Sounds like a McGuffin to me. And I don't know anything about this founding of the Universal Century thing. Just saying, it's kind of hard to care about the characters or events when you don't know what's going on. IBO was much more straightforward. This show doesn't seem like it can stand on its own without knowing the rest of the UC Gundam stuff, most of which I didn't like and/or watch.
Sure seemed that way. Either way, this guy looks fatter and has dumber hair. So I guess this doesn't take place a hundred years later or whatever. And if Char lived I sure hope Amuro didn't. He was annoying.