January 26, 2005:

You know, there's just one thing keeping Athrun from being a dead man: He isn't a mentor to a younger mecha pilot yet.

Athrun Zala's new mecha: Savior

Think about it. He's got the coolest GUNDAM, he's got girls fawning all over him. He's a high-ranking veteran. He occasionally broods but he's never angsty (this season, anyway). He's got the Big Pimping car. And he's a better pilot than anyone else. All he needs now is for Shinn to start calling him senpai, and you can consider his death warrant signed.

Of course, mere death won't necessarily prevent him from returning in season three as That Masked Man.

March 13, 2005:

Lunamaria Hawke

Gundam SEED Destiny episode 21 is all about the hilarity, the partial nudity, and the shaking your money maker.

March 23, 2005:

Episode 22 of Gundam SEED Destiny introduces a fairly sizable plot hole: If the EAF routinely wipes the memories of its three mysterious elite mobile suit pilots, how can get better? They should be incapable of gaining fighting experience, which should be a substantial liability if they ever fight the same opponents more than once, since they'll use the same tactics and fall for the same feints each time.

Stellar sleeping in her bubble bed.

I suppose one could dismiss the problem by claiming Stellar and company learn by repetition, as per Memento, but that's really kind of a stretch. The only real answer is the memory wipes don't erase fighting ability, just as Bourne retained the ability to kick ass in The Bourne Identity despite losing his memory.

In any case, claiming these three EAF pilots are simply "programmed" to be better should be right out, since it raises the question as to why their abilities aren't maximized outright from the beginning.

Bah. It's all a cop-out anyway, since the show established within the first few episodes that the pilots' memories aren't wiped every single time they are recharged in their little dome beds; they all remembered the first fight with Shinn during the raid, at least. We all know this is really just another excuse to make Shinn crazy.

Anyway, if the show is going to mix in a cheap gimmick like memory wipes, I hope we at least get some mileage out of it by seeing Stellar spin her dumb self off the same damn cliff again—maybe like two or three more times before they stop letting her go outside without wearing one of those Invisible Fence electric collars.

[Edit: I suppose it's less of a problem if one assumes only Stellar gets her memory erased. Sting and Auel certainly remember incidents from earlier in the show, and it somewhat explains why Stellar is such a moron.]

Captain Talia Gladys: Fastest hair in the fleet.

In other news, Talia > Lunamaria > Meyrin > Stellar.