[Azure22]

I don't think it matters too much since Athrun was a much more professional soldier than Shinn ever was.

Now that I disagree with. As Brightman said before, Shinn respects certain authority (ie Dullindal and Rey) as opposed to Athrun. We get the impression of Shinn being too disobedient in the first half of the series, and the impression him being too obedient in the second half. The result of this is that Shinn is a worse soldier than Athrun under Athrun's command, and, in all technicalities, a better soldier than Athrun when he's following orders from someone who he agrees with. This isn't to say Shinn's not a hot head, and it's not to say that he wasn't always a better soldier than Athrun (he certainly wasn't), but Athrun has problems with authority he disagrees with also. He abandons ZAFT - twice. I think the difference is, again, cinematics: Shinn disagrees with the authority shown to be right (Athrun), while Dullindal disagrees with authority shown to be wrong (his father, Dullindal.) Therefore, we tend to forget that Athrun has the same rash and independent streak that Shinn has - just with a cooler head.

Not quite. First, it's rather explicitly laid out that Orb under the Seirans was an absolute disaster; but Cagalli's attempts to lead according to the principles for her father didn't exactly work much better. What she had to do was to actually change her approach to geopolitics; and Orb's "ideology" at the end of Destiny is very different from it at the beginning (or when her father was in charge, for that matter). In any case, Destiny's main thrust was that grand ideas like Durandal's Destiny Plan are bad rather than any sort of confirmation of the "righteousness of Orb's world view".

Alright, perhaps I phrased what I said wrong. I should have said that the idea of "not invading another nation, not allowing another nation to invade, and not getting involved in the conflicts of other nations" was the right political ideology shown in the series. This ideology was already confirmed right in Gundam SEED, it needed no clarification. And I'd say that Orb's attitude has just gone back to the way it was with Cagalli's father at the end of Destiny, because they're still following that same no invading, no getting invaded, no interfering idea. ZAFT was trying to attack them using a large laser. They don't want to be hit by it, so they go after the relay stations, rather than attacking the colonies or whatever, and they stop after taking out the Requiem. They didn't have any territorial goals, they just wanted to defend themselves. And that's how I think the idea of sovereignty and questions of who has the right to rule could have made their way into the series: Dullindal wanted to rule Orb, they didn't want to be ruled by ZAFT. Ya know, I just had an odd thought that I would've enjoyed seeing ZAFT win against Orb in that battle where Cagalli got to use Akatsuki. They could've had scenes of an occupation, some more interaction outside the mobile suits between the pilots and other important people, and then there could have been a coup... It would've worked well if they'd had more episodes, I think. Maybe done the Orb/Akatsuki battle earlier... Pointless to say, but I think it coulda been cool anyways.

I think that the creators were worried that if they were any more subtle, their viewers would make the mistake of thinking that Durandal was the good guy. As a result, there's a noticeable change between his portrayal in the first part of the series and the end. Even with these unsubtle cues, there's still viewers who think that he had the right idea.

Hey, some people like the bad guys... I usually do, but never really believe in what they say. But I would've actually loved to see Dullindal portrayed as a good guy with a political view that wouldn't work out. We'd feel sorrier for him at the end when he died- Though I thought he was gracious enough in that moment as is. That he didn't get angry with Rey for shooting him I think says something good. Ya know, he probably was a "good guy," as in, someone who'd be pleasant to know, someone nice, but for the purposes of the show he had to portrayed as the bad guy.