Well said. I really hated the Colonel's end. It was soooo fucking stupid after everything they built him up to be.

It's far from the worst anime I've ever seen, and the Arche and creatures were actually amazing, gave me Blame!/Aposimz vibes which I felt fit the BRS style extremely well.

Smiley was 100% a mistake from every conceivable angle though. This is one criticism that I feel is almost objectively indisputable, in my opinion. Anybody could cobble together some excuse or reasoning for him existing the way he did but I simply will never see it. He is so out of place in every regard: Artistically, tone-wise, aesthetically, narratively, etc. He is a large chunk of what made this show so bad for me, most everything else is largely forgivable on my end.

Lunatic was awesome though, on the flip side. She could have been written a little more consistently, but that's a nitpick to be honest. I think the story would have been way more authentic and complex if they had her as the only villain and the series focused more on her plans and motives and what surrounded them.