Gundam SEED original story plan?

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Mafty
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Gundam SEED original story plan?

So is there any information on what the original story plan for SEED was/how much was changed? I've heard differing stories that it might have been a updated remake of a sort, or even a sequel to the Turn A Gundam series which would(SPOILER) ultimately tie it in toward the Universal Century.
You can defiantly see the remake evidence as early episodes heavily copy the storyline of the original series, and in the end it becomes something of a remake of both FG and Zeta. However there are also some references to the UC era as well: Copernicus City looks almost exactly like Gaingnham from Turn A Gundam, plus the numerous suits which are redone from FG in Seed DESTINY (The ZAKU, DOM, etc.).
However the earth in the Cosmic Era bears far more resemblance to the earth of the 21st Century , than the very different Earth of the Correct Century, particularly in Seed Destiny. Plus the Zeon style ZAFT units are clearly shouts outs. So was their originally supposed to actually be a tie to the UC ; which was ultimately reduced to shout outs, or where they merely just references to start with?
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Why is it spoiler when they don't even use it?
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Mafty wrote: Sat Aug 28, 2021 4:03 pm So is there any information on what the original story plan for SEED was/how much was changed? I've heard differing stories that it might have been a updated remake of a sort, or even a sequel to the Turn A Gundam series which would(SPOILER) ultimately tie it in toward the Universal Century.
Eh... I mean, it basically IS an updated remake of the First Gundam series.

That was, according to at least one staff interview, the goal all along: to create a "new standard" Gundam for the 2000s.
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Seto Kaiba wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 2:31 am
Eh... I mean, it basically IS an updated remake of the First Gundam series.

That was, according to at least one staff interview, the goal all along: to create a "new standard" Gundam for the 2000s.
The term they use is "21st Century Mobile Suit Gundam" (MSG meaning the original series, not the meta franchise) and not just any staff interview, the interview of the director Fukuda.
Last checked they still have that on Wayback machine's archives of the official website(but I'm lazy and don't want to go find the link right now.)
He was basically being all Tomino Fanboy bragging he gets to remake FG.
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Chris
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Mafty wrote: Sat Aug 28, 2021 4:03 pm So is there any information on what the original story plan for SEED was/how much was changed? I've heard differing stories that it might have been a updated remake of a sort, or even a sequel to the Turn A Gundam series which would(SPOILER) ultimately tie it in toward the Universal Century.
You can defiantly see the remake evidence as early episodes heavily copy the storyline of the original series, and in the end it becomes something of a remake of both FG and Zeta. However there are also some references to the UC era as well: Copernicus City looks almost exactly like Gaingnham from Turn A Gundam, plus the numerous suits which are redone from FG in Seed DESTINY (The ZAKU, DOM, etc.).
However the earth in the Cosmic Era bears far more resemblance to the earth of the 21st Century , than the very different Earth of the Correct Century, particularly in Seed Destiny. Plus the Zeon style ZAFT units are clearly shouts outs. So was their originally supposed to actually be a tie to the UC ; which was ultimately reduced to shout outs, or where they merely just references to start with?
At the time that SEED was released, there were some comments in Newtype magazine that Fukuda had spoken to Tomino and that Tomino had told him about Turn A's Dark History. However, aside from Reconguista, no post Turn A-series has ever made any attempts to tie in to the Dark History. Your example about Copernicus seems like a visual nod more than anything (or maybe just a case of outright recycling - a lot of the 90s Gundam shows recycled designs like tanks, jeeps, planes, etc). SEED is also full of other random unexplained visual similarities to UC, like George Glenn's spaceship being a carbon copy of the Jupitris from Zeta.

There were plans for the ending of SEED to be different from what we saw. Gunota Headlines translated a 2003 interview with Fukuda from shortly after SEED ended:
Mitsuo Fukuda wrote:Q: The finale you had in mind?
A: Fllay was suppose to be a human bomb. She returned as a human bomb to Archangel. She was going to blowup outside of the ship along with Ssigh. Then Kira was going to die with Athrun losing an arm...
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Chris wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:20 pm
At the time that SEED was released, there were some comments in Newtype magazine that Fukuda had spoken to Tomino and that Tomino had told him about Turn A's Dark History. However, aside from Reconguista, no post Turn A-series has ever made any attempts to tie in to the Dark History.
If I recall right, Tomino was angry and said "I ended Gundam with Turn A" when Fukuda went to Tomino being the proud fanboy he is, about he got a new Gundam series to direct.(I always imagine Tomino then chased Fukuda away with a broomstick and sprinkled salt)
There were plans for the ending of SEED to be different from what we saw. Gunota Headlines translated a 2003 interview with Fukuda from shortly after SEED ended:
Mitsuo Fukuda wrote:Q: The finale you had in mind?
A: Fllay was suppose to be a human bomb. She returned as a human bomb to Archangel. She was going to blowup outside of the ship along with Ssigh. Then Kira was going to die with Athrun losing an arm...
That most likely only happened in his head, maybe very early in the planning when Kira still wasn't his own projection, because that most definitely can never pass sponsor's sensors. Not to mention he himself will not let it happen for Kira after he said Kira is his own projection in an earlier interview and than Kira suddenly becoming the minor war god from the cry baby he said he projected.
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

I remember that Strike Rouge was originally Flay's. It's probably ties to how they mentioned Earth Alliance plan to use Flay's loss for propaganda.
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Chris
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

MythSearcher wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:07 pmThat most likely only happened in his head, maybe very early in the planning when Kira still wasn't his own projection, because that most definitely can never pass sponsor's sensors. Not to mention he himself will not let it happen for Kira after he said Kira is his own projection in an earlier interview and than Kira suddenly becoming the minor war god from the cry baby he said he projected.
Who knows....Fukuda was definitely driven by some whims on SEED, since in the same interview he admitted to resurrecting Waltfeld because he liked the actor, and making Dearka a good guy to boost lagging sales of the Buster Gundam. I don't know how it would've been at Sunrise nearly 20 years ago, but not killing the protagonist is definitely not a sacred cow anymore, as evidenced by Mikazuki dying at the end of IBO.
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Re: Gundam SEED original story plan?

Chris wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:43 am Who knows....Fukuda was definitely driven by some whims on SEED, since in the same interview he admitted to resurrecting Waltfeld because he liked the actor, and making Dearka a good guy to boost lagging sales of the Buster Gundam. I don't know how it would've been at Sunrise nearly 20 years ago, but not killing the protagonist is definitely not a sacred cow anymore, as evidenced by Mikazuki dying at the end of IBO.
Yeah, but killing off Kira is just so unlike Fukuda, its nothing like his modus operandi.
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