Once again I come on and still see this thread hasn't moved. Atleast the Shinn/Kira is a better pilot discussion ended. I've come to rain on peoples parade and give new info that some seem to have missed.

Sorry to burst peoples bubbles. But from the general community consensus from outside of woot. I have gone over the animation frame by frame. The explosion that really big one is the explosion from Minerva firing the Tannhauser. The final moments of the fight between Impulse and Freedom are occuring the same time as Minerva fires. You can see the beam dissapaiting as the explosion grows. Looks like Freedom doesn't blow up as there is only one explosion and not two. Now how on earth could the Tannhauser create such an explosion not having hit the AA. Well thats whats currently being discussed but the big theory that seems to be going is that when the Tannhauser hit the water it started to evaporate and then ignited the massive amount of hydrogen that was created. In essence a giant hydrogen bomb went off. Freedom and Impulse were pretty far out and closer to the explosion as it envelopes Freedom and Impulse we are left with a crispy Impulse but Freedom has slipped away with a bunch of parts from Freedom and Impulse left behind in the water. Since Shinn survived in his cockpit its safe to assume Kira was pretty well protected in his. Although Freedom won't really be usable. He somehow is apparently gonna get away

SPOILER


The remains of freedom are taken by the EA and used to create the Testament Gundam which will be appearing in Gundam ACE soon. Its featured in Gundam SEED Destiny Astray and is proposed to be built from N Dagger N and Freedom parts. Pretty cool if you ask me


/SPOILER