Gundam Seed Freedom - Tumblr Posts

So, the day after Witch From Mercury Ends, we get actual announcements for both Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance AND the SEED Movie!?

What the hell bandai, give us a chance to breathe.

I guess they’re just riding the hype of Witch from Mercury’s finale, so announcing some other stuff to keep in the news cycle?

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.

Another Gundam SEED Freedom trailer. How lovely.

I’ll fully admit that I watched the dub for Seed, so I don’t recognise the voice at the start there, but consensus seems to be that it’s Durandal? Shinn, Luminaria and Athrun are all confirmed to be in the new movie, with Athrun seems to be off doing his own thing compared to the rest of them. At a guess, I’d guess that Kira and his team seem to be operating under Orb’s authority, since they seem to be saluting a lot? They do seem to be reporting to a member of Orb nobility (the little kid in the green throne). Then again, it could be that Terminal’s just developed into the Cosmic Era’s answer to Celestial Being, of 00 fame. So maybe Athrun’s outside the system? I’d put money down on him and Kira coming into conflict again, especially since the latter half of the trailer seems to be playing up that Kira’s going to do something foolish, and Athrun lacking a non-pilot uniform at present.

It seems like the plot’s going to involve Durandal’s legacy? Though honestly it seems equally possible that it’ll just be brought up offhandedly. The PLANT Supreme council seems to have a new meeting place, with Lacus present at a meeting, so I imagine the focus’ll be more on them.

(Honestly this was the easiest reference image I could find for the characters) So, character wise we’ve a mix of new and old. Agnes Gieberath is the main new one, it seems (and honestly given her prominence I’d expect her to have a new Gundam along with Kira, Shinn, Athrun and presumably Lunamaria). Honestly the only thing we know about her is that she exists, nothing on personality or backstory at this point, but she’s likely one to watch. Yzak and Dearka are back, which is nice (I’m quite fond of post-character-development Yzak). We have the three Dom Trooper Pilots on the end that were essentially Lacus’ muscle in Seed Destiny. I fully expect them to either have character development or be killed off (Hilda might survive). That just leaves the final three new characters of Toyah Mashima, Albert Heinlein and Alexi Konoe. I don’t have much to say on the latter two, save that Konoe gives me a traitor vibe and if Heinlein doesn’t have something close to a German accent in the dub then I’ll be severely disappointed. But Toyah Mashima?

My, he seems to have a very familiar design. A small blonde kid that seems to resemble Mu La Flaga? Hmmm, sure that’s not gonna be relevant in any way. Probably nothing.

Still no word on the Gundam’s though. They wouldn’t be hiding them this much if they weren’t new in some way, so I’m betting they’re waiting until the model kits come up for order.

I will be honest, it’s slightly weirding me out how they’ve changed all the female characters lip designs though. It’s a very small change, but it just makes Lacus’ pout in the trailer unintentionally parodic. It’s not a problem as such, but all the male characters still have the old designs, so it just seems to differentiate them for no real reason. Eh, I’m sure I’ll get over it.

Alright, new Gundam Seed Freedom Trailer (and other materials)

We now know what most of the new Main Character Mobile suit designs are - we have the new Rising Freedom Gundam (shown above) and Athrun’s new suit, the Immortal Justice Gundam, which seems to be patterned more off the Aegis this time around (the red colour scheme and it’s a little bulkier).

I’m going to wait until the movie actually comes out for my full opinions on the designs, but notable features are:

The Rising Freedom seems to be based at least partially on the Destiny Gundam, as seen with it’s forearms, chest and shoulders (makes sense).

The Gelgoog Menace, which is almost certainly Lunamaria’s new suit, appears to be a directly upgraded Zaku Warrior, presumably with a greater emphasis on close-combat.

Shinn’s apparently back in the Impulse, almost certainly so they can reuse the model design.

I think that the Immortal Justice is going to be a transforming unit (the Rising Freedom kind of is already).

While the Gyan Strom certainly appears to be *checks notes* Agnes Gieberath’s new mobile suit, I should call out that there were two of them alongside the Immortal Justice in the trailer, so it might be that it’s a limited-production suit handed out to ZAFT’s best? It’s possible that Yzak and Dearka might also be piloting them.

The Shi-ve and Rud-ro of the Black Knight Squadron (boring name) *seem* to be patterned after the Crossbone Vanguard? Though that might just be the head fins. Otherwise, I find the Rud-ro’s rather generic looking.

From what we can tell, the Black Knight Squadron is going to be backing ZAFT (we see DINNs in the background in the trailer) and is composed of these characters (going off the matching colours and approximate numbers):

(I would go through them all but honestly I think only two at most are going to matter).

My final point is; What’s with everyone using old equipment? All I’m seeing in the trailers is GINNs, DINNs, ZuOOTs and 105 Daggers. The Impulse is maybe excusable, but it’s odd. I’d buy that ZAFT reproduced an upgraded GINN after the second Bloody Valentine War, but if they’re all using outdated equipment then it really doesn’t sell them as actual threats to the Protagonists. Yes, they should still be stopped, but it makes it feel like the conflict between the two forces is background, when the Tragedy of War is kind of Gundam’s whole thesis statement.

(Though again, I’ll probably complain a lot less is this gives us new kits for the GINN and DINN)

I felt like writing something short today, so let’s talk about the New Gundam Seed Freedom trailer (it was either this or a quick review of SD Gundam CROSS RAYS).

I think I’m gonna genuinely struggle to take this movie seriously.

Now I’ve already done a few posts about my feelings on the Cosmic Era (and I’ll probably do more at some point), but in brief; I like both SEED and SEED Destiny. I like Destiny more because it feels like they had more freedom (ugh) with what they wanted to do, as opposed to vaguely retelling the original series, but I think SEED’s a bit more coherent.

(Stargazer’s a decent little yarn about Phantom pain pilots, I’d say it’s almost the cosmic era in miniature)

And I know it’s because it’s a scene taken out of context from the trailer, but-

Lacus: It’s my wish as well

Kira: UWA!?

Lacus: to fight alongside you

Kira: UK-GHA?!

He can emote, ladies and gentlemen!

Speaking of emoting, maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen Cucuruz Doan’s Island, but everyone seems to be really pushing that facial animation in this. Like, in another scene, Lacus turns around, looks faintly disgusted, then moves right along to joy. And I misread Shinn’s expression something like twice when rewatching the trailer (is it horny rage, or is it anguish?). It was odd.

Though I will say the new music (op? Inset song?) sounds really good, though I find the Cosmic Era’s always had good music.

Even though we have another moment of unintentional parody, where the music lulls and Kira says dramatically “I can’t see an end to this war, all I can do is……” (soundtrack) FREEDOM. And my mind immediately went to “metal gear protagonist”.

Admittedly while I don’t think I’ll be able to take it seriously, I do think it’ll be fun to talk about. But all the same, I was feeling oddly cynical. Not really sure why.

Unrelatedly, there was another announcement today, Mobile Suit Gundam Silver Phantom. A, uh, virtual reality narrative interactive experience as one news site has dubbed it. Gonna be honest, I feel the the top comment on the YouTube video sums up my thoughts “I was hype until the meta quest appeared”. Anyway, we know basically nothing about it, so I’m going to indulge in some baseless speculation for the moment. Presumably it’s a spin-off, I don’t think they’d make a whole new AU just for this. So then as a guess I’d say it’s likely either a Universal Century sidestory or SEED (since we got Gundam Seed Eclipse a little while back). But I did see one interesting theory while browsing earlier:

It could be this “Silver Phantom”. Unlikely, I think, but a neat theory.

Tsk. I hoped the resemblance would be greater. Oh well.

Gonna turn this fucker into a Zeon suit because I’m having cognitive dissonance with liking a seed model, also the movie was ass but fun