carnelianwings - Tumblr blog

carnelianwings · 2 months ago

Text

Sword and Mirror - a Lacus Clyne Analysis

“First… decide. And then do it. It’s the only way to achieve anything.”

Do you want to read ~8.000 words of Lacus Clyne character analysis? I hope so, because that’s what I got for you today.

When I watched SEED, I was wholly convinced I would dislike Lacus and everything she stands for. I have never been more wrong. Lacus is a tricky character to grasp - the show narrates her story largely through themes, blank spaces and parallel storytelling. As a result, I understand how she can seem quite flat on a casual viewing. I promise you right now, there is more to her role in the story than meets the eye.

In a 2020 interview, Director Fukuda said: “I do remember [Writer Morosawa] saying that the idea of Lacus Clyne was that she would be a mirror of other people, and that was why she was necessary to reflect other people’s hearts.”

The primary mirrors for Lacus are Flay in SEED and the Durandal/Meer combo in Destiny, so these will be our focal angle for unraveling her character - because the question is not just “what does the mirror say about other people?” it is also “what is inherent to Lacus that is able to reflect these (often negative) characters so well?”

Lacus’ story includes a lot of interesting ideas about power, agency, and gender performativity. I am here today to make my case to all of you, to present to you the Lacus I came to love - a girl who would love to be ordinary, but who cannot ignore the ideological power her image has become entrenched with.

(Because tumblr is a functional website and won't show posts with links in tags, I will add my source links in a reblog.)

We’re going to be following Lacus’ appearances more or less chronologically here, with digressions into related topics when it fits thematically.

Starting us off, we can’t talk about Lacus’ early scenes without also talking about Flay Allster. Lacus and Flay are two sides of the same coin and the show beats us over the head with that pretty much from the first time we meet Lacus.

Flay and Lacus arriving on the Archangel follows the exact same script: a girl exits a lifeboat, floating through the hangar, into Kira who blushes at the proximity and informs her that this is an Earth Forces vessel. The two scenes are merely four episodes apart, serving as a giant blinking billboard to tell the viewer: compare and contrast these two!!

At this stage of their lives, Lacus and Flay are in nearly identical situations. Their mothers are out of the picture, having passed when they were young. Their fathers are important politicians of their respective faction. Each of them is engaged to a boy they did not choose as part of a ploy to further their fathers’ political agenda.

That is hitting right on a theme SEED explores with most of its main cast - children as extensions of their parent’s will. As they exist at this early stage of the story, Lacus and Flay are each tools to further their fathers’ reach. The fact that both of them seem to have positive emotional relationships with their fathers does not diminish this aspect - in fact, I’d argue it underlines it. Both of them want to live up to their fathers’ legacies and willingly accept their place in it.

This means that there is a level of performativity that permeates every aspect of their lives. We see this most clearly with Flay - every part of her day to day persona is carefully curated to show herself as a perfect little lady. We know that this act is directly linked to pleasing her father, because it includes doing things for her father’s benefit such as writing love letters to Sai despite not actually liking him or putting in unusual effort to look her best for reuniting with her dad. She acts out the perfect hyperfeminine daughter that George Allster wants to present to the world. Flay’s sweetness is a manipulation - a way to exert power, first on her father’s and then on her own behalf. This is why Flay keeps up the performance, even once we have seen the real Flay as a much darker personality. It’s the only way she’s been taught to assert agency and thus her only strategy to protect herself.

Lacus is rather similar about strategically using her hyperfeminine charm when needed be. Her initial episodes on the Archangel serve as a perfect example of this.

But first, we have to elaborate on her background. She’s a popular idol singer on the PLANTs but her career is, like everything else, something that is tailor-made to promote her father’s moderate politics. When Meer describes Lacus’ job in Destiny, she does it like this: “[Her job] is to actively pursue ways to help the PLANTs and the world achieve peace.” Tellingly, the line is placed over an image of Lacus and her father.

So we know that Lacus is politically active by this point, even if just as her father’s mouthpiece. We also know she is in this sector of space as part of a ceremonial delegation. She is literally engaged to Athrun in a bid to reign in Patrick Zala’s extremism by making the public see the Clyne and Zala families as a unity. What I am getting at is that there is absolutely no way Lacus is oblivious to the context she finds herself in when she boards an Earth Forces ship. When she acts as though she were, it’s deliberate.

Lacus only takes decisive action when she feels that she knows all the facts and she likes to go see the circumstances of a situation for herself. This is something we’ll talk about a lot more later on, but it is already useful to keep in mind here.

Lacus’ time on the Archangel is characterized by her leaving her (locked) room again and again to wander the ship, then acting oblivious as to why anybody would be upset about the enemy leader’s daughter freely scoping out the place.

(Her mild ‘Oh?’ here always gets me.) It’s the kind of behavior she can get away with precisely because she is a hyperfeminine teenage girl - if she were an adult male refugee instead, she might have been arrested for pulling a stunt like that. But being as she is, the exaggerated naivety somehow registers as believable for everyone on the ship and she gets off scott-free.

What I love about Lacus and Flay is the level of awareness they both have about gender being a performance that can be put on for gain. Both of them are genuinely pretty girly, but more than that they know how to play up the girliness and use it to exploit gender biases to their advantage. They know people are likely to underestimate them and/or be sweet on them and they bank on it fairly often.

Of course this isn’t to say Lacus’ personality is one big fake and there is a ‘real Lacus’ in there who is diametrically opposed to how she presents herself. Even during the Archangel stay, we see Lacus in private and we find a gentle girl. She prays, she sings, she plays silly little games with her Haro. Lacus’ naive act is effective precisely because it is merely a slight over-acting of her regular self.

This is confirmed by Director Fukuda when he states that “about half of her behavior is natural, but she can also play the role of herself. She is her true self when she confronts Rau Le Creuset and she is also her true self when she plays with Haro.”

While we’re on the topic of Haro, I find pink Haro to be a bit of a curiosity. In Gundam’s history as a franchise, Haros have usually represented something about their owner. For Amuro, Kamille, Hathaway and Uso their Haros were manifestations of the childhood they were clinging to / that was clinging to them.

Lacus’ pink Haro is the first Haro in Gundam to be willful and rude instead of cheerful and supportive (though Haro in Victory certainly packs a punch). It also has the rather interesting catchphrase: “I won’t accept that”. What does that say about Lacus, if anything?

I would argue that it is a first pointer towards the strength of personality and opinion that Lacus camouflages behind her innocent exterior. During these early episodes, there are two major hints towards the Haro symbolism.

The first is simple: Haro is Lacus’ excuse for constantly leaving her room. See, it is Haro who won’t allow them to be locked in. This is totally out of her innocent public persona’s control, see?!

The second one follows when Lacus leaves the Archangel and we first see proof positive that she’s been playing dumb while in enemy territory. As soon as Lacus is safe in Athrun’s suit, she addresses Rau in a commanding tone never heard before.

“Stop it at once. Are you trying to turn this location into a battlefield when there is a representative of the memorial delegation here? I will not allow it! Stop your combat operations at once!”

Suddenly, we learn that Lacus has perfect awareness of her own importance and a clear grasp on political/military speech style. We are forced to recontextualize the clueless girl we’ve spent the last few episodes with, turning our perception of the character on its head. But the viewer isn’t the only person shocked by this. As Athrun stares at his gentle fiancée in bewilderment, we are treated to Haro’s shout of “I won’t accept that! I won’t accept that!” which perfectly echoes Lacus’ speech and feelings - meanwhile Lacus herself just gives an angelic smile, acting as though she has no idea why what she just did should be astounding in the first place:

The disparity between Haro-as-the-inner-voice and Lacus’ outer performance as she reverts to her usual ‘public self’ is used deliberately, foreshadowing the many surprises Lacus still has up her sleeve.

Lacus is then moved to the ZAFT vessel Vesalius, where she continues to wander about against Athrun’s advice. Though she is no longer in enemy territory, it makes sense for Lacus to keep up the naive act so she can scope out the ship as much as possible. After all, she sees herself as a civilian who wants to end the war. She has no specific loyalty to ZAFT as a military. Of course she’d want a glimpse at things.

After this, Lacus is shuffled out of the plot for a good bit as she recuperates at her home with her many, many Haros. So many Haros. It will never cease being funny that Athrun (notedly, the person who gave her the Haros) is also the one who goes ‘how can you live like this?!’.

This is a good opportunity to talk about Lacus and Athrun’s relationship as a whole. Though the two of them never met before being introduced to each other for the engagement, they like each other. Lacus seems dedicated to making this marriage work out. In a bonus audio drama covering their first meeting, Lacus basically steamrolls Athrun with her can-do-attitude regarding the engagement. He is completely taken aback as she speculates about the hair color of their future children… Lacus approaches the engagement on a baseline of ‘I don’t know you that well yet, so I don’t know if this is good or bad - might as well be optimistic.’ It’s only after Athrun’s enduring discomfort that she slows down. This ongoing positive approach to the relationship seems to both be because of her dedication to her father’s cause as well as because she simply comes to like Athrun. She treasures his gifts, is overjoyed when he comes to visit, and would be perfectly willing to take their relationship to an actual romantic level.

Just look at her waiting for a proper kiss before Athrun chickens out and opts for her cheek instead…

But ultimately, Athrun just does not understand Lacus. This is evident in their interactions and confirmed several times by Director Fukuda. Athrun can’t see past Lacus’ one-sided public presentation. Her deeper thoughts and convictions are lost on him. According to the above-linked interviews, it is this specific visit in episode 20 when Lacus tries to test Athrun and then decides to cut her losses.

“I think she was trying to see if Athrun could accept her thoughts. Lacus also feels that way about Kira, so she told Athrun that she likes him. She actually wanted Athrun to inquire about her reasons, but Athrun doesn’t ask. That’s why Lacus can’t make space in her heart for him.” - Fukuda, as linked above.

Not only does Athrun not seem open to meeting her head-on ideologically, he also doesn’t display any jealousy at her stating she is fond of another guy. Both as a comrade and as a romantic partner, Athrun feels distant from Lacus. Of course she remains fond of him as a person, but she won’t keep chasing a connection he is not emotionally open to.

Kira is different in this regard - he is ready to accept and agree with Lacus’ morals, to let her take Flay’s place as the person who inspires him to keep fighting. And that is precisely the next step in Lacus’ journey - forging her bond with Kira.

After Kira and Athrun gravely wound each other in battle, Reverend Malchio picks up the injured Kira and brings him to the PLANTs. It is implied though not elaborated upon that Malchio is part of Siegel Clyne’s large web of contacts trying to stop Patrick Zala’s megalomania. Malchio and Lacus appear to get along well - it stands to reason that Kira was entrusted to her care because Malchio knew he’d saved her before.

Lacus delights in nursing Kira back to health. She shares her love of the outdoors and beautiful gardens with him, and listens to his struggles and regrets. It is here that we get a good glimpse at the way Lacus’ genuine girly side looks. She is playful yet ladylike, she can appear quite innocent… but she never seems at a loss for what’s going on and routinely gets serious when discussing matters of war and trauma.

This Lacus in the garden is the person she would like to be. In her ideal world, there would be peace and she’d be at liberty to simply enjoy her songs and flowers, spending time with a person she likes. Lacus’ gentleness and her appreciation of simple pleasures are not an act.

Unfortunately, that ideal world does not exist. Which is why, when Kira declares he wants to fight not ZAFT nor the Earth Forces but the conflict itself, Lacus sees her own morals echoed in him and decides to act as well.

She abuses her authority and the trust the PLANTs’ society holds in her in order to let Kira steal the Freedom, one of ZAFT’s new super weapons. It is likely that she was aware of the Freedom’s existence through her father - there don’t appear to be any secrets between the two of them.

This is a good point to point out one of Lacus’ most defining habits: her tendency to ask questions. Though she is far from clueless, she is someone who will contribute to a conversation by prompting for elaboration again and again. She knows that asking someone else to spell out their thought process will help them solidify it.

Lacus has a very intuitive understanding of the human mind and how to enable it. She is a good person and mostly uses that strategy in order to gently nudge those who are already morally aligned with her in the right direction… but there certainly is potential to use this kind of strategy for outright manipulation. We will see as much when we get to Destiny… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Right now, allowing Kira to act has also forced Lacus to do the same - she is now regarded as a traitor to the PLANTs for her theft of military equipment and needs to go into hiding. There is only one last thing she feels she needs to do before she can address the public: tie up loose ends with Athrun.

The staging of this confrontation reveals Lacus’ deep sentimentality. She hides out at the theater she first sang in publicly, a hideout so fitting of her personality that Athrun figures it out with only minimal prodding. Lacus had taken great care of the flowers she received from that theater years ago. I’d say it’s fair to assume that the location has not just been picked for how easily Athrun could find it - after all, Lacus is singing in full stage costume when he finds her. In a way, this is her goodbye performance to her old life that she is now giving up in the name of rebellion.

On this stage of memories, Lacus gives Athrun an ultimatum.

“Did you kill him? What is it that you believe in and fight for? Is it the medal you received? Your father’s orders? If it is, then Kira may once again become your enemy. And so will I. If you’ve declared me an enemy, will you shoot me? Athrun Zala of ZAFT!”

For the first time, she addresses him with a harsh voice and allows him to see the full power of her determination. (Poor guy, he had no idea what he was in for…)

At this point everything has been set in motion and Lacus is fed-up with Athrun’s lukewarm commitment. He is holding her at gunpoint, but the one forcing a decision is Lacus. When Athrun protects her from the ZAFT agents sent to kill her, that proves that Athrun is not acting in blind loyalty to his father - he passes Lacus’ test. Noteworthy is that through this entire exchange, Lacus had gunmen from the Clyne-faction in hiding. If Athrun had actually made a move to hurt her, he would not have left that theater alive. I fully believe that Lacus would have ordered his death if it ensured that he won’t get a second shot at killing Kira - the sword she is pinning all her hopes on. However, she surely had confidence it would not get that far. Her primary intention was to wake Athrun up, not to get rid of him.

With this last personal matter settled, Lacus begins her real work. She has the unique advantage of being an already established ambassador for peace through her idol work (and the association thereof with her father’s politics). This gives her inherent credibility with the populace of the PLANTs - something she is intending to make full use of through guerilla radio broadcasts.

“Coordinators are in no way a different species that evolved from other forms of humans. Even with the reform of marriage regulations, we are unable to build towards our future. How is that an advanced species?”

In her speeches, she takes a stark counterposition to Patrick Zala’s doctrine of Coordinator superiority. Fukuda repeatedly calls Lacus a radical girl - and for her context, she is. After all, she lives in a society legally controlled by eugenics, in which only marriages resulting in childbirth are legally viable. To stand up and publicly declare that the entire premise of the current PLANTs is bullshit… That is bold.

Her rebellion is harshly punished as her father is mercilessly gunned down for association with his daughter - which now leaves Lacus in charge of the whole Clyne faction. Her response to her father’s death is muted. She merely nods in acknowledgement and goes back to organizing her resistance force - the only hint to her true discontent is once again Haro, closing out the scene with an “I won’t accept this!”. We see yet again that Lacus’ public face is always tightly controlled. As a leader she understands that she cannot show weakness or risk hurting the morale of her group.

Through the connections her father established and the loyalty of her own followers, Lacus manages to steal the spaceship Eternal and escape from the PLANTs. Through this, she can reconvene with the Archangel and meet both Kira and Athrun again.

It is here that Lacus allows herself to cry about her father for the very first time. She is a girl who is open with very few people, who does not feel like her position offers her the luxury of being candid with her emotions. It takes being alone with somebody she trusts for her to let go and truly feel.

I am going to be talking about Lacus’ relationship to Kira in more depth when we get to the beginning of Destiny, but for now it will suffice to say that their non-faction-aligned positions make them kindred spirits who rely on each other. They have gotten to know one another fairly well during Kira’s sickbed stay at the Clyne mansion. Kira has met Lacus with an emotional openness that Athrun never showed her, which makes it easier for her to fully respond in kind.

(As an aside, the death of the politician father is a recurring theme in SEED. Lacus once more follows in the footsteps of Flay, as well as Cagalli; with Athrun soon to join them.)

During the battle sequences following the reunion, we see Lacus as a collected and capable commander of her ship. We have already witnessed her incredible calm (not losing her cool when threatened, losing family members, having people shot in front of her,…) and it comes in handy here as well. Notably, Lacus is shown to be a lot more cold and pragmatic than Athrun. Where Athrun is motivated by personal relationships and would risk it all to save their comrades who are lost in the Mendel colony, Lacus immediately declines his plan.

“Even if Kira, Mu and Dearka never return, we must still continue to fight.”

Just like Lacus has accepted the death of her father, she would also accept Kira’s death in the name of a greater cause. As always, her personal feelings take a backseat to being able to fulfill her function and represent her ideology.

“My mother told me something long ago. The world belongs to you and also you belong to the world, as long as you are born and exist in this world.”

This attitude is at least somewhat contextualized by this quote that shows up shortly after. Lacus’ mother is implied to have passed away when she was very young, possibly making this one of Lacus’ core memories of her. “And also you belong to the world,” seems to encompass a lot of Lacus’ attitude towards duty and commitment to peace.

Lacus’ arc in the season closes off with the activation of her SEED mode, as well as the associated speech. I have transcribed it in full here:

“We humans, possibly, could exist without fighting. However, many of us choose to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we must kill to protect our future and ourselves… What sort of future is it? What are we? There is no future for those who have been killed. And what about those who have killed? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with bloodstained hands? Well, is it?”

In The Art and Data of Gundam SEED, this scene is described as follows: “Confronted by so many lives being lost, Lacus’ SEED activates out of grief and sorrow over the endless link between humanity and war.”

However, what I actually want to point out is not what triggers her SEED but how her SEED manifests. Usually SEED mode is shown to enhance piloting skill, but Lacus isn’t a pilot. What she does instead is the one thing she does so well: ask questions. Her power is the unerring dedication to bring into question things that are seen as self-explanatory, to inquire again and again if there truly is good reason for the world to be this way.

It positions her as the perfect antithesis to Rau who views violence as a given and himself as the answer.

In SEED, the series villain is Lacus’ opposite, a clear-cut opposition. It is in Destiny that Lacus really comes under scrutiny with a villain who is far more alike to her in many ways.

But before we can get into discussing Lacus and Durandal, we have to cover the After-Phase Between The Stars short, a five minute special that serves as a bridge between the first and second season, catching us up to what the cast has been up to in the two year time skip.

The set-up for Destiny often comes under scrutiny because fans consider it uncharacteristic for Lacus and Kira to have pulled back from politics rather than take part in managing the peace they helped bring about. I don’t think that is true. Neither Kira nor Lacus wanted to be in a position of authority, nor do they feel like they actually have adequate answers to the complex political problems of the Cosmic Era. During the war they had a clear goal, but the reparations are not nearly as simple.

The two of them are only 16 when the war ends - it’s natural that they would want to back out and leave the rebuilding efforts to qualified adults. For them to move to Orb and live with Malchio so they can heal from the loss they’ve endured is an understandable choice.

And it is not as though Lacus makes this decision out of pure selfishness and thoughtlessness, as After-Phase spells out almost word by word.

Cagalli: “It’s amazing you actually went out onto the battlefield. Doing that suits you well.” Lacus: “Is that right? But even when Kira was crying, he still said he would return. We may still not understand what we should be doing. The world isn’t something that someone creates.”

Lacus is aware that she has amassed a lot of influence over the course of the war, being an idol turned resistance leader whom the people generally rely on. If she were to step up now, people would be sure to place undue importance on her just because of the feelings they project onto their role. That is a power she doesn’t want to use.

Not doing politics at this juncture is her political stance. She feels the world should be shaped by people and not by ideologues making the decisions for them.

Cagalli and Lacus are at different ends of the same problem during Destiny - where Cagalli tries to step up to her position of power and finds the complexities of it quickly overwhelming her, Lacus decides stepping away is what is best for the world and is mistaken in that as well.

Lacus’ decision turns into a major part of Destiny’s conflict - because Lacus is not the only one who sees that her position holds inherent power. Durandal sees it too, and he exploits the vacancy by filling it with his own propaganda version of Lacus. In Meer, Durandal creates the Lacus that Lacus herself doesn’t want to become.

This is where full analysis necessitates a digression to Durandal, who is Lacus’ true counterpart in this season even as Meer takes the role in physical appearance.

Lacus’ mirror being split between Meer (body) and Durandal (mind) is interesting in itself, because it touches on a gendered dimension again. Durandal states that Lacus’ power to influence is greater than his own, but that is not due to who she is as a person. The influence of “Lacus” can only be realized because she is a beautiful young girl. We find ourselves at an intersection of idol culture and propaganda - Lacus as an idol is by-design a ‘pure’ celebrity, someone you can look up to without concerns because they are wholly innocent. That is how idols are produced in the real world as well. Through stepping out of the ‘idol’ space and becoming a resistance leader against an inarguable evil, Lacus has then attained an almost goddess-like reputation. The trust inspired by superficial elements like her beauty and soft voice are conflated with her achievements at the end of the war. She is venerated as the icon of peace, rather than seen as an individual with the capacity for flaws. “Lacus” is a near-abstract concept to the public.

That’s what makes it so easy to abuse - so long as you have another beautiful young girl at the ready who is willing to play into the idea of “Lacus, the beautiful savior”. And boy, does Meer play into it. She takes Lacus’ distanced image and turns it on its head. By delivering fanservice like no tomorrow she plays further into the idea of Lacus as a consumable savior who exists for the sake of the audience, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. A large part of Lacus’ influence is thus divorced from who either she or Meer is as an individual.

However, Meer doesn’t write her own speeches. Durandal controls everything she says. Where Meer mirrors the way Lacus is seen (and not seen) by the public, Durandal is the one we truly need to examine here.

First things first. Durandal is absolutely intended as a Lacus parallel. This is conveyed at a number of points through the season, but the first overt comparison is made when Durandal giving Athrun the Saviour is written and shot in an almost 1:1 recreation of the scene in which Lacus gives Kira the Freedom.

Lacus: “I feel that the strength you’ll need is in this machine.” Durandal: “Should we end up in that situation, I want you to be someone with power.”

Lacus: “Will this take you where you wish to go? Will it help you when you get there?” Durandal: “But what you can do and what you wish to do… These are things that nobody knows better than yourself.”

Even Lacus’ “I am Lacus Clyne, you are Kira Yamato” is echoed in the way Durandal insists on Athrun’s inherent self and nature. The idea of an inherent self, a core of a person, is something that unites Lacus and Durandal. They just take it in very different directions - Lacus’ point of view is a more standard “be true to yourself so you can love yourself and find your true purpose”, while Durandal takes it a big step further and comes out on the other end with “have someone decode exactly What You Are and then adhere to it for the rest of your life instead of ever questioning. This will make you happy”.

Durandal is Lacus taken to the extreme. Every soft line of wishing for a world in which the cycle of war is forever broken is turned into a masterplan and a doctrine.

Further, Durandal and Lacus’ strategies of dealing with people are similar, to the point where we have Athrun explicitly picking up on it. The Lacus-giving-Kira-the-Freedom vs Durandal-giving-Athrun-the-Saviour sequences are completed later in the season when Lacus gives Athrun the Justice. We’ll address this scene ahead of time here because it is more important for establishing the Lacus-Durandal dichotomy than it is for Lacus’ personal growth.

Athrun: “Are you trying to tell me I’m nothing but a soldier?” Lacus: “That too is something for you to decide. Power is nothing more than power. And perhaps you are a soldier, but over and above that… You’re Athrun. That’s all there is to it.”

This exchange a) follows Athrun’s realization that Durandal thinks of him as someone who is destined 0nly to be a soldier and b) is accompanied by Athrun directly flashbacking to his conversation with Durandal, comparing that with what Lacus is saying.

Both of them are in the process of prompting him to pilot a mobile suit they already had manufactured for him. Both of them employ a similar rhetoric of making a plea to his intrinsic self and allowing him a choice. Both of them are successful at making him get into the robot.

Lacus and Durandal differ primarily in two core aspects. For one, Durandal prioritizes the role over the individual. I.e.: ‘Athrun is Athrun and because he is Athrun, he can only ever be a soldier’. For Lacus, the inescapable self is the core of your personality, but what you do with it is up to you. I.e.: ‘Athrun is Athrun and thus he has to make the choice that goes best with his true heart’.

The second difference is how genuine they are. Both Lacus and Durandal understand how to manipulate people, but only Durandal abuses this manipulation constantly and with great intentionality. Lacus generally tries to hold back and only encourage instead of exert control. Durandal will lie, Lacus less so.

But in the end both of them remain as people dedicated to their ideal of peace, who employ a soft surface personality in order to make others let their guard down.

Destiny is a season about deconstructing Lacus The Idol. Durandal zeroes in on Lacus not simply because of who she is but because of the ideals she’s grown to represent, the thing she was marketed as from the start, everything that was projected onto her. Lacus The Idol is a construct, an ideal, a wish. Durandal is trying to turn his interpretation of that wish into reality. Lacus The Person is nothing but a roadblock to him.

Though Lacus does not have as many scenes in Destiny as she does in SEED, she is even more crucial to the framework of the story this time. This also means that what few scenes she does get tend to really matter for fleshing out her character.

Her journey begins when Durandal’s failed assassination attempt causes Kira to once again become a Gundam pilot. Lacus is incredibly hesitant about this, but Kira reassures her that he’s fine and doing this out of his own will.

And with that it is finally time to dive into Lacus and Kira’s relationship properly.

Let’s preface this with a Fukuda quote from The Art and Data of Gundam SEED: “Their hearts are connected, but they aren’t like lovers. In a sense, they’ve skipped over that step and become something more like family. Kira is afraid of losing Lacus, because of his trauma with Flay. And Lacus feels guilty for making Kira do something he didn’t want to do, so she feels indebted to him. Psychologically speaking, the two of them are in a rather precarious codependent relationship.”

If the dynamic between Lacus and Kira reads as awkward, it’s because it should. In the beginning of Destiny, Kira is portrayed as traumatized by his encounter with Rau, which he has several flashbacks to. Lacus is the one accompanying him through his recovery, but she is also extremely aware that she is the one who gave him the weapon to fight Rau, that she is the one who is responsible for Kira entering the war again.

Lacus needs Kira to fight and enables Kira to fight, but she knows this is a horrible thing to do to somebody. And she can’t apologize for it, because if necessary she would do it to him again. That is the kind of pragmatist she is. Her feelings towards Kira remain as “I am fully aware that I intentionally put you in this situation, both materially and emotionally, and I know that I can never make it up to you”. How deeply and sincerely sorry she nevertheless is ties her to Kira more than anything else in the world. She cannot make it up to him, but she will spend a lifetime trying. Her feelings of guilt are on full display several times throughout Destiny.

Kira meanwhile projects Flay onto Lacus. His failure to protect Flay translates into an obsessive need to protect Lacus instead. Flay shapes every aspect of how Kira interacts with Lacus, how he can interact with Lacus. No doubt the topic of sexuality is also deeply tainted by his highly charged experiences with Flay.

Lacus does have some romantic feelings for Kira, seen in her blush when she kisses his cheek after giving him the Freedom or in the way she cares about his opinion when she is trying on a variety of outfits during Destiny. But she also seems respectful of the fact that Kira cannot truly reciprocate. (He also absolutely fails at having any opinions about Lacus in different clothes - it is bittersweet to see that short attempt at acting like a proper couple fail so miserably.)

The most romantic affection we see between the two of them are kisses on the cheek and I think it’s fairly safe to say that that is all there ever is.

Lacus and Kira cling to one another, silently asking for a forgiveness they can never be granted. They are nominally a couple, but the reality is simply that much more complex. They are family, they help each other heal, they make each other sad, and they absolutely cannot be apart.

The ghost of Flay hangs over them both in-character and narratively. Lacus has become the reluctant wielder of the sword that is Kira Yamato, the sword Flay helped forge. In turn, Lacus assumes Flay’s position in Kira’s mind; as the driving force, the one giving him direction, the woman to be protected.

Returning to the plot of Destiny, Lacus is now on the run with the Archangel, forced to watch as Meer assumes her identity. Fans generally seem to think she doesn't mind this, but that’s not really true. Lacus is just never vocal about her feelings.

Rie Tanaka’s line read in this scene of everyone watching Meer’s concert is absolutely superb - Lacus sounds deeply sarcastic. The Art and Data of Gundam SEED just confirms this when describing Lacus as “with a smile on her face, but daggers in her eyes.”

Lacus is deeply bothered by what is being done in her name and to her image, but currently neither has the means nor the strategy to combat it. She’s in hiding because she is under active threat of assassination and also because they just don’t really know what is going on.

The latter is of particular importance, because Lacus’ MO remains as it always was: she wants to know as much as she can about a conflict before acting. This principle is actually spelled out in her bath scene with Cagalli.

“First… decide. And then do it. It’s the only way to achieve anything.”

What seems simple nevertheless delivers a good glimpse into her interiority, especially thanks to the inclusion of a flashback to her father’s death. “Guilt” is a core theme for Lacus this season. Destiny presents a Lacus who is fully aware of the tragic consequences of her actions, a Lacus who carries that sadness permanently.

“It’s the only way to achieve anything,” is what she says, but she also means: “If you allow yourself regret, if you allow yourself to contemplate all the different paths you could have taken, you will surely be crushed by it.”

Lacus' philosophy is founded on standing firm in her decisions. She cannot allow herself to be immobilized by regret.

And that is another part of why Lacus takes so long to act. She observes situations very carefully until she is completely certain of the route she wants to take - of the route that will leave her with the least regrets.

Her unwillingness to act unless certain is Lacus' greatest strength and greatest weakness in one.

Thus Lacus soon admits that she does not know the best course of action. She then decides to act on her principles and go look at the situation on the PLANTs for herself. It’s a mirror of the viewing deck scene Lacus and Kira share at the very beginning of SEED. That encounter ended with Kira smuggling Lacus out of the ship, this one ends with her leaving by her own choice.

Though Kira worries about Lacus, she calms him down by quoting back his own reassurance when he first stepped back into the Gundam. This puts a nice emphasis on the mutuality of their relationship. Just as Lacus understands that Kira does not wish to be a pilot, Kira understands that Lacus longs to live a regular life far away from political importance. They both want nothing more for each other than a peaceful situation in which they can escape that which burdens them.

Lacus’ plan for going back into space is to impersonate Meer and steal her shuttle, a nice bit of vindictiveness on her part. There is a fun little audio drama in which she pretends to be worried people appreciate Meer more than her, tricking Waldfelt into helping her learn Meer’s dance routine. In truth, that was preparation for this exact plan. It goes to demonstrate that Lacus not showing her full cards and instead acting out the carefree girl she would like to be is a constant habit for her.

Thus Lacus sets out for the PLANTs, investigates Mendel colony, and finds out that Durandal is on the fast lane to upgrading society to Eugenics+. Interesting here is the revelation that Lacus has kept the Eternal in hiding this entire time and maintained a crew. Though she was hoping that the world would straighten itself out, she clearly never ever abandoned her backup plans for the worst case scenario. She is cautious in every sense of the word.

Meanwhile Durandal is rapidly trying to unify all of mankind under his leadership, attacking the independent Orb under pretenses of only desiring to root out Logos. So Lacus decides she has seen and heard enough. She needs to reveal herself before it is too late.

“I ask the world, please do not get caught up in the trap of his words, telling you that no one else is at fault. We must gain a deeper understanding of Chairman Durandal’s true objective.”

Even though Logos is undoubtedly a powerful evil within the Destiny universe, Lacus calls out the faults of conspiracy thinking and encourages people to question the motives of anyone who offers a solution that is too easy and too clean. It’s Destiny’s clumsy attempt of exploring the thin line between calling out harmful power structures vs simplifying reality in order to create a unified enemy.

It is also interesting because Lacus’ plea for everyone to think for themselves and question the absolutes presented to them is at odds with what a large portion of the public wants from her. They would like for Lacus The Idol to guide them - which is exactly why Meer was so effective as a propaganda stunt. The nature of Lacus’ social power is by default opposed to the change she actually wants to effect in the world.

This then brings us straight to Lacus’ actual confrontation with Meer.

Meer lays a trap relying on Lacus’ goodness and dedication to helping those in need. Ignoring the trap would prove Lacus a hypocrite, but Lacus is not the type anyway. She walks into the trap with open eyes - and offers Meer a sincere chance to be saved.

That’s the thing about Lacus and Meer: Lacus hates that the identity theft is happening, but she does not consider Meer to be the main perpetrator. Rather, Meer is also a victim. Lacus’ speech to her demonstrates this well and also says a lot about Lacus, so I’ll be copying it down in full:

”If it’s my name you want, you may have it. And my appearance. You and I will still be different people. That will never change. None of us can be anything other than ourselves. But that’s why you and I exist and stand here before each other, right? That’s why we have encounters, right? With one another and also ourselves. Your dreams belong to you. So please sing your dreams for your own sake. You mustn’t let others use your dreams for their benefit.”

Lacus looks at Meer and she feels sad as well as responsible. Meer was coerced to throw her own life away in the name of Lacus The Idol. Lacus feels that what happened to Meer could only happen because she exists. She sees a girl trying to become a version of her that Lacus herself feels is a burden, and she can’t help but be sad for the consequences of her existence.

I said before that “guilt” is a big theme for Lacus in Destiny, and here it appears in its more misguided form, taking more onto her shoulders than is actually warranted. One might argue it is a form of arrogance in its own way.

However, Meer and Lacus never get to resolve this. Meer steals Lacus’ place one final time, taking a bullet meant for her and dying in her stead. The sense of guilt is thus solidified and will remain with Lacus for the rest of her life.

Lacus’ tears for Meer are the most intense expression of grief we see from Lacus in the whole series and I think it is fitting.

Meer was a girl who spent much of her life wondering about Lacus, wishing she could know about the elusive stranger behind the idol. Now Meer is the one who is an eternal stranger and Lacus is left wishing she could hold onto more of her than just the diary and the idol work she left behind.

To Lacus, Meer is a girl who destroyed herself out of admiration for her. A girl who was consumed because Lacus’ inaction let it happen. Lacus’ philosophy might be largely pacifist, but it is not and has not ever been victimless.

And that is what really makes Lacus’ character to me: this awareness that even her best bet at a ‘correct’ decision is not the bloodless path, cannot be the bloodless path. Adhering to her morals still costs lives and Lacus tries to confront that dilemma, carrying her grief close to her heart.

Lacus’ speech to Meer conveys what Lacus thinks of life, touching both on her core similarity to Durandal (the idea of a ‘true self’) as well as the most major difference: Lacus believes striving for dreams to be the inherent value of human existence, even if it causes pain. Just as her decisions are worth making, even if they result in loss.

“All lives are meant to fight for a desired future,” is the bottom line Lacus arrived at by the end of Destiny. The right to struggle towards your dreams is worth fighting for, the contradiction of mankind is lamentable but ultimately to be protected.

And after the war ends, Lacus has internalized the responsibility she feels for what Durandal wrought. Though she does not want to hold political power, though she wishes she could simply play in her garden for the rest of her life, she realizes now that even her absence can be instrumentalized for harm. By the end of Destiny, Lacus has been locked into her very own bad ending, the exact thing she tried to avoid.

She closes the season where Cagalli begins it, stepping up to the inherent responsibility of having power. It is an intriguing place to leave her. It will require her to step out of the idol image that she has acquired, and to make decisions before she is ready to make them. Both the public and Lacus herself will have to reckon with Lacus’ fallible nature as an individual. The ethereal image of Lacus as the beacon of morality might well be crushed under the weight of Chairwoman Clyne.

Lacus is a reluctant mastermind. A girl with great talent for affecting others, always wishing for a world in which she does not have to use that talent.

Now she is following in the footsteps of a man who was a manifest representation of what a well-intentioned villain she herself could easily become - and she can only hope she’ll make decisions that she can stand by, just as she always has.

#gundam seed #gundam seed destiny #lacus clyne #this is such a fascinating deep dive on Lacus #I feel like I’ve grasped bits and pieces of her character but seeing it all laid out like this #makes it much easier to see the full picture #also does make some of seed freedom’s writing of her a bit ooc #namely her crying over Kira in front of Orphee #but her guilt over being the reason Kira has to fight and keep fighting is on full display early on #and part of why/how Foundation gets her is by pushing her into action when she would normally gather information #it’s actually kind of funny because for all that Fukuda says they don’t know who wrote what #you can kind of tell anyway by character actions lol

286 notes · View notes

carnelianwings · 3 months ago

Text

Went to BCS Sacramento, did well on Day 1 (by my standards), and shockingly well on Day 2.

Tucking the rest behind the cut, I’m going to assume my opponents (especially from Day 2) aren’t here (because whoooooo boy I was seeing salt on Twitter due to how I got the wins - totally legal by the rules, it was just 95% luck 😅)

Day 1 was Standard, which is the usual format I play the most of these days (since we usually have enough for shop tournament), so with 435 people I just hoped for “going positive” and calling it a day. Which I did, with a 4-3 result on Lianorn. Highlights included hitting the full combo with the insane double Rosarium Fairy + Luster Impact + Magnolia Order, set up via Vivace Persona > Gun Cycler RC skill > Broccolly on place > draw into second Fairy. Also completely broke a Luticia player on Round 7 when they did Luticia Persona restand … when I had an absolutely massive hand to defend it all.

Day 2 though …

First opponent was clearly me just getting paired well over my head against a previous BCS Champion and Worlds player, so literally “Oh shit I just got paired into this absolute tryhard, one of the best players in the game, and all I can do is pray I built this Narukami deck well enough and to the luck gods I will see what I need to win.” I knew this because you can set banners for your BushiNavi profile, and this guy had the Worlds 2023 participant banner so basically I had a “… oh fuck I just got Round 1 paired into someone who’s the equivalent of a Top 100 player in Vanguard Zero”-moment.

But the funny thing about that situation is I’ve had that happen to me in Vanguard Zero before not once, but more like a dozen times, especially when I was grinding for a rank reward alt art I really liked (Starcall Trumpeter, Thing Saver, Percival, Altmile, and Blaster Blade Exceed seasons all come to mind) so I was like “Wait. I’ve done this before. And I’ve won before when it happened, by staying calm, remembering my plays, and having a bit of luck on my side. I can do this.”

So I did that. And oh boy did the luck come through - I take first, find my G3s for the Zorras History Collection Stride, boom, third check, Dragveda comes through. Push to 4, force out some PGs, double triple drive gives me the cards I need to survive the clap back, opponent leaves a G2 with Resist on the board (hoping to stop V-Chou-Oh restand). Reride Sweep Command, take my 3rd Accel II circle, throw down Meteor Flare to kill the Resist, retire it, Stride Exterminate for 6 attacks at +20k to front row for game.

Round 2 I lose to Granblue - that was a brickfest on my part, went 2nd, had to G Assist Turn 1 for a G1, couldn’t find a single Vanquisher for the Stunverse-Zorras double Stride play, ran out of Soul because I couldn’t find a reride, couldn’t do Exterminate or even just Stunverse. Which I freely accepted - it’s a risk I was taking by running only 8 G1 units in that deck, 1 of which is a 1-of Honoly.

Round 3, I somehow get paired into another more experienced player - I knew this, because this guy shows up, all business, zero small talk, no playmat, just sits down and sets up, 100% methodically. All he says before we start is “Yeah this deck has some ratio issues”, and all I say is “Yeah, mine does too” followed by a “good luck” right before we start the match (I consider it common courtesy just from my old chess club days). Turns out it’s Dimension Police, probably Dailiner, and I’m like sweating. Deck does 2 and only 2 things: make huge-ass Vanguard columns, and Sentinel crush. I’m Narukami. I can get the big hand, but I’m not necessarily built for dealing with that kind of offensive output. But I’m spared - opponent mega-bricks on Turn 1, rides the 6k Commander Laurel for G1, fails G-Assist on G2, gets wrecked by my Zorras Stride on Turn 3, he finds a G2 and Rides up but by that point it’s too late. Second Stride Exterminate, opponent defends with the -2 crit off a heal guard … except I drive check crit (goes to Esperaridea, I almost always throw it on him), blank, and … Dragveda. At which point it was game over because I throw power to Esperaridea, restand Exterminate, attack again for another triple drive. (Actually funny that round because my opponent was like “Wait Esperaridea restand is 1/Turn?” and I confirm it is, but on the inside I’m like “… it’s heavily used in Standard in Shiranui and basically in every P-Narukami deck but you didn’t know that while being this tryhard about this game?”)

Round 4 I get demolished by Bermuda Highlander … which I kind of expected to happen because while I get a lot of practice into it, I have a hard time building enough hand fast enough to deal with all the multi-attacks but at least I did kind of make my opponent work for it.

Round 5 I get matched against this mega salty (disrespectful) guy who just kept complaining about how he was stuck down here (X-2 bracket at this point) while his friends were at the tables higher up than him, wouldn’t stop complaining about it, and was like “I didn’t bring a Standard deck with me for side events so I can’t drop”. Then has the gall to say, after I defensive 6th damage OT (Dragveda bless you thank you for saving my ass) he was all “unless I see defensive OT I’m dead this turn, so I may as well flip the top card over and see” as I’m getting ready to discard for Exterminate Stride and I tell him he can if he wants to but we can’t continue after if he does. He flips heal, followed by OT, flips them both back over and says “let’s play it out” and I refuse (was about to call a judge on this guy too).

This is why I refuse to give up until 6th damage hits damage zone, because had he flipped heal-OT I would’ve lost on the following turn (I just didn’t have the hand for it). I’ve also pulled heal-OT (or vice versa) at locals twice before (hilariously against the same player both times - he still remembers it 😂) so I know while it’s unlikely it’s possible, especially with a deck that can compress (like Granblue).

Round 6, I got the default win after my opponent no showed (I got confirmation my opponent dropped after pairings went up, so I can only assume my opponent was friends with someone else I’d played earlier that day and knew they were getting paired into a very lucky Narukami player and didn’t want to play it out).

Round 7 was actually the most back and forth match I had all day, Chaos-Messiah, actually went “… oh shit” internally after I won dice roll and chose first. Opponent survived double Exterminate, went into Integral Messiah to force me to shuffle hand back into deck (hilariously enough I think that ended up helping me in the long run), but passed turn on a board. I’d managed to get a Stride crit back into hand off the draw 5 (along with 2 heal guards and Dragveda), so I Stunversed him to recover some hand. Survived the next turn (Dragveda saved my ass again as a 50k shield), went into V Max despite having only 1 CB for game despite having GB8 already at the start of the turn - I didn’t want to go into GB8 because that would’ve meant Binding both of my Esperarideas on the board (and they’d been putting in work forcing my opponent to guard and giving me 5 attacks/turn). I had to scramble all of my knowledge from playing against our Chaos Breaker main at locals (a match up I’m 0-2 against, because I kept decking out against it) to keep up with my opponent, and in the end he decked himself out when I managed to land a hit when he had just 2 cards left in deck. Most stressful game all day, and my opponent making me shuffle back my encyclopedia of a hand with Integral Messiah actually made it so I’d have more cards than him in deck.

Then I learned X-2 had a shot at Top 16 and I was like “Uhhhh what????” but I ended up bubbling out on tie breakers and didn’t make it - not that it mattered because, uhhhh holy shit??????? 5-2 at my first solo tournament??? When the last time I played this deck I had a personal 2-5 for BSF Ontario TriReg??? At the format that has the highest burden of knowledge for card interactions and pool?????? And all I had to go off of was just … whatever I remembered from the anime, from playing Vanguard Zero (which changed some card effects) and whatever I got to see at my very small locals???

Also my favorite “spice tech from Standard” Meteor Flare keeps coming up - the +10k for no opponent rear guards comes up absurdly often (most people just try to clear board to avoid letting me bind their stuff) and the Continuous ability deny actually came up today. I’d originally put it in when Bushi changed how Resist worked, so I teched in 2 copies just so I could shut off Resist because it’s typically a Continuous ability the rear guard grants itself.

All in all, a rather fun experience, made a new friend, said we’d meet up again at Pasadena. Said friend was like “Damn you’ve inspired me to play Premium now” when he learned this was my first solo tournament after doing BSF Ontario with 2 others from my locals. Also actually felt validated in that deck choice and that “Yeah, I really can do this as a player making the jump from Vanguard Zero to physical TCG and the skills I learned from Zero are still relevant and valuable.”

Also as for winning off OT not once, but twice? It’s a card in the game that you can only run one of, if you see it great, if you don’t, well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I do find it kind of amusing both times it was against a Star/Brandt Gate deck, because I know if it had been the other way around they would’ve been like “Welp sucks to be you” because Eldobreath is just as good as Dragveda for how easily it can just win you the game right then and there, and is largely considered to be one of the two best OTs in the game (the other being, of course, Dragveda). Card games in general, whether it’s a TCG like Vanguard or a regular card game like poker or blackjack, have always had an element of chance involved, and part of that has always been risk assessment. If I have the means to guard a Vanguard drive check and I choose not to, I (personally) accept that if the consequence is my opponent sees their “I Win” button, and I lose because they flipped it, then the fault lies not with my opponent, but myself. And that, in my opinion, is a skill, and I think it’s a skill lot of people don’t realize is a part of the game.

#Anzu says a thing #did I get lucky day 2? oh hell yes I did #I won’t deny that #but being able to assess risk and plan accordingly is a part of it #and sometimes it just does come down to dumb luck in not seeing the right cards #also funny because I hadn’t expected to be able to get that close to top cut #so I didn’t redo my over sleeves #so they were a bit scratched up from all the shuffling #legit felt like my deck knew I was going to retire it to fun deck status after this #and just said okay we go hard today with the drive checks

1 note · View note

carnelianwings · 3 months ago

Text

Since @orchids-skyflame asked me over on Twitter which version of the AsuCaga kiss in Seed I prefer more, I figured I'd just write the Massive Wall of Text here, because the post I was writing in Notes on my phone was getting crazy long, to the point where I'm pretty sure it's more than 4 screen shots.

As a refresher, this is a(n unsubbed) clip someone posted of the original version off of the original DVD release of Seed, and this is the same scene, but from the remaster. The dialogue for both versions is the same, but it's the animation that's different, and I think it leads to some changes in how the scene comes across, and I think it's worth discussing.

But if you're not here for a Massive Wall of Text (that will include discussion of AsuCaga into Seed Destiny and Seed Freedom) and just want the short version, the answer is the original, even if AsuCaga kissing with the Earth in the background makes for a very pretty and romantic picture.

(Long answer behind the cut, in writing about this scene I kind of just ran off on an entire tangent about them so, uhhh, take it as you will? XD)

The biggest difference between the two versions is what Athrun does is the opposite - in the original, he pulls Cagalli into his arms before telling her he's glad they met, whereas the remaster has him moving towards her and surprising/flustering her with the hug. And watching both back to back, I realized I came away with two very different sets of feelings from each version.

In the remaster, with Athrun going to Cagalli and hugging her, it puts a greater emphasis on his vow to protect her. He's moving towards her, to cover and shield her, and with the Earth behind both of them as they're kissing, it's putting this idea that Athrun is going into this final battle to protect Cagalli and the Earth. And while that does align with his character and nature as a protector first and foremost, it doesn't match his mindset at that time, and it's something that I think the original scene does a better job of.

With the original, there's a vulnerability to Athrun's body language pulling Cagalli towards him that mirrors his mental/emotional vulnerability in that moment - he has to open his arms (thus metaphorically opening himself up) to pull her in and hold her close. Up until the moment he was shot by his father, he'd believed that his own life had value and meaning to his father, that he was more than a tool, that he was doing something meaningful by fighting to protect PLANT in the service of its military. That his father, like him, was fighting to prevent another Bloody Valentine, and if Athrun had to sacrifice himself in the process, so be it. But GENESIS changed all of that, and it made Athrun realize his father was so lost in his anger and need for revenge that he could no longer see reason, let alone stop and listen to his last remaining family, his own son (who arguably, as a father, Patrick would be hoping to create a better future for) reach out to him to say "Hey, maybe killing all the Naturals isn't the answer here".

And in the process, Athrun's left adrift, separated by his father due to the massive difference in their ideals - despite having a new cause to fight for, it still doesn't help him deal with his inner turmoil in finding he no longer believes in the cause he risked his life for, and, by extension, his connection to his father. What hope is there for him, then, if he can't even talk his own father down from believing and spreading the idea that genocide is the answer? He hasn't given much thought to what comes after - after all, why should he if there's no reason he'd live to see tomorrow - but at the very least in joining the Clyne Faction and the Three Ships Alliance he can protect the people he cares about and stop both sides from destroying each other in an all-out war of mutual destruction.

So here he is, getting ready to sortie into what's shaping up to be the final battle, and he's ready to sacrifice himself here if it means he can stop his father from ending all life on Earth as they know it (and simultaneously make up for it). And here comes Cagalli, telling him she's going out there this time too, because she "doesn't want him to die". And it's not even a general "I don't want more people to die (because I've had enough people I care about die)", it's a very specific "I'm going out there, to make sure you don't die ... and to make sure Kira, who's maybe my little brother (read: my last surviving blood family member) doesn't die either", with an unspoken "because both of you are so important to me I'm willing to risk my life to make sure both of you come back from this battle alive" attached to it.

And Athrun's surprised, because this entire time, he's been told "You're a soldier, if you die fighting to protect PLANT, if you die in battle carrying out your duty as a soldier, your sacrifice will be worth it to make sure PLANT stays safe for another day, so it's okay to throw your life away for this." And it's Cagalli who's reminding him (again) that here's someone who sees value in him continuing to live, someone who desperately wants him to keep living, because she genuinely and sincerely cares about and loves him as an individual, at least as much, if not arguably more than her last surviving family member. And in him pulling her into his arms, it's like he's taking those feelings and accepting and cherishing them, holding them close to him - his heart, really - because in doing so, she gave him a purpose and meaning and something to live for at a time when he felt like he had nothing.

And this sets the stage for the later scene inside GENESIS' reactor room, where she tells him it's a bigger battle to keep living instead of sacrificing himself there like that (so won't he take her hand, her offer of salvation, by hopping in the Rouge with her so they can escape together). And I'm sure it's here that he's decided (if he hadn't before when he kissed her) that he'd live (and die) for her, because more than any other person in his life, she's the one person who most consistently tells him to live, and to keep living no matter what, because he's as important to her as what's left of her family.

And it also feeds into his desperation in Seed Destiny - he really didn't want to go back to ZAFT, but as Alex Dino he had no power, and power is what he needed because between Cagalli's arranged marriage to Yuna and the world spiraling into war again, he felt powerless to stop anything and again, lost his sense of purpose. But at the same time, Cagalli did too, and it's not until the end, when she's sending off the Archangel and they, again, hold each other before a final battle, that there's this wordless exchange. They're both building a better future that has a place for both of them to be together, side by side. And like before, it's him initiating the hug by taking her into his arms, but this time it's the opposite; this time it's him saying "I know you're no longer wearing my ring, but it's okay, we don't need to rush, I still cherish and love you despite everything that's happened." And her hugging him back despite her initial hesitation (because she's the one who took the ring off in the first place as to say she's breaking up with him) is her response - even if she has to (publicly) let him go for now, he's still important to her, she still holds onto him in her heart as tightly as he holds her in his.

So is it any surprise, then, when the chips are (arguably) down, it's Cagalli that Athrun thinks of? That she is his mental (and emotional) shield, to the point that she's enough to turn the tide of the duel in his favor? That despite saying upon their first meeting that he'd kill anyone who tries to steal the Aegis from him, he willingly cedes control of both the Amazing Z'Gok and the Infinite Justice Type II to Cagalli, a less skilled pilot, for her to control them remotely? And when he finally taps into his inner strength to decisively win the duel, it's her colors that come bursting out of his Seed break animation as he's telling Shura that true strength isn't in combat prowess but the will to live (something that Cagalli's taught and reminded Athrun of time and time again)?

On the flip side, the remaster mostly has Cagalli present as a passive participant in the scene - Athrun surprises her with the hug, he's the one who makes the move to kiss her and it's not until near the end as the camera pans back that she kisses him back. It's set up to emphasize Athrun's half of the promise. The original still has her surprised by the hug, but the kiss? That was mutual. She meets him in the middle, and it makes her an active participant in that scene, on par with her Action Girl status up until that point. And it puts her on equal importance, that her vow of protection - despite being the less skilled pilot out of the two of them - is just as important as his, that to Athrun, her determination and desire to protect him is equal to his determination and desire to protect her.

And that desire is what drives her to keep trying her hand at diplomacy and politics even when she's (quite frankly) terrible at it in the beginning of Seed Destiny, because she's been out-maneuvered by people who don't agree with her world view that Naturals and Coordinators can live in harmony (because what they don't realize is that "Alex Dino" is as much her strength as she is his). And in the end, when she ultimately starts getting results (in large part thanks to Durandal conveniently killing off the Seirans and their political allies), it's in service of creating an Orb where Athrun also has a place next to her, not in disguise, but out in the open as himself.

And it's a real pity that Seed Freedom doesn't give Cagalli the opportunity to tap into her Seed mode, because despite the time they spend (physically) apart he's as much a part of her life as she is a part of his, and it would've been nice to have seen it represented on screen with his colors bursting out of her Seed break animation.

So all in all, I like the original version better, because I think it ties better into their future relationship and reflects their situations better.

#gundam seed #gundam seed destiny #gundam seed freedom #athrun zala #cagalli yula athha #asucaga #there's no such thing as “keeping it short” when it's asucaga #i have *so* many thoughts and feelings about them #they are so important to each other even if they can't be together Right Now (even if they both want to be together)

14 notes · View notes