Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Part 7 Episodes 31-35

The heartbreaking battle between Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala has resulted in the destruction of two Gundams and the apparent deaths of Kira and his friend Tolle.  Athrun finds himself facing Cagalli’s wrath as the Archangel crew grieves and travels to Alaska with Dearka in tow. But Kira is alive and in the safe hands of Lacus Clyne.  Much has happened since the calamity at Heliopolis and now everyone must face the things they’ve done and how they’ve changed.  While the Alliance has plans for the Archangel crew, Kira must face the fact that he tried to kill his best friend…and if he has the right to live or return to the battle.

So uh…Gundam Seed has suddenly gotten really, really good guys.  The cliffhanger from last time got followed up with the right amount of emotional fallout before throwing us into yet another twist that changes the playing field quite a bit.  All in all, Gundam Seed has finally started to pull away from its many omages to the shows that have come before and is trailblazing its own way (not that the odd familiar ring doesn’t slip in but otherwise, it’s going really good).

The apparent death of Kira and Tolle hit everyone appropriately hard.  Miriallia had the hardest reaction given that Tolle was her boyfriend.  Murrue was a close second and had to nearly beg Mu not to go looking for the two boys cause she didn’t want to risk losing him too, probably the closest those two have come to acknowledging feelings for one another.  Who wasn’t being all teary eyed about things was Natarle, who really stepped her by the books, good little soldier attitude.  She was cold, almost heartless towards the loss of Kira and Tolle, ready to move on, get to Alaska and lay out the laundry list of issues she’s had with Murrue’s leadership.  Natarle sees feelings as a weakness to getting the job done and she notes that a lot about Murrue.  But in fact, Murrue having a heart and genuine feelings of more than just being a leader towards Kira and the others is her greatest strength.  I’ve always had a soft spot for Natarle and really wanted her to pull away from this negative attitude of hers.  But the way she acts towards this family of a crew she herself is part of makes it hard to like her. 

Back to Miriallia, a little teasing at her pain from a captured Dearka almost got him killed by Miri herself.  What was worse for a moment is Flay got involved and almost killed Dearka instead because he’s a Coordinator.  Thankfully, hearing that bull knocked sense into Miri and she saved Dearka instead.  This works to show that 1. Every character in this show is better than Flay, who tried to justify her stupid reasons because she’s a very clear racist.  And 2. It FINALLY gave Dearka the start of a proper character arc.  Without Yzak to bounce off on, he had to own up to his tease at Miri and apologize, even confirming he wasn’t the one who killed Tolle.  Miri, in turn, apologized for her actions.  Flay meanwhile returns to her aimless wanders and like every review, I’ll have more to say about her before we wrap.

BUT as we all know, Kira isn’t dead.  Nope, he was fast traveled to the PLANTS (btw if I haven’t covered this already, that’s the name for the Space Colonies in this universe), where Lacus was waiting to smile, be pretty and nurse Kira back to health with words of kindness and nurturing.  We didn’t spend too much time with Kira while he was recovering and sorted out his feelings over his most recent battles.  But once he learned his friends were in serious trouble, he got his stuff together and decided to go back to Earth.  Well guess what, Lacus is more than willing to help and even gives Kira a brand spanking new GUNDAM, the Freedom.  This is one of my favorite moments in the whole franchise: Kira calling the Freedom a Gundam and Lacus correcting him with its proper title…before agreeing Gundam is a better name by far.  This is the point in the Cosmic Era where Kira’s nickname for his Mobile Suit will become more wide spread and become synonymous with every model that looks like the Strike, Freedom or any other Gundam thus far.  It’s pretty freaking epic.

Once we got to Alaska, things got murky.  Not only do we learn that the top brass of the Earth Alliance are racist a-holes who might be in league with Blue Cosmos, the Anti-Coordinator terrorist group, but they will stoop so low as to leave men and women to die to serve their greater purpose.  The long whispered “Operation Spit Break” turned out to be a double cross X2.  ZAFT attacked the Alliance HQ instead of another target…and then the Alliance pulled a “fooled you” by nuking it, the little forces they left behind AND the bulk of ZAFT’s fighting force all in one go.  And they didn’t just blow them up.  We saw humans being popped like balloons all over the place before their Mobile Suits exploded, this was brutal.  It left me wondering…well in the original series you kind of rooted for the Earth Federation side cause the Zabi’s were a-holes.  But now ZAFT is run by Athrun’s dictator of a dad and the Alliance is run by those aforementioned racist A-Holes.  So…which side do I want to win in this fight?  Do I want there to be a winner?

Thankfully the Archangel was saved before the big kaboom by Kira’s arrival, backed by a pretty cool insert song by T.M. Revolution (who did the first opening theme for the series).  I really like the Freedom and it’s a massive step up from the Strike.  More weapons, sleeker design, the ability to shoot down like 50 Mobile Suits all at once.  It’s perfect for a pilot like Kira, who can now access his Seed ability at will (?) and I cant wait to see what else it can do later on.  It’s so powerful that Kira can fire on anyone and not destroy their suit, it’s freaking precise.  It even allowed Kira to take a big step and NOT kill Yzak, but instead save his life before JOSH-A (or Joshua I guess?) went nuclear.  I guess this is where Kira takes the Kenshin Himura or Oliver Queen in Season Two of Arrow route and decides he wont kill again, no matter what?

Oh and please don’t think I forgot about Flay, no sir.  Our favorite least favorite Gundam character finally got her bullcrap thrown back at her.  This mostly came from Sai, who refused to be her shoulder to cry on and even theorized that Flay might’ve actually developed genuine feelings for Kira.  I kind of call bull on that alone because I feel this is Gundam Seed trying to make me sympathize with Flay Alster…which is a big freaking NO!!!  She tried to pin Kira and Tolle’s deaths on Dearka and kill him just because he’s a Coordinator.  She also has no real right to seek revenge for Kira because she was manipulating him with sex and false advances hoping he’d die fighting for her so she could get revenge for her dad, whose death she still kind of blames on Kira.  But she’s no longer the Archangel’s problem…which was a funny scene because Flay refused to leave and all I can think of is “wow she thought she could sign up with the military and NOT do any actual work?”  Plus her transfer tracks with the jerks who gave the order.  Clearly they want to use Flay and her status as the daughter of a fallen political figure to rally support because she joined the military to kill Coordinators.  Flay pretty much deserves every bit of bad karma coming her way, the least of which is she’s been captured by Rau Le Crueset and now has to spend time on a ship with a people she hates and fears…poetic justice?

Well with the Earth Alliance clearly NOT THE GOOD GUYS, what happens to Kira and the Archangel crew now?  Where can they go and who can they trust?  Athrun’s not doing so great either.  While he got a nice scolding and parting gift from Cagalli (guess I didn’t talk about how they both handled Kira’s apparent demise) but now Lacus is Public Enemy #1 for letting Kira run off with an OP Gundam.  Didn’t I tell you this show was getting good?  We’re starting to move into the final act of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed…and I’m hella excited.  See ya next time right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.