Ranting about GSeed...of course
13 Jan 2005 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiAnyone care to enlighten me to what Shinji's personality is like, apart from the fact that "he cries and whines a lot"...? I'd hate to think that Kira is like Shinji....*shudders*
Since no one's gonna bother reading my long rant, I'm not going to clog up my friends page ^^;
Part I: Kira's justification
I think the choice of motivation for Kira's character places him as an "everyman", which inevitably makes us more sympathetic to what he undergoes. His personality starts of as mild and fairly ordinary; he is level-headed but also prone to be distracted by friends (which costed several fatal mistakes on his part); he is careful to act composed going in and out of the battlezone to reassure his friends. This is made very obvious in the last(?) episode, when Lacus sees him off, he forced a very gentle smile over his originally grave expression before turning to her.
There might be complaints that he cries a lot ^shrug^ Admittedly, he does cry several times in the series - certainly many times more than Athrun (then again, his screen time is also many times more than Athrun's...), but I don't think he has ever cried without justification. He holds an unusual position in the war - he is a Coordinator, but he is fighting against fellow Coordinators, one of whom is his childhood best friend. His sole reason for participating in the war is to protect his friends, but there is at least some mistrust and doubt within his comrades towards him because of the fact that he is a Coordinator. There is a lot of pressure from both sides, there is a lot of deaths on the frontline, and Kira does try to cope with it all without bothering his friends.
One of the first times he cries in the series is when he returned Lacus to Athrun; after he refuses Athrun's offer for him to join ZAFT, Athrun says, "Then the next time we meet, I will open fire on you." Kira replies that he would do the same. As they pull back towards their ships, Kira lowers his head so that the people on his transmission can't see his tears. I think at that moment, he has simultaneously lost two things. One is the reassurance of Athrun's friendship, the other is Lacus...which might be strange, considering they had only just met. But I think even as early as then, Lacus was already special to Kira, because she is the first person to offer him that his identity as a Coordinator didn't matter. Everyone on the ship, intentionally or not, had muttered enviously - or worse - about Coordinators. Even Athrun had demanded why Kira was fighting them when he is a Coordinator himself. At that moment, Kira lost the only person who approved of him, not his genetics.
A number of other times he has cried is all because he had lost something, or when the pressure had been too much. After Yzak recklessly destroyed a shuttle filled with innocent civilians, Kira realises that his impotence had led to 2 dire massacres - the first of which being the ship Fllay's father was on. I think he turned to Fllay and clung onto her false feelings because he realised he needed to strengthen his will to protect. He appears to change; he kills ruthlessly in battles, and directs towards his enemies a fierce hatred and a desire for total annihilation. Outside battles, he became cold and remote, he worked feverishly at his Gundam and alienated himself from his friends. The first hint that this was nothing more than self-deception came when Sai, Fllay's former fiance, had tried to approach her. Kira turned on Sai, and broke down halfway, shouting, "What do you think I'm fighting for?" It took Andy from the ZAFT sub-division "Tiger of the Deserts" to reawaken him to his humanity, but the next battle, he was to kill Andy. It was almost distressing to see Kira, alone in his cockpit, tears streaming down his face and screaming, "I never intended to kill!!" More than an apology at Andy, it was a statement of how powerless he felt, and how fragile his ideals were in the course of warfare. He never intended to kill - he never wanted to kill in the first place.
Someone had said that for a Gundam pilot, he took surprisingly long to get used to the idea of shooting someone, when he had refused to shoot a GINN (ZAFT owned mobile suit) in episode 7. His ideals aside, I think what happened in episode 7 was very special. At the time they were at the place of Junius 7, where thousands of innocent Coordinator civilians had died, barely a year ago. There were several reasons why he would not have wanted to kill the GINN pilot - firstly, here, of all places, his identity as a Coordinator is suddenly very significant. He doesn't want to kill in a place already filled with tragedy, let alone a fellow Coordinator, where all of the victims were Coordinators too. Secondly, Athrun's mother had died in the tragedy, so this was not only a giant graveyard, but it was also very personal to Kira. Thirdly, all along Kira's reason for fighting was to protect Archangel, the GINN initially posed no threat to Archangel, but it had inadvertently spotted his friends - fetching water - and shot at them. Kira was out of sight of the GINN, so when he shot the GINN, it had been pretty much in cold blood. I think it is unfair to conclude that he is slow in coming to grips with the reality of war, but rather that he wanted to remove himself from the bloodshed as much as possible.
He rediscovered this attitude after meeting with Lacus again, and it was his reason for returning to battle - to save lives, not to destroy lives. Ultimately, this brought about some irritating Hero™ism, though it did appease Yzak's resentment of him. It was this attitude, which Athrun also adopted, that took the two of them so long in dealing with the 3 drug-addicted pilots...which I shall talk about in Part II XD
Now that I've sort of calmed down a bit, I have to say that especially towards the end the plot becomes very convoluted. A lot of things go unexplained, and a lot of new developments thrown in that are really confusing or even a bit pointless. The last two episodes were full on massacre, and are quite rushed. With some of the flaws of the series though, you could interpret it either way - either that the series was bad, or that the thing had been intentional. Using Fllay as an example, one way of looking at her character is that she had a lot of potential considering the sway she had over Kira, but was never really employed properly in the script. The other way of interpreting her is that someone "with that sort of willpower" doesn't stand a chance in war, which is why most of her selfish efforts go to waste, and that the course of warfare won't be so easily changed by someone of her caliber.
^shrug^
I just think that this series is quite interesting because you could look at it just as it is, or you could go a bit abstract. Not to say that this is some sort of anime masterpiece, of course, but just that it's quite open to interpretation. And I guess a lot of the themes just resonate, considering what the world has been going through for the past few years...
Since no one's gonna bother reading my long rant, I'm not going to clog up my friends page ^^;
Part I: Kira's justification
I think the choice of motivation for Kira's character places him as an "everyman", which inevitably makes us more sympathetic to what he undergoes. His personality starts of as mild and fairly ordinary; he is level-headed but also prone to be distracted by friends (which costed several fatal mistakes on his part); he is careful to act composed going in and out of the battlezone to reassure his friends. This is made very obvious in the last(?) episode, when Lacus sees him off, he forced a very gentle smile over his originally grave expression before turning to her.
There might be complaints that he cries a lot ^shrug^ Admittedly, he does cry several times in the series - certainly many times more than Athrun (then again, his screen time is also many times more than Athrun's...), but I don't think he has ever cried without justification. He holds an unusual position in the war - he is a Coordinator, but he is fighting against fellow Coordinators, one of whom is his childhood best friend. His sole reason for participating in the war is to protect his friends, but there is at least some mistrust and doubt within his comrades towards him because of the fact that he is a Coordinator. There is a lot of pressure from both sides, there is a lot of deaths on the frontline, and Kira does try to cope with it all without bothering his friends.
One of the first times he cries in the series is when he returned Lacus to Athrun; after he refuses Athrun's offer for him to join ZAFT, Athrun says, "Then the next time we meet, I will open fire on you." Kira replies that he would do the same. As they pull back towards their ships, Kira lowers his head so that the people on his transmission can't see his tears. I think at that moment, he has simultaneously lost two things. One is the reassurance of Athrun's friendship, the other is Lacus...which might be strange, considering they had only just met. But I think even as early as then, Lacus was already special to Kira, because she is the first person to offer him that his identity as a Coordinator didn't matter. Everyone on the ship, intentionally or not, had muttered enviously - or worse - about Coordinators. Even Athrun had demanded why Kira was fighting them when he is a Coordinator himself. At that moment, Kira lost the only person who approved of him, not his genetics.
A number of other times he has cried is all because he had lost something, or when the pressure had been too much. After Yzak recklessly destroyed a shuttle filled with innocent civilians, Kira realises that his impotence had led to 2 dire massacres - the first of which being the ship Fllay's father was on. I think he turned to Fllay and clung onto her false feelings because he realised he needed to strengthen his will to protect. He appears to change; he kills ruthlessly in battles, and directs towards his enemies a fierce hatred and a desire for total annihilation. Outside battles, he became cold and remote, he worked feverishly at his Gundam and alienated himself from his friends. The first hint that this was nothing more than self-deception came when Sai, Fllay's former fiance, had tried to approach her. Kira turned on Sai, and broke down halfway, shouting, "What do you think I'm fighting for?" It took Andy from the ZAFT sub-division "Tiger of the Deserts" to reawaken him to his humanity, but the next battle, he was to kill Andy. It was almost distressing to see Kira, alone in his cockpit, tears streaming down his face and screaming, "I never intended to kill!!" More than an apology at Andy, it was a statement of how powerless he felt, and how fragile his ideals were in the course of warfare. He never intended to kill - he never wanted to kill in the first place.
Someone had said that for a Gundam pilot, he took surprisingly long to get used to the idea of shooting someone, when he had refused to shoot a GINN (ZAFT owned mobile suit) in episode 7. His ideals aside, I think what happened in episode 7 was very special. At the time they were at the place of Junius 7, where thousands of innocent Coordinator civilians had died, barely a year ago. There were several reasons why he would not have wanted to kill the GINN pilot - firstly, here, of all places, his identity as a Coordinator is suddenly very significant. He doesn't want to kill in a place already filled with tragedy, let alone a fellow Coordinator, where all of the victims were Coordinators too. Secondly, Athrun's mother had died in the tragedy, so this was not only a giant graveyard, but it was also very personal to Kira. Thirdly, all along Kira's reason for fighting was to protect Archangel, the GINN initially posed no threat to Archangel, but it had inadvertently spotted his friends - fetching water - and shot at them. Kira was out of sight of the GINN, so when he shot the GINN, it had been pretty much in cold blood. I think it is unfair to conclude that he is slow in coming to grips with the reality of war, but rather that he wanted to remove himself from the bloodshed as much as possible.
He rediscovered this attitude after meeting with Lacus again, and it was his reason for returning to battle - to save lives, not to destroy lives. Ultimately, this brought about some irritating Hero™ism, though it did appease Yzak's resentment of him. It was this attitude, which Athrun also adopted, that took the two of them so long in dealing with the 3 drug-addicted pilots...which I shall talk about in Part II XD
==============================================================
Now that I've sort of calmed down a bit, I have to say that especially towards the end the plot becomes very convoluted. A lot of things go unexplained, and a lot of new developments thrown in that are really confusing or even a bit pointless. The last two episodes were full on massacre, and are quite rushed. With some of the flaws of the series though, you could interpret it either way - either that the series was bad, or that the thing had been intentional. Using Fllay as an example, one way of looking at her character is that she had a lot of potential considering the sway she had over Kira, but was never really employed properly in the script. The other way of interpreting her is that someone "with that sort of willpower" doesn't stand a chance in war, which is why most of her selfish efforts go to waste, and that the course of warfare won't be so easily changed by someone of her caliber.
^shrug^
I just think that this series is quite interesting because you could look at it just as it is, or you could go a bit abstract. Not to say that this is some sort of anime masterpiece, of course, but just that it's quite open to interpretation. And I guess a lot of the themes just resonate, considering what the world has been going through for the past few years...
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 04:24 am (UTC)*pause* but seriously! the scene where her lecturer is being a nasty old man seemed quite symbolic! the costuming! the lighting! the changing of seating for no apparent reason! *pause* and many other scenes.. *babbles* ^^'
mm, from what I've read kira doesn't sound like shinji though. I'd call shinji a coward, but I wouldn't call kira that o.o *wants to watch it*
shinji confuses the hell out of me. I dunno what the writer was saying with such a character. T__T
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 12:47 am (UTC)Hmm...but now I can't post up part II because I didn't expect anyone to read it...and it's full of major spoilers and will really really spoil watching it.
But that's okay, I'll go onto part III (when I write it that is) XD
Aye...*wants Jenny to watch it* but the version I have is Japanese with Chinese subtitles >___>; Although you could probably make sense of 50% of the plot since most of it is just explosions and people screaming "FIRE!!"...or just screaming. And then dying. And then coming back to life. No, ignore the last part. That was a spoiler. Oops.
Ooh ooh, you do that overinterpretation too? XD I think it's residue evil from English...I bet I could dredge up some symbolism in something even as ridiculous as Miaka...(ooh, her odango head is a reference to Sailor Broom the archetypal stupid klutzy shoujo heroine, and and and also her obsession with FOOD especially ROUND FOOD and that she's fat and ROUND...*thud*)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 01:33 am (UTC)jenny <-- *hugged* *proud*
no spoilers.. oh dear, except for those ones. *pause* and that one. coming back to life in a sci fi anime??? =_____=|||
erm, chinese subtitles? oh dear, it's ok, it's in japanese >__< *pause* nah, I can't understand what they're saying unless they just so happen to continuously talk about university and shopping in each episode..
*pout*
I think it's from english too. *pause* her odango head actually is a reference to sailor moon though isn't it? I remember something about watase yuu mentioning it when talking about the early episode where miaka does a sailor moon type speech and stance..
the students in my class freak me out.