Nerdfish

No discrimination against machines, you specists !

VFTF, I have pointed out the grace's attempt to control the universe is highly unrealistic. There is really no reason why any intelligent creature or construct would put themselves directly in charge of a vast number of much less intelligent beings. Even if she had succeeded with that goal in mind, she'd have to think for everybody - which is just more work. How could she achieve revenge, or anything for that matter, by saddling herself with the the task of thinking for everyone.

Aimo, Aimo, ARRRG.

I cannot sleep as long as the Macross OST is playing. And it's becoming a serious problem. It always seemed to be playing "Northern cross" or "Aimo O.C" right as I try to sleep, promoting me to play that track again. And two hours later I'd still be listening the same track. It's evil. LOL. I am not 30 feet tall nor do I look like a giant wasp (the last time I looked), Help!

The conspiracy deepens !

Those images shows that Electronic PMS is deadly. Avoid it at all cost. We should really watch out for Nanase. the More innocent they look, the more evil they are.

The writers did not do her justice huh. Thinking of it, isn't the whole point of becoming a disembodied construct avoiding those human flaws the writers piled on her. This is just bad writing, then She certainly isn't given a realistic portrait. But considering how much fun the show was, I can forgive that. My fault to take a Mecha show seriously, isn't it.

It's safe to say Grace wasn't human during the amine. She stopped being human the first time she died. She's similar to number six from BSG after that. I am pretty sure she wasn't the protagonist, but she's a better character then most protagonists. (By "better" I don't mean morally, moral don't apply to bots.)

Mad obsession huh ? Please note the way AIs operate - if they have been programmed with a goal they may continue to peruse it at cost of everything else, even at cost of their own existence, depending on how the AI is coded. Grace might have calculated that the new stage in evolution is worth any cost, or at least a planet worth of whatever. The key here is not what she is willing to sacrifice, but what her goal is. Her goal could to benefit herself or to advance the human species to the next stage of consciousness. If it's the former then it's just bad writing - why would she want the job of controlling billions of what amounts to idiots to her? if she want another job she could just work as the local vending machine instead. If her goal is the later, she's fundamentally benevolent, however applicable that word is to a artificial being. As for killing everyone - that's just bad writing. As we have probably concluded by now, if she tried thing the sensible way, it'd not be any fun. Tentacles? I am sure grace have plenty of tentacle-less clones. I do hope grace get her next job as a sentient capital ship. Every Sci-fi world need one of those.

Unfortunately grace isn't human at all. You are assuming that an artificial intelligence have human motivation and nature. While that is possible, it certainly does not have to be true. An AI does not even need the capacity for hatred and vengeance. Her objective might have been the uplifting of human existence but bad writing and bigotry against AIs cause her to be play the role she did. Even then, she is wicked cool.

Yak, that image is pretty literally Deculture. Grace, please kill that eyesore. Oh a second thought, download him into a garbage bot.

Just had some fun with the idea of a peer to peer galaxy network.

What Grace need is a Sheryl clone. A quick download would give dream his/her idea of perfection

A network does not have to have a master. Have you heard of peer to peer networks? RTS games usually use these and if the host leaves everyone can continue to play. Nobody need to call the shot. If such a network need to make a political decision, then it's usually done by a quick vote (player kicking in peer-to-peer gaming is a pretty good example). I truly do not understand why galaxy had not decide to do things that way. The writers probably decided they'd be (a lot less) villainous that way and the show need bad guys. Remember we heard grace's plan during the last episode from the protagonist's perspective, there might be a misunderstanding. That or that Macross developers are really afraid of AIs. BTW. there has never been an artificial protagonist character in the entire series (and plenty of villains). What's up with that. People are, for all intend and purposes, a lot more scarier then AIs

Madness ? she may be completely sane for a Cyborg. From their perspective we are the insane, irrational ones. And before you call her a "crazy" scientist, try to understand her a bit more. She is doing something that make perfect sense. Although she's slightly obsessive/compulsive when it comes to being in control, she's probably one of the most rational character in the series. She is more of a program then a machine. Grace came back from death at least twice. It's possible to appreciate the excellent precision and elegance that makes a beautiful program. Now tell me why human beauty isn't mask or facade, and I will give you a digital cookie. And that starwars quote is so very, very old.

But she couldn't have explicitly killed Sheryl in a horrible death scene (a.k.a Micheal death) without attracting attention. That brings up another point, why do the Heroes always end up beating the villain shitless instead of at least try to convince them. Grace seemed to be a reasonable character (as are all cyborgs) If a good point is bought up she's likely to at least consider it. Heck, even if a computer virus would have neutralized her ahead of time without any horrible deaths involved. Maybe it's just morally acceptable for current audience to beat up a villain, and it's pretty and satisfying that way. It's never specified why she want to control everyone. Didn't she ever read Dune ? It's highly unrealistic to portrait a scientist as a bigot - They have to be constantly aware of possible flaws in theories and keep a open mind. A good scientist would never be certain of their correctness. Unless she have accumulate a mountain of data to prove that it's better for HER to control everyone, she'd have to always in doubt of that.

That can be interpreted as an idle threat. Grace really couldn't have pwnt Sheryl then without attracting too much attention. Sheryl is involved with pilots from SMS. Killing Sheryl would very possibly leads to exposure of her plan. Grace knows Sheryl was about to break, and would never admit she has been threatened. Therefore an empty threat then would be the best course of action. Stories need bad guys, a pity really. She'd make a great anti-villain without the control freak. Her goals are admirable sans the Root Node catch.

Thanks everyone. You guys seemed to be a whole a lot friendlier then other forums! If grace herself wasn't awesome enough, grace and all her clones together would surely have enough awesomeness to overwhelm both Ranka and Sheryl.

I just watched Macross F again, and I must say I am in awe of Grace. She is a little mean, but she is the one character who has ambition, courage and capacity to improve the universe. Her masterful plan is of course disrupted by the heroes in the end because she happens to be The Villain. IMHO Grace is a waste as a Big Bad. She has the complexity to ignore obsolete moral principles and is too intelligent to fall for provincial Villain clichés. Realistically the implant network idea would have worked if she just tried to legalize and sell those things. A lot of people would find it advantageous to join a galaxy spanning network. While not connecting to everyone, enough humans and Vajra would be in the network to bring about dawn of a new age. Allowing anyone to join and leave the network freely would also constantly bring new ideas into the network, and keep the queen from becoming bored. While it’s perfectly feasible for Grace to think of above, it’s much less dramatic that way. Therefore Grace has to be killed over and over for our entertainment. But either way I say she gave it a good try given the circumstances. Since Grace died half a dozen times during the show, I hope this is not the last we see of her. She'd make a pretty damn good hero without the control freak in her