War Makes Weapons of Everyone: Military Power in Gundam SEED
Gundam SEED does not treat the military as a simple space of heroes and villains. Across SEED, Destiny, and Freedom, soldiers, commanders, civilians, symbols, and manufactured weapons reveal how war turns people into tools before asking whether they can become whole again....
https://roxxivalentine.com/2026/07/04/military-power-gundam-seed-soldiers-commanders-weapons/
Gundam SEED: The Uncomfortable Truth of Youth in War
Gundam SEED is not only about teenagers piloting mobile suits. It is about propaganda, grief, nationalism, and adult-made wars that turn young people into soldiers, symbols, and tools. From Kira and Athrun to Shinn, Lunamaria, Meyrin, Yzak, and Dearka, SEED asks what militarized youth costs....
https://roxxivalentine.com/2026/06/30/gundam-seed-children-weapons-propaganda/
Alex Dino: no I am not the famous war criminal hero whose father was the former head of ZAFT. What is a Jachin Due. Why is this silver-haired man I have definitely never met before trying to ragebait me.
*10 minutes later*
Takes off sunglasses: it is I, Athrun Zala, former ZAFT elite pilot who may or may not have defected at the end of the war for reasons unknown to even myself. Yes I will be joining the war again. Yes I will be returning to ZAFT. Yes I will probably defect to the other side again it's whatever.
Flay Allster, like Athrun Zala, is inherently a "good person"
Flay and Athrun, in my view, are more structurally similar than they are usually given credit for. Both can be read as inherently “good people,” but the story frames and develops them in very different ways, which heavily affects how they are judged.
When I brought up the double standards in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and mentioned that Flay is written as Athrun's counterpart on a community app, fans were quick to downvote and shoot down the idea. Some were quick to defend Athrun and point out that Flay was an awful person, that she was manipulative and wanted genocide, and “How dare you compare Flay to Athrun!”, as though being associated with Flay was the biggest insult imaginable.
So basically, what I learned is that that place is not the best place for minority opinion and discussion. But I stand my ground.
The comparison is not meant to demean Athrun (though you are free to take it however you wish). It is intended to understand the characters, especially Flay Allster and her polarizing behavior. Obviously, Athrun does not need defending.
Double standards are real. Flay is still criticized even today, even though she was literally written as a sacrificial, disposable character, yet still functions as Athrun's counterpart in a story that is ultimately centered on Kira's morality.
Their journeys share striking parallels. Though they come from opposing sides of the war (OMNI and ZAFT), both previously lived in neutral colonies (Copernicus and Heliopolis), both lost a beloved parent to the opposing side (Lenore and George), and both became radicalized enough to volunteer for military service.
From there, each becomes emotionally entangled with Kira, resulting in mutual harm, both outward and inward (through Nicol for Athrun and Sai for Flay) and collateral damage to Kira's Orb friends (Tolle and Sai), ultimately forcing them to reevaluate their beliefs. Both also lose a fiancé or fiancée (Sai and Lacus) as a consequence of Kira and their own radical ideals.
Eventually, they return to a figurative father figure they once trusted (Patrick and Rau), only to discover that they have been misled or betrayed. Both are literally shot by those figures before carrying out an act of redemption.
Why Athrun Is the correct comparison
Fans jumping in to defend Athrun and saying it is “not proper” to compare him to Flay is exactly where the double standards appear. Athrun is precisely the correct point of comparison because they were written for essentially the same narrative purpose, except Flay was burdened with far more negative symbolism due to the show's underrepresentation of the Earth side.
Someone mentioned that half a dozen characters in the series have several surface-level similarities, and I agree. Similarities and recurring patterns exist throughout the cast because every character serves a specific narrative function. However, no one else in the show shares the same combination of narrative beats and character arc that Athrun and Flay do.
The argument that “Flay is a bad person” overlooks several things. On top of being a disposable character and a plot device used to move the story forward, she is given very little agency. She is not given a mobile suit, does not have an army behind her or allies to support her, gets kidnapped, is thrown into shuttles, and is framed as a villainous Atlantic Federation citizen. She is also the only character close to Kira's circle who is openly prejudiced—likely because the show avoids portraying characters like Mu or Natarle as overtly prejudiced while still keeping them as “good” characters, as that would humanize the Atlantic Federation side.
This results in Flay's characterization being shaped in a way that allows other characters to appear more morally upright while still giving Kira personal motivation.
She acts out of fear and trauma, yet is reduced to the role of a “crazy, disposable ex” before the “true love” arrives. Flay was intentionally written to be hated and then discarded, not because she was a “bad person.” In nearly every scene she appears in, other characters are reacting negatively to her actions, guiding the audience toward condemning her and sympathizing with Kira’s moral perspective rather than allowing viewers to form that judgment independently.
The Atlantic Federation and anti-Coordinator sentiment are portrayed as evil and wrong largely because Kira himself is a Coordinator, plain and simple. But has the majority stopped to ask why they are depicted and behave like cartoonish villains? Probably not, because the narrative is structured to present Coordinators and the PLANT side more favorably.
Athrun was not an asshole
Another argument was that the parallel doesn’t really work because, ultimately, their motivations, arcs, and methods are too dissimilar. Athrun didn’t cheat on Lacus like Flay did with Sai (she clearly broke things off with him). At his worst, Athrun wanted Kira specifically to die (so, like Flay?), as opposed to wanting to manipulate a third party into explicit genocide (yet Kira did not take the discharge papers; he signed up for war and was going to go out there regardless, which raises the question of how this is meaningfully dissimilar to Athrun’s primary objective?).
Athrun’s decision to volunteer for the army meant he was willing to take any number of lives if it would achieve ZAFT's goal (also, imminent genocide). What stood in his way was Kira.
The key here is timing.
When we first see Athrun at Heliopolis, he is already partway through his character arc, so we never get to experience the ugliest effects of war through him; Athrun’s worst version is intentionally never fully displayed, while Flay’s arc is just about to begin.
Kira functions as a destabilizing force for both characters, influencing their emotional and ideological trajectories.
Athrun's friendship with Kira changes how the audience perceives his actions, framing them as "the tragedy of friends fighting each other." As a result, this friendship narrative softens the audience’s perception of his participation in military operations, his repeated attacks on the Archangel, his attempts to destroy it along with its crew, and his contribution to ZAFT’s wartime objectives.
Had the radicalized Athrun not encountered Kira at Heliopolis, Murrue would be dead, and he might have become an unstoppable killing machine.
Setting aside the show's obvious bias, despite being on opposite sides of the war, both started in neutral territory, became radicalized, were drawn toward violence, and eventually moved away from that mindset. The point is that Flay, like Athrun, is inherently a "good person."
