Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

Okay let's set some information straight right here right now. This story has three chapters however only one of them contains the actual final battle rewrite.
First chapter is a word from the author.
Rest are the actual rewrite.

So anyway...

Word from the Author:

As you all should be well aware, the GSD final battle was nothing more than a steaming piece of crap. No, seriously. It was HORRIBLE! And even though I am currently rewriting GSD right now ( s/8327145/1/Gundam-Seed-Humanitys-Fate), I have always felt the need to address this final battle. In case you actually were happy with the GSD final battle (how...) then I am going to quote and tell you why I think the final battle of GSD sucked.

Review by Chris Guanche October 3, 2005

I don't even know where to really start here. Without a doubt, this is perhaps the most disappointing ending I've ever seen to an anime series. And given the way this just ends, I wonder if the term "ending" is even fitting. Let's start with the most obvious here. Much of this episode is an exact repeat of SEED's ending- Kira and Athrun smash stuff with their METEORs, Kira fights Rau/Rey, and ZAFT superweapons (Requiem and Neo GENESIS) are destroyed. Shinn, who was reduced to nothing more than a barking dog, was beaten quickly by Athrun. Other characters behave in strange ways.

Talia, always the professional captain, displays some strange emotions. What's the point of dying with Durandal, especially when she has a young son? It seems quite selfish of her to abandon her son like that. Also, why did Rey suddenly decide to shoot Durandal? He always put in an effort to make sure Shinn didn't listen to Athrun's nonsense, but then he himself fell victim to Kira's own Gundam protagonist babbling.

When I watched the first episode, I had the idea that Shinn was supposed to be the hero of this series. And he was- at least until Kira came back into the spotlight and stole the series from him. The series was fast-paced and action-packed at first, but that momentum was quickly lost and the story degenerated into what we have now. Shinn, as a protagonist, went nowhere. He started off as an angry guy traumatized by the death of his family. After episode 35, he pretty much became Durandal's dog to help fulfill his plans without thinking for himself. Because of this, Shinn alternately fills the role of hero/villain as the story requires, depending on Kira's presence. In episode 38, Shinn was the good guy during the battle at Heavens Base. At the Orb battle soon after that, he comes across as a villain when he's fighting against Kira and Athrun. During the battle to stop Requiem in 45, Shinn is once again the good guy. In this episode, he's the bad guy again, and on top of that, he loses all his piloting skills.

He's so blinded by meaningless hatred that he even nearly attacks Lunamaria just because he hates Athrun. It's all a shame, because at the beginning, Shinn and Athrun had a pretty good relationship with a mentor-apprentice vibe. That, of course, is long since past. Many people call DESTINY the Zeta Gundam of the CE universe, and they do indeed have some similarities. However, DESTINY didn't emulate one of the most important aspects of Zeta- character balance. In Zeta, Amuro and Char played important roles, but there was never any doubt that Kamille was the star. Here, Shinn is constantly competing for screentime with Athrun and Kira. What's worse is that all the time spent on Athrun and Kira is a waste. For all of Athrun's moping and confusion, he ends up being exactly the same as he was at the end of SEED. Kira doesn't even change at all during the series, because he has no struggle. I don't think things were supposed to develop this way, but it looks like Fukuda and Morosawa decided to change gears in the middle of the story.

Even with the focus on the old SEED cast, guys like Yzak and Dearka are just cast to the side. And Neo/Mu just gets a one second flashback of Djibril standing over him to explain what happened. Fukuda has been nicknamed "Flashback 'Em All" due to his penchant for clip shows and flashbacks. Just as in SEED, the constant clip shows in DESTINY always came at the wrong time and killed the pacing of the story. This resulted in an extremely rushed and subpar final battle and ending. It really is a shame, because the CE universe has lots of potential that is wasted due to Fukuda and Morosawa's mismanagement. This is a perfect example of how not to do a Gundam series, and I sincerely hope that neither of them ever works in another Gundam production. I doubt we'd be so lucky, but one can hope.

I will say right now he was generous. The cannon ending deserved 1 stars out of 5 (cause although GSD is full of stock footage, the soundtrack for battles was good), if anything. He gave it 2/5.

With that in mind, I will warn you right now. If you are a fan of GSD who hates Shinn (and thinks that he will never be as good as Kira or Athrun), thinks that Athrun Zala is the greatest thing since sliced bread (I'll give you a hint, if you're an AxC fan, this probably applies to you), or that Kira wasn't a one-dimensional beamspamming piece of cardboard who obeyed Lacus in the series like a mindless robot, or even if Lacus deserved the power and influence she had in the series, click the backspace symbol in the top left of your screen right now. This. Is. Not. For. You. Period. And you probably won't like it either. There will be character death, and you have been warned. Those who know of my personal bias for certain characters can already guess who dies and who lives. Those are reading my work for the first time, or have just read Thoughts of the Princess may not be as informed and will have to read to find out. I intend to give the true protagonist of GSD the ending he deserved, and I also intend to write fights where the victor is decided by skill, not plot armor. Unfortunetely GSD was already damaged beyond most forms of repair by this time but I'll do my best. To some this will be an improvement, and to others they will think of it as worse than the canon ending... I don't care I'm the author!

Anyway, for those of you who actually intend to read this, I've got some tiny changes/information that you should know.

First of all: Mwu is considered dead. Neo is not him. The Shiranui Akatsuki will be piloted by it's true master: Princess Cagalli Yula Attha. (I'm sure trulyanimelover06 has a smile on her face right now)

Second of all: My final battle starts at around the end of phase 48 and ends at the end of phase 50. That should give you some timeline sense.

Third of all: I intend to play the order of events in a different way. In phase 49 we didn't see Shinn or Rey fight, they talked nonsense with Durandal. Rey and Shinn will come in at around the middle of Phase 49.

Last of all: Cagalli is not rambo. Yes she will fight in the Akatsuki, but (spoilers) she will go up against Shinn 1v1 again and nearly be killed (but it won't be the pitiful fight they had in ORB, she will give Shinn trouble). Yes I am a fan of her, however she's not an ace and nor can she defeat Shinn as far as i'm concerned. This may make her seem weak, but at the same time, the alternative of her beating him would be awful.

So... with all of that out of the way, we now go onto the actual final battle rewrite. Please leave a review if you would kind but no flames please.