Flay Allster
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| Flay Allster | |
|---|---|
 Flay Allster in Gundam SEED |
|
| Genetic type: | Natural |
| DOB: | March 15, CE 56 |
| Age: | 15 [GS] |
| Nationality: | Atlantic Federation [GS] |
| Allegiance: | OMNI Enforcer [GS] |
| Rank/Position: | Crewman 2nd Class |
| Family: | George Allster (father, deceased) mother (unnamed, deceased) |
| Love Interests: | Sai Argyle (former fiancee), Kira Yamato |
| Height: | 162 cm [GS] |
| Weight: | 53 kg [GS] |
| Blood type: | A |
| Ethnic Origin: | American [citation needed] |
Flay Allster (フレイ・アルスター) is a fictional character in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. She is voiced by Houko Kuwashima in the Japanese version and Tabitha St. Germain in the English version.
[edit] Gundam SEED
Fllay is the daughter of George Allster, an Atlantic Federation minister. Her fiancee is Sai Argyle. The only one of his friends she seems familiar with is Miriallia Haw, who she shares idle gossip with shortly before ZAFT attacks Heliopolis. She only knows Kira Yamato as 'Sai's friend'. She escapes the destruction of Heliopolis in a lifeboat and winds up on the Archangel when Kira retrieves it while piloting the GAT-X105 Strike.
When a twist of fate lands Lacus Clyne on board the Archangel, Flay looks down on her and scorns her kindness because she is a Coordinator. After hearing this, Kuzzey Buskirk asks her if she is a member of the Blue Cosmos. Flay says no, but she doesn't believe that their views are wrong because there is nothing natural about the Coordinators' existence.
Flay is elated to hear that the Archangel will be meeting her father; but her jubiliance is quickly dashed when his escort ship, the Montgomery, is attacked by ZAFT. Desperate, she drags Lacus to the bridge at gunpoint and demands that the crew tell the ZAFT forces to cease their attack, or she will kill Lacus. Unfortunately, the crew does not act in time to save her father, who dies when the Montgomery explodes.
Flay is catatonic at the loss of her father and ultimately blames her ordeal on Kira, believing he deliberately held back to not kill 'his own kind'. (There is some truth to that accusation because Kira was fighting his old friend Athrun Zala.) She later apologizes for what she said.
The Archangel later meets with Admiral Lewis Halberton and his Eighth Fleet and Kira is given a choice as to whether he will continue to fight. To make him keep fighting the Coordinators, Flay enlists in the Earth Alliance, and her actions prompt Kira and his friends to enlist as well. When he returns to pick up his normal clothing from his locker, he finds Flay contemplating taking the Strike into action. Kira assures her she does not need to as he will continue to protect the ship. Flay states that if he will protect the ship, she will protect him and gives him a deep kiss. This is the start of her manipulation of Kira, using his existing attraction to her.
Later, Kira breaks down because he failed to protect a transport containing innocent civilians, including a little girl named Elle who gave him an origami flower to thank him for protecting the refugees. Flay comforts him and eventually the two of them have sex. She wakes up naked to find Kira preparing for battle. Her influence drives him to use a more violent fighting style against the ZAFT forces who engage the Archangel in North Africa and later in the Indian Ocean.
In North Africa, Flay breaks off her relationship with Sai in favour of Kira. Enraged, Sai lunges at them, but Kira easily overpowers him. This prompts Sai to try moving the Strike Gundam, but he fails.
Later, when the Archangel is undergoing repairs at Orb, Kira ends his relationship with Flay after realizing that they were not right for each other. It is unclear whether or not he realized she was manipulating him. However, by this time, Flay realizes that she does have feelings for him, and she tries to tell him so.
Shortly afterwards Kira and Tolle Koenig are declared missing in action. With Kira gone, Flay attempts to restart her relationship with Sai, denying she ever felt any emotions for Kira. The arguing former couple encounter an enraged Miriallia trying to avenge Tolle's death by killing Dearka Elsman, who was then being held prisoner on board the Archangel. Sai stops Miriallia and calms her down, then Flay states her belief that Coordinators must be eradicated. She attempts to shoot Dearka, but is knocked down by the recomposed Miriallia, Flay demands an explanation, stating that she and Miriallia are now the same, an opinion Miriallia vehemently denies.
Later, Flay is transferred from the Archangel, along with Mu La Flaga and Natarle Badgiruel. However, she encounters Rau Le Creuset during an infiltration mission he is conducting. Flay is reminded of her deceased father when she hears Rau Le Creuset's voice. (They're both voiced by Seki Toshihiko). Flay is knocked out and kidnapped by Rau.
During her time with Le Creuset, Flay has a change of heart and no longer wishes death on all Coordinators. She even sneaks glances at Yzak Joule every once in a while, hinting that she may have been willing to trust anyone who spoke to her, mainly out of confusion.
Eventually, Le Creuset hands her back to the Earth Alliance, along with a disk containing the specs to N-Jammer Cancelller technology. While in the lifeboat, she desperately tries to communicate with the Archangel in the process everybody on the battlefield hears her, including Kira. Upon hearing Kira's voice again, Flay weeps with joy.
Kira fails to retrieve her pod after his ZGMF-X10A Freedom is beheaded by the Forbidden and the Raider, and she winds up onboard the Dominion instead. When Flay is greeted by Natarle, the only person on board the Dominion whom she is familiar with, she cries in her arms.
After a brief stay on the Earth Alliance lunar base, Flay becomes the Dominion's communications officer. (When Natarle asks her why, Flay says so she can see Kira and the others again and talk.) While on board the ship, she witnesses the destruction of the ZAFT fortress Boaz with nuclear missiles. Despite her earlier declaration that all Coordinators must be eradicated, Flay is horrified by this and weeps when Natarle says that the war will not end until every last enemy is destroyed.
During the battle of Jachin Due, Flay becomes frightened of Muruta Azrael seeing him become increasingly desperate to accomplish his goal of eliminating all Coordinators after witnessing the destructive power of GENESIS. However, when Azrael orders the crew to fire on the Archangel, Flay tries to warn the Archangel. When Azrael tries to shoot her, Natarle intervenes and orders her and the rest of the crew to abandon ship and get to the Archangel.
En route to the Archangel, Flay notices Kira and Le Creuset fighting in their respective mobile suits, the Freedom and the Providence. When Kira hears her voice again, he backs out of the fight and tries to rescue her. Instead of going after Kira, Le Creuset points his beam rifle directly at Flay's escape pod. Kira manages to block the shot with his shield and get one last look at Flay. Another of Rau's DRAGOONs fires from above and destroys the pod, killing Flay and her crewmates.
Kira cries out in anguish, realizing Flay's death could have been prevented if he hadn't lost focus on Le Creuset. However, Flay's spirit appears to briefly materialize to apologize to Kira. She assures Kira that her feelings will protect him and disappears. The director of Gundam SEED, Mitsuo Fukuda, has stated that this spiritual appearance doesn't literally occur. Rather, it was a way to illustrate to the audience what Flay wanted to say to Kira but never actually could, and thus bring closure to her character arc.[1]
[edit] Trivia
- When Flay begins her plot to seduce Kira, she gives him a surprise kiss. This shot is a direct homage to a similar scene in Zeta Gundam between Amuro Ray and his admirer Beltochika Irma.
- A discarded idea that Fukuda had for Flay included her being the original pilot of the Strike Rouge; this would have also seen Flay used as an unwilling human bomb, leading to the deaths of herself, Kira and Sai as well as costing Athrun an arm.
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