Seto Kaiba

I realize I'm tempting the tl;dr gods with this one, so here we go... Yes, it most certainly does... though perhaps the most telling part of this whole affair was that when he couldn't find any support for his argument on RobotechX, he resorted to scheduling a podcast rant about it for 10pm Thanksgiving Day, a time when he could be sure nobody would come to interrupt him. Then he fell back on saying everyone arguing against him was a pedophile and a "Macross Groupie" who, according to him, are all part of my "clique" of sycophants and yes-men. When that didn't work, he resorted to scheduling yet more emergency podcasts, but pre-recording them so no guests could chew him out on his own show. What can we conclude from all of this? Doug Bendo is so deeply insecure that any challenge to his perceived authority and superiority eats away at him until he can't control himself and has to lash out. Oh he was doing it well before then... when he tried (and failed) to prove that I didn't know anything about Macross soon after arriving on RobotechX, he insisted that I'd made the whole energy converting armor thing up. Then he went on to challenge the size of the SDF-1 (which seems to be all the rage with what's left of the Robotech lunatic fringe these days) claiming it was at least 4 miles long and trying to claim the official specs were all stuff made up post-facto and didn't mean anything. Then he started in with that whole Ranka's Age kick, which he's STILL on, claiming Ranka is twelve years old or less because he thinks she looks under twelve, despite being shown that both the animation and the dialogue establish Ranka is sixteen. He then tried to tell us all that the dialogue of the show doesn't matter, and it should be animation only that determines things because he claims to have watched the show and understood it perfectly without subtitles or a working knowledge of Japanese. He also briefly tried to dispute the size of the Zor Lords large ship from Southern Cross too, and made a bunch of claims about the Southern Cross Army using "reflex warheads" because their missiles and tank rounds make big explosions. Oh, and it wasn't just one podcast about it, there were at least two two-hour podcasts on it, and one sixty minute podcast that touches on it briefly... and he's promised at least one more touching specifically on Macross Frontier episodes 24 and 25... so you can see just what kind of an insecure wackjob we're dealing with here. I'm guessing you haven't heard his latest podcast, where in an effort to refute us all over the whole Ranka issue and his multiply-refuted claims of Robtoech's superiority he drags his girlfriend onto the show and walks her through a set of answers so obviously coached that it's almost painful. He also takes the time to proclaim himself to be not only the #1 Robotech fan on the net, but also the #1 authority on Robotech in the world. Talk about delusions of grandeur. Dude, this is only the tip of the comedy iceberg. Bendo's been living up to his legendarily bad reputation, frothing at the mouth and making a fool of himself without realizing that NOBODY takes him seriously but himself. What's REALLY funny is that despite how he professes to hate and despise us, he keeps trying get us on his show as guests, which has NEVER ended well for him. His usual routine is to challenge something someone says, then blast them with insults and say "Well, if you wanna confront me, come do it on my next podcast episode!". Actually, during the whole Ranka thing Bendo admitted that he's frequently hit on underage girls in their mid teens... so I'd doubt he ends up in that situation very often. Well, the whole reason he got on the subject to begin with was because Robelwell202 and I were criticizing Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles (a film Bendo ALSO professes to hate) and he immediately jumped to the movie's defense by claiming we were all pedophiles and that Ranka was 12 years old after I posted that "Let them eat Cheesecake" montage I made for the last thread and pointed out how Shadow Chronicles was so mediocre the best Tommy could do was try to hold the audience's attention with T&A. He REALLY went off the deep end when I pointed out that Ariel, who he was using as an example of "mature" sex appeal is only 16 months old at the official date given for the events of the movie. Oh yes, on that Thanksgiving Day podcast he announced that if he ever met Robelwell or I in person, he would "knock our teeth out" and "beat our asses". On more than one occasion he's threatened his girlfriend with a beating on the air, he's threatened to urinate on her at least once while recording his show, and I understand in his last episode he actually does haul off and hit her during the recording. Quite disturbing, actually... I understand many people lodged complaints with TalkShoe after that came to light. Exactly right... though I've noticed a trend when it comes to members of the Robotech lunatic fringe attacking Macross Frontier... it's ALWAYS something sexual. When PTH first started attacking it on RobotechX, he jumped right to claiming the series was "pro-gay propaganda", that Bobby was an attempt to force a homosexual character on the audience, and that Alto was a homosexual cross-dresser. When Bendo attacked it, he fixated on the brief moment where Ranka appears to be naked and labeled the entire series child pornography. Actually, during the recording of last Sunday's episode wherein Doug challenged us to respond to an libelous, extremely profane rant he put up about us and the whole Ranka thing, he not only had a 100% hostile audience for the entire show, TalkShoe Security showed up shortly after the show started and DEMANDED he change the show's rating to EL (Explicit Language), so now the show is only accessible to TalkShoe members aged 18+. I have reason to suspect that most of those are not even actually listeners, but are the end result of search engine bots spidering the page repeatedly due to all the linkspamming he's done on RobotechX and other websites. Well yes, he's been proclaiming himself to be the "Official" podcast headquarters of the fandom, even though he freely admits that that's a self-issued title and he's operating with no official sanction. In fact, according to him Harmony Gold has apparently FORBIDDEN employees to appear on his podcast, claiming that he frequently hears from people who say they'd love to come on his show but are afraid of retribution from the management. How much of that is actually true is anybody's guess (but skepticism is wise considering the majority of the claims Bendo makes are provably false). JT, on the other hand, has apparently not only acquired a reasonable following of his own and earned the enmity of the lunatic fringe with his well-reasoned and generally objective view of the franchise, but has also garnered the attention of voice actors and the like as a potentially favorable podcast to grant reviews to. I say that's not just good for him, but for the entirety of what's left of the Robotech fanbase, since their last impartial voice has kind of petered out, leaving them in the hands of the lunatic fringe (Robotech Fan) and the useless sycophants (RDF Underground, Space Station Liberty).

Gettin' a distinct impression that you've never actually SEEN Neon Genesis Evangelion... the EVAs were designed to fight the Angels, not human militaries. The Angels don't exactly use conventional tactics, nor are they generally suited to them. As you'd see if you watched End of Evangelion, even using the strongest available non-nuclear ordinance (the N2 mine) is no guarantee of doing more than annoying the EVA's operator. Mobile Police Patlabor? Good stuff, seriously good stuff. I was introduced to the series by Talos, and I thought most of it was pretty good, with the exception of their strange tendency to reuse the "science creates monster. monster breaks out of lab and starts eating labors" plot, which they use I think three times between the OVA, TV show, and the third movie. I just got done with a binge of comedy-tinted robot shows and some romance comedies... most of them did not thrill me. I gave Martian Successor Nadesico a go (since I missed it back in the day), and it did not thrill me for some reason, the business with that cross between Mazinger Z, Combattler V, and Getter Robo was kind of a pointless bit of camp to me. Super Heavy God Gravion didn't wow me either, and Maburaho (which a friend of mine swore up and down I would find hilarious) was so painfully bad I stopped halfway through the series when the harem comedy protagonist DIED for an incredibly stupid reason and came back as a ghost. Going back to classics with some good ol' fashioned Lupin III series 1.

Jeez, I stop paying attention to this thread for a little bit and the rumors of how cruel I am to Robotech fans get WAY out of control... For the last time, those are "alternative mulching supplies". I've just been dragging my heels about renting a wood chipper. Speaking of Robotech sociopaths, I think I may have made dougbendo cry or something... he's devoted like half a dozen podcast episodes to trying (and generally failing) to badmouth or intimidate me, and he's spent the past two weeks or so trying (and failing) to convince everyone on RobotechX that Macross Frontier is child pornography and everyone who likes it is a pedophile because he believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Ranka is at most 12 years old, and that the last episode shows her "naked in space" for all of four seconds. He first got onto that tack when some people started criticizing RTSC and saying it compared unfavorably to Macross Frontier. I hear his podcasts are currently under investigation by TalkShoe's admins for a veritable grocery list of violations including (but not limited to) copyright violations, libel, threatening to assault other TalkShoe users and his girlfriend during shows, and the use of both sexually explicit and racist language in a show rated "All Audiences". Maybe that's why he's so pissy. In related news, our mutual pal Pizza the Hutt got banned from RobotechX for the second time for repeatedly attacking an admin, and he's on his way to a second ban on Robotech.com for lashing out at anyone who criticizes the prospects of the Robotech live-action movie. I'd say if it's possible for a 11 meter tall Zentradi commander to ride a Monster into battle like a horse without adversely affecting it, then that's at least plausible.

Eh, it's not like it's the first time one of Harmony Gold's distribution partners tried to sell the originals by hyping up their ties to Robotech. The ADV releases of Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada all did that. First time I've ever seen them try to sell them under the Robotech name though... kind of disturbing.

What little information I've seen indicates that they ought to be around the same size as the original destroids, with the exception of the Giant Monster. What exactly does the size comparison show? *Hasn't got that issue yet*

She dropped a hyphen... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarian_section

You're not alone... I spent a good 45 minutes or more during a particularly boring meeting playing Mahjong Titans on my laptop. Naturally... though the subject of the Robotech franchise and particularly future Robotech productions is always going to be a particularly problematic one since not only do we have to contend with faulty memories, obscure facts, and rumors, we also have to sort through Harmony Gold's hype and misleading statements, and unhelpful representatives of the Robotech fanbase who (deliberately or otherwise) spread misinformation by presenting their own uninformed conjecture and crackpot theories as though they were fact.

Yep... I think that's pretty much exactly what Einherjar is saying... Of course, Harmony Gold is saying something very similar... that by pointing out that they can't use any of Macross's intellectual property in future "Shadow Saga" crap or the live-action movie, that we're undermining our own anticipation for the movie, and destroying the expectations of other fans.

Wicked cool, though I wonder how long it'll be before someone comes up with a DIY countermeasure for that. Hell, I'd be surprised if there wasn't ALREADY at least one. That's kind of disappointing. Whatever its other faults, Macross Zero was great mecha porn.

That's not necessarily the case... after all, we've seen a fair bit of evidence that Harmony Gold's representatives started buying into their own hype a long time ago. It may very well be that they genuinely believe Maguire Entertainment and Warner Bros are going to raise Robotech's profile with a moderately successful live-action movie and are banking on it without realizing that there's a very real possibility that the movie will never come out and Warner'll just sit on the license until it expires. Thus far, Harmony Gold seems thoroughly uninterested in doing a weekly Robotech TV series. I guess they think low-budget direct-to-DVD movies are the way to go, since they have neither the resources nor the talent to compete against mainstream anime or American cartoons. I'd imagine that's why they were planning the "shadow saga" as a trilogy of movies rather than a TV show. Just going by all the obnoxious honking Kevin McKeever has done over the years, it seems like the biggest stumbling block is that there's just no market for a new Robotech series and the Harmony Gold execs know it. McKeever's standard response when people ask why Harmony Gold hasn't bothered with a new Robotech series in the 20+ years since Sentinels went under is that they need to get an episode commitment from a network first, and you could easily infer from that response that Harmony Gold has tried, and there were no takers.

Not that I'm aware of... it hasn't been covered in Macross Chronicle yet, and there's nothing on it in the Macross F Official Fan Book either. I dunno if any magazine articles have covered it though.

From the rest of your post, I don't think you really know anything about the real Macross II backstory... sounds like you've got a BAD case of Palladium. Seriously, it's remarks like this that motivated me to start my website project in the first place. It's a damn shame, really, since there are at least three major Zentradi conflicts, all of which would be ripe for animated adaptation (particularly the ones in 2037 and 2054), and the whole unexplored (in animation) angle of the colony fleets, like the one that was ambushed by the Zentradi in 2054, or that business with the one in the novelizations. I'd love to see them do an animated adaptation of Macross 2036 or Macross: Eternal Love Song... especially if they use the character designs Mikimoto did for both games. Adult Komilia is just awesome on SO many levels, plus the upgraded VF-1, and the return of Quamzin... what's not to like? Um... the business with galactic whales and the Vajra has nothing to do with Macross II... 's not even part of the same continuity. For that matter, it's "Mardook", not "Marduk". Yes, they're homophones, but the spelling (and the subsequent romanization) are different and the difference is intentional (and thus significant enough to matter). There is no Supervision Army in DYRL or Macross II, they were replaced by the Meltrandi. Not sure where you're going with this Alus business either... the Macross was originally a Meltrandi gun destroyer in Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Macross II: Lovers Again, it was not a Mardook ship. The colony they found in DYRL was a Protoculture city, not a Mardook one. No... just no. For one, the VF-2SS Valkyrie II's Super Armed Pack has very little in common with conventional super or armor packs. For two, that is NOT a heavy beam cannon, that's a railgun.

No, what's REALLY sad is that for them... it IS a good thing! Due in large measure to Harmony Gold's hamhanded management and their monumental ineptitude when it comes to creating original material, the Robotech franchise's history over the past 25-odd years has been one long, slow, humiliating slide into oblivion. For them, being able to announce to the world that the fate of the franchise is no longer resting on their shoulders is GREAT news. They're probably giddy that they've handed control of a project that holds a slim promise of arresting or even reversing the franchise's death spiral over to someone who has at least a vague idea of what they're doing. I'm sure it didn't hurt the feelings of what's left of the fanbase either... they're thinking that the minor improvement in image quality will probably be worth the wait, and that the story's gonna suck no matter what since it's being written by Yun and Yune, so they might as well pick their battles. And y'know what... that's actually a distinct improvement from back when they used to pretend they actually knew how to create original material. If your strongest assets are lawyers and spin doctors, you're probably an insurance company.

Already been covered, actually... in a segment in Macross: Perfect Memory. Let me tell you right now it's nowhere near as exciting as you think it is. Aside from Hikaru doing a brief stint at the U.N. Spacy's moon base, giant Meltrandi pro wrestling, and a bit about Minmay's life after the war, there's really not much noteworthy that goes on during that period. I'll second that emotion... buncha crazy newbies who can't tell the difference between Macross and Robotech or want Macross to be more like Robotech came out of the woodwork all at once. I realize that taste is subjective, but I'd like to avoid having anyone who actually thinks Robotech 3000 was a good idea involved in the production of Macross if at all possible. I'd love to see them go back and explore the colony missions in the Macross II alternate universe continuity... we know they existed, and that at least one of 'em had a MAJOR run-in with the Zentradi, but aside from that we've got very little on them. I know it'll probably be a long cold day in hell before Kawamori actually allows that to happen though.

Yeah, but the point is, they still wanted to use force to do it...

Okay, take your time and write properly. Let's see some proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. It'll make it a lot easier to understand what you're trying to say. In fact, I DID answer your question, and my response was essentially the same as David Hingtgen's... that what you're asking for is Robotech, not Macross. Macross has always been about love stories and music. The mecha, wars, and all the rest are just a backdrop upon which the love story can play out. Macross's writers can write new, compelling characters and settings, so they don't need to fall back on Robotech cop-outs like having apocalyptic war after apocalyptic war, each one with "new" mecha to disguise weak or absent characterization and plot development. Nobody's here to debate your bizarre views on humanity, and you're entitled to your opinion about what you'd like to see in a future Macross series. What we're telling you is that you've missed the entire point Macross, which is NOT war or giant fighting robots, but rather the love stories, the music, and often the futility of war.

Clearly there aren't many people left who still do... particularly on the investor side of things. Just look at how Harmony Gold put the brakes on Shadow Rising while they wait for Warner to improve the franchise's reputation so they can land more favorable sponsorship deals.

Unsurprisingly, it's a pretty common error for people new to Macross... don't let it get'cha down, though you may want to pop on over to Anime & Sci-Fi and read that thread about the differences between Macross and Robotech 'fore you continue. Honestly, I think this alone is grounds to say "no, they haven't". After all, the Protoculture left the Birdhuman behind to make absolutely certain humanity wouldn't repeat their mistakes and venture into space before settling their internal differences and putting aside their self-destructive impulses. Some fifty years after dodging the bullet with the Birdhuman, humanity's still very factionalized, with lots of different groups pursuing their own self-advancement, occasionally by downright hostile means (Vindirance, Macross Galaxy, all the wars and revolts that Isamu fought in, etc.). Humanity might be rapidly approaching being on par with the Protoculture, but at the very least there's still that last big hurdle to be overcome, and they haven't even gotten a start on it.

Because unlike Robotech, Macross has writers who can actually write? Let's not confuse Robotech with Macross please... the love stories and music are what really matters most of the time... the mecha and explosions are mainly just windowdressing to sell the love story and the music.

That's not from any live-action Macross movie... that's from an ad for a Macross pachinko game.

You meant "reaction" weapons, right? "Reaction weapons" isn't applied to beam weapons like "reflex weapons" is to beam weapons in Robotech. In Macross, it initially refers to the weapons application of thermonuclear reaction technology (reaction weapons are to reaction engines what fusion bombs are to fusion reactors), and later also came to include pair-annihilation (antimatter) warheads.

Okay, first off, the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series and the absolutely craptacular rewrite called the "Macross saga" of Robotech are NOT interchangeable. If you want to know more about the harebrained changes Harmony Gold made, there's a pinned thread about that. The rest of Macross is not related to Robotech in any way, shape, or form. Nominally, the majority of the Macross shows are organized into a single universe and continuity centered around the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series, though it also includes several canon video games and manga titles. The main Macross continuity stretches from 1999 to 2059, and includes Macross Zero, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Macross: Flashback 2012, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross 7: the Galaxy is Calling Me!, Macross Dynamite 7, Macross Frontier (and its movie), the video games Macross M3, Macross Digital Mission VF-X, and Macross VF-X2, and the manga series Macross 7 Trash and Macross Dynamite 7: Mylene Beat. Additionally, the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? is technically part of the continuity, but is a "movie within the universe" that debuted in 2031. There is also an alternate universe continuity which is comprised of titles produced before Macross co-creator Shoji Kawamori's return to the franchise, which was the original ongoing continuity prior to the release of Macross Plus in 1994. The alternate universe continuity consists of the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? (which is treated as the canon version of Space War 1), the 6-episode OVA Macross II: Lovers Again, and two canon video games... Macross 2036 and Macross: Eternal Love Song. You may find this guide to the differences between Macross and Robotech helpful for the rest of your inquiries: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=228 In Macross, the Protoculture is the name of the galaxy's first sentient species, who established a sizable interstellar republic some 500,000 years ago, invented most of the advanced overtechnologies seen in the series, and created the Zentradi, the Meltrandi (AU only), the Protodeviln (main continuity only), and humanity for various reasons. Their whole civilization collapsed hundreds of thousands of years ago due to civil war and other causes (varies depending on which timeline you're talking about) and they're believed to be largely extinct. In Robotech, "protoculture" is a borderline magical substance that makes no sense and obeys no physical law that is processed from an equally-inexplicable flower, and is used as fuel, food, and to plug the grievous plot holes left by trying to combine three unrelated anime shows (Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) into a single series. The mecha and ships of Macross are powered by thermonuclear reaction powerplants, a technology similar to nuclear fusion, but much more efficient and somewhat safer. It's one of many technologies reverse-engineered from the alien spaceship that crashed on South Ataria Island in 1999 (whether that's a Supervision Army gun destroyer or a Meltrandi gun destroyer depends on whether you're talking main timeline or alternate universe). Exactly what fuel they use is never specified, though it is mentioned that the fuel doesn't necessarily have to be nuclear material so presumably there are a multitude of fuels that can be used to run a thermonuclear reaction system.

Yeah, and there are other shows that used mecha with wheeled feet out right around the time development started on Macross Zero... like Blue Gender. If they've fallen back on just harvesting data from the old artbooks, I wouldn't expect any. Still, I'll take what I can get.

Yeah, it is a bit of an interesting coincidence that Macross II's mechanical designers were the first in Macross to mount wheels in the feet of the destroids to give them a faster and more efficient means of getting around than having to walk everywhere. Probably a lot easier on the pavement too. I'd honestly hesitate to draw a link between the wheels in the feet of the Macross II destroids and Kawamori's use of wheeled feet in the Cheyenne I and II. I'd also hesitate to call the Giant Monster a proper destroid, since it's essentially incapable of walking, and depending on circumstances has to get around either by being airlifted by two VTOL carrier jets, and then by a mixture of gravity control and hovercraft tech, and gets around in space with a linear propulsion system. It's really more along the lines of an extravagantly large self-propelled gun platform. Here's hoping they'll confirm that designation for its beam cannon as well... Ah, they must be tapping either B-Club 79 or Entertainment Bible 51 then. I wonder what, if anything, they intend to do about the GERWALKroid, since it's neither a proper Valkyrie nor a proper destroid. Disappointing... but not at all surprising.

So, now that 36 is out, can I get a yea or nay as to whether the "destroids" mechanic sheet was Macross II stuff?