1/1 LowViz Lurker

All I can say is: I'd pretty much end up buying every variable fighter, attacker, bomber toy from macross universe (un spacy, zentradi, Zola etc) if they were made. (if we could just leave vf1 alone for a while and maybe get some Black VF22S from dynamite 7 - yum) Whereas with gundam it is kinda hit or miss because there so many mecha - qauntity over qaulity. They cater to different environments: ground, space, desert, sea etc If they made it so that the variable fighters each had a new design for the different environment they specialise for, (but they are pretty much all-environment) maybe that would be an excuse to keep making/milking variations of the same thing. Variable Glaug - desert type Variable Glaug - with striker pack Variable Glaug - blue water type Variable Glaug - upgraded version with command type face Variable Glaug with melee weapons instead of guns (fights up close - almost did this with the knife in the vf11 gunpod) Red Variable Glaug with command antenna etc etc like what they did with regult and vf1. To me the glaug is just the command type regult. Now if they did it to the destroids, the qrau, the vf19, vf22, they would have more like gundam. But I would rather see a whole different mecha series rather than a variation. eg the octos destroid used for water, the non-transforming destroids for ground, the VF for air dogfight etc So the destroid always look heavy and has that tank motif with guns all over thier body, while the battroid looks skinny to suit the look of a sleek fighter and space craft where the speed is important, and the aliens never STEAL ideas off the good guy but choose to keep thier unique look. (head framed within hood, no necks to the mecha, round bulky looking armor over rectangle/box shape, claws instead of hands, etc) but for example in shows like gundam seed destiny one of the reason why the gundam changes color (phase shift) is probably just so they can milk the same model and force you to buy different types of the same thing instead of buying one type and its respective backpack weapon. The list of variations might be long but at least we don't get so much recycling like that in macross. This is probably why vf1 is constantly being chosen to milk as a toy due to the different paintschemes of vf1, exploiting the fact that variations of the body are very slight.

Why do mylene's ears look pointy (like Sivil's) in one of the macross 7 encore episodes? Like Exedol, who changed his appearance, did she undergo some kind of genetic modification to have them extended or some cosmetic surgery on them, or was this a mistake? It is in the episode "which one do you love?"

Instead of reissuing LE 1A, do a low vis LE 1J and 1S. (at normal prices of course) Remember when people thought the low visibility was going to appear in macross zero because of the pilot and the sticker sheet? Maybe if they make a movie version of zero they could have the low vis make its apearance?

Global Report. They should have scrapped this one, maybe saving some time for an extended ending showing us a bit more of what happened after. Show the vf-4, the megaroad, maybe a glimpse of some rebel zentradi out in space who had heard of what had happened on earth and were massing forces for another wave of attacks to keep the ending open-ended.

Yeah but by criticising them you help others (like your friends) know what kind of sneaky tricks they have up thier sleeve so you are helping others to not make the same mistake you did, and hopefully send a message that you aren't as happy as you would have been if you had warnings and were better informed. For example with robotech dvd, people would have felt less cheated if the newer version had the newer enhancments (non censored) ..plus.. whatever was in the old version (old school sounds) so that you feel like you have the complete thing in a single package rather having to buy the same thing twice. The way they have it is that the fan is wasting money and/or too pissed to want to bother completing a collection and they (HG) cheat themselves in the long run. (you turn into an unsatisfied customer who remembers thier tactics and will wait till things hit bargain bins before purchasing ) What if you are a fan of the old sounds, but want cleaner visuals but only have enough money to get one set? It's sad because they are split between the two sets and as somebody above mentioned it was probably intentional to hope that somebody caves in trying to get it all like pokemon . More options = better. But splitting those options along several different release types and not letting people know what the intentions are in future is being misleading imo. Good business should strive to be the best and keep the fan/customer satisfied to ensure long term patronage. Double dipping ain't so bad so long as you are aware beforehand. But if there is no warning or you are ignorant of whats going to happen you have to rely on others recommendations and complaints. But if nobody complained, or made a big noise, how would the uninformed know anything?

If they wanted to, what HG could/should have done was released a version of the robotech show which had clean visuals and old sounds...with the newer sounds as selectable option. This would make customers happier, and fans feel less cheated. If you don't like the old sounds, you can press the audio button to select newer ones. You would also feel less cheated becasue the version you bought was uncensored and contains all the stuff cut from the tv show. instead of including it as exclusive content in remastered. doh That's what makes dvds worth buying. You have the options that the format provides at the push of a button, and massive quality increase from vhs. If they didn't behave so greedily people would have the ultimate version of something in one package. (instead of wasting money on multiple versions of the same thing and getting confused and too pissed to bother with it) HG is just raping thier own fans and treating them like crap. Plus destroying fans of (the true) macross by preventing people from knowing anything about toys that are not from toynami. (you are forbidden from even mentioning other companies in the forums) Bottomline: don't trust them to treat you with respect or to tell you the truth. They have thier own agenda/reasons for misleading thier own customers.

They can make more money selling both tv and movie valkyrie toys, that's probably why they'll come up with ideas to explain changes. milk the vf1 from the movie, and also milk it from the tv series. Say that both are valid because the canon is a mixture of everything and then rake in the money from the sales of both versions. If you want the SDF1 you got to buy both tv and movie version. Besides there are certain things I prefer in the tv series to the movie: -Roys vf1S color and skull and crossbones. -Grey flightsuit -the way they launched valks in the tv series, instead of having a stupid robot arm holding them -the green qrau (instead of the movie red and purple, which is the color of the meltran ships) -the fact that not everyone had the FAST pack as standard and it was more of a developing upgrade to make the old valk much faster, have more weapons etc. As for the comment about developing tech during the time of VF1 as the main fighter, there was a model kit of the vf4 in the background in the tv series I think. So they must have already had these more advanced valks being developed but not ready to be used by the cannon fodder pilots yet. So by flashback's time, that is where it is finally being flown just at the end of war. Although the technology was there perhaps the the govt was too slow and couldn't make them in time, so all we got to see were vf1 with Super upgrades during sw I.

[deleted double post]

I wonder if we will ever see the day a yamato 1/48 is packaged as a robotech toy and sold in local toy stores everywhere for a fraction of the cost to import them? And then when the toy stores have clearance sale you can get them even cheaper. That would be cool. Macross might just be more easy to market with an english dub for those who won't watch subbed. When is Kawamori going to do a Transformers diecast Jetfire BinalTech? (he did that optimus prime toy didn't he?) Imagine if it turned out to be more detailed than the yamato 1/48 vf1?

And they had those actors in macross 7. (a giant zentradi dressed up as britai) I think DYRL fits well as a war documentary/movie given that SW I was such a big event for the human race. Minmay is still famous in terms of history. In the movie Milia never flew a VF1, but in the macross 7 tv series there we see her classic red vf1 from the original tv series complete with SDF:M tv flightsuit. So the SDF:M tv series events and some old design do fit in as canon in some things. I just wish the old tv series went on long enough for us to have seen VF-4 being used.

TSA = three ships alliance Example of bad guys: All those controlled by logos. Leaders like Patrick Zala who want to wipe out non-co-ordinators and will kill civilians just because he lost his wife to a terror attack, (blinded by revenge, can't be reasoned with since he went insane) the BC leader who would go so low as to destroy harmless colonies rather than fighting soldiers. Dullindal for trying to assasinate Clyne so he can manipulate the public into beliving she is aproving of everything he says to complete his master plan to rule both Co-ordinator and natural alike now that the pesky "obstacles" are out of the way.. By stopping/killing/imprisoning the bad guys, it usually ends up bringing true peace and an end to the senseless war (since the people were manpulated by logos and dullindal from the beginning) and so when that goal is achieved everyone lives happily. Talia and those serving under her are not necessarily bad just misguided for not seeing through dullindal. (similar to emma from Zeta Gundam before she defected from the titans after witnessing thier true nature) Even Rey isn't necessarily bad because he realised his "dad" was just using him in the end for his ambition. (like Patrick was using Athrun) Why they are "bad" is because the original characters grew and "changed", while Shinn didn't change and/or couldn't see beyond getting even. They look at it from a narrow perspective and not realising that the cycle of war only feeds more hatred and more war. While that happens more power goes to organisations like logos and dullindal which gives them an excuse to introduce more dictatorial controls on people (centralising the power so that it is held by dullindal as supreme leader ) and rape them of freedoms they once had before the war began in the first place. Ie like Palpatine in star wars prequel trilogy. "We need these controls and the build up of these armies for your security and safety" yeaaah right, nothing to do setting yourself up as world ruler who will oppress the weak once yu've gain people's trust If you think about it Orb would have been owned if they didn't take a more proactive aproach to stopping the war. Although some of the bad guys (and some good guys) have interesting and truthful points to make, they are all in a way victims of thier environment. eg, Kira was created by his dad in search for the ultimate co-ordinator, and therefore the clones (that Mu La Flaga's dad created to provide funding so Kira could be made by his dad), are now angry at humans for using them for thier own selfish reasons, rather than caring what they wanted. But it is stupid for character's like Rey to hate Kira because he is the ultimate co-ordinator. Kira couldn't help what his dad or previous people have done to "design" him. It won't suddenly end all the problems of the world just by killing him, which is what rey was brainwashed to believe was his life's goal by dullindal. Characters like Rey and Patrick Zala and Crueset and Dullindal (for not excepting rejection easily) should leave the past behind and live for the future. Their reason for existing in the story is so they can destroy lots of stuff. But just because they are victims, that doesn't mean they can't also be villains for plotting to kill everyone when they go all psycho like char in CCA. Because they are bitter and won't let go of the past which they couldn't control, they think they are justified in doing bad stuff and killing innocent people, or setting themselves up as god and then judge the whole human race by trying to "punish". So they have to be killed or stopped when they go out of control to at the least, try to limit the damage they do, which can't be helped.

Exedol ain't no slouch either. He is supposed to be Britai's advisor. I kind of think he is much funnier in macross 7 though because of the way he reacts to the protodevlin. He seems kinda scared shitless to mention them. Max must have been pretty nervous at that point. It seems to me that lots of old character apart from global tend to play bad guys who are corrupt. When the guys on earth and in the grand cannon didn't believe misa's story about the number of ships the zentradi had, they put it down to her being full of crap and turned down any request for making peace, mainly wanting to save thier own ass by hiding in a hole and quite comfortable to risk having the young die on the surface first. Bastards! Oh well, I suppose that's how they survived so long and didn't die off in the unification war. I think the main reason we have a young female bridge crew is for presentation purposes. ie more pleasing to the eye. Global was probably perving all that time, not wondering about an inexperienced crew.

We get images of the VF4 yay. Come on yamato. Technically this is part of SDF:macross so it needs to have a toy made of it.

But that's why they were good. Because thier interests were more "important" than the secondary characters' goals which came down to "revenge revenge revenge" which as it was illustrated to us in the first series by patrick zala's behaviour was a bad naugthy thing. Eg of "goals for secondary characters/organisations": ZAFT - dullindal scheming for world domination by using innocent people as pawns in a game. Logos - create chaos using Blue Cosmos (responsible for the start of war by sneaking nukes to destroy colonies) and later manipulate the Earth Alliance like a puppet from behind the scenes. (some forcing orb to join them - thanks to blue cosmos extremists within EA, when this action wasn't even necessary) So in the end it is a battle of who is closest to the truth. To me, whoever offers the people the most freedom is the "good" side. (traditionally it has been those fighting for peace and disarmament: AEUG, the rebel alliance from star wars, ORB etc) The main difference and distinction is that three ships alliance do not hold ambitions to wipe out the very races they hate so much in the belief war will suddenly end by killing a specifc group ...or... raping people of thier freedom by believing that having no choices brings peace. Dullindal wanted everyone to be a slave to what the government says you can and can't do, with him as the messiah. Don't like it? You die. He's god after all. Same goes with Talia and Rey who in the end, realised they were fighting for the wrong team. If they had just realised it earlier, they would have joined the TSA in thier fight. But becuase they are of a certain "race"(ie co-ordinator) they gave into thier own predjudice not thinking for a second they could be a little too trusting of thier own side, and in the wrong all along. The writers needed us to believe they were "good" so as not to spoil the "surprise" that dulindal could be the villain in all this, so they make us view it from ZAFT's and the minerva's perspective in the beginning, that's how I see it. Kind of like in Gundam 0080 where the little kid learned that neither side is right and that the reason to fight is just up to the individual and for thier own reasons and belief. No need to feel sorry for them or to pity them or cry if they die doing it. Orb is like that neutral colony that little kid was living in. So like that neutral colony I think the people would be much happier living in a world ruled by orb where people truly are free because there is no discrimination, and no threat to force belief onto people by putting a gun to your head just because of who you are. Kind of like what happened at the end of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz where the world almost became a global dictatorship when people were at thier weakest, unable to fight back at the dictator because they were ignorant and complacent; too busy fighting each other to realise who was mysteriously benefitting from all the fighting in the grand scheme. In the end, thanks to the heroes fight for independance against marimeia's elite army, the power was distributed evenly and back into the hands of the people who will decide thier fate for themselves while the gundams were destroyed never to be seen again. Fighting to free yourself for a better tommorow is ok - those who don't fight for thier freedom don't deserve it. ...But killing people for personal revenge only feeds the cycle of war. I'd rather fight because I want to stop the leader from continuing the war than because of a personal vendetta. (ie like Patrick Zala) It's a much more noble reason. And I don't think anyone who got killed by kira after the first war, was for selfish "revenge" reasons, but rather to preserve the noble "only fight for peace" ideal. (so anyone who gets in the way of this ideal may die fighting to stop him. Because this ideal is more important, it takes higher priority. It is not "selfish" since everyone will benefit from the safety destroying the WMDs, not just a power-hungry leaders who only want to control the other side as opposed to saving lives being thier highest priority.) That's the goal of TSA: kill off the bad guys on each side of the conflict so the human race can get back to peace again, limiting the number of people kira ends up killing by ending it quickly. While protecting the innocent like Lacus from assasination attempts by these corrupt leaders and preserving the neutral nations from bullying by the two powers. You can't do that while under the control of either government as a soldier because of the level of corruption that goes on. Call it selfish all you want, but that is the truth. The difference is either side fights each other for power and then creates and uses WMD (which does not discriminate between soldiers and civilians) behind the other guy's back in secret, while orb at least fights for true peace and true freedom, only concerned with protecting thier own land by having just enough power to defend themself. (is that such a sin? Should the natives welcome invaders and lay down thier arms like pussies?) So Orb and TSA is the lesser of the three evils imo. It would be unreasonable to expect TSA to be total pacificsts and not harm anyone to protect cagalli if it meant a better future for the human race. You can't say it isn't the TSA business to butt its nose in the war when they have been the ones to save either side from destruction in the past using thier skills to save life. That's just ingrateful. It's not selfish to care what will happen if massive weapons like Genesis get in the wrong hands and are used by the leaders of each side for revenge or to stoop to each other's level just to "get even". If characters like Patrick Zala had continued to exist and do what they wanted he would have murdered innocent people. Same goes for the BC leader if the "heroine" did not turn against him. The thing to remember is that soldiers for ZAFT and EA (like the two pilots in gundam 0080) do what they are told to do because they are not allowed to look at the big picture, but we as an audience member watching the war unfold, are allowed to see that there are definite heroes and villains because we get to view the war from all sides.

I'm disapointed Gambit didn't make it into the film. I liked characters like him and Long Shot. heh. Psylocke is hot. Maybe they need to make it so rogue goes on some kind of mission away and bring her in instead. If they can manage to find a spot for a rogue thief or ninja type character that would complement the team's ability and make the battle more varied and exciting.

But the variable glaug looks cool though! ;D Now all we need is a varialbe regult, and some more variable destroid. I liked that octos thing in macross 0 - good to see transformable vehicles in different environments.

Ah well at least we got to see destroids being used as giant riot police. And when kamjin rides on a monster like it was a horse and he is a cowboy is a funny episode. The episode where it is christmas and he blows stuff up is a good sign that even though they have beat the zentradi, when more arrive, there may be more kamjin-like people out there who even after hearing music will refuse to join human race for peace because they don't want to give up thier warrior beliefs. Even using culture and knowledge of technology against us, which in some ways makes them more dangerous. It also ensured that when global gave misa the task of finding more planets to spread the human race incase another war broke out and made humans extinct like the PC and all the other races the Zentradi have probably killed, that Hikaru had no excuse to sit on the fence anymore and had to make a decision of who he would spend his life with. I thought the main reason you wanted to watch the last eps is to finally find out which decision was more important: duty serving the human race, or living a quiet life with minmay and giving up responsibility. The back and forth I think was to cause drama. "Now that minmay has made it big, hikaru becomes insignificant to her" and so we are meant to feel all sorry for the character. I didn't find that annoying so much as manipulating us to feel more sympathetic to the character and care what happens to him. Showing the ups and downs of life. Things don't always turn out the way you plan them, and you don't always get what you originally set out to. There are bostacles and barriers in real life preventing you from just getting that dream. But I think they were all lucky in the end and it was actually a happy ending strangely. Hikaru became a pilot and flew planes, Minmay became famous, and Misa got a boyfriend instead of scaring them away. (mostly thanks to claudia's advice and to make her more relaxing to be with)

*Drools at pics*. I wish yamato would release a 1/48 1D now.

Ok, but what I don't get is why would Shinn blame Cagalli's family for his family's death? Is it because he only supports the side that just so happens to be the most powerful at the time? (for example if orb had the strongest military, highest technology, and weapons to counteract things like genesis etc, and could protect itself from either side invading, he would side with them because they are powerful?) Sorry if this had been covered before but I don't want to read through 200 pages. I believe the reason shinn joins up as a soldier is that he believes that "power protects" and he feels guilty that he did not have this power to protect his family so he directs anger at the weak nations like orb, totally giving into the propaganda from rey, and to be manipulated as a dullindal chess piece for a new world order. Otherwise he would like orb because by not being neutral it suddenly garuantees peace and security. (ie his logic being that your allies will save your butts) It is confusing to me why he blames orb and not EA and ZAFT who were the guys building the dangerous weapons in the first place. It was the neutral war heroes who saved earth in the first war which lead to peace after the clyne faction got control and when Athrun went against his own dad's orders. Without those people acting on thier own and disarming the mega weapons, things would have been different. Ironically one of the very reasons Cagalli seems "weak" is because Shinn puts her through a massive guilt trip which forces her to question whether she is right to keep true to her father's beliefs. Shinn's bitterness is like that of Patrick Zala from the first series. And why would Shinn blame Kira for killing stellar when it was Neo who didn't keep his promise to move Stellar away from war and instead putting stellar back into a mobile suit/mobile armor? Kira may have directed the blow, but Shinn should be even more angry at neo for putting her there because Shinn actually trusted him and should be partly the one to blame. All Kira was doing was protecting the innocent civilians from the Destroy, wasn't he? So he is saying the lives of those people living in those cities are not as important as the programmed killing machine whose mind isn't even under her own control? Seems kinda shallow to think kira is to blame when Shinn helped put her back into service as a bioCPU in the first place. This is the very same chic that stole the gaia gundam from his homeland and which he would have killed anyway had he had the power to do so at the start of the show before kira finished her off later when she was levelling cities with Destroy. Whatever the writers were thinking, Kira and three ships alliance still have the best vision and are the "heroes" imo: they merely want to limit casualties on ALL sides, not just thier own homeland. When your own homeland is run by a bunch of psychos who build the mega weapons like Genesis and then point them not just at soldiers but at innocent people, that is when you start to lose respect for the patriotic characters whose blind loyalty to thier superiors allows for those mass murders to happen because they won't question the sanity of thier own leaders. (I'm glad both patrick zala and the leader of blue cosmos died in the first series, they so deserved it) Killing innocent people that can't even fight back and who for the most part are not interested in war in the first place makes you the lowest lifeform on earth in my eyes. These are the types of people who you can't reason with because they are so blinded by revenge they don't care if they kill thier own just to get the enemy. It's one of the reasons why AEUG/TSA although rogue and "chaotic", although not "saints", (note I never said Kira was a saint) are the real heroes given they are the only ones who can do something useful. It's just that AEUG or the three ships alliance do not agree with any one faction because each side has been hijacked by evil characters. Because of this, they are the only sane ones for wanting to peace and actually saving lives, not just focused on killing lives which both sides are more concerned with as they develop more powerful WMDs. If both sides were allowed to continue on with killing each other off with the massive weapons that they built, there would be no next generation to carrying on the human race. The heroes to me are the characters that can kill the leaders (Patrick Zala + BC leader) of either side that is controlling the armies who pull the triggers on those weapons and who have no remorse for anyone elses suffering. When I look back: If Shinn had been a part of the three ships alliance he might have been able to meet the right group of people and not be so hard to sympathise with. The problem is that we the audience are tricked into believing the minerva is supposed to be clone of the AA, (fighting for the exact same cause but in fact loyal mainly to ZAFT) and that the fake lacus is "good", and that dullindal is a benevolent do-gooder rather than a schemer and manipulator. So half of the time we a rooting for the minerva and ZAFT to win, not knowing they are just one of dullindal's pawns instead of the good guys. Oh and about that fight between shinn and kira: I looked back and yeah I do see your point about Shinn kicking kira's ass. Hehe. I don't think he expected the thing to split apart like it did or for him to keep pursuing him after he had pretty much wanted to retreat and join up with AA. It was a mistake for him to have turned his back, or to try and block the massive sword with his tiny shield and instead he should have treated Shinn as a much higher threat. But in his defence, if Kira knew who it was he killed (shinn's gf) he probably would have been more cautious. But we all know Freedom was destined to be destroyed eventually anyway so a newer toy/model could be sold.

His intentions were good but the method was extreme. Which is why he is dangerous. People have to learn at thier own pace. Who's to say people won't eventually emigrate to space of thier own free will? Why should he be the one to tell everyone when it is time? You don't go killing people because they disagree with your uptopian ideal. If someone came up to you and forced thier religious belief onto you and went to an extreme to kill you if you don't listen or agree, you'd be pissed. Since he judges the human race and mentions that earth people must atone for thier sins, he is totally deluded into thinking he is god. In a way he is like Mu La Flaga's dad. He thinks he is superior and looks down on others. As if people can't come up with thier own solutions and figure things out for themselves. The ending shows us that even zeon solidiers are sane enough to see the error of his ways and they try to help amuro. The people should have a say in earth's fate and the power should go to them, not some single psycho who has no remorse for people that are not on his own team. At least Amuro's "care" extends to everyone. This is why I can see the "newtypes are dangerous" paranoia thing amoungst the federation. If people like Char go about threatening to kill not just soldiers but innocents too, then it makes him no different from anyone else who is guilty of sinning. (ie killing people directly, or indirectly by accident or through neglect. eg polluting earth) This is why he is a hypocrite. There are good people and bad people on earth. The good don't deserve to be punished with the bad. If someone sympathetic to his ideals is down there converting people, he just undid any justification for them to want to listen to him. Nah, if the guy doesn't use all the weapons and has no intention of fighting to thier full potential it doesn't count. It doesn't matter what machine they are in because I could be in a better machine and choose not to use its best weapons for whatever crazy reason I decided. (ie like it's too dangerous, or these people are good people who don't deserve death) I will grant that he did great by studying the weaknesses of his fighting style (which was to avoid casualties) but I don't agree that would make him the best pilot of all gundam history. Are you ignoring that Shinn could have died if kira used the chest gun? I dunno man, you seem pretty biased to me.. You see what you want to see rather than looking at the whole picture. A good example might be in street fighter where Ken is pissed off at not being able to fight Ryu (he is hard to find) because he is the only one who can offer a challenge that is hard enough to be worth bragging about. One of the reasons for Ryu holding back was Ryu had this fear that his power was giving into the demonic power inside him. He felt guilty after almost killing Sagat in street fighter 1 (he was the former champion of the world street fighting tournament) with his deady dragon punch which was the first sign the power growing inside him was getting more evil. (instead of merely defeating the opponent, the power was starting to actually kill people in violent ways.) Now when you analyse akuma, that is basically the path that Ryu could have taken if he wanted to: that of using the evil power to kill people. He didn't do this and decided to hold back his power for ethical reasons. If you pay attention to the change in attitude of the character you'll understand the reason why he holds back: he doesn't want to kill people even though he has the potential to do it. Like in that example, (where a better skilled person chooses to not use thier killing move and has no care if they lose 'points' because they don't treat killing like a game) Shinn is good but I don't think he is better than kira (holding back from killing) just from that one defeat. If someone is not fighting to thier full potential the opponent should sense that. I think I fully understand why characters like Char went to such great lengths to give Amuro the same technology in CCA. Because he knew his victory would not be a 'decisive one' (see the movie again where he explains this) unless all the conditions were set up to make it so neither had an excuse to "hold back" out of guilt that thier opponent was handicapped in some way. As I mention earlier, there are some people in this world who treat fighting like a sport to win points. The hero's attitude is that killing is wrong and does not even wish to be a soldier out there killing. Shinn being motivated to kill believes if "I had the power I can change the world with the power". Not as simple as that for those who pay attention to the first season. The characters that are trying to prove something and get revenge or win a mere a title for glory are not thinking about the big picture. War and suffering won't end just because they have power to kill whoever they want. It only feeds the evil that causes an endless cycle that draws in those little kids who don't even wish to fight but will die anyway.(because if they refuse they will get bullied into the war) If the power was distributed evenly you wouldn't have psychos like Char and Shinn running loose blaming the world for thier pain and who can't leave the past behind because they only think of revenge. That is why I liken the three ship alliance as being cops trying to stop the neighbors from fighting. Yeah they may accidently kill a few soldiers on thier own homeland and this causes confusing battles, but thier goal is to limit the casualties and protect those who don't wish to see war break out, which is much more important in the grand scheme, so they just disarm the neighbor's weapons in the interest of peace to break up the fighting. (which can't be 100% stopped since all parties are guilty of doing it.) The amount that die fighting against the three ships alliance (mainly soldiers who made a decision to be owned by thier government when they signed up with the military) is miniscule to how many will die from using weapons like Genesis. (innocents who want nothing to do with the war) In the grand scheme of things there are really only two camps: -those who believe having immense power will allow people to protect thier loved ones. (ie shinn) Unfortunately others see the power as a threat and envy the power, seeking it for themselves. -those who believe the power corrupts and causes people to go to extremes to use it for dictatorial control purposes, leading to less safe and less happy world for all. (ie like genesis which in the wrong hands is not merely a deterrent but when used is a threat to all people, not just the soldiers fighting in the war.)

But his method was against the 'will of the people'. (including pilots who were themselves zeon soldiers and tried to help Amuro in the end) So I would still categorise it as evil due to the death it would bring. That's the difference I saw. In a way it was like euthanisia. Should we kill someone suffering a painful disease, or just let them live with the hope they will get better from sickness/change unhealthy attitude? Do you HOPE for the best and patiently wait, (amuro) or do you ASSUME the worst of people? (Char) Char tried to accelerate death, wanting the patient to die because they feel uncomfortable at the sight of suffering, which is selfish and controlling. If someone is suffering, let them be the one to choose. Don't force them to die by forcing your ideal to make them change to be more like you. Char wanted to take power into his own hands and use force, raping people of thier free will. That's the main difference. So the power is what makes them dangerous. The oldtypes at least have reason to be paranoid and scared of newtypes in light of this. If power is misused for destructive purpose to force people to accept something they don't want to or aren't ready to accept, then it is natural to build up enough strength to prevent the other side from having its way. If you had a family living on earth, and some guy wanted to kill you and your children living on earth for his ideal, you would join the feddies. Not because you hate newtypes, but to survive, to live - you have your own dreams and don't want some other guy to take them away from you. In Gundam Seed, when the Earth alliance was powerless, that is when the villain shows his true colors (world dictatorship with the leader as God) and the "true" good guys are able to jump in with a purpose. Thier destiny (although not clear from the start) was really to stop Dullindal. It goes beyond fighting for 'your side' or 'my side'. It's fighting to be free - even if you are wrong you may want to personally experience the wrong path to grow from that mistake, knowing at all times it was you that had the power to make the choice and make the mistake for yourself, rather than be told it was wrong "because it just is". So it's not about right or wrong, but the freedom to choose. Dullindal, like Char couldn't give a poo what you want, and would kill you if he could just prove how right he is to make a point. "change and be like me and observe how much better society will become." Char wasn't a villain for being wrong, he may be right and humans will finally find thier Zion/Promised land/Heaven in space if people just followed. Nope, he was a villain for how he misused the power which should be distrubuted evenly amoungst everyone so they can all have a say in thier fate. Similar thing in Gundam Wing movie when Marimeia army tried to control everything believing all power under her would finally end ALL war at the expense of individual freedom and choice by the people. Constrast this to Amuro/Kira who are trying to prevent that kind of crap from happening; like police trying to protect those innocent people from harm who might accidently get caught between the two neighbors' violent fighting. Innocent kids that actually want nothing to do with the fight and wish to stay out but can't. And thanks to the war, and the continued fighting between both sides who believe they are doing good by killing, this ensures the innocent who want to get out, WILL get harmed because now they are trapped into fighting. If the three ships alliance accidently harm soldiers (including ones on thier own nation's side or ones on side of thier friends' nation) then it can't be helped, since soldiers already made a choice to fight. The true fight is to fight to live. Like the example of euthanising the patient I gave above, people still want the choice to be able to fight to keep on living even if the odds are against them and they are certain to die. If you were that sick patient (overpopulated, polluted, war-devasted, scorched Earth) would you have an attitude of hope, or would you just die telling others that "life wasn't worth living anymore"? That is the main difference between the villain and the hero, Char looks down on others (possibly disgusted by them seeing people as a lost cause) similar to the way Mu La Flaga's dad probably did. While the hero doesn't care if the people are full of faults and just wants to protect people from harm. In the end Char came off as a psycho for trying to justify killing masses of people. (no matter the reason, you can call it "care for humanity", but to me it is a wierd way of expressing it) I think that his aim was to set the conditions up for making amuro fight him just so he could have his duel against him to prove that he is superior. It was a case of "now what might get amuro really ticked off enough to get him angry to fight? Ah how about dropping a huge rock on earth.." Almost playing with him. Since amuro went through his period of not liking fighting because it ends in misery. (ie lalah sune trying to break it up between the two and dying when they wouldn't stop the fight) While Char treats the fighting and killing like a game or 'fun' challenge, setting the conditions up for an 'even' match, Amuro grieves and is unwilling to fight. Newtypes are supposed to be sensitive to other's suffering and pain because they can feel it when someone dies. Not just as supersoldiers. This is why they can take the moral high ground, but when used as killing machines that look down on those inferiour to them, that is when you get these charismatic uber villiains that run loose and are able to kill masses of people with no remorse for the suffering they cause by the people that put them into power in the first place. People that think they are more right than others deem themselves superior and more important, and "those who disagree deserve to die" is the attitude. (they put themselves as judges of humanity when they shouldn't, that's god's role.)

Just download all the players. I got VLC player, Windows media player, Core Media Player, BS player, MPlayer classic, etc The only real problem now is they all fight each other to be the default player and I can't simply double click a file to open it. Instead I have to open the player then open a file from its menu. But it is better to assume you need everything instead of trying to find favourite and then being disapointed. So if something fails in one you have others to try them on. I think there is a program callled GSpot that can help you identify what codecs you need by looking at the file which you may want to check out.

See the transformers thread. I think it looks a bit too wide chested. I like optimus to be slim. Kind of like how you see him in the marvel comics.

So nobody thinks AIBO the dog is cool too? I wish he made a transforming toy robot dog-like mecha similar to that thing in Gundam Seed Destiny. I think it was the Gaia Gundam. I think humanoid and chicken-leg design are cool but he should do more spider and dog style mecha. (the typical insect like stuff Shirow does. Wouldn't you like to see more of this kind in macross?) That reminds me I need to get the miyatake design works. Almost forgot about it. As for the koenig: that is a work of art. 3 modes and all the weapons and parts still have a function and purpose to use in each mode. It has a heavy look to it in gerwalk mode, but it looks nice and slim in shuttle. Aqaurion is cool for super robot. Still haven't even seen the non-super version since mahou is taking so long . I'm thinking of getting this toy. The fighters look like something from a Gradius shoot em up.

The monster actually has a gunpod? Or are you talking about the little gun in its chest? I'd like to know whether the rail guns can shoot horizontally in battroid mode like the sdf1 in attack mode? Or does the battroid mode only fire them standing up whenever there is a enemy mecha drop from the sky? (ie maybe that's what that big sensor on it forehead is?) I think this would be handy defence aboard a ship where the enemy is attacking from above. And what is the purpose of the claws in battroid mode? The battroid mode is the most mysterious to me. Can the monster do boost assisted jumps and stuff? Can it actually run and change modes mid air? Does it land in gerwalk mode and that is why it doesn't need a landing gear?