Best Girl Winning (Gundam Seed 13)

Episode 13 is traditionally a climax of some sort, and this doesn't disappoint. The main event is a full-on set-piece fleet battle, Earth forces struggling desperately to cover the Archangel against an assault from all four captured suits. Power-level-wise it's somewhat questionable - wasn't the Archangel alone holding off these same foes until recently, and won't it do so again shortly? - but visually it's a wonderful spectacle: the full fleet pouring out streams of tracers, hopelessly outclassed by the suits.

There's slight disappointment in the descent physics with the engines firing the wrong way (can you tell I've been playing Kerbal Space Program?). More serious are the military matters, but I'm honestly not sure what to think here - Badriguel's conduct evidently amounts to gross insubordination (again), but Ramius must realize that her attention to Kira was dereliction of her own duties. It makes quite a contrast from the tough realist we were originally introduced to, and honestly the transition is pretty jarring.

The main transition this episode though is Kira's - and, more generally, ours - and this the show manages smoothly. Le Creuset has always been more militaristic than those around him, and his decision to sink fleeing ships (with the historical nod of the Belgrano) is perfectly in character. So too is Yzak's frustration and impulsiveness, as cheap as it inevitably feels to have a character murder civilians. While there were those who wanted war and those who did not, there is no grand conspiracy at work here: just random threads of fate that come together one way or another.

The last and strongest thread, as always, is the red one. Flay honestly does everything right here - daring first to try to fly the gundam (though I wish we could see what would have happened had Kira not arrived), and then leaping further with Kira than many a romance-animé heroine manages in a whole series. There's a wonderful touch of ambiguity after, as we see her putting a finger to her lips in thought - is this the next step in her dastardly plot, or is she genuinely falling for Kira (who, let's not forget, she had some feelings for all along)? Does it even matter?

I remember enough to know this relationship is doomed. But for the time being I am genuinely, unironically cheering them, and hoping against hope that this time will somehow be different.

Home