Thursday, May 28, 2020

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Part 9 Episodes 41-45


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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