I am just a sucker for punishment - downloading that humongous raw and then sitting through more than half an hour of recycled footage. *shakes fist at SUNRISE* But the lure of more Lunamaria Hawke proved too much even to wait for a downsized raw or sub. Luuunamariaaaaa!!! The screenie seems to imply that Lunamaria will have a hard time competing with Mayu. See Random Curiosity for the “Kira is not gay” screenie and Kurogane loves Lunamaria too.
The major additions include (1) Cags seeing the Archangel crew off and Athrun giving her a great big fat hug. I’m sure Lacus wished that Kira hugged like that. :P (2) Dullindal’s internal monologue and chess game with a ghostly Rau Le Crueset. (3) Athrun being inserted into the Kira-Dullindal confrontation scene. Not much difference except perhaps to bid Talia goodbye. (4) Peace treaty between PLANT and ORB and Lacus’ grand return.
Not too sure about some of these as I can’t be bothered to rewatch Ep 50. Minor additions include (1) Kira lamely trying to give an order to Athrun and the Archangel to head for Requiem base. I thought it was hilarous how he said it: “えと…命令だ。” The least assertive “It’s an order” I’ve ever heard and it sounds like he has trouble even spitting the word “order” out. Of course it took Lacus’ reassurances and extended reasoning session before Athrun and Murrue compiled. (2) Athrun saying: “There’s no time!” after he tries to brush off another of Lunamaria’s attempts to ask him out on a date to attack Justice. (3) Shinn responding to Athrun’s lecturing by saying that ZAFT has no choice but to attack ORB in order to change the world for the better. I think this is important as it shows that Shinn is still fighting based on Dullindal-Rey beliefs. (4) Shinn screams “Mayu! Stellar!” and sees them floating before a warped image of Impulse when Lunamaria interposes herself between her boyfriend and her former crush. This helps to mitigate one of the things which I could not understand about Shinn at all i.e. why did he attack Lunamaria who is really the one who has given him unconditional (and undeserved) love? This additional seems to suggest that Shinn has basically lost it at that point, especially when seeing Impulse which was the unit he piloted and shared in responsibility for Stellar’s death. (5) They took out Athrun going SEED to protect Lunamaria from her murderously abusive boyfriend. This was surprising as this was Athrun’s only SEED burst in the whole series. For that one act, I completely absolve Athrun for being a more or less useless character for most of GSD. (6) Athrun flashes back on his dealings with Gladys before he takes out the Minerva’s main thrusters. Helps to build up to closure with the Captain I think. (7) Though the battle is nowhere as destructive as the finale of GS, we are shown Deakka’s Blaze Zaku Phantom and the lead DOM being damaged.
Also I’ve been meaning to say this for a while - I suspect that SUNRISE has a radical feminist take on war termination and conflict resolution i.e. boys with our fancy toys start wars and women have to clean up after them. At least in the GS franchise. If this applies to other Gundam series or SUNRISE works, I would greatly appreciate a comment. The examples in this OVA include:
- Meyrin stopping Lunamaria from attacking the Eternal
- Gladys giving Dullindal and Rey the comfort they sought but never had before all dying together
- Lunamaria stopping Athrun and Shinn’s fight
- Lacus’ broadcast for an immediate ceasefire after the destructioin of the Messiah
- At the PLANT Supreme Council, the men look conspiratorial while the closing shot of the lady council member looks thoughtful
- PLANT-ORB peace treaty shows Cagalli and another female PLANT councillor shaking hands
- Cagalli with her retinue looking important
- Lacus, being escorted to the PLANT Supreme Council chambers, looking like some kind of saint
Well, the expectation is Kira offering his hand to Shinn at the end but he’s gay Zen and Athrun adds (more) fighting talk to the mix while the girls all look on and give moral support.
Additions: ORB actually doing something during the battle.
Lunamaria not getting killed by the DOMs again.
Athrun offering a lift.
Star struck Hawke sisters: Good to see them reunited and reconciled.
Ath-Cag fans probably all going: “Buuu! Buuuu!” But as Cagalli has been totally ruined as a character, Meyrin should at least get a shot after she helped Athrun to escape from Gilbraltar in Ep 36.
Well, more closure and I hate to admit it but this OVA certainly helped to ease the yucky feelings of being taken for a ride that I was overwhelmed with in Ep 50. Particularly important to me were some attempt to explain why Shinn attacked Lunamaria and the reunion of the Hawke sisters. The peace negotations and mediation was good too. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll really welcome GS3 but if Lunamaria’s in it, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand not watching it. -_-;;
But as Cagalli has been totally ruined as a character. . . .
Three little words that might have saved Cagalli’s character: Government-in-Exile. Would have significantly altered the first EA/ORB/MInerva/Archangel battle, and probably greatly changed how the story unfolded from there. Certainly, would have added an interesting new wrinkle to the story.
With a 3rd season coming up, I hope that Lacus finally actually uses her significant political influence in some leadership role in PLANT. I imagine if she hadn’t given it up to play house with Kira for two years, she might have been an effective check on Gilbert. Who knows, as a power broker, she might have even arranged for Gilbert’s dismissal in favor of someone more in line with her thinking.
I want evil Lacus vs. Kira so bad =). And then I want to see evil Lacus as a badass pilot going SEED and removing Shinn from the cast list.
Nice counter-factual, Chalcahuite. Cagalli didn’t have to play a big political role in GS and then being forced to do so by the death of her father, she really did not have the acumen, gravitas or experience to pull it off. Maybe she should have attended the same politics school as Lacus.
Speaking of which, Kabitzin, if Lacus takes power in the third season, you might get your wish. Lord Acton’s dictum of power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely.
Regarding Cagalli: It’s the rare person these days who displays great political savvy as a teenager, but given her circumstances there is very little reason why she should be so politically inept. She’s the only daughter of Orb’s leader in what seems (to me) to be a hereditary, not elected, position. Her ideals and beliefs compel her to get actively involved in trying to make the world a better place, and similar to Lacus she enjoys a great deal of support among the citizens and especially the military. I would have thought that she might have had the sense to surround herself with advisors who could have filled in the gaps of skill and experience that she lacked, especially given the two year gap. Well, at least, if I were writing the series, she would have, but since I didn’t, we got that train wreck instead. ;)
Regarding Lacus: I think having her become the megalomaniacal villain with dreams of subjugating all the people to her vision of a perfect world is a logical (if extremely dark) extension of her character. And I think it would make a great end to the series, as the people who rose up to fight the power, become the power that others must fight. But, I don’t think they’ll go there. If the staff remains the same as it was for Destiny, I’ll bet we get another train wreck, but I’ll still watch it. Why? Pretty girls, duh.
Heeey.. I love Gundam Seed,It made me cry sometimes.But man, too many flashbacks in Gundam Seed Destiny at the beginning, middle, and end of the episodes…It’s like,”I GET IT ALREADY I SAW THE LAST EPISODE AND THE PAST EPISODES CONTAINING THIS SAME FLASHBACK”. The last episode was…..alright. Was happy though that Kira was in the spotlight. b(^.^)b. I was devastated when the episode was over. But happy when I started watching the OVA..again,I was devastated. It’s like this episode was to make up for the angry fans who hated the last episode. The epilogue show lack of character development…xD Meyrin is much..much less important that Cagalli but she gets Athrun. Hah, let’s all decide CagallixAthrun wasn’t good enough. XD
And Shinn only seemed like the main character for awhile…
How come Flay and Kira kissed “and something else” *wink*but not him and Lacus?
..Well she forced herself on Kira unlike Lacus. xD
Oh.. a sequel to Gundam Seed Destiny? OoooOOooh. Shinn will prolly be a side character.
I heard that only 3 characters from Gundam Seed Destiny returns?….Wtf? Bring back Kira as the main character..*I wuv him*…Why does Gundam Seed need another new main character? Shiny..Colorful Gundams.., yeah the gundams were too much. xD There gonna be the return of, “My gundam is wrecked..go to the hangar and recieve my new gundam..go out into battle and it’s gonna be invincible”.. 8O The creators must think each Gundam Seed series is going to be totally different and original..ok. O__o Whatever..I’m gonna watch it IF…they have Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Lunamaria and Ta-…wait she’s dead.
It’s coming to America…..you know the dub does..it if this is not good enough for us…just think of how it’ll be like when you watch it in English.
…..Does Shinn comb his hair?
Are you kidding? He has a deep phobia of all things having to do with grooming. ^_~
are you sure new Gundam Seed will appear?
if there is another gundam seed show….i would also want shinn to break up with lunamaria and shinn returning to his family and his out of the cast list!mwahahahahahahaha!!!i really,really hate that moron!!hehhehheh!!
i want athrun to be back if there is another gundam seed show and make him the main character!!i like him,alot!!!OH!!for the shinn fans,i would like him really,really,break up with lunamaria and his out of the cast list!and i agree with chalcahuite,i do want lacus to be a villan in the new season!Mwahahahahahahaha!!
i am a singaporien and i haven watch finished gundam seed destiny.but its sad that rey died:[
I wish there was too… T.T
How long will I crave to wait… >
Ok… I have a question. Where the heck did Meirin come from? Seriously, I don’t really remember her having this great emotional connection to Athrun and then all of the sudden she’s like his defacto girlfriend. Wtf?
I also have to agree about Cagalli being a train wreck, she kicked butt in Seed but she was super wimpy and compliant in Destiny. Even in her fight scene in episode 40(?) she was doing her best and then BAM, Shinn shows up, Cagalli realizes that she can’t defeat him and it’s like she just gives up inside. Only putting up a token effort to fight him off until Kira arrives.
Lacus becoming an evil megalomaniac won’t happen. She cares too much about people and believes in their having free will to much. I think she definately would exert some power in political circles in PLANT but if Kira offered her a wedding ring she would be likely to throw it all away again or at least reduce her role to run off and go to another little island somewhere to raise small Kira-clones.