Kio Asuno is bad, but NOWHERE NEAR as bad as Kira Yamato.

I actually got asked this question multiple times in the past about if I hated Kio Asuno and if I thought he was worse than Kira Yamato or not. And here's what my official response to it is. I hope that my words enlighten you at the very least. But here it is:

> Do I hate Kio? That depends. Which Kio are you talking about? Are you taking about AGE-3 Kio or AGE-FX Kio? Because of how drastically different the two are, I consider those two separate characters entirely. AGE-3 Kio wasn't that bad at all, but he still wasn't great. He was "Okay" at best, but he didn't have anything Criminally Bad about him at all. AGE-FX Kio, however....is a completely different story. That little shit needs a SPANKING. Flit needs to take him, put him over his leg, and Tan His Ass But Good until it glows in the dark. AGE-FX Kio is yet ANOTHER failed attempt at making a Pacifist Fighter Protagonist in Gundam. Honestly, I mean....Loran Cehack was the only one so far that actually managed to get it right. What's so hard about using his style as a reference? It's not that difficult to do! Now onto the second part of that question: "Is he worse than Kira Yamato?". ABSOLUTELY NOT!. Not even fucking close. Kira is in A Completely Different League of bad writing than Kio is. Allow me to explain:

> First of all, I'll say this about Kio. Compared to Kira, Kio actually does act his age a bit more realistically than Kira does. What do I mean by that? Well let's think about this for a second. Kio is 13 years old, meaning he is now on-par with Uso Evin for being The Youngest Gundam Pilot/Protagonist in Gundam History. Kio was still under custody of his Grandpappy Flit, and at his age, he's not very mature; which is also very apparently by his actions throughout his time in AGE. Now granted, people mature at different rates from each other. That's obvious there. But in contrast to Kio, Uso was basically Forced to mature way faster than he would have liked to, because the world was literally beating the shit out of him at every turn. Everyone he knew, friends AND family, was getting killed off one by one right before his eyes. So even though that he was so young, he had to force himself to man the fuck up and face the world for what it really was; especially considering that compared to Kio, Uso was exposed to the horrors of war in a WAY more brutal matter than Kio ever was. I mean, originally with Kio, he thought that war was like a game at first, since that's how Flit raised him up to be as a child. He bought him a Mobile Suit Combat Simulator for his birthday, and told him that it was just an Arcade Game. When in reality, he was training him up for war. And when Kio finally realized what war really is and reality finally hit him in the face, he was shocked and disgusted by it. But again, he wasn't Nearly as mature as Uso was for his age.

> I mean, c'mon. Let's be real here for a second. During middle school, we all went through the whole "Idealistic Dumb Teenager" Phase. I mean, I myself went through it, you guys probably went through it as well, it's just a natural phase of growing up. Kio is basically right smack dab in the middle of that phase, and was unfortunately placed into a Battlefield by his Grandpappy during that said phase. Does that give Kio an excuse for his behavior in the Gundam AGE-FX? Absolutely Not! Don't gemme wrong there at all. But if you think about it from that perspective, it's not that surprising as to why he'd act that way at his age.

> A lot of times when people bring up Kio Asuno with me, they always call him nicknames like:

- Kira Yamato 2.0
- Kira Yamato MK-II
- Kio Yamato

> And admittedly, those names are completely valid to call him. Let's think about this. What do Kio and Kira have in common with each other? Let's see....

- Both of them prefer not to kill when it conflicts with their personal beliefs.
- Both of them are heavily defined by that trait.
- Both of them fail to develop beyond the establishment of that said trait.
- Both of them are caught up in their naive ideals regarding unrealistic expectations of human beings engaged in the act of war.
- Both of them have made their situations worse with their juvenile bullshit.

> If you look at it from that perspective, then yes. Calling him that would be completely justified. Though personally, I think the Proper Nickname for Kio in this case would be "Kira Yamato (Early Access)". That's kinda what AGE-FX Kio feels like. An Incomplete Pre-Alpha Version of Kira Yamato that is nowhere near as bad as the full version, but still has multiple traits present from him that make him directly comparable to the full version.

> Kio may be a bad character, don't gemme wrong there. But to compare him to KIRA YAMATO. Who I remind you all is:

- The #1 Worst Main Protagonist in Gundam History.
- The 2nd Worst Character in Gundam History.
- The 2nd Worst God-Mode Gary Stu in Gundam History.

> That is an EXTREMELY Bold Claim right there.

> Y'know, it's funnny. Because whenever I get into debates with Gundam Fans from other universes about AGE, they always complain about Kio being such an annoying little shit; with his Idealistic Pacifism in War, and his whole "Disabling Mobile Suits" bullshit. And yet as they do this, they completely ignore the fact that both Kira Yamato AND Matt Healy have both done the same exact thing as him, except Worse. So I then proceed to remind them with: "Uh....dude? May I point out that Kira Yamato and Matt Healy both do the same exact thing as Kio did in the AGE-FX, except they did it Much Much Worse. Why are you making it seem like Kio is the worst offender of this problem when he clearly isn't?" After I tell them that, 9 times out of 10, the replies I get from them range from:

- "Um..."
- "No Comment."
- "SHUT UP!"

> Now, before I say this next part, I'd like to have a disclaimer here that I am not in any way endorsing or encouraging Kio's behavior at all when I say this. But I'll give Kio this with his whole "Disabling Mobile Suits" bullshit: At least His Gundam Anime had Way Better Animation where we actually get to see Up-Close and Personal how he actually does it. Which is Way More than I can say about Kira, where in contrast to Kio, he just rushes into battle with the Freedom/Strike Freedom yelling "STAHWP  FIGHTING!!!!", and then just Beam-Spams the whole area with an Extremely Zoomed-Out Camera; just like the 00 Movie's Fight Scenes. And yet we're then supposed to believe that absolutely Nobody Died from all of those Massive Explosions that take place afterwards......SEEMS LEGIT!


> Another thing that AGE Did Right in this situation that SEED Did Wrong, was that people were actually Calling Out Kio for his retarded behavior. Everyone was seeing him do this shit and they were all like "YO! Wtf are you doing?! Shoot them down! Don't disable them! Wtf is wrong with you, Kio?! You can't keep fighting like that! If you don't get them, they'll keep coming back and eventually get you! Do you wanna die?!" Everyone was calling him out Repeatedly for being a fucking idiot. Even though Kio kept pressing on and didn't give a fuck about what others were saying, the point to be made here was that they at least Acknowledged that what he was doing was wrong. That alone is WAY BETTER than the way SEED handled it with Kira. NOBODY called Kira out on his reckless idealistic bullshit at any point. There was literally NOBODY who questioned him; with the exception of Athrun only one time. And guess what? Kira manages to get him to see things his way Immediately just by simply striking down the Savior with no repercussions whatsoever. But yeah, not only did nobody ever call Kira out, they actually did Worse than that. They ENCOURAGED his behavior! They cheered him on! And as a result, he kept making things worse over and over again, and not only repeatedly put the Archangel and everyone on board it In Danger multiple times. But also kept on driving battles they intervened with into Complete Chaos. Let's take Operation Angel Down, for example. If Kira was REALLY that serious about protecting the Archangel, and actually went Balls-Out, Guns-A-Blazing in that battle. The Archangel probably would have made it to the ocean without a fucking scratch on it. But NOOOOOOO, they encouraged his behavior to not kill enemies:

> "Don't hit the Z.A.F.T. Mobile Suits! Please, Kira! We don't wanna harm them, even though we've been declared a Global Terrorist Threat by both the Earth Alliance AND Z.A.F.T! They're clearly trying to kill us, but y'know what? Don't shoot back! Forget defending us! Oh, you're worried about the Archangel getting damaged? NAH, it's all good, brah! We got kickass technicians in ORB that'll fix us right up, don't worry about it, Kira! Just do what you do best and disable them! Go ahead!"

> You see, it's this type of bullshit that is Exactly Why Kira Yamato is such a DISGUSTING Gary-Stu. Nobody calls him out on his bullshit; except Athrun, and look how well THAT turned out. He gets all the best abilities without explanation right from the very beginning. He gets treated like a God for no apparent reason and doing nothing to deserve it. The world completely revolved around him and his actions. He gets stronger and stronger for no reason. All of his actions are Always Justified no matter how right or wrong they are. And everyone and their mother always Encourages his behavior. Does NOBODY see Anything Wrong with this picture here?! This is something you would expect out of a Really Bad Fanfiction....Oh, wait.....

> Although, even though AGE had the right idea by calling out Kio on his bullshit; which is Great!, unfortunately they ended up making One Fatal Mistake with this. And that mistake is that Kio never gets to suffer Any Consequences for the bullshit he was doing Even Despite getting repeatedly called out for it. And as a result, at the end, he never learns a damn thing at all from all the bullshit he was doing that constantly put his allies AND himself in danger for no fucking reason. All because war conflicts with his personal beliefs, he ends up putting everyone in danger all because he wants everyone to conform to his way of thinking and refuses to change his own views on the matter. Can you say "Hypocrisy Overwhelming"??

So in conclusion, AGE-FX Kio Asuno is a bad character without question. But comparing him to Kira Yamato in terms of Bad Writing, he is NOT EVEN FUCKING CLOSE.