History NightmareFuel / MobileSuitGundamSEED

SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. As a result, ''Gundam SEED'' is one of, if not the darkest incarnation of Gundam (even more so than the already extraordinarily dark ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'', which says a lot).

SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. As a result, ''Gundam SEED'' to be one of, if not the darkest incarnation of Gundam (even more so than the already extraordinarily dark ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'', which says a lot).

SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. As a result, the ''Gundam SEED'' franchise proved to be one of, if not the darkest incarnation of Gundam (even more so than the already extraordinarily dark ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'', which says a lot).

SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. As a result, the ''Gundam SEED'' franchise proved to be one of, if not the darkest incarnation of Gundam (even more so than ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'', which considering [[AnyoneCanDie its nature]], it says a lot).

* Rau Le Creuset is one of the most chillingly realistic {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s ever presented by a TV show. Rau's horrible life caused by his abusive father and CloningBlues convinced him that HumansAreBastards and that [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum he must put everyone out of their misery, along with himself]]. The scary part? ''He is partially correct''. Considering all the racism and blind hatred fueling the wars (which both sides are aware of and DEFEND as virtuous, especially at their highest levels of authority), he has a very good claim for arguing his point. And it isn't even that he's blind to the capacity for good in humanity: he acknowledges virtue and idealism when he sees it, he just doesn't believe there's anywhere near ''enough'' of it to counteract the evils of humanity.

SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. As a result, the ''Gundam SEED'' franchise proved to be one of the darkest incarnations of Gundam.

* The Cyclops self-destruct system (a high-powered microwave weapon) and gamma ray KillSat GENESIS. Microwaves heat water, and given that the human body is about 60% water by weight, you can imagine what it does to people caught in its area of effect. GENESIS is basically RuleOfScary. During its first usage, we are treated to a scene of a ZAFT soldier struggling before his body expands and his visor is filled with blood as he explodes, with a split-second shot of [[{{Gorn}} some of his ribs and his torn-up intestines flying out of his mutilated carcass]]. When it's fired into the Earth Alliance fleet in episode 48, we get to see the crews of the ships screaming and writhing for about a second, as their space suits expand and pop. It's even worse when the weapon hits an Alliance lunar base and space city, as we get to see several BridgeBunnies at their communications stations, clutching at their chests before blood sprays from their mouths and nostrils, and then they burst like balloons. And due to his VillaunousBreakdown, Patrick Zala was planning to use it on ''[[TheEndOFTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Earth]]''.

* The Cyclops self-destruct system (a high-powered microwave weapon) and gamma ray KillSat GENESIS. Microwaves heat water, and given that the human body is about 60% water by weight, you can imagine what it does to people caught in its area of effect. GENESIS is basically RuleOfScary. During its first usage, we are treated to a scene of a ZAFT soldier struggling before his body expands and his visor is filled with blood as he explodes, with a split-second shot of [[{{Gorn}} some of his ribs and his torn-up intestines flying out of his mutilated carcass]]. When it's fired into the Earth Alliance fleet in episode 48, we get to see the crews of the ships screaming and writhing for about a second, as their space suits expand and pop. It's even worse when the weapon hits an Alliance lunar base, as we get to see several BridgeBunnies at their communications stations, clutching at their chests before blood sprays from their mouths and nostrils, and then they burst like balloons.

* Rau Le Creuset is one of the most chillingly realistic {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s ever presented by a TV show. Rau's horrible life caused by his abusive father and CloningBlues convinced him that HumansAreBastards and that [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum he must put everyone out of their misery, along with himself]]. The scary part? He's ''not wrong''. Considering all the racism and blind hatred fueling the wars (which both sides are aware of and DEFEND as virtuous, especially at their highest levels of authority), he has a very good claim for arguing his point. And it isn't even that he's blind to the capacity for good in humanity: he acknowledges virtue and idealism when he sees it, he just doesn't believe there's anywhere near ''enough'' of it to counteract the evils of humanity.

* Azrael's final VillainousBreakdown is pretty nightmarish. Finally losing the last bits of whatever sanity he had left, Azrael holds up all of the Dominion's BridgeBunnies ''at gunpoint'' to make sure they'd follow his orders while screaming like a maniac, beats up Flay when she tried to rebel, shoots Natarle ''four'' times after she managed to get her subordinates away from him, and prepares to fire the ship's cannon at the Archangel while ''twitching''.

In a span of two seasons the ''Gundam SEED'' franchise proved to be one of the darkest incarnations of Gundam.

* SEED was the first Gundam series to be broadcast in high definition, and to celebrate, the producers apparently decided to up the gore and horror content beyond anything previously attempted. Yikes.
* Several death scenes deserve special mention:
** Yzak Joule destroys a spacecraft carrying Heliopolis refugees including [[KillTheCutie a little girl]] that befriended Kira. This scene became more disturbing in the HD rerelease of the series where we see the people inside the spacecraft a second before dying.
** [[spoiler: Nicol Amalfi]] jumps out to save his friend [[spoiler: Athrun from Kira's {{BFS}}]]. He succeeds in a sense, but is not only bisected by a massive beam sword in the process, ''he has enough time to tell [[spoiler: Athrun]] to run away '''with the sword still in his gut''' before blood fills his visor, and his Gundam explodes.''
*** For even worse speculation, [[spoiler: his head may have [[YourHeadASplode burst open]] from heat from the beam part of the sword. In addition, the next episode still have his charred corpse seen by others.]]
** [[spoiler: Tolle Koenig]] tries doing the same thing for [[spoiler: Kira]], only this time in a plane. It accomplishes little, but he gets the gruesome honor of dying via a Gundam shield getting boomeranged into his cockpit and decapitating him.
* The ruins of Junius Seven are pretty gruesome. It's implied to be a lot worse than shown, but one scene shows the corpse of a mother still futilely shielding her baby's body even after they've been drifting in space for nearly a year. Given just how many people lived on the PLANT, there were probably entire regions littered with scenes like this.
* The Cyclops self-destruct system (a high-powered microwave weapon) and gamma ray KillSat GENESIS. Microwaves heat water, and given that the human body is about 60% water by weight, you can imagine what it does to people caught in its area of effect. GENESIS is basically RuleOfScary. When it's fired into the Earth Alliance fleet in episode 48, you get to see the crews of the ships screaming and writhing for about a second, as their space suits expand and pop. It's even worse when the weapon hits an Alliance lunar base, as we get to see several BridgeBunnies at their communications stations, clutching at their chests before blood sprays from their mouths and nostrils, and then they burst like balloons.

** The corpses we ''don't'' see are going to be even worse. Considering that the GINN's assault rifle fires 76mm rounds, we're well into ChunkySalsaRule territory here.
* Mendel. Dear Lord, Mendel. That place is implicit horror through the roof. The experiments held there, the blind ambition of the scientists that caused them to basically slaughter children ForScience, and the still functioning artificial wombs, still showing the embryo ultrasounds, is just sickening to the core. It doesn't help that it's [[spoiler: Rau Le Creuset]] who is narrating just what went down here, managing to make himself look more like a victim than a villain, once he recounts how he was born.
* And that's without getting into just how terrifying the villains on both sides are. Or [[spoiler:Rau Le Creuset]] who is one of the most chillingly realistic {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s ever presented by a TV show.
** Azrael's final VillainousBreakdown is pretty nightmarish.

* Mendel. Dear Lord Mendel. That place is implicit horror through the roof. The experiments held there, the blind ambition of the scientists that caused them to basically slaughter children ForScience, and the still functioning artificial wombs, still showing the embryo ultrasounds, is just sickening to the core. It doesn't help that it's [[spoiler: Rau Le Creuset]] who is narrating just what went down here, managing to make himself look more like a victim than a villain, once he recounts how he was born.

** In the original ''SEED'' series Yzak Joule destroys a spacecraft carrying Heliopolis refugees including [[KillTheCutie a little girl]] that befriended Kira. This scene became more disturbing in the HD rerelease of the series where we see the people inside the spacecraft a second before dying.

** In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'', a pilot of a Dagger L is shown getting the Impulse's combat knife slammed into his cockpit, decapitating him and spilling blood over the massive blade.
** [[spoiler: Djibril]] gets a particularly fitting one. As he prepares to abandon his men on the Lunar base the same way he did at Heaven's Base, [[spoiler: Rey Za Burrel]] bursts out of nowhere in the Legend and sends two sword DRAGOONS through the bridge of the ''Girty Lue''. It cuts to [[spoiler: [[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140127025247/gundam/images/6/63/Djibril_KIA.png Djibril]]]] screaming in agony and terror as his body is ripped apart by the beams.
** There was also [[spoiler: Mudie Holcroft's]] death in the Gundam Seed Stargazer OVA, where a pack of [[AnimalMecha BuCUE's]] dog-piled her mobile suit and stabbed her continually with their beam fangs. Her screams made it all the more disturbing.

** Speaking of Junius Seven, the opening scenes of the ''Stargazer'' OVA depict the initial fallout of the ColonyDrop involving said ruins. Up close. Large areas surrounding the impact sites are in total chaos, with survivors desperately trying to get out while aid efforts are severely hampered, in an unsettling parallel to certain hurricane disasters. [[FromBadToWorse Which is followed]] by a group of mobile suits proceeding to ''gun down everyone in the vicinity.''

** Azrael's final VillainousBreakdown is pretty nightmarish.
* When Shinn's family gets killed, all he's able to find is his little sister's arm, ripped clean from her body.
** And then there's what the bodies themselves look like when he does see them.
* Also, when the ''Minerva'' crew finds the lab at Lodonia, where they train the [[SuperSoldier Extendeds]], in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]''.
** This deserves explanation. When Shinn and Rey first enter the place, Rey has a full biological and nervous breakdown. Later, when the teams sweep in and start exploring, they find both scientists and kids who haven't even entered puberty yet, all dead from infighting. Some of them were still in tubes when they were shot or stabbed. The last room is filled with ''brains'', all stuffed into jars and jammed with probes, along with a computer detailing just what they did there.
* Myudi's death in Stargazer. Imagine being trapped in a mobile suit cockpit while three BuCUEs gouge to pieces with their beam fangs, moving closer and closer in until they finally have the courtesy to finish you of.
* Shinn Auska himself is a frightening concept. The closest thing in-setting to being a match for TheAce Kira Yamato, Shinn is most definitely ''not'' a TechnicalPacifist. Instead, he's a frothing mad berserker who is driven by pretty much an unrelenting, undying ''hatred'' of everything and everyone he sees as opposed to him. So you have a psychotic warrior who favors a {{BFS}} designed for cleaving spaceships in half, who won't stop until he has brutally murdered everything in sight, and will gladly disobey orders in his need to kill. And this character not only has access to a SuperMode that basically makes him capable of outfighting anyone who doesn't have the same trait, but is also driving one of the deadliest mobile suits in the series for most of the series.
* The Mobile Suit GFAS-X1 Destroy Gundam. It is the ''biggest'' mobile suit in the entire series, capable of crushing another mobile suit underfoot without even noticing. It packs three different kinds of {{Wave Motion Gun}}s, [[GatlingGood multiple chainguns]], [[BeamSpam a diverse array of lasers]] and combat drones to become the most powerful landbased WeaponOfMassDestruction in the series. Just ''one'' of these things slaughtered its way singlehandedly across Eurasia, burning entire cities and armies to molten vapor without even slowing down. Making things worse, the Destroy is initially piloted by a totally psychotic ChildSoldier who, driven by fear and an incomprehension of the existence of any other person, will kill the entire world without thinking about it.