Nobody Understands Seed Destiny's Wasted Potential (Gundam)

This is why when Kira's actions were called out by everyone in Super Robot Wars Z it was so beautiful. SRW fixed a core problem and made the events of the show better, it helped that you could save Stella aswell.

When your fanfic is a 100x more interesting than the actual 2nd half of Destiny.

"Just because your correct doesn't mean your right"

The funniest part of your proposed ending of Destiny would be if Lunamaria got the Strike Freedom and STILL had trouble hitting anything in spite of all the guns her new Gundam had.

Welcome to the “Disappointed in Destiny club” man (been a member since the series ended). The most frustrating about Gundam Seed Destiny is that it honestly could’ve been one of the best Gundam series ever, sadly instead of portraying Kira and Shinn as equal good guys with their point of view of what is right, the show devolves into fan fiction tier awfulness. It’s a shame, since I do like some of the characters and mobile suits (yes I do like Shinn and the Destiny). In your version, I personally would have Shinn keep the Destiny as a way of choosing his own “destiny” so to speak.

Boofire, I'm gonna say this: One part of the entirety of the Destiny trainwreck rests SOLELY on the writer and director of the show, Chiaki Morisawa and her husband Mitsuo Fukuda. At the time the show was going on, she had brain cancer and turned in the scripts late. Not only that, she falsely accused Cagalli's Seiyou of having an affair with Fukuda, and Shinn's Seiyou stood up for her, hence why their characters got shat on by her as a result. Cagalli's Seiyou didn't come back as a result until SD Gundam G Generation World to voice Cagalli again. The only good things that came out of Destiny's trainwreck was that Shinn's Seiyou married Lunamaria's Seiyou and Super Robot Wars Z basically RIGHTING THE WRONGS that Destiny made. Shinn's Seiyou even proclaimed that Shinn in Super Robot Wars Z is the "True" Shinn, cause Shinn ACTUALLY gets character development in it compared to the actual show. Seed AS A WHOLE needs a SERIOUS REBOOT at this point.

I actually loved the start of Seed Destiny: particularly the destabilizing terrorist attack by people who just couldn't forgive or forget the Bloody Valentine incident, the colony drop that's blasted to bits but still causes widespread devastation - and the way this pushes a fragile peace toward a seemingly inevitable war, dragging even the divine nation of Orb down into the fray. Imagine, for instance, if Cagalli had stayed in control of Orb - and found herself obligated to conduct this war effort herself, despite her pacifist ideal - rather than Orb's involvement in the war being the product of a bunch of weasels undermining her authority, instead it's a seemingly necessary and difficult step in order to defend the nation... I dunno, I feel like armchair quarterbacking the show after the fact is a bit meaningless - but at the same time there were elements there I was really enjoying, and I like to think about how it could have played out if those were upheld instead of undermined.

"Kira 'Jesus' Yamato" Me: "MUST. SUPRESS. CRUSADE. URGES." "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH..."

What seed did right was naming titular gundams on philosophy, this actually reflects zaft's true ideals instead of Earth alliance's violent naming conventions: calamity, strike, blitz, raider, forbidden, blitz, buster, duel. Well, even aegis is technically a shield used only in war. Scratch that, they zaft had abyss and chaos that's tacked on with Gaia, foreshadowing the events of seed destiny where Gaia is once again plunged into abyssal chaos. Stellar is a girl who represents innocence in the face of violence. Her actions are motivated by her aversion to death. She symbolises the world of the cosmic era at that point. Which is why she is grouped with chaos and abyss every time she sorties. But this later became destruction (destroy). Kira killing stellar implies his failure to save the world from destruction due to his failure to understand the conflicts happening at that time. I agree, kidnapping cagali and not opening up to a talk with the orb nobilities is his fatal flaw. He arbitrates by striking and acting on impulse, thereby limiting freedom. Your fanfic just cranked it up to 11. My understanding of destiny isn't the cycle of hatred. Pitting shin's destiny against durandal's destiny plan was something I really hoped to watch. Durandal's view of destiny is through taking away the freedom of everyone. Which opposes shin's as his gundam rose from freedom's ashes as he discards his impulse. The destiny of humanity is freedom and justice eternal, it requires faith in humanity for that to be achieved. Shin's character growth will begin with him killing freedom and the pretentious archangel (shout out to Lucifer who thinks he can play god with his power and charisma) out of impulse. He kills justice (athrun) because he thinks that it is his destiny (duty bound as a soldier and having lost his freedom). Before he finally defects after a lot of self doubt due to the dissonance between protecting others he love and ended up killing them instead. Lunamaria begins to blame shin for the loss of her sister and crush and loses grasp of her sanity and become an emotional wreck. Lunamaria will battle shinn with her impulse to avenge the death of her sister and her crush. Because impulse is an immature emotion due to failure to understand one's true destiny And the struggles of humanity, it will be destroyed by shinn but the core splendour and lunamaria is captured by shinn. Essentially making it out as shinn saving lunamaria's humanity (her splendid core), which he could not for stellar who had been engulfed by. death and destruction. His success is not because he acted on impulse, but because he understood his true destiny (protecting the weak (lunamaria and her immature impulses) with his power, which was what Kira and the immature shinn failed to do with stellar due to shinn's immature impulses and Kira's twisted notion of freedom). The two reconcile and lunamaria joins the eternal and pilots a new mobile suit (Faith gundam (long range support gundam to support destiny) cementing her faith in shinn's ideal destiny for humanity. Now it sets the stage for their fight against durandal's destiny. Durandal's destiny is nihilistic, and legend essentially represents legacies of the past which stems from their belief in the twisted providence (le crueset). Notice how durandal essentially wants to play god when he is only human? Seeing as the main core faith pilots have deserted Rey is promoted into white uniform zaft captain. Implying that durandal no longer has faith in humanity. Whereas the clyne faction does. Shinn's destiny and Luna's faith represents humanity's hope. Both rose from the ashes of the fallen ideals of freedom and justice. It's essentially a battle of mankind's destiny of eteranal freedom and justice against durandal's destiny plan that is unjust and robs people's freedom. Whereas le crueset wants to bring an end to humanity because. Durandal wants to bring an end to what makes us human. We can lose freedom and the justice in the short term. But we must never forget humanity's true destiny and have faith in them. For in doing so, we can bring forth another age of freedom and justice. Humanity is destined for goodness (that is what the clyne faction and the eternal represents) I'd do away with strike freedom and infinite justice. It's a bad concept with lazy naming sense. Infinite justice as a melee gundam with crazy amount of blades essentially implies that you mete out justice with infinite cuts. Strike freedom is an amalgamation of everything powerful in C.E. which implies that only the powerful can be free. That is Kira's flawed idealism and even Kira yamato, despite his power as the ultimate coordinator and his gundam, falls prey to his own impulses using force and killing a certain stellar individual instead of saving her from death and destruction. Which is why he meets his end under shinn's impulse.

The biggest sin of Seed Destiny was switching the protagonists so early in the series. The first 10 or so episodes were really good but then it shifted its focus back to Kira and everyone else. Even though Shinn was an angry douche most of the time, at least he had character flaws, unlike Kira. He deserved a better character arc than becoming the chairman’s butt boy.

Can we get a "Nobody understands G gundam (it isn't all about shining fingers)"

8:30, To be fair, team Kira knew that ZAFT was targeting Lacus for assassination, it make sense that they didn't attempt to contact them, because they couldn't trust anybody from ZAFT, any careless move from their end would have endangered Lacus. And I also understand their doubt with Athrun because even Athrun despite being aware of Meer being a fake Lacus didn't do anything about it so the reaching out to the Minerva argument isn't really a strong one in my opinion. But attacking them for pacifism (TWICE) was pretty damn stupid I agree, they should have went to ORB in the first place...

It was a nice review and all but you see, at this moment... Cagalli is crying her heart out!

Just gonna say, I loved Shinn. Even with what happens later on, he gets a spot on my favourite Gundam character list. It's a damn shame what happened with Seed Destiny.

I understand shinns anger

The point when Shinn stopped asking questions, and started blindly following Durrandal and Rey was when he dropped right off the radar for me. Being an unquestioning puppet meant he lost his character by definition. It could be anyone in the Destiny's cockpit after that point, it wouldn't have mattered. I don't think Archangel thought they were right in the absolute, however I do agree they should have tried to talk more, to persuade the other forces to lay down their arms instead of fighting. They could have hailed Minerva before the latter charged the Tannhauser, and then Kira wouldn't have had to shoot it out, killing any crew too close to the massive gun. As to Cagalli being able to direct Orb toward peace, unfortunately she had been reduced to a puppet figure by that time. Of course, the SEED version of Cagalli would have fought back for control. For whatever reason, she is much more of a bystander in Destiny , which bothers me greatly. She used to infiltrate colonies and participate with warriors to find the answers she sought. So why is she shown standing by and waiting, being passive? Probably the same reason Shinn got shifted to the back row: because someone demanded Kira to take the spotlight. I greatly dislike the whole 'Ultimate Coordinator' business. Saying that someone made an attempt at a 'perfect' human being, and actually achieved it in Kira, as though humanity had zero potential to go further. It's extremely pessimistic, and also egotistical. Not so much on Kira's part since he had no idea, but on the part of his creators, defining him as the end-point. Of course other humans would react by attempting to assassinate Kira, to try to wipe away this image of perfection, just as they did George Glenn and the other Coordinators. That's what happens when one race tries to assert itself as superior: th opporessed fight back. For understanding, you do not stand above the other party; you stand with them, otherwise no understanding can be achieved. This is why peace never came to any Gundam series: someone always tried to stand above another. And in Destiny , the one trying to stand highest is Durrendal, with his plan. But so many others try to stand atop others, and therefore fire their weapons before trying to talk. Naturally this includes Archangel and its crew. But like Kira, Shinn also never tried to talk. He shut others down, spoke in a way that would naturally anger them, and blamed Cagalli and Athrun for Orb's failure to protect his family. Shinn was not open because of his anger. Because of the anger, he positioned himself above others. Andthi makes him no better than those others, Kira included.

Reintroducing Kira and his gang is the biggest mistake on GSD. Kira should've died at the end of SEED alongside with Mu. Neo should've been at least Mu's clone, not exactly the same person. It would be a lot more interesting if they depict Eternal as a villain, not the saviour of the universe they claimed to be. I want to see how corrupt Lacus' ideals could've become, I want to see Meer's approach to this kind of problem instead of Meer being a generic popstar.

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS THE CORE PROBLEM WITH DESTINY! Im so happy w

There were three points where Destiny could have added rocket fuel to its plot and character development, and it wimped out each time. The first was not assassinating Lacus. That would have instantly both given the Archangel crew some legit gravity to stage their little battlefield interventions AND justified Meer's existence in the show. The second was not killing Kira off, as you stated, which could have had a profound effect on Athrun and polarized HIS character arc. And the third was not killing Athrun and Meyrin off, as you also stated, which should have been the turn for Shinn. But ah well...