Seto Kaiba

... well, it's about time for this mighty list to rear its garishly-colored head once more... For the sake of convenience, the following rant will be color-coded! VFs that officially exist and have appeared in a Macross official setting work VFs that officially exist and have NOT appeared in a Macross official setting work. VFs that exist solely in non-official works like Variable Fighter Master File VFs whose placement is speculative. Last Edited: 10 Oct 2019 - added Neo Glaug bis to 4th Generation Generation 0 - "Prototype Generation" This generation is purely speculative and exists mainly to segregate designs that do not fully comply with the design qualifications for the First Generation Variable Fighter (e.g. thermonuclear reaction turbine engines) and were built principally for evaluation purposes rather than mass produced for actual combat service. YVF-X-0 VF-0 Phoenix (YVF-X-0B) VF-0-NF Sv-50 Sv-51 Sv-51Σ (Unmanned Sv-51) Generation 0.5 - "Upgraded Prototype Generation" This generation contains designs that exist only in Variable Fighter Master File. These VF designs are upgrades of the 0th Generation prototypes that were upgraded with technology from 1st Generation VFs or otherwise modernized to make them viable for long-duration operation. VF-0+ Phoenix Plus Sv-51Ω (Repurposed incomplete Sv-52 with conventional engines) Generation 1 - "First Generation" The defining traits of this generation are the adoption of Overtechnology, including thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, laser weaponry, energy converting armor, etc. in a production variable fighter. Sv-52 VF-1 Valkyrie VF-X-2 Generation 1.5 - "Upgraded First Generation" First Generation designs upgraded with Second Generation hardware drawn from the VF-4. Sv-51 Replica (Macross 30) VF-0 Phoenix Replica (Macross 30) VF-1 Valkyrie Plus (Blocks 6 and later, incl. VF-1X) VF-1P Freyja Valkyrie VF-1X++ Valkyrie Double Plus VF-1C Civilian Valkyrie VF-1EX Valkyrie EX VF-3000S Crusader VF-3000B Generation 2 - "Specialization for Emigrant Fleets" The hallmarks of the Second Generation designs include the adoption of Zentradi overtechnology, refinements for regime-optimized performance in either atmosphere or space, "lessons learned" from the First Space War, and optionally the adoption of particle beam weaponry. Most were intended for use by emigrant fleets, with low cost, simplified manufacturing, and parts-sharing. VF-X-3 VF-4 Lightning III VF-3000S Crusader VF-3000B Bomber Valkyrie VF-5000 Star Mirage VF-5 VF-6 VF-7 VF-9 Cutlass VF-X-10 V-BR-2 VA-X-3 Generation 2.5 - "Upgraded Second Generation" Second Generation VFs that were modernized to keep them in service alongside Third Generation VFs. VF-4G Lightning III VF-5000G Star Mirage VF-9E Cutlass Generation 3 - "Project Nova and Diversification" The Third Generation VFs are defined chiefly by the Project Nova design contest that decided the generation's main variable fighter as a true all-purpose successor to the VF-1 Valkyrie, but also by the continuing diversification of variable craft design into dedicated Attacker and Bomber roles. VF-11A/B/C/D Thunderbolt VF-14 Vampire VF-15 VF-17A/B/C Nightmare VA-14 VAB-2 VA-3 VBP-1/VA-110 Variable Glaug VB-6 Generation 3.5 - "Upgraded Third Generation" Third Generation VFs that've been modernized or upgraded with technology drawn from Fourth Generation VFs to keep them viable or evaluate technologies meant for Fourth Generation implementation. VF-11MAXL Thunderbolt VF-11C Thunderbolt Interceptor VF-16 VF-17D/F/S/T Nightmare XVF-19 (a modified VF-11) Fz-109 Elgersoln Az-130 Panzersoln FBz-99 Zaubergern Generation 4 - "Project Super Nova: the Advanced Variable Fighter" The Fourth Generation's distinctive design traits are among the best known in Macross. The adoption of the next-gen ARIEL airframe control AI, thermonuclear reaction burst turbine engines, fighter-scale pinpoint barrier systems, and native compatibility for fold boosters. This generation was largely defined by Project Super Nova, the ultimately futile contest between the YF-19 and YF-21 at Eden's New Edwards Test Flight Center. The insurmountable technological and performance complications of the two designs led to a third design, the VF-171, becoming this generation's main variable fighter. VF-19 Excalibur YF-21 VF-22 Sturmvogel II VF-22 Sturmvogel II (SMS Type) VF/B-22 Jagdvogel II VF-171 Nightmare Plus (Blocks I and II) VB-171 Nightmare Plus (Blocks I and II) RVF-171 Nightmare Plus (Blocks I and II) Sv-154 Svard Feios Valkyrie Fz-109G Elgersoln Gustav VBP-1/VA-110(改) Neo Glaug bis Generation 4.5 - "Upgraded Fourth Generation" The Generation 4.5 designs are few, and consist mostly of VF designs that were either upgraded to evaluate tech for eventual adoption by Generation 5 designs, or ones that were upgraded in extremis to make them more effective in combat against the Vajra. VF-19ACTIVE Nothung VF-19EF Caliburn RVF-19EF Caliburn VF-19EF/A Excalibur ADVANCE VF-22HG Schwalbe Zwei VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Manfred" VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Ushio Todo Custom" VF-171 Nightmare Plus (Block III and IIIF) VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX Throne RVF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX Queadluun Alma Generation 5 - "Project Evolution and Decentralized Development" The Fifth Generation of Variable Fighters started development as a response to the disastrous first contact with the insectoid alien race known as the Vajra. Existing VF designs proved utterly inadequate to rival the performance of Vajra drones, and new programs were launched to develop countermeasures for the high-g forces and other major problems with the newly finalized Fourth Generation. The design hallmarks of Fifth Generation Variable Fighters include the adoption of Inertia Store Converter technology to insulate the cockpit against high g-forces, Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, contactless Linear Actuator technology for transformation, the ARIEL II airframe control AI, Extender Gear (EX-Gear) user interfaces, Advanced Energy Conversion Armor (ASWAG), and heavy quantum beam weaponry. YF-24 YF-24 Evolution VF-24 YF-25 Prophecy VF-25 Messiah YF-26 YF-27 Shahar VF-27 Lucifer YF-28 YF-29 Durandal YF-29B Percival (NUNS Ver.) YF-30 Chronos YF-30B Chronos (NUNS Ver.) VF-30 VF-31 Kairos Sv-262 Draken III Queadluun Alma Unknown New VF - Absolute LIVE!!!!!! Generation 5.5 - "Fold Wave Performance Enhancement" The precise criteria for considering a design to belong to Generation 5.5 are unclear at the present time, but remarks by Tactical Sound Unit Walkure leader Kaname Buccaneer and team mechanic Makina Nakajima suggest that a Fifth Generation VF which has been upgraded with a fold wave-based performance enhancement system may technically qualify as Generation 5.5. The only craft explicitly identified as belonging to this VF Generation is the Xaos Valkyrie Works VF-31 Siegfried, which may indicate Generation 5.5 is an informal classification used only by Xaos. Previous media have suggested the VF-31 Siegfried and others are considered Fifth Generation VFs. YF-28 YF-29 Durandal YF-29B Percival YF-30 Chronos YF-30B Chronos (NUNS Ver.) VF-30 VF-31 Siegfried (Xaos Custom) Sv-262 Draken III Unknown New VF - Absolute LIVE!!!!!!

DYRL? is an in-universe work of fiction as far as the main Macross continuity is concerned, and it biases more heavily towards the TV series version of events. Super Dimension Fortress Macross's version of events saw the loyal elements of Boddole Zer's main fleet withdraw from the battlefield as was standard practice for the Zentradi forces when the chain of command was broken by a command ship's destruction. This tactic was the heart of the UN Spacy-Zentradi alliance's strategy, forcing entire branch fleets to abandon the field by focusing their attacks on command ships. What was left when the dust settled and the Zentradi who hadn't defected had retreated to attempt to regroup - which doesn't seem to have worked with their chain of command so badly disrupted - was the hundred or so ships loyal to Vrlitwhai that would go on to join the New UN Forces. At least a couple, it's doubtful we see the entire fleet given that first generation emigrant fleets are said to be a few dozen ships. AFAIK, it's meant to be the latter. That's WAY more people than the fleet had... and we know that some of those ships ended up in the hands of the New UN Spacy Marine Corps, while others were seconded for duty as short-distance emigrant ships. Vrlitwhai only commanded about 1,200 ships... and his forces were up against a fleet that outnumbered them almost four thousand to one. That he had approximately a hundred ships left in working order when the dust settled is a real testament to how well both his and Exsedol's strategy of focusing fire on enemy command ships and the Minmay Attack worked. No doubt the New UN Forces have acquired more Zentradi ships along the way, but they're still a small fraction compared to the much smaller, miclone-suitable ships the NUNG has been building by the thousands and they're being put to the most appropriate uses, for Zentradi who prefer to live as giants in military service.

It's not that far outside of the norm, tbh... Gundam, for instance, maintains a main portal site similar to what Macross has that focuses on news for the latest and the ongoing projects, and then separate websites for each individual project. Where Macross differs is that Big West Frontier seems to be doing it on a going-forward basis only, where Sunrise also worked backwards and created websites for shows that aired before its current portal site (or even the internet) were available. Perhaps they'll do that when the next round of Blu-ray re-releases comes around... as I believe that was what dictated the site build schedule for Sunrise. Er... you're thinking 3rd and 4th Gen, not 4th and 5th. The VF-11 is a 3rd Generation design, the YF-21 is a 4th. But yes, the 3rd Generation Active Stealth technology that the Advanced Variable Fighters (4th Gen) were designed to take was to be the standard active stealth tech for new fighters. Its adoption was a bit slow, but the VF-19, VF-22, VF-171, and all later VFs use the 3rd Generation active stealth. IIRC, the VF-171 is noted as having received its 3rd Gen Active Stealth system at the Block II update. Next-generation active stealth in Macross will likely include active countermeasures against detection by fold wave radar as well as the current protections against electromagnetic radar.

The New UN Forces only have a couple hundred Zentradi ships at most... compared to the over 9,000 Northampton-class frigates built and commissioned by 2045. It's not that they aren't out there, it's that they aren't THAT numerous compared to the ships the humans build for their own use. The main Macross continuity isn't like Macross II, where the Spacy was repo-ing every Zentradi fleet it met.

The front page of the Macross portal site devoted to current news and events is pretty much exclusively Delta stuff right now, but that's because Delta is still the current series. The old official site and the series-specific ones for the Frontier content are all very much still present. They're just not on the front page anymore because Frontier's been over for a decade.

Perhaps, but it's not every day you find your home beset by self-replicating buffalo wings.

Angry tribbles? What're they going to do, stop up the drains in the showers?

The Short Treks are, lamentably, the only thing worth half a damn that CBS is actually producing for Star Trek... by dint of not being gritty, grimdark, action trash like Star Trek: Discovery and what we've seen of Star Trek: Picard. It's rather frustrating, since "The Brightest Star" is the closest they've come to a proper bloody Star Trek story since Enterprise went off the air and they're still only managing about a 50% success rate with "actually feels like Star Trek" with 'em.

Ah, you're correct... my mistake. The novelization of Star Trek IV did have the disabled ships survive, and Tuvok's father did at least one tour aboard the Yorktown around that period (c.2293)... so presumably the ship and at least part of its crew survived.

By all accounts, most of the ships named Enterprise was originally named something else and were either rechristened or had their names changed during construction... and it's been indicated in some of the supplemental materials that most name reuses are rechristening ships that were being built under other names. Picard's Enterprise-E was originally built with the expectation of being commissioned USS Honorius before the Enterprise-D went down over Veridian III. That wasn't the Yorktown, that was the Saratoga... a Miranda-class ship that was one of several redresses of the ILM Reliant large studio model built for Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. Its crew didn't die, and its main power was restored when the whale probe left at the end of the film.

Yeah, the Yorktown is the one most often cited for that... Unrelated, but looking at that trailer... either someone found Noonien Soong's safe deposit box or Bruce Maddox has been a busy, busy boy over the last thirty years.

Same. Frankly, I'd be surprised if the subject of the Enterprise-E's disposition doesn't come up at some point early in the Star Trek: Picard given that it was Picard's last command, and one of the things that was done in the tie-in comic that was used to set up all the Kelvin timeline nonsense prominently featured a revived Data as the Captain of the Enterprise-E when Romulus was destroyed by the Hobus supernova. Unless Bad Reboot is planning to ditch their own groundwork for the Kelvin timeline in the bargain, the subject of who commands the Enterprise-E really ought to come up at some point given how important Data is apparently going to be. To be fair, their service lives aren't intentionally short... ships named Enterprise tend to attract trouble and meet violent ends, from the very first Enterprise in Starfleet. That's the reason there's such high turnover in Enterprises relative to other ships of the same class. The actual origin of the Enterprise-A isn't completely clear given that it tends to vary by the author, but most tend to agree that the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) was actually a pre-existing Constitution-class refit that was renamed near the end of its refit when it was tapped to become the next Enterprise. She was, in all likelihood, of comparable age to the Enterprise Jim Kirk self-destructed over Genesis. NCC-1701-B's fate is not elaborated upon officially, but in the novel verse she disappeared and was presumed lost with all hands, suspected to be a result of her crew succumbing to an alien virus. NCC-1701-C and NCC-1701-D both went down fighting. Attrition from the Dominion War likely helped shepherd a number of older classes out of service when they were lost in combat or proved to be unequal to the task of continuing to defend the Federation. The Galaxy-class fared pretty well, but there were never all that many of them to begin with. Not when you consider that many of these ships we're shown are not patrol vessels, but long-range exploration and science ships surveying on or beyond the Federation's borders. Warp drive isn't actually all that fast, so many of those ships are literally months, even YEARS, from a place where they could readily rotate personnel out. The Enterprises are also prestige commands, it might be more typical for captains to be rotated when ships are closer to home or less prestigious, but the Enterprise is Starfleet's number one sledgehammer for solving any problem that resists less extreme measures, so keeping the most experienced captain with a top flight crew makes a certain amount of sense. Or for Jean-Luc to hold the rank of Fleet Captain... though there are some incidents that suggest that as captain of Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard was more or less the most senior Starfleet captain, or at least the one with the most clout.

Which, really, shouldn't have happened given the forum rules... I've argued against it on a few occasions, in light of the obviously criminal nature of some of those enterprises. On quite a few other sites, you could perhaps make a case for that... but this is a site where posting that kind of thing really could result in lost sales from people not importing the books, because we are exactly the kind of people who DO import goods directly from Japan.

Even Janeway wasn't THAT much of a gung-ho psychopath. That shot is just the stuff of terrible, terrible fanfiction... worse even than the time Shatner wrote a Star Trek novel in an attempt to end the Kirk vs. Picard debate in his own favor by having Kirk brought back to life only to destroy the Borg Collective. Well, the Federation does tend to run ships named Enterprise rather harder than the rest of the fleet... Of the thus-far seven Starfleet ships to bear the name, only the original Constitution-class USS Enterprise and the Excelsior-class USS Enterprise-B had lengthy service records. Archer's NX-01 Enterprise was in service for less than a decade before she took a beating that put her beyond repair in the Romulan War, Kirk's Enterprise-A was only in service for a handful of years before all the old Constitution-class ships were decommissioned, Garrett's Enterprise-C was in service for about twelve years before Romulans blew it to scrap at Narendra III, and Picard's Enterprise-D was nine years old (only seven of which spent in actual service) when it was sunk by Lursa and B'Etor's Bird of Prey at Veridian III. If Picard's Enterprise-E is still sailing in 2399, she'll have something on the order of 27 years on the clock... which would give her a plausible claim to second longest-serving Enterprise after the original NCC-1701, which had logged forty years before Kirk blew her up over Genesis. Some fans are probably expecting the Enterprise-E to have been retired or sunk by now, since STO has the Enterprise-F already in service in the first decade of the 2400s. Maybe they did. One of the lazier recurring plot threads in Star Trek ever since the Federation's brief war with the Klingons in DS9 is a breakdown of diplomatic relations with the Klingon Empire that results in yet another shooting war.

Thought we generally had a policy of not posting scans of entire books here?

Unfortunately, the New UN Forces Zentradi mecha we saw on Al Shahal are barely discussed at all in the official Macross Delta print materials. About all we have for sure is their designations, but we can take a guess as to most of their weaponry since their update hardware is mostly borrowed from elsewhere.

He used somewhat stronger language than that... 阿呆 cropped up a few times. Well he does use more terms of endearment for the YF-19 No.2 prototype than he ever does for Myung in the OVA. He literally calls it "Kawaiiko-chan" ("cutie") at one point during his first flight in it.

Let's not, and say we did. I've come to loathe what Star Trek has become since Jar-Jar Abrams got his grubby mitts on it. Star Trek is no longer the high concept, aspirational science fiction series I fell in love with as a kid. Abrams and Kurtzman's obsession with making Star Trek into Star Wars has sucked the soul out of the series in the name of cramming in ever greater amounts of CG-heavy action sequences and all the hate and fear necessary to justify them. This trailer has Seven of Nine, one of the most restrained and composed characters in Star Trek, dual-wielding disruptor rifles like she's Space Rambo. That's some dumb sh*t on a level even the worst of the Star Trek novels never sunk to. That right there really tells you how low Star Trek has sunk thanks to Abrams's efforts to turn Roddenberry's utopian vision of the future into another space war dystopia.

Well, two-of-a-kind. Shinsei Industry made one for Isamu and one spare according to Macross Chronicle. Seems unlikely, though it got two different releases for the PS3.

Different Macross publications seem to have different takes on how famous/notorious Isamu actually is... Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy tries to build Isamu up as a famous badass, even though the story doesn't seem to really have a lot for him to do besides give Aisha the excuse she was looking for to stick Reon Sakaki in the cockpit of the not-yet-complete YF-30 Chronos. A lot of Macross's written materials tend to imply that the New UN Government and Earth New UN Forces kept the details of the Sharon Apple incident classified, and the true extent of Isamu's involvement was never made public... so he shouldn't be all that well-known except as a dangerous hothead. Odds are the Earth NUNS officials who decided to call Isamu for the final demonstration of the YF-24 Evolution prototype knew full well what he'd done in 2040. His voice actor, Takumi Yamazaki, seems to be firmly of the opinion that Isamu's an idiot. Yeah, that was in 2057. There was no hope of Isamu getting a VF-24 of any spec. That fighter was brand new and apparently only just entering mass production c.2059, and there's no way the Earth NUNS were going to let their shiny new toy fall into the hands of someone like Isamu without adult supervision. Especially not when he was working for a PMC.

Eh... for all the hype it got, it only shows up in one scene near the end of the film and not for very long. The changes in maneuverability were more or less the same as the Draken III's. The VF-24 and YF-29 were both developed around the requirements of anti-Vajra combat after first contact was made when them in 2040 and the disastrous loss of the 117th Research Fleet in 2048. Both would be exemplary all-around VFs, but that's mainly to do with the fact that the Vajra are so damned OP that they exceeded the performance of 5th Generation VFs in plenty of ways. As far as we know it's a main VF, so it's more a multirole strike fighter than an attacker. Imagine what a properly focused attacker could do if built to the same tech level as the VF-24... Yup. That's in Macross Chronicle's history of the YF-24 Evolution program. IIRC, that's also the one to mention that the test pilot for the final YF-24 Evolution demonstration to the Earth NUNS brass was Maj. Isamu Alva Dyson of the NUNS Reserve. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably something in the avionics that prevents the VF-171 from making folds THAT precise on the fly.

Well, that's a hard pass for me... Star Trek: Discovery's showrunners seem like they won't be happy until they've shat all over every part of Star Trek's legacy and message. After the sh*t-awful mess that was the second half of season two, I can't begin to guess what madness could have possessed Netflix to agree to continue sponsoring this train wreck already-in-progress. Eh... from what I've seen, it's not virtue signalers so much as it is a conditioned response to the actual racist, misogynists, and so on who inundated every mention of Star Trek: Discovery before it'd ever aired whining about the black main character, the racially-diverse cast (as if that wasn't SOP for Star Trek), and Star Trek's social progressive politics. Star Trek fans who were enthusiastic about the series before it aired were inundated with that kind of crap, so they started to assume everyone who bashed the series was a bigoted neanderthal. It's not all that different from how we've been conditioned by long experience to expect any vocal R-word fan to be an ignorant cretin. There are plenty of Star Trek fans who can be completely reasonable about the series and discuss it fairly on its own merits, but there are equally as many who've been so overexposed to the actual racist, sexist trolls that they assume everyone who speaks ill of the series is one until proven otherwise. (Unfortunately, since many of the completely legitimate complaints about the series revolve around Sonequa Martin-Green's character and her Mary Sue effect on the story, it's often nearly impossible to convince them that there isn't a racist or sexist motive for the complaints.) In a way, it's painfully ironic given that Star Trek: Discovery itself is probably the most unwittingly bigoted Star Trek series ever put to film thanks to all the stereotyping going on.

Those sketches went for a pretty penny... the Southern Cross one went for a grand, and the Tenjin Macross Plus one went for two.

Hrm... well, the higher maneuverability they confer does make the Draken III a more effective dogfighter. They're not much in the offense department though, armed with a single beam machin gun, a few micro-missiles, and energy converting armor they can't utilize unless they're docked to the Draken III.

Yeah, that's one of the bigger issues with the Sv-262 Draken III... we're told that it's an anti-VF VF from a design team who've been specializing in anti-VF VFs since the late 2010s, but we haven't really seen anything in the specs that we can point to and say is a feature intended specifically for anti-VF use. ECM that can defeat an enemy VF's ability to identify its target doesn't necessarily make the fighter harder for the enemy to hit, it just makes it harder to know who you just hit. Likewise, the programmable camouflage doesn't do anything except conceal their markings and make them more difficult to identify. The heavy quantum beam gunpod will be just as effective against a Zentradi battle pod or battle suit as it will against an older model VF, if not slightly more so since those don't have barrier systems, and its missiles are pretty conventional stuff. It's got a sword instead of a knife, but the sword is so fragile because of weight reduction that it needs external power to make it strong enough to use, so it doesn't really feel like an advantage.