Raul Gureden is the male protagonist in Super Robot Wars R. In the Original Generations series, he and Fiona Gureden are twins in the parallel universe where the Shadow Mirror organization lives. In canon he piloted the Excellence Lighting.
Appearances[]
- Super Robot Wars R - Possible main protagonist
- Super Robot Wars OG: Original Generations - Playable character
- Super Robot Wars OG Gaiden - Playable character
- 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation - Playable character
- Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers - Playable character
History[]
Super Robot Wars R[]
Raul was one of the selectable protagonists in the game, he's the male protagonist and thus takes Fiona's place in the story if chosen, and vice versa,
Raul and his teammates, Raji Montoya and Mizuho Saiki, originate from a timeline where history has taken its turn for the worse: The Martian Successors successfully launched its coup, Akito Tenkawa lost his wife and was experimented by the Martian Successors, the Endless Waltz event failed which allowed Dekim Barton to stay alive and became Earth's Prime Minister, and after all the sacrifices the Jin Family committed to defeat the Gaizok, it survived and revived Killer the Butcher, rendering the sacrifices futile. And on top of that, a disillusioned Char Aznable decided that only by dropping the Axis Colony will things start repairing. In this bleak timeline, Raul and his teammates promote their multi-function rescue machine running on the Time Flow Engine, the Excellence, but due to the fear of war, they had no choice but to equip it with war armaments.
Unfortunately, after a test run going awry due to being attacked by unknown sources, Raul ends up taking shelter in either Nadesico B or Ra Cailum, and goes through the events of Nadesico: Prince of Darkness and Gundam: Char's Counterattack, but all of them end up in the worst situations as the enigmatic Duminuss appears in pursuit of the Time Flow Engine and in process, destroyed the Nadesico B or Ra Cailum and everyone aboard. This event causes the Time Flow Engine to overload and throws Raul and his friends to the past.
Aligning with a group of heroic robot pilots that would become known as the 'Round Knights', Raul and his team continues to develop the Excellence, rebuilding the lost frames from the future by taking tips from the past, but they are continuously haunted with how they should not meddle with the past or the future they live in may end up being even bleaker than before. The severity of the actions in the past and bonding with these new people, especially during the climax of the Endless Waltz and the reappearance of Gaizok, eventually causes Raul to decide that their future is already bleak enough if they do nothing, so they should take destiny to their own hands instead of doing nothing and let fate give them the bad history that they already experienced.
With that, Raul helps alter the course of history and eventually also defeat Duminuss, who engineered several incidents in its pursuit for the Time Flow Engine. As Raul returns to the future, he witnesses the fruits of his labors: The bad future he knew of was no more; and instead, a brighter future came to existence due to his efforts. After resuming business, Raul is approached by Banjo Haran who wishes to donate his wealth to create an Excellence Frame meant for rescue, without war armaments, essentially allowing it to be created the way it was meant to be.
Super Robot Wars Original Generation Timeline[]
Original Generations[]
In this timeline, Raul is still developing the Excellence Frames and the Time Flow Engine, but now he originates from the Shadow Mirror world and has a twin sister, Fiona, who also has her own Excellence machine. They are generally independent from their Earth Federation Army as it has become corrupt and dangerous when their main attack squad, Beowulf, has become rather sadistic. The Shadow Mirror, however, desired their Time Flow Engine, and hunted them down to help with their dimension jump.
While Raul and Fiona can fend off the attackers for a time, they are overwhelmed when Shadow Mirror ace pilot Axel Almer takes charge in attacking and wounds Fiona. While Raul ponders whether to save either his Excellence or Fiona, the enigmatic Duminuss make its appearance and further attacks the machines, until Fiona's engine overloads and sends them somewhere else, but Axel manages to slip away from the jump.
Raul ends up in the main Original Generation verse, and for him, it was only mere minutes away. Fearing the worst, Fiona is nowhere to be seen and he believed her dead. They re-encounter Axel and realize that he has several months prior, but Raul's determination to keep the Time Flow Engine from the Shadow Mirror is strengthened with how he believed that they killed Fiona. Thankfully for his team, they are rescued by two defectors of Shadow Mirror, Gilliam Yeager and Lamia Loveless, and with Gilliam's negotiation, they agreed to stay with the Earth Federation Army in this dimension, and thankfully for them, they are much more friendly.
Raul continued to stay with his new friends, witnessing the fall of Shadow Mirror and defeating the Einst. He and his team then relegated to stay at the Kurogane, continuing to develop the Excellence and honoring Fiona's legacy. Not to mention, he is sure that the enigmatic Duminuss may pop its figure once more.
Original Generation Gaiden[]
Raul's hunch is eventually proven true as eventually Duminuss showed itself along with three child-like homunculus to be masterminding the ODE Incident, which has seemingly slain Lamia. With her added as the people he wanted to honor their passing, along with Fiona, Raul strengthened his desire to help the Earth Federation Army and aided them during the ensuing Shura Rebellion.
In the midst of the Shura Rebellion, Raul is approached by a seemingly lost, shy child with blue hair with a strange name: Despinis. Generally being a compassionate man, Raul helps her out and answers to her questions in regards of 'creator/mother'. But that seemingly innocent moment is ruined when Despinis and her friend, Tiz, revealed that they are the homunculus of Duminuss that were introduced in the climax of the ODE Incident and they want him to hand over the Time Flow Engine. With the help of Kouta Azuma and Folka Albark, Raul manages to evade captivity.
Eventually later, the ODE System with its Bartolls return under Duminuss' control and it was revealed that Lamia still lived, but has been reprogrammed to antagonize the Earth Federation Army to demoralize them. A few moments after this, Raul, along with Kouta and Lune Zoldark, are isolated against the Bartolls which led him to the exact spot where he first made his jump towards the Shadow Mirror. Kouta's Compatible Kaiser clashed with another of Duminuss' controlled machine, the G Thunder Gate, and the clash created a reaction that opened another dimensional hole and much to Raul's surprise and relief, another Excellence appears from there... it was Fiona and she's still savable. Furthermore, Axel is also revealed to have survived the previous war through the miraculously surviving Einst Alchimie, buying time until the Hagane and Hiryu Custom arrive and Raul can put Fiona back to safety, and further cementing his non-hostile allegiance, Axel eventually saves and restores Lamia from her reprogramming.
This would have been a stream of good news for Raul, with both Fiona and Lamia evading deaths, but as it turns out, this was part of a diversion tactic by Duminuss and the Shura, who sent out their agents to capture his other teammates, Raji and Mizuho. Thankfully for Raul, they left behind the ultimate frames of Excellence, the Lightning Frame and Eternal Frame. Raul takes the former while Fiona takes the latter, and together, they help out the Earth Federation Army to eventually assault where the Shura is holed up, the Swordian Fortress, in hopes that Duminuss will come to its aid there.
And as they predicted, Duminuss does make an appearance there and forcefully merges itself with Tiz and her other sibling Laliar, on the way to meet its creator and revealing that Raji has built another Time Flow Engine for it. Despite being shocked with his friend's apparent betrayal, Raul presses on and defeats Duminuss. As it crawled to the inner chamber of the Swordian Fortress, its Time Flow Engine explodes, damaging it further, turns out Raji rigged it with explosives and had to pretend being a cold hearted betrayer to make the ploy work. Duminuss' creator, Dark Brain, then showed itself and slays Duminuss and prepares to eliminate what remained of its homunculus, Despinis, who's also holding Raji and Mizuho. At first Raul protects her because he had to protect Raji and Mizuho, but after Kouta reveals that Despinis stopped him from accidentally killing his sister and Mizuho has convinced her to live beyond her creator's death, Raul agrees to let her help the Earth Federation Army defeat Dark Brain and later on the betraying Shu Shirakawa.
As the battle is over, Raul realizes the dangers brought by the Time Flow Engine which can bring forth dangerous enemies like Dark Brain and decides to dismantle them, with Fiona also following suit. In return, they will build a new company known as 'L&E Corporation' with a new rescue-based, non-combat geared Excellence frame. Additionally, they kindly forgive and welcome Despinis to their family as an adopted daughter.
2nd Original Generation[]
Raul continues to assist the Earth Federation Army, in particular the Hagane and Hiryuu Custom, now christened Kouryuu Sentai, with their new rescue machine Excellence Rescue as part of the L&E Corporation. Additionally, he and his friends continue to nurture Despinis, making her feel very welcome and slowly coming out from her usually shy self. Aside of that, Raul mostly relegates himself to the background.
The Moon Dwellers[]
Ever since the battle against Duminuss, Raul has always been sure that he did the right thing in dismantling the Time Flow Engine. However, eventually, Raul is called by the Kurogane to rescue a certain machine from the group known as Fury. Gilliam approaches him and explains that the Fury has the power to stop time with their device Larseillum, and aside of the Time Flow Engine, they do not know any other methods to combat it. Raul understands the severity of the situation and makes the decision to risk another danger that may come with it: He will rebuild the Time Flow Engine to give the Kouryuu Sentai a fighting chance against the Fury.
Rebuilding the Time Flow Engine takes time, however, but thankfully, their next encounters against the Fury are spearheaded by the Knights, who are forbidden to use the Larseillum. This gives Raul enough time to complete the construction, and when he and Fiona are about to pick the new engine up, he entrusts the Excellence Rescue to Despinis, as she has grown and become more confident to control the Excellence Rescue. In the same time, however, the Fury unleashed the Spy faction, who are allowed to use the Larseillum with leisure. Thankfully, by this time, Raul and Fiona arrive with new frames of Excellence, the Gunstriker Frame, equipped with the Time Flow Engine and allowing them to move during the stopped time, effectively countering the Larseillum. With that, the Kouryuu Sentai can fight on even terms and continue on to fight and defeat the Fury and later on the XN-L.
It's only a matter of time until the new danger that can come with the existence of Time Flow Engine that Raul predicted before may come.
External Links[]
- Raul Gureden (on SRW JPWiki)