Gundam SEED Destiny 28
The second battle between EAF/ORB, the Minerva, and the Archangel continues. Three moving speeches, some good gundam battling, characters death, and the end of the battle made this episode of Gundam SEED Destiny a definite watch.
The quick rundown of the episode is as follows: Shinn versus Auel and Athrun versus Sting for awhile, ORB mechas do some major damage to Minerva, Freedom comes in the nick of time to save Minerva from total destruction, usual Cagalli speech, Shinn attacks Cagalli thereby making them the enemy, SEED Shinn versus normal Kira until Kira versus Athrun (talks), Sting gets n00b by Kira, Shinn kills Auel, Cagalli tries to reason with ORB and fails, Minerva takes serious damage even injurying the heavenly Lunamaria, Shinn is going berserk on the EAF/ORB ships while Kira’s done with trying to reason with Athrun and instead goes Kenshin on him, Todaka tells crew to abandon ship while giving moving speech, Shinn destroys ship Todaka was on, ends with Cagalli in tears over the lost of various ORB citizens while EAF/ORB salutes the sinking (and death of Todaka) of ship. Minerva more or less wins with the EAF fleet sliced by Shinn with remainder of ORB going to Archangel.
My two major problems with this episode was the usual re-use of stock footage but that’s to be expected of the series. The other was how the various pilots could comunicate with each other when I’m pretty positive, none of them had an open line of communication going. For example, Shinn versus Auel and their seeming ability to figure out who was piloting what while yelling “I’ll kill you!” at each other. I could maybe understand the Athrun and Kira one, and even Cagalli with the various ORB soldiers but come on… for the sake of common sense, give me a break Fukuda!
Now for the good stuff. The various gundam fights were relatively well done with special highlights to when Freedom owned both Saviour and Chaos. Also props to the ORB pilots in the Murasames whom actually succesfully attacked Minerva without getting shot. Nice to know ORB has some non-scrub pilots around!
By far the best, however, were the three or so speeches made by various characters in this episode. Captain Baba’s speech to Cagalli when she tried to stop them from attacking Minerva showed their soldier mentality even if they rationally understood what they were doing was opposite ORB’s ideals. His speech just re-affirmed what hardcore trained soldiers are meant to do and how dedicated they are to their nation; even if their current nation’s leaders are incompetent fools. The second speech between Kira and Athrun about rationalizing the war also moved me. Kira’s speech one could probably classify as the “common sense let’s look at every point of view” kind of thing. Kira finally putting some sense into Athrun as he bluntly told Athrun what he may think is right is currently hurting the ones Athrun cares the most about (i.e. Cagalli) had me cheering. I’ll admit Kira’s view is also a bit self-centered in that he’s fighting for a cause that may not be as “just” to others, but at least like the Baba guy he’s determined to see it through. Finally, and I think everyone must have almost shed a tear or two, was Todaka’s final words when he made everyone abandon ship staying himself to take responsiblity for the stupidity of their “great commander-in-chief” Jona. I was pretty moved when he told his second-in-command to go to the Archangel if they felt their lives lost, but to continue on with the hopes of finding the right path once again. In a similar line as Baba and even Kira, Todaka knew that ORB has moved in the wrong direction but has little choice other than to follow their leaders. I think what the three speeches truly inforced, at the end of it all, was the total stupidity of the war with how it could have been avoided had the right people actually spoken up and done something. Now, however, since the wrong path has been taken everyone has to forge forward trying to go back on the correct path even if it means many lives are lost along the way.
The only problem now is exactly how many more lives will be sacrificed until the war between the EAF and PLANT is finished. And what will happen once there is a victor? Will another temporary peace happen until some upstarts decide to try to change the world again? Or will there be a type of actual peace where like-minded and logical individuals could actually work out the differences between Naturals and Coordinators to come to an agreement? Only time will tell on this one.
…the irony about Todaka dying by Shinn’s hands whom he saved two years ago. I don’t know if that was moving or just plain cheesy. =/
Comment by Zyl
July 20, 2005 @ 8:27 am
For another cute pic of the Hawke sisters, +2. For calling Lunamaria “heavenly”, +10. ^_^
About military obedience, there are practical problems when soldiers disobey (leaving aside the issue of illegal orders). Firstly, disobedience during actual hostilities leads to chaos, confusion and increased likelihood of yourself and your comrades getting killed. Disobedience actually needs a lot of planning, sounding out likely supporters among senior officers and commanders of fighting troops, getting fencesitters and opponents not to interfere.
Secondly, soldiers disobeying the orders of the proper authority (i.e. politicians like Jona Roma Saylan) need a source of political legitimacy. In Orb’s case, someone like Cagalli. Without that, supporters and fencesitters quickly lose their nerve and the old order can rally its supporters and reassert itself but now with an openly divided armed forces, leaving the situation for the country worse than before.