Originally posted by: xat
The situation kind of left me in conflict in regards to Athrun, so I said both 'can' and 'seemingly' (as opposed to do/does). In this episode, it, at least to me, seemed slightly as though Athrun went seed under pressure; I'd like to think he did it with the same control as Kira has though, since the characteristics for that kind of seed activation were unlike, for lack of better example, Shinn's.
Okey listen, Athrun has been able to go into SEED mode at will since the later half of SEED so that is what he did here to. Even if he did do it under pressure here he still knows how to do it at will.

As for Shinn "losing" in this ep i will be fair since i called his victory over Kira a victory cause of the circumstances i will call this the same. 2 people he thought he killed came back in a short time which will make you lose focus, add to that that he had to fight his former country which is bound to be hard whoever you are. There is also Athrun's speech which could have had some effect on him also.

Shinn "lost" because of the circumstances he has become a good pilot and now fights Kira evenly.