Face it, Gundam SEED underachieves ...
As per the request of someone I will not name, I have been asked to list the reasons why Gundam SEED isn't as good as some people have claimed to be. While I don't think SEED is the worst Gundam franchise ever (as Gundam Wing and G-Saviour would cover that ground), but there are major issues that I found quite troubling ... of course, if you don't want to be spoiled or if you are easily offended by "different opinions", don't look further :P (The list itself was a quote that I made in an IRC chat, but I added my explanation due to the quoting system in the IRC bot has a limit on characters)
a) Rehashed plot during the first half - Other than the lack of a death within the Zala family ranks in the hands of some "rogue" member in the ZAFT organization, everything pretty much resembles Mobile Suit Gundam in the first half, and it didn't even try to be different ... as for the ORB arc, it reminds me of Gundam X's portion where the Freeden crew had to defend a couple of small nations against the New Federation among its three lunatics. And let's not forget the stolen Gundams except with much crappier security. God, the more I write on this part, the more Gundam SEED resembles MSG and Gundam X ...
b) Frey - She is just an annoying bitch that should've been dead in episode one ...
c) Copped out ending - While SEED's plot improved by a wide margin after the first half, but the ending just didn't quite cut it ... it felt like a weird mix between Zeta (the kill 'em all treatment to some of the characters), F-91 (having Kira floating out in space a la Cecily), and Gundam X (a small faction fighting two large opposing armies and have the two large armies reach a peace deal after suffering major losses)
d) Frey - She should've been in the civilian shuttle and be shot down by Yzak too >>; (no offense to the civilians that were the victims of Yzak's war-criminal like behaviour, but Frey really should just die)
e) Ugly mecha designs - While Gundam is supposed to be about the characters that are involved in a war, but mecha is also an important factor since Bandai/Sunrise would at least make money from some merchandising. However, there is a very big problem ... most of the designs are just UGLY!!! While the first five Gundams ranged from okay to good, but the Gundams that have been introduced later (save Freedom after the redesign for the Master Grade) are just ridiculous. I honesty don't know that kind of grass was Okawara smoking, but they are either downright ugly and/or have overcompensating backpacks on them like if they lack something. If you are going to sell models, at least make better designs so you can actually sell them!? >>; (I am not even going to bother with the non-Gundam designs, that might take another full page)
f) Frey - She is a manipulative bitch that uses Kira like some kind of a tool.
g) Episodes wasted on clip shows instead of more plot - While it would be fine to have around one or two episodes for a fifty episode series to let some of the viewers to catch up. However, Gundam SEED has not one, not two, but FOUR episodes on clip shows. If at least two of them were used instead to develop the plot and characters further, the ending would've not been such a let down.
h) Frey - She talks too much for her own good.
i) "Anime Stock Footage Festival" - Gundam SEED has probably the highest use of stock footages and flashbacks in my recent memory. And the amount pretty much exceeds either Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing, or Macross 7. Let's face it, do we need the fact that Nichol is dead to be hammered into our brain TEN TIMES? I don't recall that I couldn't pay attention to his death.
j) Frey - She should've been killed by CYCLOPS instead of being captured by Le Creuset in Operation Spitbreak.
k) The lamest reason to have a character to switch sides EVER - If you are going to have a character to defect just because the Gundam he is associated with does not sell, you know there is something wrong. Too bad there isn't any statistics taken after the switch has taken place, I would love to see that ploy fail in style.
l) Frey - She should've been killed by Le Creuset when she couldn't prepare coffee for him properly.
m) "I can't design more than one face" Hirai - It seems that the longer he works in Sunrise, the more of his skills in differentiating his characters diminishes. In SEED, thanks to his "random character generator", a lot of characters rather look the same. He should consider go back to art school since many people couldn't even figure out whether Nichol is a guy or not.
n) Have I mentioned Frey? - She dies, yet she has to rip off Lalah's death, she should've just die without haunting Kira. Couldn't she just leave him alone after all the crap she has done to him?
I think that's about it ... let's just pray God that I don't need to think of more reasons later. In serious thought, Gundam SEED had a lot of potential wasted due to the ineptness of Fukuda. If even half of the flaws I named were fixed (ignore the multiple Frey ones, I am only doing that to spite her character), Gundam SEED would've been another watchable AU series. I don't need to have some dubbies to brand me an UCer or something (if I were to be one, I would've just said SEED is pure crap without offering any justifications and possibly burn Turn A Gundam too)
PS. As for that person who asked me to do this, you should be the one watching SEED then give out the flaws yourself ... you and your vendetta ... :P