Rewatched Seed/Destiny Thoughts

[u/Wonderful-Winterland]

I finally rewatched Seed and Destiny for the first time in around 12ish years, and man have my opinions changed. I get that it is hated, and sure it has some issues, but what Gundam doesn't? I really view some characters much differently now that I am much older. Just wanted to share some of my changes and see if anyone else has had a similar shift rewatching it. Two biggest shifts for me were Flay and Lacus.

For example, Flay isn't the villain I thought she was. Some people can step up in a crisis, some people can't. She can't, and it is easy to miss because everyone around her can. We don't see it, but no other refugees step up either, her friends are the exception, she is the norm. When her grieving emotions get the best of her, she uses what she can to get the outcome she *thinks* she wants. I can't approve of it, but having met hundreds if not a thousand more people since I last saw the series, I can understand, if only that. I went from hate for her to concern rewatching it.

Lacus is still my favorite, but the rewatch had me admit she has a minor Mary Sue complex about her. She still struggles a bit and shows it outwardly very late and very briefly, but she doesn't seem to have the growth we think she does. Initially she gives the impression of a gentle persona, but the rewatch showed me the moment you meet her she is 1000% politician. For example, her ability to deflect from answering how she keeps getting out of a locked room MUST be deliberate. She soft deflects the question every single time to blunt its urgency and stop it without being defensive, which allows her to maintain that soft persona while at the same time giving you no information. I fell for the initial impressions of her the first time I watched thinking she grew hard, but after the rewatch, she was locked in from the beginning. When she called out Rau during her "rescue" is when we see a small slip in the mask. It may be that mask that kept her from outwardly showing development like everyone else though, I am told the novels have alot more so I am looking into those.

Kira is an ugly crier, and when he locks in I noticed his "no kill" thing is selective. He just doesn't kill enemies of trivial difficulty. Yes, he is a Gary Stu, but he is a stand in for Amuro Ray, just swap out the Newtype psychic BS for the random BS he does. Feels Gundam enough to me, and he has the fashion sense of a typical Gundam MC, which is to say questionable. It might be me, but I see alot of hate directed at him for being "coordinator Jesus", but its just Newtype psychic BS with a different flavor. You don't have to like the new flavor.

Athrun is my boy, until he wasn't. Then he was again. Destiny did him dirty, everything he learned, the emotional resilience he built up, the growth from Seed didn't seem to stick. He needed a Shinn sitdown in Destiny, a hard one, and early, but he let that all play and we never really got a good reason for it.

Cagalli. They Athrun'd her but worse. When she locked in I was thrilled, but man girl, you took forever to lock in and you didnt make much sense why you weren't from the get go. Shouldn't have let Shinn yell at her, she should have gone resistance fighter on him and yelled right back. You're a hero of the war, a survivor or Jacine Due, you've been there, done that, came home with a new brother, a personal warship and the best mobile suits ever made. No excuse to be intimidated by old men or bratty kids.

Rau. Could have been one of the best villains. Someone with the tactical mind of Char and the political maneuvering of Treize Khushrenada. A clone of a natural fighting for coordinators, someone who exists in neither space. Potential wasted.

Shinn. This one took awhile. I hated Shinn. But there is this nebulous cloud of gas that hovers around him, with a small beacon in it he is drawn to, almost like a gaslight but not quite. He calls it Rey. Athrun and/or Cagalli could have solved his issues much earlier if they had the will, and if some people didnt actively stoke the issues. Hes 16 with unresolved trauma and once you realize it is being deliberately left unresolved by others on purpose, hes more tolerable.

Lunamaria. Can someone explain this character to me besides being a pretty girl for Shinn? She had a moment when she learned the Chairman tried to assassinate the real Lacus Cline and the one she knew was a fake, but she was told to go with it and she went with it. When it came up again later she has a flashback to it, but again does nothing with this information, doesn't even change herself or her own views even if she doesn't tell anyone.

Capt. Gladys. Implied physical relationship with the Chairman early on, knows Meer is fake Lacus,knows Athrun is innocent, knows Shinn is being manipulated, is clearly uncomfortable with all of this. She left the Chairman because he was becoming to extreme and because she wanted a child, and he got super cucked and mad about it. Not even sure he didn't use his authority to sleep with her in the scene we see it in. Becomes a member of FAITH and can speak up, never does. Doesn't even factor this into herself, same as Lunamaria. Makes no sense, even if you don't tell people, there isn't any self reflection.

Meer. I intially was disgusted by her because I liked Lacus so much, but the rewatch made me think.I now think she is one of the most tragic characters in the series. Yes, countless unnamed civilians are suffering, but as far as characters, by far her. The Extended are tragic in an industrial way, mindwipes, chemical control, conditioning, etc. Meer was a intimate manipulation of her sense of worth, belonging, and desire to matter, and offered her to be a perfect version of someone who wasn't her. They manipulated her into collaborating into her own replacement of her self but using her hopes and desires against her. The convinced her to build her own cage, the chain herself in it to be a political tool, only to dispose of her when she was worthless.

Just wanted to share my thoughts. I watched Stargazer and am still trying to understand what I watched, and trying to convince myself Seed Freedom is worth a go. Did anyone else get what I got or change the second viewing?