News flash, history rewriters: Gundam SEED was never good. Stop saying that Gundam SEED Destiny wasn't up to par with the original. I've seen both, and Destiny is only marginally worse.
The series began as copypasta of the original Gundam series, with it's own Newtypes, White Base, Amuro Ray, Bright Noa (split into two character), Char, Side 7, and Earth Federation. Then we move into Zeta copypasta with it's take on the drop operation on Jaburo, then back to 0079 copypasta with the execution of a Giren Zabi.
The character designs were awful, the mecha designs were indentical, the plot structure predictable, the animation an irritating "ultra-shiny" sheen, the writing sloppy, the characters unlikable, and the conclusion unsatisfying. And it always astonishes me when I hear that the music was great - which music? The Inu Yasha-esque pop music OPs and EDs? The generic background music? There hasn't been a good tune in Gundam since Yoko Kanno did the Turn A soundtrack. Before that it wasn't since Gundam Wing.
So while a new generation of CE era apologists stress that Gundam SEED is getting a bad rep due to it's trainwreck of a sequel, I suggest you look at the trainwreck that came before it. The CE era is a monument of failure that fans of the Gundam franchise hadn't endured since G-Saviour.
At least SEED Destiny made some of the characters from the original more likable, even if it was at the cost of the new characters.