DrunkenPilot72

Both of which got destroyed in various productions, no?

True but Roy's VF-1S was the only one that survived the original series and has much closer homages in the VF-0S and Ozma's VF-25S than any other valk since. Just look at all of the other pilots who have had multiple valks and valks that had had multiple iterations and you'll still see some distinction among them while Skull Leader has always been distinctly Skull Leader.

Anyone know if there's any changes to the VF-0s? I might be tempted to pick up another VF-0A if they actually did some improvements.

I would like to know this too. I saw that hlj is restocking next month and I wanted to know if the VF-0S with Ghost is still the only safe VF-0S to get. I lucked out with the VF-1S in that the shoulders didn't completely disintegrate on me out of the box but considering how much more expensive the other valks are I don't want to take any chances.

Probably more than just 30 once you account for the additional 534 VF-1s stored aboard ARMD-01 and ARMD-02... but the point stands that Roy's VF-1S was far from unique even aboard the Macross in the TV series.

It didn't have to be unique, it is still an iconic mecha in the franchise. The only other comparable mecha are Hikaru's VF-1J and the Macross itself.

Personally, I never found the destruction of Roy's VF-1S in DYRL objectionable. I've always felt that DYRL allowed Roy to die with much more dignity than the TV series did by letting him go out in battle instead of the eminently nonsensical "Hey, I have no more will to live... let's go have pineapple salad" end.

It all comes down to a matter of taste. I thought the TV series was a much more fitting death since Roy was allowed to die close to his lover as oppose to the battlefield where, while he was an accomplished ace, he was still afraid to die. And besides, walking off shrapnel wounds long enough to make it to your girlfriend's house is hardly nonsensical. If anything it is probably the manliest thing anyone has ever done in the franchise.

So what? They've supposedly got 30 VF-1S models aboard the Macross...and shouldn't Skull Leader (whoever Skull Leader may be at the time) have one?

Well obviously Roy never had the 1 and only VF-1S in existence but to see what is arguable the most iconic mecha in the entire franchise thrown aside so casually was really off putting for me. The original VF-1S perhaps the only mecha to make it through the original series intact yet it was among the first to go in DYRL. Again, this is more a personal gripe for me since what made Macross memorable for me wasn't handled very well in DYRL. It doesn't help that the original color designations for pilots has been a recurring theme for every series in the franchise except for Macross Plus (which is ironically my favorite part of the franchise despite the fact that it has neither my favorite pilot nor my favorite valk).

Wow lots of great posts here. While DYRL was an amazing film, I still have to go with the original series solely because of the story. To me, the movie is only memorable because of the story provided by the series. I wouldn't care about any of the characters in Macross if the only piece of media I had to go off of was the movie. The movie does have far superior animation but it takes more than eye candy for something to follow you from childhood all the way into your 20s and 30s. For me what made Macross memorable was Roy Fokker, how someone so seemingly untouchable could be killed off so suddenly (yeah the original Transformers movie had the same effect on me). Roy didn't make a very good transition into DYRL so naturally I'm going to favor the original series more.

One thing I am surprised at though is how nobody so far has mentioned the changes for the Valkyries between the two. For me the original series set the iconic standard for each character. Each character was normally associated with a specific model whether it was Rick's white VF-1J or Roy's iconic Skull Leader VF-1S. In DYRL, it seems like just about everyone gets a VF-1S and to makes things worse, the original VF-1S gets smashed to bits.

Oh and regarding the fragmented story in DYRL, I think this transition from the Saturn game would have helped a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pEPj-Mb1M...=video_response