Athrun
Yzak stopped being a match for Kira very early on and doesn't have SEED mode

Athrun didn't do dick

I seem to recall Athrun taking down Orga but I could be misremembering.

>>23733880
To be fair his was the only one of the 4 suits to get an actual upgrade, so that helped him carry it all the way to the end. And as someone else already said, he only ever took out 2 of the druggies
As for best pilots, the top 3 is set in stone and you're only allowed to argue about what comes after
1. Kira
2. Rau
3. Athrun

>>23733938
>1. Kira
>2. Rau
>3. Athrun
This is the correct ordering.

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>>23733880
>>23733938
Remember Yzak resented Athrun because he was always second in everything compared to him in the military academy, that is why Athrun ends being the squad leader, even though Yzak is better suited for that role by miles.

Sure the Duel got an early upgrade but that was to compensate the fact it is the most plain of the 5 original Gundams.

Before the Archangel goes to Earth Yzak is already no match for Kira and only Athrun can match him with the SEED mode.

Sure he goes around killing feddies in Alaska in whatever other places but showed his worth as a pilot by killing 2 of the druggies in an already outdated suit, hell in the last seconds of the finale the Duel is shown to still be the only Gundam that is still able to fight in Jachin Due armed with a spare rifle and shield he got from the Archangel

>>23733938
>>23733988
Remember Rau is a Natural sobhis piloting feats make me consider him at the top in seed

>>23734027
But he IS a newtype (and clearly the strongest one) and that looks to rank above being a coordinator, at least in terms of piloting. I'd say it goes
SSS - Seed mode
SS - Ultimate Coordinator
S - Newtype
A - Coordinator
C - Druggie (Coordinator w/ downtime)
F - Natural (baseline)
Though the math probably doesn't check out with Kira stacking all 3 and still barely beating him.

>>23734041
What about the accords?

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>>23734019
Yzak was also the first one to take major damage. IIRC he loses an arm in one battle and then got slashed and stabbed in another battle, and that was when they were still in space chasing the Archangel. Yzak stops being relevant as a pilot for like 30 episodes until he suddenly pulls out underdog wins against the Calamity and Raider.

>>23734056
>your own beam saber gets sliced
jesus, Yzak got flexed upon so hard there

>>23734041
>Though the math probably doesn't check out with Kira stacking all 3 and still barely beating him.

Rau also had Dragoons when nobody had seen or had a counter to them before. He wouldn't have been nearly as devastating to Kira if he didn't have them.

>>23734124
Poor little Kira must've seen those things pop out and laughed to himself after seeing 500 stock footage instances of the Moebius Zero gunbarrels 3x their size and wired to draw more power hitting perfect killshots on grunts and doing literally nothing to them.
And then the METEOR got shredded instantly

>>23734214
the Providence is on a whole class on its own, despite appearing so little it definitely made quite the menace impression unlike almost every other gundam final boss

Yzak would have been the best CE pilot if he ever got a stupidly overtuned custom made nuclear powered MS like that little bitch Athrun did.

>>23734056
To be fair the Strike Aile is objectively the superior MS. The Duel is the prototype of the prototype. It's X102 while the Strike is X105.

>>23734906
It's really obvious the Freedom was supposed to be Yzak's. Assrun gets the Justice, Yzak gets the Freedom at back him up, and Rau gets the Providence, so the surviving members of the Cruset squad all have gundams.

>>23733880
is that the flag of spain? holy shit he's spanish

>>23733880
Yzak did more with less. The same can't be said about Kira and Athrun.

>>23734056
Aile Strike is the only mobile suit during that era capable of independent flight. That's a massive advantage over the other G Project mobile suits that were incapable of independent flight and were dependent on a slow moving large platform to traverse the air.

Watch that scene again. Notice how Duel and Blitz were easy targets compare to the Aile Strike. Aile Strike mobility in the air is vastly superior to that of the Duel and Blitz. The Duel was free falling into the ocean to meet it's demise once it's flight platform was destroyed.

>>23735449
techncally the Aile can't fly in the atmosphere, but can hover and cover long distances by jumping and using all the power output in the backpack
but yeah, combined that with the mobility of the Aile and Kira's skills by that point, any zaft faggot that dared to face him was dead meat

>>23733880
Athrun is the better pilot simply because he has the SEED factor.
In terms of leadership capabilities, Yzak easily takes the cake.
Rau put Athrun in charge of the 4 stolen G-Weapons on Earth and that ended with the Blitz's destruction (+Nicol's death), Aegis' destruction and the Buster's capture. Ironically, the one pilot who objected on the grounds that he was better for the job survived with his machine as a ZAFT asset until the final battle.
Then, in Destiny Yzak is wearing Rau's uniform and is deeply implied to be doing a lot of heavy lifting off screen while Athrun keeps bitching and moaning at Kira and Shinn. I'd also wager Yzak would've handled both of those loonies better than Athrun: Yzak because by now he'd know not to underestimate Kira whatsoever but have little to no sentimentality towards him (Angel Down happens after and more decisively, due to Shinn and Rey having commander support) as well as being able to better slap sense into Shinn given his prior fuck-up shooting down the civie shuttle in SEED.
It absolutely disgusted me how, for some idiotic reason, Athrun has a higher command stat than Yzak in G Crossrays.

>>23736158
Athrun is a nepobaby. Outside of piloting abilities he have no leadership skills and doesn't know how to communicate with people effectively. Certain people in PLANET hold his father in high regards, hence he got the position that he got despite lacking the qualifications for them. The same could be said about Lacus who is basically a cult leader with her own militia.

Athrun has no fans.
People love Kira and Shinn but no one cares for Athrun.

>>23736412
>The same could be said about Lacus
She wasn’t put in any position of power though, aside from being the daughter of the founder of PLANT.