Destiny is also what happens when you're trying to make a spiritual successor to the most popular entry in the franchise thus far but understand nothing about what made the original compelling or interesting. It's Zeta but zero nuance, poor character focus, and unnecessary stock footage and goonery on top.
Oissu!
It loses a lot of that factor after episode 20, though - the supporting cast moves into the background, Flay functionally disappears from the story despite being the driving engine of all the teen angst, and the big screentime-hogging conflict becomes not personal drama, but grand fate-of-the-world stuff about preventing human extinction through war. The most personal story we get afterwards is "Why do Kira and Athrun have to fight each other?", which climaxes at episode ~30 with Strike vs Aegis and then Lacus gets them to team up afterwards.
Which is a shame, since even with all the uninspired retreads of original Gundam throughout (Hey, what if we did Escape From Luna II, but the conflict is that Wakkein is racist to superhumans?), it was some of my favorite stuff in SEED apart from Endgame Rau.
Edited by terlite50 on Apr 29th 2025 at 1:10:20 PM
Eh, I dunno, it's true that it basically did 1979 with more teen drama, but in the second half of the show, it did things differently by having the Char Clone be revealed to an Omnicidal Maniac who wanted humanity to die because to him, all Humans Are Bastards. I do agree that some plot points were handled poorly, but it's like 20 years ago.
To a lot of people, this show was the big thing.
"We all fail. We all make mistakes. That is what makes us human."Yeah. The show hooked people with an updated version of 0079, and then pulled a Not His Sled combined with Serial Escalation that I totally understand why people got attached.
It's... not really my thing, but I get it.
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I don't think you're using Not His Sled correctly. That's for remakes or rereleases, not new stories that draw heavily from older stories in the franchise. Wing and AGE also take a bunch of stuff from the Tomino Gundams and get branded as "retreads" for it, but it doesn't make them remakes.
I was nitpicking over the term you used, since it's not simply a synonym for Homage IMO. But I'll back down.
Edited by terlite50 on Apr 30th 2025 at 4:13:43 AM
I think you're being a bit pedantic here. Aside from the technical differences between the Bloody Valentine War and the One Year War, SEED was absolutely cribbing from the original Gundam series for its first half. I mean, aside from the other Gundams that ZAFT stole, it was almost a 1-to-1 homage to the first episode of the original Gundam.
"We all fail. We all make mistakes. That is what makes us human."
There's a handful of Ocean VAs I wish could've come back to do the NYAV redubs or at least just Freedom. Would've been nice to have Jonathan Holmes back as Arthur and Chantal Strand still doing Lacus. Also Tabitha St. Germain as Agnes would've been hilarious.
On wiki matters: someone thinks Shagia Frost is a Char clone and put it on the Gundam expy page. I'm not sure whether to just delete it without asking what this thread thinks. The same editor also changed Katejina's article on the Zanscare page to be spoilermarked.
Edited by terlite50 on Aug 18th 2025 at 5:05:34 AM
Shagia... well, he's unscrupulous and pilots a red mech but that's about it. But honestly what fully disqualifies him is the existence of Lancerow. The guy who just... is Char, because the 7th Space War is the OYW and he takes Char's place.
Edited by Larkmarn on May 6th 2025 at 10:27:45 AM
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While I see the intent of spoilering Katejina's entry, I think she defects way too early in the show for it to be a valid use of spoiling in that way. Just my opinion.
Plus, her defection is a massive Late-Arrival Spoiler.
Edited by PhiSat on May 6th 2025 at 7:39:58 AM
Oissu!Found out that Sarah Johns had a recent appearance on TV in Tracker.
While I'm aware that some Ocean/Blue Water VAs do have TV/movie appearance, I didn't know that SJ (Natarle's VA) does TV/movie appearances.
Also found that Vanessa Morley, Canadian!Cagalli, left acting to be a registered nurse in '09.
Watched Freedom in English just to see with regads to NYAV. With Cherami's performance as Cagalli, it reminds me of Nanako Mori's.
PS - Don't know if Cherami's actual voice will change since that role made her deepen her voice.
Edited by Ominae on May 7th 2025 at 11:17:11 AM
Someone did a fine HD upgrade to the Stargazer trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TejvMdbq2I
Edited by Ominae on May 8th 2025 at 9:55:27 AM
I have a couple questions after reading the anime/manga page for Retcon:
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam contains scenes where the titular Gundam does things such as turning its beam saber into a mile-long "sword of rage" and channelling the spirits of the dead to power itself up. Originally this was just attributed to pilot Kamille Bidan's incredible Newtype powers, but later works introduced the concept of the Biosensor, an experimental system in the Zeta which boosts a Newtype's abilities, and serves to allow these fantastic feats without completely destroying the Real Robot feel of the show.
When was the biosensor introduced into the lore? And how does this retcon preserve the "Real Robot feel" when this changes nothing about the identical displays of physical Newtype powers from Haman and Scirocco in the same show?
Edited by terlite50 on May 12th 2025 at 5:33:51 AM
Well I found something interesting today.
For those unfamiliar with the Gundam UC universe, she's a member of the Zabi family, a leader in the Zeon forces and is famous for Char betraying her by blowing up her head with a rocket launcher!
I considered writing a villainess Katejina story at one point. A Kycilia villainess story is amusing too.
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The Zeta Gundam being able to channel the souls of the dead was brought up in Zeta already (though it's brought up and then used so quickly after it could potentially qualify as an Ass Pull). The Double Zeta explicitly had a biosensor from the get-go. ZZ started airing right after Zeta ended, so I'm unsure as to whether the biosensor was a retcon or just not well-explained until ZZ.
While it isn't canon, Mobile Suit Vs Giant God Of Legend Gigantis Counterattack refers to Judau's abilities as the power of the living (vs Kamille's power of the dead), implying that it was more of Kamille's power to channel the dead vs the Zeta's specifically.
Edited by PhiSat on May 12th 2025 at 10:13:17 AM
Oissu!No, I'm asking when did the term "biosensor" get invented as the rationalization for Kamille's superpowers rather than just "He's a really powerful Newtype and the Gundams are made of magic".
Edited by terlite50 on May 13th 2025 at 7:05:32 AM

First off, it's not "main writer was unavailable due to surgery", it's "main writer is working on scripts while recovering from surgery". Second, it feels like the show was not just being written on the fly, but that both the director and execs would drastically veer things into ludicrous directions (Kira hijacking the protagonist role, Mu's resurrection from before the show began, Rey being a way to keep Toshihiko Seki in the show without resurrecting Rau, Athrun's Unwanted Harem and go-nowhere character arc, Lacus barely existing in the story, anything to do with how Durandal or the Akatsuki were handled). Third, something was clearly messed up with resource allocation - they were able to have TM Revolution play a Sacrificial Lamb for several episodes, yet most episodes in the show tended to be at least 40% stock footage. And fourth, a lot of these problems were issues that the first Gundam SEED already had, yet come right back with a vengeance in Destiny - apparently the head writer was suffering from the malady she'd need surgery for during the back half of SEED.
From what I'm thinking, the entry should be written more like "Destiny is what happens when a sequel fails to improve on the flaws of the original while having a main writer that's not in peak physical condition".
Edited by terlite50 on Aug 13th 2025 at 8:01:19 AM