[quagmire]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

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Spoiler:

There is (at least in the novel) a rather heavy emphasis on how the entire, never-ending fight against terrorists (and his obsession with shouldering most if not all of the burden) is slowly but surely whittling him down, to the point where it is negatively affecting his relationship with Lacus (missed dinner, etc.) and he even starts wondering whether Durandal actually had the right answer to the problem.

He is stuck with a really Sisyphean challenge where he internalizes all of his issues and, when Lacus seemingly betrays him, it just becomes too much to bear and he at long last starts spiraling. All in all, the Kira seen in the movie is one that has fought for so long that he is on the verge of giving up.

Hell, in the novel (dunno if the movie shows this), Kira and Lacus do just that at the end after the final battle - they go AWOL, almost Shiro Amada and Aina Sahalin-style. They realize they have given too much of themselves and need to heal by themselves. The world can go hang itself in the meantime.

Spoiler for response to novel spoilers:

So basically Kira reverts to how he was when Flay was manipulating him and put the burden of protecting the Archangel all on himself that spiraled to the Strike vs Aegis fight. Instead of getting an epic battle of that spiral, we get Kira getting bright slapped