Character Profile: Relena Darlian

The day before her fifteenth birthday would become the beginning of the rest of Relena Darlian's life.

Returning home on a trip from the colonies with her father, Vice Foreign Minister for the Earth Sphere Alliance, Relena notices another craft also entering the atmosphere. Little would she realize just how involved she would become with that ship's occupant. Soon after returning, she's walking near the beach when she sees a young man at the shore who is eventually chased away by police. Then a new student enrolls in her school: the same young man she saw yesterday. Relena offers him an invitation, but the boy (Heero Yuy) tears it up, walks past her...and delivers a threat: "I will kill you."

A member of the high society for all she could remember, Relena had always wanted an adventure, and she is instantly curious about this boy who had threatened her. She begins to follow him. More than once, the two stared face to face, and Heero has pointed a gun to her head. The first time, Duo interrupts them, but on later occasions, Relena dares him to pull the trigger. Heero never does...and as we discover, never will.

When her father returns to space for a peace summit, Relena goes with him again. But this time, Colonel Une makes a move to assassinate the peace-minded politicians. Unsuspecting, Relena removes the bomb, but Une grabs it from her and throws it back inside just in time. As he lay dying in an ambulance driven by resistance fighters, Minister Darlian reveals the secret he'd been keeping: that she was his adopted daughter.

She is in fact Relena Peacecraft, one of only two Peacecrafts to survive the fall of the Sanq Kingdom (also spelled Cinq Kingdom). She learns that the Peacecrafts had adhered to a philosophy of total pacifism and because of it had been squelched by the Alliance to stop its message from circulating. From then on, Relena dedicates herself to putting an end to this and all wars.

But Relena is up against strong opposition, so a woman unexpectedly appears, addressing her by her real name, and offering her assistance. It is Lucrezia Noin, and she had been sent by Zechs Marquise to help sculpt her into a real politician. Relena learns quickly, and her voice will only grow in its influential power.

In the meantime, Relena continues to track Heero, and when she learns he is in Antarctica, she demands to go there. There, she sees Heero fighting Zechs Marquise...and when she told Heero to finish him off, Noin drops the bombshell: that Zechs is really Milliardo, her older brother.

Now realizing the truth of the situation, Relena focuses her efforts on politics. Her words of peace fall on receptive ears, and people soon gather under her banner. The Sanq Kingdom once again becomes a beacon of hope for a people tired of war. Romefeller soon takes notice..but it will only be some of their most clever maneuvering (and a thinly-veiled threat of total annihilation) that forces Relena to surrender. But even the top ranks in Romefeller soon the power in her resolve and philosophy. Instead of she becoming a puppet queen for Romefeller, Romefeller would eventually join under her pacifist banner. The new World Nation seemed on the verge of an unprecedented move toward final peace.

But then she receives some startling news. Her own brother, Milliardo, declares that the colonies would not accept the newfound peace Earth enjoyed. They had declared war on Earth! Relena is unprepared to take on her own brother...but Treize would provide her with the way out. He takes control of the World Nation so that he may lead them against Milliardo. Confused and desperate, Relena goes to Space Station Libra and pleads with her brother to stop the fight. Milliardo refuses and confines her, and it would be Heero who would rescue her. She demands she talk with Milliardo once more, and in that conversation, Heero realizes what's going on. He takes her away to safety aboard Peacemillion. Her task would come later.

The lasting image of near-destruction that Milliardo and Treize left provided the people of Earth and the colonies with a reason to stop the killing. A new alliance is formed...and Relena is finally able to step out of her role as the Peacecraft that was the beacon of the people. Once again, she is just Relena Darlian. She takes up her foster father's position as Vice Foreign Minister, helping to smooth out whatever wrinkles might remain in this newly-formed nation of all...and she continues to keep tabs on the mysterious young man who never did carry out his threat, watching over him and knowing that, in his own way, and even though he has yet to come out and admit it, he's doing the same.