.com/ worlds/uc/0080/characters/index.html)

Also with any really entertaining hero story, there was of course the love triangle. Al's neighbor Christina Mackenzie, was introduced to Bernard through Al, and through time the two grow quite fond of each other. Little do Al and Bernard know that she is the ace pilot of the same gundam that must be destroyed. Neither Bernard or Christina know that they are both on different sides of the war and they never will when Bernard perishes in the battle against the gundam. For even more irony, in the end the Earth Federation caught the Zeon's nukes before they could attack the colony, but by that time it was too late. Bernard and the gundam were at the principal part of the battle where Bernard decapitates the gundam but dies in the process. So even though in the end the colony was not going to be nuked, does that not make Bernard a hero? It doesn't. What does make him a hero is that he made a choice, a choice to fight for good even though he is an enemy. The only person that really knew who Bernard was, was Al, and he was the only one that could recognize what Bernard was doing, and for that Bernard was a hero to Al.