G SEED Destiny - my take, part 1

So, this is a very good series, Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. What gives it popularity is that fact that it is a Gundam based series, so big giant mecha based on classic designs and incorporating an exorbitant number of variations from various sequels, spinoffs, and miniseries really gives the series something to market. What makes it work is the story, as complex as it gets, and its characters. These are memorable characters, so many receiving volumes of development, each one with stories of their own, and with emotions and ideas so many of us can relate to.

What's awesome about this series is that it really takes an objective view on what happens in war. Anyone who watches this series should have discussions with other viewers about the messages and situations to really appreciate the work being done here. One primary message is that things are only black and white when you don't look for the gray. The moment you look for the gray, you come to realize that everything is gray. Only then should you begin to decide what is lighter and what is darker, what is good and what is bad, and what is love and what is hate.

The first series follows a set of characters who live in a world of gray while everyone around them live in black and white. "Who is the enemy?" "Why are we at war?" "Why must we fight?" While these questions have been wrestled with in all of the previous gundam series in one way or another, Gundam Wing's Sanq Kingdom being a parallel to SEED's Aube, especially in the miniseries 0080, 08th MS Team, and 0083, this series is almost relentless with questioning the entire idea of conflict. Debates, forums, and discussions over conflicting philosophies on lifestyles and belief systems are on thing, but actively violating a person's or people's natural rights (also a conflict creating debate) up to and including death is something else altogether. People can learn and grow from discussion. People are hurt in conflicts.

SEED establishes these arguments of grays, positing the very questions we should all be asking ourselves, and these questions are even more pertinent in the current global societal and social climate. SEED Destiny digs further, and even illustrates quite plainly how these conflicts even continue, whether from a philosophical basis, economical, or sociological. This is especially made potent with the use of a main character, though there are several main characters in the series yet Shinn's journey seems to be the most thought provoking and heart-wrenching, who is in every way a tragic figure. He spends most of the series running with blinders, but those blinders have been gradually removed and it's only a matter of time before he has to decide to look at the rest of world. His pain is as justified as anyone else's, but the question that comes from all of this is "who really decides to fight?"