Fridge / Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom

Fridge Brilliance

• Despite the revelation that Kira is in fact a failure of the Accord project, or rather "just" the Ultimate Coordinator, he still embodies the title in a different essence. George Glenn, humanity's first Coordinator, had a far more enlightened notion of what it meant to be a Coordinator; anyone who works towards the betterment of mankind and help to "coordinate" humanity's evolution. While Kira may not necessarily be an influential politician like Lacus and Cagalli or focused on making scientific discoveries like his biological parents, he uses his piloting skills to protect everyone from those that would abuse their power and continuously extends kindness and compassion even to those that once stood against him like Shinn. Kira may not possess the blatant supernatural abilities of an Accord, but his genuine commitment to fight for a better tomorrow, no matter the obstacles or the failures that will inevitably happen, makes him more than worthy of being considered an "Ultimate Coordinator."
  • By extension, that makes most members of Compass like Lacus, Shinn, and Lunamaria worthy of being Ultimate Coordinators because they all also genuinely want to fight for a better future for humanity, and in doing so they also live up to their name, because what tool helps guide people in the right direction?
• Durandal trying to eliminate Lacus despite her lying low on Orb and not minding even Meer stealing her identity and face make sense as Durandal was rather afraid of Lacus as an Accord which could compromise his Destiny Plan anytime she wants by just using her ability to influence the masses, which is exactly what happened in Seed Destiny.
  • This also explains why Durandal has Meer, he wants a Lacus under his control and that would not turn against him at any moment.
• The color scheme of the Impulse Spec II may be a reference to other Gundams which use similar weaponry and colors.
  • The Blast Impulse's new color references the Launcher Strike's Agni and the Another Trial Launcher Strike E's green coloration.
  • The Sword Impulse's red scheme references the Aegis and Infinite Justice which are known for their CQC proficiency like the Sword Impulse. Alternatively, the red color scheme may be inspired by the orange Sword Calamity which uses swords that the Sword Strike uses.
  • The Force Impulse remains relatively the same but with a more grey coloration rather than white. Otherwise like the original Force Impulse, the color references the Aile Strike Gundam.
• Again, the Gundam names embody character values quite well. It works even better to describe Shinn's Character Development perfectly: he used to be a slave to his Impulses, guided by his Destiny (given Durandal's Control Freak mindset, and given he considers Shinn to be nothing more than The Brute because of his DNA, it's certainly intentional), but now he can finally fight for Justice. He does get to pilot the Destiny again during the Final Battle, but now fighting with a true sense of conviction and clairvoyance, Shinn is finally taking his destiny into own hands.
  • Shinn piloting a new Justice is also not just his own redemption, but Athrun's failed attempt to guide him.
• While their importance in the story keeps Kira as the main protagonist and Shinn as a supporting protagonist, their roles are swapped from how they were in SEED Destiny. Shinn ends up having the positive character development, while Kira's is negative as a result of a Character Check.
  • While Shinn is still hot-blooded, he's far less harsh and angry, becoming an even more idealistic version of how he used to be early on in Destiny. All that negative character development where he slowly started losing his grip on sanity is gone, and he's become much more cheerful and even dorky as a result. As a result, he remains much more stable in the film, even playing the role of the Invincible Hero while "METEOR" plays with his second Gundam. Much like how Kira was in Destiny once he got the Strike Freedom.
  • Kira on the other hand, due to the overall stress of his position and all the hardships he goes through in the movie, starts lashing out and acts more emotional, much like how he used to back in early SEED. That stoic mask he had on in Destiny has slipped away because Lacus was the only thing holding him together. With how he falls into despair during the film, he could've easily fallen much further much like Shinn did. However, Kira actually has allies that cared for his well-being (ironically including Shinn himself), which allowed him to continue going to save Lacus.
• Mighty Strike Freedom destroys Cal-re.A with a MS-sized katana that has no special features like a laser running the length of the sword or a blade that is super-heated. Remember what Kira and the Strike's first weapons were all the way back in SEED? A pair of ordinary, MS-proportioned combat knives.
• Why is Athrun so quick to beat Kira when he believed that Lacus has betrayed him ? Simple, Athrun was in a similar situation with Cagalli during SEED Destiny: he had also assumed the worst, he did not consider her feelings and he was very harsh to her for that, being also self-centered at that time. In the end, Athrun and Cagalli ultimately made amends after listening to each other but only AFTER living the painful moments AND Athrun receiving a beating from Kira (granted a Mobile Suit version of one but same idea). Here, the roles are reversed with Kira repeating the same scenario with Lacus. Athrun was recognising the situation and by acting like that, he was preventing Kira to make the same mistake as him and also preventing Kira and Lacus to have the same the misunderstandings and painful moments he had with Cagalli by having them talking before it gets worse.
  • A second layer to this is due to his failure in mentoring Shinn. Just like Cagalli above, he punched Shinn in response to him (seemingly) killing Kira by destroying the Freedom, but in his cynicism, he did not elaborate on why, thus setting off a chain of events that led Shinn to spiral even further down a dark path until he was nothing but The Brute to Durandal. Needless to say, he's had enough of people close to him falling into evil, so he is also preventing Kira making the same mistake as Shinn, in this way, redeeming himself for both of his past mistakes.