Gundam Seed Destiny: A re-review

[Futile Resistance]

Maybe it was because I saw the whole series on a weekly basis and the gaps just made me forget what was happening overall... But since it's winter break I had a lot of spare time on my hands and I rewatched all of Gundam Seed and GSDestiny.

I've always said GSD was crap etc - mostly regarding to the overpowered Kira and how unfulfilling the ending turned out to be...

Well, with Gundam Seed it was a clear cut Enemy A vs. Enemy B with Archangel C trying to stop the fighting and bring the peace talks back.

I realized after watching GSD in one big marathon session (whch now has me waking up at 7PM and going to sleep at 7AM ) that GSD was alot more deeper than the original.

While it started off with a simple Earth vs. Zaft war, the way that Zaft's chairman handled things kept the Earth Alliance from maintaining a "just cause" towards continuing the war. GSD definitely set tones with modern politics as it pulls small 3rd world nations rebelling against a "united Earth Alliance" (for some reason this didn't strike me as much the first time I watched it). The question of "who are we fighting" or "what are we fighting for" wasn't as clear when looking from the perspective of former GS characters. Also, leading up to the near last 15-ish episodes, Zaft's chairman seemed quite the nice guy. While it was hinted that he was responsible, there was the "maybe he didn't know about it" or "a small terrorist group inside PLANT" regarding Lacus' assassination. He definitely had everyone in PLANT fooled... Such a likable "bad guy".

I also used to complain how Athrun was a weak-a$$-mofo... Well, the series does show his GS-original-experience and ability (he never killed an enemy, just took out their guns n cam kira-style), he just never gets a chance to go super saiyan (probably cause he was so lost as to the reason for fighting).

GSD definitely had alot more depth than GS did... However, I have to agree with Blackdove. I don't think the series neccesarily did a 180... More like a 120

GSD tried to end it with a chairman's vision for how peace should be attained and there's no fault in that concept. However, the way it was pulled off was 100% rushed and stank of who-the-heck wrote the script (yes, I recall the rumors of the guy's wife doing the last bit).

Overall, I enjoyed GSD and even felt a little pissed off how the "main characters" of Minerva were just blindly following orders (as Yzak put it in one scene, "Are those heads of yours just for decoration?!") and at the mistreatment Athrun got. Personally, I wish that Athrun could stick to his guns a bit more and actually use that FAITH privilege that he was given - aka needs to voice his opinion more.

Anyways, just wanted to get that out Feel free to comment *looks at BD*

I'm also hoping that whenever they release more info on the upcoming GS Movie the plot will show that damn Shinn mature a bit. As Athrun tried to tell him over and over throughout the show, "Once you have power, you'll become the person that makes others cry."

[BlackDove]

Like I said, my main reason for hating GSD isn't because it was categorically "bad", it was because it was GOOD for about 34-37 episodes and then just went downhill into a wall.

The fact that they had something good and ruined it was really what makes me hate it so strongly. The last thirteen or so (most notably - the filler was just agonizing and I'm skipping that) episodes were pure stupidity of unrivaled precedence. In the end they had to rip off sets from Star Wars and take the ending that GS already had, and copy it completely because they didn't have a script writer (I don't know what happened with the original one, he must've quit, died, was fired or something - all I know is that the last quarter of the Anime was not written by the person who wrote the previous three quarters).

Whatever the reason for the terrible nosedive. Really, with the amount of money Sunrise puts up for these kinds of things, I can't believe how anyone can botch a project in such an elemental way.

Fukuda should die.

In a fire.

[Futile Resistance]

Ending aside, I'd have to say I enjoyed it. It had me thinking a lot more than the original GS did.

Yes, the ending was horribly botched. The amount of reused scenes was unbelievable. And I'll never understand a catchup filler mere episodes away from the ending.

Well, 7:30AM. Time to head to bed.

[BlackDove]

Not much to the understanding of it, if you saw the ending you knew the pacing was spot on. It means they didn't really have 51 episodes of story, the filler was there to cover for that.

Considering the amount of "what happened" they shoved in there, about 10 episodes of content went missing somewhere.

And the ending product does reflect that.

[Futile Resistance]

Looking back on the final arc of "Destiny Plan", I find the plot perfectly fine. However, I do wish they had more episodes to expand on it.

From the official announcement of the plan to the ending was only 3 episodes - Arzachel Lunar Base's beginning, middle, and destruction lasted maybe 10 minutes at most.

It just seems that the writer threw out the possibility of Naturals making a counteroffensive by annihilating their last reserve force with the Requiem.

[Fenavian]

It popped on ON DEMAND recently and I decided to give it a re-watch. I have to say that this still would of been better handled in a 3 or 4 episode OVA. Even coming back to it with an open mind, I still don't like the series or its characters. I do love the mobile suits though.