First Impressions: Gundam SEED Destiny – 33

Shinn mourns Stellar. We get an FF7 type burial in the water.

Back on the Minerva, Athrun finds Shinn studying clips of Kira in Freedom. Shinn talks about how Freedom is too powerful and basically prepares himself for an eventual battle with Kira. Athrun tries to step in, but Rey comes between them and sides with Shinn. Athrun leaves after Shinn mentions Athrun being defeated by Freedom.

On the ArchAngel, we find Kira and Murrue in Neo/Mwu’s quarters watching over him. He wakes up pretty quickly, but when everyone calls him Mwu, he doesn’t know what they’re talking about (instead cracking a joke about Murrue falling in love at first sight). This causes Murrue to run out in tears.

Luna tries to cheer Athrun up. She compliments him and says that he should do more with his authority. We cut to PLANT where Gilbert is ready to make a speech. Meer is seated by him.

Gilbert tells everyone (on Earth and PLANT) about Destroy Gundam and how it was stopped. Athrun notices that Freedom has been cut out of all the shots. Jibril is under heavy fire from his old fogies about the speech. He tries to get it cut off, but is unsuccessful. Meer manages to throw in a few lines that moves everyone watching. That is, except Kira and Lacus, who look quite pissed. Gilbert ends the speech by talking about Blue Cosmos and revealing the members of Logos. He drives people into quite a frenzy, as we get several shots of people waving guns, cheering at the speech. On the ArchAngel, Cagalli exclaims that something must be done.

I love how Gundam SEED Destiny is able to keep my interest even in a non-action episode. We have a lot happening, from Shinn wanting revenge (more or less) to Gilbert exposing Logos to the world. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this entire speech was like the Emperor in Star Wars or something. But then again, aside from Meer and the editing out of Freedom, I can’t find fault at what Gilbert did. I am very curious how they are going to develop this Neo forgetting his memory (if it truly is memory loss/brainwashing). I really hope Murrue and Mwu can end up together in the end. Lord knows she doesn’t need to lose him a second time.
The next episode preview really got me excited as we finally get the battle between the Minerva and the ArchAngel, between Shinn and Kira, Impulse and Freedom. I’m betting that this’ll turn out like the Kira vs Athrun fight from Gundam SEED, where both gundams got totaled and that eventually leads them to getting their more powerful gundams. Actually, thinking about it, it kind of has to happen that way, as we have less than 20 episodes left and there’s been no mention of any of Strike Freedom, Infinite Justice, or Destiny Gundam.