Flay Allster

Flay Allster (フレイ・アルスター ,Furei Arusutā?) is a fictional character in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.

Personality
Flay, the daughter of Atlantic Federation Vice Foreign Minister George Allster, is a pretty, popular, and to some extent spoiled, Heliopolis technical college student. She is also shown to have a general distrust toward Coordinators. Before the events of Gundam Seed, she presents herself has a carefree and spoiled personality. After the attack on Heliopolis, more is revealed about her nature. She revealed herself to be the least courageous, fearful, mentally/emotionally fragile, manipulative, jealous, and spiteful person. Her hate and fear of coordinators was shown in the earlier events of Gundam Seed as she at times freaks out in the presence of a coordinator and even going as far as exaggerating a situation to convince others that coordinators are bad. While not part of the Blue Cosmos group, she's a sympathizer of their ideals against coordinators. Her desire for revenge and hate towards coordinators only magnified after the death of her father. She took advantage of Kira's fragile emotions and willingly gave her body to Kira to make him fall in love with her. She deviously laughed the fact she could manipulate Kira to follow her will to kill the coordinators they encountered. However, near the middle of Gundam Seed, her feelings toward Kira were indicated to have become genuine, as she expressed private concern for him during the battle that separated them. Towards the near end of the series, she developed a certain level of guilt over all that has happened. She redeemed herself by alerting the Earth ship Archangel of an imminent attack.

Gundam Seed
Flay is shown to be living on Heliopolis at the beginning of the series. Her fiancé is Sai Argyle, which was arranged by their parents. On Orb's colony Heliopolis, Flay receives a letter from Sai. Suddenly, ZAFT launches an attack on the colony, prompting its populace to seek shelter in the lifeboats. Flay was separated from her friends for the duration of the attack. Eventually, the colony gave way and imploded, causing the lifeboats to eject. However, the boat Flay was on had malfunctioned and was dead in space. Kira Yamato, who was piloting the mobile suit Strike, retrieved it and brought it into the Archangel. As she was helped out of the boat, she notices Kari and leaps towards him. At first, she presumes she is on a ZAFT ship, due to the presence of the Strike but Kira assured her that they are on an Alliance vessel and that their friends are already onboard.

After evading ZAFT several times, the Archangel began to run low on supplies and required to salvage from the wreckage of Junius 7. During the sweep, Kira finds a life pod, which he brings onboard. The pod door opens in the hanger, with a pink-haired girl and a little spherical robot called Haro inside. The girl introduces herself as Lacus Clyne, a famous singer and the daughter of the current PLANT chairman, Siegel Clyne. Flay later refused to even bring food to Lacus' quarters, afraid that she might get hurt. Miriallia pointed out that Kira was nearby, also a Coordinator; Flay states that he's different but doesn't trust Lacus, thinking she was from ZAFT. Lacus comes in, correcting her that ZAFT is the military and that she is actually from the PLANTs. She tries to befriend Flay but is shrugged, refusing to have anything to with Coordinator. As Lacus is escorted back to her room, Kuzzey asks if she is with Blue Cosmos; Flay denies it but explains that she agrees with their doctrine that Coordinators aren't natural.

The Archangel rendezvoused with an escort from the Eighth fleet. On one of the cruisers, was her father. Flay was so excited to be reunited with him. Unfortunately, ZAFT attacked again. Flay took Lacus to the bridge and threatened to kill her unless ZAFT calls off their attack. Unfortunately, the warning came too late, as her father was killed. Flay blamed Kira for not protecting her father, claiming that he was secretly loyal to his fellow Coordinators.

Flay decided to enlist in the Alliance when the Archangel rendezvoused with the Eighth Fleet. She was present during all their battles en route to JOSH-A.

After Kira fought Athrun, Kira disappeared and everyone on the ship then believed he was dead. Distraught, Flay approached Sai for comfort, telling him that her feelings for Kira were never really true. Sai, however, claimed that she was deluding herself. Later, she was then promoted to another ship. Then, during ZAFT's Operation Spit Break, she was abducted by ZAFT commander Rau Le Creuset. However, she was treated less like a prisoner and began to respect Coordinators.

During a fight between Dominion and Archangel, Rau decided to release Flay towards Dominion. First, Azrael thought that it was a trap, and then Flay said she had the key to ending the war. Azrael changed his mind and ordered Natarle to capture Flay's pod. Kira tried to stop Calamity from taking her to the Dominion, but he was ambushed by Raider and Forbidden. After Flay was taken into the Dominion, she realized that Kira was the pilot of Freedom when she heard his voice from the radio. And there he met her new superior, Natarle Badguriel. She served in the Dominion's bridge in some battles.

After the destruction of Boaz, Flay didn't want to see battles anymore. Natarle just told her to stay in her room because they are going to see more battles. She also told Natarle that she wanted to see Kira and the Archangel. But she said that there's a slim chance of seeing them. Natarle stands up to Azrael, who was more concerned with the destruction of the PLANTs than GENESIS and orders Flay and the crew to evacuate the Dominion. As they flee the ship's destruction, Flay tells the crew to get to the Archangel. Flay's shuttle is destroyed by a laser blast from Rau Le Creuset's Providence Gundam, thus ending the young women's life right in front of the eyes of Kira Yamato, who was trying to save her at the time. However, her spirit appears to Kira, expressing her regrets and assuring him that her true feelings will protect him. Filled with anguish, Kira goes into SEED mode and goes off to avenge Flay by killing Le Creuset.

Trivia

 * Gundam SEED's director, Mitsuo Fukuda states that Flay's ghost didn't actually appear. The scene was merely a way to illustrate what Flay could've said to Kira.
 * In early draft of Gundam SEED, Flay was suppose to be Strike Rouge's pilot and used by Earth Alliance for propaganda.
 * In the game Super Robot Wars W for the Nintendo DS, Flay is saved from death much earlier on, when the Neue Welltar (the unified team of mecha heroes including the Archangel group) intercept Flay (placed in a remote-controlled GINN) before she is picked up by the Dominion while carrying the N-Jammer Canceler data (in fact, the original TV scenario of being recovered by the Dominion results in a game over).