Split Personality?

The question of Une's sanity seems to be controversial.  Some sites say Une is just plain crazy, while others say she's a victim of Treize's conniving and scheming manipulations.  Most GW sites don't have much to say about her at all except for some general background.  This isn't really suprising considering that while Une does play a pivotal role in the series, most fans tend to focus on the Gundam pilots as they are closer to the heart of what the series is all about.  Whatever the theory, I've seen it all.  All except for what I believe is the case...

Une is, admittedly, a very complex character.  Almost as complex as Heero, in my opinion, but those are thoughts for another essay. ^_^;  Basically, I have three different theories about Une's mental profile. 

One theory is that Une's feelings for Treize split her into two persons.  It's possible that her love for Treize brought about the "gentle" personality that so contrasts with the harsh one that we first see.  Thus, Une's love for Treize is the root of her duality.  Many things spurred off from that single seed of love that was planted in Une's brain (or heart, as it were) and, eventually, she grew to become two trees, completely separate from each other, yet living off of the same roots.  As a result of Une falling in love with Treize and, consequently, his ideals (as discussed in for his love), and as a result of Une's conscience and indecision, Une split herself into two persons.  Une's conscience is responsible in that once Une fell in love with Treize, there was no way she could oppose his ideals, since that meant that she would also be rejecting Treize.  But Une herself believes in a pacifistic approach (much like Relena), rather than the militaristic approach that Treize seems to defend (though he does oppose the use of the mobile dolls).  With the resulting conflict between loving Treize and wishing to resolve political arguments through peace rather than violence, Une made the choice (conscious or not) to take the best of both worlds.  That is, she became everything that she wanted to be, without sacrificing anything (at least, not anything that she could see at the time).  In this respect, her two forms share one thing which binds them: the love of Treize.  The conflict between them arises through Colonel Une's stern and heart-less actions versus Sainte Une's quiet and selfless actions.

A second theory examines things from quite a different view. It is possible that Une was always a gentle, peaceful person, but in the environment of war she protected her gentle side by becoming cold-hearted. Unlike a character like Relena, who always maintains her peacefulness, perhaps Une was not able to reconcile the differences between what her heart desired and the cold brutality of war. This would explain why her gentle side as Sainte Une appears when she is not performing any directly "war-like" duties. When she is in the role of the diplomat, she is able to allow her softer side to come through, and this is symbolized by the change in her appearance and demeanor. However, once she is back in command she must return to what she believes is necessary - to be a (seemingly) emotionless, direct leader. Perhaps she believes that the only way to deal with war is to behave as it does, and when she is not in that environment, she is free to be herself. Then along comes Treize, who teaches her that although war is necessary, and ugly, that is no reason to lock your heart away and view it from some place cold and distant. He shows her that it is possible to fight in a war and still maintain your gentleness, and in fact he encourages her to do so. Thus we see Une's character work through this conflict and begin to accept what Treize has shown her, and in doing so she falls in love with him and his ideals. Finally, when it is all said and done, she finds a way to achieve his goal: she reconciles the differences within her and is able to become one consistent person who is able to express herself, and who understands the world Treize was trying to create.

Another possibility is that perhaps Une was one whole person in the beginning episodes of GW, and when we first see her gentler side, that is the first time she ever emerges (the other theories I mentioned above assume that Une had a "split-personality" right from the start of the series).  After the episode in which Une attempted to blow up the New Edwards base, Treize insisted that she "be more gentle" and learn more about OZ. This could have pushed her in that total opposite direction, and led her to become Sainte Une.  However since she couldn't simply drop who she had been before, she clung to her old ways (i.e. being forceful, unforgiving, and cold-hearted), causing a direct conflict between Sainte and Colonel Une until they merged themselves in view of a common link: Treize.  So it's possible that she doesn't have a split-personality per se, but more of a conflict of interests which acts like a split-personality, but in true psychological terms isn't.  It's really a matter of her changing her perspective of life (and war) from cold-hearted to compassionate, and the struggles she has in making that transition. But remember that Treize still caused this. He is the one who pushed her into the more compassionate direction via his comments and instructions to her; her free will of course determined whether she would make that change or not.

What I believe is that Une, for whatever reason, was a cold and seemingly heartless person.  But because Treize's opinions were of great importance to her, she began to show a more gentle and compassionate personality. I believe she was able to understand Treize's ideals to the point that she was able to personify them herself. In that way, she became closer to Treize and closer to understanding his vision of the perfect world. Because of this understanding, she was then able to continue his work with the Preventers in Endless Waltz.  She had to fight a hard battle to make that change and to find that peace within, but, as she herself stated: "without fighting nothing can be created."

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