Should I watch Gundam SEED Destiny?

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First off, I found a similar thread here using google, but wasn't satisfied after reading it, so I registered just to ask this question.

Anyway, I've recently finished watching Seed, and I enjoyed it very much, to the point where I spent the next couple of days in "withdrawal" of sorts. The best thing about it for me were the character relationships - both the (two? five? six?) love stories, and the conflicted ones like Kira-Athrun, Ramius-Badriguel, etc. The mecha stuff was cool, but the series could have been set in a fantasy high school, and I probably would have still liked it.

Now, a lot of people say that Seed Destiny isn't worth watching, but not many of them are very specific as to why. I've heard something about Kira acting like a religious zealot, and Athrun forgetting all of the events of Seed and joining ZAFT.

As someone who enjoyed the character relationships in GS most, is GSD worth watching?
 
Should I watch Gundam Seed Destiny?

I don't recommend it. I tried watching it but could not get past the first 12 episodes due to several reasons.

1. The beginning episodes are just rehashes of the first couple episodes of Seed
2. Shinn Asuka is annoying as hell
3. Almost every character that returned from Seed has become dumbed down considerably.
 
Personally, I would say you've got a short window of time where you'll be able to watch. I think the biggest problem about Destiny for me was that after watching Seed, the intervening time made me overlook some of its shortcomings and I had built it up into something that might have been more than it actually was, so when I watched Destiny, it seemed like a huge drop in quality.

However, when I decided to watch them back-to-back, I noticed they weren't quite as different as that gap had made them seem. In fact, I gained a slightly higher respect for Destiny.

So if you're thinking of watching Destiny, I would suggest deciding as quickly as possible to keep Seed fresh in your mind.

As far as the character relationships are concerned, most of them are more or less there, but it will take time to get to them. With the possible exception of Cagalli and Athrun. Although in that case, I was a bit disappointed with how they had changed over time.
 
Not only is Gundam SEED Destiny not worth watching, it actually has a negative value (beyond simply wasting about twenty hours of your life). It made me end up hating the very characters that I came to care about in the original show. It would be better if it had never existed.

Why is the show so awful? Well:

--- Kira is now a "can never put a foot wrong" type who forces his misguided and dangerous ideology on others. His efforts to never kill anyone are just because he so outclasses everyone else (which is stupid, since Freedom is three years out of date and still better than anything either OMNI or ZAFT has). When up against someone who can actually take him on (like
Stella
, and Shinn when he finally grows a pair), he conveniently abandons his morals. The show glosses over the many people he kills directly (in the case of
the Tanhauser exploding
) or indirectly; what is the point of crippling enemies only to have them be killed by the survivors of the opposing force?

--- Those people who told you that Athrun forgot everything he learnt in SEED were telling the truth. Asking "What are we fighting for?" for the hundredth time does not make the show deep, especially when he got his answers in the first season.

--- In SEED Cagalli was a tough-as-nails fighter with a soft side. In SEED Destiny she has lost any semblance of will and independence, instead moping around for the first quarter and getting yelled at by Shinn. She also makes some terrible decisions that were probably supposed to look tragic but just looked tragically and painfully stupid.

--- Shinn was supposed to be the main character, but there were signs right from the get-go that Kira would eventually usurp him. The producers decided to put more emphasis on Kira and co. because they did such a bad job with Shinn and Kira was already beloved. Well, look how that turned out. The audience was confused, and Shinn's screentime and importance were continually reduced right until the farcical final battle.

--- Speaking of which, the final battle was a walkover. In the original television version, Kira's new Strike Freedom never took any damage in the entire show, and he and Athrun defeated
Shinn and Rey
with absurd ease and nary a scratch.

--- The music was a bit of a let-down. There was an important battle in episode twelve, but the music was distinctly underwhelming compared to the first season.

--- The designs of the characters and - especially - the Mobile Suits were reused. Stock footage was a problem in SEED, but in this show it was chronic and everywhere. The Impulse was actually substituted for the original Strike in one scene, and there were many many instances of oh dear. Also reused was the "male and female end up on a beach and bond" scenario.

--- Meer Campbell. Oh dear, what were they thinking?

--- The Big Bad's reasoning was pretty weak to be honest, and made little to no sense

--- Mostly everything else.



Just don't watch it. Just don't.
 
Nerv1 said:
3. Almost every character that returned from Seed has become dumbed down considerably.
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That sounds like the opposite of what I would have wanted from a sequel. :x

JGonspy said:
So if you're thinking of watching Destiny, I would suggest deciding as quickly as possible to keep Seed fresh in your mind.
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First time I've seen that sentiment. :o
If I do watch it, I'll do it soon then.
 
The original Gundam SEED isn't even worth watching, and it's not even as bad as Destiny. The only thing memorable at all about CE Gundam is how lifeless and and stupid it is.
 
penguintruth said:
The original Gundam SEED isn't even worth watching, and it's not even as bad as Destiny. The only thing memorable at all about CE Gundam is how lifeless and and stupid it is.
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Oi. I can't believe me of all people is saying this - raging on the supreme idiocy of UC is a favourite pastime of mine - but let's not get into another UC versus AU debate.
 
dtm42 said:
penguintruth said:
The original Gundam SEED isn't even worth watching, and it's not even as bad as Destiny. The only thing memorable at all about CE Gundam is how lifeless and and stupid it is.
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Oi. I can't believe me of all people is saying this - raging on the supreme idiocy of UC is a favourite pastime of mine - but let's not get into another UC versus AU debate.
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I have no problem with AU Gundam shows, as long as they aren't CE. I guess I'm not super-fond of AW, either, though.

But, fine. I'll bow out.
 
Obviously some people, including me found Gundam Seed worth watching. Dtm42 hits the nail on the head though in his post. Gundam Seed Destiny is BAD. It has a few half decent action scenes that is. Watch if you don't mind seeing the plot violated before your eyes if it means seeing more Gundam action. And even then it aint that good.

Also Penguintruth. Really is it worth it? I know you might have an opinion about certain Gundam series but the op clearly dousn't share it having watched and enjoyed Seed. What makes you think you're opinion of CE will do anything other than annoy people?
 
If you liked Gundam Seed then you'll probably like Seed Destiny too since it's more or less a continuation. That was my experience anyway. I don't really see why Seed was toted as being so "good" and Seed Destiny was supposedly so "bad." They were about the same level to me, aside from Shin being annoying which isn't as bad everyone is whining about and the annoying recap episodes which make it a slightly less solid show but still easily enjoyable for the massive amounts of mecha porn, and interesting twists in the story.
 
Kruszer said:
If you liked Gundam Seed then you'll probably like Seed Destiny too since it's more or less a continuation. That was my experience anyway.
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I think Gundam SEED is the best Gundam show I've seen. It's certainly my favourite work from the franchise. And yet I loathe SEED Destiny with quite a passion. So what I'm trying to say is, if you liked SEED it does not mean you will like its sequel. Quite the opposite in fact. The more you invest in SEED, the more the crappy sequel hurts.
 
We're both fans of Seed, I'd hardly call it the best Gundam though, I liked 0083: Stardust Memory, Zeta Gundam, and 08th MS Team more. Some people like Seed Destiny others don't. This means that he has a 50/50 chance. The only way to know is to watch it, so watch it and find out. That's my suggestion.
 
To be fair Kruszer I think the great majority of Seed fans feel the same way as me and dtm about Destiny. And both me and him (and I realise I am presuming to speak for him) wish we hadn't watched it. I am not normally one to vehemently decry an Anime. Since I am also of the mindset that even if you hate a series it might be the best thing in the world to someone else. However rareley have I heard so many agree with my hateful opinion of a series as I regularly see agree with mine about GSD. Still the op has both sides of the story now I guess he will just have to take his chances in one camp or another :)

Still my bets are on him watching it. I myself asked similar questions before watching it. Most people will tell themselves meh if it's rubbish I can just pretend I didn't see it. At least I did. And trust me I only wish I could Unsee XD
 
If you like Angsty Soap Opera Mellowdrama, underdeveloped characters (A TON.), and more reused footage than your average Super Robot show go ahead. But it's crap. Especially when Kira comes in and blows stuff up and kills a bunch of while going on how fighting is bad and stuff. I kind of liked Seed it's a decent series but one of the worse because of it's Melodramaic Soap Opera crap. (As you can see I don't really like that stuff.) But at least the Final battle there was satisfying.
 
Still my bets are on him watching it. I myself asked similar questions before watching it. Most people will tell themselves meh if it's rubbish I can just pretend I didn't see it. At least I did. And trust me I only wish I could Unsee Anime hyper
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Well, actually, I tell myself if it's rubbish then I can sit back and MST3K it and have some laughs at it's expense. I heard it was awful, I watched it and I didn't have to do that. In fact I found it engaging aside from Shin being universally annoying and the recap episode dump, but they were far from show killers.
 
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