Lacus Clyne

Name	Lacus Clyne
Series	Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Caption	Lacus Clyne in the Gundam SEED OVA
First	Gundam SEED episode 7
Voiced by	Rie Tanaka (Japanese) Chantal Strand (English) Jillian Michaels (English singing voice)
Nationality	PLANT [GS] Orb Union [GSD]
Relatives	Siegel Clyne (father)
Divider	yes
Paux1 name	Genetic type
Paux1	Coordinator
Aux1 name	Allegiance
Aux1	Clyne Faction [GS] Three Ships Alliance [GS] Terminal [GSD]

is a fictional character from the Japanese science fiction anime television series Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. She is a popular female vocalist and becomes the co-leader of the Clyne Faction. Apart from her prominent role in the original series, Lacus is a playable character in both video games Gundam SEED Destiny: OMNI vs ZAFT II and , she also appears in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, Super Robot Wars Judgement, Super Robot Wars W and Super Robot Wars K as captain of the Eternal. She currently holds the record of being elected the most popular female character at Animage's Anime Grand Prix four times: in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. In the 30th Anime Grand Prix, she was ranked at 3rd place.

Her name, "Lacus" means "lake" in Latin. In Gundam SEED Destiny she's the "White Queen" on Gilbert Durandal's chess board. She is referred to in the title of episode eight of Gundam SEED as the "The Songstress of The Enemy Forces".

Gundam SEED

Lacus Clyne is the daughter of PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne. She is a Coordinator whose career as an idol singer has brought her enormous popularity in the PLANTs. but Kira fights off the assassins with the Freedom. She, along with Murrue, Kira, Andrew, Cagalli Yula Athha, and most of the Archangel's crew reunite hoping to stop the new war. Lacus acts as the CIC officer for the Archangel until Cagalli takes over. (Ultimately, Kira's old friend Miriallia Haw would take over this position.)

's shuttle]]

Return to space

Lacus, along with Andrew later hijacks a shuttle to go into space, to see what the situation is at the PLANTs. They rejoin the crew of the Eternal and the Terminal factory satellite. In the Special Edition, the scene is edited so that Kira begs her to let him come along. Despite her personal feelings for Kira, she tells him he must remain on Earth to help Cagalli and the Archangel. In the original Gundam SEED Destiny, Kira made the choice of staying back himself. After the shuttle is found, Durandal declares that she is an impostor.

When Lacus and the crew of the Eternal are discovered and attacked by ZAFT again (due to an intelligence-gathering error made by Martin DaCosta), she and the ship try to deliver the newly-built Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice mobile suits to Kira and Athrun on Earth. Kira arrives in space via Cagalli's Strike Rouge and is nearly killed when his mobile suit is severely damaged. Andy uses his ZGMF-X88S Gaia to provide Kira enough cover to retreat to the Eternal, where his new mobile suit is awaiting. Aboard, Kira and Lacus are reunited and share an emotional embrace and words of happiness at seeing each other again. Lacus then takes Kira to his new mobile suit, the Strike Freedom; once again, she wears a worried expression, much like she did when Kira wanted to pilot the Freedom to save her in Orb. After Kira saves her and the Eternal, she takes the Infinite Justice to Orb herself, giving Kira the freedom to participate in the already-heated battle in Orb. She lands on the Archangel and her words again help Athrun decide on what he wants to do concerning the second war.

Ending the confusion

Lacus reveals her presence and the fact that Meer is an impostor when Meer interrupts Cagalli's television broadcast following the Second Battle of Onogoro. Most people are shocked, including the Joule Team and the Minerva crew, and even Durandal himself is perplexed that Lacus is in Orb. In her broadcast she also denounces Chairman Durandal's agenda and also said she does not support Lord Djibril either. She says that the war is the responsibility of everyone for they created this type of world. After the broadcast, the world and the PLANTs argue over who is the real Lacus.

Later, Lacus and Kira reveal to the crew of the Archangel that Durandal intends to assign behavioral genes to every human being in order to render war and conflict obsolete. By doing this, no one can make a decision if their future was planned. Terminal vows to stop Durandal from implementing his radical "Destiny Plan."

After the sudden attack on PLANT by Lord Djibril's Requiem, Lacus goes back to space aboard the Archangel. She joins Athrun, Kira, and Meyrin Hawke in information gathering on the Moon, where they are contacted by Meer. Even though Athrun and Meyrin think it is a trap, Lacus chooses to meet Meer. Lacus tries to convince Meer to stop working for Durandal; however, they are attacked. Athrun, Kira, and Meyrin deal with the attackers, but Meer ends up dying in Lacus' arms after taking the shot that was originally meant to kill Lacus. After a funeral on the Archangel, Lacus and the others read Meer's diary and are visibly moved. When Durandal appears on a television broadcast, Lacus looks at him with an expression that was never before seen on her.

During the final stages of Gundam SEED Destiny, Lacus leads Terminal and the bulk of the forces that stand in the way between Durandal and the implementing of the Destiny Plan. She once again tried to convince the ZAFT forces to stand down and remind them of the principles of humanity. However, they believed she was a fake and part of Logos and attacked.

After the death of Chairman Durandal, Lacus Clyne is invited back to the PLANTs to serve as a mediator between ZAFT and the other nations. At the end of Gundam SEED Destiny "Final Plus", she is shown walking towards the PLANT Supreme Council. It is still unclear whether she is a still just a mediator, a member of the Council, or the leader of the PLANTs (Chairwoman). The final installment of the reveals Kira, in a ZAFT commander uniform reuniting with Lacus on PLANT. They share a familiar embrace, startling other council members.

Haro

Lacus is usually accompanied by a pink Haro (Mr. Pink, Pink-chan in the original Japanese version) given to her by Athrun Zala. (Athrun also created a small robotic contraptions bird for Kira named Birdy). Over time Athrun made her more Haros in many different colors. Mr. Pink is usually there to keep her company when everyone else is away, and she often talks to it despite the fact that Mr. Pink has a very limited vocabulary. After the Bloody Valentine War, it held the two keys to the Freedom's secret hangar. Haros are considered to be the mascot of Gundam, appearing in several other series in the Universal Century timeline, but Athrun's Haros are visibly smaller than the Universal Century originals.

In Games

Lacus is a Pilot in piloting the Strike-Freedom and Infinite-Justice. She's often shown worried of Kira when he's getting hurt and also encourages Kira and Athrun throughout the game. In a collection mission she is seen piloting a ball and makes references to Haro.

She also shows up in the Japanese Super Robot Wars and SD Gundam G Generation games. Interestingly enough, in the Super Robot Wars games, Lacus is given a SEED mode, even though it is not known canonically if she does officially have a SEED mode.

Reception

Lacus Clyne consistently ranked highly in the most popular female category in the Animage Anime Grand Prix poll in the 25th to 30th editions of the poll. In the 27th to 29th versions of the poll, Lacus Clyne placed first in this category. From 2003 to 2005, Lacus Clyne won the most popular female character category in polls conducted by Newtype Japan.

References

Category:Mobile Suit Gundam SEED characters Category:Fictional diplomats Category:Fictional genetically engineered characters Category:Fictional orphans Category:Fictional politicians Category:Fictional singers Category:Fictional women soldiers and warriors