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While the actual term "newtype" is not used in any AU Gundam series, Howard calls Zechs a Newtype in the GW series manga.

As for the five colony pilots, Quatre and Heero are the closest to being Newtypes, since Quatre is clearly some sort of empath, and Heero seems to have almost superhuman abilities. I'd say Trowa is third because of ability to calm animals. Duo and Wufei are hard to tell... but it has been speculated (I forget where) that Meiran was supposed to be the original Shenlong pilot... and we all know Duo fell into piloting Deathscythe almost by accident when he was caught as a stowaway on the Sweepers ship G was on.

My personal feeling is that they all are to some extent, but some are clearly more in touch with their abilities than others.

Duo has three things that stick out in my mind as 'strange'... he doesn't get sick, has a knack for avoiding death, and disappears into a crowd despite the fact that his style of dress would normally stand out like a sore thumb. If anyone's familiar with the old radio drama, The Shadow, he has similar abilities of being able to disappear. It could be something similar. For avoiding death, that could be just luck (good or bad is still up in the air for my Duo-muse... he hasn't made up his mind). But, he did survive a plague with no vaccine and not a single symptom of illness.

For Wufei, he almost communes with Meiran (aka: Nataku) through his Gundam. I may be reading more into this, but it seems like he always asks Nataku for advice and guidance when he's confused, and then somehow manages to make up his mind... Is he receiving the desired advice? That's never answered... but there's a chance he's found a way to channel her spirit. The only time he doesn't ask her for help is when he ends up in Wing Zero... and the Zero system presents him with the clarity he seeks. After that, he seems to ditch the idea of asking Nataku for help anymore, which then lands him in the Barton Foundation in 196 for Endless Waltz. After the fight with Heero, he takes some time to himself, and then comes to his senses. They don't show him in between the battle and his later appearance, however there's plenty of time between those two points in the story. There's a chance that he tries talking to her again at that point, and, well, frankly, I wouldn't put it past him.

Exactly. It's speculated in other fictional works (like The Shadow) that it's possible to use one's mind to influence others into not seeing you. People also claim that one of the ninja arts is the ability to literally disappear. The fact that Duo can do this indicates that either he does it a lot or he has some sort of ability to. Whether it was an attempt by the writers to tie his character to his Gundam or not, the fact remains that he can and does. He even does it in Blind Target with Trowa to help 03 lose the White Fang tail after Trowa gets confronted about Heavyarms by Ralph Kurt. Trowa's the only person that notices Duo standing there on the corner, and the two of them manage to disappear and hide in order to attack their followers later.

Quatre: Much faster than walking, anyway! biggrin ...I guess then that schoolgirl who saw him can't ride either, since she seemed to think he was quite good.

Sailor: True. <3

I'm more likely to agree with our resident Altron pilot here... *chuckle* The horse looked ready to throw him off at one point.

There's a lot of things that I can't possibly imagine people raised on the colonies can do that people write them as doing. Swimming... um... hello? How many colonies would have a pool? I can't imagine the gravity situation would really be agreeable to large pools of water... and they never show pools or lakes on any of the colonies, anyway. Except in G Gundam, but that's a different universe/series and those colonies are all weird anyway.

It's not in the EW manga... it's in the novelization. Before he ends up at Maxwell Church, we see a gang of kids he seems to lead. He took over after the previous leader died from a plague that ravaged the colony.

I also noticed that, at the end of EW, he "lays her to rest", so to speak, telling her to rest in peace as he detonates the Gundam. One could take this to mean that he did find some sort of clarity in the time between battling Heero and overseeing the civilian "revolt"; Meiran will always be in his heart, but he can now let her spirit go. Treize's spirit, too, now that I think of it; he did say goodbye to him at the end, as well.

Does that make sense? Reading back over what I wrote, it almost seems like I'm rambling. . . sweatdrop

Not rambling... it does make sense. To me, anyway. I didn't even think about the whole 'putting to rest' thing at the end. I mean, he does destroy the Gundam alone, whereas the 'team' goes and self-destructs theirs together (I always refer to Duo, Trowa, and Quatre as 'the team' because they seem to work together a lot and very well, when Heero and Wufei often go off on their own). He probably took that time to say goodbye, as Wufei never seems to divulge his past to anyone. It's clearly very personal to him.

Well this isn't really a question but...sort of...anyways. I was thinking about the episode where Duo piltos Wing Zero. When pilots hallucinate on the Zero System, they seemed to always see things that they were afraid of or didn't want to happen. (Trowa saw Catherine die, Duo saw Hilde die, Zechs saw peacemillion be destroyed, the Oz soldier saw himself die...etc.) But Duo saw deathscythe. I wasn't sure what to make of that. I mean, Duo always seemed very attached to deathscythe; it was his companion. I would say it could be because, to him, deathscythe personified death for Duo, but Duo didn't even seem to fear death itself (just as none of the gundam pilots did). Now I understand that Duo puts up a front...he isn't as happy as he always seems, but it made me wonder why Duo seemed to see himself pitted against deathscythe, as if they were enemies. Just curious to hear some opinions. Does it imply that Duo was afraid of the death that his gundam personified? Or do you think it was more like, "It's just freaky that a bunch of little gundams are flying around my head" kind of thing?