It was the beginning of a guilt cycle for Cagalli because in all honesty, how the hell does an 18 year old compare to someone with years of experience, confidence and ingrained beliefs to the point of dying for them? Instead of spending more time at home and learning diplomacy and politics from her father, Cagalli desired to be part of the action as mentioned before, she had the luxury of freedom while Uzumi lived. Since Uzumi's deah was heroic, it weighed on her for two years. It was a Cagalli & Uzumi song - the lyrics were so damn depressing and reflected what she must have felt when losing her sole parent.
The translated lyrics to Akatsuki no Kuruma can be found here and I completely disagree with those who say this is an AsuCaga song. Throughout the show, Uzumi's and Cagalli's relationship was touched on in passive ways, most notably through background songs in scenes in which Cagalli and Uzumi parted & when Cagalli piloted Akatsuki for the first time. Choice and freedom existed during his rule and Cagalli benefited from it. I strongly suspect if Uzumi was still around, she'd be training to become a better pilot and fighter instead of refining her skills as a politician. She knew about her biological parents, their backgrounds as well, knew Kira was her brother but didn't maintain a healthy relationship with him, as Kira alluded to after kidnapping her from her wedding, yet her adoptive father's legacy was what she chose to commit her essence to. It wasn't Athrun that was her priority, as seen when she missed breakfast with him in an early episode, it was her country solely because her father entrusted it to her. In a show that heavily depended on romantic relationships - Shinn & Stellar's bond wasn't flushed out as a sibling relation until the remastered version was released so I don't count them - Uzumi & Cagalli's relationship was refreshing. These were similar words her daddy tried to ingrain in her. Her preferred method of handling things wasn't working anymore. She was at a point in leadership where she was reminded that she wasn't a child and needed to mature. It wasn't often we saw Cagalli alone, without Kira or Athrun so I appreciated this moment. Take a look at what her driving factor was in Destiny: To stress the significance of this honourable death and the effect it had on Cagalli, it was mentioned over and over that she was daddy's little girl. It was of interest that Uzumi and Patrick's death reappeared in Destiny more so than the others, showing the impact their values had on their children. Therefore, his death can be considered honourable. His death does coincide with the traditional Japanese honour system as he chose to sacrifice himself for Orb instead of living for his daughter - it was a community vs.
The reason I say terrible was because he chose it. The last scene they have together in real-time highlighted the fact that she took him for granted and decided to be headstrong child (which is difficult for a politician) instead of working towards a harmonious relationship. Without a doubt, the manner of Uzumi's death was terrible in Gundam SEED in comparison to Fllay's & Lacus' fathers death. Not a great combination, especially with Uzumi's suicide, eh? Shinn was her Guilt and Uzumi was her Ideals. Cagalli's characterization and tribulations were perfectly shown with this cover image:
The only media source that depicted her character perfectly was The Edge. From hesitant & immature to confident & independent, I'm going to go over the details that made her so and you can form your opinion of whether or not a relationship was viable at this point in her life. It was sad that it took a lot of edits from the studio to be able to give her character some justice for the Special and Remastered editions. Although, there was a lot of compensation for demoting her character to secondary in the form of official images and videos.
I'm happy the video ended on this image since she didn't receive much screen time on the show. The left-Cagalli is in the shade whereas the one on the right is facing the light but both are surrounded by flowers, which is a nice touch. This was a lovely edit from one of the official Director's Concept AMVs because it portrayed Cagalli's mindset perfectly throughout Destiny.