High Quality .Gif Animations - How?

Hey, I've had a lot of expierence with PS, but am having a hard time making an animation sig. file, that is high quality. First is it simpy impossible? Below is an example of what it looks like in .gif form. It looks amazing under the original tab, but when I save it or go to the optomize tab its looks retarded. I'm adding a high-rez cut out of a character from a game I play. The only animation I want the high-rez cut out to do is fade out. When I add the cut-out to the animation, it screws all the other images as well, includeing simple lightnigh bolts drawn in. I'll post two examples, one with out the character in, and one with it in. Pay attention to how even things that were fine before, get messed up. Do I need to make my cut-outs a .gif file before even putting them in, does that matter? I'm using Adobe ImageReady 7.0. My optomized settings are: Gif, Selective, 256Colors, No Dither, everything else off or 0. Do I have to save it optomized, file size isnt a big deal. Any tips/help/clarification would be amazing.

Files:
(Added .2 delay so its easier to see , lightningbad.gif is with the cut out/bad quality, lightninggood.gif is without cut out/good quality)

I have looked at both of your images and I can't see much difference in the lightning. Maybe you could further explain how its 'messing' with the rest of the image.

did you merge the two images?

first of all it is 256 colors with gif, if you exceed this number then it will try to fit your lets say 400 colors into 256 colors making quality bit lower then you want, as all those transitional colors that make smooth transition from dark to light will be eliminated, and in very colorful images even worst, i could advise playing with dither and instead of selective try adaptive but gif does limits you with the colors... so yeah