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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Having some ship identification issues in the Macross Grand Analysis book. The Macross Elysion had the art for the Battle Galaxy, the Macross Quarter has the art for the Macross Elysion, and the Battle Galaxy has the storming attacker art for the Macross Quarter.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Nothing more than what's been said previously, sadly. I did notice some entertaining errors... the Macross Grand Analysis book has some images switched around in its ship section. The family tree of Macross-type warships has the art for the Macross Quarter, Battle Galaxy, and Macross Elysion switched around. The Battle Galaxy entry shows the correct fortress mode but the Macross Quarter's storming attack mode, the entry for the Macross Elysion shows the Battle Galaxy, and the entry for the Macross Quarter shows the Macross Elysion. Macross Super Encyclopedia's go at a VF family tree omits everything outside of the main/Shinsei line... so the whole second generation is just not present, as is the 3rd Generation VF-14 and it just goes VF-0 to VF-1 to VF-11, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, and 31.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Well, I got my hopes raised and dashed today. I got two new books today... Macross Grand Analysis and Macross Super Encyclopedia. Both are, on their own, fine high-level overviews of Macross as a whole with some interesting "how we got here" discussion. Worthy inclusions to any fan's collection. Grand Analysis has a family tree of main timeline VFs done in a similar style to the ones in Gundam's MS Bible series, which is a VERY nice touch and it's clear they put a lot of effort into it. Where my expectations were raised and then shattered is that they include basic stat blocks for many VFs on that family tree and the family tree includes the VF-31AX. The VF-31AX stats they printed are the ones for the stock VF-31A Kairos.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    FedEx is on the ball this week. My copies of Macross Super Encyclopedia and the Macross Grand Analysis books rolled in moments ago. Macross Super Encyclopedia is a nice general reference but nothing to write home about... nothing new or particularly interesting pops out on a quick skim of its contents except for its timeline putting an approximate date to the events of Absolute Live!!!!!! in October 2068. Macross Grand Analysis is more of same, really, though its timeline omits Absolute Live!!!!!! and it has a bit more focus on how things fit together. There's a basic Valkyrie family tree done in a style similar to the MS Bible books for Gundam that joins up all the different main timeline VF designs and it's substantially accurate to previously published sources. It has one teensy-tiny problem that really irked me. It put in stat blocks for the VFs on that family tree... and the famiyl tree DOES include the VF-31AX... but the stats it lists are for the VF-31A. They raised my hopes and dashed them most expertly.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    That's been the pattern with their dangerous toys since Macross Zero, at least.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Well, it's worked pretty well for the Vajra for millions of years and facilitated them developing into an intergalactic society completely free of internal conflicts. Small wonder, then, that the ancient Protoculture idolized and sought to emulate the Vajra. The Vajra weren't just more advanced than they are technologically, they had their societal sh*t together in a way the Protoculture very much didn't. The delta wave device they build in the Brisingr globular cluster was an attempt to reach what they'd come to see as societal perfection and fix what they'd broken when their civil war got out of hand and led to a literal Forever War between two inexhaustible clone armies. (And the Galaxy executives seem to have discovered the Protoculture's ambition, possibly from the New UN Gov't surveys of the ruins in the Brisingr cluster, and decided that Utopia Justifies the Means.)
  8. Seto Kaiba
    At this point in the story? I don't think so. As per Star Wars's usual idiom, the story of Cassian Andor (incl. Rogue One) is shaping up as a tale told in three distinct parts generally aligned to Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" monomyth. To break it down in those terms: Act 1: Departure - The events that drive Cassian Andor to join the fledgling Rebel Alliance. 1A: The Call to Adventure: We see Cassian living a normal life on Ferrix until his actions on Morlana One catch up to him and Luthen rescues him as he is attempting to arrange passage offworld. 1B: Refusal of the Call: Luthen attempts to recruit Cassian into the Rebellion after fleeing Ferrix, and Cassian refuses. 1C: Supernatural Aid: Not supernatural in this case, but you count either Nemik's thesis or Luthen's kyber pendant as the talisman from a mentor that sets Cassian on his path. That and the promise of a LOT of money. 1D: Crossing of the First Threshold: Cassian participates in the Rebel raid on the Aldhani garrison's vault to steal the sector payroll. 1E: The Belly of the Whale: Cassian is arrested for unrelated crimes he did not actually commit, and serves a sentence in the Imperial labor camp on Narkina V. <- YOU ARE HERE Act 2: Initiation - Cassian's time as a Rebel intelligence officer Act 3: Return - Cassian's final act as a Rebel soldier (Rogue One) Right now, he is just Luthen and Mon Mothma's weapon. It'll likely be in the near future that Cassian becomes a self-wielding weapon.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    The one in the VF-25 Master File? No. It was a rescue operation launched on the spur of the moment by a NUNS ship observing the Macross Valiant fleet's emergency fold away from a Zentradi main fleet it'd found in its immediate vicinity. The carrier Barbarossa and its fighters were operating under ECM in an attempt to remain undetected by as much of the Zentradi main fleet as possible while carrying out the rescue of the environment ship Sentosa's 1,200 crew and passengers and the subsequent destruction of the Sentosa by MDE warhead to prevent any possibility of intel on humanity falling into Zentradi hands.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    One on one, yes... but the reason the Zentradi remain an existential threat to Humanity is that they're practically never going to be fought on a level playing field. It's never just the one Zentradi soldier. It's him and anywhere from several thousand to several billion of his best mates. The VF-1 Valkyrie supposedly had an average K/D ratio of 12:1. The (New) UN Forces could expect to lose one Valkyrie for every twelve Battle Pods or Battle Suits downed. That ratio improved a bit after the First Space War as improvements were made to the VF-1's technology and armaments and grew at a more brisk rate as newer, more capable models were introduced. In its discussion of the historical events leading up to Project Super Nova, Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur mentions that the VF-11A/B Thunderbolt had an expected K/D ratio of up to 25:1 against the Zentradi. It's also noted therein that this was initially considered satisfactory until a run-in with a smallish Zentradi main fleet resulted in the total loss of a New UN Spacy defense force and the planet Spica III in 2037, prompting Project Super Nova. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah relates an anecdote about a rescue mission to save a ship from the Macross Valiant fleet that accidentally defolded in the middle of a Zentradi main fleet during which a force of 37 NUNS VF-25s and 3 SMS VF-25s operating from a single carrier scored 482 kills in a six hour period without a single loss while providing cover for the rescue of 1,200 civilians and one dog. (Yes, the dog is significant to the narrative.) EDIT: It should also be noted that Master File asserts this was a new record for a single engagement at the time, that 27 of the 40 pilots had never seen live combat before, and that all 40 were subsequently decorated for their heroism. Of course, even if you're capable of a 25+ to 1 kill ratio if your forces only have a few hundred to a few thousand Valkyries like most emigrant government forces you're still coming up quite short against a main fleet.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    They've moved the bar on that one a few times... https://xkcd.com/1189/
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Depends who you ask... and whether you're counting the Double Plus version. The VF-1X in Variable Fighter Master File does have some subtle structural and detail differences from the stock VF-1A Valkyrie (Block 6+ type), but most of the differences are "under the hood" so to speak. Being primarily a video game design, the VF-1X in Macross Digital Mission VF-X and Macross VF-X2 isn't really rendered in enough detail to look noticeably different from a regular VF-1. The VF-1X++ seen in Ranka's concert in the second Macross Frontier movie is only seen in Fighter mode but looks no different from a regular VF-1.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Are we talking official franchise ones only, unofficial professional ones, or just fan covers? The Japanese Wikipedia page for the song has an entire section devoted to the song's licensed covers:
  14. Seto Kaiba
    So... I did some digging, and the few official and semi-official remarks we've had about how fast impulse really is are unreasonably fast. Full impulse is said to be 0.25C, or 74,948km/sec. One quarter impulse power would be 0.0625C or 18,737km/sec. The closest I can find to official info for spacedock says it's 4.6km at maximum horizontal cross section. If the above is all correct, they might have UNDERSOLD it. The Enterprise would cover the ~2km separating it from the spacedock door in one ten-thousandth of a second at that speed. No fricking wonder regulations say thrusters only!
  15. Seto Kaiba
  16. Seto Kaiba
    The problem there lies with how the structure of the cockpit interfaces with the rest of the aircraft. Lengthening the cockpit would make the Battroid mode taller and the midsection longer, because the "hips" are actually on the sides of the nosecone.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    That's pretty damned amazing! Thanks for sharing. (Part of me wants to joke about it not being the same without spending ten minutes flying in circles around the ship like in TMP, but I have to admit that acceleration at the end does make the objection to impulse in spacedock look a LOT more reasonable.)
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Sort of. The VF-1D's tandem cockpit was an improvised design that made room for the second seat by removing a lot of the escape and survival equipment in the rear of the one-man cockpit block. This made it unsafe to operate in space. The VT-1 Ostrich has an enlarged cockpit space with an elevated second seat so the instructor has full visibility and the full suite of escape and survival options for both pilot and instructor. Making this all fit required some changes to the shape of the nose block and lower chest plate, which in turn necessitated some changes to how the "backpack" folds.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Based on the content of the rest of your post, I think that's really more a "you" problem... you've got a lot of factual inaccuracies there.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    None of that actually contradicts the documentation. It's said that in ideal conditions, short range fold navigation is nearly instantaneous... and the series franchise actually bears this out at several points (esp. Zomd and Goran using it to teleport around). Vrlitwhai's ship folding to join the main fleet was a fold jump of several hundred to several thousand light years, which isn't short range and from what was added later likely passes through several areas of fold fault activity that make the trip take longer. The fold booster used in Macross Plus is noted to be a very poor-quality fold system, all things considered, as it is designed to be one-way use and disposable. Its performance is inferior by far to a shipboard fold system. The titular emigrant ship in Macross Frontier undertakes only long-distance fold jumps in the series, and through areas of heavy fault activity. It is also explicitly acknowledged in the series (by Leon) that folding short distances is nearly instantaneous without fold faults mucking it up (in reference to the trip to Gallia IV). In Macross Delta, we're also usually shown relatively long-distance fold jumps of hundreds of light years. The short-distance ones we see are done offscreen, like the trip from Al Shahal to Ragna. (The Brisingr cluster is also noted to be an area of heavy fault activity, esp. near Windermere IV.) It's because of a change in the airframe shape in the VT-1 and VE-1 to accommodate the full tandem cockpit.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    True, though that seems to be entirely because... So, most of the first two episodes then? Cassian Andor's walking tour of Ferrix really has nothing at all to do with the story outside of a few brief stops to try to establish an alibi.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... if Cassian had been established to be the #1 scumbag on Ferrix I could see it. But he's not. As scum goes, he's some pretty weak stuff by Star Wars standards. He's presented as someone who's generally well-liked on Ferrix despite having a reputation for being a party boy and a bit on the unreliable side. His closest friends seem to be aware, or at least suspect, that he engages in the occasional bit of thievery to make ends meet. He's been to prison once before, but nobody seems particularly fussed by that (since his crime was apparently assaulting Imperial troops who'd just executed several Ferrix citizens for trivial reasons). TBH, I'm not sure I'd say that Cassian or Bix really respected Timm. Cassian definitely doesn't seem to think much of Timm. He's pretty dismissive of him when Timm gets possessive about Bix after Cassian comes to see her about a seller for his stolen starpath unit, more or less blowing him off. Bix, for her part, shows a fair amount of frustration with Timm who she clearly keeps entirely in the dark about her involvement with Luthen's network of rebel agents. I'd say Timm doesn't really respect Bix either, since he definitely doesn't seem to trust her around other men (e.g. Cassan) and is shown following her around town when she goes out and even doing creepy sh*t like watching her sleep from a chair beside the bed. His jealous, possessive behavior clearly irritates Bix and Cassian seems to find his attempts at posturing funny.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    One prologue and four actual episodes into Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch from Mercury and the only word I can really think of to describe the series is "bland". I'm watching it, but I don't feel like I'm really retaining anything significant from it. It all just sort of slides by like white noise. The only things that really feel distinct from the many previous form letter Gundam sequels and spinoffs is that the protagonist is a girl and the usual roles have been flipped so it's the spacenoids doing the oppressing this time. The rest just feels like we've welded Reconguista in G to Iron-Blooded Orphans by way of another pointless cybernetics taboo, another ridiculously classist and exploitative society, and another school-for-mobile-suit-pilots ... except this one has no clear reason to exist and seems to function mainly as a daycare for rich idiots. I guess it's fitting that a show called The Witch from Mercury takes place at what's basically Giant Robot Hogwarts. They were almost doing something interesting with the duel against Guel Jeturk, but the immediate course correction away from it at the start of the next episode means it's all buildup with no payoff and the entire rest of the fourth episode is just watching someone bully the protagonist until she cries and someone else solves the problem for her out of sheer irritation. Not exactly what I'd call thrilling viewing. It has the potential to get better, and from the general tone I have a feeling we're not going to see it go to the same dark place that Iron-Blooded Orphans did, but it's going to be an uphill battle with such an unengaging protagonist.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I doubt his motives were anything like noble. He seems like a standard jealous, possessive meathead. From what we know about the community on Ferrix, there was really no way that things were going to end well for Timm by tipping the authorities off about Cassian. Once it came out that he was the one who informed on Cassian, guilty or not, he was going to be an outcast on Ferrix for dropping dime on Cassian in a town that's very anti-authority and it'd be pretty likely that Bix would dump him when she found out he weaponized the Pre-Mor security forces against her friend out of jealousy. That's assuming Cassian didn't take it very personally. If Cassian really is a murderer, then he's just earned the enmity of a killer. If he's not, Cassian's still enough of a thug to at least beat the sh*t out of him for it. Of course, he instead triggered the worst possible scenario since he got the whole town involved and indirectly endangered both Bix and her contact by informing on Cassian while he was trying to flog stolen Imperial hardware to her contact. Bix got arrested for behaving suspiciously out of panic, and like an idiot he charged a squad of armed and more than slightly twitchy Pre-Mor security forces in a blind rage and immediately got shot dead. Worse, because Cassian and his contact had to shoot their way out and fleet the planet, the incident ended up attracting Imperial attention. Preox-Morlana lost governing control of the sector, and the Imperial jackboot came down firmly on the necks of everyone living on Ferrix... putting Bix and the shop owner in danger as rebel agents and at risk of capture and torture. Gotta hand it to him, as unwitting instigators of doom go... few are as unwitting, or witless, as Timm.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    To be fair, they actually have a pretty good point when they say GERWALK mode has very limited utility in space. VFs have high-thrust verniers and/or thrust reversers that can do the same job of rapidly decelerating the aircraft much more efficiently than changing to GERWALK mode. Pretty much. The Macross II timeline's VF-4 Siren was eventually upgraded with a monitor turret similar to the VF-1S's, but it's one of the few examples with a monitor turret like that outside of the VF-1 and models directly related to its development like the VF-0 and VF-3000. On the occasions the topic is discussed, books like Macross Chronicle and Variable Fighter Master File suggest that the VF-1's single 5,000kW laser cannon was considered to be insufficiently powerful as an offensive weapon. 2nd Generation VFs either went with fixed-forward lasers and particle beam guns (e.g. the VF-4, VF-9) or a single rear-facing laser gun for blind spot coverage (e.g. the VF-5000). That trend continued into the 3rd Generation main fighter designs until the late 3rd Gen VF-17 opted to have both rear-facing laser guns and fixed-forward guns at the same time. That approach became the standard in the 4th Generation and forward, though even then the gunpod remains the most powerful gun and thus the option with the highest probability of scoring a kill esp. against well-armored foes.
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