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Well, you'll end up stirring some pots here and there with this, but I think you're spot on with most of this. I had very much the same exposure to Robotech and the same Clash of the Bionoids as you. Bought the Robotech books and then discovered Macross II. Bootlegged anything I could find Macross after that (Limewire, anyone?). I enjoyed Robotech for what it was--the first sci-fi drama I really bit into that happened to be a converted anime story. Love it for the mecha, love it for the characters, and I loved it for the story. And it led me to some very good Macross series shows after that.

Disney needs a 'win' for their streaming content and most of the Star Wars live action shows have a pretty good draw. I'd put my money on a season two.

That and high-G maneuvers will cause their own, non-age-related physiological problems . . . 💩

I think there was one with Moruk and Quamzin drink wine after they kidnapped what's-her-nugget in TOS. I was unaware of the alcohol ration for the Zentradi; that would seem counter-productive, given the troubles the misuse of alcohol causes in the military in real life. I figured Moruk or Quamzin just pillaged a winery and took entire barrels. The issued stuff would have to be an interesting brew.

Alright, Seto, I have one that perhaps only you could answer, though I'll happily take what I can get for this. I see a lot of comments to the effect of 'hold my beer' before someone tries something that usually turns out awesomely good, bad, stupid, ugly, funny or other (end results not being relevant to this question). This, of course, got me to wondering: What kind of beer do these folks drink? Is there a Macross micro-brew? Do the cultured Zentran or Meltran brew up a frothy keg or two? And, if so (and most critically!) does someone make it IRL?

Pure speculation (it is, after all, sci fi); maintenance, reliability, weight and accuracy. Beam weapons would have fewer moving parts to fail. A lot less dirty. Mechanism for discharging a gun pod would be complex and heavy. Lots of work to keep a gun pod running right (cleaning, timing, barrel life, etc). Doesn't take much fouling or a timing error or even something as simple as too short of a trigger pull to jam up a gun pod. Few things are as dense as ammunition . . . but, without knowing how the beam weapons are powered, batteries / power supplies would be one of those 'few things,' so maybe, maybe not here. Recoil from a beam rifle would be minimal, easing target acquisition / re-acquisition and maintaining SA on the target.

So what did happen to Chloré's Fleet? I read the Wiki--but if any place would have information on it beyond what that it would be someone here.

The original Macross being an antiwar series, defeating impossible odds (the afore-mentioned five million ship fleet) may have something to do with Japan's relatively recent history. The defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima, for example, and their resounding victories both in the war against China and their early victories against the Allies in WW2 lead to a lot of hubris amongst their leadership and their population. The devastations visited upon Japan as a result of their leadership's audacity had to have a strong impact on the artists and writers, even forty and fifty years after that horrific mess. Massive fleets--impossible odds--arrayed against their homeland would naturally become a common theme because they've had to live it. While there are probably still significant and dangerous amounts of Zentradi (et al) out there, I doubt there is a single "Big One" (massive main fleet) because, without the Protoculture, there's no one who can effectively organize and direct the Main Fleets to create one. Also, that many factory satellites and the resources required to feed them is going to get noticed. Fighting an opponent who is in every way but sheer numbers your superior demands you maintain control of the battlefield. Massing only to strike and then scattering is key to your long-term survival. Massing hundreds-of-millions-of-miles-long-warships in the center of the galaxy is not going to help that effort.

For today's US Navy, the commander's assigned aircraft has the tail fins painted with the squadron's patch and trimmed in the squadron colors. The USAF has just about killed any type of individualization for their aircraft (though nose art is a hard thing for them to stomp out). Normally, for any paint, the aircraft's dedicated crew chief handles touch up paint when needed. I would imagine the maintainers on the carriers and bases in the Macross universe would do the same.

Women getting into combat aviation was a huge adjustment for the males in the Air Force. Absolutely huge. A male-centric culture of warfighters that dated back to 1917 wasn't something to be broken up without some feathers being ruffled. The culture of the entire combat arms side of the house had to change, which is an entirely different thread from this one, so I'll limit this to actual job performance. The first few women in were, as you would expect, far above the norm for the average person. Thick-skinned (a must!), very intelligent, tough minded, tested well, trained well, and genrally excelled at everything they attempted. As the glory children moved along, normal people started showing up, and, predicatbly, they passed and failed at the same level as men. There was some bitching when the PT standards were set lower for women than men, but these were fairly reasonable changes taking women's physical makeup into consideration (the same reason you will never see women in front line ground combat units--political correctness isn't going to stop a bayonet). Today, twenty-plus years on, are there as many women as men serving in Air Force combat units? No. Couldn't begin to tell you why. Maybe living in a tent with ten or twelve of your best friends for six months a year where you get to walk half a mile through gravel in the rain as some schmuck lobs mortar rounds into the compound doesn't appeal to the average female college graduate. Who knows. But the ones who do volunteer are just as mentally tough and ready to get the job done as anyone. I've flown with a few women over the years and can't complain. Seen more than a few men screw up the same job women were doing quite well at . . . but I've also seen more than one woman drop the ball, too, and no one is afraid to call them on it anymore than they would a man. There are still some cultural issues to contend with . . . the 'goofy sausage fest' still happens now and again with predictable results . . . but women's biggest impact on the military was their overall lack of impact on the military. Once a few minor changes were made to accomodate them, it was back to business as usual. Not surprised to see how the Japanese put women into their shows; seems to match with what little I know of their general views of their society. Existing in the post-Boldolza world, I can certainly see the arguments against a policy of confining women to the combat support arena. One would think with such a limited supply of personnel the concern would be lead on target, not what kind of underwear they put on the morning.

Really? Where does that come from? (Okay, yeah, normally I just lurk, because I don't see that I have a lot to contribute; my knowledge level beyond the basics of Macross is pretty slim. This just sort of surprises me.)

Nah. We'd pop 'em with a couple of 'reflex' warheads and that would be that. Besides, peace is bad for business.

That would be a different storyline from the original . . . .

The excitement generated around pachinko game was for the new animation, but I'd be a lot happier with a new story to go along with it, not the re-telling of a story I already enjoy. The original storyline was good enough to capture all of us the first time around--"tweaking" it is just going to annoy someone, somewhere and cause general annoyance.

Is there a resource that tells us the upgrades and changes the Protoculture provided their armies before the collapse of their culture? The Zentran / Meltran may not be so much static (technologically speaking) as simply stuck with what they had when their masters disappeared from the scene. Additionally, economies of scale would be a factor. Armies as big as the ones the Protoculture fielded would have consumed enormous amounts of resources. Upgrades would be prohibitively expensive, no matter what the upgrade would be. It would be cheaper to simply roll out another mecha production line and use the older stuff you had until the supply was exhausted, especially when you're in a war of attrition. It may simply be that the UN has not encountered the best the Zentran have to offer yet because there are so many of the inferior units remaining.

Fair enough. I travel a good bit overseas (I'm military), and I have seen in pretty much everywhere. I just don't watch much local television overseas--too much other stuff to do! And English is the official language of flight; sort of wondered if that didn't have a lot to do with it. I've noticed it in other anime, as I mentioned, just not to the extent it was in MacF. I was also curious if there wasn't some cultural aspect to it I wasn't aware of, like the emphasis on the young saving everyone from some existential threat.

And probably a noob one, at that. Why is there so much English in anime that will never be dubbed into English and released in the US? DYRL, Gundam, MacF--all of them are loaded with either spoken English or English text. Why put it in there?

You have an intriguing personal life. And, beyond that, I'm going to leave that particular quote alone. Special forces and special operations have far less to do with the equipment they use than the people using the equipment. And SMS is doing a lot of missions that can be considered specops--Luca's constant intelligence gathering, Michel's sniping, and utilizing top pilots in specialized Valkyries or Quadalaun-Raus (Sp?) to provide support where regular forces have trouble coping or are unable to do the job are hallmarks of special operations. There are many other missions--snatch and grabs, rescue ops, psychological operations, boarding actions--that SMS carries out that could be considered special operations. They may be a PMC, but SMS is very much into special operation.

Aren't there supposed to be thousnads of fleets of Zentraedi and Meltrandi left in the galaxy? Why have we seen so little of them? (Save for Maccross II, which I, too, cringe at mentioning!) Still, I think it would be interesting to see a little more of them and their interactions with each other and the human colonization fleets.

It's important to recall what the real-world political divisions in the world were when Macross was first developed. The anti-UN alliance would have probably been analogous to the Warsaw Pact plus Cuba, Angola, Nicaragua, North Korea, Vietnam and possibly China (Mao and Stalin didn't really see eye-to-eye). The UN Wars would have been a absolutely massive global conflict.

With the huge breaks they had in between the half seasons, they're fortunate to hold on to what fanbase they have. I doubt they could have held on to enough viewers to support a season five.

That sort of humor is a coping mechanism when people are under an enormous amount of stress, and usually only carries on when there is some hope for relief. The lack of that black humor is just one more way the writers are showing the hopelessness of the situation. I just hope they don't give them an 'easy out' rescue by the Beings of Light from TOS. Something like that would ruin the whole series.

Nonsense. The got the F-4 into the air, didn't they? There's living proof for you that if you strap a big enough engine to it, a brick will fly. A Valkyrie would be simple compared to that pig. Loaded out, it would be a drag-index nightmare, certainly, but it should be feasible, at least in fighter mode.