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September 11, 2005
Gundam Seed Destiny episode 47 (review) - "Meer"
No tropical storm for me, and a new episode of Destiny to review! Saturdays can be great days sometimes.
Summary:
We enter with Meer's death, having sacrificed her life to protect Lacus Clyne. Arriving at Archangel, Athrun carries her lifeless body to lay to rest while the crew thinks about what she has done for Lacus. Meanwhile, Lacus digs through Meer's purse and finds Meer's digital diary, entitled "Progress Report". In it, Meer gives the story of her conversion and making into a copy of the pop idol Lacus. Meer has many difficulties to overcome, since Lacus never really sang in public on the television, and she also has some thoughts on Athrun Zala. Around this point, Athrun walks off, and Kira follows, while Lacus and Meyrin continue to read the diary. Having gained new understanding into Meer the person, the crew of the Archangel lays her to rest. Just then, Chairman Dullindal begins a public address, announcing that the solution to the world's constant march to war is the mysterios Destiny Plan, which involves genetics and a hierarchy of ability and best-fit-skills.
It seems very odd to take a step back, and as I have said before, I'm not against the exploration of the life of Meer, as her tortured existence at the end was interesting enough to merit a look. My problem is pacing: if they were going to have this episode, the Meer part should have replaced one of the recap-clipshow episodes, rather than being 4 episodes from the end of the series. Come to think of it, we could have had an interesting episode entitled "Origins and Beginnings", where we would have examined the origin of Meer and Rey, while also covering how Mwu survived to become Neo. That would have helped us out a great deal, and I wouldn't feel so cheated of necessary background development.
Most of the revelations about Meer aren't as much surprising as just sad. She's literally a barbie doll for the Chairman to use as his political pawn. Dress her up, have her sing, speak a few words. The problem with his plan: Meer is a living, thinking person. It's just fortunate for him that she didn't wise up to him earlier.
Other than the background, it seems the point of this episode is to give Lacus one more personal motivation to dislike Dullindal and his methods.... but then, she doesn't really need one as the Chairman begins to unveil the Destiny Plan. Although I expect more details next week, it seems (as suspected) that the Destiny Plan includes the determination of your genetic makeup and using that to determine your lot in life. So, this series is combining Gattaca with Revenge of the Sith and Top Gun - I jest, but only slightly.
As is typical for most of SEED and SEED Destiny's plans, the details are a bit nebulous, but I guess next week is suppossed to finish up the description. Until then, I join Kira, Lacus and the AA crew in looking angry.... very angry...
Posted by Drylnn at September 11, 2005 01:05 AM