Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

""You have the power to make a difference, don't you? Then why not put it to good use?""

- Mu La Flaga, "Phase 04: Silent Run"

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, which aired from 2002 to 2003, is the ninth television installment of the long-running Gundam franchise and the first to be set in the Cosmic Era Alternate Universe. Occasionally considered a R Emake of the original Mobile Suit Gundam adapted for modern audiences due to the similarities of the first half of the plot, it none the less manages to stand on its own due to the vastly different nature of the setting and its primary conflict, as well as the completely original second half of the storyline.

The story premise matches the standard Gundam fare by featuring a conflict between Earth and Space, but introduces an original twist in the form of widespread use of Genetic Engineering. Genetic modification of humans is illegal on Earth, but the space colonies are populated almost exclusively by an artificially enhanced breed of humanity known as Coordinators. Most of Earth falls under the authority of the Earth Alliance, which funded the construction of the PLANTs (huge, hourglass-shaped space colonies meant for use as orbital manufacturing and R&D centers); however, the Coordinators now living on the PLANTs seek independence from the Earth Alliance via the formation of a milita group called ZAFT. This basic conflict of interest, combined with the Fantastic Racism between the genetically engineered Coordinators and the unenhanced Naturals, eventually sparks a war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. Meanwhile, the nations on Earth not falling under the umbrella of the Earth Alliance are forced to take sides or else risk the ire of both opposing factions.

Enter The Hero; Kira Yamato, a young Coordinator attending a technical college on Heliopolis, a space colony of the neutral nation Orb. Inevitably drawn into the conflict against his will, he Falls Into The Cockpit during an attempted Gundamjacking and ends up being the only thing standing between his friends and a messy death at the hands of ZAFT. Complicating things is Kira's Forgotten Childhood Friend Athrun Zala, a fellow Coordinator who joined ZAFT and now finds himself on the opposite side of the battlefield as his old friend. While the story may appear a bit monotonous at the beginning (Recap Episodes, o heresy!), after the Wham Episode halfway through the series, the show turns into a kaleidoscope of battles, revelations, and deaths, skyrocketing the intensity all the way into the stratosphere. A full recap is under construction here.

Thanks to its powerful directing, an all-star voice cast, and the never-dwindling emotional tension, SEED easily became a smash hit in Japan, getting the second highest ratings in Gundam history only behind Zeta Gundam and spawning a televised sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, and a manga spinoff, Gundam SEED Astray. An as of yet untitled movie, confirmed to be in production in 2007, is expected to be a Grand Finale of the saga... if it can leave Development Hell. SEED's success and the announcement of Destiny, the first-ever full-length television sequel to a Gundam show outside of the original Universal Century timeline, spawned speculation that CE would become the new UC. However, Destiny failing to be as successful as SEED, the movie's production stalling, and the subsequent release and success of non-CE series Gundam 00 have since dashed those hopes. The 48-episode run of the HD remaster of the series began airing in the Winter 2012 season.

Gundam SEED and the CE timeline have become mainstays in Super Robot Wars after Alpha 3, and are the main Gundam representative on handhelds when all Universal Century Gundams where excluded from the handheld games after Judgment. Gundam SEED also appears in the Gundam vs. Series, particularly in Alliance vs. ZAFT.

The show contains examples of:

 * The Ace: Mu La Flaga
 * Ace Pilot: Lots of 'em, as is normal for a Gundam series.
 * A Lighter Shade of Black:
 * All There in the Manual: Gundam SEED Astray fills in many gaps in the story.
 * Alternate Universe: Cosmic Era is the fifth "alternate calendar" other than the original Universal Century, and the first besides UC to feature a full-length television sequel.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Dearka Elsman. Getting deeper into it you can learn his ancestry is Egyptian.
 * Animal Mecha: A rarity for the Gundam franchise, ZAFT has two: the BuCue and LaGowe models.
 * Animation Bump: The series was known for this at times, especially with the Special Editions. The HD remaster goes even further with several reanimated scenes from not only the Special Editions, but also entirely new ones. Compare Episode 3 of the standard edition to the remaster on youtube and you'll notice them immediately, most notably the part where Kira slices Miguel's GINN in half at the end.
 * Anyone Can Die: It is a Gundam series, after all.
 * Armor-Piercing Slap: A very rare inversion -- Kira slaps Cagalli after she continually pesters him for not rescuing enough people.
 * Artistic License Physics: The PLANT space colonies. Unlike the fairly practical O'Neill cylinder and Stanford torus designs that are standard for the franchise, PLANTs seem designed around Rule of Cool -- and as a result are both horribly inefficient and much less safe in comparison.
 * Attack Drone: The Earth Alliance's gunbarrels are wired versions, while ZAFT's DRAGOONs are wireless.
 * Badass: Where to begin? Half the cast qualifies at one point or another.
 * Badass Normal: Mu La Flaga, undoubtedly the best Natural pilot in the series, was feared even before he got a mobile suit to pilot. Cagalli is a borderline example; she's a Natural, and puts up a good fight both as La Résistance (attacking mobile suits with jeeps and RPGs!) and with the Strike Rouge, but never reaches the same level as other characters. is a strange case; his backstory means it wouldn't make any sense for him to be a Coordinator, but he acts like one and it's never questioned, so he may or may not be an example.
 * Battle Couple:
 * Beam Spam: The Freedom and Providence are the biggest examples, though Calamity gives them a run for their money.
 * Bifauxnen: Cagalli, although not entirely deliberately on her part. Keeps coming up again later.
 * Big Bad:
 * Big Bad Ensemble: Subverted. It appears that the war between Muruta Azrael and Patrick Zala will define the second half of the series, but in reality they're both Unwitting Pawns of the real Big Bad.
 * Big Brother Mentor: Mu, to the Heliopolis crew in general but Kira especially.
 * Big Damn Hero: Kira, repeated. Also subverted with Nicole and Tolle in episodes 29 and 30, respectively. Both of them try to pull this off and.
 * Bio Augmentation: The Coordinators are genetically augmented humans.
 * Birds of a Feather: Kira and Athrun's friendship could qualify as this with their views on war and want of peace. Kira and Lacus' relationship as well for the same reason.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Though they did manage to avert complete disaster, the body count was high on all sides, and there was no decisive end to the conflict -- despite all its death and destruction, the war ultimately changed little.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Rau Le Creuset and Muruta Azrael; subverted with Mu La Flaga and Dearka Elsman.
 * Bloodier and Gorier: Said to be even more so than V Gundam, and with the WMDs lurking around each corner, it's easy to believe. Averted in the Toonami edit, however, as Bandai wanted to sell SEED toys to a wider audience.
 * Born Winner: Coordinators, which must be created in vitro, though the offspring of a pair of Coordinators is also a Coordinator
 * The Brigadier: Admiral Lewis Halberton, Siegel Clyne, and Andrew Waltfeld.
 * The Captain: Murrue Ramius
 * Catch Phrase: Mu La Flaga: "I am a man who can make the impossible possible."
 * Mu and Rau seem to share the catch phrase "If that man can do it, then so can I."
 * Clotho: "GAME OVER!" and other variants of that.
 * There is also the Blue Cosmos': "For our blue and pure world."
 * Char Clone: A different approach in this series then the rest. There are three main Char clones, each one representing a different incarnation of the original Char Aznable: Athrun as The Rival, Mu La Flaga as the Big Brother Mentor, and Rau Le Crueset as the Dark Messiah
 * Chastity Couple: Kira and Lacus
 * Clip Show: Notable for being both many in number and poor in timing. SEED's director is occasionally called "Flashback 'Em All" in contrast to Yoshiyuki Tomino's "Kill'Em All".
 * Common Eye Colors: Kira's Purple Eyes indicate his badassitude and ; Lacus has Innocent Blue Eyes.
 * Compilation Movie The Empty Battlefield, The Far-Away Dawn, and The Rumbling Sky
 * Cool Ship The Archangel (and it's later sister ship, the Dominion, which owes not a little to Mobile Suit Gundam's White Base. Orb's Kusanagi and ZAFT's Eternal are also examples.
 * Custom Uniform: Andy's tiger-striped flightsuit and mecha.
 * Darker and Edgier: Very dark for an Alternate Universe series and you get to watch the atrocities done close up. There is also notably little to no comic relief within the entire series even when compared to Zeta Gundam and Victory Gundam which had a couple of lighthearted moments to somewhat offset the dark tone of the series. It is still known for being one of the darkest AU Gundam series.
 * Dark Messiah: Rau Le Creuset
 * Dark-Skinned Blond: Dearka
 * Dead Star Walking: T.M. Revolution, who performs the first two OPs, also voices Miguel Aiman who is killed early in the story. Averted with Shiho Hahnenfuss. She was set to be voiced by Nami Tamaki, but she turned down the role... to the great relief of Yzak/Shiho shippers everywhere.
 * Designer Babies: Coordinators are genetically enhanced early in their development; is a true designer baby in the "grown in a test tube" sense.
 * Diving Save: Brutally subverted twice, both scenes involving Kira. The second time is particularly harsh, providing a Hope Spot where he actually successfully blocks the shot, only for the villain to simply blow up the target with one of his Attack Drones instead.
 * Doomed Hometown: The Heliopolis space colony.
 * Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: The warring sides use this trope as justification for their deeds; both leaders aim for nothing less than the complete annihilation of the other side down to the last man, woman and child. Therefore, backing down and depending on Mutually Assured Destruction is equivalent to surrender.
 * Drop Pod: At the start of the ZAFT invasion.
 * Dual Wield: Several of the suits come equipped with two swords.
 * During the War: Referred to as the Bloody Valentine War, since it begins with the death of roughly 250,000 ZAFT civilians when a PLANT is destroyed on Feburary 14th, Valentine's Day, CE 70.
 * Energy Weapons
 * Everything's Better With Princesses: Lacus
 * Not always:
 * Evil Counterpart: Dominion, the Archangel's sister ship.
 * Evil Redheads: Flay, though not so purely evil as much as horribly screwed up.
 * Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Ulen Hibiki
 * Evil Versus Evil: By the end of the series, neither the Earth Alliance nor ZAFT are particularly sympathetic. Probably why.
 * Expy: Lots of them, thanks to SEED's similarity to Mobile Suit Gundam. It also uses character concepts from Gundam Wing and Turn a Gundam. In terms of character design, there are obvious influences from Infinite Ryvius, which isn't surprising since they're from the same designer. Azrael in particular is similar looking to Pat.
 * Falling Into the Cockpit: Kira and the Strike.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: The Toonami edit was notorious for this.
 * Fantastic Racism: Naturals vs. Coordinators
 * Faux Affably Evil: Muruta Azrael, at least until he starts suffering from Villainous Breakdown.
 * Fauxlosophic Narration: Lacus at some times.
 * Final Solution: Advocated by both Patrick Zala (who believes Coordinators are a Superior Species and that the Naturals all need to die) and Muruta Azrael (who believes Coordinators are an abomination and thusly, all of them need to die)..
 * Five-Bad Band: The Le Creuset Team.
 * The Big Bad: Rau Le Creuset, the team leader.
 * The Dragon: Athrun Zala, who acts as "first among equals" for the rest of the team.
 * The Brute: Yzak Joule, who hurls himself recklessly into battle.
 * The Evil Genius: Dearka Elsman, the team's Deadpan Snarker.
 * The Dark Chick: Nicol Amalfi, the most emotional member of the team
 * Five-Man Band: The Three Ship Alliance's main mobile suit team
 * The Hero: Kira Yamato, the main character
 * The Lancer:, his best friend and the only one as skilled in combat
 * The Smart Guy: Mu La Flaga, the Big Brother Mentor
 * The Big Guy:, with his Mighty Glacier mobile suit
 * The Chick: Cagalli Yula Athha, the Token Girl and The Heart
 * Eleventh Hour Ranger:, who doesn't join up until most of the way through the Final Battle.
 * Fixed Forward Facing Weapon: The Archangel is equipped with massive anti-matter cannons in it's two pylons.
 * Fun With Acronyms: It's a series trend; Gundams are called such because their OS spells out the acronym G.U.N.D.A.M. in varying ways, all of them full of Gratuitous English and typically entirely nonsensical. SEED itself is an acronym, as is ZAFT, and numerous ZAFT mobile suits have names consisting of a series of capitalized and lower cased letters that make it seem like they're acronyms, but no explanation is ever given.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend: Athrun and Kira towards each other.
 * Gainaxing: Murrue every time the Archangel takes a nasty hit, eventually joined by Natarle and Flay in the last few episodes.
 * Generican Empire: People Liberation Acting Nation of Technology
 * The Gloves Come Off: Kira and Athrun do it to each other simultaneously in the Wham Episode. The result is one of the most brutal fight scenes in the series.
 * The Good the Bad And The Evil: Towards the end of the series, the is the Good, both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance are the Bad, while Omnicidal Maniac  is the Evil.
 * Go Out With a Smile: Several, ranging from Tear Jerker to Crowning Moment of Awesome;, , who laughs as he spouts his Catch Phrase and explodes, , who ensures the death of a Complete Monster with her own, , who died thinking , and ...
 * Guns Akimbo: Actually, Freedom can shoot all five of its guns at once... and hit five targets, too. Then hit five more targets about every tenth of a second. The Freedom Gundam is a master of Beam Spam.
 * Gundamjack: Four out of the five ZAFT pilots kick off the series by performing this trope.
 * Kira and Lacus return the favor,
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Multiple, occasionally happening in chains:.
 * Humongous Mecha: Does it even need to be mentioned?
 * Real Robot
 * Idol Singer: Lacus
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Kira, about
 * I'll Kill You!: Yzak to Kira, though he refers to him as "the pilot of the Strike" since he didn't know who Kira was specifically.
 * It Gets Easier: Andy Waltfield, an experienced soldier and commander, tells the young and still-somewhat-naive Kira this point blank.
 * It Meant Something to Me: Double Subverted with . At first she's just using him and his feelings are sincere; when he gets over her she realizes that she actually does have feelings for him, but before she can act on it,.
 * It's Personal Kira and Athrun get this about each other after in the same incident.
 * Kick the Dog: The way that Flay reveals to Sai that she's been cheating on him with Kira. That was just cold...
 * Kill Sat: GENESIS
 * Killed Off for Real: ... the list can be continued.
 * Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Inverted with phase shift armor, which is impervious to most kinetic weaponry.
 * The Kingdom: Orb... sort of. Their government is complicated. It involves actual royalty sharing power with both noble houses and elected officials. Thankfully, for the most part, it's relegated to All There in the Manual.
 * Large Ham: Rau, by the end of the series. Not so much at first.
 * Latex Space Suit: The pilot suits.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Mu and Flay as children.
 * Love Hurts:
 * Ludicrous Gibs: Those caught in the effective radius of the Cyclops system or GENESIS are shown exploding into clouds of red mist. Actually Justified, given that said unlucky people are basically being microwaved to death.
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Ulen Hibiki,.
 * Mask Power: Le Creuset
 * Melee a Trois: ZAFT vs. Earth Alliance vs.
 * Merchandise-Driven: As with every other Gundam franchises.
 * The Messiah: Kira, and to a lesser extent, Lacus.
 * Mildly Military: Justified, since some of the Archangel crew are civilians, but Murrue and Mu are not big believers in clinging to regulations to begin with.
 * Military Brat: Athrun, Nicol, Dearka, Yzak and Natarle.
 * Mid-Season Upgrade: Freedom and Justice. Strike also gets to stick around as a hand-me-down version, and Duel gets upgrade add-ons, though well before mid-season.
 * NGO Superpower: Blue Cosmos, a radical anti-Coordinator terrorist group. It has enough influence to control the policies of the Earth Alliance.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe:
 * No One Could Survive That: survives his mobile suit blowing up around him, though  he earns some permanent injuries in the process. Kira Yamato survives  without so much as a scar, though he's out of commission for some time afterward.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: Kira pull's one with Athrun when returning to space. It involves a Take My Hand between Gundams. Awww...
 * Not So Different: ZAFT and Earth Alliance military.
 * Not Using the Zed Word: The word "Gundam" is coined by Kira as an acronym for the operating system of certain Bigger Stick mobile suits, and is only used a handful of times. None of the Humongous Mecha officially have Gundam in their names. However, the term Gundam starts it's spreading through the universe in the second half of the show, and is used much much more in the Cosmic Era's expanded universe installments.
 * Nuke'Em: The Earth Forces' plans for ZAFT.
 * Oddly Small Organization: The rebels in the desert. Despite their much smaller size, and weaker equipment, they get by.... quite well.
 * Omake: Gundam Seed Supernova. Featuring chibi-Kira and monster Tori.
 * What is SEED mode? Unstoppable Rage? Berserk Button? Heroic Resolve? Tranquil Fury? Just plain Green Rocks? Join Yzak as he tries to find out, to finally steal a march on Athrun.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: wants to escalate the war until both sides annihilate each other.
 * One-Man Army: Kira, Athrun, and Le Creuset.
 * One Product Planet: ZAFT's space colonies were arranged in this manner, with one group focusing on Farming, another on Information Science, another on Chemistry, and so on.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Rau Le Creuset believes he and he alone can, especially Kira.
 * Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Yzak gets a nasty facial scar while fighting Kira, which is symbolic of his one-sided hatred. By the sequel, he's.
 * Playing Both Sides: The Big Bad
 * Power Trio: Murrue, Mu, and Natarle, as id, ego, and superego respectively. Murrue and Mu also function as The McCoy and The Kirk respectively, although Natarle doesn't quite qualify as The Spock to round out the trifecta.
 * Rapid Fire Typing: Lots of it; Kira is especially guilty and uses this technique to upgrade the Strike's original OS.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Murrue Ramius, Uzumi Nara Attha and Siegel Clyne.
 * Rebellious Princess:
 * Recap Episode: In spades, but most obvious in episodes 14 and 26.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsman, respectively.
 * Reluctant Warrior: Kira Yamato in the first half of the show.
 * The Remake: Of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, no less... for the first half or so, anyway.
 * La Résistance: The Desert Dawn in North Africa.
 * The Reveal: Several.
 * Cagalli is not only, and also
 * Kira is, and also
 * Rau Le Creuset is.
 * Revised Ending: The Compilation Movie edited out 's helmet floating in space in the final shots.
 * Rich Bitch: Flay, though being rich is hardly the biggest source of her bitchiness.
 * The Rival: Mu vs. Rau, Kira vs. Athrun, later Kira vs. Rau
 * Robot Buddy: Athrun loves making them; he gave Kira a robot bird named Torii (Birdy in the dub), and Lacus has a couple dozen Haros rolling around her estate. In the Game Boy Advance game Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de, he decides to make one for Cagalli and ends up settling on a hamster design; unfortunately, when she first sees it she mistakes it for a rat and smashes it, but after Kira explains things she's quite touched by the gesture.
 * Sacrificial Lamb: Rusty Mackenzie, Miguel Aiman and all die shortly after being introduced. Their deaths are mainly events for characterization other characters.
 * Sacrificial Lion: The series isn't sunshine and rainbows to start with, but it's after the deaths of that the series gets progressively darker.
 * Sergeant Rock: Natarle
 * Separated At Birth: are actually twins.
 * Shout Out: Waltfeld's personal MS, the LaGOWE, is a nod to Fukuda's earlier series GEAR Fighter Dendoh.
 * Signature Move: The Freedom's Full Burst Mode
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Somewhere in the middle of the scale, with Idealism winning out in the end.
 * Space Is an Ocean
 * Spoiler Opening: is notably absent in the third opening, despite appearing in the first two. This is a war story, so it's not hard to guess what that means. Sure enough, two episodes after the third opening's debut, he's killed off.
 * The So-Called Coward: Nicol Amarfi. Yzak even straight up calls him a coward, but in reality he is a pretty decent pilot, especially considering he made it to the Red Coats.
 * Standing Between the Enemies: does this to the Earth and ZAFT armies, but it soon devolves into a Melee a Trois.
 * Stock Footage: Used throughout the series, but it's most noticeable with Murrue's Gainaxing and the Freedom's Beam Spam.
 * Strange Salute: ZAFT military
 * Super Mode: SEED mode, which only certain people can access, effectively turns all the user's abilities Up to Eleven.
 * Power Makeover: People in SEED mode lose the "light" of their eyes, resulting in an effect similar to Mind Control Eyes except that their pupils don't disappear.
 * Super Prototype: The Gundams, naturally.
 * Super Soldier: While the Coordinators' enhanced abilities are in no way limited to combat, they do make them far better fighters than Naturals, e.g. before Kira develops an MS operating system suitable for Naturals, only Coordinators can efficiently pilot mobile suits; also, "artificial Coordinators" a.k.a. "the Druggies" are literal super soldiers developed by the Atlantic Federation.
 * Surprisingly Good English: Most of the time, but it's particularly noticeable when Engrish appears, such as in Episode 20.
 * Sword Fight
 * Take a Third Option: Instead of, the Archangel crew eventually
 * Take My Hand: In episodes 40 and 50, we see Athrun being rescued.
 * Team Mom: Murrue, later Natarle.
 * Techno Babble: Lots of it.
 * Theme Naming: Of Humongous Mecha, no less -- OMNI's Gundams tend to reflect their combat role (eg, Duel, Strike, Blitz, Raider) while ZAFT's are named after philosophical ideals (Freedom, Justice, Providence).
 * The title of the series itself is an aversion, though. The lack of a "Seed Gundam" makes the show the only Gundam series to not be named after a specific mecha.
 * In an early interview, Mitsuo Fukuda said that "Strike" and "Aegis" were named for the unstoppable spear and the invincible shield from the Chinese version of the irresistible force paradox.
 * Thirteen Is Unlucky: ZGMF-X13A Providence
 * To Be Lawful or Good: near the end.
 * Tragic Keepsake: Murrue's locket, Kira's origami flower.
 * Transforming Mecha: Athrun's Aegis and Clotho's Raider
 * Tsundere: Cagalli is simply adorable when blushing in embarrassment
 * Villainous Breakdown: Many of the villains feature rather nasty ones.
 * War Is Hell: People are dying left, right, and centre. Kira and the rest of the cast are going through trauma-induced mental breakdowns. ZAFT is run by a General Ripper and has no problem executing prisoners or firing a Wave Motion Gun at Earth. The Earth Forces are controlled by a fanatically anti-Coordinator psychopath who wants to nuke ZAFT out of existence and considers his troops expendable cannon fodder. Out of Gundam's alternate universes, SEED's is easily one of the darkest.
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Lohengrin positron cannons mounted by the Archangel, which (as the name implies) are a type of Antimatter weapon; there's also GENESIS, a Kill Sat that used nuclear weapons to generate a gamma radiation laser capable of attacking Earth from high orbit.
 * Weapons of Mass Destruction: The nuclear weapons used by the Earth Forces, ZAFT's GENESIS, and arguably the Gundams themselves.
 * Wham Episode: Episodes 29, 30, 35, ...and pretty much everything between 40 and 50.
 * What Measure Is a Non Super: Azrael to his mom in the movie compilation.
 * What the Hell Dad: Sums up Patrick and Athrun Zala's relationship quite nicely. Patrick, a General Ripper if ever there was one, treats Athrun as though he were any other subordinate. He expects a lot from Athrun, but only because of his elite status, and has no qualms about when Athrun starts to question orders.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Yzak
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The "Druggies", whose use of performance-enhancing drugs that make them able to fight on even terms with Coordinators has also made them... unstable.
 * A World Half Full: The combination of Fantastic Racism and good old fashioned human greed makes the world of Gundam SEED a less-than-pleasant place to live, but that doesn't stop the protagonists from improving things -- if only a little -- through properly applied violence.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Azrael is all-but-worshipped by the EA generals, has the Earth's rulers in his pocket, and Natarle has heard of him.
 * Visual Novel: The little-known Game Boy Advance game Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de, which did have action sequences, but those played second fiddle to letting the player wander the Archangel as Kira and interact with the rest of the cast. Special Event Flags could let the player obtain the MSV-only Gunbarrel Strike for Flaga, prevent from dying, and even have Kira partner up with Lowe or Gai on one stage.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Big Bad,, tries to set one up so that regardless of who eventually won the war, both sides would end up wiping each other out with various WMDs. When one side gained the upper hand or calmed down he give technology to other to keep the fighting going.
 * You Are in Command Now: Murrue in the beginning of the series.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Flay and Miri use really short skirts and really long socks.