(no subject)

[mayoraasei]

Went through my music files today and listened to Vestige. This is Freedom's insert song in GSD. It made me sad, and I didn't understand why. GSD's ending had nothing to be sad about. The enemies were eliminated, the heroes saved the day.

But I still felt sad, as though it was a song that recalled loss. I went back and listened to Meteor, which had been Freedom's insert song in GS, and I think I've found what it lost. What the series might have lost.

Youthful idealism and passion.

Kira has lost that. Athrun is too confused to uphold it. And Shinn was defeated.

Remember Kira at the very end of GS? He still had his warmth and gentleness then, that relieved smile and tears he greeted Athrun with as Freedom lay about him in waste. It wasn't the fight with Rau that took his gentleness away. It was two years of inactivity and pondering over what had passed. The battles didn't harden him, it was the constant brooding over them. Like Lacus, he must have been mentally preparing himself for another war because when the time came for him to resume his seat in Freedom, his words weren't the anguished protests that he had uttered at the beginning of GS, but rather a firm and reassured, "It is okay."

But what was his resolve? "To protect"? What is he protecting? Those he loves? The ideals of Orb? The freedom to choose peace, rather the assurance of absolute peace? Where does his faith come from? What gives him such faith to believe that mankind may still choose peace when in 2 years, they have had 2 major wars that decimated both the Coordinator and Natural population, and all but annihilated the Atlantic Federation?

In their final confrontation, both Kira and Dullindal accuse each other of being cocky, and they are both right. Who is Dullindal to choose peace for all humans? And yet...conversely...who is Kira to choose freedom of choice of peace, when he himself knows that mankind will never in unison choose that path? Who is he to commit thousands, millions more of lives to warfare?

The other thing GSD has lost sight of is that tenacious bond between Athrun and Kira. For most fans who loved their multi-layered relationship in GS, Shinn became an irritating accessory. The series attempted to capitalise by pitting Athrun against Kira again, but came out short of barely convincing. Of course, in real life, decisions are never clear-cut either, and Athrun's return to ZAFT probably had multiple personal motivations, whether it is because he feels more secure amongst his own people, he wants to amend the crimes his father committed, or as he said, he wanted to protect Kira and Cagalli.

Now Shinn...Shinn is possibly the most controversial character of both series. Most people tend to either fanatically defend him or they hate him. And for both camps, they are quite often subdivided again - those that hate Kira's ideals and therefore defend those who are against him, and those who love Kira and simply hate everyone who are against him. These two fanatic groups aside are the ones who have made a logical consideration of both characters' ideals, personalities and roles.

And so, Shinn Asuka, as synonymous to "cocky brat" as Kira Yamato is to "naive crybaby". He's hypocritical, he's cocky, he's narrow-minded and stubborn, he refuses to look at things from another perspective, he lashes out in anger without thought...and yet, at the same time, he can be gentle, he does care for those around him, and he sincerely wishes for peace.

He's a typical teenager, and possibly exactly why I dislike him. Because he has the precedent of Kira to live up to.

Kira's naivety about ideals and philosophy aside, both his personality and development were handled much better than Shinn's. He grows. Shinn screams at Kira "You don't understand anything", at a guy who wept at having killed, who had just like Shinn lost his first love and in much more terrible circumstances - because Fllay was, despite all her manipulations, innocent when she was killed. And in Kira we see him grow throughout GS and since GS.

And Shinn? For the entire 50 episodes of GSD, he has lived in his anguish over his family's deaths. The tragedy explains his anger, but it doesn't justify it. He hated and lashed out at those who were responsible, still never questioning why it had happened. When his ideals are questioned, he turns to anger and blame. Even at the very end, we still don't know if he had overcome those feelings yet.

And so, GS fans feel unfulfilled after watching GSD. We come out none-the-wiser than 50 episodes ago. Sure, Kira has matured, but that was about the only that changed in summation. Athrun and Cagalli both resumed their heroic ideals by the end of GSD, putting them in the exact same place as they were at the end of GS. Lacus never changed. Most of the newer cast were never developed enough to be worth knowing.

It feels tarnished. As though someone had taken a bucket of paint and thrown it over a completed artwork. Not that GS doesn't have its flaws, but it was complete in itself. GSD didn't expand on GS. It felt as though it undermined the significance and validity of everything the characters had worked towards.

Maybe that was the point.