Gundam SEED: Destiny - Tumblr Posts

I’m mildly annoyed it took me this long to realise that, in a series full of them, the Mobile Armour mode of the destroy Gundam is essentially a redesign of the Big Zam from the original mobile suit Gundam. The positron reflectors substitute for I-fields, the "Aufprall Dreizehn" High-energy Beam Cannon replacing the Large Mega Particle Gun. Even the anti-air claws on the big zam are represented with the Destroy’s flying arms. Finally, it’s name, the Destroy Gundam is apparently a reference to the second episode of the original series, which had that as its title.

I mean, I know it had a bunch of influence from the Psycho Gundam I and II, but I’d just never clocked the Big Zam as an influence before.

There are a lotta flaws with Gundam SEED Destiny.

However it’s ability to accurately convey a character’s personality through their design is commendable. You don’t even have to watch the series to know what a detestable asshat this guy is.

Huh. I’d never actually clocked SEED Destiny screwing over every Female character as a thing but now I think about it, yeah it does kinda do that.

With the exception of Murrue Ramius and Lacus, who come out looking pretty positive, they all display a lack of agency - Cagalli’s just the most obvious since her personality shifts drastically from the Original Series.

Gladys, while amazing, is unable to enforce discipline on her ship, not least due to Supreme Chancellor Durandal favouring her pilots with special treatment. Speaking of Durandal, they’re established pretty early on to be having an affair (I’m genuinely unsure if she’s still married or not, we never see a husband except in a flashback) which, while not lessening her achievements, does throw into question the possibility that Durandal had a hand in them. She’s a much better commander than Murrue Ramius was at the start of the original series, but consequently she has less room to grow. I’m really iffy about her ending, because other than wanting to be with Durandal, I’m not really sure why she was there. Maybe if her and Rey had some scenes together earlier it would’ve worked better?

Lunamaria’s established early on as the Lancer to Shinn’s hero - she shoots, he fights up close. Problem is, her battle records very poor, granted due to the use of stick footage, but barring her early duel with the Gaia she only ever seems to miss shots and take hits. It’s established early on that’s she’s a poor shot (due to coordinator-related genetic mishaps), but then why would she be a Ranged specialist? She displays some excellent skills early on, such as spying on Athrun and looks like she’ll see through Durendal’s Destiny plan. However when Athrun deserts with Meyrin and Shinn (supposedly) shoots them down, this all goes out the window. Yes, she’s under a lot of stress because she thinks her sister’s dead, but she just fights alongside Shinn at the battle of Messiah, where Athrun has to save her from Shinn. Does it effectively communicate how far Shinn’s gone? Yes. Is it an example of what war does to people? Yes. Does that make it any less batshit that Shinn was ready to cut through her to get to Athrun? No, no it does not.

Meyrin Hawke, then. Y’know what, I actually think she makes it out of this pretty well. She’s kinda in the background for most of the show, but she successfully distracts soldiers away from Athrun during his defection and effectively helps him escape to the mobile suit hangar. Yes, Athrun has to get them out afterward, but of the two he’s the better pilot and she knows it, so I’ll let that slide. I only wish we’d seen more of her.

Stella Loussier next. Honestly, I have less of a problem with her because a) she’s a Four Murasame Expy, she was never getting out of the series alive and b) most of the Extended’s deaths are played as tragic, hers just has the most focus. Though “never shoot the cockpits” Kira killing her is a detail worth criticising. Since Kira last series (and in this series too) took so much care not to shoot to kill, so much so that Shinn and Rey use it as a strategy to bring down the Freedom some time later, so it feels especially jarring that he’d kill Stella, and even more so that he just…… wouldn’t care about it. Stella’s lack of agency is part of the tragedy of her character, showing how war dehumanises those who fight it, and possibly showing what might have happened to Shinn after orb has he not had someone looking out for him. I will admit (slight sidenote) it is frustrating to me that Neo Roanoke just sorta…. Never had any sort of consequences for his actions, because he was actually an amnesiac Mu all along, and that makes it ok. Like yeah, he wasn’t in his right mind and Neo’s essentially dead……. It just feels like there should be *something*.

Meer follows Durandal’s orders for the entire series, then when she’s no longer useful, she’s used as bait for Lacus then killed to motivate the Archangel crew. I don’t even have much to say on this one. It’s just tragic.

Cagalli……. Where to even start with Cagalli. Cagalli feels the worst case out of the entire cast because a) she was a competent (if stubborn and hotheaded) fighter in the original series, being a member of desert dawn and putting Kira in his place more than once. Then Orb Happens, and she has to watch her homeland and father burn in front of her because their key principles failed them. This is a genuinely harrowing moment for her, but she pushes through and resolves to prevent further bloodshed. She Fights at the Second Battle of Jachin Due in the Strike Rouge and ENTERS SEED MODE, one of only five characters able to do so. She gives an excellent account of herself considering her lack of experience, only really being stymied because there’s a lot of good pilots at Jachin Due.

How does she fare in Destiny? Well, she starts off as a diplomat with Plant, then accidentally outs Athrun to the entire Minerva, which likely contributed to his later decision to rejoin the ZAFT. She is manipulated into accepting a political marriage to Yuna (see: asshat), and is only bailed out by Kira at the last minute. She later deploys in the Strike Rouge in order to try and keep out of the conflict during the battle of Dardanelles, only to be stonewalled by Yuna. She finally regains control of Orb prior to operation fury, when she takes command from Yuna. She then fights in the Akatsuki in Defence of Orb during operation fury, which it must be said is an excellent mobile suit. It promptly loses a fight to the Destiny Gundam. Once Orb is liberated, she remains there, while the Three Ships alliance taking the Akatsuki with them. And throughout this, she continually despairs at the state of Orb - quite rightly, since it is actively heading down the same path as it did prior, and she fears it being devastated again. It’s entirely possible that she has PTSD in the wake of its initial destruction in the first war. The issue is that the plot seems to bend over backwards in order to screw Cagalli over and leave her without agency. She has to be bailed out of her wedding by Kira, because she’s too swamped by the Seirans’ to get out of it herself. She is unable to stop Orb from entering the conflict, even though it’s obvious to everyone that’s what she’s trying to do, with Yuna stopping her. She’s only able to retake and defend Orb with the backing of Kira and Athrun, and even with the cutting-edge Akatsuki, she has to be bailed out of a losing fight with Shinn.

Like, taken individually it’s not really a problem, but when you look at them all together you start noticing how widespread the problem is.

Eh. Maybe if/when that Seed Movie finally comes out things’ll be a little better.

OK, I have two overall things to say about Gundam SEED: Destiny (I’ve been sick, binging this nominally staved off extreme boredom; spoilers to follow).

Number 1: Arthur Trine is doing his best, damnit, and I hope he got a cup of tea and a sit down once everything was other.

Number 2: what an incredibly frustrating show.

In many ways it is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor, freed from literally repeating the same set-pieces of the original Gundam to tell a story that, honestly, has something approaching a meaningful point. Chairman Durandal is a compelling antagonist and the way he and Teen!Le Cookset gradually break the series’ pseudo-protagonist to their perspective is narratively interesting. The underlying message in what he does – about how those in power pick out enemies that will best serve their ends and present themselves as the reasonable ones – is definitely worth exploring. And the show even manages to address the Gundam-overload issues from SEED, by more clearly delineating the point of each machine and staggering them a bit more competently.

However. It inherits the problem of its length exceeding its content, leading to more stock-footage abuse and, far less forgivably, *three* clips shows, only one of which (the last, focused on Meer) has any actual merit. It also continues SEED’s determination to screw over every single female character who isn’t Lacus. For the record, I *like* Lacus: she’s a nice execution of someone having a ‘typical’ presentation wrapped around a core of stainless steel conviction, which is something I always enjoy in fiction. However, Cagalli in particular is an utter waste of potential, not being allowed to mature, gain focus, or make a single bloody decision without Kira or Athrun’s input, to the point where it’s actively aggravating to watch.

This is where we hit the limits of the genre and demographic, of course, and once again makes me appreciate literally every female character in IBO because Gundam generally is so very *not good* at this. (Obviously G-Witch is ahead again on the score, thankfully, but IBO is probably the best-case scenario within the ‘fiction aimed at boys’ problems that plague its predecessors.)

Shinn is similarly annoying. It’s not a bad thing he’s abrasive and the endpoint was always going to be him winding up a broken, weeping wreck because he’s too stupid to recognise anything beyond his own feelings. But his trauma flashbacks hit parodic very early and he’s far too irritating to be worth sitting through his screen-time. Like Kira, only the problem is the presence of personality rather than its total fucking absence.

My biggest complaint, however, is reserved for the variety of ways SEED:Destiny buggers up its good ideas. I’d have liked it a lot more if ‘Logos’ hadn’t actually been a thing. ‘Shadowy conspiracy doing [bad thing] from the shadows in the name of profit’ is the kind of message that gets slung around a lot in real life with no justification whatsoever and it really doesn’t help counter the people who do that if you hinge your plot on ‘no the Illuminati actually do have a giant laser on the moon.’ The cleverer and more cutting twist would have been to reveal there was no actual group called Logos and while the people Durandal named might have had interests in common, he was really just lumping them together for his own convenience.

You know. As scapegoats. Like the way this goes in reality, with the matters that this show is sticking its oar in and trying to Say Something about.

But no, because once more, this is a story interested in emotional reactions and personal epiphanies over any sort of systemic question because, well … that’s typical, isn’t it? Frustrating but not unexpected. Eureka Seven does nearly everything SEED/SEED:Destiny attempts better and that is hardly the first case of that happening with a Gundam show. Possibly this is just galling me more than usual because there are so many [swerves around the obvious pun] traces of a more interesting story here.

Oh well. Mu steadily getting his memories back was fun and I shall be taking the final epilogue to mean he, Murrue and Andrew settled down to a life of coffee-fueled polyamory. Yzak yeeting himself on to the right side of the final battle through sheer indignation was actually kind of funny. And I will give it credit, this did feel like one of the more meaningful ‘final battles to destroy a giant super-weapon’ out of the many, many times Gundam has done that (including in SEED, for gods’ sake). If nothing else, I appreciate the chutzpah of having Durandal rock up in an off-brand Death Star, right down to a recoloured Emperor’s chair.

Whatdyouknow. I actually did have something to say about this one. I think that just leaves Victory for main series I haven’t watched (I finished G Fighter; it was joyfully ridiculous). That probably won’t be changing any time soon. Ranking wise … SEED:Destiny probably sits around equal with 00 for me.

Given that I’ve been talking about it a bit lately, I should probably give my opinions on Gundam Seed (and Seed Destiny), shouldn’t I?

While I like both shows, my principal comment about them is that they’ve aged rather oddly. The stock footage and stylings dates them somewhat (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing), but several of the topics they bring up (the cycle of violence, discrimination and designer babies) I think are just as relevant now as they were then.

I think that the Cosmic Era has a fascinating world, with ripe opportunities to explore all these topics and more besides. I love how each faction is clearly defined and how they have clear motives to hate each other, making war an inevitability between them, with everyone else just trying to survive. Because it works so well into the feeling of powerlessness. Of war as this inevitable, world-destroying thing. It helps that both sides are antagonistic to the protagonists, furthering the view that war has no clear winner and that each side will sink to extremes.

And then, having made this wonderful world in which to play around in, the series proceed to do none of that.

I get that there’s different priorities, it just feels like there’s so many interesting topics here that just get ignored. Coordinators are essentially applied Eugenics, there’s stuff there. They haven’t been legal long, so a lot of them were made illegally. Maybe by the ruling elite, with the money and influence to make it happen and ignore the laws, possibly posing a class debate? Nope.

We hear tales of coordinators being made for specific purposes, like combat. Would this lead into a possible caste system, where different “strains” of coordinators have friction with each other? Nope.

Oho! But coordinators aren’t sustainable past a few generations! After that things start going wrong and the become less and less viable, leading to things like organ failure or sight loss. Surely this is - nope, it’s only brought up in side materials and never resolved.

And that’s all just with coordinators as the sole topic. There’s other medical avenues, mobile suit development (think all the fancy newtype tech in UC), themes of dehumanisation, realpolitik between nations and different factions of the government. How did the Nuclear Jammer Cancellers impact Earth? There’s all these details that could be explored, so Kira and friends just grabbing the biggest stick they can find and browbeating everyone else into oblivion kinda just feels lacking (I know I’m oversimplifying here, I know).

I’m also not really the biggest fan of the mobile suit designs. I’m not really sure why. I think it’s because they all share just a few too many design elements that I think they end up looking too similar? I do love the Infinite Justice, simply for the novelty of having a Pink Gundam (it helps it’s cqc focused), but other than that I struggle to really focus on any of the gundam’s (maybe the Aegis) other than the Providence. But Seed Destiny making units patterned after the old Zeon ones really works against it, since I just prefer the old designs.

In a nutshell: The Cosmic era has so much potential, but the plots we get out of it really feel like they’re not making the most of the setting, and the Gundam MS designs are just so-so.

(I’ll do another post talking about some of the ms designs I like)

So I mentioned recently (while rambling about SEED and SEED Destiny), that I’m not really a fan of most of the Gundam Designs from the series, exceptions being the IJ, Providence and Aegis. However I do like quite a few of the grunt designs.

First up, the Ginn.

Gundam SEED was intended to update Mobile Suit Gundam for a new generation. How successful it was is debatable. But Y’know what I think they got right? The Zaku-analogue. The Ginn shares the same basic features as the zaku, but integrates the commander horn into a lovely hawk, and has wings to emphasise its mobility. It’s armour looks almost contemporary with modern equivalents, but it’s all blended together in this visage of a knight. The monoeye retains its trademark expressive nature, and the design has that wonderful quality of being equally pleasing as a single mobile suit or a team of grunts. The sword is just the icing on the cake, since it enables some very fun poses and (at least in the beginning) emphasises phase shift armour.

Many of its variants are lovely too. The High mobility types (I (left)& II (right)) take the concept of an upgraded Ginn in two different directions, with the first adding new parts for a more complex look, and the other remodelling existing parts and adding a more samurai flavour, looking like a command variant of the original. The long range reconnaissance type is loaded with extra equipment, while the ceremonial decoration type - while functionally just a repainted regular unit - contain one of my favourite small details about ZAFT - since they had no formal culture they were drawn from, they simply ran a computer simulation as to which colours would best inspire the emotions they wanted for ceremonial duties. Which is honesty such a thing for them to do.

The CGue and GuAIZ (which I shall continue to pronounce “Gooey-as” despite being informed that it’s “Gwaze”, as in “graze”) are essentially just bulked-up improvements on the Ginn. I’m not really sure how to describe my fondness for the CGue, other than it feels sleeker and more fragile- like you’d need to be an ace to use it. The GuAIZ makes me think of the Gelgoog, but (unlike many of the Seed Destiny units) has an identity beyond that. It’s delightfully bulky and round, with the olive green distinguishing it nicely from surrounding units. Also, kudos for giving it a shield claw, a weapon I didn’t think I’d like as much as I do.

The BABI made this list alone for the seriousness with which everyone says it’s name. While it has very little focus in the anime itself, it’s design is interesting enough to be memorable. It’s essentially a flying brick covered in guns, with a very knightly design. Because of this, I find it evocative of the Gyan in the same way I find the GuIAZ evocative of the Gelgoog. It’s this wonderful mash of imposing seriousness and colourfully toyetic. I find the leg vents oddly pleasing as well.

I am rather fond of the M1 Astray aswell, but I’ll likely cover that if I ever chat about the Astray Series.

I gotta say, while I am, I suppose, looking forward to Gundam SEED Freedom, after having thought about it for a little bit I am curious as to where they’re gonna go with this.

So, we know ZAFT’s probably gonna be the main villain again, since they’re what’s shown in the trailers (and honestly if it gets us a new HG Ginn I’m not gonna complain too much).

Anyway, putting that aside, we do know that Kira, Athrun (because of course) and Shinn (we see a clip of the Destiny in the trailer) are gonna be in the new movie. We also can guess that Kira’s gonna have a shiny new mobile suit/upgrade to the Freedom, since he’s got a new Helmet, and presumably a new cockpit, AND they specifically didn’t show us any shots of a mobile suit barring the Ginns or old footage, implying that it’s a whole new machine.

This is interesting, because I’m really, really curious about what it might be. Perhaps some sort of Perfect Strike Freedom? Or Amazing Strike Freedom? Or perhaps it’ll take influence from the Stargazer and be star themed? Like some sort of Freedom Galaxy Cosmos?

Honestly though, I imagine it’ll stick fairly close to the Freedom and Strike Freedom (I’m imagining a strike freedom covered in Witch From Mercury-style drone weapons in addition to the funnels), but I am distinctly curious how they’ll model it. Bandai’s been really pushing the Seed revives since they made them, like the Impulse and Strike Freedom get used for parts a lot, so I’m wondering if it’s going to be an entirely new mold, or if they’re just gonna make a few new runners for the Strike Freedom.

I am probably going to be interested in Athrun’s new suit though, since I do very much like the Infinite Justice.

Since I did a post talking about all the Mass-Production units I liked in SEED/SEED Destiny, so I should probably talk about the Gundams I did like, especially now that I’m thinking about it with the new movie trailer.

Generally, I don’t have a high opinion of much of the Gundam-type mobile suits in the Cosmic Era, principally because I find they all look rather similar (that’ll happen when they’re all developed from the same five suits by only two factions). I’m also gonna be focusing primarily on suits that appeared in the animated series, since sidestories typically can afford to be a bit more “out-there” with the designs. The first three are the designs that I genuinely like and appreciate, whereas the last two have asterisks attached.

First up, the Infinite Justice. Narrowly makes it into the top spot for me. A good part of it is the novelty of having a bright pink Gundam, I admit. But I do love how, where the Strike freedom decides to add funnels and more guns with which to shoot people, the IJ instead gets a bunch of blades. Like not only is it pink, but it’ll also cut you. It’s still well-armed in the ranged department though, having a beam rifle, “fortis” beam cannons and a bunch of beam boomerangs. I do like the original justice Gundam as well, but the Infinite Justice just feels like a fuller vision of the concept, without being tied into resembling the Aegis too much, in contrast to the Strike Freedom, which felt like they nailed it first time and had to add a bunch of extra stuff on.

The Providence is a solid second, because I like the concept more than the execution. The background for the Providence is that it was supposed to be a heavy assault suit, but they had to retrofit it with the Dragoon tech in a hurry, hence the cabling on its chest and the system’s overall lack of integration. I love the concept of this, and the heavy weaponry it retains makes me imagine a sort of Full Armour Gundam 7th-style unit. I *think* that the whole Dragoon system on its back thing is supposed to give the appearance of a halo? So Rau is a sort of angel of destruction that Kira must stop? It doesn’t work, but I think that’s what they were going for. Providence is a pretty cool name though. I’m not really sure about the integrated beam saber/gun thing on its left arm, but its not bad. The Providence also gets a bump because I quite like Rau as a character, and this is his final unit.

Grabbing third (and bringing an end to the ranking) is the Akatsuki (specifically the Oowashi Akatsuki). The Akatsuki itself is this lovely melding of SEED’s Gundam Aesthetic with the Hyaku-Shiki, and I think it looks gorgeous. You can obviously see the Strike influence, but it’s blended together with elements closer to the Astray series and it all works rather well. Its sensibly armed with a shield and rifle with optional bayonet in addition to beam sabers. I should note that I specifically prefer the atmospheric-based Oowashi pack to the space Shiranui one. This is because the Oowashi pack actually looks like something - wings and two beam cannons evocative of those on the F91. The Shiranui’s just a big box with some funnels stuck on. I do like how the Akatsuki’s great against beam weaponry but crap against physical though, since it’s a nice reversal of fortunes compared to the start of SEED.

Now if only Cagalli actually did anything with it.

The Calamity is a bit of a cheat, since it’s at least partially here because it can become the Sword Calamity. I like a lot of artillery suits, and the Calamity is just my favourite here, mostly because of how sensible it’s weaponry is. Guns in the shield, beam weaponry fitted on the suit itself to take advantage of the generator, then a nice, lovely plasma-sabot bazooka to round out the armament. The only thing it’s really missing is a beam saber. It also makes the most of its integrated weaponry - most of its handheld and the backpack’s replaceable, but that “Scylla” cannon isn’t going anywhere. I also quite like the head. If we had had the Calamity instead of the Buster, I’d probably prefer it.

The Legend Gundam’s here because A) it’s got a nice head. And b) we saw virtually nothing of it in series. It’s here because I end up liking it when it (very-rarely) shows up in side content (like videogames), but it regards to the anime itself, it could charitably be described as “being there”.

Y’know, I give seed a lot of guff for its mobile suit designs. About how so many of the Gundam’s look so similar, how a lot of the suits are just knock-offs of U.C. ones, how they tend to be reduced to a “bigger-stick” design philosophy. But Y’know what I really appreciate?

Hip-mounted railguns. A solid projectile weapon in an age of beam weapons, a extra gun to break up what could be a fairly plain hip design and it enables a bunch of cool poses, since it’s a hands-free weapon so they can be basically anywhere.

Meer Campbell is such a funny character. Imagine you're posting your silly little cover songs in Gundam tube and people are like omg you sound JUST like Lacus Clyne and you're like pretty happy with that and suddenly the president shows up at your house like hey do you wanna commit identity theft? And you're like okaaaaaaaaaaay :D

SEED Destiny, while not in itself a bad show, has the tendency to magnify a lot of SEED’s flaws as a whole, so stuff that was infrequent enough in the original series (like the stock footage) can become a lot more noticeable in hindsight. In addition, Destiny affects the ending of the original in such a way that it can lead the original series to feel less satisfying overall (particularly since Destiny’s ending is - very broadly - quite similar to the original’s).

SEED is also very character-driven (the line I hear a lot is that it was basically written as a soap opera), which is something of a two-sided sword. If the characters work for you, then all the better, but if they don’t then it can be difficult to summon the enthusiasm. It can also lead to the feeling that the series comprises of “The Protagonist and his Allies” and “everyone else”, so Gundam’s vaunted grey-and-grey morality becomes less so. I’m given to understand that SEED’s character focus is a big reason of *why* it was so popular when it came out, but it wasn’t expected to become THE big AU, at least domestically. SEED Destiny was greenlit shortly after the first with a view towards being to the original what Zeta was to 0079, but this meant that the creators then had to them unpick the (pretty damn good) ending of the original, so Destiny has a difficult time reconciling that.

I also see a great deal of criticism aimed at the character dynamic of Kira and Lacus (which again, becomes more pronounced in Destiny). Lacus is an ardent pacifist with strong personal convictions and a lot of influence (soft power, if you will), Kira is, by the end of the original series, an ace pilot par excellence, who can shoot down enemy mobile suits without killing the pilots. So it creates the dynamic of Lacus,being the character who hopes and dreams for a world free of conflict, and Kira, who’s the biggest beatstick in the Cosmic Era. Kira also spends much of the series trying to find a solution to the cycle of conflict perpetuated in the series, and the numerous deaths weigh heavily on his conscience. Becoming a pilot so good that he can non-lethally carve his way through entire fleets isn’t really an actual solution to that problem, it just enables Kira to be a one-man army.

Lastly (and this is likely just my personal bugaboo), the existence of coordinators in the cosmic era is a massive thing that spurs many practical and philosophical questions, and there’s a lot of emphasis put on it throughout the original series. But all SEED seems interested in answering is “Genocide: how much is too much?”

In a nutshell, SEED is fine by itself, but Destiny, while not particularly bad, has a tendency to accentuate its flaws.

Okay now that I’m like, 7 episodes from the end of SEED, can someone explain to me why exactly it’s so insanely maligned among English-speaking circles? Because it’s pretty good/okay, so either Destiny royally fucks things, or you all are filthy liars.

How to get into Gundam

Because fuck it, I was gonna do one of these sooner or later anyway.

So you want to know what this Gundam thing’s about, maybe you like the mecha design, maybe you caught part of an episode one time and want to catch up, or maybe you saw a nice piece of Chamuro fanart and want to go to the source.

But there’s so many shows and timelines that it can be quite daunting on first look, so this guide is intended to give a rough overview.

I would however like to stress two four things beforehand however:

This guide is not intended as “The One True Way” or anything. There’s no harm it coming into it a different way, and these are only my own opinions.

There’s nothing stopping you from just watching one show and leaving it there. You don’t have to watch every single show going, even I’ve only seen most of these, not all. Gundam typically has variations on similar themes - it’s very nice watching multiple shows because they complement one another, but it’s not necessarily required.

I am very much an insider looking out here, so let me know if there’s any details I’ve missed.

I’m not gonna recommend these on a “if you like X, then watch Y basis”, mostly because I don’t personally find genre recommendations helpful, so I’d recommend picking based on promotional material (vibes, if you will).

I’ll be using this chart, supplied by the excellent@l-crimson-l, to illustrate everything.

Gundam as a whole can principally be divided into three sections: Universal Century (or UC), the Alternate Universes (AU’s) and the Build Series.

The AU’s are below the light blue line, near the bottom of the Chart, the Build Series is within the bright green line at the top-right corner of the chart and UC is the big line in the middle. We’ll talk about each of them individually.

The AU’s

The Alternate Universes were conceived as a way to get away from the continuity-heavy nature of Universal Century and provide an easy jumping-on point for new fans. The AU’s are standalone and require no prior knowledge, and are thus an excellent place to start. Honestly, I’d recommend quickly searching some promotional materials (like posters) and just going with the one you find most appealing based on that. They are (in production order):

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (1995)

After War Gundam X (1996)

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2007)

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011)

Gundam: Reconguista in G (2014)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (2015)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

There’s side series and movies and other things besides, but these are the mainline shows, if you will. I have specific notes on a few of them:

Witch From Mercury - It’s of a shorter length than is usual for mainline shows, so consequently it’s a much smaller time investment than the others.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - While undeniably rad as hell, I would recommend watching another AU first. G Gundam differs from its stablemates in a few key areas, and I find it helps to have a contrast to fully appreciate those differences.

Gundam AGE - is probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t like the art style and the technical explanations just got on my nerves, so I stopped watching.

Turn A and G-Reconguista are technically part of UC as well, but it’s not really crucial information so don’t feel like you have to watch UC first (I’m only including this detail for completionism).

I’ve found all the AU’s I’ve seen to be pretty good, so I’d say that which one you start with really just comes down to personal taste.

The Build Series

Is just kind of doing its own thing. The Build series is basically Buy Our Toys: the series. It’s got a far lighter tone, and I’ve had cause to compare it to pokemon prior. It’s also chock full of references and in-jokes to the other series.

Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try are the ones I’d recommend - they’ve got actual stakes and the fight scenes are really good.

Build Divers and Build Divers Re:rise I can’t recommend - I just find Build Divers aggressively boring. Build Divers Re:Rise is just okay - neither standout good or particularly bad. Its main flaw is that it’s a sequel to Build Divers.

The OVA’s are pretty much bad across the board - I’d particularly recommend avoiding Gundam Build Metaverse.

Universal Century

Universal Century is the big main timeline of Gundam, and is the timeline the original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 takes place in. There’s a tendency among certain fans to place UC as the one-above-all of Gundam, but I wouldn’t really go that far. It’s all pretty good, but I wouldnt really say one timeline is better than another (save personal preference, anyway).

Because UC is so big, it can be subdivided a couple times. The primary division is “Mainline” UC versus everything else. Basically there’s four-five shows in Universal Century from which everything else flows. As long as you know roughly what happens in these shows, then you can watch basically anything else in UC and have a good idea of what’s going on. These are (in order):

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) - sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

With Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010) as a nominal fifth (honestly I feel like you could argue either way).

The rest of the shows are:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989 Three-Episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991 Movie)

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991 Thirteen-episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1999 Twelve-episode OVA)

G-Saviour (2000 Live Action Movie) - nobody ever talks about or acknowledges this one, it’s just here for completionism.

Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo (2004-2009 Three OVA’s with three Episodes each)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015 Six-Episode OVA, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015 Eight-Episode Series, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis (2017 episode, adapted from a light novel of the same name. Later rereleased as Gundam Twilight Axis Red Trace, with additional footage)

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018 sequel movie to Gundam Unicorn)

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021 ongoing movie series, very much adapted from the novel Hathaway’s Flash)

Most of the other series relate to events in the aforementioned “mainline” shows in some way, but a lot of the sidestories set during the One Year War require very little introduction (Thunderbolt, 0080 and 08th MS Team). Similarly, works set in “Late UC” (F91 and Victory Gundam) carry on from the other series thematically but don’t have any plot connections, so they can all be watched without any background knowledge of the rest of the Universal Century.

Compilation Movies

Just a quick note here - many of the Gundam series have compilation movies, where either a whole series or part of one are compressed down into a movie. While each movie compares differently, they usually boil down to this: Compilation Movies usually have worse pacing, but really nice animation.

One of the great things about Gundam is that different shows offer variations on themes, so seeing how different characters react to similar situations, or how different settings change their approaches can make it incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t seen enough of SD Gundam to make any sort of recommendations there, and Manga is something I might touch on another day.

EDIT: Oh hey also: You can watch a good chunk of these on YouTube, for free, officially. The Official Gundam.Info YouTube channel rotates the series shown on its channel periodically. I think it’s got F91 and SEED on there currently? But it’s had Wing, 00 and Witch From Mercury before. Also all of the Build Fighters series are there.

So yeah, that’s a thing.

Huh, there’s an idea. I wonder what the overall casualty rate for Gundam Pilots is?

*The Following Contains Spoilers for pretty much every Gundam series, though I’ll try to keep them non-specific*

I’ll list each series, the number of Gundam’s in that series, and the amount of Gundam pilots that don’t make it to the end of the series. (Watch me regret this when I get to the really Gundam-Heavy series). However, I’m not including:

After War Gundam X and Turn A Gundam - I haven’t seen either of these yet.

G-Saviour

Igloo - No Gundams.

Gundam the Origin - Feels like cheating.

Gundam Thunderbolt - 1 Gundam Pilot in the OVA versus 9 at present in the Manga, which is still ongoing. It feels awkward to qualify.

If a pilot appears in multiple series, I’ll count them separately for each series, but they only get one mobile suit per series. For Example, Kira Yamato appears in Two Series, and has three mobile suits. Thus, he only counts twice.

In regards to what counts as a Gundam -

“Why is that?”

“Because I said so”

Delling Rembran, father of statistics, everyone. “What is a Gundam” is a delightful question, but it isn’t the focus of this exercise. My definitions of “Gundam” and “Gundam Pilot” exist because I needed a metric, they’re not really designed to stand up to much scrutiny. I’ve worked with enough statistics that I’m aware you can usually skew them without too much bother, which is also why I don’t feel too bad about leaving out Turn A and Gundam X.

Lastly, I’ve almost certainly missed something here, so feel free to message me and I’ll adjust it accordingly.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 - 1 Gundam (RX-78). 1/1 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - 6 Gundams (Three Mk-II’s, Zeta and Psycho Gundam’s 1&2). 2/5 Pilots Survive - 40% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam - 4 Gundams (ZZ, Zeta, Mk-II and Psycho Gundam Mk-II). 3/4 Pilots Survive - 75% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Char’s Counterattack - 1 Gundam (Nu) 0/1 Pilots Survive - 0% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - 1 Gundam (NT-1 Alex). 1/1 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 - 1 Gundam (F91). 1/1 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - 3 Gundams (Gp01,2 and 3). 1/2 Pilots Survive - 50% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam - Could someone who’s watched Victory lately come back to me with how many Gundam’s are in that series (and their pilots), because I’ve genuinely no clue off the top of my head. I know it’s at least Six (V, V2, Other V2, then at least three Victory Gundam Hexa’s).

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - 50 Gundams (Fuck that). 22/38 Pilots Survive - 57.89% Survival Rate.

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing - 11 Gundams (Wing, Deathscythe, Heavyarms, Sandrock, Shenlong, their upgrades and Epyon). 6/6 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz - 5 Gundams (as above, minus Epyon). 5/5 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team - 4 Gundams (Three Ground Types and EZ8). 3/3 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Gundam SEED - 11 Gundams (5 first gen, 3 second gen, Providence). 4/9 Pilots Survive - 44.44% Survival Rate.

Gundam SEED Destiny - 11 Gundams. 6/10 Pilots Survive - 60% Survival Rate

Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer - 4 Gundams. 3/5 Pilots Survive - 60% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - 14 Gundams. 5/11 Pilots Survive - 45.45% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer - 4 Gundams (00 Quanta, Zabanya, Harute and Raphael). 5/5 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - 3 Gundams (Unicorn, Banshee and Delta Plus). 2/2 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative - 2 Gundams (Phenex and Narrative). 1/2 Pilots Survive - 50% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - 5 Gundams (Four AGE’s and Legillis). 3/5 Pilots Survive - 60% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis - 1 Gundam (Tristan). 1/1 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam G-Reconguista - 3 Gundams (G-Self, G-Arcane, G-Lucifer) 4/4 Pilots Survive - 100% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans - 12 Gundams (Barbatos, Gusion, Kimaris, Flauros and Bael). 1/6 Pilots Survive - 16.67% Survival Rate.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - 10 Gundams (Aerial’s, Lfrith’s, Schwarzette, Pharact and Calibarn). 5/11 Pilots Survive - 45.45% Chance Survival Rate.

Total Number of Gundams - 163

Overall Pilot Survival Rate - 85/138 Pilots Survive- 61.59% Chance Survival Rate.

(As above, not counting Turn A and Gundam X). That is lower than I expected. I believe it’s because most series either lose around half their pilots or few-to none at all. So either the series that keep all or most of their small amount of pilots will push the average up to over halfway, or the series that kill half or more of their pilots will pull the average down.

Highlights and anomalies.

All those odd little decisions that mess with the metrics of this exercise.

Pilot Survivability - Any cases where the survival of a character is ambiguous, but a later work clears it up, I went for the later interpretation, since I’m looking at overall survivability, so Milliardo and CCA Amuro get to count as alive and dead, respectively.

What is survival? - continued sentient existence, flesh not required. I really wasn’t expecting this to come up as much as it did. Tieria Erde (00) and Ericht Samaya (Wfm) both continue living as a virtual consciousness, so are classed as surviving for the purposes of this exercise. In the same vein, Kamille Bidan is counted as surviving (because I’m personally fond of the idea of him getting better).

Best Available Pilots - due to the precise shakedown of pairing pilots to mobile suits, both Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena and Lasse Aeon are on this list, under Zeta and 00, respectively. Quattro because he pilots one of the stolen Gundam Mk-II units briefly, and Lasse because though the 0 Gundam’s “main” pilot to my mind is Ribbons Almark, he already has the Reborns Gundam, and thus Lasse qualifies for the 0 Gundam.

SEED Destiny - I was really bad at remembering how many Gundam’s and how many pilots for this one. I fully forgot about Andrew Waltfeld and Mu La Flaga, and about how many Destroy Gundams the Earth Sphere alliance pulls out later in the series. I eventually just split the difference and added Andrew Waltfeld and a single Destroy Gundam (It was something like a 0.2 percent difference to the overall survival percentage).

Gundam 00 and Innovades - You can single-handedly mess up this entire excercise if you expand your qualification of Gundam to encompass the GNZ suits used by the Innovators in Gundam 00, since that includes the Gaga. You know, the suit that has a 95% casualty rate across literal hundreds of pilots? I’m not saying you should, but it was on my mind as I made this list.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - was more complicated than expected. I was fully aware SEED Destiny would be tricky, but I forgot about G Gundam in the process. I’m reasonably confident in my count of Gundams - I only counted the Devil Gundam and Master Gundam once, not the Kowloon or Ultimate Gundam, and I didn’t count any of the combined units (like the Grand Master Gundam). I’ll list my Gundam Fighter math in a re-blog, since this is already a bit long.

I truly do not understand where the idea that most Gundam protagonists die came from. I’ve even seen self-proclaimed fans warn newcomers that almost every Gundam protagonist dies, when that is patently not true!

its 2024 and we still have quality content for the best seed destiny villain trio of rey, gilbert and raww. i cant believe it thank you so much, hineo-san ₊ ♡ ✧ ﾟ♡˚✧ ﾟ₊˚

2024年4月21日、迷僕にて無配していたS○Xしないと部屋から出られないギルラウレイの漫画です。好き勝手描き散らした為個人の思想()が強いです。

Here we go, ladies and gentlemen! One of my few Het Ships!

My I Introduce:

Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne

From Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Destiny

This is my favorite Gundam Ships, period. Don't get me wrong, I like Heero Yuy and Relena Peacecraft, but these two are just...better!

Kira comes out as more human. He didn't start out as a warrior nor was he trained from a young age to be one. He was just a college student living in Heliopolis. He simply wanted a peaceful life. He was thrust into the war mainly to protect his friends. He lost his home and at one point, questioned his own identity. He is soft-hearted and gentle but is dedicated to protecting his loved ones and, despite the war, he maintains his gentle and loving nature. He does know that although he hates war, sometimes it is necessary to fight for what you believe in.

Now Lacus is like Relena in certain ways. Both have a father in a political role and have had a cushy upbringing, with Relena going to a high-class private school, and Lacus becoming a pop-princess. The main difference between them is the idea of sacrifice and how much they are willing to give up for their cause. Relena doesn't seem to sacrifice much, whereas Lacus in the end, is willing to give up the lifestyle she grew up in, her popularity/status of being a symbol of the PLANTS, her home, and ultimately her own freedom. She literally committed a crime by stealing the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam and giving it to Kira so he could continue to protect his loved ones and try to end the war.

Kira and Lacus' relationship, from friends to romantic partners, is more consensual throughout their story than Relena and Heero's relationship. Relena's affection and care for Heero were initially one-sided, as Heero originally wanted to kill her in order to keep his identity a secret, whereas Kira and Lacus quickly became friends during their first meeting, with Kira willing to threaten his freedom aboard the Archangel to keep her from being used as a bargaining chip for Earth.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I just love them SO much! Lacus is also my favorite woman in all of the Gundam series! (NOTE: I hate the color pink with a passion! However, I overlook that particular trait with Lacus because I love her as a character!)