i agree with the launching scenes, it did take way too long. Also it seems like the foursome of neo,auel,sting and stellar will continously gang up on athuran and shinn just like ZAFT against Kira in Seed. As for athuran's hesistation, i think he doesnt want to kill anyone unless he is saving someone. Like when Junius 7 dropped athuran went nuts to save the people of earth. I guess Athuran knew that this battle with Neo& co. was pointless since the minerva barely got attacked.