This was probably the busiest and most important set of
episodes in Gundam Seed Destiny so far. Allegiances
change, crushing defeats are had, and Shinn gets to have his cake and eat it
too. But oh, he loses Stella, that
should make me feel bad for him, right?
I guess I have a lot to unpack here so let’s just jump right into it.
I haven’t seen Zeta Gundam but I have seen the A New
Translation compilation trilogy. It’s
far from perfect but I do kind of see why the tragic romance between Kamille
Bidan and Four Murasame is so revered in the franchise. It’s the kind of sad story Gundam can do well
and has done well with other couplings over the years. Shinn and Stella are not one of those
couplings. If this were an actually well
done series, we’d have more time shared between these two in order to build a
proper romance. And if this show were
smarter Shinn’s rage would’ve lessened and he would see character growth over
his time with Stella. Eventually, his
thoughts on how Stella was treated would drive him to leave ZAFT (preferably
with Athrun) and join up with Kira, putting his rage and differences aside…in a
normal series. But this is Gundam Seed
Destiny. Stella is killed off without a
proper character arc, screaming like the day she came into this series, and is
just another excuse to piss off Shinn and make him go murder crazy against
Kira. There is no romance here, just
forced drama in a show with enough of it that doesn’t work.
You all know my thoughts on Shinn by now: he deserves no
reward or happiness for being the insufferable asshat he’s been since day
one. He has had stunted character
growth, or rather he just gets angrier and angrier to the point where he
doesn’t show remorse for killing unarmed combatants. Some would see that as growth but he’s just
regressing. And he’s constantly being
rewarded for cruel or stupid behavior…which makes me think something is most
definitely up with Durandal giving him preferential treatment. Steal Stella to give her back to the enemy:
eh chill in the brig for an hour.
Mercilessly slaughter enemies while looking like a crazed demon: give
the kid a medal and a shiny new Gundam to go kill people with. I imagine Shinn will get upgraded to FAITH
soon…cause Seed Destiny is all about punishing bad behavior instead of forcing
idiots to learn form their mistakes.
The Archangel intervening against Stella’s Destroy Gundam (aka the Psycho Gundam from Zeta Gundam to complete that circle) was probably the smartest move that crew has made all series. Stella’s rampage had to be stopped by force and Kira wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines. But he did end up killing Stella and thus, we got to our big showdown between the two leads of Seed…of course Shinn wins. I’m not even going to chalk it up to skill in a Mobile Suit because Shinn didn’t figure out how to defeat Kira, Rey did. I wont lie and say Kira hasn’t deserved a defeat for being so arrogant and wooden this season. But defeat at the hands of Shinn Asuka is a total load of bull. The kid even laughs about it and brags about it to Athurn cause that’s the guy were supposed to root for. ABOUT DAMN TIME ATHRUN FINALLY PUNCHED HIM!!! Athrun has been in standby mode for a while, trying to figure out why he’s sticking around with ZAFT when he and the others should have gone back to Orb long ago to sort that mess out. Now Shinn has apparently killed his best friend…he owes the Minerva nothing anymore.
The other big development was Durandal revealing Logos to
the world and convincing the people of Earth to rise up against them. This is interesting because it puts ZAFT in
the “good guys” light which is a major contrast to their being more the
villains of Seed along with the Earth Alliance.
It sounds like an inspiring speech of unification…but Durandal is
playing a dangerous game that he’s sure he can win. He’s still searching for Lacus and he’s
giving Shinn the Destiny Gundam to go futz about with on the battlefield. My comparing him to Guin from Turn A Gundam
is panning out and even though watching Logos get whats coming to them is a
little satisfying, there’s nothing more terrifying than a lying opportunist
playing a very long game. It’s only a
matter of time before Durandal shows his true hand…and no I’m not going to say
Kira was right all along.
Oh, Kira’s alive, seriously the kid is Gundam destruction
proof. He’s recovering on the Archangel
with Neo. Oh yeah, he got captured and
the last of his trio of little murder demons got unceremoniously killed off,
marking the end of The Extended storyline.
Now, Murrue’s seen his face and confirmed through various tests that his
is Mu La Flaga but with different memories.
This was probably done by Logos and Phantom Pain just as they’ve been
known to do with Stella, Sting and Auel.
Are we going to go deeper into this development or are we just going to
ignore Neo’s horrible acts of the past cause he’s acting more like Mu now? This is just one added development Seed
Destiny didn’t need. Mu La Flaga was one
of Seed’s best characters and he died a heroic death saving his love,
Murrue. Bringing him back and making him
an unwilling accessory to terrible crimes because of brainwashing is just
another great disservice done to a once great character.
Through all the insanity and madness, a couple of small
glimmers shinned through. I’m most
certainly miffed that Lunamaria is back to defending Shinn’s bad behavior. But her scene with Athrun where she reminded
him he’s got power and authority and should use it showed that she could have
been put to much better use in this series beyond Shinn’s cheer squad. Points to Talia too for giving the Archangel
fair warning of ZAFTs intentions to shoot them down and allowing them a chance
to surrender…it was never gonna happen but respect to the captain. Then, there was a very short and sweet moment
between Murrue and Kira where they acted less like Captain and Subordinate and
more like big sister and little brother.
They remind me of better times, especially the sisterly head rub, so
glad they can be more like family now that rank doesn’t matter.
So what’s the score?
Shinn’s got a new weapon of mass destruction he’ll be more than happy to
use when told. Athrun seems about ready
to cut and run from ZAFT. The Archangel
is ok and HOPEFULLY on it’s way back to Orb unless it can find some other
distraction. If I hadn’t made it very
absolutely clear by this point: I hate this series. BUT I’m seven reviews in with three more to
go. No quitting now, just plenty of
endurance. The beginning of the end of
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny (thankfully) starts tomorrow.
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