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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    So... it's about time to update this lovely chart based on some new and speculative data: What Changed: Sv-51 Replica and VF-0 Phoenix Replica moved from Generation 0.5 to Generation 1.5 based on uncovered info that suggests the VF-0 Phoenix replica was made using parts from both the Generation 1.5 VF-1C Valkyrie and the Generation 2 VF-5000 Star Mirage. Sv-51Ω has been moved to Generation 0.5 based on its status as a detuned/downgraded incomplete Sv-52 retrofitted for conventional engines. VF-1X++ Valkyrie Double Plus added to Generation 1.5, indicated to be an improved VF-1X+ rather than a full tear-up as originally believed. Added VF-1C Civilian Valkyrie from the Macross Frontier novelization, the VF-1EX Valkyrie EX from Macross Delta, and Master File VF-1P Freyja Valkyrie to Generation 1.5. Added VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Manfred" to Generation 4.5, a Macross Galaxy fleet custom VF-22 based on the VF-22S that incorporates implant tech and ISC. Added VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Ushio Todo Custom" to Generation 4.5, a derivative of the Macross Galaxy VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Manfred". Added VF/B-22 Jagdvogel II to Generation 4. Generation 5.5 added based on extra features in the Macross Delta Blu-ray release (a GO! AERIAL KNIGHTS! segment). Moved VF-31 Siegfried (Xaos Custom) to Generation 5.5. YF-28, YF-29 Durandal, YF-29B Percival, YF-30 Chronos, and YF-30B Chronos (NUNS Ver.) speculatively copied to Generation 5.5 pending new data. Added VF-30. 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. 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 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/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 Gustaf 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 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
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Got my preorder in... but after the dismal quality of the last few volumes (Squadrons, VF-4, VF-22, VF-31), my hopes are not high. SoftBank seems to be slipping a bit, the last few Master Archive Mobile Suit books were pretty bad as well. The MS-06 Zaku II one was more a Zaku variant gallery than an actual book, and there's almost no actual material in the Victory Gundam one.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Unfortunately we don't know. Probably not very large, considering the Macross Cannon-class ships were designed and built as dedicated anti-fleet gunboats rather than the fleet flagship supercarrier-battleship hybrid that the older Macross-class and main continuity's Battle-class were. They're the space warship version of an A-10 Thunderbolt... a set of engines and support systems built around an unreasonably massive gun as a way of getting that gun into range of whomever the brass have decided needs to have their sh*t wrecked.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    At least the 50-some pages on the VF-1 in Macross Chronicle were accurate and of consistently high quality. The last few installments in the Variable Fighter Master File series (Squadrons, VF-22, VF-4, VF-31) have been so blatantly half-assed that it's almost painful to look at them. The first two volumes of the VF-1 Master File were some of Master File's best work, so I'm hoping they'll live up to the very high standard set by those first two books with this third volume.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Each Macross Cannon-class gunboat is made by modifying four Zentradi Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class fleet command battleships to massively uprate their heavy converging beam cannons, then tying them to a scratch-built central body. Each Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class ship forms one of the barrels that make up the Macross Cannon-class's anti-fleet heavy converging beam cannon battery. Dialog in the Macross II: Lovers Again OVA indicated that the UN Spacy forces in the Sol system had at least six Macross Cannon-class gunboats for system defense c.2092. Four were deployed to stop the Mardook fleet's big push and were subsequently lost in combat when the fleet's defenses ended up overwhelmed. Two more were held back as a mobile reserve, and participated in destroying the Mardook mobile fortress at the end of the OVA. Securing the necessary Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class ships to build Macross Cannon-class gunboats was probably not an issue, since the UN Government in Macross II: Lovers Again's timeline possessed at least two Zentradi factory satellites and had defeated five Zentradi Army main fleets and two Meltrandi Army main fleets by that point in time. Other dialog from their first appearance suggests that each Macross Cannon-class ship had roughly enough firepower to one-shot a Zentradi Army branch fleet.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    According to Scorched Earth Toys, the Bandai DX Chogokin SMS Macross Quarter stands about 36cm (~14") tall in Storming Attack mode... making it about 1/878 scale. The one official figure we've had for the Macross Elysion puts its height at approximately 830m in-universe (cited as being roughly the same height as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) in Storming Attack mode. That would mean a toy Macross Elysion in the same scale would be 94.55cm (37") tall... just a hair over three feet. The only way you're getting a 1/878 scale Macross Cannon-class gunboat from Macross II: Lovers Again into your house is by demolishing a wall. Quite possibly several walls. To put the size here into perspective, this hypothetical toy would have roughly the same length and width as the RAM 4500 or 5500 heavy duty work truck (which are 668cm long) and significantly larger than a typical six-seater minivan (the Chrysler Pacifica is 517cm long). At that scale, the Macross Cannon-class toy would be 683.5cm long (22'5") in Fortress mode, and would stand 455.7cm (14'11.5") tall and long in Storming Attack mode. I don't even want to think what a toy that big would weigh, quite possibly similar to a small car. (The Macross Cannon-class gunboats in Macross II: Lovers Again are canonically 6,000m long in Warship mode and 4,000m long/tall in Storming Attack mode... fitting, as they're made from four DYRL-type Zentradi Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class fleet command battleships.)
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Sort of. The Macross Frontier fleet's VF-19ACTIVE and Macross Galaxy fleet's VF-22HG were both test units used in the development of their respective fleets next-generation main fighters. Where they differ is in their intended use. The VF-19ACTIVE was a heavily-modified technology demonstrator meant for data collection purposes. The VF-22HG was a mostly-stock aircraft with reworked controls that was meant to realize the YF-21's goal of "a fusion of man and machine"... which you could argue made it a testbed for improvements to the pilot.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    I have a feeling enforcement of antitrust laws are about to become a hot topic in the next election cycle.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    It's definitely a departure from his usual art style, which tends to be heavily streamlined and vaguely organic with few hard corners or sharp edges. There are a few touches here and there that remind me a bit of his work on Aquarion Evol and particularly Nobunaga the Fool, like the bits coming off of the shoulders. All in all, it feels more evocative of lazy American SF robot design work like classic BattleTech or the ambulatory cardboard box designs of Yuji Shinkawa. It just looks painfully generic.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Blech... well, I guess even an ace designer can totally phone it in at times. I honestly thought it was Yuji Shinkawa's handiwork until the credits page at the end. "Boxy" isn't usually a word that comes in the same sentence with "Shoji Kawamori".
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Oddly, it just doesn't feel like E3 without Spotpass Miis of Nintendo's various creators and talking PR heads to pester me on a daily basis like we had on the 3DS. I kinda wish we could get a port of the Zero Escape remaster that came out for PS4 a while ago... I followed that series on the DS and 3DS.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    We've had one already. It was called Macross Plus, and it was f***ing awesome. Arguably better than Thunderbolt, since it came without a walking edgelord meme for a protagonist.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Motive always matters... though I suppose it's really just a matter of degrees of human awfulness. As far as what's being written on the subject, it's worth remembering the old truism that the news exists to sell itself. They're going to approach a subject like this from the most attention-grabbing angle even if it's not strictly 100% accurate. "Racists harass Star Wars actress into shutting down her Instagram account" makes the whole affair sound MUCH more dramatic and newsworthy than the more honest but markedly less bombastic "Immature Star Wars fans harass Star Wars actress into shutting down her Instagram". The Internet Hate Machine makes for better headlines than a bunch of neckbeards who are calling her nasty names because they think her character sucks. Well that's good to hear. If Star Trek is busily forgetting its roots and making xenophobia a virtue, maybe a more inclusive Galaxy Far Far Away is in order. I don't know... my read of the dynamic between Finn and Rose in The Last Jedi was definitely more towards a romantic relationship. The kiss and all, well, hard to write that off as big sister-ly when she idolizes him like that.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The schtick with the New Republic missing the First Order's military buildup is especially bad, because they literally did an entire movie devoted to the premise that word about a project that big WILL get out no matter how remote it is or how much effort you put into secrecy. The vast expenditures of resources and capital to construct the Death Star didn't go unnoticed, how did someone fail a spot check so hard they missed someone remodeling planet with a gun barrel the size of the Death Star?
  15. Seto Kaiba
    The Dilbert Principle is alive and well in the Galaxy Far Far Away... "The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place they can do the least damage: Management." Leadership seems to be pretty awful across the board after the fall of the First Galactic Empire. The Jedi Order's leader, Luke Skywalker, failed employee relations forever when he decided the best and most appropriate response to fears that a student would fall to the dark side was murder. The New Republic apparently had its head so far up its arse it seemingly paid no mind to the Galactic Empire 2.0 building a Super Death Star and an aircraft carrier big enough to carry battleships, to the extent that they never even saw the face of their enemy before being wiped out. The Resistance's leaders are, respectively, an aging diplomat who is running entirely on hope, an Admiral so uninspiring that she faces a (temporarily successful) mutiny before she's even been in command a day, and Leeroy Jenkins Jr. The First Order's Supreme Leader Snoke candidly admits the Dilbert Principle is in play when it comes to his most senior Army commander, his other senior commander is a dark jedi who has terrible impulse control issues and is prone to destroying equipment and assaulting his fellow employees, and Snoke himself is so bad at employee relations he's practically his own Starscream and so bad at reading his employees it literally is the death of him. One can only assume that all the competent soldiers have either retired or died out, and we're left with the galaxy's collection of Arnold J. Rimmers fighting the galaxy's David Listers. (We can only assume Cat's descendants currently run Naboo's fashion industry.)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    I've seen the new ones exactly twice... and TBH, for The Last Jedi that felt like one time too many. Hux really does look incredibly young, though. So much so that he's jokingly referred to as the Evil Weasley out here. Dunno... Snoke doesn't seem to be particularly good at it, especially with all that "admitting that I'm manipulating you" stuff he does in The Last Jedi. Everyone could see that lightsaber coming except him. Not super up on how bounty hunting works in Star Wars, but wouldn't the space boonies be the obvious first port of call for any bounty hunter looking for wanted fugitives? I have to admit that I wouldn't be remotely surprised if it was true... though I'd question whether it was truly racially motivated, or whether the racist remarks are just the internet trolls going for easy mode on upsetting their target. My parents are Trekkies, and I was raised on a steady diet of Star Trek's true-blue "diversity is good" ethos. I find myself inclined to suspect that the racism in the online harassment of Kelly Tran is the means, rather than the motivation, simply because the character of Rose Tico offers SO MUCH for a viewer to dislike that there's no need to grope around for flimsy reasons like the actress's race. It's not right or fair to transfer one's dislike of the character to the actor when that's largely the fault of the writers and editors, but some people have problems separating the character from the actor in practice. (The guy who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies gets this all the time from kids on the street, or so I've heard.) When I rewatched The Last Jedi a few days back, I was rather surprised at myself for how quickly Rose's voice became The Most Annoying Sound. Jar-Jar Binks might've been an obnoxious racist caricature, but his power to annoy pales in comparison to Rose Tico's... partly because nobody at LucasFilm was ever foolish enough to devote half a movie to a completely unnecessary subplot in which he was a central figure. It's bad enough that Rose is a central figure in an utterly pointless plot tumor, but she's also The Load. She doesn't really contribute anything to the proceedings of their mission except whining, massive levels of naivete, and a lot of terribly stilted, fake-sounding dialog like her attempt to sit in judgement of an entire resort city or that out-of-nowhere, faintly comical line about love. Even BB-8 makes more of a contribution. Rose's status as the blatantly unnecessary rival love interest for Finn is enough to make me think that it was racially-motivated casting. Not the representational diversity motive that some people have ascribed to it, but that the studio is backing down from a Finn x Rey pairing they'd spent so much time on in The Force Awakens because they're afraid of the potential backlash from having their main pairing be a white woman who chooses a black man over a white man1 so they've set Finn up with a partner they think will be less controversial for Western audiences. It's enough to make me consider Finn x Poe just to watch the bigots spontaneously combusting in the aisles. That's putting it mildly. Didn't he end up institutionalized a few years ago? 1. This is one of those awkward social dynamics about interracial relationships that I and some of my friends had an uncomfortable amount of personal experience with. Society in general seems to be a LOT more open and accepting of interracial relationships when the man's status in whatever the local social/racial hierarchy is is equal to or higher than the woman's.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Hadn't considered that... but then, I was looking at "Lux" in terms of the Latin word for "Light" and the SI unit for measuring illuminance. I have to admit, "Lacus" would probably make a lot more sense, considering most of what we see of the planet is its bodies of water. Can't have done. Macross 7 first mentions the planet [Lux/Rax/Lacus] in its 23rd episode "Sound Force", which aired 26 March 1995. The first episode of Lexx didn't air until over 2 years later, on 18 April 1997.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    "Lux" would be ルクス. On a lark, I did a search on the kana and got "Lacus", the Latin word for "lake".
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Even the First Order's senior officers look awfully young. General Hux and Kylo Ren both look like they should be more concerned with the headmaster catching them out of their rooms after hours than with the business of running a militant fascist movement set to topple the government of the entire galaxy. Are we sure that's brainwashing and not just an unflattering and not entirely unmerited opinion of the people he grew up with after having fallen out with them? "Murderers" doesn't seem like much of a stretch considering that he left the Jedi Order after being the target of a (failed) premeditated murder plot on the part of his own uncle. It's not a stretch to assume the Resistance probably has factions like the Rebellion did (see Rogue One) that don't see tactics like assassination, anonymous bombings, and false flag operations as unacceptable. Being traitors is a "certain point of view" thing, since the New Republic is (or should that be "was"?) the end result of a paramilitary coup that deposed the previous "legitimate" galactic government that had been installed by the democratic process of the government before that (which both sides of that conflict recognized as legitimate). "Thieves" is questionable, but we do know the Rebellion's troops did steal supplies and ships when the opportunity arose and the Resistance doubtless does the same. The First Order's seemingly headquartered out in the space boonies... it seems unlikely that there'd be a mass migration of Imperial loyalists so mad at the Republic they'd form their own new galactic government with blackjack and hookers. Especially since, if what I'm reading is accurate, the New Republic branded anyone associated with the Empire a war criminal. I dunno... for all Sir Sabertantrum's newfound noise about letting go of the past, he doesn't seem to be capable of making his words and deeds line up. The first thing he does after taking over the First Order, apart from intimidating Hux into recognizing him as the new Supreme Leader, is pick up right where Snoke left off on the First Order's to-do list. He promptly pursues the remaining members of the Resistance to Crait, where he then positively jumps at the chance to pursue Snoke's #1 goal of wiping out the Jedi by killing Luke Skywalker. Looks to me like he's still out to finish what grandpappy started, just possibly for his own sake, not because "Darth Vader would've wanted it".
  20. Seto Kaiba
    The impression I got from Return of the Jedi and, more recently, Rogue One was that both of the Death Stars were top secret projects that the Empire did an amazingly good job of keeping under wraps until they were essentially complete. The Empire probably told the families of those who'd been killed in their destruction that their loved ones had died in the line of duty, but I doubt they would publicly admit the "insignificant" Rebellion blew up a clandestine, moon-sized, world-killing WMD with a crew of 1.2 million... let alone that it happened twice. (Especially considering that it must have been world-bankruptingly expensive to build even one of those things.) Do humans in the Galaxy Far Far Away live longer? It's what, like 30 years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, right? That'd put most of the immediate families of the Death Star's crew out of the military service age range, and wasn't the First Order mainly made up of kids who were abducted to become Stormtroopers? Hey, I'll take one thoughtful analysis of the narrative over a hundred videos of butthurt fanboys who are busily whinging themselves inside-out about how The Last Jedi kicked their dog or whatever.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Thanks for sharing that. Easily the most intelligent thing I've seen on YouTube since someone filed a copyright claim against the uploads of Engineering an Empire. As prep for going to see Solo: a Star Wars Story, I rewatched Rogue One and The Last Jedi this past weekend, and this video spoke to one of my biggest issues with the new trilogy: that the First Order doesn't really have an established motive. The Force Awakens had me write it off as an artifact of a lazy attempt to do a by-the-numbers copy of A New Hope, but after watching this I'm left to wonder if they're not backhanding out some real world political allegory after all. I suppose it's all right there in the name, really. The First Order. The First Galactic Empire grew out of the Republic without overthrowing it, and here we have a group that's going well out of its way to "put on the reich" by aping the Empire's aesthetic in every conceivable way. The First Order doesn't have an ideology of its own because it doesn't need one... it's literally the dark version of the Rebel Alliance, a militarized resistance movement rising up to reinstate the previous deposed government. The First Order are nothing fancier than the Imperial version of Neo-Nazis. It still feels pretty lazy, but I guess it'd better than them being a complete cipher.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Vindirance and Black Rainbow are both anti-government paramilitary organizations that oppose the New UN Government's excessive interference in the domestic affairs of its member nations/planets and don't engage in illegal (read: "terrorist") military actions. They're both essentially anti-Latence organizations that Latence's information manipulation has branded as terrorist organizations. The key area of difference between the two organizations is, as I understand it, whether they work with the anti-Latence factions inside the New UN Forces or stand alone. Black Rainbow is a predominantly Zentradi anti-government organization that uses mainly Zentradi military hardware. It's led by former special forces top ace Timothy Daldhanton, hailed as the "All Kill Wizard", and largely operates without the support of anti-Latence forces within the NUNF. Vindirance is a predominantly human anti-government organization using mainly NUNF hardware obtained via back channels from emigrant planets. It's led by Mariafokina Barnrose, allegedly an alias of Therese Jenius, and it both collaborates with and operates with support from the various anti-Latence factions inside the New UN Forces and New UN Gov't.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    It's strongly implied that a number of fleets and planets did end up using the VF-24 either through purchase of an export variant or as a locally built monkey model specification, but because all the focus is on the derivative designs made based on the YF-24 Evolution specification they're never discussed in any depth. (Largely the same deal as the fleets that went to an all-Ghost air force in the previous fighter generation. We know it's a thing, but that it's a thing is about all we know.)
  24. Seto Kaiba
    It does strike me as a bit odd, or perhaps inconsistent, to start trying to make droids sympathetic now after six movies worth of C-3P0 being the designated buttmonkey. Maybe seven if we count that "red arm" moment in The Force Awakens. IIRC wasn't there a pre-Disney declaration from Lucas that droids aren't really "alive"? Like, they don't have a presence in the force and thus no soul? I suspect Bioware is ultimately to blame for that one. I'm familiar with it only through memes and so on posted on imgur, but wasn't there an almost Bender-esque droid from one of their RPGs that kind of started the whole "snarky" droid schtick? "If they liked it once, they'll love it twice". C-3P0 was given an ounce of personality because it made him more effective comic relief, being a prissy coward who the characters could abuse with impunity. It's hard to believe all of the smarm, pomposity, pessimism, and general cowardice would be useful for teaching etiquette and protocol, never mind serving as an interpreter. The only thing separating him from A.J. Rimmer is that he's actually useful for something. K-2SO's supposed to be a stolen Imperial security droid that was improperly memory-wiped and reprogrammed right? The snark is probably an artifact of that. Droids in general get a bit weird when they don't get regular memory wipes, so one that's running nonstandard software ought to develop all kinds of bizarre behaviors... like a peripheral running with default Windows drivers, it could behave in all sorts of unintended ways. Ultimately, it's probably just a botched attempt to appease the fans. I'm given to understand that Han winning the Millennium Falcon from Lando is one of the more frequent callbacks in any story involving Han and Lando from the old EU, so it must have seemed a very tempting target for the studio looking to develop a broader Star Wars film universe. Going forward kind of wasn't an option since Harrison Ford wanted out of Star Wars, and they'd already killed Han off entirely in The Force Awakens. The only way to tell his story would be to work backwards.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Haven't had a chance to see Solo myself yet... but I'm honestly surprised this question would even be asked. I've never been a big Star Wars fan myself, but even from my relatively minimal exposure to a pre-Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe I'd have been absolutely stunned if they hadn't tried to do at least one film about Han Solo's backstory. Leaving aside the EU, Han was the only member of the original Star Wars trilogy's power trio who'd had the opportunity to lead an interesting life before the events of A New Hope. Luke's uncle Owen kept him on the farm, well removed from anything approaching excitement or adventure, and Leia's foster family kept her pretty sheltered too. The impression I always had was that he was kind of a fan favorite, being the loveable scoundrel and all. I know the old EU had a bunch of stories where various parts of his shady past caught up to him, usually with lethal intent and all three movies in the original trilogy at least offered hints that Han had a complex and checkered past littered with unpleasant characters. After all, the man was a famous professional smuggler... which, as Game of Thrones would remind us, means you're kind of doing it wrong as a smuggler. (Then again, ending up in massive amounts of debt to a galactic crime lord is also "doing it wrong", right?) From that perspective, doing an action-centric origin story for one of the franchise's most beloved characters would seem to be an incredibly obvious slam-dunk decision. (Of course, die-hard fans in most any franchise are nearly impossible to please... so there's that.)
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