Characters / Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Main Characters

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Character Index
SEED Main Characters | SEED Destiny Main Characters
Factions: Three Ship Alliance/Terminal/Compass | Earth Alliance | ZAFT | Orb Union | Kingdom of Foundation
Others: Other factions and characters

Spoilers for all previous Gundam entries in the Cosmic Era continuity, including Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, will be left unmarked.

Main Characters from the Cosmic Era - Introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

From bottom-left: Kira Yamato, Lacus Clyne, Athrun Zala, Cagalli Yula Athha

Kira Yamato

Affiliation: Earth Alliance (SEED) → Three Ships Alliance/Terminal & Orb Union (SEED and SEED Destiny) → ZAFT (End of SEED Destiny) → Compass (SEED Freedom)

Rank: Ensign (Earth Alliance), Ensign → Admiral (Orb), White Uniform/Commander (ZAFT), Brigadier General (Compass)

Main mecha: GAT-X105 Strike Gundam (SEED), ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam (SEED, SEED Destiny), ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam (SEED Destiny), STTS-909 "Rising Freedom" Gundam (SEED Freedom), ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam Type II (SEED Freedom), ZGMF/A-262PD-P Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam (SEED Freedom)

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese); Matt Hill [Ocean dub], Max Mittelman [NYAV Post dub] (English)

Kira in SEED Freedom

^{Click here to see Kira in SEED
Click here to see Kira in SEED Destiny}

"If you just did nothing because you thought it wouldn't help, than you'd end up doing less than nothing. Because nothing would change."

"I don't want to kill anymore, and I will not let others kill."

The main protagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, who was attending a technical college on Heliopolis when the series began. Naturally, he ends up Falling into the Cockpit of the Strike Gundam. He's a Coordinator, which he attempts to hide at first, but it quickly comes out into the open. Kira undergoes the most Character Development of anyone in the series; starting as a somewhat goofy but generally normal kid, he forces himself to become cold and nearly mechanical in order to deal with the realities of war, but eventually breaks out of this and becomes much more idealistic (but no less determined) before the series ends.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Kira returns to action following a botched assassination attempt upon Lacus. His general disillusionment and inability to trust both sides of the conflict put him at odds with Athrun, Shinn and the rest of the new cast. He eventually regains his position as the main character, and leads an independent faction (a collection of Orb soldiers loyal to Cagalli and various defectors from both OMNI and ZAFT) against Durandal. Compared to the angsty teen prone to emotional fits two years ago, this time he's much more emotionally stable.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Kira returns as its main protagonist once again. He now serves for Compass alongside his former rival Shinn.

---

• The Ace: Several characters have noted that even amongst fellow Coordinators, Kira stands out as being on a level above them in talent, both in studies and in combat. This is because he was intended to be this as the Ultimate Coordinator.
• Ace Pilot: He's the main character in a Gundam show. So of course he ends up achieving this status, and quickly at that. By the time he gets his hands on his first Bigger Stick, he is among the most skilled pilots in the entire series.
• Adaptational Self-Defense: In the HD Remaster of SEED, Nicol Amalfi's death was changed into an accident; in the original, Kira instinctively swung his sword in self defense, but in the HD Remaster, Nicol runs into Kira's sword. The novel (which follows the original airing) stated that Kira's reflexes in SEED Mode was so great that he instinctively destroyed the Blitz Gundam and killed Nicol and only realized what he done after the fact.
• Ambiguous Situation: In SEED Freedom it's stated that Kira isn't an "Ultimate Coordinator", but a failed Accord. It's unclear if it means he's a failed attempted Ultimate Coordinator, a failed attempted/Flawed Prototype Accord, or unworthy of "Ultimate Coordinator" compared to the superior Accords. Moreover the source of this may have just been taunting him and was definitely biased, the novelization showing Aura had grudge and jealousy against the Ultimate Coordinator creator Hibiki who rejected her ideals.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In SEED, Kira eventually becomes one for Rau Le Creuset, who views Kira as like himself: a product of humanities' hubris.
  • In SEED Destiny, Shinn and later Rey see him as this. Initially, Kira doesn't notice these a lot; he eventually clues in on both, he seriously tries to eliminate Shinn later and culminates an inverse Breaking Speech against Rey. By the time of SEED Freedom, Kira and Shinn have buried the hatchet, working together in the same side in Compass, they have nothing but respect to each other now, Kira even choosing Shinn to pilot the Immortal Justice Gundam in Athrun's stead and Shinn respecting Kira to the point of trying to adopt Kira's no-kill policy.
  • In SEED Freedom, he becomes one for Orphee. Them stealing his girl Lacus makes the animosity even personal.
• Animal Motifs: Kira can be compared with doves, which represents peace, freedom, and love. His uniforms (except for the OMNI one) are clad in white, his MS (barring the Strike) have the name "Freedom" on them, and his final MS has a pair of (mostly) white wings. Together with Lacus, they're heavily associated with the Jian bird instead.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's an Orb Admiral by the end of SEED Destiny. Given that he's also willing to turn on anyone who disturbs the world's peace, this makes sense: if he's going to act on his own, why not make it legal for him? He doesn't really exercise his authority though, and only once (nervously) issues an order (for the Archangel, Athrun and Mu to deal with Requiem). They mostly take it as a request from a friend and ally, rather than an order from a superior. In SEED Freedom, he still has the highest rank in Compass, Brigadier General.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: As a Coordinator, Kira is genetically modified to have faster learning abilities than Naturals. His most impressive feats using this trope are the battles in the desert, where he was able to adjust the Strike's settings for desert combat and execute impressive combat strategies against more experienced soldiers.
• Backpack Cannon:
  • In SEED, the Launcher Strike is equipped with a large beam launcher connected to it Striker Pack and the Freedom has twin beam cannons in its wings attached to back main thruster.
  • In SEED Freedom, the Rising Freedom has twin beam cannons mounted in the wing unit that swing out similar to the original Freedom, as opposed to its successors chest mounted single cannon. According to one of the model kit PVs these are the latest variants of the "Agni" cannon the Launcher Strike had, as opposed to the original Freedom's "Baleena" cannons.
• Badass Bookworm: Before he was a mobile suit pilot, he was an engineering student and he still mainly relies on his brains in battle.
• Badass on Paper: Inverted when read as a Badass Mentor on Paper. Kira's personality and history makes him theoretically one of the least qualified people to mentor Shinn. In practice in Freedom, Kira's leadership and treatment of Shinn is so great that his protégé has become a much better person who is almost unrecognizable from the vengeful young man he used to be.
• Bash Brothers: He's nigh-unstoppable when taking the field, but it's practically impossible to even touch Kira when Athrun has his back. Their units even cover the weaknesses of each other, with the Infinite Justice being optimized for Athrun's specialty in close combat, taking care of high-speed foes like the Destiny Gundam while the Strike Freedom is able to wipe out long-ranged entrenchments that would otherwise be difficult to approach. He becomes this with Shinn in SEED Freedom.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Kira prefers to disarm enemy MS ever since he received the original Freedom from Lacus but he won't hesitate to kill if the situation calls for it:
  • Zigzagged with his killing of Rau at the end of SEED. On one hand, this was done as payback for killing Flay. On the other hand, this is due to Rau being an Omnicidal Maniac who secretly manipulated both the Alliance and ZAFT into killing each other with WMDs at their disposal.
  • Played straight in SEED Destiny, where Kira stabbed the Destroy's Super Scylla before it could further lay waste on Berlin, causing its cockpit to explode and killing Stella as a result. To be fair for him though, he has no other choice and is clearly not happy doing so, seeing it as Dirty Business.
  • At the climax of SEED Freedom, Kira and Lacus nuked the Foundation's fleet with the Mighty Strike Freedom's Disruptor without a second thought. Considering the fact that the Foundation is planning to bring back the late Durandal's Destiny Plan for their racist ambitions, Kira has a very good reason for killing them this time.
• Battle Boomerang: The Sword Strike has one mounted on its left shoulder armor.
• Battle Couple: With Lacus in SEED Freedom by piloting the Mighty Strike Freedom together.
• Beam Spam: All of his Freedom units are capable of this.
  • The Freedom is equipped with a multi-lock targeting system, allowing Kira to make full use of all of its ranged weapons (a beam rifle, a pair of wing mounted beam cannons and another pair of hip-mounted railguns) at once. The spray of red, yellow and green beams this creates is one of the most iconic images in SEED.
  • The Strike Freedom too, which includes the very same DRAGOONs that gave him so much trouble at the end of SEED two years ago against Le Creuset and his Providence.
  • The Rising Freedom and Strike Freedom Type II. The Rising Freedom’s beam spam is identical to the original Freedom, but it also adds the Rising Freedom launching its shield at the target. It’s also downplayed though, due to the Rising Freedom being battery powered, in comparison to the nuclear powered Freedom and Strike Freedom. It's subverted with the Mighty Strike Freedom, as the machine was too damaged to do the traditional Freedom Full Burst, losing a railgun and both rifles, but theoretically it could also do the beam spam as well.
• Benevolent Boss: In SEED Freedom, Shinn was quite happy and relaxed under Kira's command as he isn't a toxic friend who fueled his anger and rage to be a The Brute of the Big Bad (Rey), a smooth talker who ropes him into an evil agenda using recognition and positive reinforcement (Durandal) or a superior officer who will punish or berate him with minimal explanation (Athrun). It also helps that Kira is more than willing to trust Shinn important responsibilities like protecting their mothership without any hesitation.
• Betty and Veronica: Flay and Lacus are portrayed as a "bad girl" and a "good girl" so strongly that Kira seems to have a Madonna-Whore Complex about them, especially given the negative effects of having a sexual relationship with Flay.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Being a Coordinator, Kira's a lot stronger, faster, and more agile than he looks, so trying to pick a fistfight with him is a bad idea.
• BFG: The Launcher Striker's 320mm Agni hyper impulse cannon and the Freedom's MMI-M15 "Xiphas" Railguns and M100 "Balaena" Plasma Beam Cannons.
• BFS: The Sword Striker's anti-ship sword, which is over fifteen meters long.
• Big Brother Instinct: In SEED Destiny. Whether he's the older one isn't yet confirmed, but it doesn't stop him from looking out for Cagalli. Such as by turning up in his mobile suit and kidnapping her from her own wedding, stopping her from marrying a Jerkass. Part of the reason he rips into Athrun later is mostly because of how he's hurting Cagalli at the time, showing he'll even protect her from Athrun if he must.
• Big Damn Hero: Plenty of times, he swoops in like an angel to save someone, and he does this even more after receiving the Freedom.
• Big Damn Kiss:
  • In SEED, he has a negative example at the start of his troubled relationship with Flay.
  • At the end of SEED Freedom, a positive example when he finally kiss Lacus on the lips.
• Bigger Stick: His second Gundam, the Freedom, is a top of the line machine that won't be outclassed until the latter stages of SEED Destiny. And then he got the Strike Freedom, the latter being totally superior to any Gundam save perhaps the Infinite Justice, the Legend, and the Destiny.
• Blade Catch: In his rematch with Shinn in his new Strike Freedom in SEED Destiny, Kira uses his new forearm-mounted beam shields to block and grab the Destiny's anti-ship sword before blasting it with the Freedom's railguns to get the Destiny to let go of the weapon. It's worth mentioning that this should not have worked... had he tried it on anyone else. Shinn had been on a downward spiral for a while, and that Kira managed to pull this trick off on him says a lot about how far he's fallen. It even seems like Kira was trying to teach a lesson to Shinn, the same way a more experienced soldier might do to a rookie to demonstrate the flaws in their technique. Shinn certainly seemed to think so.
  Shinn: If that had been a beam (sword), this fight would be over now... is that what this is, a lesson?!
• Born Winner: Not just a Coordinator, but the Ultimate Coordinator, and also capable of activating SEED mode.
• Breaking Speech: Inflicts one on Rey in SEED Destiny, triggering his Villainous Breakdown.
• Broken Ace: Despite being possibly the best pilot in the show, he isn't able to save everyone he attempts to save and experiences a lot of trauma because of it.
• Brought Down to Badass: In SEED Freedom, the second war's aftermath reinstates the Junius Treaty, which forbids the use of nuclear reactors for war. In order to save energy, the interim suit, called the Rising Freedom does away with the Attack Drone wings, the speed of the Voiture Lumiere's Wings of the Skies, and the Deflector Shields of the Strike Freedom, for a more conventional loadout... and Kira still hasn't lost his touch.
• But Now I Must Go: Immediately after the defeat of the Foundation at the end of SEED Freedom, Kira, with Lacus in the Mighty Strike Freedom, goes to a random beach on Earth without informing anyone. The novelization of the movie clarifies that they went MIA but it also heavily implies that Athrun and Cagalli knew where they are but the other couple chooses to keep it quiet.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Deconstructed. His refusal to tell Flay about his feelings for her (she was already taken at first, but even after she began to manipulate him he still didn't say anything) results in pain for him, especially when they finally reunite and Rau immediately kills her before Kira can say anything.
  • Similarly in SEED Freedom, his habit of trying to shoulder everything on his own and not wanting to burden Lacus means that while the two are close, they're not as close as they could be, resulting in both himself and Lacus feeling insecure about their relationship despite genuinely loving each other. Athrun has to point out that Kira needs to actually talk to Lacus rather than simply assuming that she had genuinely abandoned him for Orphee.
• Category Traitor: Aside from the non-military Lacus, almost everybody Kira meets has something to say about Kira being a Coordinator fighting other Coordinators (and fighting for the people who range from not liking Coordinators to wanting them all dead), even though he emphatically does not want to join ZAFT, either. (Cagalli calls him out for being an Orb national fighting for the Atlantic Federation.) Kira is well aware of how fighting for "the other side" looks, and the desperation of his choice to protect the Archangel and his Natural friends, and it contributes to his unhappiness for the "Strike" part of the show.
• Character Check: In SEED Freedom, several of Kira's slightly negative character traits from SEED, which were totally absent in SEED Destiny return here. Specifically him trying to shoulder all the burden himself (despite him having a whole squad now) becoming possessive and protective of a love interest (Flay in SEED, Lacus here) and lashing out at his friends when the stress of all that gets to be too much for him unlike Sai though, Athrun can match Kira physically when it turns violent.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Though Kira's superficially based on original Gundam pilot Amuro Ray from Mobile Suit Gundam, the two have very little in common. They're both technical geniuses, emotional characters, and protagonists, but where Amuro initially had one real friend, Kira has several who are very important to him. Amuro infamously fought with his commanding officer and deserted; Kira was nothing but supportive of Murrue and the AA and vice-versa. A distraught Amuro spent the series deciding against a Relationship Upgrade with his good friend Frau; a distraught Kira decides to sleep with his crush Flay very early on. Amuro also fully awakens into a powerful Newtype by the end of his series; Kira only starts to awaken into the Cosmic Era equivalent at the end of his, principally because of the downplayed nature of Newtypes in the Cosmic Era. The vast difference in temperaments and reactions between them outweigh the few glancing similarities.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In the Battle of JOSH-A in SEED, Kira in his newly acquired Freedom, quickly defeats Yzak in his Duel in seconds.
  • In the Battle of Crete in SEED Destiny, Kira in his Freedom again, inflicts two of those in quick succession: one against Sting in his Chaos Gundam and the second one against Athrun, completely destroying his Saviour in the process.
• Custom Uniform:
  • In SEED Destiny, he wears a variant of the Orb pilot suit that's blue with pink accents instead of gray with pale green accents.
  • In SEED Freedom, his Compass pilot suit is blue with pale red highlights, though his helmet is mostly white.
• Death from Above: The Freedom is the first Gundam shown to be capable of full-flight capabilities under the atmosphere in mobile suit mode in SEED (most Mooks and the first Gundams have to use sub-flight lifters). It's a subversion actually, as Kira acquiring the Freedom marks the start of his staunch aversion to killing people (if he can help it); he sticks to strictly disarming and disabling mobile suits from that point forward.
• Deflector Shields: The Strike Freedom and its variants have a pair of wrist-mounted beam shield generators. The Strike Freedom Type II also has them built in their Super DRAGOONs, forming a force field similar to the Nu Gundam's Fin Funnel Barrier, or the Planet Defensors on the Mercurius and the Virgo series of Mobile Dolls.
• Destructive Romance: With Flay, lampshaded with the portrayal of their first kiss as a Mythology Gag of the one between Amuro Ray and Beltorchika Irma in Zeta Gundam, whose subsequent relationship is equally unhealthy and unpleasant. Flay then apparently takes advantage of Kira's attraction to her while he's grieving over failing to save civilians, although he views it as "she was being kind to me and held me" and he sees her as the only one who was willing to comfort him to such lengths. They both betray Sai in the process and Kira proceeds to become the nastiest he's ever been portrayed, grabbing the Jerkass Ball. Although he never finds out about her Unwitting Pawn manipulation of him, the relationship still tends to make Kira very anxious, and Flay is not the best emotional support for him, finally leading Kira to break it off. However, while she eventually develops genuine feelings for him, it's unclear whether Kira feels the same way or whether he simply feels guilt and shame about her instead. It lets him turn down an ostensibly much more ideal partner in Lacus in this series and in the next one is potentially responsible for keeping that relationship static. Whether Flay is a Lost Lenore for Kira is questionable, but she is definitely an I Let Gwen Stacy Die, and it's the destructive rage he then feels in the wake that lets him kill Rau and survive.
• Disappeared Dad: His adoptive father Haruma isn't seen or mentioned at all in SEED Destiny, and there's no word of what happened to him.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: And he's got very good reason not to in SEED Destiny, what with ZAFT and EA-controlled ORB having hurt his lover and sister, respectively, narrowly saving them from the ill fates that almost befell them.
• Dual Wielding: Although most Gundams in the series possess two beam sabers, Kira only really starts dual-wielding the beam sabers with the Freedom. The beam sabers can also combine into a Double Weapon, but Kira only does in the Final Battle of SEED. In the Strike Gundam, Kira dual wields the Armor Schneider knives quite often. In SEED Destiny, this continues to be Kira's preferred style in melee combat, though he doesn't get to use this quite as often with the Freedom because it required him to discard his shield (his only means of defense) in order to draw his second beam saber. The Strike Freedom removes this problem because it has built-in beam shield generators in its forearms. Kira uses it one last time during the Final Battle in SEED Freedom with a beam saber and a MS-size katana.
• The Dreaded: In SEED Destiny, the reactions of everyone on both sides when the Freedom reappears would indicate that he's achieved this status. From the point of view of Shinn and the Minerva crew, he's effectively a Hero Killer. When Shinn and Luna meet him at the end of the series, they're shocked that the suit's pilot is a kind, soft-spoken young man not much different from themselves.
• Drone Deployer: The Strike Freedom has eight DRAGOONs.
• Dynamic Entry: He does this a lot. Say what you will, the man knows how to make an entrance.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Kira is a generally very self-sacrificing Nice Guy who just wants peace in the world and his life, and after he gets the Freedom after his Duel to the Death with Athrun he even makes the decision not to have any more "enemies" — however he can't avoid Rau Le Creuset, who existentially despises him, and in turn it's explicitly Kira's rage and despair after Rau's killing of Flay that he then uses to narrowly kill Le Creuset.
• Eye Colour Change: Two temporary examples of this occurs to Kira in SEED Freedom:
  • While piloting the Rising Freedom, his eyes turn red due to being manipulated by the Foundation.
  • After unlocking the Disruptor with Lacus aboard the Mighty Strike Freedom with both their SEED Mode active, she asks Kira to link his consciousness to hers while closing her eyes, Kira's eyes change to Lacus' blue at the moment.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Actually thrown in by Murrue Ramius in order to save his life during the ZAFT commando raid on Heliopolis.
• False Friend: Kira has no idea of the true loathing and anger Flay initially brings to their Destructive Romance or her desire to manipulate him, and partly due to her Becoming the Mask, he never does find out.
• Friend Versus Lover: Due to the strains of combat and not being aware of ulterior motives on her part, he ends up in an abrupt sexual relationship with his crush Flay, who happened to be in an arranged relationship with his good friend Sai Argyle. It's both the most inappropriate thing Kira does and the nastiest he gets, grabbing the Jerkass Ball and taking it out on Sai emotionally and physically. Sai is understandably first horrified, upset, and angry, then avoids them both for awhile, before eventually forgiving him.
• Forgiveness: Forgives both Athrun and Yzak, even choosing to spare the latter (who shot down a shuttle full of civilians) in the middle of a battle. By the time of SEED Freedom, he also forgives Shinn and the two are now working together in Compass.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Athrun, downplayed. Kira has Birdy with him constantly, yet hasn't been in touch with Athrun at all since they saw each other a couple of years ago. He might not have been so surprised Athrun was in ZAFT, otherwise.
• Four-Star Badass: Holds the rank of Admiral in the Orb military at the end of SEED Destiny, and is revealed to have become a ZAFT commander in the finale. In SEED Freedom, he is holding the rank of Brigadier General, the highest in Compass military.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
  • At the Battle of Crete in SEED Destiny, he inflicts a Mobile Suit version of this on Athrun for not understanding Cagalli at the time and that he hurts her, destroying Athrun's Saviour completely. Athrun took the time to reflect on Kira's words and ultimately chose to return to them.
  • In SEED Freedom, the roles are reversed and Athrun has to beat Kira out of his non-sense, resulting in a one-sided brawl in Athrun's favor.
• The Gloves Come Off: Against Athrun after Tolle dies. One could make the case that it happens again when Le Creuset guns down Flay in front of him.
• Gold and White Are Divine: The Mighty Strike Freedom is predominantly white with notable golden accents and is Kira's most powerful Gundam to date.
• Good Is Not Soft: In "Final Light", Kira uses the METEOR Unit Beam Sword to cut an enormous warship in half, completely destroying it without hesitation, an exception to his vow to avoid killing. It's the middle of a fight against a Guilt-Free Extermination War, though.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: In SEED Destiny, unlike Athrun, very few people know who Kira is, much less the role he played in the last war^note  The Earth Federation was loathe to admit that their best pilot was a Coordinator, and after the Strike went down they listed him as MIA and then buried the file. That Durandal and Rey seem to know is an early hint of their connection to Rau Le Creuset.
• Happily Adopted: His parents are actually his aunt and uncle, but he doesn't find out until much later. Still, he seems quite happy with them and well adjusted before the war breaks him.
• Heartbroken Badass: During the final battle of SEED, he fails to save Flay. He turns his sorrow into anger to take down the Big Bad.
• The Hero: A kind-hearted young man who wants to protect his friends and bring peace. In SEED Destiny, quickly resumes this spot post-perspective flip and keep the status in SEED Freedom.
• Hero Antagonist: Before the perspective flip of SEED Destiny. He's trying to bring a quick end to the conflict, but his questionable methods put him in direct confrontation with Athrun and Shinn.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When Rey announces himself as Rau Le Creuset in SEED Destiny, Kira experiences a rush of rapid fire flashbacks in a fit of PTSD.
  • In SEED Freedom, Kira suffers a slow burning one that ultimately picks up when the Foundation turns against Compass and it seems that Lacus has joined them. Athrun has to beat it out of him.
• Heroic Safe Mode: He lives one during the middle part of the series, as he shuts his emotions down in order to cope with the ravages of the war.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: During the series' mid-point it doesn't matter how good Kira is or how much the others praise him: he can't live up to the only person whose standards matter to him, namely, his own.
• Hero Killer: To ZAFT, as he managed to take down several ZAFT aces (most notably, Miguel Aiman, Andrew Waltfeld, and Nicol Amalfi) as the Strike's pilot. In fact, Athrun gets the highest military award simply on the virtue of being the ZAFT pilot to have taken him down.
  • Inverted in SEED Destiny. He's a heroic character who utterly terrifies our antivillainous protagonists.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: In SEED Destiny, when Kira's interventions, while with good intentions, only earn him the ire of the Earth Alliance, ORB, and ZAFT for damaging their mobile suits, getting Heine killed, and getting Shinn to hate Kira more. Athrun even calls him out for it.
  • He has a downplayed versison of this trope initially in SEED Freedom. The world leaders complain that Kira Yamato has a tendency to disable his allies when they retaliate against retreating troops, not helping that said men that Kira spared are Blue Cosmos members. Played straight when Kira was thought to have violated several agreements trying to chase down Michael while Kira himself was under mind control, which was all part of the Foundation's plan.
• He's Back!: When he and the Freedom interrupt the Battle of JOSH-A, it signals that he has recovered from his Heroic BSoD as a new man (with a new suit of armor).
  • Happens again in SEED Destiny, his return aboard the Strike Freedom, having been thought of as KIA by Shinn and the Minerva left Shinn in utter shock.
  • And again in SEED Freedom when he opens a communications channel with Aura, taunts her on air, and gets her to fire the Requiem at him.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Despite their extensive long-range arsenal, both the Freedom and Strike Freedom were actually geared more towards high-speed, anti-battlion combat, constantly zipping around the battlefield neutralizing many enemies as quickly as possible.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Mostly in SEED Destiny.
  • Kira's Honor Before Reason nearly gets him killed by Shinn. The latter spends his time watching over Kira's actions and realizes how he just disables his opponents rather than kill them and uses it to his advantage, allowing him to develop a plan that uses it against him.
  • He returns the favor in their next match by using Shinn's aggressive and heavy-handed fighting style against him; Using hit-n-run tactics keep out of his reach and provoke Shinn into making mistakes.
• Honor Before Reason: Halfway through SEED he decides stopping one's enemies without murdering them may be difficult, but doing otherwise would just breed more hatred and thus not bring an end to war. In fact, his aim, skill and ridiculous arsenal mean avoiding killing his opponents is eventually but a mere inconvenience to him, though it's also implied no one else can manage to do it. Though noble in intention, it veers into Reckless Pacifist territory, which Athrun points out in his What the Hell, Hero? speech. Shinn later uses it against him to destroy the Freedom. In subsequent fights he's more active in getting rid of Shinn, frequently aiming for his cockpit. Even then, he refuses to pursue Shinn whenever the latter backs down, and passes up a few killshots.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In SEED. A lot of trauma is involved in Kira's poor decision-making, but after being fully-informed that his crush Flay is shallow, hysterical, self-serving and racist against him, he convinces himself that he is her Bigotry Exception, she is the one best qualified to comfort him, and that they should not only have sex but she should be his girlfriend. Athrun hangs a bit of a lampshade on it later (without even knowing about Flay) by mentioning Kira is "naive" and does things "without thinking".
• I Am a Monster: In the added post-credits scene of HD Remaster of the episode he learns of his origins as the Ultimate Coordinator, as expected, he begins to buy Rau's accusation of being a freak born of hubris like him, thinking he shouldn't have been born, making him feel even more desperate than being considered the Category Traitor of the first half of the show. Lacus reassures him of his right to exist and be his own person, and says she's happy being with him.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In SEED Destiny, his killing of Stella. From Kira's perspective, Stella was completely out of control and was about to fire her Destroy's triple Wave-Motion Gun that would have destroyed him, Shinn, and possibly the Minerva, along with probably dozens more civilians that could have still been in the Destroy's line of fire. Kira cripples the gigantic MS and mortally wounds Stella — his expression in the aftermath is one of regret and pity. However, what Kira doesn't realize is Shinn had broken through and had had Stella calmed, and it's Kira's/Freedom's intrusive and frightening presence that triggered her again – and a grieving and vengeful Shinn does not thank him for it.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Flay's death really hits him hard, all the more so because she is killed right in front of him during battle. To a lesser degree, the shuttle that Yzak shot down also haunts him.
• Implied Love Interest: The official status of his relationship with Lacus throughout SEED Destiny is "more than friends, less than lovers". By the end of SEED Freedom, it stops being implied, complete with a Big Damn Kiss.
• Insecure Love Interest: Both he and Lacus suffers from this in SEED Freedom. When he saw Lacus together with Orphee, laughing, Kira realized that he hadn't seen her smile in a while, because she always looked at him with anxiety and sadness; believing that he is the source of her pain and sorrow, that he isn't worthy to take her hand in a peaceful world with his bloodstained hands, Kira wonders whether leaving Lacus with Orphee, who claims that he could bring peace and had shown to be able to make her happy - to be the correct decision. Kira hearing a faint confirmation of Lacus allowing the Black Knights to attack him, along with her seemingly going with Foundation, served as the straw that broke the camel's back.
• Interrupted Cooldown Hug: As mentioned in I Did What I Had to Do, Kira unwittingly creates this situation with his presence when Stella Loussier is in the Destroy; while Stella was extremely happy and relieved to recognize Shinn to the point of them having a Newtype moment; the sight of the Freedom triggered her and forced Kira to fire first. Shinn ends up using the generated rage, resentment, and trauma to take out the Freedom.
• Invincible Hero:
  • Averted in SEED where he gets defeated by Athrun and his unit often gets damaged, even the Freedom.
  • Played straighter in SEED Destiny where Kira is only defeated twice in the series, both while piloting an older mobile suit than his foes, and handicapped by his Technical Pacifist tendencies. Once he gets his Mid-Season Upgrade to the Strike Freedom, he's never even damaged in combat.
  • Very downplayed in SEED Freedom. Kira in the Rising Freedom makes short work of the Blue Cosmos remnants but the MS got wrecked during the Foundation's ambush. Later, Kira still had a tough time fighting Orphee even after busting out an upgraded version of his old Strike Freedom Cagalli provided. Both times, Athrun had to bail him out. Once Lacus docks the Proud Defender into his MS, however, the fight quickly became a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor.
• Ironic Name: "Kira" comes from the Japanese Ranguage pronunciation for "killer". Kira would rather disarm enemy MS and is not the type of guy who enjoys killing at all.
• It Gets Easier: Ultimately subverted. As someone who's not a trained soldier, Kira initially finds it very difficult to kill people and only adjusts out of sheer necessity... before later deciding to avoid killing if at all possible given his Taking a Third Option and greatly updated ride with Freedom's capabilities.
• It's All My Fault: His central character arc in SEED Freedom. He feels he can't protect anyone. Athrun has to beat him up to snap him out of it.
• It's Personal: With Athrun after Tolle's death and Le Creuset after Flay's.
• Jerkass Ball: Grabs this to deal with Sai after sleeping with Flay, twisting Sai's arm behind his back and telling Sai he has no chance in a fight with him. (Remember Sai was a far better friend to him than Flay, originally.) Only somewhat justified given the major PTSD Kira was going through — as he said, Flay was the only one who was kind to him and held him.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The Mighty Strike Freedom has the "Futsunomitama" longsword mounted on its backpack, which Kira used to deliver the final blow on Orphee's Cal-re.A.
• Lady and Knight: The White Knight to Lacus Clyne's Bright Lady; he is a noble individual who is fighting on her behalf in a suit of armor she gave him to protect others (twice) and bring an end to the war.
• The Lady's Favour: Lacus gives Kira a ring before the final battle of SEED. The compilation movies imply it might have been her mother's.
• Laser Cutter: The Mighty Strike Freedom has a laser/beam weapon located in the middle of its V-fin capable of cleanly cutting through an entire space fortress and the entire space fleet hiding behind it in one emission.
• The Leader: In SEED Freedom, he's the commander of the appropriately named Yamato Team.
• Legendary in the Sequel: Played with as while his exploits from the first war make him legendary world wide as the pilot of the mighty Freedom Gundam, nobody outside of his immediate circle, Orb's military (because they actually served with him) and people privy to the whole truth of what happened in SEED like Rey and Durandal, know who Kira Yamato is. Just that Freedom's pilot is a legendary ace who helped end the war. Kira being the Ultimate Coordinator, best friend of ZAFT ace Athrun Zala, partner of Lacus Clyne and brother of Orb princess Cagalli Yula Athha is not public knowledge, implied to be at Kira's request to keep the truth of the Ultimate Coordinator project secret. It's not even known he was also the pilot of the Strike Gundam before defecting from the Earth Alliance, the official story is that the pilot died fighting the Aegis Gundam. This actually causes problems when Kira starts opposing ZAFT who is using a Meer as a fake Lacus figurehead, as nobody who's not already in Durandal's pocket knows the truth and thus doesn't find it suspect that Lacus Clyne's biggest champion is for some reason fighting against them.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Freedom and especially the Strike Freedom. The latter is equipped with the same "Voiture Lumière" propulsion system used in the Destiny, and has its own variant of the Wings of Light (minus the afterimages). During its maiden flight, the Strike Freedom singlehandedly disabled 25 ZAKUs and GOUFs in just two minutes.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Played with, apparently as a continuation from the last part of SEED and the two years that have followed. Kira seems to need Lacus in order to function, sees his role as protecting her and panics repeatedly at the thought of her leaving, and makes at least one ill-founded decision solely on something he overheard from her — however despite Lacus's seemingly constant presence and support, Kira has not improved at all between the five-minute Interquel and the beginning of SEED Destiny. You can draw a parallel between him and her and Rey with Shinn, although Kira at least has to finally try and function uncomfortably by himself for a period of time. SEED Freedom explores what happened when he thought Lacus has abandoned him, with Kira practically regressing back to his SEED self until Athrun snapped him out of it.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
  • Played straight in SEED. Both the Strike and the Freedom feature a shield. Kira makes extensive use of both of them. The Sword Striker's shield has an added feature of being able to fire a grapple line.
  • In SEED Destiny, averted at first. The Freedom's shield is a fairly mundane physical shield with a limited defense against both solid and beam attacks, and is the only area of performance in which the Freedom is lacking in comparison to the present time Gundams. This is normally not a problem considering Kira often ditches it anyway as he engages in Dual Wielding his beam sabers. And it doesn't help protect the Freedom in its final battle with the Impulse anyway, considering the latter's anti-ship sword just pierces through it. Fixed with the Strike Freedom, which has two beam shields installed in its forearms.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: His relationship with the wise, virtuous, and loving Lacus is completely chaste compared to his choice of a troubled sexual one with vice-ridden Flay. Late in the series, Kira has a flashback of a nude Flay embracing him when Lacus is with him instead; he recoils, and when Lacus eventually seems to wish for some form of Relationship Upgrade, all Kira can do is tell her to stay safe and return her earlier cheek kiss. By the end of SEED Freedom, he finally accepts Lacus as his partner, complete with a Big Damn Kiss.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Mad Scientist's Handsome Son and subverted. While his father, Ulen, is definitely a Mad Scientist, he didn't grow up with him; nor even know him, and thus never betrayed him.
• Martial Pacifist: He'd much rather talk things out than fight over it. This being Gundam, it doesn't work out that way. He'll take you apart if you push the issue though.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Gentle Nice Guy Kira and the very boisterous, brash Tomboy Princess Cagalli, who are also fraternal twins.
• Meaningful Name: His surname can refer to the Yamato period, the legendary prince Yamato Takeru, and the Japanese battleship Yamato. It also means "great harmony" if written in kanji.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: The Strike, which is heavily upgraded with one of its three Striker packs. The Strike Freedom Type II is apparently capable of this, as it's shown to be capable of detaching its "Voiture Lumiere" wings to allow it to dock with the Proud Defender.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • In SEED, he gains the Freedom from Lacus as Athrun had basically destroyed the Strike.
  • In SEED Destiny, he gets the Strike Freedom. On top of having virtually everything the Freedom has (which was already on par with the most advanced mobile suits of the time despite being two years old), it has updated specs and an OS specifically designed for Kira along with beam shields (which gave him additional melee weapons and better defense) and DRAGOONs to cover its backside (which can be deployed to attack from multiple directions when in space). While the Freedom was already incredibly fast, the Strike Freedom is implied to be even faster, having no problems keeping up with the all-purpose Destiny Gundam. Combined with Kira's own superior skills, he is able to take on Shinn and Rey with their respective Bigger Sticks at once, although only for a short time before being overwhelmed.
  • In SEED Freedom, Kira gets two after losing the Rising Freedom Gundam. First, Cagalli provides him his upgraded Strike Freedom Gundam Type II and later, with the Proud Defender docked, it becomes the Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam, probably the most powerful Mobile Suit of the Cosmic Era so far.
• Multiform Balance: The Strike. Aile Striker is more or less a Jack of All Stats, while the Launcher Striker is a Mighty Glacier with heavier weaponry but less mobility, and the Sword Striker is a borderline Lightning Bruiser (not quite as fast as the Aile, but faster than the Launcher) balanced by the fact that it lacks ranged firepower.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In SEED, Kira telling Flay there's no way she can pilot the Strike is virtually identical to what Amuro Ray told his best friend Frau in the original series, but where Amuro was coming off an Achilles in His Tent situation and then received a You Are Better Than You Think You Are from her, ending in a positive moment, Kira was on the verge of returning to civilian life and ends up entangled in the war and in a Destructive Romance with Flay, symbolized with their questionable First Kiss.
  • The Strike Freedom in SEED Destiny was modelled after the Hi-Nu Gundam, from the novelization of Char's Counterattack.
  • Two of them in episode 39 of SEED Destiny:
    • Kira disabling 25 ZAKUs and GOUFs in his first sortie in the Strike Freedom was a deliberate nod to Amuro destroying nine Rick Doms in under three minutes in an episode of Mobile Suit Gundam. Also, Kira shouts "HIT THEM!" when activating the Super DRAGOONs, just like Gyunei Guss activating the Funnels on his Jagd Doga in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, right down to the camera angle.
• Nice Guy: Kira earnestly tries to do his best to help everyone, no matter the situation or how he's feeling.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Mitsuo Fukuda said in a 2003 interview that Kira was based on Tatsuya Fujiwara, the actor who played Nanahara Shuuya in the live-action film adaptation of Battle Royale.
• Not Quite Dead: To the ire of his enemies and the relief of everyone else, he never dies, even when he appears to.
• Official Couple: Kira is one half of the main couple of the Cosmic Era with Lacus as the other half, despite being quite subdued in SEED Destiny. By the end of SEED Freedom, after many trials, he fully accepts Lacus as his partner, complete with a Big Damn Kiss and further reinforcing this trope.
• Oh, Crap!: When he realizes he's lost to Shinn in the Impulse in SEED Destiny. And more so when Rey invokes Rau's ghost on him in the final battle. The latter case he's initially rattled by the similarities on their own, but when Rey declares himself Rau Le Cruset and takes on his mannerisms, it sends him straight into an episode of PTSD severe enough that Lacus can sense something is very wrong.
• One-Man Army: In SEED Destiny, nobody can stand up to Kira when he truly lets loose, and he leaves an army of broken mobile suits behind him whenever he enters a battle. There's a reason why people react in horror whenever the Freedom takes the field. It helps that the Freedom is optimized for engaging multiple targets simultaneously rather than focusing on a single opponent, so it can take out Mooks like nobody's business.
  • In SEED Freedom, even though he leads an entire squad now Kira's preference is still to try to head in alone, to the point where most of his orders are basically "I will charge in alone and take out anyone I can, while everyone else will remain at the rear to control the battle line and take out any stragglers." This causes some friction with Shinn and the rest who feel like Kira doesn't trust them. During his break down post Foundation stomping Kira admits this is because he's still just stuck in his old mentality of he and he alone having to be responsible for everyone's safety because of his abilities even though he's now got several other just as capable pilots that can watch his back. Kira trusting Shinn to watch out for himself, Lunamaria and Hilda while he rescues Lacus and settles his score with Orphee shows he's finally growing out of this mentality.
• Polar Opposite Twins: The calm, kind and polite Kira with his twin sister Cagalli who is blunt, brash, Hot-Blooded and outspoken.
  Cagalli: Do you even know how to use a gun?
• Pro-Human Transhuman: There's a few of these around, but Kira's the most notable example, fighting to protect his Natural friends from Coordinator soldiers from the earliest episodes of the show.
• Prone to Tears: Mostly prohiminent in SEED, Kira cries a lot, sometimes very loudly. It extends from other people characterizing him as a crybaby to him discussing the matter with both Flay and Lacus. Averted in SEED Destiny, where he barely cries during the whole series.
• The Protagonist: The main viewpoint of the Cosmic Era as a whole.
• Psychic Powers: Downplayed and subverted. He starts being able to "sense" Rau the way Rau and Mu sense each other, but it's at the very end and really doesn't affect anything in this series. He also can't make any kind of emotional connection with Rau or hear Flay after she dies.
  • In SEED Destiny. Kira had indeed developed the enhanced special sensing abilities that Mu and Rau had, which is why he's able to identify "Neo" as someone important they should try capturing. By the end of the series he's able to use remote weapons with incredible precision and starts getting the "Newtype forehead flash" effect like they did, and is notably able to make a connection and get through to Rey in the way he'd failed with Rau.
  • Zig-zagged in SEED Freedom, as Kira still possesses his pseudo-Newtype abilities but lacks the blatant Mind Control powers of the Accords.
• Real Men Don't Cry: In SEED Destiny, apparently, he picked Flay's advice regarding crying over Lacus's. Whether from Flay's Last Words in SEED telling him he didn't need to cry anymore^note Despite Kira being unable to hear her, it doesn't mean that he wasn't somehow influenced by her presence or that her spirit hasn't been doing what she said she would and keeping him from crying, or the production staff deciding this trope would make him look more heroic, Kira went from Prone to Tears in SEED and being characterized in-show as a crybaby to not even getting teary-eyed in SEED Destiny. When it comes to things like Meer being shot and dying in front of him while Lacus and combat-hardened Athrun sob their eyes out, it can get a little unsettling. The other interpretation is that he is now Unable to Cry.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Averted when he pilots the Strike Rouge in SEED Destiny. He changed its specs so its PSA would display the Strike Gundam's original white/blue/red colors. His pilot suit, however, does have pink stripes on its shoulder boards.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Kira is the Blue to Athrun's Red. Putting aside the colors of their Gundams, Kira is mainly a Long-Range Fighter while Athrun is a Close-Range Combatant. Kira is more idealistic and gentle compared to Athrun who is more realistic and cynical from his experiences. This extends to how they took Shinn under their wings: Kira is a Benevolent Boss to Shinn, trusting him fully and being a much nicer mentor than Athrun who was a poor one to Shinn, applying Corporal Punishment and screaming at him during their time together on the Minerva.
  • He is also the Blue to his twin sister Cagalli's Red as detailed above in Polar Opposite Twins.
• Relationship Upgrade: Kind of, sort of, with Lacus in SEED Destiny. He's more receptive to her affections than at the end of SEED and there's an intense desperation to his desire to protect and be by her side, but his troubled relationship experiences with Flay keeps them from being anything more than a Chastity Couple at best. By the end of SEED Freedom, Kira and Lacus have thrown their former Chastity Couple mentality out of the window, making this a fully straight example.
• Reluctant Warrior: He really doesn't like fighting, but if the alternative is letting innocents suffer, then prepare for ass-kickings.
• Retired Badass: Between the two years of SEED and SEED Destiny, living with Lacus, his adoptive mother Caridad Yamato, and Father Malchio and his orphans in the Marshall Islands. He was forced to come back to service after an attempt on Lacus's life. Averted in SEED Freedom where he is commited in Compass from the start.
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: Played for Laughs. In a prequel drama, "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED suit CD volume 01 Strike x Kira Yamato", Kira keeps procrastinating on an assignment that he convinces Athrun that they play a round of fighting games on Kira's console.
• The Rival: Serves as Athrun's rival until their first team-up against the Biological CPUs at Orb, where they become friends again.
• Robot Buddy: Birdy/Torii, his robotic bird gifted to him by Athrun when they were children.
• Rogue Protagonist: In SEED Destiny, he knows Durandal's got an agenda. Shinn and Athrun don't. This causes problems.
• Say My Name: Many, many fights he is involved in tend to have him shout the name of his opponent, usually Athrun's. Also happens after he witnesses a loved one die, such as Tolle and Flay.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Unintentionally comes off as this by others In-Universe. Destiny initially had Kira be the only one to use an illegal nuclear powered Mobile Suit and got away with it because of his relationship with Cagalli. Played for Laughs in a drama CD where Athrun questions why Kira becomes a highly ranked White Coat in ZAFT when he has no military training, alluding that he only got his position because of his relationship with Lacus. Freedom has Kira get away with disabling both his allies and enemies to stop them from needlessly killing people, costing all sides more money and resources to repair damaged equipment. Unlike other examples of this trope, Kira has good intentions which his connections Lacus and Cagalli are well aware of.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In the beginning of SEED Freedom, he's willing to attack his own allies if they try to commit war crimes against retreating soldiers, but the world leaders dislike it because it costs them money and resources to repair damaged equipment, the men that Kira spared were all Blue Cosmos members, and Kira himself only gets away with it due to his relationship between Lacus and Cagalli, who always defend him.
• Separated at Birth: With Cagalli, his twin sister.
• Second Love: Subverted in SEED. Lacus expresses fond feelings for Kira, even saying she wants him to stay with her, but Kira is too traumatized from his relationship with Flay to reciprocate. In SEED Destiny, he is commited to Lacus but they did not go beyond being a Chastity Couple. By the end of SEED Freedom, they are finally fully together, throwing away their former Chastity Couple mentality, making this a straight example.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The war has a very detrimental effect on Kira's mental health, causing him to hit rock bottom around the series midpoint. He recovers to a degree, but is still intensely dazed by the "Interphase" midquel. He has not fully recovered in SEED Destiny, if the Thousand-Yard Stare, constant flashbacks, and The Stoic personality are any indicator. Destiny Kira's portrait in Super Robot Wars DD has him almost always looking away with a reluctant and depressed look compared to the other character portraits in the game.
• Shock and Awe: The Mighty Strike Freedom can emit powerful electrical waves that can neutralize an entire space fleet.
• Shoot the Dog: In SEED Destiny, he is forced to break his Technical Pacifism to stop the Destroy from wrecking Berlin, killing Stella as a side effect of damaging the Destroy's Wave-Motion Gun, which exploded and mortally wounded her.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Subverted. Unlike Cagalli, he does not seem to care which of them is the elder twin.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Aura's hatred for Kira and Cagalli stems from her rivalry with Ulen Hibiki when he was alive.
• Skilled, but Naive: Like most Gundam protagonists, he starts out rather naive (in his case he follows Honor Before Reason) but serves as the main reason the Archangel got as far as it did.
• The Stoic: In SEED Destiny, he's certainly more serene compared to two years ago in SEED, but that doesn't stop him from showing a look of horror at the sight of the ruins of Junius Seven falling upon Earth, Shinn slicing his Freedom in half, and Rey explaining how he was meant to become another Rau Le Creuset.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • Kira's biological mother, Via Hibiki, is pretty much a gender-flipped version of her son.
  • Upon closer inspection◊, Kira and Cagalli do share some strong physical features, particularly during SEED. Both have similar facial structures and features and Cagalli's hairstyle is actually the same as Kira's except longer. Their different hair and eye colors are really the only things that make the semblance between them not as apparent at first glance.
• Suicidal Pacifism: Averted in most cases. Kira is very reluctant to kill but if someone is just too dangerous to others and can't be stopped with disabling tactics (Rau, Stella, Orphee ) he'll do it. The only instance played straight in is Angel Down where despite Shinn completely shutting down his non lethal combat style and causing more and more damage to him, Kira adamantly refuses to kill him to the point where in their final clash when Shinn jams his blade straight into him, Kira only sets up a non lethal counter stab and scrams Freedom's reactor rather than risk it blowing up in Shinn's face even though Kira was looking at certain death (and based on his face, Kira knew it too) and only just managed to luck out on getting rescued at the last second.
• Super-Intelligence: Most Coordinators are smart, but Kira rewrote the operating system for a complex war machine in under a minute, pushing him into this territory.
• Super Mode: SEED mode increases his combat ability by overclocking his mind. For most of SEED Destiny, he's the only member of the cast who can activate this mode at will. It's one of the reasons he's an One-Man Army.
• Super-Reflexes: Like most Coordinators, Kira possesses reflexes that are notably superior to those of regular humans. This is one reason why he's able to operate the Strike better than pilots who trained for years to do it—he doesn't require the clumsy OS that would enable a Natural to operate the system. His SEED mode boosts these reflexes further.
• Taking a Third Option:
  • For the first three-fourths of SEED, Kira generally hates being part of OMNI, but also emphatically does not want to join ZAFT. Lacus eventually gives him a non-aligned faction with Orb remnants and other defectors and the firepower to back it up.
  • In SEED Destiny, he again refuses to pick a side, targeting both ZAFT and the Earth Forces, while trying to get Orb to back out. This doesn't stop the likes of Shinn from gunning for him though.
• Technical Pacifist: After getting the Freedom and going through a lot of soul searching, he aims to disable MS and spare the pilot, rather than destroying them outright. He will break this rule if he has to though, most notably against Le Creuset who couldn't be stopped any other way. He still applies this in SEED Destiny but he's more flexible about it for enemies that can't be taken down other ways, as seen with Stella and Shinn later on.
• Teen Genius: As a Coordinator this is the norm; he has greater intellectual potential than Naturals and has developed it extensively for his age. As the Ultimate Coordinator, he takes it even further than the norm.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: From Ep 31 of SEED HD Remaster: "I am sad."
• Their First Time: Abruptly has one with Flay (which on his end was Sex for Solace), which marked the start of an ongoing relationship.
• There Are No Therapists: There are none, officially, and Kira tends to agonizingly suffer because of it. Downplayed, however, because Lacus effectively fills the role for him.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: In SEED Destiny. He's developed a pretty significant one since SEED. In his early appearances, he's usually on the beach or at the window, staring off into space.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: For the most part in SEED Destiny. He breaks the rule against Stella though, and does take a few killshots at Shinn later on. He was also more than willing to shoot and kill Durandal at the end of the story if that's what it took. Rey just happened to do it first.
• Took a Level in Badass: Several levels throughout the whole franchise, the most notable ones are when he gets the Freedom in SEED and the Strike Freedom in SEED Destiny.
  • In SEED Freedom, the Mighty Strike Freedom trades its predecessor's Super DRAGOONs for WMD-level armaments, such the Proud Defender backpack provided by Lacus, which can No-Sell any attack thrown at it and discharge huge amounts of electricity, and a head-mounted energy cannon capable of wiping out an entire enemy fleet.
• Too Many Belts: His civilian outfit in SEED and gets even more in SEED Destiny.
• Transforming Mecha: In SEED Freedom, Kira gets a Gundam that can transform for the first time; the Rising Freedom has a mobile armor form based on the one used Orb's Murasame.
• Tragic Keepsake: The origami flower he was given by a little girl he'd helped protect and who was later shot down by Yzak.
• Tragic Mistake: Kira knows about Flay's character issues, including how prejudiced and racist she is against Coordinators, aside from her own trauma and instability and that she's his good friend's girlfriend, and is still attracted to her — and when he hits a low point he decides he should sleep with her and that they should be in a relationship, because he briefly found her comforting. The great deal of suffering he goes through for the rest of the series and afterwards would have been reduced had he chosen otherwise.
• True Companions: Eventually the entire Archangel crew becomes extremely tight. Athrun is included once they are on the same side. In SEED Freedom, this extends to Shinn as well despite their history. He entrusts Shinn with the Immortal Justice rather than relegating him to an ordinary Mobile Suit like the GELGOOG or GYAN Strom. Kira all but confirms to Agnes that he trusts Shinn more than he does with her when she tries convincing Kira to replace Shinn with her and using her much better sounding reputation against Shinn's (formerly) poor personality traits.
• Übermensch: In SEED Destiny, he and Lacus are a messianic pair of them, rejecting the cynical, violent, racially motivated politics of the Cosmic Era in favor of their own inclusive, technically pacifistic idealism.
• Unable to Cry: Possibly in SEED Destiny, in which case someone really ought to have found him a therapist before expecting him to continue being a hero. It's especially disturbing when all his equally-traumatized colleagues and fellow cast members (even Neo) still can.
• Unaffected by Spice: Played for Laughs in the Omake "Gundam SEED Character Theatre" where Kira is not only isn't affected by super-spicy food, but he loves it. May be a reference to SEED where Cagalli prefers chili sauce on her kebabs, giving the two siblings some common ground in flavor preferences.
• The Unfettered: In SEED Destiny particularly. Which really sucks for political leaders with unethical agendas. He's more than willing to turn his Gundam on anyone who disturbs the peace, and he's got the allies, intel, technology and skills to make them think twice before messing with him.
• Unlucky Everydude: He starts the series doing piles of extra work for his college professor and with an unrequited crush on Flay. His fortunes do not improve.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Outside of the Gundam, Kira being the Ultimate Coordinator gives him enhanced physical strength compared to Naturals where he easily threw down a military trained Natural, knocked out a terrorist and easily twisted Sai's arm behind his back in SEED. Put him up against a highly trained Coordinator like Athrun who graduated top of his class in the military academy, Kira was unable to even land a single punch. A downplayed and mental example is that as the Ultimate Coordinator, Kira can learn things faster than the average person. Comically, personality traits and interest plays a factor as a prequel comic revealed that he struggled in a circuits and electronics course and even with multiple attempts, he still performs poorly without Athrun's help.
• Unwitting Pawn: In SEED, he gets seduced by Flay and throws himself into working and fighting for her, and he never does find out her originally malicious intent for him. Kira eventually subverts this by ending the relationship.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Humorously had this with Athrun a little in their youth. Athrun always lectured Kira on the importance of keeping up to date with assignments in an electronics subject that he is good at but Kira performs poorly in and equally dislikes. Kira finds Athrun to be a constant source of noise with their one-sided arguments of mainly Athrun lecturing Kira. Despite this, Kira and Athrun are extremely close where their friendship lasts to his very day.
• Wave-Motion Gun: In SEED Freedom, the Mighty Strike Freedom has the "Disruptor" a powerful concentrated energy cannon hidden in its forehead that is powerful enough to not only ignore the Black Knight Squad's beam-resistant Femtek Armor, but also completely slice through the Messiah and destroy several ships on the other side. For comparison, a METEOR-equipped Strike Freedom firing all of its weapons was unable to do this to the Messiah at the end of SEED Destiny. It's so powerful Kira can't even use it on his own, it requires of the leader of Compass (a.k.a. Lacus) and a Compass senior officer (Kira himself in this case) to approve its use and unlock it. The novel states that Kira has put himself this restriction on the weapon.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Lampshaded and subverted. After killing Nicol, the crew of the Archangel congratulates Kira for finally taking down one of the stolen GAT-X mobile suit enemies. Kira angrily asks how they can celebrate the death of a person, only to hear the reply that Kira had killed a lot of pilots (at least 10 by then) and wonder what the difference was. That shocked Kira to the core.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In SEED Destiny. Athrun tries to hit Kira with this, claiming he's just making the battlefield more chaotic, but Kira more or less shrugs it off, commenting that it's not like he's got a lot of options. He then turns the tables on Athrun in their subsequent battle, which is far more effective because he utterly tears into him for refusing to understand what he and Cagalli are trying to achieve while demanding they understand what he's trying to achieve.
• What You Are in the Dark: Has Yzak at his mercy in Episode 35 of SEED. He knows Yzak is the one who gunned down the civilians (which traumatized him greatly) and due to their positioning he can kill Yzak and no one will ever know it was murder. Instead he saves Yzak's life by sending him out of the blast radius.
  • A subtle but present example in SEED Freedom to Shinn in Compass. Kira being Shinn's superior meant that he had more control over his former adversary who almost killed him, Athrun and Cagalli who Shinn has treated very badly in the past. Despite all this, Kira believed in Shinn so much that he gave Shinn the Immortal Justice, a Gundam that is the equal to the Rising Freedom, rather than relegating him to a simple Mook Mobile Suit. Kira even chose Shinn over the famous, top-of-the-class ZAFT graduate Agnes. He even stated in the novel that he trusted Shinn more than her in a setting where no one would hear them talk when Agnes tried convincing Kira to give her the Immortal Justice over Shinn.
• With Friends Like These...: In SEED, he views Flay as friendly (and more) and "kind" to him despite her blatant racism, hidden hopes for his death, and other major issues, simply because they are on the same side of the war — a Foil to his Best Friend Athrun who still cares about Kira deeply, tries to consider Kira's best interests, and struggles mightily to avoid killing Kira, but is Kira's declared enemy due to being part of ZAFT. Continued consideration of "friends" becomes a major part of the show.
• The Worf Effect: In SEED Freedom, Kira in the weaker Rising Freedom loses badly against the Black Knights to demonstrate how powerful their new technology is. Even though he switched to the Strike Freedom Type II, which had better specs than the original Strike Freedom, he was still at a disadvantage in battle due to the Black Knights studying and preparing to specifically defeat him.
  • In the Mighty Strike Freedom, Kira is on the giving end of this trope where he effortlessly dispatches all his opponents.
• Worth Living For: In response to Rau's In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves speech regarding the world:
  Kira: So what? This world is still worth protecting!!
• Would Hit a Girl: In SEED, he gives Cagalli a pretty hefty slap and kills Aisha during his battle with her and Andrew. In SEED Destiny, he kills Stella. Not without good reason though...
• Zen Survivor: In SEED Destiny. Due to a combination of shellshock and having learned, for better or worse, that he can't expect anybody else to be reasonable.

Athrun Zala

Affiliation: ZAFT (SEED) → Three Ships Alliance/Terminal & Orb Union (SEED) → ZAFT (SEED Destiny) → Three Ships Alliance/Terminal & Orb Union (SEED Destiny) → Orb Union/Terminal (SEED Freedom)

Rank: Red Uniform (ZAFT), Commander (Orb)

Main mecha: GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam (SEED), ZGMF-X19A Justice Gundam (SEED), ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam (SEED Destiny), ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam (SEED Destiny), MM-07 Z'Gok (SEED Freedom), ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam Type II (SEED Freedom)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese); Samuel Vincent [Ocean dub], Chris Hackney [NYAV Post dub] (English)

"I can't exactly fight a war with a big smile on my face."

"My name... my name is Athrun Zala. I am the son of Patrick Zala, the man who fanned the flames of war and poisoned the whole world with his hatred. I believed what my father said. I fought in the war, I killed the enemy, I fought my best friend... and even when I realized how wrong he was, I couldn't stop him and I lost everything."

Athrun in SEED Freedom

^{Click here to see Athrun in SEED
Click here to see Athrun in SEED Destiny}

The deuteragonist of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Kira's best friend from their childhood and middle school days on the Moon and now one of ZAFT's best pilots, he spends the first half of the show trying to capture Kira and the Strike. Much more cynical than Kira, he considers himself the realist of the two, and believes Kira is being taken advantage of by the OMNI Naturals. He too grows progressively darker and more bitter as the series progresses, culminating in a brutal fight between him and Kira in the middle of the series.

Athrun returns in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, a veteran of the first Bloody Valentine War, and an old friend (and enemy) of Kira Yamato's. He rejoins ZAFT when war breaks out once again and is assigned to the Minerva. His accomplishments and fame earn him the adoration of much of the crew, apart from the surly Shinn. He initially opposes his old friends on the Archangel, citing their actions as doing nothing but making the conflict worse. He pilots the ZGMF-X23S Saviour while aboard the Minerva, a Transforming Mecha just like the Aegis from the previous series, and eventually obtains the ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice, a melee-oriented Gundam and the Justice's spiritual successor.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Athrun is currently part of the Orb military, but is on loan to Terminal.

---

• The Ace: In SEED Destiny, the Minerva's crew treat him like this, but see Broken Ace, below for how he feels about it.
  • In-universe example in SEED Freedom, Shura considers Athrun to be the strongest pilot out of all of his enemies, including Kira and Shinn. It helps that Athrun was the only one who put up an even fight against the Black Knights in their first confrontation. Shura learns this the hard way as Athrun did not even go SEED mode at all against Shura until he dealt the finishing blow.
  • In his youth pre-SEED during Volume 01 of the SEED suit CD, Athrun has the highest mark in the classes he and Kira took together. He even beat Kira all the time in video games.
• Ace Pilot: Like Kira, he quickly reaches this status, he is in fact the only one who can match Kira toe to toe for most of the series. It's also worthy to note that he is the pilot with the most potent SEED Factor, being the only one who can activate it at will in SEED, and has never even been defeated once he activates it.
  • In SEED Destiny, Athrun is probably the most skilled and experienced pilot on the show; excelling in close-combat and battlefield tactics. During combat, he keeps a close eye on the overall tactical situation, issuing orders and engaging key (or difficult) targets to keep the pressure off his allies. He's the only pilot that was able to go one-on-one with Kira's Freedom at first, and did so with the less advanced Savior while not in SEED mode. In the two times he faces against the Destiny, Athrun can handle everything that Shinn throws at him, and then starts destroying weapons when the latter's hotheadedness gets the better of him. And while Shinn was in SEED mode for most of the fight, Athrun wasn't. He didn't activate it until the very end in order to shield Luna from a berserk Shinn, after which he basically wrecks the Destiny into pieces.
• Aesop Amnesia: After Lacus confronts him with a To Be Lawful or Good decision two years ago in SEED, he chooses to listen to his conscience, rejected a "My Country, Right or Wrong" mentality, and tried to bring about genuine peace. By the beginning of SEED Destiny, he seems to have forgotten all that, signs up with ZAFT again, and has to undergo the whole process a second time. Admittedly, this was probably deliberate on the part of the writers; a major theme of SEED Destiny is how easy it is to repeat the mistakes of the past. Athrun's deeply conflicted feelings about the role he played in the last war (particularly issues regarding his late father) allowed Durandal to manipulate him into fighting on his behalf. It worked for a while, but coming into conflict with Kira caused Athrun to realize he was going down the same path again.
• The Aloner: Deconstructed and his main problem in SEED Destiny. His friendship with Kira makes them nigh unstoppable. Likewise, his relationship with Cagalli gives his life a purpose beyond battle. And Lacus can give him the clarity to see things from an outside perspective. However, Athrun has begun to believe he has to do things on his own, even if it means he has to push Kira, Cagalli and Lacus away. This is also why he can't function well as Shinn's mentor, since he's far too caught in his own problems to truly try and understand Shinn's. Part of his Character Development is overcoming this. This is even symbolized by his status as a FAITH Member, as he now gets what he wants, full autonomy to do as he sees fit without anyone being able to tell him (aside from Durandal) he can't do it... yet it ultimately is a meaningless status, as he can't truly affect any kind of change in himself or the war in this way.
  • Athrun becomes this in SEED before joining the Archangel. Miguel, Rusty and Nicol get killed while Dearka is captured by the Archangel. Even the unfriendly Yzak and Evil Mentor Creuset is forced to be left behind as after Nicol's death and Dearka's capture, Yzak is deployed elsewhere and Creuset is to return to the Council. Athrun gets promoted to answer only to the PLANT Supreme Council but at the cost of having no reliable comrades by his side for advice or companionship.
• Amicable Exes: With Lacus. After their engagement is broken (both officially and between themselves), they still remain close friends.
• Animal Motifs: Tying with his knight motif, Athrun is heavily associated with horses, which are often used as mounts by knights and other heavy cavalries. His final MS on the other hand, evokes the image of winged unicorns.
• Anti-Villain: Though not a bad person by any stretch, he's still trying to capture Kira and destroy the Archangel in SEED, until he joins the heroes later.
• Armed Legs:
  • In addition to the ones on his arms, the Aegis has a beam saber mounted on each foot.
  • The Infinite Justice has shin-mounted beam blades, giving its sweep kicks some extra... kick.
• Armor-Piercing Response: He has two moments in SEED:
  • He gets one at the climax of his initial conflict with an unhappy Cagalli, when he finds himself at the end of his own gun. When she sobs that his mobile suit is going to kill more people, he says she'd better kill him, because he's the pilot. Since Cagalli had already specified she didn't want to do that, she eventually curses, abruptly Takes a Third Option and tosses the gun away. Since it discharges and grazes Athrun, it may also be a slight case of Be Careful What You Wish For.
  • He inadvertently does it again when Cagalli has him at gunpoint again after he self-destructs the Aegis on Kira, who then temporarily vanishes, with neither of them knowing he's still alive. Cagalli is so upset and angry after Athrun admits he 'killed' him that she seems like she might actually shoot him, but when he says "Yeah. He hasn't changed..." in response to her description of Kira (and goes on to elaborate that they were best friends and he knew Kira better than she did), Cagalli is so stunned and baffled and saddened, her whole attitude changes.
• Arranged Marriage: With Lacus Clyne in SEED, as set up by their respective fathers. They both seem okay with the arrangement, even if it does end up becoming a moot point when they both fall for other people. They are still friends.
• The Atoner: In SEED Destiny, this goes hand in hand with his loner tendencies, but Athrun's uncertainties begin in full once he encounters the remnants of his father's regime, who then drop Junius Seven on Earth to finish what Patrick started. Athrun's attempts to make up for this, by himself, are what lead him into Durandal's trap.
• Badass on Paper: Read as Badass Mentor On Paper. Athrun is definitely a badass with his fighting and piloting skills and is ideally the best mentor for Shinn. Athrun's a war hero with plenty of experience under his belt and like Shinn, they are both a ZAFT red coat who both lost loved ones during a war and joined ZAFT to make things right. His similar experiences ideally would help make Shinn the best he could be. However, Athrun himself is plagued with his own personal issues from the first war and his conflicting issues ended up making him be an ineffective mentor to Shinn that caused more problems than he could solve.
• Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe example in SEED Destiny. Athrun's a controversial figure in his (former) home country, wildly regarded as one of the best pilots ZAFT ever produced, but is also technically a traitor.
• Bash Brothers: At the end of SEED Destiny, Athrun and Kira's teamwork remain as impeccable as ever. Also with his former ZAFT comrades Dearka and Yzak.
• Battle Couple: Both times with Cagalli.
  • Athrun and Cagalli fought together at Jachin Due at the end of SEED. She's even by his side when they discover a dying Patrick Zala.
  • A somewhat indirect example in SEED Freedom when he fights Shura, Athrun has Cagalli remote controlling his Infinite Justice Type II with her Strike Rouge from a safe distance to fend off Shura's mind tricks. This allows them to effectively fight the Accord together.
• Battle Boomerang: The Justice has one mounted on each shoulder. The Infinite Justice has one mounted on its shield that can also function as a hand-held or shield-mounted beam saber.
• Best Friend: Despite ending up on the opposite sides of the barricades in both SEED and SEED Destiny, Athrun remains the closest friend Kira has ever had. Whenever they team up, they move mountains together.
• Beta Couple: Ultimately with Cagalli. Throughout the main trilogy, Athrun and Cagalli are this trope to Kira and Lacus' Official Couple of the Cosmic Era, playing it globally straight ^note In SEED, Kira and Lacus didn't become a couple while Athrun and Cagalli do. In SEED Destiny, this trope was somewhat inverted where it is Athrun and Cagalli who face hardships while Kira and Lacus stay mostly stable. Only to be switched again in SEED Freedom where Kira and Lacus have trouble in their relationship while Athrun and Cagalli did not., being together and more intimate earlier than Kira and Lacus. For example, Athrun and Cagalli's Big Damn Kiss happened far earlier in SEED while Kira and Lacus's one only occurs in SEED Freedom.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Le Creuset comments that Athrun is too soft for his liking and indeed it shows because Athrun never tried to fully engage Kira trying to talk with him to join the Coordinators instead. Until after the battle when Kira kills Nicol, Athrun is able to effectively ground the Archangel and go one on one with Kira, and actually destroys the Strike.
• BFG: The Aegis's MA Attack Mode is essentially the Gundam's whole body transforming into a large cannon.
• Big Brother Mentor: In SEED Destiny, he tries to be this for Shinn, but Shinn's not really interested, and Athrun doesn't have the people skills to pull it off. The two do still manage to develop a relationship however, one which is strong enough for Shinn to be fairly distressed after Athrun's "betrayal". Athrun, in turn, continually attempts to talk sense into Shinn about the wrongness of Durandal's plans for the remainder of the series, up through their final fight in the last episode.
  • A straighter and positive example is him being this to Kira back when they went to school together as he frequently helped Kira with assignments. Kira wonders why Athrun treats him like a younger brother as he is actually the older one by a few months.
• Big Damn Heroes: The first sortie of both the Justice and the Infinite Justice involves Athrun saving Kira. He continues to do so in SEED Freedom, saving Kira twice here, the first time also with his Infinite Justice Type II (albeit disguised as a Z'Gok).
• The Big Damn Kiss: After being rather hesitant to kiss Lacus earlier in SEED (and nicely doing it on the cheek), he initiates a zero-gravity one of these with Cagalli, just before the Final Battle at Jachin Due. It's so damn big, it's gorgeously lampshaded with Earth in the background behind them.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Rather than hand-held, the Aegis's primary beam sabers ignite directly from its forearms. The Infinite Justice has a beam boomerang that can be activated while it's still attached to the shield.
• Break Them by Talking: Twice towards Shinn near the end of SEED Destiny. First time they meet, he goes the Kirk Summation route. The second time he's not so nice.
• Broken Ace: In SEED Destiny, he doesn't live up to his own standards, fails to mentor others, and is very conflicted about what's right.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • In SEED Destiny, to Lunamaria and the other ZAFT soldiers who idealize him. They were expecting a legendary Ace Pilot. They got, well, Athrun. The end of Final Plus indicates that he's reconciled with both Shinn and Luna, but the hero worship remains gone. Not that Athrun ever cared for such praise anyhow.
  • In SEED Freedom, one to Shura, that's played for laughs. In the beginning of the movie, he had a Worthy Opponent respect for Athrun Zala, but throughout the movie, Athrun trolling the man and not giving him any respect whatsoever whether it's by preventing him from killing Kira by shooting him and Agnes from behind, to piloting the Strike Freedom to mess with Shura and finally topping it off by thinking of a naked Cagalli to prevent mind-reading made Shura lose respect for Athrun.
• Brought Down to Badass: Suffering from this for a little over half of SEED Destiny. Though he was capable of using SEED mode at will by the end of SEED, he has since lost that ability. He still remains a highly skilled pilot and field commander, retaining all of the experience he gained during the first war. This makes it so that even without the ability to access SEED Mode at will he is still one of the best fighters around. By the end of the series however, he regains the ability to access SEED mode whenever he wants.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Athrun thinks he is this in The Edge manga. He went drinking with Heine in a manga-exclusive scene which is also the night Meer snuck into his bed, Athrun blaming the liquor for why he did not notice Meer in his bed as he slept.
• Character Development: In SEED Destiny, he starts out the series as a Broken Ace and a Shell-Shocked Veteran trying to find out what his purpose in life is, as he didn't find any true closure at the end of SEED. This leads him to try and find his own path again, by himself, going against his and Kira's promise to try and find the answer together. This unfortunately leads him to become a pawn of Durandal's and forgetting completely what he had learned previously, bringing him right back into conflict with Kira. By the second half of the series, he does reaffirm that he should be fighting on Kira's and Orb's side, and regains his lost confidence, complete with being able to activate SEED mode at will. While it seems like the exact realization in SEED, it actually is more about Athrun realizing that, by himself all he can do is repeat the same mistakes. And that focusing on his own issues just cuts him off from people who can keep him from doing so. Realizing this also allows him to finally make a true connection with Shinn, as he now puts his own issues aside in order to get through to him, even if he can't pull his punches.
  • Also, compare the Athrun from the start of SEED Destiny and the one at the end of it about his relationship with Cagalli: he has chosen to stay at Orb to protect Cagalli like at the end of SEED but this time, he is much more involved in the Orb military (as an Orb Commander) directly helping her in Orb with her duties, in full contrast to the beginning of the show where he was just a civilian bodyguard, not wanting to be involved with the Orb military at all. Interestingly in SEED Freedom, Athrun has not joined Compass, choosing to remain in the Orb military (presumably to stay close to Cagalli) and being assigned to Terminal to investigate the Foundation on Orb's behalf (Cagalli asked him to do it in the Escape for Two novella).
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Downplayed but Athrun being a Coordinator with military training counts him as this compared to Naturals. When confronting Lacus in the theatre in SEED, he can jump pretty high and also threw Cagalli quite a distance away when first meeting her. He even managed to do a wall run while holding Cagalli in the Escape for Two novella.
• Chess Motif: The knight piece. He is once referred by Miriallia as a "Red Knight" in a coded message to the Archangel and the production name for his eventual Mid-Season Upgrade machine was going to be "Knight Justice". Symbolically, knight chess pieces are among the more unpredictable chessmen due to the unusual path in which they move (in an L-shaped direction), which can be representative of how much of a wild card Athrun still was when serving under Durandal. Knights are also one of the more viable pieces in taking an opponent's queen, which is rather symbolic of how Athrun defeats Shinn (the queen piece in Durandal's scheme) following his defection from ZAFT.
  • In SEED Freedom, this symbolism continues as Athrun is the one taking down Shura, the best Ace Pilot of the Foundation (the queen piece of Aura and Orphée), who has nearly killed Kira twice if not for Athrun's intervention in both cases. And of course, Athrun is Cagalli's knight, her own wild card as Athrun moves freely between Orb, Terminal and Compass. But unlike with Durandal, Athrun and Cagalli have complete trust in each other.
• Chick Magnet: In SEED Destiny, despite (or because of) being somewhat stilted and awkward, women throw themselves at Athrun. Kira also mentions this was the case when they went to school together.
• Close-Range Combatant: Downplayed, as Athrun is quite versatile in all forms of combat with no real preference, but many of his most impressive feats occur when he busts out his beam sabers. Much like how the Freedom and its successors aren't strictly Long Range Fighters, the Justice and its successor units are not specifically constructed for melee combat. Nevertheless, between the two, the Justice series are more optimized for taking on stronger foes in one-on-one duels. In SEED Freedom, he also demonstrates it outside of a Mobile Suit. He punches Kira out to get him back to fight without taking a hit once. On foot, Athrun displays impressive martial arts skills against ZAFT soldiers he fights in SEED (when handcuffed no less!) and Destiny but is also a crack shot with any type of gun.
• Combat Pragmatist: In SEED Freedom, Athrun wastes no time trying to make his duels against Shura be nowhere close to honorable, using every trick in the book from pretending to be Kira by piloting the Strike Freedom in his stead, having Cagalli control the Infinite Justice Type II from afar so that Shura's mind reading doesn't work on him and most famously, thinking of a naked Cagalli so that Shura cannot read his mind.
• Combining Mecha:
  • The Justice is comprised of two units - the main Gundam and a glider unit backpack, which gives it full-flight capabilities in Earth's atmosphere. It is armed with two beam cannons and two pairs of machine guns and can be remotely deployed to attack enemies on its own. The Justice can ride on it for high-altitude flight, and Athrun loves to ram it directly on his opponent's face in combat.
  • As Justice's successor, the Infinite Justice is comprised of two units - the core mecha, and a glider unit that can serve as either a backpack or a remote-controlled mount. While it retains the two beam cannons from the Justice's design, its shape is more streamlined and is equipped with beam blades instead of machine guns. This makes its ramming attack much more lethal, and although Athrun doesn't risk using it against dangerous enemies like the Destiny and Legend, it is very effective against slow moving targets like battleships, allowing Athrun to later sink the Minerva by simply deploying its backpack to ram straight through its main thrusters.
  • The Infinite Justice Type II's remote unit loses its forward-facing beam blade but is a much more potent unmanned Space Fighter.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Athrun is the one to question Durandal's motives the most which puts him in conflict with Shinn. Subverted when confronting Shinn and Rey on practicing against the Freedom in simulations to prepare to shoot it down. Athrun may be correct that Kira is not their true enemy but the Freedom Gundam has only caused problems for the Minerva, making Shinn and Rey justified in wanting to get rid of it.
• Conflicting Loyalty: His status as a ZAFT soldier and doing as his father wishes conflicts with his friendship with Kira and his desire of actually ending the war peacefully. He sides with Kira when he saves the Freedom with a Big Damn Hero moment during the battle of Orb in SEED.
• Corporal Punishment: Administers it to Shinn in SEED Destiny a few times. It doesn't take.
• Covert Pervert: How did he manage to block Shura's mind reading in SEED Freedom ? By thinking of a naked Cagalli giving an erotic expression. Athrun even smirks when Shura is about to Mind Rape him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Athrun in his Infinite Justice outclasses Lunamaria in her Impulse so much at the end of SEED Destiny that the poor girl cannot do a thing against him. He proceeds to do the same to Shinn in his Destiny moments later after the latter tries to kill Lunamaria in a fit of rage when she tried to stop the fight by interposing herself between them, neutralizing Shinn in seconds.
  • In SEED Freedom, Athrun's fist fight against Kira is completely in his favor, Kira doesn't even land a hit on Athrun.
• Custom Uniform:
  • When piloting the Saviour in SEED Destiny, he wears a purple variant of the Minerva's pilot suits. When in the Infinite Justice when he came back to the Archangel, he wears a variant of Orb pilot suit's that's maroon with orange accents instead of grey with pale green accents.
  • In SEED Freedom, he wears a Compass pilot suit with the same color scheme as his Orb pilot suit in SEED Destiny, it should be noted that Athrun is not a Compass member but he is still given a suit.
• The Cynic: Bitter, unhappy, and convinced things are only going to get worse. He fares no better in SEED Destiny as Shinn and Luna's idealism in particular seem to grate on him.
• Cynical Mentor: Vaciliates between being this and a more traditional Big Brother Mentor to Shinn in SEED Destiny. It doesn't really work.
• Dead Sidekick: Nicol, the only member of the Zala Team to show respect towards its commander and a personal friend of his.
• Deal with the Devil: In SEED Destiny, Chairman Durandal offered him a role and a purpose with ZAFT, the chance to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and even the freedom to follow his conscience. He lied about the last one. Big time.
• Death from Above: The Justice's backpack allows it to fly under Earth's atmosphere, and if it is riding on it, it can fly at even higher altitudes.
• Death Glare: Twice in SEED Destiny
  • Athrun glares darkly at Shinn after he apparently kills Kira and happily told him that he got revenge for both of them.
  • He does it again later, one aimed at Durandal for authorizing the mission to neutralize the Archangel and one at Meer when Durandal tries to pull an Armor-Piercing Question about why the Archangel crew never cared to ally with or get in contact with him.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: From the little we know of Lenore, she was apparently lovely, kind, intelligent, and supportive, with the only criticism from her son while she was alive being that she worked too much (which let him spend plenty of time at Kira's house). In contrast with the very-much-alive, cold and brutal Patrick, it's no wonder Athrun remembers his mother so fondly.
• Declaration of Protection: Just before the final battle of SEED, Athrun promises this to Cagalli just before kissing her. It is notable because the instant just before that Cagalli has also declared this to him (and she also includes her brother Kira), making this a mutual example. At the end of the novelization of SEED Freedom when meeting Cagalli at the Orb memorial after the battle against the Foundation (by participating in said battle, he still kept his promise to Cagalli, protecting Orb and her), Athrun silently redeclares his promise to protect her, her dreams and her future to have one day a peaceful world.
• Deuteragonist: Easily the most important character after Kira in SEED and SEED Destiny or Shinn before the post-perspective flip.
• Deflector Shield: The Infinite Justice, but unlike the Strike Freedom, Destiny and Legend, it only carries a single solid shield that is equipped with an additional beam shield generator to defend itself.
• Demoted to Extra: Somewhat in SEED Freedom. In contrast to his status as the Deuteragonist of both SEED and SEED Destiny, Athrun's role in the movie has been noticeably reduced, though still a major player once he shows up. Lacus instead has the second most importance of the film, while Shinn takes Athrun's place as second most important Gundam pilot after Kira (ironically, even piloting a Justice Gundam).
• Determinator: Though he tends to waver when he's uncertain of himself, once he makes up his mind he's nigh-unstoppable. Compare Freedom vs. Saviour for the former and Infinite Justice vs. Destiny, when Athrun enters the Battle of Orb in SEED Destiny and takes on Shinn while still wounded for the latter. In SEED Freedom, Athrun is in this mode full-time, no longer harboring any self-doubt.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Athrun's "shameless" thought about a naked Cagalli in SEED Freedom raises the question if this is his imagination or a memory. Not helped by Cagalli's reaction (knowing instantly that Athrun has thought about her, angrily blushing with a bit of Say My Name but, in their next scene together^note the Haumea/ring scene with their warm smiles to each other, Cagalli has quite quickly forgiven her boyfriend about that) which can be interpreted in both ways. The novelization of the movie heavily implies that Athrun did it with Cagalli.
• Disposable Fiancé: In SEED, he ends his engagement to Lacus himself when he thinks she prefers Kira. Of course, he's had more chemistry with Cagalli the entire time, and they become an couple by the end of the series.
• Distressed Dude: As part of the climax of the Final Battle of SEED, Cagalli has to convince him to keep living rather than self-destruct with the Justice, then haul him out of GENESIS and the blast range on her lap.
• Double Weapon:
  • Although the Justice carries two beam sabers like other Gundams, Athrun almost always combines them together into a double-bladed beam saber.
  • Just like with the Justice, Athrun always combines the beam sabers of Infinite Justice into a double-bladed beam saber.
• The Dragon: Is Number Two to Le Creuset for most of SEED's first half.
• Drone Deployer: The Justice's Fatum-00 can be detached and function as an unmanned support unit. The Infinite Justice also can deploy its Fatum-01 to operate as a remote fighter and as a ram. The Infinite Justice Type II's unit loses its ramming capabilities but is more capable as a traditional unmanned Space Fighter.
• Dual Wielding:
  • In SEED, the Aegis features beam sabres in both wrists and both ankles, enabling it to not just dual-wield but also quad-wield. Averted with the Justice as Athrun prefers to combine its beam sabers.
  • In SEED Destiny, while he definitely prefers the more practical 'sword-and-shield' approach, Athrun has dabbled in this on at least one occasion with both the Savior and Infinite Justice. During the Battle of Lohengrin Gate, Athrun used both the Savior's beam sabers in its Literal Disarming of the Gells-Ghe. The Infinite Justice's beam boomerang can be used as a shield-mounted beam saber, which Athrun is able to wield simultaneously with its beam Double Weapon, effectively being able to triple-wield (not accounting the beam blades on the shin areas). Athrun effectively uses all five blades to disarm the Destiny in the final battle.
  • The Infinite Justice Type II in SEED Freedom retains the original's weapons, but now also includes a hidden blade emitter within the Gundam's trademark tall sensor fin.
• Easily Forgiven: When Miriallia learns that Athrun is responsible for Tolle's death and Dearka brings it up after hearing the latter's conversation with Kira, she decides to learn from Kira, albeit indirectly, by forgiving and move on.
  • Played for laughs and romance in regards to his infamous "Naked Cagalli" tactic. Despite Cagalli being understandably angry at first that Athrun would do such a thing just to troll Shura, the ending shows that she let it go, showing how deep their romance goes.
• Et Tu, Brute?: A rare protagonist example in SEED Destiny; even though he'd been growing increasingly distant, it was a huge blow to the crew of the Minerva when he apparently turns traitor (not that he had much choice in the regard)
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Though in this case, it's less "evil" and more "embittered". In the beginning of SEED, Athrun is firmly convinced that Kira's friends aboard the Archangel are using Kira to fight against his own kind, even though he repeatedly tells Athrun that he's protecting them because they truly were his friends. Even when Lacus herself vouches for them, having been around them herself, he angrily tries to shut her down by repeating said narrative.
• Failed a Spot Check: After rejoining the Archangel in SEED Destiny, he stays at the medical bay with Neo for several episodes because they are both injured, assuming the entire time that Neo is Mu La Flaga. Which he is, but Athrun somehow completely forgot that Mu apparently died at the end of the first series, just assuming that Mu somehow got injured during a fight or something. When he calls him Mu, Neo vehemently denies it, which finally prompts Athrun to remember Mu's Heroic Sacrifice. He is understandably shocked and confused. To his credit, Athrun had bigger things on his plate to consider, had learned that Kira was alive despite being taken down by Shinn, and not to mention Athrun himself just barely escaped death.
• Fanning the Knives: Athrun does a mobile suit style version of this in SEED Freedom when he first reveals the Infinite Justice and dramatically activates all it's various beam blades to intimidate Shura, and also to trick him because it turns out Justice had one more beam blade on it's head crest. When Shura disarms Athrun's main saber and moves in thinking he's out of range of the rest, Athrun lights up the head saber and gets in the killing blow.
• Flaw Exploitation: At the end of SEED Destiny, Athrun takes advantage of Shinn's tendency to favor Attack! Attack! Attack! over other tactics when angry, as the Destiny isn't geared towards melee combat exclusively like the Infinite Justice is. As such, his tactics involve riling Shinn up so that he won't be thinking about using the Destiny's other weapons as effectively as he might have if his head was on straight.
• Foil: To Shinn in SEED Destiny, with his burnt out apathy contrasting Shinn's rage and idealism. Shinn reminds Athrun of himself during the SEED. Given that he's not real proud of his actions during that war, it explains why he's so tough on Shinn. The greatest difference between them ultimately lies in what makes both of them so similar; while Athrun is cynical and Shinn is idealistic, they are both devoted soldiers who feel that they need to be a part of a chain of command to fight for peace, which ZAFT and Durandal handily provide.
• Forehead of Doom: The omake Super-Deformed Character Theatres even poke fun at it, in them he doesn't seem to mind though.
• Foreign Queasine: In the "Escape for Two" novella (prequel of SEED Freedom), Athrun is very unadjusted to different types of foreign food given that he has lived in the PLANTS all his life where they did not share any common culture.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Mostly in SEED to Kira, downplayed. Athrun still has a bulletin board full of photos of Kira, but despite being his Childhood Best Friend, they haven't been in touch at all since Athrun returned to PLANT from the Moon a couple of years before. Kira doesn't know about Athrun's engagement or the death of his mother, let alone that Athrun's in an elite part of ZAFT. It causes some nasty shocks and drives much of the initial plot.
• Full-Body Disguise: His Z'gok in SEED Freedom is actually the Infinite Justice Type II in disguise.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Created the Haros and Birdy.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
  • Deconstructed when Athrun does this to Shinn in SEED Destiny. He only manages to make things worse rather than better. It does not help that he hit Shinn for disobeying orders when he freed prisoners of the Earth Alliance and then later hit Shinn for..... obeying orders to shoot down the Freedom.
  • At the Battle of Crete in SEED Destiny, Athrun is on the receiving end of a Mobile Suit version of this, Kira berates him for not understanding Cagalli at the time and that he hurts her with his decisions and words when they talked earlier and then proceeds to destroy Athrun's Saviour completely. After the battle, Athrun took the time to reflect on Kira's words and ultimately chose to return to them.
  • In SEED Freedom, when Kira thinks Lacus turned against them and despairs, Athrun literally goes to beat some sense into him, which escalates to a straight brawl between the two. Shinn actually gets pissed when this happens, no doubt remembering all the times Athrun did the same to him.
• Giant Squid: The Attack Mode Aegis vaguely resembles a mecha-cephalopod. Its accessible weapons in this mode are its beam sabers and the "Scylla" Multi-phase Energy Cannon, the latter named after a Greek mythological sea monster.
• The Gloves Come Off:
  • Against Kira in SEED after Nicol dies.
  • Occurs in the final battle of SEED Destiny when Shinn tries to kill Lunamaria in a moment of berserk rage. For most of the battle, Athrun had been sticking to the defensive, as he really didn't want to fight either Shinn or Lunamaria. But when the previously mentioned event, his restraint breaks and the fight ends VERY quickly especially since the Destiny had lost most of it's close-range options.
  Athrun: You crazy bastard!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Played for Laughs. Athrun always made sure Kira was being on track with his assessment and is very quick to tell Kira off when he learns that he is either doing something wrong or hasn't started yet. Kira finds this ironic as Athrun doesn't talk to other kids like that and is even considered The Quiet One at school but is very noisy to Kira with his constant lecturing.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Mainly averted but also zigzagged. Athrun is a second-generation Coordinator who usually have superior capabilities than the first-generation. Even compared to the Ultimate Coordinator Kira, Athrun is still better than him in some regards such as marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, operating different vehicles, electrical engineering and even video games.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Lacus plants some doubts about ZAFT's (and, more to the point, his father's) end goals and practices in his head in SEED, he decides to see for himself what the proper course of action is to take. This ends with him joining Kira and the crew of the Archangel.
• He Knows Too Much: In SEED Destiny, when Rey and Durandal realize that Athrun may be on to ZAFT for their potential involvement in Lacus' assassination attempt, they decide to frame him for treason.
• The Hero: While Shinn is The Protagonist of the first half and Kira takes over in the second, Athrun is ultimately the overall main character of SEED Destiny.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of SEED, Athrun attempts to do this when he plans to use the Justice's self-destruction to destroy GENESIS, but Cagalli talks him out of it. It's implied there's a bit of Sins of the Father in his actions.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Athrun's opinion of himself in SEED Destiny and ZAFT's hero-worship of him do not exactly match up. Durandal exploits this in order to induce the Aesop Amnesia mentioned above.
• Hidden Eyes: Gets these when telling Cagalli he (seemingly) killed Kira.
• Hot-Blooded: In SEED, Athrun is probably the most hot-blooded fighter in the Three Ships Alliance where he always lets out a shout in combat when in the Justice. In the original SEED, Athrun is probably the second most in the whole series whereas Yzak is easily number one.
• Hypocrite: Early on in SEED Destiny, he slaps Shinn for disobeying orders to save people. When Shinn seemingly kills Kira later, Athrun gets pissed off at him, despite the fact that taking Kira down was an order from above, meaning Shinn was doing exactly what Athrun told him to do. In fairness, Shinn had made it clear earlier that he wanted to kill Kira as revenge for Stella and Athrun didn't get confrontational until Shinn said that that revenge extends to Athrun's loss against Kira as well. Rey calls him out for this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which seems to help Athrun realize he had been repeating the same mistakes from the previous war.
• I Shall Taunt You: In SEED Freedom, Athrun provokes Shura while piloting the Strike Freedom, calling him "not very useful", this enrages Shura.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Two examples in SEED
  • A downplayed example: he makes no protest when Lacus apparently chooses Kira. However whether it's Lacus he wants to be happy or Kira is another story.
  • A straighter example: after joining the Archangel and when Cagalli wanted to talk to Kira about their parentage, Athrun mistakenly assumes that she has romantic feelings for Kira (after seeing her breaking down in Kira's arms after the death of her father), Athrun was about to leave them alone. Cagalli stops him from leaving and informs him too about Kira and her being siblings.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Athrun's a crack shot with any type of gun on-foot. He can easily score an 100% in the shooting range at maximum speed and defeated a whole group of agents armed with machine guns and grenades with only a hand gun. The only reason he came second in the marksmanship exam to Yzak was because he had a fever on the day.
• Inconsistent Spelling: An odd example: The Saviour, its official (Anglophone) name, is frequently rendered as Saber in Japanese sources, as the official name and the katakana used for it are at odds with each other. Specifically, it's not possible to get "Saviour" out of the katakana as the katakana lacks an "i" syllable. There's also the usual thing with "Savior" vs "Saviour".
• Invincible Hero: Never loses a fight in SEED Freedom, though he had Cagalli remote control his Infinite Justice Type II during his fight with Shura.
• Jack of All Stats: The Aegis Gundam that Athrun steals at the start of SEED is this compared to the other G-Project Gundams where it has the most balanced properties compared to the Strike's individual forms, Blitz (Stealthy but relatively weak weapons), Buster (High artillery but no close-range options) and the Duel (Master of None where the Aegis is practically better than it in every way).
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Athrun has meaningful bright green eyes and a very hard time seeing the best in other people. His father is a rather odd subversion, where Athrun desperately wants to believe Patrick is better than the monstrous General Ripper he seems to have become, and ends up taking a bullet from him just to disprove his faint hope.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Big time. He's bitter, cynical, and depressed, but he really does want to make the world a better place.
• Lack of Empathy: Zig-zagged in SEED Destiny. Athrun absolutely has empathy, but he tends to get so caught up in his own uncertainties that he ends being unable to empathetically connect with either Cagalli or Shinn during the first part of the war. It isn't until Kira flat out tells him to his face that he can't see that and being unable to convince Shinn to listen to him about Durandal during his escape for him to truly realize this. At that point, he strives to do much better with both.
• Lady and Knight: While it took them longer than Kira and Lacus, by the end of SEED Destiny, Athrun is the cynical, more realist Black Knight (using Red Gundams contrasting Kira's white ones) to his golden Bright Lady Cagalli. In SEED Freedom, it is implied that Cagalli has given him his upgraded Infinite Justice Type II (like Lacus has done with Kira's Freedoms before) before the others received their upgraded Gundams, supported by the fact that his Justice's remote control system is directly used by Cagalli.
• The Lady's Favour: In SEED, Cagalli bestows her Haumea pendant on him, and he wears it for the rest of the series, as well as claiming that it saved him. It is a subverted example as Cagalli didn't expect it back. Also when she gives him her Haumea amulet, Athrun and Cagalli are not yet a couple. The Haumea amulet is still in Athrun's possession in SEED Freedom and he warmly shows it to Cagalli (who in turn, shows him that she still has his ring on her).
• The Lancer: To Kira, post-Heel–Face Turn in SEED and once again in SEED Destiny after he came back to the Archangel.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Subverted. Athrun's lone red Gundam is the least useful of any of his machines.
• Lightning Bruiser: With the Justice in SEED, which is optimized for close range combat, with two beam boomerangs to complement its arsenal. Also with the Infinite Justice in SEED Destiny, it's fast enough to keep pace with the Destiny, and carries enough melee weapons to make an NRA member cry. The Infinite Justice Type II in SEED Freedom is spec-wise identical to the original, but with even more beam blades.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: All of Athrun's Gundams have large shields. The Justice's shield is a bit better at dispersing beams as it has a laminated coating and the Infinite Justice's shield can emit an actual beam barrier.
• Mean Boss: Read "mean" as "lack of social skills" instead. Athrun is indeed a very competent pilot, soldier and strategist and genuinely means the best for his comrades. However, he has had better success as a commanding soldier among equally ranked ones (Dearka, Yzak and Nicol in ZAFT. Kira, Cagalli and the "Astray girls" with the Archangel during SEED) compared to Destiny where he is officially a higher rank than Shinn but fails to achieve the same success as he did back in SEED.
• Meaningful Echo: A few times when Athrun is mulling re-enlisting in ZAFT in SEED Destiny.
  • Yzak tells him if he has the power and ability, he should be using it, similarly to what Mu said to Kira in the first series. The problem is, neither Kira piloting in OMNI nor Athrun rejoining ZAFT was where either was meant to be.
  • Durandal mentions to Athrun "the things we can do, the things we ought to do", echoing Cagalli's words to Athrun late in the prior show. The problem here is he very tellingly left out Cagalli's "the things we want to do", given his championing of The Evils of Free Will.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Athrun is Arabic, derived from the Greek erythron, which means red. As the Char archetype (who are typically associated with red), it fits him well.
  • As with Kira, his surname is a based on a warship, the Italian heavy cruiser Zara in this case. It also means "dawn" or "radiance" as well.
• Meet Cute: With Cagalli, alone on an island, despite the fact that they try to kill each other several times. He initially doesn't notice she's a girl, she accidentally flashes him to even more embarrassment, and they basically end up noticeably liking each other despite all the bickering, weapons, and violence. Even more noticeably, Athrun actually laughs. They eventually become a couple.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Athrun get the Justice Gundam in SEED after self-destroying his Aegis to destroy the Strike.
  • In SEED Destiny, he gets the Infinite Justice, a more advanced version of his Justice Gundam, even more focused on close-range combat.
  • Averted in SEED Freedom, Athrun uses a Z'Gok during the entire movie, which is a disguise for his Infinite Justice Type II, meaning he has it with him the entire time.
• Military Brat: His dad is the head of the ZAFT military.
• Missing Mom: Killed in the Junius 7 incident. Her death forms a major part of his motivation in SEED.
• Moral Myopia: Athrun goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on Kira after he killed Nicol in self-defense. Kira had repeatedly told Athrun that he has friends and people he cares for aboard the Archangel, the ship that he's been pursuing and had been trying to sink. He gets better after Cagalli calls him out for it and fully when finds out he himself killed one of Kira's own friends, one of the ones he'd been saying he's been protecting that whole time.
• Mr. Fanservice: Makes the most of the shower and shirtless scenes that he's given. Not helped by his Chick Magnet status in SEED Destiny.
• Multi-Melee Master: Athrun takes this to new levels of insanity with his Infinite Justice in SEED Destiny by having two combinable beam sabers, beam blades on its wings and lower legs, and a shield sporting a beam boomerang that double as a beam saber, a beam shield generator, and a rocket anchor that he never actually uses (except once in HD Remaster). To top it off he uses its beam shield as a makeshift melee weapon.
  • The Infinite Justice Type II in SEED Freedom takes the cake, since it has ten beam sabers: two handheld,, two on the legs, four on the backpack's wings, one on its shield, and another one in the head.
• Mutual Kill: Narrowly averted during his and Kira's fated duel in SEED.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Subverted. He thought he could just continue following orders until the war was over then realized that wasn't going to happen unless he made an effort to seek it out, which is why he joined Kira in SEED.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Though he "wins" the final fight against Kira and the Strike in SEED, he was very shaken up by the event and it caused him to begin questioning what he was really fighting for. Eventually, this leads to his Heel–Face Turn.
• Mythology Gag:
  • He and Kira issue a plethora of Ineffectual Death Threats to each other in the first half of the show, but it's Cagalli at their first meeting that he coldly tells "Omae wo korosu", in Heero Yuy's famous Character Catchphrase. He also borrows quite a bit of Heero's kind-but-no-nonsense and fatalistic attitude to soldiering and self-destructing, and similarly eventually has some of his views shifted by his repeated encounters with the two Cosmic Era's counterparts to Relena Darlian: Lacus and Cagalli.
  • His name being Arabic is a nod to the Arabian background of the Winners from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, given the Casting Gag of Mr. Winner playing his father Patrick.
  • Athrun makes Haros for Lacus because Amuro Ray made the much larger original one for Frau Bow in the first series; this was the first non-UC Gundam series to feature a Haro. He even wears Amuro's yellow turtleneck to visit Lacus at one point.
  • His "Alex Dino" disguise wearing Cool Shades is an obvious reference to Char Aznable's Quattro Bajeena persona in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. And the one who revealed his identity? Gilbert Durandal, who shares the same voice as Quattro/Char himself!
• Never My Fault: Averted for the most part as Athrun tends to shoulder a lot of past sins onto himself. This trope is played straight as Athrun acknowledges that Shinn is manipulated by Rey and Durandal are very good speakers where they can make their arguments sound objectively correct but fails to consider how his poor mentoring and constantly giving conflicting advice to Shinn might have contributed. However, this may have been unintentional and only wanted to tell Kira the more important things of Rey and Durandal to look out for.
• No Social Skills: Athrun's cynical outlook and inability to relate to the younger generation of pilots in SEED Destiny more or less sabotage his relationships with the entirety of the Minerva's crew.
  • Averted completely in SEED Freedom. Athrun's far better at convincing others to do what is right compared to SEED Destiny. He is still willing to get physical with Kira like he did with Shinn, except this time he is a lot more understanding and managed to successfully convince Kira on what to do next.
• Not Helping Your Case: Played for Drama in SEED Destiny. Athrun really did rejoin ZAFT with the sincerest and best of intentions, and was given apparent free rein to do as he liked. However, he is a former defector. The fact that he continues to prioritize Kira and the Archangel over Shinn, ZAFT, and the Minerva crew to the point of irrationally punching Shinn for carrying out a mission just makes it easier for Durandal and Rey to decide that he's completely useless and untrustworthy, and needs to be confined. Athrun then attacking more ZAFT personnel, being assisted by an Inside Job from Meyrin, and stealing a GOUF to escape make it very simple for both him and her to be dismissed as traitors and given immediate death sentences.
• Not So Above It All: When they were kids, Athrun was the responsible one while Kira was the less mature one. Even so, Athrun isn't the one to turn down a video game challenge from Kira when asked.
• Not So Stoic: Athrun may be the most level-headed pilot in the Three Ships Alliance but he definitely isn't the quietest. He occasionally lets out a scream in battle and can be very vocal when fighting for his ideals. Played for Laughs in his youth where Kira explains he is quiet and collected with other kids but very vocal and noisy with Kira.
• Older and Wiser: Subverted in SEED Destiny, his experience and advice doesn't really make much of a difference. If anything, they create a bigger gap between himself and the more idealistic Shinn.
• Perpetual Frowner: Athrun rarely smiles.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Said word-for-word to Cagalli in their first encounter in SEED. Not because he's offended or upset, just highly embarrassed — like Cagalli immediately is!
• Poor Communication Kills: An issue with Athrun towards the crew of the Minerva that affects his relationship with them, especially Shinn. He gives conflicting advice towards them with little explanation why and usually resorts to Corporal Punishment to Shinn rather than hearing him out. The most stand out example was hitting Shinn for disobeying orders and then later hitting Shinn for obeying orders for taking down the Freedom.
  • In SEED Freedom, he calls Kira out on this in his relationship with Lacus. When Kira breaks down and says to everyone that Lacus betrayed him, Athrun was so baffled that Lacus, his ex-fiancee, would ever treat Kira like that, and tells Kira to ask Lacus herself instead of being all wishy-washy.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: Eventually comes around to this viewpoint.
• Ramming Always Works:
  • With the Justice's Fatum-00. A feint tactic Athrun likes to use is to charge the subflight unit at an enemy to briefly stagger them before derailing the backpack to let him or Kira follow-up with another attack.
  • With the Infinite Justice's Fatum-01, it is armed with five beam blades that allow it to easily pierce through large battleships. This is how Athrun downs the Minerva during the Battle of Messiah at the end of SEED Destiny.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Athrun's Infinite Justice, is fuchsia colored. His ZAFT pilot suit in SEED Destiny is also a variant of purple more than it is red.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: in SEED Destiny:
  • He gives a rather abbreviated but very deep-cutting one to Shinn in the final battle, lambasting him for taking part in what's effectively attempted genocide on Orb purely because of his own selfish inability to let go of his angst and hate. He then further goes on to imply the reason Shinn can't allow his anger to fade is because he himself has become someone who lives off of the hate and death of war, the very same as the people he claimed to despise - that since Shinn doesn't know anything else except pain and how to cause it, he pathologically needs to think himself on the "right" side so that he can always have a way to justify continuing his hate. To say Shinn doesn't react well to this assessment is a gross understatement, but in doing so only proves Athrun right as his mad desperation to kill him nearly resulted in Shinn killing Luna instead, forcing Athrun to finally go on the offense and cut the Destiny down to save Luna.
  • He's earlier on the receiving end of a similarly abbreviated and deep-cutting one after punching Shinn from Rey, who re-outlines for Athrun just what serving as a soldier means, and even manages to call up a memory for Athrun of the Breaking Speech he received two years earlier from Lacus. Unfortunately, Rey's hints that Athrun should again just leave ZAFT if he dislikes it aren't taken, and by the time Athrun does reach that conclusion, he ends up being shot at and shot down himself, as well as almost getting Meyrin killed.
• Red Is Heroic: In SEED, Athrun wears an elite red uniform and pilot suit and later a red Orb jacket, and despite starting off the series as a major antagonist, is consistently shown to be thoughtful, benevolent, and sympathetic. Subverted in SEED Destiny, despite a new purple pilot suit, neither the red ZAFT uniform Athrun gets back nor the red mobile suit Durandal gives him prove the slightest bit effective. It's getting a new fuchsia Justice model that truly allows him to fight. Played straight again in SEED Freedom, Athrun pilots red mobile suits and is wearing a maroon colored pilot suit.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Has been both the red and blue before.
  • Is the Blue Oni to the Red Yzak. Yzak is the hot-blooded and short-tempered fighter compared to the more level-headed and strategic Athrun. The ironic part is Yzak's Duel Gundam is primarily blue while Athrun's Aegis was red.
  • Is the Red to the Blue Kira. Colors of the Freedom and Justice not-withstanding, Athrun's combat style is a lot more aggressive and close-ranged compared to Kira who fights at a distance. Kira is more idealistic and gentle compared to Athrun who is realistic and cynical from his experiences. This extends to how they mentor Shinn: Athrun was a poor one to Shinn, applying Corporal Punishment and screaming at him for not following his own conflicting advice, while Kira is a Benevolent Boss to Shinn, trusting him fully and being a much nicer mentor than Athrun.
  • Athrun is also the Blue Oni to his girlfriend Cagalli's Red, forming a Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl couple. Athrun is usually calmer, more logical and more realistic than Cagalli who is blunt, outspoken, optimistic and passionate. This is mostly shown in SEED and the prequel novel of SEED Freedom, Escape for Two.
• Redemption Earns Life: Athrun survives the first war after switching over the Three Ships Alliance at the end of SEED.
• Reluctant Warrior: The first quote says it all really. Though it needs to be said that in contrast Kira's vocal protests, Athrun generally opts to suffer in silence. In SEED Destiny, Athrun still doesn't want to fight, but unlike Kira he doesn't go out of his way to avoid killing when he does fight but he still makes an effort to avoid killing if he can help it.
• Romantic False Lead: For Lacus in SEED. Rau (of all people) lampshades this by being a lot more enthusiastic about her and calling him cold.
• Roundhouse Kick: His Signature Move with the Infinite Justice, made more effective due to the cutting beams built into its legs. Though they're more of quick sweep kicks instead of the flashy kind usually seen in fiction.
• The Rival: To Kira in SEED.
• Say My Name: Like Kira, he does this a lot.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • For Meer in SEED Destiny. She confesses her role as Lacus's Body Double, and he doesn't spill the beans about it.
  • In the novelization of SEED Freedom, Kira and Lacus went MIA after the Final Battle. While talking to Cagalli at the Orb memorial, Athrun playfully accepts Cagalli's joking denial of Kira and Lacus' whereabouts. This heavily implies that they both knew where Kira and Lacus are but Athrun and Cagalli choose to keep that secret.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In SEED Destiny, Athrun tries this by re-enlisting in ZAFT. To say it does not work would be an understatement. He ends up having to flee, again.
• Sharing a Body: Athrun's Infinite Justice Type II has a hidden function: it has a built-in remote control mechanism, which allows Cagalli to fight Shura from afar (through the AMGS-X18P Cavalier Aifrid Unit-02 attached on her Strike Rouge) by controlling it like a puppeteer.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He's quieter about it than Kira, but yeah. The war slowly wears away at the better aspects of Athrun's personality, and by the time the sequel comes along he is pretty damn broken. May or may not explain his Aesop Amnesia, as he struggles to come to terms with his actions in the previous war.
  • It does explain his initial reluctance to becoming involved with the military in any capacity, instead opting to become a civilian bodyguard by Cagalli's side.
  • He's not impressed, much less flattered, by the Hero Worship he gets from the Hawke sisters, and actively discourages Lunamaria to not make himself out as a war hero.
• Shield Bash: He does this a lot in the Infinite Justice.
• Shoot the Dog: In SEED, he reasoned that he had to kill Kira because he couldn't convince him to join his fellow Coordinators and Kira was killing his comrades.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In SEED, he repeatedly accuses Kira of being impressionable and idealistic, and refuses to believe that his and Lacus' idealism will solve anything in the long run. This changes after the revelation that he's the one being used.
• Simple, yet Awesome: The Justice Gundam on its own has no special features or weaponry compared to other Gundams of its generation whereas the Freedom has similar speed but heavier firepower, Testament has electronic warfare systems, Providence has Attack Drones and the Regenerate has Mirage Colloid and a size that rivals the Destroy Gundam (excluding the backpack). Athrun manages to use what it can to the fullest and cements himself and the Justice as one of the strongest units of the time, employing brilliant tactics and making use of its high speed to pull skillful moves.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Despite having multiple women trying to be close to him (whom he rejects more or less gently), Athrun has only eyes for Cagalli ^note A quick summary: Athrun's interactions with Lacus when they were engaged in SEED are not very romantic, feel forced and they have nearly no chemistry, in SEED Destiny, Athrun rejects both Lunamaria and (repeatedly) Meer, he pays no attention to Meyrin until she helps him and even after, while they grow closer, they are only friends. And compare how he reacts to Meer sneaking in his bed in a sexy outfit where he was more shocked than anything else to how he reacts to Cagalli lifting her shirt to remove a crab and later seeing her in her underwear in their first encounter and his "shameless thoughts" about her in SEED Freedom and finally he smiles warmly at her at the end of the movie, this solidifies this trope towards the blonde Natural.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Self-inflicted. He believes that, as the son of Patrick Zala, he has to atone for his father's crimes. In SEED Destiny, Durandal uses this to manipulate Athrun into joining ZAFT again, which works mainly because Athrun thinks that, regardless of his defection in the previous war, he still has a "duty" to ZAFT.
• Sixth Ranger: A recurring trait where Athrun tends to join the side he belongs with around the end of each series and usually gets a new Gundam around the time he joins.
  • In SEED, Athrun is the last major ally to join the Three Ships Alliance with the Justice Gundam^note Yzak is the last to join but his was more of an Enemy Mine situation as he only targeted the Earth Alliance and never left ZAFT
  • In SEED Destiny, Athrun joins ZAFT at the start but did not feel he belonged there. He does not bring a Gundam but when he joins the Three Ships Alliance and Orb once again, he receives the Infinite Justice.
  • In SEED Freedom, he starts operating alongside Compass partway through the movie. Averted in that he has a Z'Gok rather than a Gundam until it is revealed that the Z'Gok is a shell for the Infinite Justice Type II.
• Special Ability Shield: The Infinite Justice's "Beam Carry" shield houses a Deflector Shield, a grapple launcher, and a beam boomerang that can also act as a shield-mounted beam blade.
• The Stoic: Though Kira in SEED Destiny now outdoes him in this respect. Takes this back in SEED Freedom since the film's events makes Kira lose this trait.
• Straight for the Commander: More like "straight for the strongest asset of the enemy" but same idea. This is Athrun's main role on the battlefield since SEED Destiny, he will engage the strongest asset of the enemy to keep them occupied while Kira will do most of the damage to the rest of their forces. His Infinite Justice Gundam (and its Type II version in SEED Freedom) is equipped with multiple close combat weapons for forcing 1-on-1 duels. Examples of Athrun's targets include: Shinn in his Destiny Gundam in SEED Destiny and Shura who has nearly killed Kira twice in SEED Freedom.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: As Athrun learns when he tries to be someone in ZAFT again in SEED Destiny. He really does not fit in, start to finish.
• Sky Surfing: When not attached to its back, the Justice rides its subflight unit like this.
• Super Mode: SEED mode. He's the only pilot to have never lost in SEED Mode.
  • In SEED, Athrun could activate this mode at will. However he's since lost the ability to do this in SEED Destiny due to his internal conflicts interfering with his focus. Once he obtains the Infinite Justice, he no longer has any difficulty activating it, signifying that he's finally found some clarity in his purpose.
• Supporting Protagonist: Fills this role in SEED Destiny, being The Mentor to Shinn, and following the midseason Perspective Flip, foil to Kira. The story's told from his point of view for most of the series—and even more so in the compilation movies—and its his interactions with the other two that define the show.
• Tears of Remorse: When he cries over killing Kira because Kira killed Nicol.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: During his final battle against the Strike, Athrun does this to destroy the Skygrasper (and beheading its pilot, Tolle) when it attempted to intervene.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Infinite Justice Type II physically resembles the original Infinite Justice but features a new backpack with better firepower than the Fatum-01 along with more beam sabers and a new beam saber attachment on top of its head.
• Took a Level in Idealism: Athrun was very cynical in SEED Destiny. In SEED Freedom, while he is still stern and realistic when the time comes for it, Athrun is the idealistic one this time as he convinces Kira that they can rescue Lacus rather than being the one who had to be convinced with ideals.
• Transforming Mecha:
  • The Aegis can turn into a cruiser and attack mode because of its special frame.
  • The Saviour, which converts into a jet-like mobile armor.
• Troll: Does this quite a few times in SEED Freedom to the antagonists, especially on Shura, such as when he reveals himself to be the Strike Freedom's pilot instead of Kira, or when he thinks of a naked Cagalli to throw off Shura's mind control. Based on his smile during his fight against Shura, Athrun seems to enjoy doing this against his opponent.
  • A more light-hearted example. Athrun liked to tease Kira in their youth that he won't be there to help him in the next assignment if Kira kept slacking off, complete with a cheeky grin. Of course, Athrun would always end up helping him either way.
• True Companions: With Kira.
• Unwitting Pawn: Subtle from the beginning of SEED Destiny, but Durandal had always planned to get Athrun on his side. He first manipulated Athrun by referring to him by his pseudonym 'Alex' until Athrun couldn't take it anymore and proclaims his true name and resolve to fight to protect the PLANTs. Durandal then gifts Athrun the Savior (rather conveniently constructed to resemble the Aegis and the Justice) and the commission to act as he saw fit. He even had Athrun's former comrades, Yzak and Dearka, briefly serve as his bodyguards, likely to further sway him to re-enlist with ZAFT (though Yzak and Dearka are not in on this). After repeated confrontations from the Archangel and its crew, all of which were also former comrades of Athrun, Durandal realized he was losing his hold on him and decides to frame Athrun for treason once he deemed him beyond his sway.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Shown in flashbacks, the drama CD and its accompanying manga and invoked by Lacus. The bitter and cynical Athrun we all know and love is rather different from the nice kid who believed Earth and the PLANTS would never go to war.
• Use Your Head: How Athrun kills Shura in SEED Freedom, courtesy of his MS' head-mounted beam saber cleaving the Shi-ve.A in half.
• Villains Out Shopping: Athrun apparently likes to build robotic pets as a hobby; he made Birdy/Torii that he gifted to Kira when they were children as well as all the Haros he made for Lacus when they were betrothed and one with a hamster design for Cagalli in a side story (in the GBA game Tomo to Kimi to Koko de). Nicol jokes that Athrun was sleeping at his last piano recital (which might well have been the truth).
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Downplayed in SEED Destiny. Emblematic of his poor people skills, he just shoves a ring on Cagalli's finger, without saying anything loving.^note  Making it even worse is that Athrun was engaged before, and at least appeared to have a perfunctory grip on romance, politeness, and courtship rituals while he was with Lacus! Startled, she even protests that this is not how you do it, but laughs and kisses him, anyway, with the ring becoming a symbol of their troubled relationship throughout the show and Cagalli removing it at the end. By the time of SEED Freedom, she is wearing it again as a necklace, making a parallel to Athrun still wearing Cagalli's Haumea amulet. Athrun and Cagalli warmly showing to each other that they are wearing their respective gifts reconfirms their relationship.
• Wall Run: In the Escape for Two novella, Athrun manages to do this while carrying Cagalli in his arms.
• Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed in SEED Destiny. The Infinite Justice is stronger than the common Mobile Suit including the occasional Ace Custom but it lacks the raw firepower compared to the Strike Freedom, Destiny and Legend Gundam as it is mainly a melee-focused unit with a lot of close-range options. In the hands of Athrun who is a more than capable pilot where close-combat is his specialty, he easily brings out the potential of the Infinite Justice.
  • A straighter example is where he, Yzak and Dearka use ZAKUs to fight the stolen Second Stages. In fact, Athrun performed better when fighting the stolen Gundams in the ZAKU compared to his performance in his own Second Stage, the Savior Gundam.
  • Slightly played straight in SEED with the Justice. Aside from the flight pack and beam boomerangs, the Justice on its own is quite basic compared to the Freedom's high firepower with its only gimmick being that it is fast. This does not stop Athrun from being one of the best pilots on the field where the only time it sustained significant damage was when Athrun self-destructed it.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: While he sincerely wishes to end the war with as few victims as possible, he also fights to earn the approval of his father, whose own agenda is much less benevolent. This clouds his judgement from time to time. Lacus calls him out on it towards the end of SEED. Takes a sad spin in The Edge manga where it is implied that Athrun's high marks in the academy and red coat status back in SEED was out of a desire to impress his father.
• When He Smiles: Not one to smile, but when he does, it’s adorable. It is mostly shown to Kira and Cagalli.
• Worf Had the Flu: Athrun's own issues prevented him from performing well in the Savior Gundam throughout Destiny as he never managed to defeat Sting in the Chaos Gundam, someone he easily defeated back when he was in a ZAKU at the start of Destiny.
  • In The Edge, Shinn defeats Athrun in the Battle of Orb from a combination of Shinn being slightly more competent and this trope as Athrun was still recovering from his injuries.
  • Worf had a fever rather than the flu this time. The drama CDs reveal he "only" came second in the marksmanship exam to Yzak was because he had a fever on the day and even with that, Yzak only won by a narrow margin.
• Would Hit a Girl: As Lunamaria can attest at the end of SEED Destiny. To be fair, she attacked him and Athrun just defended himself.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Athrun has killed a bunch of people as an elite ZAFT soldier, but he can't stab Cagalli... or shoot Lacus, although there's a bit more at work with the latter. Played for Laughs with Lunamaria as she asks if Athrun would hit a girl as corporal punishment because she's acting irritable over catching him and Meer sleeping together.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After the Freedom is destroyed in SEED Destiny, Rey and Durandal decide that he's become too uncooperative and make plans to confine him. However, Meer overhears their plans and tips him off before they can arrest him, and he busts out of the base due to Meyrin's help (though he's forced to bring her along with him after Rey spots them in the MS hanger). Rey then convinces Shinn that Athrun really has turned traitor, and the Destiny ends up shooting down the spare GOUF they had used to escape. Fortunately, they're picked up by the Archangel shortly afterwards.
• Your Favorite: In the drama CD of Kira and Athrun's youth, Caridad likes to cook rolled cabbage when Athrun visited Kira as she knew he likes it.
• Zen Survivor: In SEED Destiny, he's a cynical Shell-Shocked Veteran, and pretty bad at mentoring in general. Played with in that he does attempt to speak very honestly to Shinn at least once, but Shinn just can't absorb "power means you're the one now making others cry", and Athrun's lack of people skills and preoccupation with Kira means he can't build enough rapport with Shinn for it to sink in.

Lacus Clyne

Affiliation: PLANT (SEED) → Three Ships Alliance/Terminal & Orb Union (SEED and SEED Destiny) → PLANT Supreme Council (End of SEED Destiny) → Compass (SEED Freedom)

Main mecha: MDE262S Proud Defender (SEED Freedom), ZGMF/A-262PD-P Mighty Strike Freedom Gundam (SEED Freedom, co-pilot)

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese); Chantal Strand [Ocean dub, speaking], Jillian Michaels [Ocean dub, singing], Stephanie Sheh [NYAV Post dub] (English)

"I'd like you to inform them: from now on, Lacus Clyne will be singing the song... of peace."

"I am not trying to win. I'm trying to protect."

Lacus in SEED Freedom

^{Click here to see Lacus in SEED
Click here to see Lacus in SEED Destiny}

The civilian daughter of PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne, Lacus is an extremely popular idol singer and ceremonial figure for her country, and is Athrun's fiancée. Not actually affiliated in any way with ZAFT — something she goes to great lengths to point out — early in the series she is picked up by the Archangel and meets Kira, an event which will come to define the entire course of the war in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. The eventual leader of the "Clyne Faction" (those moderates who support her father's policies), Lacus is a pleasant, friendly, idealistic girl, who is a heck of a lot smarter than you'd think.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Lacus essentially dropped off the radar following the end of the First Bloody Valentine War to live quietly with Kira in the South Pacific. Forced back into action by an assassination attempt against her, she returns to space in an attempt to consolidate enough power to stop Durandal.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Lacus returns as the first director-general of Compass, a world peace monitoring organization suggested by Cagalli Yula Athha jointly organized by the Orb Union, Atlantic Federation, and ZAFT, following her abdication from the post of PLANT Supreme Council Chairwoman.

---

• Action Girl: Subverted when she was "piloting" the Infinite Justice in SEED Destiny, as she doesn't engage in combat. Lacus told a still-wounded Athrun and Meyrin that she was "just keeping the seat warm".
• Adrenaline Makeover: Twice. Her outfit at the theater to confront Athrun and her Eternal commander look for the last act of SEED are completely different than her earlier, "normal" look, and both are done when she and everyone around her are in great danger.
• All-Loving Hero: She holds no grudges and instead shows compassion to everyone.
• Amicable Exes: With Athrun. They remains close friends after they end their engagement.
• Arranged Marriage: With Athrun Zala, only child of her father's best friend, before the war broke out, though in the end. It's rendered moot when they end up with different people. They are still friends.
• Armor-Piercing Question: She uses these the way the rest of the cast use physical weapons — equally devastating. "Is it your intention to make this a battlefield in front of me, the national memorial representative? Can you not hear me?" does the trick with Rau in SEED. She does it again to Athrun later.
  Lacus: "What is it that you believe in and fight for, Athrun? Is it that medal you received? Or your father's orders? (...) If I am your enemy, will you shoot me, Athrun Zala, soldier of ZAFT ?"
• Ascended Extra: Lacus is definitely a main character throughout SEED and Destiny but Freedom gives her more attention as her own character and origins rather than as a supporter to Kira and Athrun.
• Attempted Rape: In SEED Freedom, victim of one by Orphee. Lacus manages to talk him out of it, but she is still left traumatized.
• Badass Long Robe: She wears a sleeveless gold-trimmed white one over her Purple Is Powerful wrap minidress when commanding Eternal in SEED, a foil to ZAFT's Badass Longcoats.
• Bathtub Bonding: She and Cagalli have their first real chance to talk in the series when they use the Archangel's upgraded Japanese-style baths in SEED Destiny. Unfortunately, it ended up not being a private discussion, since Kira was listening in from the men's side...
• Battle Couple: With Kira in SEED Freedom by piloting the Mighty Strike Freedom together.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: As seen in Informed Ability, it's on display more than her actual career as a performer in SEED.
• Benevolent Boss: Everyone who serves under Lacus is extremely loyal to her, and she always treats them nicely. The novella Escape For Two even talks about how Lacus makes too much food, so she gives it to COMPASS staff. They not only appreciate the free food, but also find it delicious.
• Betty and Veronica: In SEED, wise, chaste, and nurturing Betty for Kira versus his Destructive Romance with sexy, needy, unhealthy Flay... although Lacus is also shown to be extremely skilled at getting the cooperative and self-sacrificing Kira to do what she wants, just for ostensibly more-altruistic and less-damaging purposes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She prefers to be friends with everyone, because you do not want to make an enemy out of her. Given how the show establishes her ability to engineer the collapse of murderous dictatorial regimes, Rau was probably wise to be seen putting this into practice.
• Big Damn Kiss: With Kira at the end of SEED Freedom.
• Big Fancy House: In SEED mostly. It's especially a sign of high status in the PLANTS which are man-made habitats. Averted in SEED Destiny where she lives at Reverend Malchio's orphanage with Kira.
• Big Good: Inherits the position at the end of SEED after her father is assassinated and she uses his power base combined with Orb's to Take a Third Option in the war between OMNI and ZAFT. Lacus is still this in SEED Destiny and she is the primary opposition to Djibril and Durandal's agendas. She also hands out custom new Gundams to Kira and Athrun at the end of the series.
• Biker Babe: Downplayed in SEED Freedom, but if the photograph on Kira's desk is any indication, Lacus can ride a Honda Hawk 11 motorcycle. During the Final Battle, she personally brings the Proud Defender to Kira, which features a motorbike-style seat and controls.
• Birds of a Feather: Despite her engagement to Athrun in SEED, it's very clear from her talks with Kira aboard the Archangel that it's with him she senses a more kindred with, perhaps more than anyone, even more than her own fiancé, who she cannot seem to be on the same wavelength with at all, civil and affectionate as they try to be. As the future will show, Kira and Lacus will eventually start a relationship together while Athrun has found his own kindred spirit in Cagalli.
• Break Them by Talking: She does this to Athrun nearly the end of SEED, very dramatically. And to the other master of this, Rau, in a much earlier and shorter fashion. Repeated in SEED Freedom against Orphee.
• But Now I Must Go: Immediately after the defeat of the Foundation at the end of SEED Freedom, Lacus, still co-piloting the Mighty Strike Freedom with Kira, leaves the battlefield without informing anyone and find herself with him on random beach on Earth. The novelization of the movie clarifies that they went MIA but it also heavily implies that Athrun and Cagalli knew where they are but the other couple chooses to keep it quiet.
• The Chessmaster: Not to the same degree as Durandal in SEED Destiny, but the Mobile Suit factories in the asteroids show that Lacus was ready to move in the event of renewed hostilities.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Imagine the version of her commanding outfit from SEED but black or red. That's her Character Development for SEED Destiny in visual shorthand. Also, while Durandal calls her "The White Queen", he obviously has no way of knowing that he's wearing white but she is wearing black.
• Confronting Your Imposter: Invoked at the end of SEED Destiny, since their meeting was arranged, but as Lacus had been notably quiet about her feelings over Meer's identity theft up to then, the very kind and selfless way she dealt with her managed to be quite a Reveal.
• Commanding Coolness: She hijacks and runs the Eternal in the last arc of SEED, and debuts her own purple outfit and white-and-gold long coat to go up against ZAFT, as Rau's analog, though Waltfeld is actually The Captain.
• Cool Starship: Eternal is a one-of-a-kind prototype vessel constructed specifically to support the two most advanced mobile suits in the show and is faster than any warship of its class. It makes its return in SEED Destiny.
• Cry into Chest: After her escape from ZAFT and her father's demise in the last act of SEED, she collapses in tears into Kira's chest.
• Cynicism Catalyst: In SEED Destiny, Lacus is not as idealistic as she was two years ago in SEED. Seeing what the last war did to Kira, and then realizing that they would never be left alone, if someone sent assassins after her, she's got no reason to have as much faith in both sides choosing to cease fighting or make the right decisions. It certainly explains her choice to take over as Chairwoman of the PLANTs following Durandal's death. She shares this trope with Kira.
• Dangerous 16th Birthday: A slight variant in SEED. In PLANT, the age of majority is 15, and Lacus's 15th birthday prior to the series is also what's known as The Tragedy of Copernicus — a massive bombing on the Moon that killed most of the UN, would have killed her father if not for a delay, and generated OMNI. It kickstarted the war and provided the basis for the Bloody Valentine nine days later. Downplayed with her 16th birthday, which she spends in Earth Alliance custody onboard the Archangel — far from an ideal situation, although the day itself is uneventful.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In SEED Destiny, Durandal is a Villain in a White Suit. Lacus is the Big Good and his greatest threat, so she wears black this time, highlighting her Visual Development this time around.
• Deadpan Snarker: Lacus is a bit more prone to making some backhanded statements in SEED Destiny due to her being more cynical this time around, such as commenting that Meer's fans are clearly enjoying themselves.
• Defiant Captive: In SEED Freedom, when Orphee finally has enough and starts sexually assaulting Lacus, she just reaffirms to him that her heart will only ever belong to Kira and that she'll never be the Lacus Orphee desired. This actually gets him to back off.
• Deuteragonist: Her role in SEED Freedom is just as important as Kira's. Specifically, the Love Triangle between her, Kira, and Orphee. She notably took the place of the second most important character from Athrun in the movie.
• Did Not Get The Guy: In SEED, despite her host of sterling qualities (although she's not portrayed as the Peerless Love Interest), she doesn't actually have much romantic luck, and is never even shown getting kissed on the lips. Neither Athrun nor Kira return her feelings to the same extent, having far more involved relationships with Cagalli and Flay respectively, and both reject her while struggling (Athrun repeatedly, physically and emotionally; Kira very gently and subverting the Florence Nightingale Effect, but still) without explaining themselves. It is fully averted at the end of SEED Freedom where Kira and Lacus cements their relationship with a Big Damn Kiss.
• Disposable Fiancé: In SEED, she becomes very close to Kira despite being engaged to Athrun, though it's shown her relationship with Athrun was friendly, but awkward and strained due to his misplaced patriotism and their general lack of chemistry. Although she wants to be affectionate with Athrun, including physically, the fact she also nonchalantly undresses in front of Kira and ignores Athrun in favor of both reprimanding and chatting with his commanding officer point to her heart not truly being engaged, whatever she tries. It's mentioning to Athrun that she's "fond" of Kira despite only having met him once that finally seems to startle him. Athrun and Lacus will eventually end their arrangement on their own but they still remains close friends.
• Dissonant Serenity: Her calm and unruffled nature becomes this at a couple of points, notably at White Symphony when she was confronted by Athrun in SEED when people are being shot all around her, and she doesn't blink or flinch.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Double subverted in SEED Destiny. She interrupts Meer's interruption of Cagalli's broadcast and then makes it clear to the whole world that she would have none of Durandal's schemes, while also delivering a verbal bitchslap to Djibril. Also a case of Throwing Down the Gauntlet: It was a very public challenge to Durandal, not as a piece on the board, but as an equal opponent. Durandal did not take this well.
• Elemental Motifs: Water and air. Neither of which are in space, ironically, but then, none of them are. Her name means "lake" and her second (and what can be viewed as her image) song is called "Proof of Water", however, she's also a canon Aquarius ("water-bearer"... which is an air sign), and her first song is called "In This Quiet Night", seemingly associated with stillness and air.
• Establishing Character Moment: A few early on in SEED.
  • First, asking Mu if he knows who her father — a world leader — is because he mentioned his name, giving us the impression she is ditzy and a little too innocent. While persistently wandering around the Archangel may have also appeared ditzy and innocent, it also showed a subtle willingness to continually and casually break rules — and get away with it.
  • More revealingly is when she strips in front of Kira, showing that she also intimidates others with ease and basically produces the unexpected no matter what anyone thinks of her.
  • Which means reprimanding Rau of all people later in the same episode for trying to start a battle isn't really surprising, since she already showed us that she is more than she appears.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Even a person as nice as Lacus has them.
  • A downplayed example in SEED Destiny. No longer exactly the All-Loving Hero, there’s still nobody Lacus doesn't care about... almost. She has no time for Djibril and shed not a tear at Durandal's demise. She's far more concerned and forgiving than your average person or anybody else in the Cosmic Era, but she clearly has limits and shows more anger this time (particularly at Durandal after Meer’s death).
  • Lacus becomes utterly disgusted at Orphee's behavior during SEED Freedom. This extends to the rest of the Foundation as well when she learned that they invoked her name while commiting massacre on Earth with the Requiem, she was not informed about that during her captivity despite Orphee wanting her as his "equal" partner. The novel makes it clear that she will not forgive them for those atrocities.
• Excellent Judge of Character: She proves to be this despite her young age, in addition to being an inspirational political figure. Throughout the series, she has entrusted power to several unlikely individuals (most notably, Kira, a soldier who had fought against her country and her people), but has yet to experience a serious betrayal of her trust.
• The Exile: Despite the change of governments at the end of SEED, she didn't return to PLANT after the first war and chose to stay at Rev. Malchio's in the Marshall Islands with Kira, to the point that Durandal is apparently unable to locate her. Despite only finally returning when asked to do so after the end of SEED Destiny, it seems to have affected her less than Athrun.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Before the final act of SEED, Lacus wears her normal hair in giant pigtails to confront Athrun at the White Symphony theater, complete with a different hairclip^*though banners indicate this is a stage outfit she's worn at least once before. Her command outfit for Eternal involves an elaborate ponytail with a braided crown, and we don't see her hair down again for the rest of the series.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: The Water Is Womanly to Cagalli's Tomboy Princess fire and their personalities are quite opposite too (see Tomboy and Girly Girl below). While Lacus and Cagalli don't evoke this image physically at first glance, this is refleted by their respective eye colors: Lacus has profound blue eyes while Cagalli has fiery amber/golden eyes, forming an Orange/Blue Contrast. Unlike most instances of this trope, they become close friends after SEED and never have a confrontation with each other.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Subverted in SEED. Her relationship with Kira becomes more serious after she decides to nurse him a couple of times; first when Rev. Malchio sends him to her after he's badly injured when Athrun self-destructs the Aegis on him, ultimately leading to Lacus stealing and entrusting the Freedom to him, and then later on Eternal when he's badly shocked by a combination of Rau's Mendel revelations and guilt over Flay. However, although Kira is grateful to her and does care about her, he's simply too traumatized to really reciprocate her feelings the same way. Even in the interquel when they are living at Rev. Malchio's, so she can continue to look after him, there's a child sitting between them at dinner and Kira has been still further traumatized.
• Flowers of Femininity: Lacus enjoys spending time in the garden part of her family's estate in SEED, meeting with Athrun (who brought her roses twice as nominal Flowers of Romance) and tending to Kira there. She pointed out to Athrun in the past that a particular bunch of roses were "memorial flowers" from her first public performance at Junius City's White Symphony theatre, which he eventually uses as a clue to track her down when she's in hiding. The box Bandai released for the Figure-Rise Standard figure of her depicts her garden and more flowers◊.
  • The first piece of key visual art for SEED Freedom re-established her association with these by showing her in her garden at Aprilius 1, with petals everywhere in the air. May possibly be a slight Mythology Gag nod to Haman Karn in Gundam ZZ, who was shown to be very fond of Something about a Rose.
• Foil: To both Flay and Rau in SEED. The two mentioned are both her opposite in their outlooks and approaches in life, albeit in different ways, but also for Kira's soul and humanity. Respectively, they seek to turn Kira into a hateful killing machine and a dehumanized ultimate proof of humanity's hubris, respectively, while she encourages him that he can be much better than what people say of him, and that he deserves to be alive just as much as anyone is, regardless of where they come from.
• Foreshadowing: In SEED, she orders Le Creuset of all people to stand down during her rescue, providing an early hint as to just how much steel she has in her.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: She's kind and has a noticeably offbeat and quirky side, but Lacus speaks incredibly formally, distantly, and deferentially in Japanese, period. The one exception is her brief monologue in her head at the end SEED. The first English dub attempted some of the same distant effect between her and other people by making her sound much younger.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In SEED Freedom, Lacus hopes that by neutralizing the last remnant of Blue Cosmos together with Foundation and under the supervision of Eurasia, global peace could finally be achieved. However, Kira unexpectedly veers off into Eurasia territory during the operation and begin to disable Eurasian mobile suits - an act that could be seen as a pretext for invasion, with COMPASS colluding with Foundation to expand its territory - and If that happens, it could spark another global war. When her calls for Kira to stop failed, Orphee implores Lacus to allow the Black Knights to stop Kira in order to salvage the situation, and Lacus - with a heavy heart - reluctantly gives her consent, unknowingly falling into Foundation's plan.
• Friend to All Children: Stays in an orphanage at the end of SEED and the beginning of SEED Destiny, chaperoning a bunch of children by day and even sleeping in the same bed with them at night.
• Friend to All Living Things: Birds flock to her hands, both in her music video and while she's having tea.
• Geisha: Along with her Yamato Nadeshiko side, as a highly-trained "arts person" who occasionally dresses sexy with her Unlimited Wardrobe, spends a lot of time in an otherwise all-male environment being persuasive, counseling, or convincing, or does other "daring" things outside yamato nadeshiko scope, she's this.
• Girly Girl: Not in the "fashion and makeup" sense like Flay, but she does exaggerate both Pink Means Feminine (Athrun mentions in an audio drama that her In-Series Nickname at 14 by her fans was the "Pink Fairy", and she later gets called a princess) and Long Hair Is Feminine, never wears pants, and is highly gracious, graceful and soft-spoken.
• Girly Skirt Twirl: She combines this with some Airplane Arms in the Eye Catch of SEED for some Spectacular Spinning.
• Giving Them the Strip: In SEED, she has to put on a spacesuit in order to escape the Archangel, which requires removing her elaborate multilayered dress. Which she nonchalantly does... in front of Kira. Taking her clothes with her ended up getting her Mistaken for Pregnant.
• Good Is Not Soft: Lacus being a pretty teenage Idol Singer with a sweet, quirky and seemingly extremely naive personality then baffles everyone who discovers just how effective and intelligent she really is. It works a little too well on Patrick Zala in SEED, who keeps insisting her father Siegel must be to blame for her deeds.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple:
  • It tends to be overlooked in all the pink, but her iconic first outfit has multiple shades of this, her resistance dress appears purple-trimmed in dim light while she's broadcasting, she wears a purple hooded cape while she's in hiding, and her Commander wrap mindress on Eternal she wears in SEED is a pastel shade or two. Certainly also a case of Purple Is Powerful.
  • In the audio drama, pre-Bloody Valentine, she musingly speculates that her hypothetical children with Athrun should have purple hair. It makes him even more uncomfortable.
• Guile Heroine: Lacus isn't a fighter, but she doesn't have to be. With her political connections, oratorical ability, and flawless public image she's set to completely upset Patrick Zala's agenda. Repeated in SEED Destiny against Durandal this time, using the same sort of political pressure and propaganda techniques that he employs.
• Heroic BSoD: She briefly falls into despair shortly after her father Siegel is murdered in the last act of SEED.
• Hidden Depths: She appears innocent, unfailingly kind, and a bit naive. She really is that kind, but that naive exterior hides a sharp mind and an iron will that few see coming from her. The depths start when she has no problem taking her clothes off in front of a relative stranger, working the communications in a mobile suit she's never seen before, or exercising military authority she isn't even faintly entitled to, and her hits just keep coming. She's less full of surprises than consists of them.
• Hidden Eyes: Happened to her in the original version of SEED, when she told Kira that her father was killed. Subverted in the HD Remaster.
• The High Queen: Given that her standard form of address now seems to be "Lacus-sama" in SEED Destiny, Durandal views her power and authority as necessary to ruling himself, and PLANT asked her to return and take a governing position in the epilogue, she's pretty much now this, despite living in complete obscurity at the beginning. In SEED Freedom, she is no longer in the PLANT government but her influence is still great as the leader of Compass.
• Honour Before Reason: She's even less naive than in SEED, but still wants to do things like meet Meer in SEED Destiny when everyone, including herself, knows it's a trap.
• Idiot Ball: In SEED Destiny, Lacus is far more upset giving Strike Freedom to Kira when Eternal is under heavy attack — a suit she'd had specifically designed for him — than she was nonchalantly stealing Freedom in SEED (and putting countless people's lives at risk). ^*Even allowing for guilt and trauma, she'd already been through this letting him back into Freedom (and had no problems with him piloting after that), she ordered a new suit built for him, and it's a life-threatening emergency. It makes her look incredibly foolish and inconsistent, holding this just so she can be a "concerned girlfriend". It certainly contradicts what she says later about lives instinctively fighting what tries to destroy them. Then again, she sees him conspicuously not piloting the Freedom when he comes to save them, which clearly meant something had happened to it, and she's likely fearing the worst for him.
• Idol Singer: She's very popular in the PLANTS and she uses that popularity to her advantage in SEED. This was exploited by Durandal in SEED Destiny with him using Body Double Meer.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: By dissappearing from public view between SEED and SEED Destiny, it is implied that Lacus just wanted to live a quiet and simple life. The novelization of SEED Freedom confirmed that but it is also her greatest wish, just to live quietly with Kira.
• Implied Love Interest: For Kira in SEED Destiny. It's deliberately impossible to say how platonic or romantic they are. By the end of SEED Freedom, it stops being implied, complete with a Big Damn Kiss.
• Informed Ability: Downplayed. She's said to be the most popular singer in PLANT. Although she does have a beautiful, professional, influential voice, she never performs for an audience, despite speaking of the first time she sang in public. This gets defied to heck and deconstructed in SEED Destiny with the use of her imitator Meer by Durandal.
• The Ingenue: She seems sheltered and none-too-bright, at least at the beginning of SEED, but there's more to her than that..
• Insecure Love Interest: Both she and Kira suffers from this in SEED Freedom. Lacus feels like she's being heartless and cruel to Kira by sending him repeatedly to battle despite knowing how much he dislikes conflict, and her inability to seemingly lighten his burden - with Kira getting worn down more and more while not confiding in her - made Lacus believes that it would be better to make him step down from COMPASS, to allow him to return to a semblance of normal life even if it means letting him go, if peace remained elusive.
• In the Hood:
  • Downplayed in SEED. She wears a purple hooded cloak while she's in hiding...but it doesn't obscure that much of her face and leaves her very visible pink hair free, so it's something between Rule of Symbolism and Rule of Cool.
  • Downplayed again in SEED Destiny. She wears a cloak with a hood while she's in hiding, dark reddish this time. Again, it doesn't seem as though it covers enough of her face or even hair to be effective. She even subverts the trope by going without it to try some clothes on. However, no one recognizes her with it on, so it seems to do enough. She pushes it back to reveal herself when she meets Meer.
• It's Personal: The conflict against the Foundation in SEED Freedom has affected Lacus on a very personal level. They tried to erase her true self ^note Which is not Lacus Clyne the leader of Compass, nor the inspiring leader who stopped the last two wars, not even Lacus Clyne the Idol Singer, her true self is just a simple woman who wanted to live quietly with her life partner Kira Yamato with the designated role they chose for her with their version of the Destiny Plan and doing the same for everyone else too AND commiting massacre with the Requiem in her name (without informing her). While she doesn't get visibly angry, it is clear that Lacus will not forgive them, to the point of unhesitatingly authorise the use of the Disruptor, an extremely powerful weapon equipped on the Mighty Strike Freedom, when Kira asked for it.
• Kimono Fanservice: Not only is her battle wrap dress in SEED Destiny equally short this time and now sleeveless, it also ties in front^*like the page says, it can symbolize a working girl — making it Hotter and Sexier and more daring than her other two in the same style. In SEED Freedom, her Compass outfit (which is a variant of her SEED Destiny outfit as seen above) also counts.
• Lady and Knight: She's the Bright Lady to Kira's White Knight. She's his chaste relationship and inspiration. She provides him with a shiny new mobile suit twice (the Freedom in SEED and the Strike Freedom in SEED Destiny) like a medieval romance counterpart might distribute plate mail, although she calls it a "sword". See Meaningful Name.
• The Lady's Favour: She gives Kira a ring before the Final Battle of SEED. The compilation movies imply that it might have been her mother's.
• Lady of War: Gets there by the end of SEED Destiny, completing her Character Development. She gathers and heads an army to destroy Durandal and the Destiny Plan, leading Eternal again while urging humanity to fight for their right to dreams and a future. She takes it even further in SEED Freedom. Becoming a pilot herself, Lacus also uses the Mighty Strike Freedom alongside Kira to defeat the Foundation.
• Last of Her Kind: At the end of SEED Freedom, Lacus became the last surviving Accord following Foundation's defeat and deaths.
• Latex Space Suit: In SEED Freedom, she wears a particularly form-fitting and stylized one while sending the Proud Defender backpack to Kira (by piloting it personally, no less) during the final act of the film.
• The Leader: Charismatic Type to the Clyne Faction and the Three Ships Alliance at the end of SEED, also to Terminal in SEED Destiny and the rest of the anti-ZAFT forces. Final Plus also shows that she was given the position of Supreme Council Chairwoman in PLANT after all had settled down. In SEED Freedom, she is this to Compass.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: Lacus has a robot for a best friend (and in the audio drama continues to ride her old one Okapi at age 14 the way she did as a young child), doesn't care too much about anyone else's rules or authority paradigms even to illegal or dangerous levels, and is far and away the kindest person in the show.
• Loved by All: In SEED, Lacus is so beloved in PLANT that people are in agonies of confusion when she appears to be an OMNI spy and traitor. Rau discusses this when he points out how difficult she's making the lives of Patrick and Ezalia, telling Yzak and the rest of the team that's exactly why the opposition has her. In English he explicitly says "people believe she can do no wrong". It all ends up as quite a bit of Foreshadowing for SEED Destiny. It is also exploited by Durandal with the use of Meer. Freedom confirms that Lacus was genetically altered to be this so that she can effectively lead alongside the Accords.
• Little Black Dress: Her battle outfit in SEED Destiny without the coat is a variant, with a sexier riff on High-Class Gloves — quite possibly a very sneaky homage to her inspiration Audrey Hepburn.
• Living Emotional Crutch: She is this for Kira for a good part of SEED Destiny. Subverted in that she insists on going away to do her own thing for a period of time. Double subverted in that she seems to fully sense the threats to him from Rey and Rau's ghost at the end, going as far as entering SEED Mode. In SEED Freedom, she is still this to Kira. The film thoroughly explores this, showing how the importance of her presence is to Kira, and the negative effects on him if she isn't around.
• Magic Skirt: Despite having a very short skirt (in space) at the end of SEED, she only has a Panty Shot in the Compilation Movie. Fully played straight in SEED Destiny, for some reason, whenever she dons her thigh-length battle wrap dress, she manages to avoid any possible panty shots.
• Martial Pacifist: At the end of SEED, she wants this war over now, and if that means leading her own army against ZAFT and the Earth Alliance, so be it.
• Meaningful Name: "Lacus" means "lake" in Latin, and she talks about giving Kira "a new sword". More than just a Lady and Knight, she's The Lady of the Lake — and just an Empowering Lake Lady, in general.
• Messiah Creep: Since SEED. It makes her conflict with Durandal in SEED Destiny that much more interesting.
• Missing Mom: Unlike Athrun's, hers is simply never mentioned. Lacus does bring her up when consoling Kira in the compilation movies of SEED. In SEED Freedom, Aura is in a sense Lacus' mother. Her birth mother is never shown but is confirmed to not be Aura.
• Mistaken for Pregnant: In SEED, an inadvertent Pillow Pregnancy, as a result of needing to stuff her clothes in her spacesuit. Sai makes the obvious "how far along is she?" bad joke.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed in SEED Destiny, though part of her Character Development. Her wrap minidress is now a Little Black Dress, worn with long black fingerless gloves — and viewers took notice. She also tries on a black outfit while shopping, wears a dress with an Impossibly-Low Neckline in some openings and the Eye Catch as well as a formfitting pink ZAFT pilot suit, and has a Furo Scene with Cagalli where we see her completely naked from behind, rear end included. It all makes the point that "Hotter and Sexier Lacus" does not equal "Meer", something where Durandal's foresight or ability to care also failed. Then in SEED Freedom, Lacus has been slightly redesigned to be more fanservicey, now wearing lipstick. Her Compass outfit is variant of her SEED Destiny black dress with black thighhighs and she also got a custom space suit which is very form-fitting.
• Music for Courage: She sings "Fields of Hope" to calm the children during the Break the World incident in SEED Destiny.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: ...which provides the music while we watch the effects it has on the planet.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In episode 20 of SEED, Lacus draws a ∀ Gundam-like moustache on her navy-blue Haro.
  • Her exit from her escape pod at the end of episode 7 of SEED and the beginning of episode 8 was a nod to Lalah Sune's exit from Char's shuttle in episode 34 of Mobile Suit Gundam. Given how both characters appeared eccentric only to be far more than they appeared, this may have been foreshadowing.
  • Lacus wears a minidress with long sleeves and bare legs to command Eternal. Why? Partly because it's what her fellow "Nice Girl with a Haro" Frau Bow wore as a Custom Uniform on White Base in Mobile Suit Gundam. Lacus's even features a large bow. Her ultimate outfit in SEED Destiny features two. Her official birthday (February 5) is the day before Frau's semi-official one.
  • Her getting a moody, powerful Newtype to do a lightning-quick 180 while seemingly being pregnant is a Shout-Out to an older Frau doing the same thing to Amuro in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Rau even finally calls her on a Full-Name Basis, like Amuro (and others) tended to do.
  • In SEED Destiny, she's the pink-haired daughter of the dead rebel space leader with orphans to watch over, a cult of personality, a very clever and secretive personality, a base in an asteroid, and a bone to pick with a guy with Shūichi Ikeda's voice. Lacus now hits a lot of notes from the original appearance of Haman Karn in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, the sequel to the original series. Even her white coat with the wide shoulders and orbital trim is a nod to Haman's Qubeley mobile suit.
  • Her ascension as PLANT Supreme Council Chairwoman at the end of SEED Destiny mirrored what happened to Relena Darlian at the end of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, when she became Vice-Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. In both cases, Lacus and Relena took over their father’s respective positions after the war ended.
• Nerves of Steel: She's perfectly calm and tranquil when she's introduced having wound up with the enemy forces after being shoved into a one-person life pod without a spacesuit, and she's not fazed when Athrun tracks her down in her outlaw period near the end of SEED with a Dramatic Gun Cock, or when a rain of gunfire subsequently starts. Lacus is a very cool customer, especially for a civilian teenager with no apparent military training.
  • Even after being held hostage by the Foundation in SEED Freedom, Lacus is still gutsy enough to tell Orphee to back off when he attempts to force himself on her. That said, she does still break down after Orphee leaves.
• Nice Girl: A pleasant and friendly girl, but Beware the Nice Ones. She manages to be strikingly gracious and kind almost without exception.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She certainly can make mistakes. In SEED, she wasn't wrong to take a stand against Patrick, but her life as an outlaw and, perhaps, never exonerating her father from it, inadvertently got him killed. Lacus is incredibly upset Siegel was killed, but we never really learn how she feels to have paid such a heavy price for her actions, or be directly responsible for provoking Zala's murderous rage. Even her Exact Words, "My father died", rather than "was killed" or "murdered" are a bit vague and distant.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Mitsuo Fukuda said in a 2003 interview that Lacus was based on the late Dutch-British actress Audrey Hepburn.^note Gundam Wing's Relena Darlian, Lacus's source character, was also inspired by Hepburn. What makes it even better — although coincidental — is that while Hepburn was a superstar for her talent, beauty, and poise, it's now also known that a teenaged dancer Audrey participated in La Résistance activities in the occupied World War II Netherlands that Those Wacky Nazis would have happily shot her for.
• No Sympathy: Justified by Lacus of all people. Lacus felt no sympathy in rejecting Orphee's love to her, even when he became anguished and heartbroken as he genuinely believed that they were created for each other. Given that he tried to rape her moments earlier, this is very justified in her case.
• Noodle Incident:
  • There's absolutely no indication of how her faction ended up with the Gaia (Stella's unit) in SEED Destiny. Yes, Lacus is an accomplished Phantom Thief, but there's not so much as a frame of anyone cooperating or collaborating. It's never even been elaborated in side stories.
  • Also in SEED Destiny. Even more without basis, though: so... why, exactly does independent civilian Lacus have a custom-made last-gen^*(read: 'several months if not two years' old) military pilot suit ? Especially when she says and demonstrates that she can't pilot ? Other than Rule of Cool, it's never been answered.
• Not So Stoic: Defied in Freedom. Lacus was about to get raped by Orphee and the novel makes it crystal clear that she feared for her life the entire time. She manages to keep her composure long enough to shock her would-be assailant enough that he backed off with wounded pride. Lacus does break down into tears afterwards, playing the trope straight, but she manages to defy it well enough to stop Orphee in the first place.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Mostly in SEED. More like "Obfuscating Innocence", her biggest advantage is that virtually everyone underestimates her. While it's never stated, it's hard to believe that she didn't deliberately cultivate that image.
• The Ojou: Despite being the daughter of a democratically elected leader, she lives on an enormous fancy estate and is treated as if she were royalty, never using anything but keigo herself. It helps that she's also a national celebrity in her own right.
• Official Couple: Lacus is part of the main couple of the Cosmic Era with Kira. She and Kira have well-nigh been this for sometime in SEED Destiny, even if the most intimate they've been are limited to mostly emotional embraces. By the end of SEED Freedom though, Lacus' relationship with Kira is now on a whole new level, firmly cementing it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The only time Lacus is ever shown as angry in SEED, she's about to get Rau to back off the Archangel (and not use her as a pawn, incidentally).
  • It's not until she's safe and in a semi-private place following her father's murder at the hand of Patrick Zala's men near the end of SEED and escape from the PLANTs that she finally breaks down crying in Kira's arms. It's the most emotional vulnerability she lets show in the original series.
  • We've seen Lacus display glares of Tranquil Fury before, but her reaction to Durandal's New Era Speech in SEED Destiny is a massive furious scowl that we've never seen from her before. Given that she had just laid Meer to rest, found out about her tragic life, and now seeing what Durandal made her a pawn of, her face tells us that her beef with Durandal is now personal.
• Odd Friendship: She's entirely different from blunt, outgoing, and much older Andrew Waltfeld on the surface. However they seem to have the same imaginative sense of humor and penchant for sneakiness, and get along quite well.
• Phantom Thief: Fitting for her Guile Heroine status, Lacus is a kind, sweet, very well-bred young lady who manages to mastermind the theft of ZAFT's newest mobile suit (Kira's Freedom), a warship (the Eternal), and her ex-fiancé, surviving weeks of a nationwide dragnet in-between the first two at the end of SEED. Unfortunately, her father was not so lucky. Repeated in SEED Destiny, she tallies a shuttle, the Gaia, and the plans for the DOM Trooper, as well as, debatably, the plans for Strike Freedom this time around. She also manages to "steal" a good bit of Durandal's forces at the end just by signaling her presence.
• The Philosopher: Her question "What is it that one should be fighting [for]?" is picked up by a number of other characters, and becomes largely the Arc Words of SEED. She also has a very serious internal monologue brooding about humans, conflict, and bloodshed just before the end of the series, which prompts her to go into Super Mode.
• Pink Means Feminine:
  • The only female character her age in her part of the war, and she has pink hair, a dress with pink trim, her favorite Haro and constant companion is pink, and so is her stolen warship, the Eternal at the end of SEED. Mu La Flaga refers to her as "that pink princess".
  • Played with in SEED Destiny. Aside from some pink trim in her main, multicolored outfit, Lacus wears no pink at all in most of her clothes (and doesn't try any pink outfits while shopping). However, she does sport an elaborate pink Pimped-Out Dress in the Eye Catch and a couple of endings. Played straight with her custom last-gen ZAFT pilot suit, which is very pink, which she wore to handle the fuchsia Infinite Justice to Athrun.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: In SEED Freedom, she was revealed to be a creation of Aura, her mother in a sense, as a means to control the governments, which has apparently been going on since even during the time of Siegel Clyne. Despite this, she chose to defy Aura in the end.
• Plucky Girl: Going into exile doesn't dampen her spirit. Though she understands the severity of the situation, she doesn't give up.
• Politically-Active Princess: Mostly in SEED. A Foil to Cagalli; Lacus isn't actually a princess but is highly interested and influential in not only PLANT politics but global ones. Cagalli is a princess and an heiress to boot, but is more at home in battle than with negotiations, let alone politics. In Freedom, Lacus is referred to as a princess numerous times, playing this trope slightly straighter.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: Lacus wants a peace treaty that's good for Natural and Coordinator alike.
• Quirky Curls: Her very wavy and slightly-unruly hair gets played up with particular attention in SEED Destiny, both to emphasize her iconoclastic personality and contrast with Meer's more "tamed" and sleek style.
• La Résistance: Fights the Zala dictatorship in PLANT and continues to coordinate the opposition when her homeland is no longer a place she can either recognize or accept. She's also the Voice of the Resistance in SEED, quite naturally.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a scathing one to Orphee in Freedom. She tells him that they may be genetically created for each other, share a destiny as leaders of the world, have her own body on a cellular level be attracted to him and he can even overpower and rape her, nothing he can do will ever have her love him and erase Kira from her heart. That was more than enough to make Orphee a broken man and leave without harming her, despite how vulnerable she was.
• The Reveal: SEED Freedom reveals that Lacus is an Accord, just like the members of the Black Knight Squad. Before this, it was thought that she was just a second generation Coordinator.
• Robot Buddy:
  • Her pink Haro from Athrun, nicknamed "Pink-Chan"/"Mr. Pink". She refers to Pink-chan as her friend, and like Lacus herself, there's a bit more to him than meets the eye — he's much sassier than her, can apparently unlock doors and later serves as a Hastily Hidden MacGuffin. In episode 20 of SEED, Lacus has an entire collection of different colored Haros in her house, including the aforementioned navy-blue Haro. Several of them make an appearance in the 3rd and 4th opening of SEED.
  • She still has her Haro collection in SEED Freedom, which also includes Mr. Red (Meer Campbell's red Haro), Navy-Chan (with the ∀ Gundam's mustache), and Amuro Ray's green Haro, but Blue, a new blue bird robot created by Kira similar to Birdy, now accompanies her in place of Pink-Chan. Her Haros played a role in her rescue from Orphee in the final half of the movie.
• Romantic False Lead: For Athrun in SEED. She's a lovely girl, they like each other fine and they are an important genetic match, but they both have stronger and easier feelings for other people.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: She's innocent and naive (at first), and she's definitely nice and sweet.
• Second Love: Subverted in SEED. Unaware of Kira's relationship with Flay, Lacus expresses great affection for him, but Kira is ultimately too traumatized to do anything other than gently return her earlier cheek kiss. By the end of SEED Freedom, Kira and Lacus are now fully commited in their relationship, throwing their Chastity Couple mentality out of the window and making this a straight example.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: The animation opted not to focus on it, but merchandise makes it quite clear her "Mizu no Akashi" performance dress is this. It also has large slits in the skirt that show her legs.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: While Giving Them the Strip at the beginning of SEED, she does it in front of Kira with absolutely no hesitation. Kira (on the other hand) is quite embarrassed.
• Signature Headgear: Lacus has her distinctive and famous large paired-curve barrette, which she wears almost constantly. Her confrontation with Athrun is notable because she sports a completely different one, something that looks like three eclipses. In SEED Destiny in her most frequent outfit, it's now joined by an elaborate red ribbon around her ponytail, which is replaced by a large white bow for her new outfit in PLANT as the Supreme Council Chairwoman at the end of Final Plus and the Remaster of SEED Destiny. Finally, in SEED Freedom, her COMPASS uniform features a wing-shaped headgear, resembling the Freedom Gundam's HiMAT wings.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After spending most of the series in long or relatively-long skirts and putting forth a rather demure image (including the above mentioned Sexy Backless Outfit that managed not to be especially sexy), she breaks out a minidress to lead Eternal and generate some Leg Focus for the last quarter of SEED.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Despite her initially seeming to be The Ingenue at the beginning of SEED, she's made of sterner stuff than most of the rest of the cast. In SEED Destiny, she remains as gracious and genuinely kind and beautifully-mannered as ever, but don't mess with her if you value your life.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only teenage female or major character on the Athrun/PLANT side and the only girl or woman seen in her resistance faction or on the Eternal at the end of SEED, and it applies even after the compilation movies add The Voiceless Shiho Hahnenfuss to ZAFT.
• Sole Survivor: Like Athrun, the only known living member of their politically affluent families. Also the only known Accord to still be alive by the end of Freedom.
• Spoiled Sweet: In SEED, lives in a beautiful mansion, loved by all, has a very rich, loving and affluent father, showered with gifts by her many fans and her fiancé makes her many Haros which are more advanced than the average toy. Even when living in the lap of luxury, Lacus is perhaps the most pleasant ZAFT-associated Coordinator a Natural could meet.
• Super Mode: Lacus has a SEED Mode, though the seed-burst animation for her isn't shown, implying that it might be something even more mysterious. But Lacus is a non-combattant so she never use it in combat. She still has it in SEED Destiny, and in SEED Freedom, the seed burst animation is finally displayed, allowing her and Kira to lock on the entire Foundation fleet in one stroke with the Mighty Strike Freedom.
• Support Party Member: In SEED Freedom, she is not used to piloting a Mobile Weapon (the only time she piloted one is Athrun's Infinite Justice in SEED Destiny, and that's because she and Kira were manually sending it and the Strike Freedom to the Archangel), but the Proud Defender she piloted proves to be very handy in nuking the Foundation's fleet without any difficulty.
• Supreme Chef: In SEED Freedom, the food Lacus is cooking gets a generous amount of coverage during the kitchen scene at her and Kira's house. The Escape for Two novel states Lacus gets overexcited and loves to cook a little too much that she and Kira end up giving the extras to staff and soldiers, all of them giving very positive comments on her cooking.
• Symbolic Wings: Her headgear and space suit in SEED Freedom has wings in them, which also doubles as a Mythology Gag to not only the Freedom series of mobile suits, but also mobile suits with a similar wing motif, including the Wing Gundam Zero Custom, the Hi-Nu Gundam (from the Beltorchika's Children adaptation), and the Villkiss.
• Take a Third Option: Runs the Clyne Faction and later The Three Ships Alliance as a counter to Patrick and Azrael at the end of SEED.
• Talking Your Way Out: In SEED, Athrun once had her at gunpoint and she convinced him not to shoot or capture her. Does so to Orphee too in Freedom.
• Technical Pacifist: Doesn't want to kill anyone, but if she has to, she will sic Kira on them. And it will hurt both their enemies and herself.
• Tender Tears: Meer's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of SEED Destiny, and subsequently reading an account of her life and how her extreme makeover took a heavy toll on her sanity, sent her crying into Kira's arms.
• This Is Unforgivable!: As an All-Loving Hero she point-blank tells Rau Le Creuset in SEED (and everyone else assembled there, using an open channel) she will not forgive him attacking the Archangel "in front of" (and by using) herself, the national memorial representative. It works.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Overall throughout the entire main trilogy, Lacus is the Girly Girl to Cagalli's Tomboy because of her feminine style of dress and desire to talk things out peacefully if possible. They are quite opposite too: Lacus is mainly a Guile Heroine and a non-combattant, always prefering using her words in a calm manner while Cagalli is an Action Girl not afraid to go personally on the battlefield and very outspoken and Hot-Blooded. Even on the political field, their respective approach is different: Cagalli is always active, being the one who submitted the idea of Compass for example and Lacus accepting to lead it, only acting when needed, being more passive but reactive. Despite their very opposite personality traits, Lacus and Cagalli are close friends.
• Tomboyish Name: Despite her extremely Girly Girl image, lacus^note Like "Venus", so not quite an Ironic Name is an unequivocally masculine word in Latin^* The closest feminine version would be the equally-Meaningful Name lacuna, if you're curious, but it's a diminutive and they don't mean the same things.
• Tragic Keepsake: In SEED Freedom, Lacus was revealed to have kept Mr. Red, Meer Campbell’s red Haro, after Meer sacrificed herself to protect Lacus in SEED Destiny.
• Übermensch: Begins her trek towards this status in SEED. While everyone else tries to play by the cynical realpolitik of the Cosmic Era, Lacus flat out rejects the premise, choosing instead to overhaul the series' morality and try for something better.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Lacus has at least half-a-dozen outfits in SEED. Not necessarily more than anyone else, but her style flair makes it seem like more. It's really notorious when she changes on her way to hijack Eternal at the end of SEED.
• Virtuous Character Copy: Lacus in SEED Destiny is Zeta Gundam-era Haman Karn (one of the main antagonists of Zeta Gundam) with Relena Peacecraft's ideology, influence, and charisma.
• Voice of the Resistance: Under the Zala regime, she sends out messages of hope and defiance. She's seen ushered to and from safe houses by subordinates a couple times.
• Warrior Poet: A female example. The fact that all the songs we hear from her are connected to war and loss may qualify her as this.
• Water Is Womanly: It's probably not a coincidence that singing idol Lacus wears her most revealing, most elaborate outfit to perform "Proof of Water".
• The Wonka: A female version. She's the only civilian in a cast full of military in a world at war, and tends to constantly astound, startle, and baffle everyone around her. While she operates almost entirely idiosyncratically and quite enigmatically, Lacus does make a lot of sense to people... eventually. She actually becomes the voice of reason and the original show's moral compass, if not quite the Only Sane Man.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Unfortunately for the villains of SEED, the Clyne family business that Lacus was very devoted to was not singing, but politics. And Lacus will dare to use her wits if you are a warmonger like the leaders of both sides are.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Three times in SEED.
  • She does this every time Kira hits an emotional breaking point in her presence. First when she encounters him wailing and screaming on the Archangel because of his difficult and loathed position as an OMNI soldier, and she reveals she knows Athrun and sympathizes that he and Kira are both good people and it does make the situation very sad, then after recuperating at her mansion after his duel to the death with Athrun, and again after Rau reveals Kira's dehumanizing origins as the Ultimate Coordinator and his and Kira's status as indifferent and mistaken lab products from the same funding stream. The last is made more explicit in a scene in the compilation movies, where she expresses that he has a right to exist and be himself, and she's been made happy by his existence and presence, thus he's his own person and more than Rau's negative summary.
  • This is also the gist of her Breaking Speeches. She gets both Rau and Athrun to reconsider what they're doing and temporarily or permanently choose the more moral alternative. She does it again to Athrun in SEED Destiny at the battle of Orb, the latter finally erases any lingering self-doubt and chooses to fight in the Infinite Justice for his friends once more.
  • She also does this with some success to the entirety of PLANT, repeatedly urging forgiveness and coexistence with the Naturals in speeches while she's underground.

Cagalli Yula Athha

Affiliation: Three Ships Alliance/Terminal & Orb Union (SEED, SEED Destiny, SEED Freedom)

Rank: Admiral → Commander in Chief (Orb)

Main mecha: FX-550 Skygrasper (SEED), MBF-02 Strike Rouge (SEED, SEED Destiny, SEED Freedom), ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam (SEED Destiny)

Voiced by: Naomi Shindo, Nanako Mori [Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom] (Japanese); Vanessa Morley [Ocean dub], Cherami Leigh [NYAV Post dub] (English)

Cagalli in SEED Freedom

^{Click here to see Cagalli in SEED
Click here to see Cagalli in SEED Destiny}

"The things we can do, want to do, and should do... It's the same for all of us, right?"

"Please do me a favor and stop calling me 'princess'."

The daughter and only child of Uzumi Nara Athha, former Chief Representative of the Orb Union in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and head of one of the country's five ruling noble families, making her the equivalent of a princess in Orb. Also a rebel leader, guerilla soldier, and a capable, if brash, tactician. Hates ZAFT and distrusts the Earth Forces, but still lends a great deal of support to the embattled Archangel.

Cagalli returns in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny as the chairwoman of Orb. She seems to be struggling with her position when the show begins, and is eventually forced to abandon the country as her plans fail. She plays a background role for much of the rest of the plot, but near the end comes back into focus after dealing with her personal demons.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Cagalli is still the Chief Representative of Orb, leading it from the aftermath of the Second Bloody Valentine War. She took the initiative in creating Compass, a world peace monitoring organization jointly organized by the Orb Union, Atlantic Federation, and ZAFT.

---

• Ace Pilot: Downplayed. While she pales in comparaison to the likes of Kira, Athrun, Shinn or Biological CPUs, Cagalli is still a much better pilot than most soldiers and she is a Natural. Cases in point:
  • The Strike Daggers that killed the Astray girls at the end of SEED, Cagalli destroys them without much issue and several more of them (thanks to her SEED Mode) with her Strike Rouge Gundam, but she nearly gets killed by the Forbidden if not for Yzak's intervention but overall she performs well in the Final Battle in SEED.
  • Same thing in SEED Destiny in the Battle of Orb, she performs well in her Akatsuki (without her SEED Mode this time), destroying many ZAFT's Mobile Suits until she engages Shinn in his Destiny and she has to be saved by Kira in his Strike Freedom. But the instant Kira occupies Shinn, Cagalli resumes kicking ass.
• Action Girl: Cagalli is a capable and determined fighter. She runs around, shoots things, leads a resistance cell and pilots a Gundam at the end of SEED. She would love to be nothing more than this. Unfortunately, her father and her duty to her home disagree and that causes problems for her in SEED Destiny.
• Action Politician:
  • Deconstructed in SEED Destiny. She starts off as a competent diplomat, but the free-spirited and rebellious nature she had in the last series do not translate well to the political theater and is constantly plagued with indecisiveness. This leaves her vulnerable to the manipulation of more experienced politicians like Unato and Yuna. By the end of the series, she fares much better.
  • Downplayed in SEED Freedom, Cagalli is much more comfortable in her role as a representative this time around then how she was in SEED Destiny. That said, she is as ever-ready to jump into a mobile suit and take charge on the frontlines. While she doesn't get directly involved in the Final Battle, Cagalli does provide some crucial combat support.
• All Your Powers Combined: The Strike Rouge IWSP, notable for being the first 'Combined' Striker Pack. Subverted though as it doesn't make an appearance in SEED, despite being repeatedly teased in the HD Remaster splash images. The Strike Rouge Ootori, introduced in the HD Remaster of SEED Destiny, is similar to the Strike Rouge IWSP with a combined pack, this Strike Rouge, piloted by Cagalli, did appear in the show unlike the IWSP.
• Authority in Name Only: At the start of SEED Destiny as Orb's official head of state, while being totally unable to control her ministers, who are all pushing a political agenda she opposes as in opposition to the basic principles of Orb as a nation, and forced into a marriage she doesn't want to the son of one of them to boost public support for said alliance. Cagalli subverts this at the end when she retakes Orb back under her control.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Cagalli dishes a particular one to Athrun after his fated duel with Kira, this paves the way of his Heel–Face Turn in SEED and Athrun notably dismisses revenge for the rest of the series and the franchise.
  Cagalli: "One guy's killed for killing another and then he's killed for killing him. How is that kind of twisted thinking ever gonna bring us peace? Well?"
• Badass Adorable: Just watch when she cries or gets angry. It's adorable. She also held her own in gun fights with Coordinators.
• Badass Normal: Despite being a Natural, she doesn't hesitate to take on Coordinators. Even when they're in mobile suits and the most heavily armed thing she has is a jeep. She is the only Natural seen going into SEED Mode. She continues to do so in SEED Destiny, especially at the battle of Orb.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: A rare non-sexual example in SEED. Cagalli does end up being benevolently cleaned, put in a dress and having her hair fixed when she and Kira end up in Andrew Waltfeld's custody. She even accuses him of deriving some kind of perverse pleasure from it, but she did need a bath and he says the clothes were Aisha's idea. Mostly it's just to show She Cleans Up Nicely.
• Bathtub Bonding: In SEED Destiny, after Lacus water-guns her in the face, they have their first real on-screen conversation, while sitting in the Archangel's upgraded bathing facilities. Unfortunately, Kira eavesdropping from the men's side then caused more problems.
• Bathtub Scene: Has one sitting in an elaborate bathtub in Waltfeld's residence blowing bubbles in SEED. It's changed to a Shower Scene for the compilation movies and Remaster.
• Battle Couple: Both times with Athrun.
  • At Jachin Due in SEED. Athrun and Cagalli are very firmly shown fighting side-by-side on an equal footing, even promising to protect each other but Cagalli ends up saving him.
  • A somewhat indirect example in SEED Freedom. Athrun is fighting Shura but Cagalli assists him by remote controlling his Infinite Justice Type II with her Strike Rouge from a safe distance to fend off Shura's mind tricks. This allows them to effectively fight the Accord together.
• Beta Couple: Ultimately with Athrun. Throughout the main trilogy, Athrun and Cagalli are this trope to Kira and Lacus' Official Couple of the Cosmic Era, playing it globally straight ^note In SEED, Kira and Lacus didn't become a couple while Athrun and Cagalli do. In SEED Destiny, this trope was somewhat inverted where it is Athrun and Cagalli who face hardships while Kira and Lacus stay mostly stable. Only to be switched again in SEED Freedom where Kira and Lacus have troubles in their relationship while Athrun and Cagalli did not., being together and more intimate earlier than Kira and Lacus. For example, Athrun and Cagalli's Big Damn Kiss happened far earlier in SEED while Kira and Lacus's one only occurs in SEED Freedom.
• Bifauxnen: Averted. Cagalli is a Tomboy through and through, but she's not remotely elegant or stylish unless you stick her in a dress and make her behave. Many people thought she was a guy by sight alone, but no one swoons about how cool she is. Kira and Athrun manage to identify her as a girl after hearing her talk, which just annoys her. (Cagalli does have a developed, non-boyish figure, but the clothes hide it well.) It's flipped around by Waltfeld, who dubs Cagalli in a dress as "the perfect little lady... until she speaks".
• The Big Damn Kiss: With Athrun just before Jachin Due in SEED, as they'd been seen becoming steadily emotionally and physically closer before that. She manages to keep the promise she made prior to that, too. It's also both symbolic and very pretty with the juxtaposition of them floating in space in front of Earth.
• Bigger Stick: Her personal Gundam, ORB-01 Akatsuki, which is a huge cut above the Strike Rouge.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The Akatsuki again, whose gold paint is actually an anti-beam coating.
• Boring, but Practical: Her Strike Rouge. It's a virtual duplicate of the Strike with the Natural OS, lacking even the All Your Powers Combined IWSP Striker Pack on-screen, and it's certainly understated compared to things like the nuclear-powered Freedom and Justice. However the Strike Rouge is the only one of the three to survive the final battle of SEED — and certainly Athrun and likely Kira would have died without it.
• Boyish Short Hair: Downplayed. Not even that short, but Long Hair Is Feminine and she is not. Hers also has a lot of volume and tends to look quite messy, and it's highlighted in SEED when she gets soaked in the rain in front of Athrun and her water-lengthened hair suddenly makes her look far more feminine. (Although Aisha being able to clip it up should have been a clue to Cagalli not playing this straight.)
• Break the Cutie: Her father’s death in SEED understandably does a number on her.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • She has a major case towards her father in the first episode of SEED when she discovers the G-Weapon Project, believing he betrayed the ideals he upheld.
  • Cagalli also has one case towards Yuna at the end of SEED Destiny for the damage he has done to their country, for blatantly betraying Orb's ideals for personal gain and for putting Orb's population in danger without doing anything to protect them. She angrily punched him in the face for that and has him arrested for treason without a second thought.
• Color Motif: Under her red clothes, we see she wears green. The Simple, yet Opulent dresses she wears SEED and the Pimped-Out Dress she wears in some ending sequences are also all pale green. The 3rd and 4th openings of SEED lampshade her switching from red to green. This green dress still appears in some SEED Destiny openings and endings.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Played for Drama in SEED, as she only drops the blanket she had covering her to steal Athrun's gun, aiming to take the Aegis. Cagalli was so focused and full of adrenaline that she only realized what she had done after a very tense standoff, when he then asked her to Please Put Some Clothes On. Turns out, she's not a Shameless Fanservice Girl.
• Cool Big Sis: Since she is the tougher and more emotionally mature of the duo, Cagalli insists up and down that she is Kira's older sister, in spite of the fact since he was grown in a vat seperate from her while she stayed in untero, the reverse would more than likely be true. (They could very possibly have been "born" simultaneously). This is played straight with her secretary/page-boy Toyah Mashima in SEED Freedom, who looks up to and admires her as his Onee-sama.
• Cool Plane: She becomes the (self-)designated pilot of the second Skygrasper until the Archangel reached Orb in SEED. She was going to use it again in SEED Destiny when Orb was going to be attacked by ZAFT but she got the Akatsuki instead.
• Costume Evolution: She wore the standard Orb representative attire in SEED Destiny, but in SEED Freedom, she now wears a more burnished variation of the apparel that includes a much longer and tailored double-breasted jacket, very long cuffs, and a cravat.
• Crazy-Prepared: In SEED Freedom, she had upgraded variants of the Strike Freedom, Destiny, Impulse, and Akatsuki prepared as a contingency measure in the event that their current Mobile Suits proved to be ineffective against bigger threats like the Foundation. She also had remote control attachments equipped on both her and Athrun's Infinite Justice Type II to counter Shura's mind tricks. Cagalli also has the Orb military ready for any crisis. Sure enough, Orb was ready when the Foundation makes its move and Cagalli has her people evacuated.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A two-fold example in SEED Destiny, Cagalli has no problems dealing with ZAFT standard Mobile Suits with her Akatsuki. But when she engages Shinn in his Destiny, she really has no chance against him and has to be saved by Kira. To be fair, it is far less one-sided that when Lunamaria tried to take on Athrun at the Battle of Messiah.
• Curtains Match the Window: She has golden hair and golden eyes.
• Custom Uniform:
  • Her Orb pilot suit in SEED Destiny is light red with light pink accents instead of gray with pale green accents. She wears it again in SEED Freedom, piloting her Strike Rouge once again.
  • Her Chief Representative outfit in SEED Freedom also counts as detailed in Costume Evolution above.
• Cycle of Revenge: Defied in SEED — her father imparted this to her when she attempted to rejoin the Archangel and later passes it on to Athrun after he confessed to (seemingly) killing his former best friend Kira because he killed his current friend and comrade Nicol. She gives Athrun her Haumea amulet for his protection and blessing, not wishing for him to die even after what he did to Kira.
• Damsel out of Distress: At the end of SEED, she not only follows Athrun into danger when he tries to physically keep her away, she then manages to convince him not to commit suicide and hauls both of them out of the blast range of GENESIS at top speed, with Athrun on her lap. For bonus points, they then use Strike Rouge to go and rescue Kira. Both heroic and ironic considering that at the beginning of their relationship, she was tied up and screaming due to Athrun's own actions.
• Declaration of Protection: Just before the final battle of SEED, Cagalli was going to directly participate on it with her Strike Rouge and she declares to Athrun that she won't let him (and her brother Kira) die, resulting in this trope. It is notable because just after that Athrun also vows to protect her in the following battle before kissing her, making this a mutual example. In SEED Freedom, Cagalli helps Athrun in his battle with Shura by using the remote control system of his Infinite Justice Type II. Like she said in SEED, she will not let him die, still keeping her promise to Athrun (who did the same too by fighting the Foundation threatening Orb). Bonus points for doing so in her Strike Rouge once again.
• Demoted to Extra: Justified in SEED Freedom, as she couldn't actively help the heroes in the frontlines due to her duties as Orb's current representative and the only time she's seen piloting a Mobile Suit in the entire film is during the final battle and end credits. That said, she did bust out upgraded versions of their old Gundams for them to use and played a critical role in helping Athrun fight Shura by remote controlling his Infinite Justice Type II.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Cagalli hearing about Athrun's "shameless" thoughts in SEED Freedom has her angrily blushing about it and knowing instantly that Athrun has thought about her naked. It raises the question if it is her boyfriend's imagination or a memory. Not helped with their next scene together^note which is the Haumea/ring scene with their warm smiles to each other where Cagalli seems to have forgiven Athrun quite quickly about that. The novelization of the movie, however, heavily implies Cagalli did it with Athrun.
• Disposable Fiancé: In SEED Destiny, she ignored her intended Arranged Marriage to Yuna initially to be with Athrun instead, then almost went through with it. After fully learning how despicable Yuna is and witnessing the amount of damage he causes to Orb, she is finally able to swiftly set him aside, ordering his arrest for treason, punching him in the face and then he died trying to escape captivity.
• Drone Deployer: With the Akatsuki with both packs. Subverted though, as she doesn't use the Shiranui pack herself nor use the Oowashi pack as an unmanned fighter. That distinction for the former goes to Neo Roanoke aka Mu La Flaga towards the end of SEED Destiny.
• Elemental Motifs: Fire and earth. Her name comes from kagaribi, a Japanese word for bonfire, she's a Hot-Blooded natural combatant, and the song associated with her in SEED is Akatsuki no Kuruma — "Wheel of Dawn" and the one in SEED Destiny is Honoo no Tobira — "Door of Flames". She's also the one from Earth, a canon Taurus (earth sign), and has a Flower Motif.
• Establishing Character Moment: While not her first appearance, the first time she does anything meaningful in SEED revolves around taking a man-portable weapon in a jeep against a lupine humongous mecha. Things only ramps up when she actually gets a war machine of her own.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: The Tomboy Princess fire to Lacus' Water Is Womanly and their personalities are quite opposite too (see Tomboy and Girly Girl below). While Cagalli and Lacus don't evoke this image physically at first glance, this is refleted by their respective eye colors: Cagalli has fiery amber/golden eyes while Lacus has profound blue eyes, forming an Orange/Blue Contrast. Unlike most instances of this trope, they become close friends after SEED and never have a confrontation with each other.
• Flower Motif: Her Strike Rouge has an emblem of an animal's head with a flower in its jaws, and her Image Song in SEED is called "Precious Rose".
• Flowers of Nature: She has these in her Pimped-Out Dress outfit, along with other greenery. They're the "orange flowers" from the song "Akatsuki no Kuruma", as well as symbolizing she's the one from Earth.
• Four-Star Badass: In SEED Destiny, she's Orb's Commander-in-Chief, as well as its First Representative, complete with gold-braided uniform. In SEED, she has a similarly colored uniform and she is still one of the highest ranked Orb officiers.
• Forgiveness: Implied. In SEED Freedom, given the fact that the Destiny Gundam was among the ones upgraded by Erica Simmons under her orders to the Destiny Spec II, Cagalli has forgiven Shinn for attacking Orb in SEED Destiny. Keep in mind that she was nearly killed by that same Gundam in the last war.
• Frontline General: Cagalli is not afraid to lead her men on the field herself aboard a Mobile Suit.
• Gender Flip: Of the equally triple-named Quatre Raberba Winner from Gundam Wing; there's even a bit of a Mythology Gag with the kana of their names – Ka-ga-ri vs. Ka-to-ru. Like the "Arabian"-founded L4 colonies in GW, Orb is even stated to have been originally founded by migrants from the Middle East; hence why it's an "emirates". From running away from home and fighting in the desert with a rebel force while wearing khakis, a vest, goggles and a cape (and having a large man looking out for her welfare), to fighting with her father about peace, to screaming and sobbing when he's later blown up and having a custom-made Gundam built after that, to becoming very close to a guy she initially tried to kill and who threatened her with "omae wo korosu", to being born naturally at L4 with artificially-gestated siblings and being unaware of it all, she's his virtual twin, and would fit in exceedingly easily as one of his many sisters.
• Happily Adopted: Her relationship with Uzumi is turbulent but supportive, especially compared to what other characters have (had) to endure with their actual birth fathers. That being said, Cagalli had no idea she was adopted until Uzumi tells her just before he dies.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Just this, although she has a pitched, physical battle with her old nanny Myrna in SEED about changing into one. Cagalli is also never seen wearing a skirt in the entire franchise^note excluding outside materials like Gundam Cafe, she is always wearing pants in all of her uniforms, military or otherwise and even her casual clothes are always with pants.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • After the death of Uzumi in SEED, Cagalli goes into a brief depression.
  • After trying to be a Politically-Active Princess backfires on her in SEED Destiny, Cagalli spends a good chunk of time in this state though she tries to keep going nonetheless. Getting the Akatsuki and her father's final message snaps her fully out of it and she uses it to retake control of Orb.
• The High Queen: After many many failures in SEED Destiny, Cagalli successfully becomes this at the end of the show, reasserting her authority on Orb and is very beloved by her people. By the time of SEED Freedom, she is still firmly this to Orb and Cagalli has her army prepared to face any crisis.
• Hot-Blooded: Cagalli is feisty, loud, passionate, and always ready to join in a battle. Kira and Uzumi later call her out for thinking she can fight solely based on her emotions, or that violent combat is the answer.
• Hypocritical Humor: In SEED, Cagalli is technically right that she's not a "soldier" despite being a guerrilla who's well-versed in warfare and supplies and freelancing for the Archangel, in addition to firing at a ZAFT soldier at first sight, which marked her as an enemy and which a civilian or noncombatant would have no reason to do. She's also absolutely right that leaving a prisoner unrestrained while you sleep is a terrible idea, and trained soldier Athrun should know better. And he is right that throwing a gun with the safety off is also incredibly stupid.
• Immune to Bullets: The phase-shift armor of the Strike Rouge makes it nearly impervious to physical attacks. Inverted with the Akatsuki that trades in the phase-shift armor for an anti-beam coating that can reflect any beam shots fired at it. Despite that, the Akatsuki is still vulnerable to melee beam weapons like beam-sabers and beam boomerangs.
• Insecure Love Interest: Cagalli is this towards Athrun at the end of SEED Destiny but by the time of SEED Freedom, it is averted. See I Want My Beloved to Be Happy below.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Averted in the end. At the end of SEED Destiny, Cagalli has removed Athrun's ring to focus leading and rebuilding Orb and fearing that he will not be happy with her, even going as far as to ask Meyrin to look after Athrun in her place, Cagalli is letting him go. Just before the depart however, Athrun initiates a more intimate hug with Cagalli, silently telling her that he understands her decision but also telling her that he did not give up on them. Cagalli is surprised and reciprocates the hug with the same intensity, getting the message. By the time of SEED Freedom, Athrun and Cagalli have fully reconciled with each other and Cagalli is wearing the ring once again as a necklace (and Athrun is still wearing her Haumea amulet).
• Lady and Knight: While it took them longer than Kira and Lacus, by the end of SEED Destiny, Cagalli is the golden Bright Lady to Athrun's cynical, more realist Black Knight (using Red Gundams contrasting Kira's white ones). In SEED Freedom, the fact that Athrun already has his Infinite Justice Type II with him and that Cagalli has directly used its remote control system, implies that she is the one giving it to him, like Lacus has done with Kira's Freedoms before.
• The Lady's Favour: In SEED, she gives Athrun her Haumea pendant for protection, even after he snarks about wondering if she's destined to kill him. He later claims that it saved him from his father — which Cagalli herself certainly did after that. It is a subverted example as Cagalli didn't expect it back. Also when she gives him her Haumea amulet, Athrun and Cagalli are not yet a couple. In SEED Freedom, Athrun still wears it and Cagalli wears his ring once again, albeit as a necklace.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Akatsuki. It's fast, well-armed, and impervious to ranged beam weaponry.
• Love Hurts: At the end of SEED Destiny, most of her interactions with Athrun after his return to the Archangel are pretty painful to watch. This is fully shown when she asks Meyrin to look after Athrun in her place when the Archangel goes to space, silently crying after doing that and she has removed Athrun's ring, letting him go find happiness without her. But Athrun silently conveys in his final hug to her in SEED Destiny that he understands why she has removed it (to focus on Orb) and he will also not give up on their relationship, surprising Cagalli who hugs him back, getting the message. By the time of SEED Freedom, judging by the warm smiles they shared to each other, their relationship is now fully healed.
• Love Triangle: Subverted. Early in SEED, she is highly interested in Kira and has moments of Ship Tease with him... but later in the show she starts falling for Athrun and eventually discovers Kira's her twin brother.
• Luminescent Blush: In the final act of SEED, Cagalli has two instances of those involving Athrun: the first one is when he hugs her when she goes to comfort him (while he also comforts her about her father's death, apologizing for it) and the second one is when he hugs her again just before their Big Damn Kiss.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Her biological father is a terrible man, but she and Kira are different from him.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
  • Mostly in SEED. Tough, brash Cagalli and the much gentler, calmer, choker-wearing Kira. She has shades of this with Athrun as well, given how he's also (usually) much calmer and more levelheaded and logical, but she also Crush Blushes around and clings to him and generally acts just a touch more restrained and girly.
  • She's also this with her Gender Flip and Mythology Gag source character Quatre Raberba Winner, who shares a heck of a lot with her but in personality is much closer to Kira.
• Meet Cute: Alone on a small island with Athrun in SEED, she goes from desperately trying to kill him to desperately not wanting to, snarking, sniping, crabs, Romantic Rain, and Comedic Underwear Exposure along the way.
• Mentor Archetype: In SEED Freedom, she is currently training Toyah Mashima to eventually succeed her as Orb's Representative, much like her father did to her.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • In SEED, Cagalli goes from guerilla equipment to the Skygrasper and finally to her Strike Rouge Gundam in the final battle.
  • In SEED Destiny, Cagalli get her golden Akatsuki Gundam.
• Mighty Whitey: Cagalli the blonde-haired foreign princess is not only one of the best fighters and leaders in Desert Dawn in SEED, she's nicknamed their "goddess of victory" and known and liked by their families, despite canonically only being there for a few weeks.
• Mirrors Reflect Everything: The Akatsuki's gold plating is actually a mirror surface armor capable of reflecting nearly any beam shot.
• Missing Mom: No one speaks of Cagalli ever having a mother; Erica Simmons goes as far as to say that "Lord Uzumi raised you with such loving care...". It may have contributed to her Tomboy personality. She finds out about her birth mother from Uzumi shortly before he dies, though she doesn't actually know who the woman in the photograph is.
• Nice Girl: Violent tendencies notwithstanding, Cagalli is one of the earliest and few people to be unambiguously kind to Kira in SEED, without professional distance or ulterior motives; notably in the form of a much needed hug when he was on the verge of a suicidal breakdown. She is also consistently considerate, warm hearted, compassionate, and openly expresses kindness without consideration to maturity or social appropriateness.
• A Mother to Her Men: Cagalli clearly would rather be on the frontline with her forces than in the cabinet office with obstructives suits like Yuna and Unato. Judging from the reaction of Orb soldiers when she returns with her Akatsuki in SEED Destiny, she is very beloved by her people. Cagalli is still this in SEED Freedom as she has the Orb military ready to evacuate civilians in case and she is ready to fight in a Mobile Suit again.
• Nom de Guerre:
  • "The Goddess of Victory", to the Desert Dawn fighters.
  • Only goes by "Cagalli" or "Cagalli Yula" for half of SEED, since she's desperate (and under instruction) to avoid her full name and true identity getting out.
• Obsessed with Food: The Novella Escape for Two prequel of SEED Freedom shows Cagalli's love and obsession of eating food, justified as being her way to relax and get out of business. She's such a foodie that not only does she takes eating seriously, telling Athrun not to compare her to Waltfeld as the latter is "a man with no taste because they eat with yogurt sauce", referencing how they met during SEED, she's also distraught when she finds out the restaurant she's been going to has staff who are secretly Orb security guards, as she just wants to relax without thinking about politics.
• Onee-sama: Played with. While not ladylike or feminine in the traditional sense, by the time of SEED Freedom, she is looked up to as a kind-and-caring big sister by her apprentice/secretary Toyah Mashima.
• Pink Means Feminine: Played with in SEED Destiny. Except for some pink lipstick which clearly doesn't suit her, Cagalli still avoids wearing it and seems to continue to favor light green and red. Her custom-made Orb pilot suit, however, is a more flattering shade of light red, nearly pink, either indicating her lack of control, her doubts about her decisions for Orb, her vulnerability and her strained relationship with Athrun in SEED Destiny. While she still uses the same pilot suit in SEED Freedom, Cagalli is back to her old self, fully in control of Orb unlike in SEED Destiny.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Despite sharing emotional natures and soft hearts, Cagalli is a Hotblooded, outspoken, brash and blunt compared to her twin brother Kira who is kind, calm, polite and collected.
• Politically-Active Princess:
  • Subverted in SEED. Uzumi yells and begs her to become this rather than running off to fight violently again, which he sees as a waste. She does stay home, but we only see her supervising Orb's troops, rather than doing anything political. This ends up haunting her in SEED Destiny.
  • She attempts to become this in SEED Destiny, but massively fails at the beginning but she fares much better in the epilogue, when she had decent support again.
  • Played straight in SEED Freedom, Cagalli fares much better and she has massive support on her side and gets the job done much more effectively. The Orb military is fully prepared to evacuate its people when the Foundation reveals its true colors and declares war to Orb and she has upgraded the Gundams used in SEED Destiny in case of emergency.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Generally averted. She hates both being addressed as a princess and pink, given how she wears none and her room is entirely blue. Downplayed with her Strike Rouge, Cagalli didn't pick the color, but also doesn't seem to care.
• Prone to Tears:
  • Like her twin brother Kira, Cagalli cries very easily and very loudly, though more effectively, no one ever calls her a crybaby, and it never bothers her.
  • Unlike in SEED, where she usually cried out of either empathy or terror and it was never portrayed negatively. In SEED Destiny, Cagalli cries almost exclusively out of helplessness, given that nothing she does for about 4/5 of the show seems to work. It's especially a contrast given her inherent optimistic and action-oriented personality. It even causes a fight between her protective (and hypocritical) twin Kira and boyfriend Athrun, who are both directly responsible for causing some of it. She finally stops crying once she takes control of her Mid-Season Upgrade Akatsuki, Uzumi's final gift to her and retook control of Orb from the Seirans.
• Properly Paranoid: The novelization of SEED Freedom reveals that she and Lacus were suspicious of the Foundation since the Freedom hijacking incident, finding its help for it too convenient and suspecting they are adhering to the Destiny Plan which Lacus and Cagalli fought against two years earlier. She had sent Athrun to investigate it with Terminal (the Escape for Two novella has Cagalli explicitly asked him to) and sure enough, he and Meyrin discovers the bodies of protestors against the Destiny Plan. Also the fact that Orb was ready to deal with the crisis before the Foundation made their move. And she has ordered Erica Simmons to upgrade all Gundams used in the Second War in case of contingency. Cagalli has truly learned from past mistakes.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: In SEED Destiny, Cagalli is technically the head of state of Orb, and once she starts fighting she is one of Orb's most effective soldiers barring only Kira and later Athrun. Having access to top of the line tech, like her Akatsuki, probably helps her here.
• Rebel Leader: In SEED, she helps lead a cell of Arab freedom fighters against the Desert Tiger, Andrew Waltfeld.
• Rebellious Princess: In SEED, her father and country as a whole are strict neutral isolationists. She ran away to join a resistance cell halfway around the world. This causes massives issues for her in SEED Destiny but she grows out of this definitively.
• Red Is Heroic: Cagalli overlaps this with Red Is Violent, wearing a red shirt both for her time as a guerrilla and in her Orb uniform. She and Athrun wear matching red Morgenroete jackets for the last quarter, the Haumea amulet she gives him is red, and so is her standard-issue Orb pilot suit for the Strike Rouge in SEED and her custom Orb pilot suit in SEED Destiny. However, she has a second Color Motif.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Whenever Cagalli is in a Fanservice scenario (aside from bathing), she reacts with either embarrassment, irritation, or both.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • A deconstructed example occurs in SEED. After personally travelling to Heliopolis to confirm the existence of the Gundams she throws her support behind a group of freedom fighters and later the Archangel, taking an active role on the battlefield. However once she returns to Orb her father immediately points out she's only fanning the flames of war, and that if she really wanted to help end to the war she should have stayed in Orb, continued to learn how to rule, and leveraged her political influence as Orb's heir. This cause her problems in SEED Destiny where her inexperience is exploited by older more experienced politicians. Plus after joining the Archangel, whatever her track record was with the Desert Dawn, it becomes a bit spotty as she often gets hit or shot down.
  • It finally pays off in SEED Freedom where Cagalli has learned from her mistakes and she has now massive support from her people. She even participates remotely in the Final Battle against the Foundation but after making sure that her people are safe.
• Runaway Bride: Maybe the first one to escape the wedding by Mobile Suit, piloted by her own brother no less.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Athrun, who's startled and not too happy to learn she intends to take a mobile suit out to the final battle of SEED. Cagalli then shows some savvy with the first page quote and by saving him. Cagalli has mostly calmed down from this in SEED Destiny. But this trope resurfaces back in the Escape for Two novella (prequel to SEED Freedom) where she was very enthusiastic about eating food with Athrun who was mostly calm during it, akin to their SEED dynamic.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Subverted in SEED Destiny. Given her political position in Orb, Cagalli is the one responsible for Athrun's Orb citizenship and Secret Identity as "Alex". She then proceeds to call him Athrun right in front of random ZAFT troops and Lunamaria right after they land on the Minerva. Cagalli did have a head wound and Durandal also blew it for her in front of other people very shortly afterwards; still, not a good track record.
  • In the novelization of SEED Freedom, Kira and Lacus went MIA after the Final Battle. While talking to Athrun at the Orb memorial, Cagalli jokingly declares that Orb did not know anything about their whereabouts with Athrun playfully going along with her explanation. This heavily implies that they both knew where Kira and Lacus are but Athrun and Cagalli choose to keep that secret.
• Separated at Birth: With Kira, although in hindsight she treats him quite a bit like a brother from the start. She doesn't find out until late in SEED.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Not that she was ever considered ugly, mind you, but get her in a dress and not scowling about it, and she goes from cute in a Tomboy-ish way to really beautiful (as the 3rd and 4th opening show of SEED). The wedding dress she was forced to wear for her marriage with Yuna is a subversion however, it doesn't suit her at all and the make-up didn't help.
• She's Back: After returning to Orb and retrieving the Akatsuki in SEED Destiny, she proceeds to massacre the ZAFT forces attacking her country. She even tries taking on Shinn, who is fully in Berserker territory at this point but that does not goes well for her and Kira has to save her. She still retook control of her country and has Yuna finally arrested.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: When she tells Athrun in SEED she's glad to have Kira for a little brother, he teasingly asks her if he might not be her big brother instead. She grumpily insists that she was born first.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Cagalli has never expressed any romantic interest in anyone else except her boyfriend Athrun ^note In SEED, Cagalli only cares for Kira platonically and she sees Ahmed el Hosn from Desert Dawn who has a crush on her (and he died telling her that) as a friend. In SEED Destiny, Yuna doesn't count as there is no love between Cagalli and him and in the end, she loses all respect for Yuna and has him arrested for treason towards Orb without a second thought.
• Situational Sword: The Akatsuki's unique Yata no Kagami coating makes it virtually immune to beam attacks, even those as powerful as the Minerva's Tannhauser. However, unlike Phase Shift Armor it's useless against ballistic, mass-based weaponry or beam sabers, meaning that it's in serious danger of being torn to pieces when facing these weapons, as demonstrated in Cagalli's fight against Shinn.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • In SEED Freedom, Cagalli doesn't get much screen time compared to SEED and SEED Destiny but she still has a significant role in giving upgraded Gundams to Kira's group, as well as providing assistance during Athrun's fight with Shura, where she monitors him and relays the information to Athrun so Shura can't use his mind tricks as effectively.
  • Her Strike Rouge also qualifies. It was only ready for the Final Battle of SEED and its presence was what saved Athrun's life as he escaped in it with Cagalli when he detonated the Justice in GENESIS and it was also used to save Kira who was floating in space after the battle. In SEED Destiny, the Strike Rouge (its Ootori variation in the remaster), while still mostly piloted by Cagalli, was notably used by Kira to rescue the Eternal, just before he got his Strike Freedom. And finally, in SEED Freedom, Cagalli will pilot it again to remote control Athrun's Infinite Justice Type II against Shura. Cagalli's Strike Rouge has the distinction to be the only Gundam still operational in SEED, SEED Destiny and SEED Freedom and the one she pilots in all three works.
• So Last Season: A subversion in SEED Freedom. She still pilots her old Strike Rouge (since she lends her Akatsuki to Mu beforehand) but doesn't fight Shura directly: it's equipped with a special attachment that allows her to fight him from a safe distance by remotely controlling Athrun's Infinite Justice Type II. Shura takes it very poorly as expected.
• The Strategist: The novelization of SEED Freedom shows Cagalli's strategic skills which pays off in the end with the defeat of the Foundation.
  • She sent Mu on a secret mission with her Akatsuki in space inside a Mirage Colloid Pod to damage the superweapon with the Zeus Silhouette and to reflect back a Requiem shot successfully, knowing that Mu will survive the blast aboard her Mobile Suit (and him having piloted it before makes him the logical choice for the mission ^note Presumably, Cagalli didn't go herself because her people needs her in case of defeat where they could regroup and fight another day and also to keep up appearences to have Orb still be considering the Foundation's ultimatum). The Akatsuki was damaged but still operational after the feat. This gave Compass and Orb more time to defeat the Foundation and destroy the Requiem, which they did.
  • Cagalli has the Kusanagi under Amagi and some Orb ships sent to the Requiem to destroy it. The Orb ships were also cloaked under a Mirage Colloid veil.
  • She and Athrun devised the remote control plan to fend off the Accord's abilities and Cagalli applied it herself alongside her boyfriend but she stays far from the battlefield on Earth. This plan resulted in the defeat and death of Shura, arguably the strongest pilot of the Foundation.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Upon closer inspection◊, Kira and Cagalli do share some strong physical features, particularly during SEED. Both have similar facial structures and features and Cagalli's hairstyle is actually the same as Kira's except longer. Their different hair and eye colors are really the only things that make the semblance between them not as apparent at first glance.
• Super Mode: The only Natural to activate SEED mode. Averted in SEED Destiny however, Cagalli never accesses her SEED mode at any point in this series, mostly due to her doubts about whether her interventionism was the best way to protect Orb from the war and her helplessness over the situation. Even when she is back to her old self with her Akatsuki, she still doesn't display it for some reason.
• Support Party Member: In SEED Freedom, since Cagalli is currently in charge with Orb, she settled with installing remote control attachments to her Strike Rouge and Athrun's Infinite Justice Type II so she could fight without leaving Earth.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: With Flay in SEED. While their methods of problem solving are equally violent, Cagalli is straightforward about everything that isn't a matter of national security, while Flay is highly manipulative and relies on her feminine wiles to work for her. Also in their relationships with Kira: Cagalli is very platonically-caring with Kira (and later downright fraternal) as a contrast to Flay's conniving Clingy Jealous Girl sexual hold on him.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Cagalli manages to be the Tomboy to three different Girly Girls.
  • Overall throughout the entire main trilogy, Cagalli is the tomboy to Lacus' girly girl given her more masculine manner of dress, speech, and more violent manner of problem solving. They are quite opposite too: Cagalli is an Action Girl not afraid to go personally on the battlefield and very outspoken and Hot-Blooded while Lacus is mainly a Guile Heroine and a non-combattant, always prefering using her words calmly. Even on the political field, their respective approach is different: Cagalli is always active, for example proposing to create Compass, while Lacus only acts when needed, being more passive but reactive. Despite their very opposite personality traits, Cagalli and Lacus are close friends.
  • Cagalli is also the tomboy to Flay girly girl in SEED, making a case of Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity towards Kira. Flay cares about her looks and charm to get Kira under her control while Cagalli, being brash and outspoken, genuinely cares for Kira platonically like a sister looking for her little brother. Unlike with Lacus, Cagalli and Flay are not friends.
  • She is also the tomboy to Meyrin in SEED Destiny. Meyrin is a calm girly girl, passive, soft-spoken soldier compared to Cagalli's Hot-Blooded, active Tomboy Princess who are both genuinely caring about Athrun. Like with Lacus, it is implied that Cagalli and Meyrin become friends after the second war in the Omake Quarters CD where Meyrin calls Cagalli "Cagalli-san" instead of "Cagalli-sama".
• Tomboy Princess: Cagalli Hates Wearing Dresses and simply does not give a damn about looking like a Princess Classic. She instead chooses short, messy hair and simple and practical clothes, such as cargo pants and t-shirts or tank tops. She is also well-versed in weaponry and battlefield tactics and feels at home at the controls of a fighter plane or a Gundam, at the very end. In addition, her manner of speech is both quite blunt and rather strictly gender-neutral for Japanese, meaning she can sound more like a guy than a girl.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • When she gets her hands on the Akatsuki in SEED Destiny, Cagalli, who had massively failed in her early gambits, returns to her old self from SEED and being a much more effective leader for Orb after that.
  • In SEED Freedom, Cagalli's ability to lead Orb has increased a lot compared to SEED Destiny. Even when Orb had 10 minutes before getting destroyed, Cagalli managed to plan an evacuation route to get all the civilians outside of the blast radius which is a large improvement compared to what happened in SEED. Cagalli has a stronger personality and willing to shout at even nation leaders if the time comes for it compared to her slightly submissive personality in SEED Destiny. In short, SEED Freedom Cagalli is SEED Cagalli in personality (hot-blooded, very outspoken and fiery) with the authority and maturity of SEED Destiny Cagalli at the end of the show, but is not pushed around by anyone anymore, knowing exactly what to do for her people.
  • Also in SEED Freedom, the same can also be said about her strategic skills, Cagalli has devised multiple tactics against the Foundation as detailled in The Strategist above, all of them paying off in the end.
• Tsundere: She tends to act like this in SEED, she worries about Kira one moment and slaps him the next. Interestingly, this is downplayed with Athrun when they are finally on the same side in SEED where she mostly worries about him without screaming at him too much. However, in SEED Destiny, she has calmed quite a bit.
• Twincest: Subverted. Both she and Kira grow close in the first half of SEED, but they're informed they're brother and sister before anything else happens. To be fair to them, they didn't do anything beyond hugs.
• Underboobs: In her first encounter with Athrun in SEED, Cagalli accidentally has a moment of this by lifting her layers of clothing to dislodge a crab that had crawled inside, embarrassing Athrun so much that he trips.
• Uniformity Exception: Of all the main characters focused on in SEED, SEED Destiny and SEED Freedom, Cagalli is the only one who is a completely normal Natural (excluding her SEED Mode).
• Universally Beloved Leader: Cagalli is this for Orb since the end of SEED Destiny. Best examplified when she retook control of Orb from the Seirans with her Akatsuki, every Orb officer and soldier were happily welcoming her back. In SEED Freedom, Cagalli still has massive support from her people and Orb's army and they did follow her lead when she ordered Orb's evacuation.