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GSD News: "Wings of Words", by CHEMISTRY, the 4th GSD OP, is scheduled to start playing in Episode 38.
According to Takeda Seiji - MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting System) producer for Gundam SEED / Gundam SEED Destiny and voice actor for King T@KED@ Meer Campbell's manager - Lacus Clyne becomes the key in Gundam SEED Destiny.
An anime magazine reporter's [subjective] view:
After Freedom falls, Archangel goes missing, too, it is as if the remaining obstacle is Lacus Clyne. The chairman, it seems, faces his target, Lacus, in space.
Thoughts: This isn't a surprise. Considering Lacus is practically a goddess, it was bound to turn this way. And please don't mind any bitterness you might sense from the way I'm saying this. I'm just disappointed in the way they write other female characters - its like they have no use at all unless they're Lacus. Lacus should be allowed to do something useful, but her being deemed the sole "key" to this war's end bothers me.
In other news, I think they're going to start showing Athrun/Cagalli in a new eyecatch starting maybe ep 36.
Speaking of Athrun and Cagalli: Some people - some of the most devoted asucaga fans I know included - say they will never feel comfortable around each other again after episode 24-25, and they cannot realistically see, after what transpired in those episodes, Athrun and Cagalli getting back together and living happily ever after.
My take on it:
I really do think it'll be very awkward at first, and it'll take a while for them to feel truly comfortable around each other again, but I think, since they love each other, they really could make the relationship work again. Love isn't always enough to make a relationship work, of course, but I think they'll be unhappier without each other than they would be with each other. The relationship won't be as happy as it could've been, but I still think they could get somewhat of a happy ending - something like Lacus/Kira.
Kira will always have the memory of Fllay in the back of his mind - and while I don't believe Kira loved Fllay (even though he definitely did feel something for her), her memory will certainly leave a shadow lying over the relationship between Lacus and Kira. However Lacus and Kira will have moved on and they'll be together. And they'll be happy together. Just not as happy as they could've been. But then, nobody in the CE universe, really, can have truly happy endings, or come out as happy and carefree as they might've once been.
This doesn't mean, of course, I'm happy with the way they dealt with Athrun/Cagalli. There's no denying they ruined Athrun and Cagalli, as both individuals and as a couple. The angst thrown in the way of Athrun/Cagalli was, for me, senseless, while the angst thrown in the way of Lacus/Kira was understandable. Lacus/Kira was a relationship about healing, and Fllay/Kira was there to act as a counter relationship. Because it was something that might've kept Lacus and Kira apart, but it was also something that sort of drew them together.
While I think the engagement between Cagalli and Jona was a great plot device, should've been there to serve to threaten Athrun and Cagalli's relationship BUT draw Athrun and Cagalli closer together as opposed to further apart. I think Athrun didn't necessarily have to go back to ZAFT at all and he could've stayed there beside Cagalli's side, if just for a bit longer, and tried to help her prevent the wedding the best he could, even if doing so would seem hopeless. (Had Athrun never gone back to ZAFT at all, it certainly would've saved us recycled Athrun/Kira angst, and might've given Shinn more screentime, which he needed.)
But no, there had to be a wedding, which was quite unnecessary because we already knew the Seirans were evil bitches and we already knew Cagalli wasn't a stellar politician. The only point there really was to the wedding was to drive Athrun and Cagalli apart. And while I find relationships where two people can love and be with each other despite distance, time, and everything else that is thrown in their way to be the most meaningful and lasting ones, the writers went about writing AsuCaga the wrong way and weakened their ties instead of strengthening them. (In summary, even though I think asucaga was bound to have problems from the start, I feel the writers went overboard.)
However, I think that if Athrun and Kira could forgive each other for killing each other's close friends, Athrun could forgive Cagalli for the wedding, gradually but surely. After all, people in real life have forgiven their significant others for much worse things. And even though it'll probably take an even longer time for Cagalli to forgive herself, I think gradually but surely she will. Since Kira seemed to come to terms with the fact that he was responsible for Nicol's death, I think she could do it, if Athrun and Cagalli work on the relationship together and hold onto it. And since Athrun and Kira were able to salvage their relationship, despite the really bad drift from one another, I am 100% sure that (unless Athrun gets killed) Athrun and Cagalli can still be together, and they can still be happy together. In fact, I think its very likely they might even show a wedding version 2 in Ep 50.
All in all? I don't think Athrun and Cagalli are going to have the happiest of happy endings. But at the same time, I don't think Athrun and Cagalli are going to necessarily have an unhappy ending either. And I think they really will be with each other in the end.