Why Gundam Seed Destiny’s Morally Ambiguous Ending WORKS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- Gundam Seed Destiny irony… Video essay irony.. I’ve rewatched the anime over 9-10 times… I just wanted to get my opinions out there regarding an overheated anime that unironically holds a special place in my heart.
Tags: #gundam #gundamseeddestiny #gundamseed #irony #animeirony #anime #animeedit #animeedits #shinnasuka #kirayamato #manga #videoessay
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It’s all about freedom ☝️
real
Rau says "what is hope? is it that your dreams will all come true?"
durandal believes that life will be better if we all have a pre destined future.
but, aren't dreams "dreams" because we want them to be dreams?
dreams are what we want to do.
however, the destiny plan is not what "we want to do", is what we are "suited to do", do we all really want to do what we are only suited to do?
in episode 29, in the conversation that durandal is having with himself, durandal wonders why is lacus with kira, if she was supposed to marry athrun
this is important, because, what made durandal and gladys break up?
coordinators have low fertility, so some people have a higher chance to have children with some people, in comparison to others, durandal and gladys either have a low chance or have none to get children, and gladys wants a child, the "genes" decided that durandal and gladys shouldn't marry.
Lacus best pairing is athrun, however, lacus is with kira, not with athrun, why is it that lacus can be happy even if she's not doing what is "best suited to her"?
that's because there's more to dreams that only what you are suited to do, the interest someone gets on something, varies within each person, the feelings of "I want to do this", those are dreams.
but when you do only what you are suited to do...do you do it because you are interested in that something, or do you do it because you know you won't fail at it?
let's say, the destiny plan gives you the list of jobs your genes are suitable to do.
what happens if none of them interest you?
if you follow them, you won't have trouble in life, but, do you really enjoy doing this?
are you really interested in doing them? is there passion on it?
considering that the jobs you have were given to you in a list by someone else, then you didn't got interested in the job itself, you got interested in what you can do with it.
there's a chance that someone will actually get passionate with their assigned job, but, the truth of the matter, is that getting "dreams" this way is nowhere near to actually gaining interest in something.
and that means, that durandal's jobs aren't dreams.
if there are no dreams in your world, then there's no hope.
talking again about durandal and gladys, it wasn't exactly their "genes" that didn't allowed durandal to get their gladys, it was only that gladys dreams were different, that means that durandal could have gotten someone else, even if they couldn't have children, if that "someone else" didn't cared for that, durandal could have been happy, instead, he can't never forget that he couldn't be with gladys, and lives in pain because of that.
durandal wishes to counter rau's hopeless views, but without knowing it, he's creating a hopeless world. Because durandal wonders if we humans are even capable of making choices, durandal wonders if we are all chained by something that decides wether our dreams will ever come true. He desires to find what is that, and in doing so, he kills dreams.
that said, I believe that there's a character that fundamentally completely breaks all of durandal's ideology.
and, poetically, that's rey.
but what's rey's problematic?
rey has the exact same genes that rau has, so, after rau dies, durandal tells to rey that he's also rau, following the genes ideology that genes dictate your life.
but what is rau?
rau is complete nihilism.
episode 29 has rau saying "people like you walk your paths, believing that there's something you desire awaiting you. I walk the path to confirm that there's nothing"
this line is insanely important for rey's character.
if genes dictate what you are, an rau has confirmed that his destiny is literally nothing, that means that rey also has nothing, both are completely chained by their condition of being clones, so by the destiny plan's idea, none of them will have anything. Rey fights knowing this, thinking he's an abomination that won't be able to do anything important for himself, that's why he even has faith in that shinn will protect durandal, because he considers that he has no future as anything. He thinks that if he's an abomination, that he will at least use what he has to make a better world.
however, this is what breaks the destiny plan: Rau and Rey are completely different people.
Rau is completely broken because he has seen so much that he hates everything.
But Rey hasn't, rey doesn't wants humanity to extinguish, and he loves durandal as much as if he was his real parent, the difference between rau and rey, is that rey has connections, he can care for people. He has friends, even when Rey manipulated shinn, Rey cared for shinn, he sympathyzed with his vision on ORB, and he even checked when shinn was having a nightmare, he even helps him to make stella escape, knowing that it won't do any good for shinn, because rey is kind, the show also shows rey enjoying the piano. This all means that despite having he same genes as rau, both of them are completely different people, Rey actually had something that could have given him a happy life.
and that's eventually why rey shoots durandal, in kira's world, where there's hope, and where kira is, as he says, "just another ordinary human", rey has something.
in durandal world, rey has nothing.
so then, rey finally does what "Rey Za Burrel" truly desires. a world where he can be something.
and so, he spend his final moments with gil, which is the most important person to him.
I couldn’t have said it better myself my friend. It’s funny that I was also rewatching episode 29-Fates earlier this week for additional content and clips to use in a video. Despite being a recap episode, it actually says a lot about the relationship Durandal has with Rau. It’s true that Durandal had a failed relationship with Talia because she wanted a child which indirectly plays into his need to change the course of fate. Durandal himself like a lot of people is a dreamer. He wants to change the course of fate by making his own ideal world, while Rau is a realist. Rau knows that there’s somethings in this world that cannot be changed and must remain it’s fundamental values. One of these fundamental values mentioned is the concept of time. Rau explains in this episode is that instead of using our time thinking about the other path not chosen, we should just move on with life itself, for the path not chosen never existed. All we can do is move forward with every passing second. Time does not stop for anyone, even if we are sad or going through tough times all we can do is just keep moving forward despite all the pain inside us. Durandal of course can’t see this and wants to force change on everyone with his Destiny Plan. Durandal is very much like Char from CCA(same VA making it even more funny). It is a result of immaturity that causes their mistakes in the solutions they see for the world.
To keep it short, one of the many themes of SEED DESTINY is how we deal with the haunting past of our lives. Time and time again, it is shown in the anime that the events of the past from SEED repeats itself over and over again. But how do we remedy this problem? Durandal is in a way stuck in the past, he uses the past conflict and flawed world to justify his actions. He dreams of a world where there is no strife and greed by controlling everyone’s fate and condemning them to live in a bubble. A bubble where you are safe, with no worries, harm, or even struggles in your way. But it is his immaturity in thinking that humanity cannot change is what causes him to think like this. He believes that humans can’t change so therefore they must be kept in a dictatorship-like society so that their roles can be fulfilled. In a way Durandal wants everyone to be of benefit to the world as in the people are not living for themselves but for the sake of the world and it’s betterment (if that makes any sense, it’s a little hard to word it 😅)
Yea I also see what you mean about dreams. I think that we all have the same dreams. Now the word varies from one person to another but what’s certain is that dreams take a lifetime to prepare. We all have different careers or goals but what is certain is that our dreams will all bring us happiness and success. In a way, we are all the same or atleast have something to relate to each other about since we all want to be happy. Now Durandal sees this and wants everyone to understand each other too fast. He knows that despite all of humans being different, we all have the same dreams despite the fact that we don’t realize it yet. He wants everyone to realize their potential and goals so that they can be of use in the betterment of the world instead of letting its people find out themselves.
Durandal is forcing change too fast onto people without the patience of letting humanity guide itself through its mistakes. Very much like Char from CCA when he wanted to commit mass genocide. (I will cover more on this on a future video I’m planning)
Another main theme of SEED DESTINY is the ability to choose the future we wish to craft. Many fans till this day believe Durandal is correct while others say the other. There’s really no right or wrong answer to who is right or wrong. In the end all that matters is the results from the path we choose.
Yea I agree, Rey really isn’t like Rau at all. I noticed it and paid more attention on my 3rd-5th rewatch years ago or something that Rey is a nice guy. He’s not a psychopath like his brother Rau. Rey has people that care for him. If I remember correctly, even in some of the manga adaptation, Shinn and Lunamaria pleaded for Rey to live in the final battle instead of going alone to the Messiah in which Rey simply smiles and tells his friends to live on. Speaking of seeing Durandal as his parent, it was confirmed in an interview with Fukuda that in the end, Talia and Durandal were playing the role of parents to the young Rey.
I really enjoyed reading this comment, I could tell you are passionate as well on the anime with how specific your examples were of when Rey was being kind to Shinn. I can even picture the details in my head right away with the description provided lol. The fact that fans like us are still talking about the Destiny Plan and the ending of SEED DESTINY shows that it has aged quite well.
Another aspect of this ending that i like is that Seed's ending had unambiguous morals. It was literally guy want to destroy world so stop him. So the writers gave us something very different for the sequel.
Yup. And they took it one step further by expanding upon it in the Seed Freedom movie.
Gundam in its entirity has one simple lesson, "True can only be achieved through understanding".
Thats the one point that SEED Destiny, espesially Kira fails at
Not only Kira but to a certain extent Shinn and Athrun too. Shinn in the og airing of the anime never really grew much although he somewhat was aware of his actions, while Athrun himself just got shafted and bounced back through different factions. The writers really screwed over Kira, his own character goes against the very theme of Gundam itself, understanding through communication.
Nor basically anyone else outside of the 00 universe
Who told you that nonsense? The universal century, if anything, MOCKS the concept that 00 raises.
I'm not sure if this is real or a parody. I really, really like SEED Destiny but tbh it's not that deep lmao
But I agree the anime tries to portray both of them in a kind of ambiguous morality. Durandal is not nearly as cartoonishly villanous as all the other CE villains
A parody??? Not that deep??? I WONT LET YOU CALL IT SOMETHING OF TRIVIAL MATTER!!!(Shinn Asuka reference episode 17)
But nah seriously this anime is deep asf to me... Anyways yea, I agree on Durandal being different than the other CE villains. The villains are just plain and pure racism personified, while Durandal is like a palpatine ripoff.While, Durandal ‘s character arc just represents immaturity, the immaturity that he cannot see humanity ever changing and has to subjugate it to totalitarian rule. Im not gonna on for too long but I’m in the works of doing a character analysis and this will be key to what I’m gonna portray in my videos.
The last scene of Kira and Durandal is always my favorite!
I would say your interpretation should very close to the original plan of director Fukuda.
However, I could not stand with the poor animation/narration quality of the last season of SEED DESTINY.
It was a true disaster...
Speaking of the poor animation and story quality, it’s been rumored that one of the animators had a blog post in 2005ish(now deleted) trashed Morosawa for her writing and constant reuse of animation. I too was displeased with the last 10 episodes of the anime and I always tell people to skip it or watch special edition 4. Although bandai did try to fix the anime’s ending by adding in scenes.
Thanks for the kind comments, I’ve tried my best to understand Morosawa and Fukuda’s intentions. This anime’s message has been on my mind for a while.
@@animeironist Closely to official explanation is Morosawa's poor health, whom passed away in 2016 at last.
DESTINY is meaningful in many ways but at the same time very controversial in many levels. Rumors are around and we can see even the original voice actress of Cagalli is not returning to the latest SEED FREEDOM.
@@HaydenYau Yeo I agree, Destiny’s themes and messages are excellent but the drama behind the scenes are too problematic too ignore. Speaking of Cagalli’s VA, I noticed that her roles into other recent anime have only been minor roles. I remember there’s rumors that she either wanted to take her career in a different direction or hated working on seed destiny so much so that it crushed her spirits.
@@animeironist It is unusual for Japanese changing major VA. Sigh...but there are no means to verify all rumors, just adding up the controversial facet of DESTINY.