Determined to reach the neutral nation of Orb, the
Archangel launches an all out blitz attack against Andy Waltfeld, forcing Kira
to battle a man he has come to admire.
Meanwhile, tensions are riding high on the Archangel. Kira and Cagalli’s growing closeness
threatens the hold Flay has over the fragile Gundam pilot. But Kira isn’t the only person Cagalli is
having an impact on. Following a brief
skirmish, the young freedom fighter ends up stranded on an island with Athrun
Zala. With Orb in sight, will Kira and
his friends finally find a measure of peace in this long war, or might the
battle secretly follow them across Orbs borders?
It looks like we’re back to that familiar retread dance
once again. When Gundam Seed was nodding
and paying omage to the original series in the beginning, it was fine so long
as they did their own unique spin on things, which they did very well. Recently though, it hasn’t stuck the landing
as well and it doesn’t help that last time characters were starting to act like
idiots thanks to the plague that is Flay Alster. So did things get any better here at the
halfway mark?
I like Andy Waltfeld.
I think he’s a cool dude and a killer food critic and his death with
leave a major impact on Kira going forward.
I cant help but think we should have spent a little more time with him
though. This goes especially for the
romance he had with his Mobile Suit piloting partner, Aisha, who is supposed to
be the Crowley Haman to his Ramba Ral. I
do feel bad for their tragic demise but I don’t feel like I knew Waltfeld or
his love as well as the Ral couple. Yeah,
Waltfeld is great and all but this is one area Seed tried to lift from Mobile
Suit Gundam and it didn’t turn out as well as they’d hoped. Honestly I don’t know why I feel that
strongly about it. There was nothing
wrong about it. But like a lot of Seed
itself, it’s not the original Mobile Suit Gundam and thus isn’t making the same
full impact like that series did. It’s
trying and when it’s doing it’s own thing, Seed is fine. Trying to go too close to the original source
material is hurting it from time to time though and it needs to air on the side
of caution, that’s all.
If anyone got the better end of the character development
spectrum this time around, it was Cagalli and Athrun. Pairing these two up and stranding them on an
island together was a good move. Athrun
finally got to lighten up a little and have a couple of jokes at the uber
serious Cagalli’s expense. He still got
serious with her, revealing why he’s fighting in this war and Cagalli was
equally heartfelt in her response to the war overall and Orb getting involved
despite its announced neutrality. What
more interesting is the setup and titling of their episode. Two soldiers from separate sides, a guy and a
girl, stranded and trying to get in touch with their respective forces while
bonding…and the girl happens to be pretty cute?
Yep, if you didn’t need a further giveaway from the title, “War for
Two”, this episode was a direct omage to the debut episode of Mobile Suit
Gundam: The 08th MS Team. So
it’s a different kind of familiar territory but I liked it nonetheless. Cagalli once again getting mistaken for a guy
because she is so tomboyish never gets old and it’s good that her fiery spirit
got more of an emotional reaction out of Athrun as opposed to Lacus. No doubt theyre setting up Athrun and Cagalli
to maybe hook up later and that would be a better pairing for sure.
Cagalli ended up pulling double duty with both of our
male leads. When the pressure became too
much for Kira, Cagalli was there with a reassuring hug and an open ear. I really hope Kira can tell the difference
between this kind of support and the emotional scarring disguised as romance
that Flay continues to throw at him.
Though, are they setting up a Love…Square (?) between Kira, Cagalli,
Athrun and Lacus in all of this…that would be a little messy (love triangles
are tough enough unless it’s Macross). Cagalli
has clearly had a positive impact on the Gundam pilot, even joining him and Mu
in battle in the new Sky Grasper fighter the Archangels got. I don’t know if anyone could’ve guessed she
was royalty all this time. Cagalli being
mistaken for a guy by Kira and Athrun is funny but not without merit. While we’ve seen her in pretty dresses,
Cagalli aint no Disney Princess. Oh yeah
she wants more than to be the pretty girl but she’ll do so by punching you in
the balls repeatedly, that temper and all.
Still, it was Cagalli pulling out the Princess Card that got the
Archangel to enter the Sanc Kin…sorry I mean Side 6…whoops, Orb, yes the
Kingdom of Orb.
Orb is gonna be an interesting area to explore. As I started to joke about above, it’s less
of Side 6 from Mobile Suit Gundam and more the Sanc Kingdom from Gundam
Wing…except it wont allow in ANY Earth Alliance or ZAFT ships without good
reason. But Orbs leader, Cagalli’s
father, Uzumi, has plans for the Strike he helped create. He doesn’t seem as shifty as many other
people in power in Gundam Seed, so what’s his angle? Trying to figure this out and force Kira to
play guinea pig again didn’t sit well with Murrue. Luckilly, her inevitable love interest Mu La
Flaga was there to be her support. It also
gave us their cutest moment to date as Mu gave Murrue a reassuring pat on the
shoulder only to be warned teasingly he was close to a sexual harassment
charge. All in good fun and Murrue’s
been able to smile a lot more when Mu’s around and she has a very, very pretty
smile.
Lastly, Flay Time.
So question: what has Flay been doing on the Archangel since joining the
military? The answer is NOTHING!!! She
doesn’t have a post, hasn’t been seen doing anything on the ship, no training,
no interactions with much of the crew, NOTHING!!! All she’s done is stay in her room with a
vacant expression and occasionally trying to hit on Kira when Cagalli is
pulling him back to the side of good.
Why the hell hasn’t Murrue or especially Natarle said anything to the
girl who has contributed nothing to the Archangels daily operations other than
take up space? I know they know she’s
still on board (Mu and Murrue discussed her not such a good idea relationship
with Kira). Is it wrong to say the only
thing worse than being a disgusting racist character is being a character with
no point to being on the show right now?
Well we pause Gundam Seed in a neutral nation with it’s
own secret agenda and a secret ZAFT team ready to sneak in and cause some
trouble. The series has been a little
iffy for a couple of segments now. But
hopefully the lessons have been learned and we’ll head into the second half
with stronger directions and bigger aspirations. See ya next time for the start of the second
half of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.
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