Mafty wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 1:03 am
In any event, I am actually glad Shinn got much more likeable come Freedom; even though it comes at the cost of him basically becoming like Star-Lord in the later Marvel movies (i.e., the character seems actively disliked by even the writing staff for the most part).
Based on Fukuda's commentary, the "more likeable" Shinn was basically a hard reset on his entire character... they dumped all of the development he had throughout
Destiny and basically made him into a mauve shirt named background character. The only thing of
Destiny-era Shinn that is left in
Freedom is everyone else's complete and utter (and entirely justified) disdain for him.
yugioh54 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 7:59 am
I wouldn't say he was a useless character in Destiny though, he was the minervas ace pilot, [...]
He wasn't
useless, he was unlikeable. Those are two very different things.
Mind you, he was only the
Minerva's top ace for like five episodes before Athrun fell back into the cockpit and promptly stole his thunder.
yugioh54 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 7:59 am
[...] granted you could say it was all Durandal but Shinn must've had some skill and training to be able to pilot those suits. and his SEED mode.
It's undeniable that Shinn had the skills and talent to rank near the top of his class at the military academy. His red duty uniform attests to that.
That said, that's only a relative measure of ability and the creative team keeps doubling down on Shinn not actually being that good. Like the movie's short stories establishing that Shinn ranked well below Agnes and even the relatively unremarkable (in the series) Lunamaria in the academy. Or that by the time of
Freedom even other characters are aware Shinn only got a Gundam because Durandal singled him out as a useful idiot.
yugioh54 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 7:59 am
I wouldn't say Kamille was a great character either, paralell Zeta ended on a Cliffhanger, and Kamille became more interesting in ZZ.
Kamille was a very well-rounded and developed character by the end of
Zeta, and very well liked by the audience even before
ZZ. Indeed, the character he'd be measured against in
SEED in terms of popularity would be Kira, not Shinn.
Mafty wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 10:31 am
For another question, what exactly is the political status of the CE world come Freedom?
Blue Cosmos is on its last legs and finally gets wiped out completely
, But what of the rest of the Earth Alliance? Foundation has Seceded, but what about the other territories the EA controls?
In general it seems that both ZAFT and EA are greatly weakened.
We don't know, because that information isn't relevant to the movie's story and neither the movie itself nor the handful of pamphlets and mooks that have been published about it offer more than the bare minimum level of detail about stuff that's actually IN the movie. It's your usual
Gundam situation where the available info on most important topics is no more than "a picture and 2-3 sentences".
It's only been about a year since the end of
Destiny at the time the movie starts, so it's safe to assume that the geopolitical situation hasn't really changed apart from the formation of the international peacekeeping taskforce COMPASS as a joint effort by ORB, the PLANTs, and the Atlantic Federation.