Fully healed and stronger than ever, Kira and Athrun
return to the battlefield with new Gundams of their own. As Cagalli battles Shinn to protect her
homeland, Meer Campbell, who has been impersonating Lacus, is brought to the
forefront to promote the peaceful intentions of ZAFT. As the real Lacus steps in to dispel the
illusion, all eyes look to the stars as the final battle of the Second Bloody
Valentine war nears ever closer. With
renewed resolve, will Kira, Athrun, Cagali and their friends be able to stop
Durandal and his loyal pilots Shinn and Rey?
Well, the goodwill couldn’t last and that should not
shock me. While the Second Siege of Orb
turned out to be one of the shows better moments, Gundam Seed Destiny sank back
into that pit of pure confusion afterwards.
Characters seemed a bit lost with what their priorities should be and
everything just became a lot of noise that kind of matters little at this
point…kind of sums up my thoughts on Gundam Seed Destiny as a whole.
The Second Siege of Orb did deliver some moments I’d been
wanting for a while: Cagalli back in charge and punching Yuna; Kira and Athrun
vs. Shinn and Rey; and the Archangel getting the one up on the Minerva. Yuna even got crushed by a crashing Gouf unit
(his dad got wiped out too in a blink and you’ll miss it moment). Sure Djibril got away. But Orb was safe, ZAFT was pushed back and it
looked like things were finally looking up…then I remembered this is Gundam
Seed Destiny. As soon as the dust
settled, the Archangel crew regrouped and began pondering what the heck to do
next. Kira clearly thinks Durandal is a
larger threat that should be dealt with ASAP.
But with Djibril still on the loose and acquiring the ability to shoot
giant lasers that destroy PLANTs in horrific fashions…I think priorities need
to shift. The Archangel wasn’t even in a
hurry to get back to space to deal with Djibril. That all got left to the Minerva as Shinn,
Rey, Lunamaria and even Yzak and Dearka cut their way through Djibril’s last
hiding spot on the Moon and ended him for good.
I’m surprised Djibril lasted so long.
Surprisingly, we didn’t really see a lot of the Minerva
crew outside of the big battle sequences, story of their lives I guess. The second big arc the begin closing out
belonged to Meer Campbell. The False
Lacus finally saw her Pop Idol fantasy crumble around her as Athrun
predicted. Panicked, this led her to
face the real Lacus and Lacus handled it about how you’d expect: willing to
welcome Meer with open arms and even allow her to carry on her dream. “Wed have the same name, but we’re still
different people.” In another world I
wonder how things would be if Meer did live and continue to be the Idol of the
PLANTs while Lacus lived in peace with Kira.
Sadly, we’ll never know since Meer sacrificed herself to save Lacus from
an assassin. I know we’ll still get one
more episode detailing her backstory but I’ve gotta say, losing Meer had
surprising weight too it. Both she and
Stella both got roped into schemes that we’re their downfall and if im honest
and objective, it’s hard to tell who gets the more tragic ending: the
experimented girl or the one who was a puppet and didn’t mind it so long as she
could keep being someone else. I teeter
towards Meer cause I wasn’t a Stella fan and I enjoyed Meers interactions with
Athrun more than Stellas with Shinn.
Speaking of Stella’s experiments, there’s NeoMu, that’s
gonna be my nickname for the guy for these last couple of reviews (if he even
comes up in the final part). It’s clear
that, amongst other characters, Seed Destiny had no clue what to do with Neo
Roanoke besides revealing he’s Mu La Flaga and making him the Char Clone of the
show. Neo was supposed to be a villain
and he’s done terrible things like brainwashing child super soldiers. But for a while now, he’s been back on the
Archangel and cracking jokes like he’s the old Mu, though he claims he
isn’t. Well any attempt to explore that
mystery is being swept under the rug and forgotten. NeoMu is the new norm and he’s kind of hooked
back up with Murrue, so she gets some kind of happy ending for now. Truth be told, the Extended had no real
impact on the Seed Destiny story outside of Stella and it’s obvious inspiration
from Zeta Gundam. This was time wasted
and a black mark on the legacy of the cool character that was Mu La Flaga. Hence NeoMu, moving on.
What little time we spent with the Minerva crew in this
penultimate set was business as usual.
Shinn was shocked that Athrun was alive.
But one word from Rey and he was back to murder mode. Why the hell is Athrun still trying? Sigh, it’s because Athrun’s not the kind of
guy to give up on a hopeless cause. But
Shinn and Athrun never felt like friends.
Athrun tried to be a mentor and Shinn just told him to screw
off…multiple times. It’s Shinn’s way or
the highway, no matter how badly it’s eating him up inside. Rey continues to be the bad influence in the
bad influence’s ear as he guides Shinn further down the Dark Side. Lunamaria and Talia both know something is up
with Rey and Durandal’s motives but neither are willing to pull the trigger and
say anything about it. Luna’s still
trying to make whatever the hell she’s struck up with Shinn work and Talia is…just
not being that good of a Captain. She
has Durandal’s ear cause they are/aren’t together, demand some answers dammit.
Guess I should wrap this up with one more major
development: Is Cagalli dumping Athrun?
We see her finally take off the ring Athrun gave her but it’s very
sudden and from out of nowhere. Kira,
Lacus, Athrun and Cagalli have been together and worried about each other in
the heat of battle once before. So why
is breaking off whatever she has with Athrun a good idea right now? Will it make him worry less about her or her
about him? Why is Seed Destiny so
obsessed with these plot twists that literally come out of nowhere and without
justification? Athrun and Cagalli seemed
fine since Athrun got back to the Archangel…ugh, I’m done…oh wait Kira, when
Lacus is trying on cute outfits, why is “it looks nice” your default answer? You’re dating a pink haired goddess who wear
a nice black mini skirt uniform on the bridge…ok now I’m done, people are
idiots.
Well it only took 45 episodes but Djibril is dead and
Durandal is now ready to reveal his master plan. I’m sensing something genocidal but without
the drama of Patrick Zala. Because for
all that Seed Destiny has borrowed from everything else, why wouldn’t it just
rehash Seeds ending because this show is just freaking done with itself and too
lazy to be original? I’m thinking my
Final Thoughts is going to be long, rant filled and repetitive. Gundam Month Mark IV-THE GAUNTLET wraps up
tomorrow with what will probably the epic lackluster conclusion to Mobile Suit
Gundam Seed Destiny.
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