Alright, I'll bite.
Zeta Gundam. Yoooooooo this is my s**t, I love it so much, but it definitely has its problems.
Its pacing is all over the place; it can go from edge of your seat excitement to painstaking slowness in the course of a few episodes.
Notably, that in-between period after they left Earth the first time, and before returning again for Kilimanjaro/Dakar? Terrible.
I was gonna cry I was so disengaged during that cluster of time. But when it got back on the ball, it went strong, so it sorta felt worth the wait?
The relationships, especially between Newtypes, are jarring? I know it's just how Newtypes are, they're so weird, but it just felt like every "life changing" relationship Kamille had was handled sloppily.
Especially Rosamia, I couldn't think of a more pointless sub-plot. She could have been completely removed from the start and affected nothing.
Thankfully, things like this were set aside in the NT movies, but even then, the NT movies are just... okay.
Zeta's secondary cast is also largely unlikable, which is kind of a problem since Zeta loves to give them moments in the spotlight.
However, there are some standouts from the crowd, such as Henken and Apolly, who were absolutely great.
Characters also felt the constant need to set aside logic in battle, and hence forth, always got in trouble.
The ending was really great and chock full of excitement, but when you have level headed people like Emma bouncing out her Gundam and Henken sacrificing his entire ship for her, it's like...
Where did all of your smarts go? Where did your logic and reasoning go? Was Tomino really that desperate for a ~* kill 'em all *~ slaughter fest ending?
Thankfully Katz death was hilarious enough and Emma's final moments with Kamille were touching enough that you can set that issue aside.
Jerrid could have also been handled better. He was set up to be this big bad rival to Kamille, right?
I was with him up until his laughably unglamorous death. It just felt like such a waste of a perfectly decent character.
His arc just POOF, ended like that. All that build up and for what? Absolutely nothing. Start to finish, and nothing.
No final stand off with Kamille, nothing.
Some people would say that Zeta has some stupid MS too, if you're a mech design junkie, but it's like... for every stupid MS like the Bound Doc, you get cool as ******** ones like the Hyaku Shiki, so I feel it's a non-issue.
But it's like, despite that, Zeta has some incredible strengths. Its main cast is fabulous.
Its music is to die for, its battles and mech designs are for the most part, great.
When the plot was moving along, it was moving fast and it was a ton of fun.
The political intrigue was actually really intriguing. The three way fight between the AEUG, Titans and Neo Zeon was awesome.
Scirocco and Haman were really likable villains. They were underhanded and scheming and shitty and UGH but you loved every second of it.
Character cameos from 0079 didn't feel ham-fisted and they flowed really well into the story. Amuro's return? Uggghhh so good.
I also felt like our protag, Kamille, was a really strong one. He really grew and changed through out the story and I really wanted a good end for him.
Char's struggle as Quattro was really, really interesting. I always wanted to see what happened to him next, or what relationship he'd botch up next.
Kamille and Quattro made Zeta for me, they alone could have carried it, really.
So yeah. c':
