I just finished watching Gundam Seed Destiny and I was kinda dissappointed by the ending. I mean the Seed Destiny was better then the orignal in my opinion, but I wanted know what happened afterwards. Like did Athrun and Cagalli and/or Lacus and Kira get married? What becomes of ZAFT and the Earth Alliance? Will Naturals and Coordinators finally acknowledge each others existence and live in peace or is there bound to be more wars in the future? Is there a possiblility of a third Gundam Seed series?

I basicaly want to know what happens to everyone. Seed Destiny was very enjoyable and in my opinion the Seed series is probably the best Gundam series so far. I just loved it when that disrespectful punk Shinn get his butt kicked my Athrun . I liked how they did the Seed series the orignal focused on Kira and Destiny focused on Athrun. All in All a very enjoyable series .

The focal main character in Destiny confused people at first, since Shinn was expected to be the main character, but the series pretty much focused on Athrun the whole time.
Though that doesn't stop Kira from getting every title screen and center pose. Whoring Freedom and Kira will never stop, no matter how small role he has.



I liked the Final Phase though. I don't get why Lunamaria had to try and attack Athrun though, when she knows that he is much better than her. That beam kick was pretty hot.



SEED Shinn was earlier defeated by a heavily injured Athrun in Episode 43, and now while Shinn was in SEED mode, he was being beaten by a normal mode Athrun. It was pretty clear who had the upper hand in this battle, as he was literally disarming Shinn, bit by bit.



Then Shinn shows how unstable his rage can be during a battle, and even tries to kill Lunamaria, which forced Athrun to use his SEED, and save her.
Athrun lost his patience with Shinn, and finally destroyed his Destiny.



I-Justice "Saviour'd" Shinn's Destiny to a pile of junk.




Both arms, the wings and one leg were destroyed. And Athrun seems to look down on Shinn with pitty.


Did you watch Gundam SEED Destiny Final Plus? If not, you should watch it. *You can skip these images if you haven't yet*
They made a 50 minute version of Episode 50, and fixed a lot of things. For example, Athrun is also inside Messiah in the end. (Where he should have been in the first place) and there is an additional ending scene that shows Shinn, Luna, Athrun, Meyrin, Kira and Lacus after the war.




Athrun picking up Shinn and Luna after the battle.
I thought it was very symbolic of Shinn and Athrun's relationship. No matter how many times Shinn disrespects him and tries to kill him, Athrun would always extend a hand in kindness towards him, because he believed that Shinn would eventually do the right thing.

The new ending takes place at the memorial site at Orb.



Athrun introduces Shinn to Kira.



Kira wants to make peace with Shinn. (Probably because he could never beat him.)



Kira, Shinn and Athrun are having a deep conversation about flowers.





And by the way, if you happen to have the Haro^2_Tori^2 sub of Episode 50, let me know. It's the only one I don't have.

I was hoping Kira would get another chance to fight Shinn. Kira and Strike Freedom = God like skills. I really doubt Shinn would have been able to defeat Kira even if he was in seed mode. Kira's Strike Freedom with them gold joints looks hot, but that Akatsuki(sp?) was a surprise who would've thought of making a gold plated Gundam.

I just watched the Final Plus episode. I was tired of the recap since Seed has enough of them already and went straight to the end. I liked how this alternate or more like extend ending worked out, but what happen to Athrun and Cagalli because it seems like Meyrin and Athrun are together now. I guess taking care of a country kinda cuts out the boyfriend part. I was hoping that Athrun and Cagalli would get married and kind of soften the rift between the Naturals and Coordinators with their marriage in the same sense as Cagalli was going to marry Yuuna <<glad he died because of how cowardly and arrogant he was . Wow was the resurrection of Mu a surprise because I thought it was a long shot that he would come back because he kinda blew up at the end of Seed, but by the 7th-14th or so episode I kinda alread suspected that Neo was Mu because of his voice and the intro that showed Mu with a scar with long hair. I went to animenewsnetwork and checked the character list I was right. The final episode I have is from Seed fansubs didn't see Haro^2_Tori^2 sub of it.

Kira did get more chances at fighting Shinn, in Epi 42, 43 and a little in 50, but was never in a position to disable Shinn.



During their solo fight/rematch, Kira used his Seed to stop a Non-Seed Shinn making a non-Wings of Light "slow" sword attack.o



That was about as good as it got though, because right after that Shinn went SEED mode as well and used his Wings of Light.



Kira started having problems keeping up with Seed Shinn, as Shinn was circling around him, and Kira was moaning and retreating.



In spite of Seed Shinn having lost some of his weapons, Kira was limited to pretty much defense only. And his facial expressions and actions testament of his dificulties with dealing with Shinn. But at the same time Shinn couldn't take him out either.

Normal Kira > Normal Shinn
Seed Kira = Seed Shinn

From what Kira displayed in Destiny, I'd say his God like skills were at their best when he was fighting creatively and amazingly back in SEED. Mostly when he had Strike. As soon a he got Freedom he started spaming the same rainbow shots and spin slash over and over, and it got old after the first 5000 times.
He also performed poorly against the three druggies, almost got himself killed several times, even when fighting two of them, while Athrun all alone could hold off all three at the same time without them ever managing to hit Justice once. But his moment to shine came with the Clueze battle.

In Destiny, he lost to Impulse, couldn't damage Destroy even in Seed mode, (while non-Seed Shinn could) and most surprisingly, he was evenly matched by Rey in Episode 43 while Athrun and Shinn were talking/fighting.



Rey's unit wasn't damaged, even while fighting Seed mode Kira all alone, which was a bit odd.



While in comparison, the heavily injured Athrun took out ZAFT's strongest pilot in one attack.
Kira had more chances on Rey, since Athrun was constantly only defending himself from Shinn's attacks, or talking to him, until he finally decided to strike back.
Shinn was stunned that he was beaten for the first time. And by Athrun, who Shinn had concidered to be an incompetent pilot.

I used to go all "wow" over Kira's spam shots and spin slash, until I took a closer look back in SEED and noticed that he always performed below Athrun in comparable situation. Which in itself isn't bad, but some times he flat out performed poorly. Against the three druggies, Forbidden, Calamity and Raider for example.



Athrun constantly had to save Kira from them. In this scene Seed mode Kira was about to get killed by Calamity, so normal mode Athrun quickly broke through Forbidden's defense in an instant.



At this point Forbidden was completely open to an attack, and he could have easily destroyed Forbidden, but he chose to save Kira instead, of course.



While Kira was on the space collony, Athrun had to take on all three druggies all by himself, and the best they could do against him was land one shot on his shield.


Kira is a great pilot, no doubt about that. But Freedom's flashy moves can sometimes makes you overlook his actual results. Athrun is a trained fighter, Kira isn't.
I think he was at his best when he was still creative in his fighting.


Well it's not only a recap episode. it's an extended version of Episode 50. it's 50 minutes instead of 25, so there are some differences here and there worth watching I think.


I guess you missed the whole "Morsawa interview". (She's the main writer for the story.)
Apparently, she and her husband (the director) disagreed on Cagalli and Athrun's relationship. Morsawa even went as far as claiming that they never had a relationship, and were never in love. Obviously the director portrayed things a bit differently though.



You can expect them to further develop Athrun and Meyrin's relationship, because in the new SEED Destiny special, the kiss in Epi 8 between Athrun and Cagalli was switched to a peck on the cheek.


Most fans seem to share your opinion on this, as do I, but Morsawa doesn't seem to realise the potential Athrun and Cagalli's relationship could have. So many Naturals and Coordinators look up to them, and they would be setting an example for everyone, beyond the racial boundries.

Seed special, is it a OVA or something and has there been any information on the Gundam Seed Movie or whether there is going to be another series?

No that's something else. There's four new SEED related things that I know of.

Gundam Seed Destiny Special Edition.



It retells the whole series through Athrun's perspective, in four 2 hour long episodes.
Besides being a recap, it has new scenes, as well as A LOT better animation in many scenes.

Gundam SEED Destiny: Stargazer OVA



It's a OVA in three parts that takes place straight after Junius 7 falls.
The main character is Sven, a Natural described as a killing machine who hates coordinators with a passion. He pilots a new version of Strike.
Check out the other topic for more details here. The new promo for the OVA looks great actually. I wasn't looking forward to it until I watched it.

Gundam SEED Destiny Movie

Not much info on this except that Stellar will appear. (Somehow)
It's the first actual Gundam Movie they've made in 30 years, or something.

Gundam Seed Destiny (third series)

Nothing is known about it yet, except that "it will conclude Kira and Athrun's stories."

Has Special Edition been released yet?

What do you mean? Wasn't Endless Waltz a Gundam Movie? I'm assuming you mean by the director of Gundam Seed hasn't made a Gundam movie in 30 years.

The first episode has been released, but I don't think it has been subbed yet. Or maybe it has, since it's been out a few weeks, I haven't really looked. I'll look around later. If you find it, let me know.
Here's one example of an altered scene, in the Destiny Special.



Athrun godmods some guys and puts his hand behind his back before he pulls the trigger.
There are also some completely new scenes. And the quality of the animation is a lot better in many places. Movie quality.



Some new scenes, and some with different animation.




Heine in Episode 8.



Particularly noticable for me were the special effects during battle.
And Shinn Asuka's SEED awakening was slightly changed as he got a different theme song. Zips by TM Revolution. (Same song playing in the original SEED Special for Kira's scene in the desert, and the added love scene with Fllay.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_cTuJaBKcs

It's a remix of Zips, but I prefer this version of Shinn's Seed awakening than the old rage music. The original Zips still sounds better though.


Apparently not. I was a bit confused by this statement as well, since there were a few recent Zeta Gundam Movies, so I asked about it on another board, and someone explained it to me, but I forgot now.
I'll see if I can find the explanation again.

Endless Waltz was technically an OVA, not a movie. That's why Sunrise said that it was the first original Gundam movie since F91.

Oh, on the topic about Kira and Shinn. I always saw Shinn as a slightly superior pilot, because he did beat Kira in episode 34, while in a much weaker Gundam. Shinn also had the upperhand over Kira for awhile even before going into SEED mode, so I rate Shinn as the better pilot.

Yeah about Freedom vs. Impulse, some people like to say "Kira wasn't trying to kill him", which is true, but not much of an excuse since Athrun did exactly the same, and managed to take Shinn out without much effort at all, and in an equally powered suit, while heavily injured at that.
Kira was in a far superior suit. And while Shinn knew where Freedom would strike (non leathal targets), Kira also knew where Shinn would always aim for (the cockpit, just like every other pilot besides him and Athrun.)

When Athrun told Kira that he was surprised that he lost to Shinn, Kira's response was
"I wasn't sure about fighting ZAFT at the time."
So how does he explain the 40+ ZAFT units he destroyed before Shinn launched in Impulse and confronted him? lol

You could also compare their performance against Destroy. For 20 minutes, even after going Seed mode, Kira managed to hit a total zero shots on Destroy. (Unless Stellar was standing still or freaking out, like in the end.) Shinn however, landed an attack on Destroy as soon as he arrived on the scene, and followed up by tearing through its defense and slashing open it's cockpit.

Again, while in a normal suit, and Kira in a nuclear powered suit.

Then again isn't Kira "The Ultimate Coordinator" so don't you expect him to be the better pilot or even the best.

No. Ultimate Coordinator only means that he grew up in an artificial woumb and sustained no physical problems at birth. He is the healthiest and most fit Coordinator. It doesn't mean that he is going to be the best at everything. His genes were never altered. He is still 50% his mother and 50% his father, like Cagalli. Any traits he may have inherited from his parents would still be there. There's no Ultimate Coordinator "gene", as some people think.

He's not going to be the worlds greatest golfer or height jumper unless he has the skills for it, or is tall enough.
Kira is gifted in piloting though, but so are Athrun and Shinn.

But yes, some people do expect him to be the best because he is the "Ultimate Coordinator", because him and Freedom are put on every titlescreen, and because Freedom is so flashy and shoots rainbow spam all the time.

His facial expression and results against Shinn would show otherwise though, among other things, such as his results in battle with the druggies compared to Athrun.

But who is the best is up to the eyes of the viewer really.

I don't see the point in debating destiny. I see it as a failed series, especially after eps 40. The answer Kira states about being unsure about zaft, and his controdictionary previous action is one of the many instances I see as misscommunication between the writer and directer. Hopefully the third seed series wont be all fanservice.

I believe so too. Those two have had many misscommunications in the past.
For example, at the end of SEED, Morsawa claimed that Kira never really loved Fllay, and Fukuda said that Kira didn't have feelings for Lacus.

Right....

I guess when you work with your wife these things are bound to happen. I didn't notice any indication that Kira loved Flay, but thats just me. I always thought that he wanted to protect her because he in a way hurt her. Kira and Lacus I'm not too sure of. Did they ever kiss or anything because I don't remember them ever doing so except for Athrun and Cagalli.

The series started off by showing Kira having a crush on Fllay, but he never approached her in school. Instead he found out about Sai's letter to her, and that they were a couple.
Eventually Kira became very emotionally disturbed and weak, and Fllay's love for him was something he didn't turn down, in spite of knowing Sai's feelings towards her.
Kira and Fllay had a love scene before the desert battle, so I don't think Kira would have done that unless he was in love with her. She on the other hand was manipulating him. She wanted Kira to kill as many coordinators as possible and then die himself. Eventually Kira noticed what he was doing to Sai, and how she was acting around them both, and he didn't like it, so he rejected her.
The last time Kira ran towards the launch bay to get into Strike, knowing that Athrun would attack them any minute, he told Fllay that they'd talk when he got back. But he didn't return, and when he eventually did, Fllay was gone. During this time, Fllay's racism towards coordinators didn't blind her from the truth anymore, and she discovered that underneeth everything, she had actual feelings for Kira as well. She told Natarle onboard the Dominion that she wanted to see Kira again, to tell him this. But they weren't able to meet and apologise to the other. Instead she got killed in front of Kira, but they shared a last moment on some spiritual level.



Fllay: "I will protect you, with my real feelings."

You've never seen Kira get that torn up about anyone elses death before, not even Tolle's.
It angered him so much that he made an exception in his stand of trying to avoid killing people. He didn't think Clueze deserved to live.



"You! Only you!"

But of course, he still did some killing.



Kira cuts through an entire battleship.



Kira aims to kill the pilot of Destroy.

Though in GSD, he deprives this decision, and the choice to fight from whoever he pleased, which caused Athrun to get angry at him, and a lot of viewers felt that Kira had a God complex. After all, I don't think he would have found it very pleasing if some random unit flew in and disabled his partner Mwu back in the early days of SEED, when they were as outnumbered by the enemy as the Minerva was in most episodes. That would surely have resulted in the death of Archangel and it's crew.

I felt that Kira didn't truely love Flay because like you said he was being manipulated. During Seed each time he would enter battle and kill a unknown enemy it would eat away at him. I mean who could blame him for crying so much because killing someone isn't a normal thing when your a teenager and Flay knew this and took advantage of Kira by nuturing him and make him think that there was someone who was thinking about how he felt each time he came back from battle. Then in the end it somehow came to partial love. Thats the way I look at it.

Also about Shinn being a better pilot then Kira. I don't think so because Kira isn't exactly trying kill Shinn especially the fight when Shinn destroys Freedom. If it wasn't for Impulses interchangeable parts I don't think Shinn would have been able to defeat Kira because all he had to do was be all offensive. Kira does damage him but its nullfied when Shinn switches out body parts, but I got to admit that was a really great tactic by Shinn. What I'm trying to say is if Kira really wanted to kill Shinn he would have, but didn't because in the end when your not trying to kills someone it just doesn't bring out your best. If it was Gundam Seed Kira versus Shinn now that would be a more balanced fight.

Well if Fllay, who was manipulating him and despised him in the begining, could develop real feelings for Kira, I don't see why Kira who started off by having a crush on her couldn't do the same. I don't know, but I'd like to think that Kira's feelings for her were real all the way through to the end.


You could also say that "without Freedoms nuclear powered engine, four times more powerful output, unmatched speed, unrivaled power, and massive weapons, he wouldn't have been able to beat Shinn either."
You make use of what you have, and in all honestly, the power difference was in Kira's favor. You just can't compare a nuclear powered unit to a normal one.

And I don't think you're giving Shinn enough credit here regarding the changable parts. When you lose a part of Impulse against a pilot like Kira, it should pretty much be the end of the battle. Kira can simply blast the incoming bodypart which is completely unprotected, or just fly away and theres absolutely no way that Impulse can catch up to Freedom after that.
Yet Shinn made great use of Impulse and forced Kira to defend himself while Shinn assaulted the chest flyer and caused an explosion that bought him enough time to switch. It was due to Shinn's briliant piloting that he got the upper hand.

Also worth noting, Kira managed to sever the head and arm on Impulse because Shinn threw away his shield on purpose and left himself completely open for attack after his own reckless sword attack.


Probably, but he is in Freedom, so that wouldn't say much about who the best pilot is.


True, but it worked for Athrun, twice.


Their next encounter, S-Freedom vs. Destiny was a lot more even, though Shinn was partially unarmed (lost his sword and boomerangs) so it's hard to compare, but it still looked like Shinn had a bit of an upper hand and forced Kira to defdense only. But he couldn't accomplish anything, and Kira couldn't do anything about him either.

I give Shinn alot of credit because I admit I was surprised that Shinn was able to defeat Kira and that beam reflection off of his shield was a great move and so was using his own booster pack as a weapon to force Kira back so he can switch out parts.
Then again how long has Athrun been in ZAFT. Athrun without a doubt has more experience then Kira or Shinn. Shinn and Kira are talented they learn quickly, but talent can hardly out weigh experience.

Shinn was pwned by Athrun because of his lack of experience. Shinn's lack of experience contributes to his out of control action when he tries to kill his comrade Lunamaria. Shinn is emotionally confused from what I see and using your emotions during war won't get you the best results. You can compare this to a more composed Athrun when needed during a battle is able to trigger his SEED mode at will. It may seem like I am contradicting myself because in the end a composed Kira lost to a emotionally enraged Shinn, but because Kira has that pacifist belief you can say that was why he lost, but in the end an enraged Shinn was easily defeated by an experienced Athrun.

I think the skills of post war Shinn is going dip just like how Kira is now in Seed Destiny because he has finally made peace with his past and the emotional drive that he had is now gone. This the same with Kira and when I think of Shinn I think of Kira and the similarities they both share.

It doesn't matter how powerful a Gundam is if the pilot can't bring out its full potential when fighting someone that is of your caliber you might as well call it quits. Kira with that no kill belief doesn't allow him to be as creavity as he was in Gundam Seed so it wouldn't be possible for Kira to bring out Strike Freedom's full potential. Also the handicap that Kira puts on himself is greater then some people realize.

A fansub of Gundam Seed Destiny Special Edition Episode 1 has been released by Zeonic-Corps, but your gonna need to download VLC Player or any other player that can play .mkv files because its soft subs not hard subs. Heres the link: http://www.zeonic-corps.net/tracker/
Enjoy!

Yeah I know you're giving Shinn credit for his performance, I was only refering to the bodypart switching of Impulse though. Something like that shouldn't be possible to use at your advantage against a pilot of Kira's caliber and a Gundam such as Freedom if it wasn't for Shinn's creativity and skills during that battle.

Shinn's driving force was that Kira killed Stellar. He couldn't allow himself to lose no matter what.
Which reminds me of a certain battle from the first series.





Well Kira does have a lot of experience as well. Before SEED, Athrun had never piloted a Gundam before, but I read that he trained with a GUIZ, or whatever they are called. (The unit that Clueze had)
Team Clueze were newly graduated from the academy, and this was their real first real battle.
But regarding Kira, look at how much he was able to grow due to the experience he got. His opponents were very tough, and it challenged him to get better and better. Athrun on the other hand, was never able to fight any opponent for real for a very long time. His only opponent was Kira, and most of the time he either saved him from Yzak, or held back not to harm him. Other times he was away with Clueze to report to the PLANT council. During this time Kira gained a lot of experience through battle. Since Athrun hasn't been in any war prior to this, I'd say that Kira might have more fighting experience than Athrun.
Athrun's first real battle against another unit wasn't until Episode 30 against Kira, when they both decided not to hold back any more, and kill the other. And their battle was very even. Athrun ended up overpowering him after going SEED for the first time, but his energy ran out. (Since he had fired his scylla beams at the Archangel earlier.) There wasn't much of a difference between the two at this point.


His experience was even lower when fighting Kira though. And Kira's experience is more or less the same as Athrun's I think in GSD.
But I think Shinn was also able to grow at the same pace as Kira and Athrun did. From the very beginning, he had to face off against three druggies. Kira and Athrun didn't have to face opponents of their level until they got their nuclear powered Gundams. And look at how well Shinn did in pretty much every battle except when fighting Athrun. He was able to hold his own even though being heavily outnumbered in the Indian Sea. (Where he found the prison camp) Later on he tears through Destroy's like they were cannon fodder. And he took down Freedom.
On the surface his experience looks like it is on par with Athrun and Kira's. For example, he managed to deal with Destroy in a much more effective way than Kira. And he killed Auel, and even defeated Freedom, while in a far inferior suit. That has to merit for some impressive experience. Perhaps even more intense than what Kira and Athrun experienced in SEED.

Athrun actually seems to have gotten the least experience on paper in comparison, and Shinn got the most. Here is a list of their opponents.

Advantage
Disadvantage
Equal

Athrun in GS:

Strike
Forbidden, Calamity & Raider

Kira in GS:

Duel, Buster & Blitz
Aegis
Forbidden, Calamity & Raider
Providence

Shinn in GSD:

Chaos, Gaia & Abyss
Neo Windam
Destroy
Freedom
S-Feedom
I-Justice


Well I would want to agree with you, but I can see this going both ways. Shinn has performed by far the best when he becomes enraged. (Which makes Rey's advice for him to keep his cool against Kira seem like bad advice.)
Don't forget Athrun's rage over Nicol's death. Kira's rage over Fllay's death, and Shinn's rage over Stellar's death.


Well I think it's simply that Athrun is holding himself back that makes him calm and composed. I don't think it gives him an edge as compared to when he gets angry. If Cagalli was killed in front of him for example, whoever he's fighting, I'd put my money on the enraged Athrun.


But that that pacifistic belief is shared by Athrun as well. Both Kira and Athrun started only disabling opponents at the same time. Right after they had their battle in Episode 30.
Kira while in a far superior suit, with the same reservations as Athrun had, (except that Athrun was also heavily injured at the time, and fought an equally powerful suit) lost against Shinn the first time, and couldn't disable him the second time either.


Dip?
Well I'm interested in seeing Shinn's fighting style. It would be strange if Kira and Athrun disable all their opponents while Shinn continues to blow them up.
"Kira & Athrun: *sweatdrop*


Welll I don't know about that. The power of the suit matters a lot in a battle. Look at Athrun in a GOUF vs Shinn in Destiny. The speed difference was so ridiculous that there was nothing Athrun could do but sit and watch as Destiny destroyed his unit. It looked like Shinn was moving at light speed in comparison.
Even if Shinn would have used Kira and Athrun's tactics of only disabling here, there's nothing Athrun would have been able to have done to avoid this, due to the limits of his suit.
Freedom is much faster and more powerful than Impulse. It gives him an advantage over his oponent.
And Shinn also some times aimed for more strategic non killing targets. And yet his results were better than Kira's. I'm thinking of how Shinn shot the gun right out of Kira's hand. And when he did the disconnect-dodge, he quickly destroyed Freedom's wings.


But again, Athrun does this as well. And he managed to beat Shinn regardless. Not only that, but he was heavily injured and Shinn was in an equally powerful suit this time.

Wasn't Athrun, Yzak, Daekra, and Nicol the top of their academy? Is operating a Gundam really that different from piloting a regular Mobile Suit? There has to be some similiarities. Kira was a civilian who had never even been taught how to pilot a Mobile Suit let alone a Gundam. When your in the military you are trained and prepared for real life combat. This will give you the edge in real life combat and does count as experience.

I had edited my post I don't think you read it in its entirety.

Yes it probably is, except they didn't have the special OS as the Gundam's until after Yzak, Dearka, Athrun and Nicol stole the units. If you recall, Naturals could hardly even pilot Gundam's in Gundam SEED, but they were able to do it on par with Coordinators in GSD. That's because the OS was further developed during the two years that passsed.

But sparing with the units, learning how to move around and aim isn't the same as actual combat experience.
Also, Kira knew how to pilot a Gundam from the start, somehow. From what I understand, he had been running some sort of simulations or something like that, when he was helping the reserach department after school hours. But I'm not sure exactly what he did, since it was covered in one of the mangas, or in an interview or something.

I'll look through your post again.
I also edited mine just now.


You think Kira and Shinn are similar? How so?
I think Shinn and Kira are about as different as they can get. Shinn and Athrun though shared a lot of simmilar experiences, which is why Athrun was the only one who could get through to Shinn in the end.

Both Athrun and Shinn lost their parents to the war. Kira didn't. His whole family is still alive.
Both Shinn and Athrun joined the military voulentarily due to this incident. Kira didn't. He was unwillingly involved in the whole situation by a coincidense.
Shinn and Athrun both have a military background. Kira doesn't.
Like Athrun, Shinn was decieved or manipulated by the chairman. (Goes twice for Athrun)
Both Athrun and Shinn used to follow their orders blindly.

When Athrun talks to Shinn, they would some times show flashbacks of Athrun's past that were similar to Shinn's current situation, and Athrun would remember how he once used to be.

I just finished watching GSD Special Edition and was kinda disappointed. I was expecting lot more new scenes, but the animation looks better. The tagline about seeing it through Athruns point of view was pretty dissappointing because he just does some narration and thats about it. Everything was recut so that Athrun would be the main focus, but I did like that song that played when Shinn went into SEED mode. What is it called again?

Zips. It played during Kira's desert fight in the GS Special as well.
If I still have it on my pc, I'll upload it for you.

I do actually. Gimme a min.

Here's Shinn's scene again in the meantime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_cTuJaBKcs

Shinn is similiar to Kiras old-self. Like the situation that they are involved in. Flay dies Kira goes beserk. Stella dies and Shinn goes beserk. Kira fights because he wants to protect his friends and peace. Shinn fights to protect people and peace. Shinn fights along side the Minerva. Kira fights along side the Archangel. Both Minerva and Archangel look pretty similar. I guess this is what made me think they are similar, but your reasons sounds better then mine and I agree with all of them.

Fllay dies, Stellar dies, and Nicol dies, and it resulted in the same consequence for all three of them here. Kira fights because he wants to protect people, but this is true for pretty much every soldier that's out there fighting. They all have loved ones they want to protect.

As for the Minerva, I can't remember one single time Shinn actually bothered to defend the ship, which was Kira's one and only priority the whole time.
The Minerva was basically a docking station for the mobile suits in their mission to surpress the EAF. Archangel on the other hand was constantly trying to escape only to survive the persuit of ZAFT, carrying civilians.

I don't think the structure of the actual ship matters much though. XD

Overall, Shinn's personal reasons for joining ZAFT, his military background and situation seem to match Athrun more than the other main characters in the anime, which is probably why it was Athrun's job to be Shinn's counterbalance and rival in the anime.

The Zips video is almost done btw.
It has Fllay and Kira's love scene in it too. (Which wasn't in the original)

~Edit~
Finished

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Df-JY7hQ9c

Is it just me or is Shinns version of Zips alot more edgier then Kiras version, but still a great song and I thought it was a different group that did Zips, but it was actually T.M. Revolution again.

I got a question does either Gundam Seed or Destiny ever explain why Coordinators can go into SEED mode. The subject was only touched upon by the Minister who saved Kira, but was never fully explained. At first I thought that when going into SEED mode it was like a Coordinators own way of activating their adrenaline, but so far only Athrun, Shinn, Kira and for some odd reason Lacus are able to do this. The weirdest one would be Lacus who wasn't even fighting.

Yeah it's a remix of Zips in GSD. And regarding SEED, they never touch upon the subject again, oddly. But most people hope that it will be cleared up in the third series. All we know about it so far is this:

Superior
Evolutionary
Element
Destined-factor
(SEED factor)

A factor that determines the course of a species' evolution. The existence of the SEED factor has yet to be proven, and it remains a subject of intense controversy in scientific circles. But in theory, those who possess the SEED factor have the ability to advance to the next stage of human evolution - an ability unrelated to whether the carrier is a Natural or a Coordinator.

And Naturals can go SEED as well. It's not only limited to Coordinators.



But why only Kira, Athrun, Shinn, Cagalli and Lacus seem to have a SEED hasn't been explained yet. None of the Astray characters are able to go SEED. Not even Canard Pars. (Ultimate Coordinator brother of Kira.)

On a sidenote, it was actually Lowe Gear from the Astray manga that saved Kira after the Aegis self destruct blast, and carried him off to to get help before his body would have died from the injuries.

Whoops forgot about Cagalli

Brother? So Astray is somehow connected to the Anime. So I'm probably missing parts of the story I might pick it up next time I go by Borders. Was this just a add in by the manga because none of the characters from Astray seem to be mentioned in the Anime.

Canard Pars isn't Kira's real brother, but in the sense that they were both part of the Ultimate Coordinator project. He was concidered a failure though, so his goal is to find Kira and kill him to prove himself.

Astray is a side story to the anime. There are a few things in it that are completely connected to the anime though, but most characters are completely different and so is the story, even though it takes place during the same conflict. For example, the first Astray manga ends at Yachin Due, but the enemy unit is called Regenerate Gundam. It's serial number is the same as Justice, Freedom and Providence. It was the fourth nuclear powered Gundam created in that series.

http://mahq.net/mecha/gundam/astrayr/zgmf-x11a.htm

There are a lot of interesting characters in Astray. Shiho would be one such popular character, as she have made several cameos in the anime, standing next to Yzak and Dearka a few times, and appeared in the closing themes, but never got any lines of her own in the anime.





In the manga she was shot down by Cagalli at Yachin Due. But she didn't die, as she appears in the GSD anime.



And this guy is a friend of one of the main characters, but he suffers from a split personality disorder.



And here in the Destiny Astray manage for example, you get to see the real original pilots for Chaos, Gaia and Abyss. One of them hates naturals, and yet he gets killed by one. I believe they were edited into the Special Edition of the anime rather than just regular soldiers, when Auel, Stellar and Sting stormed the ZAFT base and stole the units.

I did some research and Gundam Seed Astray is pretty long it consists of Gundam Seed Astray 1,2, & 3, Gundam Seed Astray R 1,2,3, & 4, and Gundam Seed X Astray 1. Gundam Seed X Astray was probably just released here in the states because I can only find 1 online. Gundam Seed Astray B I can't seem to find in any bookstore online, probably because it hasn't been released yet. I wonder if Fukada will incorporate any Astray characters in the third series and atleast try to tell bits and pieces of their story. I'm especially interested in Canard Pars story.