Since my normal image supplier couldn't get episode 49 pictures posted fast enough, I decided to combine the last two episodes into one big ending review. As a result, the images are all from Episode 50 (Final Phase), but rest assured, I did watch both episodes. SPOILERS AHOY!

Summaries:
49 - Preintro, the respective fleets move into position for the final battle. If the Archangel, Eternal and the fleet fail to take down Requiem, Dullindal's Destiny Plan will likely come to fruition. Each group sends out its mobile suits (minus Destiny and Legend). Kira and Athrun take off, attach to METEOR units and head towards the ZAFT fleet. Lacus throws the ZAFT fleet into confusion, until an officer takes charge, calling the enemy fleet "The last bits of LOGOS's followers." After the standard opening, Kira and Athrun tear into the ZAFT fleet around the first deflector. The Orb/Mixed Fleet engages the ZAFT defense forces. Minerva, ordered to a defense position, moves to engage Archangel, while Yzak and Dearka, in command of a ZAFT ship, move to join up with Archangel. Dullindal has a little talk with Shinn and Rey on board Messiah, talking about how the war has come to this. Shinn seems confused by all that is going on, but Rey's admission that he is a clone and that Dullindal will depend on Shinn to help protect his new world under the Destiny Plan seems to convince Shinn to support the Chairman. Meanwhile, as the battle continues, Neo launches with the LF Trio to fight. Lunamaria launches in Impulse from Minerva and moves to engage the Eternal. As she closes in, with doubts in her mind, Meyrin contacts her via radio and asks why she is attacking. While Luna is paused, confused, she is attacked by the Lacus Faction Trio. Minerva fires on Archangel with its Tannhauser, but Neo intercepts (just like Mwu did in SEED) and suddenly, he remembers his past. Meanwhile, with the help of Dearka and Yzak, Kira and Athrun destroy the deflector. Of course, all seems to be in vain, as Messiah reveals a Neo-Genesis cannon (like Genesis from SEED) that fires on the fleet. At the same time, Destiny and Legend launch while Neo-Genesis and Requiem continue to recharge. With two weapons to stop, Kira and Athrun move to engage Rey and Shinn, and the final battle begins.

50 - At the beginning, Rey and Kira face off while Shinn and Athrun continue their previous battle. Minerva continues to follow Archangel as the Orb fleet moves towards Requiem and Messiah. From that point, there are numerous battles, including Mwu engaging the ZAFT defenders, Archangel vs. Minerva, Lunamaria vs. the Orb grunts. Athrun in Justice encounters Luna in Impulse. Angry over Athrun involving Meyrin, Luna attacks Athrun, but Impulse is no match for the veteran pilot. Athrun is trying not to do too much damage to Impulse, but Destiny comes flying in to protect Luna, with Shinn going SEED to engage Athrun. Kira continues to fight Rey, who reveals he is the clone of Rau Le Creuset, the pilot who fought Kira at the end of SEED. Athrun engages Shinn, but when Athrun asks Shinn if he wants to see the world destroyed, Luna realizes that they shouldn't be fighting, and moves to block Destiny from reaching Justice. Shinn is confused with visions of his dead sister and Stellar, and seems about to destroy Impulse, when Athrun goes SEED, blocks Shinn's attack, and heavily damages Destiny, which crashes on the moon. Luna takes Impulse down to take care of Shinn. Archangel and Minerva heavily damage each other before Archangel and Justice take out Minerva's engines, causing it to crash. Kira tells Rey that he doesn't just have to be a clone - his life is his own to live, and while Rey processes that information, Kira heavily damages Legend. Neo-genesis fires on the fleets, destroying several Orb and ZAFT ships (which were too close together to get away). Athrun and Mwu work together to take out Requiem before it can fire, while Kira links Strike Freedom with the METEOR and goes to take out Messiah and Neo-Genesis. The Orb fleet fires on Messiah, and Kira heads inside to confront Dullindal, followed by Rey. Inside, Kira and the Chairman debate points of view at gunpoint, with Kira emphasizing he's willing to take risk on future conflict for people to have a future. Hearing this, Rey also pulls a gun. Talia also arrives at Messiah during this time. In a flurry of events, a gunshot fires - Rey has fired on the Chairman, shooting him in the chest. Talia rushes to Dullindal while Rey breaks down saying "I didn't want to, but he wanted us to have a future, and he's right..." Talia orders Kira off the station by waving her gun, telling him to tell Murrue that she has a son she wants Murrue to meet someday. As Kira escapes, we have a bizarre image of a broken family: Dullindal, Talia, and Rey, with Rey crying on Talia's shoulder saying "Mother..." As Messiah crashes into the moon, Luna and Shinn watch in horror while the Orb fleet watches the destruction in silence.

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I don't know where quite to begin. When I first started watching Destiny, I had such high hopes for the series. As I sit today, I can say I found the ending disappointing, but it wasn't because the series was horrible, but because of lost potential, and more to the point, it felt rushed.

Other people have debated the focus of characters, and to some degree, I'll rehash some of those same points. I think Destiny suffered from a number of flaws. First, it really did have too many characters. I'll openly admit, I was a big fan of the SEED crew and wanted to see them back, but there were too many of them to focus on AND have another crew to develop. I found the idea of Athrun as a mentor figure to Shinn to be intriguing. I'll openly admit, at times Kira didn't seem to have much direction - he seemed to be thrown in as a bone to the fans, but here I disagree with many Gundam fans who say he should not have been included. It's too much to expect that a war only a few years later would not draw in the people from the first series. In that respect, Kira was needed, and it would have been hard to believe that he or Lacus would just vanish and not participate. From that perspective, had I done the series, I would have alternated back and forth between the two crews each episode (Archangel and Minerva) showing how each of them think and what they believe.

The second flaw, and I think the biggest, is that a story should either change the characters involved, or show why they didn't change as a sort of tragic flaw. In the end of GSD, what characters have really changed?

Athrun - He hasn't really changed from the end of SEED. It would have been more fitting for him to have confronted the Chairman on board Requiem, as he had known him far longer and had such internal conflict with what the Chairman thought. Athrun might be slightly older and wiser, but he didn't have to change a lot to make it through the series, he just repeated his thought process in SEED.

Shinn - He's still angry, and still has no answers. In the end, his world was still taken away from him. Were that the direction I think they intended for the character, I would have been fine with that. Remember, I said that a character didn't have to change because he was tragically flawed. Shinn is a flawed character in that he can't get past his anger, despite what people have done for him. Because of that, he should have died at the end of the series, because all he has now is Luna's love (and I can't even really be sure of that). e didn't avenge his family or learn to accept their death, he didn't change the world for the better (in his mind) and so many have died that he'll likely endlessly blame himself.

Kira and Lacus - While one might argue that they now accept that they cannot just slip back into the shadows and ignore the problems of the world, I don't see this as a major change.

There were some characters who did change - although most of them were ancillary

Mwu - being alive is a BIG change

Murrue - having Mwu alive is a BIG change

Cagalli - has accepted her role as leader of ORB

Meyrin - Arguably one of the most developed characters

Too many main characters didn't change enough.

The third and final flaw I'll pick out is that we didn't get a greater moral struggle. I think the Chairman, while wrong, offered many interesting points, and early on in GSD, it was fun to try and come up with counter-arguments for the things he wanted. However, towards the end, his use of WMDs to impose his will sort of rendered his philosophical argument moot. How much more effective for the plot would it have been if he had tried to convince Lacus and Kira that he was working for a better world and peace. Think of how conflicted the characters could have been and the potential for inner struggle.

What we got was incomplete: too many plot threads were rushed, forgotten, or dropped. Characters were underused, underexplained, or not developed enough. In the end, what was the purpose of having Mwu be Djibril's lead man? For that matter, what was the point of having poorly trained pilots like Stellar and company? Was Djibril just dancing to Dullindal's marrionette strings? So many questions - so little time.

We do have a 40 min OVA in February. I'm hoping this gives some finality to the CE universe and doesn't lead to a third series. There was so much potential for GSD, and while I don't think the series was a waste of my time, it could have been so much more.