When Destiny Takes Over: Athrun x Cagalli (Part III)

Part I | Part II | Part IV

[Rewritten on February 17th, 2024]

It's important to talk about the triangle the image above depicts before continuing about AsuCaga. It's also important to include Meyrin.

In this ending, it shows Athrun and Cagalli moving away from each other, in comparison to other parts where characters move closer together. Symbolic. In spirit of that symbolism, I'm moving away from AsuCaga for this piece. 

For me, it's clear Meer had feelings for Athrun, and naturally Athrun and Cagalli are romantically involved. The reason I want to talk about Meer, and Meyrin, is because they were important to both the plot and for Athrun's development. 

The image comes from one of the special endings, and we see only Meer acknowledging someone else in the image, specifically Athrun. Cagalli and Athrun are lost in their thoughts and concerns, which contrasts with Kira and Lacus' touching love language. Meer may have an objective, but she's the only one of the three who can see both a love interest and her cause. 

In my last post, I talked about Orb military's loyalty to Cagalli, because she's an Athha. She's on the best path towards reclaiming her place as Head Representative. She's good. 

Athrun, on the other hand, is stuck in the indecisive and questioning phase of his development. 

He believed Kira died and his mind is on the Archangel. Durandel picked up on the problem when Athrun questioned him about Logos, and the orders to attack the Archangel and Freedom. Then, Rey confirmed Athrun was a liability. Durandel knew it was time to remove Athrun from his chessboard, as Athrun wasn't living up to his true potential and taken by Kira Yamamoto's presence. 

Now, Athrun's escapade involving Meer and Meyrin shows us a pivot in all three of their development. Though Meyrin and Meer don't know one another, they reacted essentially the same - protect the one they care for using drastic measures. 

Thinking about Meer and Meyrin, I strongly feel Meer contributed to Athrun's development more than Meyrin. Athrun was a catalyst to Meyrin's development, but being in the presence of strong women, like Lacus, Murrue, and Cagalli, really developed her. 

This part focuses on Meer and the dynamics between her, Athrun, and Lacus, with some mentions of the parallels with Cagalli and Athrun. 

Meer Campbell: the teen who chose fame

Meer Campbell attracted hate and most of it came from many AsuCaga fans, which was a shame. If someone looked deeper into her character, they'd see Athrun's reflection, especially in this opening with the Alex Dino outfit.

Prior to the offer to become Lacus, Meer aspired to be a singer. She didn’t expect to be offered a career as Lacus Clyne. Meer's admiration and love for Lacus were factors in saying yes. Consider how deep this went, when she agreed to physical surgery. She became a personification of a fangirl’s wishes: to become the person they idolize.  

Her dedication towards a good cause, combined with a selfish desire, placed her in my top 5 character list. Plus, her cheerful personality in a series depicting the woes of war is much appreciated. Next to Fllay, she was one of the most realistic characters in both series. 

Her strong desire for fame was a catalyst to manipulation. She became obsessed with power in a different way - by taking on Lacus' face for credibility but keeping her personality.  Remember that thousands today try to be discovered for their talent and use platforms like as Youtube to promote themselves. 

Let's also keep in mind that it was only the Archangel crew that saw past Durandel's farce from the beginning. It took an assassination from Kira and crew to pay attention though, as Durandel was in power for some time. 

It wasn't unreasonable Meer and Athrun were taken in by this supposed ambition for peace. If anything, it showed us the typical political world - unethical behaviour. It also showed us Meer and Athrun had flawed ethics to go along with Durandel's plan about impersonating Lacus. 

Athrun knew Lacus was alive and where she was. Telling Meer that Lacus wouldn't do this, or wouldn't do that wasn't enough to overcome his unethical behaviour. 

I'm glad Kira called him out on this Meer-Lacus situation, and glad Athrun didn't have an answer for him. 

Though I'm putting forward a rationale for Meer's choices, I'm not excusing her for committing a crime. She engaged in gross identity theft, and the word 'gross' is used in the legal context. Durandel absolutely committed crimes and we as the audience know more than the characters did at that point in the show.

At the end of the day, the people must always remember who fostered an environment for these choices to be made. In this case, it was Durandel. The FAITH system itself was a means of corruption and manipulation, where soldiers felt false autonomy. This was made clear early on when we see Lunamaria following Athrun for surveillance purposes, despite him being part of FAITH.

This said, the last pivot for me of her character was when she sang Fields of Hope for the PLANTS. It was then that I saw her and Athrun as the same. For the sake of being useful, they subconsciously allowed Durandel to control them. 

Singing this song in comparison to Emotion, an upbeat song with sexy movements, she momentarily aligned with the initial reason of becoming Lacus: to be there for the people. 

See, Lacus chose healing, more so for Kira, between SEED and Destiny. Though she the Clyne faction that rose up in arms against corruption and genocide, she wasn't there as PLANTS rebuilt. It's her character flaw of choosing Kira all the time. Though a leader, she was a flawed leader who continuously chose her love interest.

To emphasize the point, Destiny never showed her mourning for Siegel Clyne. The assassination attempt was a wake-up call, and even when they chose to return, Lacus was concerned that Kira would return to battle. 

She called Lacus out on this when she met her for the first time in episode 45. That she, Meer, was the one to do the work Lacus wasn't around to do, therefore she was Lacus. A little sad that the dialogue brought forward how much of a brand Lacus Clyne was, rather than a person. 

Granted, Meer's death was a lesson for her, as she saw what her absence caused. Unfortunately or fortunately, Lacus had so many resources and power and that means responsibility. Power and authority, responsibility and obligation, some of the shows central themes. Lacus can't walk away from that again, no matter what. I feel she wasn't seen as herself, but still as a brand and face for ideals of her father, Siegel Clyne. 

Perhaps more on that later.

So, I've put forward Meer wanted fame. She did, but let's remember that she stepped up to raise the peoples' spirits. In this scene, she had in her mind that she could do something. Singing Fields of Hope was soothing, especially after PLANTS experienced so much pain.  

These dynamics also made me appreciate Cagalli more. But this I'll leave for a future article. 

Returning to this analysis, though she played the role of Lacus wonderfully when she sang, that led to further delusion. Now, in episode 36, when she overheard Durandal and Rey talk about Athrun not being good anymore, and the photo left on the ground of him, Cagalli, Kira and Miri, she ran to him. 

But, she told him they thought he wouldn't do, so to be better he should do what Shinn was doing - hanging around his new Gundam. This was Meer's naivety because she felt Athrun had another chance to show he was good enough, not that he no matter what, he was about to face injustice. 

He knew she committed a crime, by Durandal's books, when she informed him about this and she would be in danger. I feel he underestimated how important Meer was to the political cause, just like how he forgot how important Cagalli was to the political realm. 

The scenes between him and Meer as they run away were so important, both in dialogue and symbolism. 

Lacus' imagery is associated with brightness and calm water. Meer, being her physical reflection, was associated with dark colours and torrential rain. 

She stopped them both from running when she asked him why, as in why he was doing this since he knocked out the soldiers. He explained as he finally became enlightened: 

He understood Durandal only had interest in those who played the assigned role. He didn't want to be that toy anymore. The peak unhinged moment for Meer came at this point, where she declared that she was Lacus. 

The entire scene was beautiful as she became unhinged and floated peak delusion and memories of being Meer. The flashbacks showed her how hard she worked and she questioned why it was wrong to play a role if it worked. 

This caused Athrun's flashbacks as Alex Dino. That was the moment, the moment he saw the reflection of Alex Dino. This was his peak development because Meer forced him to remember who he was not too long ago, whereas Kira showed him who he should be. 

Again, though Cagalli offered him a new identity of Alex Dino, it was a harmful identity when it prolonged a short period. He was not a hero for two years, he was a bodyguard so a great persona. His persona was hidden. 

Then came the scene where she extends her hand to him, then he yelled at her before extending his. 

They wouldn't choose one another's reality. I don't know if Meer loved him, but she definitely liked him romantically. Consider how difficult the choice of her ambition was to her. 

She didn't want to be Meer Campbell, but Lacus Clyne. She liked her life, and she consciously made the decision to continue being Durandal's toy, even after Athrun said she would be killed eventually. 

This brings up another sad fact about the entertainment industry: unattractive women have little to no chance at success. Meer, in comparison to the other women in the show, was unattractive. To be Lacus Clyne meant a chance at success.

There was nothing left as Meer Campbell. She wasn't noticed as Meer Campbell. 

When she refused Athrun, I felt sorry for him but also couldn't help laughing. In a sense, he was rejected by both Cagalli and Meer because both of them chose their objective over him. But, at the end of the day, she was true to her feelings and helped him, which sealed her unfortunate fate.

Of his ‘harem’ Meer and Cagalli were the important female figures in his life. Athrun cared for both of them deeply but in different regards. Cagalli was his love interest and comrade, whereas Meer reminded him of who he used to be, and a victim. This is why I think the opening and endings featured him and Meer often. They were too similar.

I’m not surprised at his reaction because her death was another pivotal point for him. Even though he knew she'd be killed, he was still angry. I imagine he regretted not pushing her to come with him. Even in death, she motivated him to fight against injustice and remember that victims were not always the ones directly killed during war, but on the peripherals too.

We've talked a lot about Meer, let's move focus to Meyrin Hawke. 

Meyrin Hawke: from little sister to autonomous rebel

The magazine cover shows us the contrast of Meyrin's younger self and naive self (with her hair tied in cute pigtails) to one who is contemplative, lost and has her hair open in the wind. As much as I want to focus on Meyrin's development, this article's about Athrun. 

Meyrin was stuck in the little sister trope, wanting to be like her sister and tagging along with Lunamaria's crew. We see teen behaviour when she tried to wear Luna's skirt when she was taking a shower, and her annoyance when it wouldn't fit her, and going after her sister's crush by pretending to fall on Athrun during Meer's concert. Both scenes are captured in the magazine scan above. 

I say that Athrun was a catalyst to her maturity because if he didn't defect from ZAFT, she wouldn't have learned about the false narratives. When she and her colleague learn about the commotion of soldiers looking for Athrun, they were curious and the animators drew this in a cute way. 

When she returned to her room, Athrun ended up choosing her room to get outside of the building. So, these scenes were humorous in its own way. They also serve as a contrast to his overall and recent interaction with Meer. 

First, Athrun was cold to her, showing that he didn't care too much for her. It didn't seem like he did before this moment because she was the little sister and, I assume with his hero complex, that she was the communications specialist. He might've been slightly reeling from Meer's actions too. 

Second, he instructed her how to react with the soldiers looking for him.

Third, and the best honestly, was Meyrin taking matters into her own hands. We've seen Meyrin fake falling against Athrun to get his attention, so we know she's skilled in manipulating a situation when needed. She's in the military and at war, not a surprise.

So props to her of quick thinking, where she took Athrun to the bathroom, didn't listen to what he had to say, stripped, and poured water on herself. So while he reacted like this: 

He got over it quickly and watched her like a pervert, instead of granting her some privacy. This also showed us how confident Meyrin was as a character. 

To her luck, we saw Lunamaria come to Meyrin's door too, and react at her wearing a towel at the door. Luna showed clear distain to the soldier after Meyrin 'explained' she was in the shower. She was able to manipulate Luna too, who knew her best. 

That's a lot for the span of a few minutes. The humour comes from a few places, for me it was that women do not listen to Athrun. 

Unfortunately, she got a lot of crap because from AsuCaga fans and it doesn't help that the studio tried to make AsuMey sail. That is also typical internalized misogyny, hate on the other woman/girl in a love triangle. 

So, putting the hatred aside, let's remember she brought out Athrun's gentleman nature that we saw in SEED, post-escape. It's one we didn't see in awhile, just anger, sometimes misplaced.

The first instance was helping her when he thought she tripped earlier in the series. The second was putting the robe on her, though it's a shaky example since he did watch her in the shower, instead of averting his eyes. Then the typical disinterested human in him comes out when he said he owed her one, even though she was shaking from what she did, or arguably manipulating the situation again. 

Then, I found it fascinating how quickly she changed demeanors when he started to walk away, finding the solution in the hanger. Was this Meyrin trying to manipulate him, the man she had feelings for? Or was this the moment where her initial crush on Athrun develop into a more meaningful attraction to him?

Either scenario is fascinating because they both show her development from a backend character, to one determined. She didn't know the whole situation and still tried to help him. 

It became unquestionable she was brilliant, she: 

• hacked into ZAFT's mainframe 
• sent a false alarm at the harbour 
• got a car and drove Athrun to the harbour

Sadly, Rey betrayed her when he found them at the hanger, shot at them and didn't care if Meyrin was caught in the cross-fire, despite Athrun's pleas. He saved her life, showing his athleticism. 

Unlike Meer who didn't take Athrun's offer to flee with him, Meyrin didn't hesitate to leave with him. 

So, I can appreciate the appeal of AsuMey because it's an offset of the nerd/jock stereotype. Many love this kind of relationship. 

That aside, after their escape from Shinn and Rey, who shot them down, they were found by Kisaka. Meyrin felt betrayal and on the Archangel, the one ship the Minereva was always pitted against. She also lost her sister. It was a terrifying situation. 

She didn’t know anyone on the Archangel and stayed near Athrun. It was a natural thing to happen. It was this vulnerability that made Athrun step up and care for her. Meyrin was definitely important to him but their relationship wasn't as deep-set as his and Meer's was.

I do feel Meyrin’s romantic inclinations were one-sided. I was glad she Meyrin wasn’t reduced to pairing fodder though. The climax of her journey was convincing Lunamaria that she was fighting the wrong fight. Two sisters, fighting against one another.

Thanks to these two, Athrun finally reunited with Cagalli and Kira, the latter who he thought dead. Kira ensured Athrun knew it was Cagalli took care of him, crying the entire time. No one ever wants to see a loved one in that condition, after all.

Even though Athrun returned to the ship, there were backend bullying that led to little to no development for Cagalli and AsuCaga. It was between the scriptwriter and Cagalli's VA. This could be the reason for the AsuMey push in marketing. While it worked out for AsuMey fans, it wasn't great for this ship. 

But if anything, it taught us young Cagalli fans to persevere. The irony of this situation was that AsuCaga remained the most popular pairing in the SEED/Destiny universe. Though Lacus and Kira are the top favourite characters individually, the KiraRak ship was second. 

AsuCaga fans were adamant about the pairing though, especially Japanese fans who had the most influence of what went forward. That was when fix-ups of the relationship happened, like adding scenes of Cagalli and the ring, more flashbacks, a music video, among other things. 

Although this article didn't feature AsuCaga, I felt it was important to talk about Meyrin and Meer. Their roles in the series and their proximity to Athrun affect AsuCaga indirectly. The next part will be the last and covers the return to Orb. 

Look forward to it!