Seed Destiny: Is it really that bad? Not really.

[Outsider]

I'm watching Destiny BD remaster now, 6th episode and I'm finding it pretty legit so far.
Far far better than Turn A or Reconguista in G. Yes it does relies on stock footage A LOT but at least said stock footage is something good unlike say Wing or G fighter.
Nowhere near Tekketsu of course, but still for something regarded as the worst Gundam entry it begins pretty strong.
When it all goes downhill? When they bring Kira back into action?

Updating with my final impression:

Originally posted by me:

Ok now that I finished it, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as people make it out to be.
It's worth noting that I watched BD remastered version, which according to various sources adds and improves quite a lot, compared to TV version, which was a huge mess that earned this particular entry it's horrible reputation.

My biggest complaints are obscene amounts of stock footage, right down to using the same scenes for different suits and battles, reusing footage from Destiny and even using stock footage for conversations.
Another gripe is how little action several suits see.
Savior, Waltfeld's Murasame, Neo's Windam only appear a couple of times and never do anything cool or important.

As far as plot and characters go, it's clear cut and formulaic, but nowhere near as bad as some people in this topic say.
For once Kira is not all that overpowered, and usually struggles when fighting named pilots. He also spends good amount of time pondering and doubting himself and whether it's right or wrong to oppose Gilbert.
Athrun, Ray and Meer are all great characters, and I enjoyed scenes and dialogues with them the most.
Gilbert is magnificent antagonist and never comes across as an actual villain, if anything I think his Destiny Plan made perfect sense and Kira's gang being Senator Armstrong in this situation playing might makes right card and denied humanity safe and peaceful future.

It's never elaborated upon whether Destiny Plan would prevent people from enjoying hobbies, competitive sports and recreations, which is the weakest part of the writing.
Kira opposes Gil on principle, but it's never stated whether humanity would be plunged into classic sci-fi Dystopia or would actually improve the world.

Music and mech designs were great, late episodes action was fluid and exciting, even if still relying on stock footage way too much and overall this show surprised me a lot.

I would recommend watching it to anybody with even passing interest in gundam franchise, along with its prequel. But only BD Remasters, as it's the only good versions.
That being said, the first impression is the most important, and I don't expect people who watched TV version and hating it to change their opinions.
If anything show's moderately popular in Japan, and Seed/Destiny units see frequent appearances in cross overs and video games, which is very good.

[Tarsier]

Yes. Yes it is that bad.
It's built off of Seed, which is bland but inoffensive if you're fine with MSG But Gribblies designs, and then retcons whatever the ♥♥♥♥ they feel like, which lead to ♥♥♥♥ like the Seed Remaster replacing Mu's helmet with the Strike's head to try and keep continuity with it. Kira hijacks the plot when he shows up, there's like five clipshows because Terada's wife was lazy with writing the scripts, and the designs take Seed's philosophy and half-ass the gribblies.

[Ralen]

Destiny is essentially Zeta Gundam and having it mate with a turd. It’s horrendously stupid with its plot and characters. Shinn Asuka could very well be the worst protagonist in a gundam series. He has all the cons of Kamille and none of his pros.

He does not evolve as a character throughout the series and arguably becomes even more stupid. It’s so bad that halfway through the story Sunrise just makes Kira the protagonist again because “God Yamato” and Shinn is relegated as a reject failure.

The villains are absolutely stupid and their motivations are illogical and laughable. Other than some nice mobile suit designs and flashy animations, Destiny is not worth the time of day. Much like Seed, Destiny is just a pale imitation of the source material it attempts to copy.

Seed and Destiny made Gundam popular again in Japan, but that’s really the only positive those series contributed to the franchise. Everything else is trash.

[ColdTouch]

From past to today top 3 of most successfull animes are:
3. Gundam Seed with nearly 800.000 copies sold
2. Gundam Seed Destiny with over 900.000 copies sold
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion with nearly 1.000.000 copies sold
world wide.

About Kira...i don't want to spoil you... just saying, that you should continue to watch it :)

Note: List of most successfull mangas is different to animes

[Yakasuki]

It's pretty bad expecially with all the potential with shinn that they just threw away and gave to kira for no reason. Honestly seed was pretty average but destiny is just a ♥♥♥♥ show. Half of the characters regress and things that made sense before don't make sense in destiny.

Edit: If you want anything good from seed, Astray and Stargazer are the way to go. Really the only good things from the Cosmic Era that are worth watching.

[Spamroach]

Only thing I liked about the SEED/SD series was plenty of action scenes. Other than that take note of all the bad things everyone else is mentioning. I agree with them on those things.

[Splinterfuzz]

It's not the best gundam but it's better than SD Gundam or G-Gundam, and certainly better than Reconguista in G...

[Sparse Dunes]

As soon as kira decides to show his prick ass face, it goes down.

Astray is the best in the CE timeline IMO.

[Zeorymer - Battling Cancer]

Trombe:

SEED Destiny was meant to be the "Zeta Gundam" for the SEED universe, taking homages and certain situations from show it was paying homage too and putting a SEED spin on it.

The first half of the series isn't bad, it's decent. However, half way into the show, things become VERY questionable and then you begin to shake your head.

With that in mind, I will not spoil, but the most I can say is watch the show at your pace, and either enjoy it or not, since you are watching it and opinions will vary.

[Axxel]

In total honesty, I watched Destiny and didn't really mind it at all.
For sure, it didn't stick with me for long afterward, it didn't have many memorable moments in it. Nothing about it was so to say "good", but I didn't find much of it to be as bad as people say. I can understand that people have different opinions, this one be mine.

I found Shinn sort of interesting to sit in the "protagonist" role. I felt like the fact that he was an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and rather unlikable was the reason it was interesting to see it centered around him, but still have the existing characters from the previous series. It created this bit of unusual situation where I was watching fights where the main character deserves to lose, but has some degree of plot armour, so I found it vaguely interesting.

Also, maybe just me, but I really liked a ton of the MS design in Destiny. The Destiny itself is a very cool MS, not very original but hey, giant sword and cannon, glowing light wings? Cool.
The Akatsuki is a cool, literally golden MS, and I thought the Legend was a cooler looking version of Providence.

But again, all my opinion. I didn't think it was very good, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near as poor as people make it out to be. Can't stress enough, it's an opinion. Don't flame me people.

[Chizu]

I thought SEED and Destiny were both awful. In terms of the characters and a fairly meh plot.
I watched it for the Gundams and battle scenes. The drama was painful.
It just happens to have some pretty cool robots doing some pretty cool things when everyones not being a whiny ♥♥♥♥♥ :D

[Adachi Ame]

Originally posted by Splinterfuzz:

It's not the best gundam but it's better than G-Gundam

Erm G Gundam is not bad though. It's campy and cheesy, but to put it even the same leagues as Seed Destiny and Reconguista G, really just kind of puts into question your fandom identity. Cause, mate, G Gundam is Awesome. Though you are probably one of THOSE types, who LOVE your war stories and hate everything else that ain't them. G Gundam is awesome because it truly represents the corny and dorky side of the Gundam Series.

[Tarsier]

Originally posted by Adachi Ame:

Originally posted by Splinterfuzz:

It's not the best gundam but it's better than G-Gundam

Erm G Gundam is not bad though. It's campy and cheesy, but to put it even the same leagues as Seed Destiny and Reconguista G, really just kind of puts into question your fandom identity. Cause, mate, G Gundam is Awesome. Though you are probably one of THOSE types, who LOVE your war stories and hate everything else that ain't them. G Gundam is awesome because it truly represents the corny and dorky side of the Gundam Series.

If he's got ♥♥♥♥ taste, he's got ♥♥♥♥ taste. Judging him for disliking the wrong series will just lead to ♥♥♥♥ that the Transformers community of all people make fun of.

[Adachi Ame]

Originally posted by Trombe:

I'm watching Destiny BD remaster now, 6th episode and I'm finding it pretty legit so far.
Far far better than Turn A or Reconguista in G. Yes it does relies on stock footage A LOT but at least said stock footage is something good unlike say Wing or G fighter.
Nowhere near Tekketsu of course, but still for something regarded as the worst Gundam entry it begins pretty strong.
When it all goes downhill? When they bring Kira back into action?

Also it's more so what needs to happen is them giving us Seed Astray/Seed Destiny Astray. Cause it is a crime that it hasn't been givin it's own proper animated series. In terms of Quality Astray REALLY does surpass the main seed anime series in terms of quality overall.

[Tarsier]

Originally posted by Adachi Ame:

Originally posted by Trombe:

I'm watching Destiny BD remaster now, 6th episode and I'm finding it pretty legit so far.
Far far better than Turn A or Reconguista in G. Yes it does relies on stock footage A LOT but at least said stock footage is something good unlike say Wing or G fighter.
Nowhere near Tekketsu of course, but still for something regarded as the worst Gundam entry it begins pretty strong.
When it all goes downhill? When they bring Kira back into action?

Also it's more so what needs to happen is them giving us Seed Astray/Seed Destiny Astray. Cause it is a crime that it hasn't been givin it's own proper animated series. In terms of Quality Astray REALLY does surpass the main seed anime series in terms of quality overall.

That ain't hard to do, and undersells how actually really good the manga where the protagonist makes a giant katana larger than a ship, and then a power loader for his Astray to wield it with, is.

[Adachi Ame]

Originally posted by Tarsier:

Originally posted by Adachi Ame:

Also it's more so what needs to happen is them giving us Seed Astray/Seed Destiny Astray. Cause it is a crime that it hasn't been givin it's own proper animated series. In terms of Quality Astray REALLY does surpass the main seed anime series in terms of quality overall.

That ain't hard to do, and undersells how actually really good the manga where the protagonist makes a giant katana larger than a ship, and then a power loader for his Astray to wield it with, is.

Yeah, that is over the top silly. It's more so done so other groups don't get their hands on the materials. So mean why not make something only you would really use?