# The End of the Beginning (Gundam Seed 21) So, farewell then, Wartfeld. Honestly I wasn't expecting to lose him so soon - his popularity belies how few episodes he's present for. Like Lancer in *Fate/Stay Night*, he turns up, acts very cool, and dies before he can start to grate. This is a return not just to plot but to action - something I feel predictably lukewarm about. Done well, a fight pushes characters to their limits and reveals hidden facets of themselves. We see Badriguel's desire to win at any cost, Ramius holding her back. We see Cagalli's frustration at her own powerlessness finally explode into hijacking her allies' plane, and similarly Yzak ignores his orders (both actions that stretch the bounds of plausibility - at this point I've just accepted that military discipline is different in this universe). The trouble is none of this is new. Every character is doing what we'd expect of them - and while consistent characterization is good, we're not learning anything. In this whole battle it feels like there was not one important decision, not one place where the outcome hung in the balance and could have turned out very differently. Even Wartfeld's death felt like the inevitable result of his character and his actions before this point - he cannot return in failure, but neither can he stand to kill Kira, so this is the only route that remains. So while in a strict sense this episode advanced the plot - Wartfeld was alive before, and is dead now - in another sense it feels like we haven't made any progress. I'm actually looking forward to the coming beach episode - it seems likely to contain more meaningful developments than this one. Plus, Best Girl returns. ![](/eob.jpg) [Home](/) <div id="disqus_thread"></div> comments powered by Disqus