12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: If there is no evidence provided in the Opening Post that the page is broken, the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what constitutes evidence.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, which aired from 2002 to 2003, is the ninth television installment of the long-running Gundam franchise and the first to be set in the Cosmic Era Alternate Universe. Occasionally considered a Remake of the original Mobile Suit Gundam adapted for modern audiences due to the similarities of the first half of the plot, it none the less manages to stand on its own due to the vastly different nature of the setting and its primary conflict, as well as the completely original second half of the storyline.The story premise matches the standard Gundam fare by featuring a conflict between Earth and Space, but introduces an original twist in the form of widespread use of Genetic Engineering. Genetic modification of humans is illegal on Earth, but the space colonies are populated almost exclusively by an artificially enhanced breed of humanity known as Coordinators. Most of Earth falls under the authority of the Earth Alliance, which funded the construction of the PLANTs (huge, hourglass-shaped space colonies meant for use as orbital manufacturing and R&D centers); however, the Coordinators now living on the PLANTs seek independence from the Earth Alliance via the formation of a milita group called ZAFT. This basic conflict of interest, combined with the Fantastic Racism between the genetically engineered Coordinators and the unenhanced Naturals, eventually sparks a war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. Meanwhile, the nations on Earth not falling under the umbrella of the Earth Alliance are forced to take sides or else risk the ire of both opposing factions.Enter The Hero; Kira Yamato, a young Coordinator attending a technical college on Heliopolis, a space colony of the neutral nation Orb. Inevitably drawn into the conflict against his will, he Falls Into The Cockpit during an attempted Gundamjacking and ends up being the only thing standing between his friends and a messy death at the hands of ZAFT. Complicating things is Kira's Forgotten Childhood Friend Athrun Zala, a fellow Coordinator who joined ZAFT and now finds himself on the opposite side of the battlefield as his old friend. While the story may appear a bit monotonous at the beginning (Recap Episodes, o heresy!), after the Wham Episode halfway through the series, the show turns into a kaleidoscope of battles, revelations, and deaths, skyrocketing the intensity all the way into the stratosphere. A full recap is under construction here.Thanks to its powerful directing, an all-star voice cast, and the never-dwindling emotional tension, SEED easily became a smash hit in Japan, getting the second highest ratings in Gundam history only behind Zeta Gundam and spawning a televised sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, and a manga spinoff, Gundam SEED Astray. An as of yet untitled movie, confirmed to be in production in 2007, is expected to be a Grand Finale of the saga... if it can leave Development Hell. SEED's success and the announcement of Destiny, the first-ever full-length television sequel to a Gundam show outside of the original Universal Century timeline, spawned speculation that CE would become the new UC. However, Destiny failing to be as successful as SEED, the movie's production stalling, and the subsequent release and success of non-CE series Gundam 00 have since dashed those hopes. Recent news confirms that Gundam Seed will be getting a new 48 episode remastering series in honor of its 10th anniversary.Gundam SEED and the CE timeline have become mainstays in Super Robot Wars after Alpha 3, and are the main Gundam representative on handhelds when all Universal Century Gundams where excluded from the handheld games after Judgment. Gundam SEED also appears in the Gundam Vs Series, particularly in Alliance vs. ZAFT.
Alternate Universe: Cosmic Era is the fifth "alternate calendar" other than the original Universal Century, and the first besides UC to feature a full-length television sequel.
Ambiguously Brown: Dearka Elsman. Getting deeper into it you can learn his ancestry is Egyptian.
Animation Bump: The series was known for this at times, especially with the Special Editions. The HD remaster goes even further with several reanimated scenes from not only the Special Editions, but also entirely new ones. Compare Episode 3 of the standard edition to the remaster on youtube and you'll notice them immediately, most notably the part where Kira slices Miguel's GINN in half at the end.
Armor-Piercing Slap: A very rare inversion — Kira slaps Cagalli after she continually pesters him for not rescuing enough people. Damn.
Artistic License - Physics: The PLANTs are an interesting design for space colonies, but in the course of their rotation, the sun will occasonally shine through the conical windows onto the inhabited surface, which means they wouldn't have enough radiation shielding to protect against solar flares.
Attack Drone: The Earth Alliance's gunbarrels are wired versions, while ZAFT's DRAGOONs are wireless.
Badass: Where to begin? Kira deserves special mention, considering that he just suddenly takes the controls of a gundam and starts going up against highly trained Aces, and holds his own against them all, at once!
Badass Normal: Mu La Flaga, undoubtedly the best Natural pilot in the series, was feared even before he got a mobile suit to pilot. Cagalli is a borderline example; she's a Natural, and puts up a good fight both as La Résistance (attacking mobile suits with jeeps and RPGs!) and with the Strike Rouge, but never reaches the same level as other characters. Rau Le Creuset is a strange case; his backstory means it wouldn't make any sense for him to be a Coordinator, but he acts like one and it's never questioned, so he may or may not be an example.
Beam Spam: Freedom, Providence, Justice, and Calamity being the biggest examples. Aegis could also count, just instead of beam guns it spams beam sabers.
Big Bad Ensemble: Subverted. It appears that the war between Muruta Azrael and Patrick Zala will define the second half of the series, but in reality they're both Unwitting Pawns of the real Big Bad.
Big Brother Mentor: Mu, to the Heliopolis crew in general but Kira especially.
Big Damn Hero: Kira, countless times. Though this Trope is also subverted with Nicole and Tolle in episodes 29 and 30, respectively. Both of them try to pull this off and get killed for their trouble.
Birds of a Feather: Kira and Athrun's friendship could qualify as this with their views on war and want of peace. Kira and Lacus' relationship as well for the same reason.
Bitter Sweet Ending: Though they did manage to avert complete disaster, the body count was high on all sides, and there was no decisive end to the conflict — despite all its death and destruction, the war ultimately changed little.
Blond Guys Are Evil: Rau Le Creuset and Muruta Azrael; subverted with Mu La Flaga and Dearka Elsman.
Bloodier and Gorier: Said to be even more so than V Gundam, and with the WMDs lurking around each corner, it's easy to believe. Averted in the Toonami edit, however, as Bandai wanted to sell SEED toys to a wider audience.
Born Winner: Coordinators, which must be created in vitro, though the offspring of a pair of Coordinators is also a Coordinator
The Brigadier: Admiral Lewis Halberton, Siegel Clyne, and Andrew Waltfeld.
Catch Phrase: Mu La Flaga: "I am a man who can make the impossible possible."
Mu and Rau seem to share the catch phrase "If that man can do it, then so can I."
Clotho: "GAME OVER!" and other variants of that.
There is also the Blue Cosmos': "For our blue and pure world."
Char Clone: A different approach in this series then the rest. There are three main Char clones, each one representing a different incarnation of the original Char Aznable: Athrun as The Rival, Mu La Flaga as the Big Brother Mentor, and Rau Le Crueset as the Dark Messiah
Clip Show: Notable for being both many in number and poor in timing. SEED's director is occasionally called "Flashback 'Em All" in contrast to Yoshiyuki Tomino's "Kill 'Em All".
Custom Uniform: Andy's tiger-striped flightsuit and mecha.
Darker and Edgier: Very dark for an Alternate Universe series and you get to watch the atrocities done close up. There is also notably little to no comic relief within the entire series even when compared to Zeta Gundam and Victory Gundam which had a couple of lighthearted moments to somewhat offset the dark tone of the series. It is still known for being one of the darkest AU Gundam series.
Dead Star Walking: T.M. Revolution, who performs the first two OPs, also voices Miguel Aiman who is killed early in the story. Averted with Shiho Hahnenfuss. She was set to be voiced by Nami Tamaki, but she turned down the role... to the great relief of Yzak/Shiho shippers everywhere.
Diving Save: Brutally subverted twice, both scenes involving Kira. The second time is particularly harsh, providing a Hope Spot where he actually successfully blocks the shot, only for the villain to simply blow up the target with one of his Attack Drones instead.
Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: The warring sides use this trope as justification for their deeds; both leaders aim for nothing less than the complete annihilation of the other side down to the last man, woman and child. Therefore, backing down and depending on Mutually Assured Destruction is equivalent to surrender.
Dual Wield: Several of the suits come equipped with two swords.
During The War: Referred to as the Bloody Valentine War, since it begins with the death of roughly 250,000 ZAFT civilians when a PLANT is destroyed on Feburary 14th, Valentine's Day, CE 70.
Evil Versus Evil: By the end of the series, neither the Earth Alliance nor ZAFT are particularly sympathetic. Probably why the protagonists decide to Take a Third Option and form the Three Ships Alliance.
Expy: Lots of them, thanks to SEED's similarity to Mobile Suit Gundam. It also uses character concepts from Gundam Wing and ∀ Gundam. In terms of character design, there are obvious influences from Infinite Ryvius, which isn't surprising since they're from the same designer. Azrael in particular is similar looking to Pat.
Final Solution: Advocated by both Patrick Zala (who believes Coordinators are a Superior Species and that the Naturals all need to die) and Muruta Azrael (who believes Coordinators are an abomination and thusly, all of them need to die). Rau Le Creuset agrees with both of them.
Fun with Acronyms: It's a series trend; Gundams are called such because their OS spells out the acronym G.U.N.D.A.M. in varying ways, all of them full of Gratuitous English and typically entirely nonsensical. SEED itself is an acronym, as is ZAFT, and numerous ZAFT mobile suits have names consisting of a series of capitalized and lower cased letters that make it seem like they're acronyms, but no explanation is ever given.
Gainaxing: Murrue every time the Archangel takes a nasty hit, eventually joined by Natarle and Flay in the last few episodes.
Gattaca Babies: Coordinators are genetically enhanced early in their development; Kira Yamato is a true Gattaca baby in the "grown in a test tube" sense.
The Gloves Come Off: Kira and Athrun do it to each other simultaneously in the Wham Episode. The result is one of the most brutal fight scenes in the series.
The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Towards the end of the series, the Three Ships Alliance is the Good, both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance are the Bad, while Omnicidal ManiacRau Le Creuset is the Evil.
Go Out with a Smile: Several, ranging from Tear Jerker to Crowning Moment of Awesome; Izumi, Cagalli's adoptive father, Mu la Flaga, who laughs as he spouts his Catch Phrase and explodes, Natarle, who ensures the death of a Complete Monster with her own, Flay, who died thinking Kira had just saved her, and Le Creuset who dies smiling because he believes the entire world will soon be following him...
Guns Akimbo: Actually, Freedom can shoot all five of its guns at once... and hit five targets, too, as long as Kira is the pilot. Then hit five more targets about every tenth of a second. The Freedom Gundam is a master of Beam Spam.
Gundam Jack: Four out of the five ZAFT pilots kick off the series by performing this trope.
Kira and Lacus return the favor, when they jack the Freedom from a ZAFT base.
Heroic Sacrifice: Multiple, occasionally happening in chains: Tolle's and Nichol's, for example, as well as Mu's and Natarle's.
Ill Kill You: Yzak to Kira, though he refers to him as "the pilot of the Strike" since he didn't know who Kira was specifically.
It Gets Easier: Andy Waltfield, an experienced soldier and commander, tells the young and still-somewhat-naive Kira this point blank.
It Meant Something To Me: Double Subverted with Kira and Flay. At first she's just using him and his feelings are sincere; when he gets over her she realizes that she actually does have feelings for him, but before she can act on it, she's killed off, specifically to mess with Kira.
It's Personal Kira and Athrun get this about each other after Kira kills Nicol and Athrun kills Tolle in the same incident.
Kick the Dog: The way that Flay reveals to Sai that she's been cheating on him with Kira. That was just cold...
Killed Off for Real: Tolle Koenig, Nicol Amarfi, Flay Allster, Natarle Badriguel, Aisha, Muruta Azrael, Patrick Zala, Rau Le Creuset, George Allster, Uzumi Nara Athha, Siegel Clyne, Lewis Halberton... the list can be continued.
The Kingdom: Orb... sort of. Their government is complicated. It involves actual royalty sharing power with both noble houses and elected officials. Thankfully, for the most part, it's relegated to All There in the Manual.
Large Ham: Rau, by the end of the series. Not so much at first.
Ludicrous Gibs: Those caught in the effective radius of the Cyclops system or GENESIS are shown exploding into clouds of red mist. Actually Justified, given that said unlucky people are basically being microwaved to death*
This literally boils their blood (along with all their other bodily fluids); the resulting steam pressure causes all the soft tissues in their body to burst
.
Mad Scientist: Dr. Ulen Hibiki, Kira and Cagalli's birth father.
Mildly Military: Justified, since some of the Archangel crew are civilians, but Murrue and Mu are not big believers in clinging to regulations to begin with.
Military Brat: Athrun, Nicol, Dearka, Yzak and Natarle.
Mid-Season Upgrade: Freedom and Justice. Strike also gets to stick around as a hand-me-down version, and Duel gets upgrade add-ons, though well before mid-season.
No One Could Survive That: Andrew Waltfeld survives his mobile suit blowing up around him, though his co-pilot doesn't, and he earns some permanent injuries in the process. Kira Yamato survives Aegis' Self-Destruct Mechanism to the face without so much as a scar, though he's out of commission for some time afterward. And finally, Mu La Flaga is the ultimate champion of this trope, revealed in the sequel to have survived his entire mobile suit being vaporized by a Wave Motion Gun.
Not Using The Zed Word: The word "Gundam" is coined by Kira as an acronym for the operating system of certain Bigger Stick mobile suits, and is only used a handful of times. None of the Humongous Mecha officially have Gundam in their names. However, the term Gundam starts it's spreading through the universe in the second half of the show, and is used much much more in the Cosmic Era's expanded universe installments.
One Product Planet: ZAFT's space colonies were arranged in this manner, with one group focusing on Farming, another on Information Science, another on Chemistry, and so on.
Power Trio: Murrue, Mu, and Natarle, as id, ego, and superego respectively. Murrue and Mu also function as The McCoy and The Kirk respectively, although Natarle doesn't quite qualify as The Spock to round out the trifecta.
Rapid-Fire Typing: Lots of it; Kira is especially guilty and uses this technique to upgrade the Strike's original OS.
The Rival: Mu vs. Rau, Kira vs. Athrun, later Kira vs. Rau
Sacrificial Lamb: Rusty Mackenzie, Miguel Aiman and George Allster all die shortly after being introduced. Their deaths are mainly events for characterization other characters.
Sacrificial Lion: The series isn't sunshine and rainbows to start with, but it's after the deaths of Tolle and Nicol that the series gets progressively darker.
Spoiler Opening: Nichol is notably absent in the third opening, despite appearing in the first two. This is a war story, so it's not hard to guess what that means. Sure enough, two episodes after the third opening's debut, he's killed off.
The So-Called Coward: Nicol Amarfi. Yzak even straight up calls him a coward, but in reality he is a pretty decent pilot, especially considering he made it to the Red Coats.
Power Makeover: People in SEED mode lose the "light" of their eyes, resulting in an effect similar to Mind-Control Eyes except that their pupils don't disappear.
Super Soldier: While the Coordinators' enhanced abilities are in no way limited to combat, they do make them far better fighters than Naturals, e.g. before Kira develops an MS operating system suitable for Naturals, only Coordinators can efficiently pilot mobile suits; also, "artificial Coordinators" a.k.a. "the Druggies" are literal super soldiers developed by the Atlantic Federation.
Surprisingly Good English: Most of the time, but it's particularly noticeable when Engrish appears, such as in Episode 20.
Take a Third Option: Instead of siding with one of the two equally extremist factions of the war, the Archangel crew eventually forms their own side together with Orb and Clyne Faction.
Take My Hand: In episodes 40 and 50, we see Athrun being rescued.
Theme Naming: Of Humongous Mecha, no less. Although this is averted by omission in one case: SEED is the only Gundam TV series that isn't named after a specific mecha.
Wave Motion Gun: The Lohengrin positron cannons mounted by the Archangel, which (as the name implies) are a type of Antimatter weapon; there's also GENESIS, a Kill Sat that used nuclear weapons to generate a gamma radiation laser capable of attacking Earth from high orbit.
What The Hell, Dad?: Sums up Patrick and Athrun Zala's relationship quite nicely. Patrick, a General Ripper if ever there was one, treats Athrun as though he were any other subordinate. He expects a lot from Athrun, but only because of his elite status, and has no qualms about shooting him when Athrun starts to question orders.
A World Half Full: The combination of Fantastic Racism and good old fashioned human greed makes the world of Gundam SEED a less-than-pleasant place to live, but that doesn't stop the protagonists from improving things — if only a little — through properly applied violence.
Villain with Good Publicity: Azrael is all-but-worshipped by the EA generals, has the Earth's rulers in his pocket, and Natarle has heard of him.
Xanatos Gambit: The Big Bad, Rau La Creuset, tries to set one up so that regardless of who eventually won the war, both sides would end up wiping each other out with various WMDs.
0 reviews