After reading the novel of Agnes, it makes more sense why Shinn lost to Athrun. Shinn is extremely hard working which brought him to where he is today but he still lacks natural talent. Athrun is a very bad match up for him because Athrun has talent, is experienced and just as hardworking (considering the fact that he always came 1st in military school. That's not something that happens with talent alone especially with his friends keeping up with him and being his rivals) After movie, I think it also puts emphasis on Shin's military training which allowed him to win against freedom as Kira isn't a trained soldier but relies heavily on talent and powerful Ms alone.
When Shinn goes seed mode and then Athrun also activates his, you can see that Athrun can beat Shinn's ass. this is why Athrun doesn't always use his seed mode.
Actually, I find Shinn and Athrun's fights to be BS. Context-wise, Athrun had severe injuries which hinders his piloting. In the Special Edition, the reason Shinn lost was because he flashbacked to night he "killed" Athrun and Meyrin causing him to hesitate. In the manga GSD The Edge, Athrun's injuries caused him to lose very badly to Shinn in this fight. In the Edge, their final fight is treated better too. Shinn manages to destroy Athrun's Meteor Pack and sever the Justice's right arm. Although Shinn still loses the fight, it is not effortless on Athrun's part or because Shinn's weak. Towards the end, the final episodes felt like it sacrificed logic for fanservice.
@@tylerwade6539 See, that''s.... sort of the problem. Athrun is heavily injured, sure, but that kind of doesn't matter? Shinn's a hotheaded idiot who happens to get lucky on the back of having a high powered machine under his ass. Athrun in that fight ALSO has a high powered machine under his ass, if anything, a HIGHER powered one, since he can use a nuclear reactor in his. More to the point, Athrun can get into Shinn's head. In the battle for orb, even though Athrun's got a bleeding head wound and probably more blackouts than conscious moments, Shinn is currently sitting on finding out the achievement of downing the archangel, and of killing both the Freedom and Athrun, was all a complete lie. So basically everything he's built himself up with is all nonsense, and everything he's achieved just got thrown in his face. And it all got thrown in his face at the very place where his family became extra crispy. All of which is to say, Shinn's... not in fighting shape. Mentally, he's one bad moment from completely checking out, and while he can claim some sort of victory by the time they finally catch up with the space nazi on the moon, it's only after said space-nazi blows up a couple colonies with the giant laser... and then Shinn has to find out that the narcissistic asshole that's been training him to be his personal attack dog was secretly waiting for this exact moment to enact his eugenics plan. Which is to say, even in the final battle, Shinn's already arguing with himself, and lashing out because his head is, to quote, 'Full of fuck". Which leads I think to one of Seed Destiny's best scenes, when Shinn gets his ass beat and is standing there on the moon next to the busted ruins of BOTH of his mobile suits(and also the girlfriend whose sister he thought he killed), looking over at the giant space laser where his master/father figure was being a burning crater on the lunar horizon(try not to think of all the ways that doesn't make sense), and since he can't keep himself busy, he can't Act in the moment, he does what anyone else does in a situation of 40-some-odd episodes of trauma being repressed by keeping oneself busy all hitting you at once. The boy just... breaks. Because let's all just take a moment to remember that hotheaded or not, the dude's like 17, has lost his family, has lost his surrogate family, was given great accolade for his achievements that all turned out to be a lie, and just watched everything he tied his identity to go up in quite literal smoke. I know guys who'd just pop their space helmet open in that moment and be like "Welp, I'm checking out, peace". The fight only seems like bullshit until you start paying attention to how fucked up Shinn's head is from day one, and by the time the battle for orb hits, how EXTRA fucked up it is.
@@lawrencemejos3139 To be fair, Yzak had gone through two other mobile suits by the time the end of GSD happened, and he ended GSD with not only a Gouf Ignited... but also complete command of his own battlecruiser. Yzak's a captain. XD
athrun is the best close range pilot, he has fast thinking when he activated the seed mode, his reflexes is no match either, the only time he's on the verge of losing is when the battle against kira with strike, meanwhile kira on the other side, is a pilot who has an amazing aim power, he's the best pilot for artillery or covering the other ms from behind, this ability is confirmed by 2 of his ms that cover this ability freedom and strike freedom, freedom is a difficult ms to use cause of the aiming system but kira could master it in no time, same goes for strike freedom
