Is there any Gundam SEED fic that is actually good? Or is the entire Gundamverse cursed with excruciatingly terrible writers, with maybe six who can actually write? Please provide recs for stories which are either good or hilariously awful.

Also, what are the Tropes of Fanfic D00M in this series?

(Like, with Gundam Wing (which did have approximately six good writers), everyone else had Duo weeping, attempting or threatening suicide, being tortured, being raped, being drowned when his braid got sucked into a hot tub drain (and then Heero cut it off and wore it as a memorial belt-- I don't know, that could have been a parody); Quatre being a weeping angelic wuss who got called "little one"; fifteen-year-old boy terrorists having lengthy conversations analyzing their emotions in a therapeutic manner; ghastly AUs with werewolves in high school and stuff; and the use of the following epithets: the braided pilot, the [ethnicity] pilot, the amethyst-eyed boy, and the blonde Arabian.)

I think I would be more tolerant of excessive weeping in fic for SEED, though, as there is excessive weeping in canon.

If you have any recs, please note if they contain spoilers for Destiny, which I haven't even started yet.

I'd ask about 00, but I suspect it's too early.

When Gundam SEED opens, war has broken out between the Naturals (non-genetically engineered people) and Coordinators (genetically engineered.) In the first episode, Kira, a Coordinator born to Natural parents, is living with other Naturals when there's an attack. He ends up in a Gundam, re-programs its OS in thirty seconds (genetically engineered for special abilities, remember), and comes face to face with... Athrun Zala, his old Coordinator BFF, now fighting for the Coordinators. OH NOES!

Kira and Athrun end up on opposite sides. There's a lot of angst. Kira's civilian friends and he all end up joining the military on a "legged ship." One of the "friends," Flay, is an extraordinarily annoying girl who basically molests Kira into becoming her boyfriend. She has so far spent every single battle writhing in bed, except for the one where she took someone hostage. I am hoping she will get blown up ASAP.

There is a guy in a bird mask. He is not pompous. Thank God.

There is not much pacifism and very few board meetings. Thank God.

Unfortunately, since we never saw Athrun and Kira interact before everything went to hell, I did not really buy their emotional connection until about episode 27. Generally, my big problem with this show is that I'm watching more for the story and the atmosphere of the DOOM and ANGST of war than for the characters. But there is lots and lots of DOOM and ANGST. Kira in particular has been having a slow-motion mental breakdown for the entire show so far, and it is excellent.

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ETA: rilina is also watching and commenting on the series -- check her LJ for details.

Since we’ve only got a couple more discs to go and we had such fun with Gundam Wing, Yoon and I are considering watching another Gundam or even non-Gundam mecha series. We have two questions:

1. What are the other Gundam series like? There seem to be tons of them— G Gundam, Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny, Turn A Gundam, 00 Gundam, and so forth, and I have no idea what any of them are about or which I’d be likely to enjoy.

seshat did recommend and attempt to describe Gundam Seed, but she did it while I was reading adorable Duo/Quatre doujinshi, and I was a little distracted. And then yhlee watched a few episodes and disliked it. But maybe I'd like it and could watch on my own time, so don't take it out of the running. And I hated the character designs and English dub (subs not available) of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, but maybe Yoon would like it, so ditto.

2. What about non-Gundam mecha series? We have both seen Evangelion and Escaflowne, and Yoon has seen Nadesico. Are there any shoujo mecha series other than Escaflowne?

What we enjoyed about Gundam Wing was the cracktasticness (clown-pants Trowa! Heero and the produce of D00M! Heero attempting suicide every thirty seconds!), the characters, the pilots being insane, the hilarious angst, the affecting angst, the space battles, the Gundams that drive their pilots insane, the intimate relationships between the crazy pilots and their Gundams, the crazy pilots interacting with each other, the way that the war drives everyone crazy, the sometimes excellent plot twists, and the pacing in the sense that a lot of stuff happened pretty quickly.

What we did not enjoy were the endless board meetings, the endless talk about pacifism, the lack of female pilots, Relena, Zechs, Treize, and the pacing in the sense that sometimes very little happened at great length.

So, what we’re looking for is something with at least some of what we liked about Gundam Wing, but ideally with less pacifism and more kick-ass women. Crazy kick-ass female pilots with motivations that aren’t about being in love with some guy would be awesome. Coherent plotting and worldbuilding would be nice but is probably not essential.