I hated Zeta. I watched it mainly because how hyped it was as the best Gundam series of all time and whatnot, and I had watched the original and found it good enough, so why not?
Horribly overhyped. Most new characters were horribly annoying (exception: Emma), to the point in which I was cheering when Jerid got killed, and actually felt it was a good for the world that Kamille got mind raped. The returning characters all took a level in badass and were amazing (exception: Katz. Thank god he's dead), especially Char as Quattro, but that didn't save the series.
Character interaction was horrible as well. It always, always, ended up in "PEOPLE PUNCH EACH OTHER". That's not dramatic. It was good at first, sure, but it quickly turned hilarious because it only shows how badly written everyone is.
Character development was laughable. Quattro is the only one to get actual development during the series. Kamille wildly shifts between a trainwreck and a sensible, likable person entirely depending on what the episode needs. Amuro and his new girlfriend go from being a wreck and horrible, respectively, to amazing...entirely offscreen. This is basically an insult to Gundam fans, because you know, we'd like to know how Amuro got over his problems, what with being the main character of the previous series and probably the most well known character after Char himself.
The sheer amount of deus ex machina was really bad as well. The Zeta came entirely out of nowhere and just when it was needed. It was badly done. Then it goes full Super Robot, with energy fields and ****, for no well explained reason. Oh, and talking about robots coming out of nowhere, Amuro's MS, whatever it was called since its name was dropped a grand total of once, came out of nowhere as well. Needing side-materials to decipher what's going on is bad writing.
In short, if you kill so much of the cast in the final battle, yet I can only care about a single characterr (Emma), you're doing something wrong. Lots of things, in fact.
I'll give credit where its due though: Quattro was awesome, all the time. Even when he was basically an ecoterrorist with insanely stupid ideas, he still managed to be the most likable character of the series by far. Good ol' Char. Bright, Hayato and Kai too, they all managed to be really good, far better than they were in the original Gundam in fact. And when Amuro got over his fear (off-screen), he also surpassed his original incarnation (and would only get even more badass in the trainwreck known as Char's Counterattack).
