Kelsain

Maybe, given the suddenness of the attack, the tanks simply got there first? Although, as we saw in M7, use of destroids within the dome might not be the best idea...

My friends and I refer to this as "Being Kenobi'd"

Like in the original series, originally the city had a very obvious ceiling until they built upon the ship's holographic system to project a sky for the sanity of the civvies. Another thing is that, open or not, the atmospheric density seems to make the sky blue even when looking away from the shell ("What is that? a battle?"). So even with a big clear dome, the people inside don't really see outside unless it's something obvious - I imagine a nearby star, planet or moon would be visible. Maybe it's like trying to look through a window from a light room into a dark room, and the light is reflected back at you. Well heck, another reason not to have big clear domes - what about when they're distant from a star? Then the Islands would be all dark and gloomy, lit only from the narrow ribs. Not the best system if these are the Ag ships. This might be averted if the colony fleet only folds into systems with Sun-like stars, which does make some sense. Really though, I see no reason for them to use the domes except to show that there are cities and lakes in these ships.

I've had a couple of stories in my head that would translate well. Bigger than movies can be, but multi-season animation would contain them nicely. One's a variant of the standard fantasy setting with dragons and magic, but it's actually disguised scifi - dragons are aliens, the setting is a barely recognizable post-apocalyptic earth and the magic is actually very advanced science. The other is a variant on the standard space opera that I'm trying to make a novel out of at present. Both stories have the aspect of being very gray, no one's really good or really bad, and sometimes you don't know who t root for, or if you should be rooting at all. Although to clarify, I'm not talking about Gundam Wing levels of gray and unsure allegiances - cripes, that was just frakking confusing!

Zentraedi personnel. Seriously, though, I bet that's probably it. On the gravity control front, you easily see a guy on a hoverboard (from Mattel!) in the establishing shot of the school. At this point, limited gravity control is definitely consumer-level tech. I imagine the X-Gears are augmented by it as well, because those suits do not look like they'd provide enough lift, even if they're in a .7G environment. In a VF cockpit, I'm sure that such a system, acting along a vector counter to the G-forces experienced from maneuvers, would make the crazy aerobatics we see in Macross actually surviveable.

I totally see what you're aiming for, but honestly, I think the space is just too tight to have both VFs in there. I actually just watched that scene last night, and it would make a great diorama with a little more space. With the enforced top down view of being in the coffee table, it looks like they've been packed in a box. All they need is a few more feathers, a lid, and a spot in Mom's garage. Perhaps it's just how the last shot was framed, though. I really think that you could have a cool set piece with one or the other in there, but not both. Edit - dang, I've been here 3 years to the day, weird...

Well, the trailer does say that the video was salvaged from what was "formerly known as Central Park."

Which begs the question of whether it has any use at all. Does it allow colonists to see out into space? No (except when there's a battle nearby) Does it close quickly enough to protect colonists from battle? No Could it protect colony from heat of atmosphere entry? Yes, but no obvious shells on the Island modules It was a neat idea, but fairly impractical. What I could accept, actually is that the Islands are newer additions that have a more advanced shell system built into those ribs.

Maybe they recycle the necessary parts & CHON raw materials to the next batch of soldiers? It's not something I've lost sleep over. Honestly, I always thought it was rather contrived that they even had miclone chambers in the first place. Here's a manufactured race of giants with a directive not to interfere with the civilization that created them - so why give them the ability to infiltrate that civilization? Oh, for the plot; that changes everything... Back on topic, just watched M0, ep 5 again last night. As nifty as the birdman looks, I always wished that it would have looked a little more like it's skeleton. The head had a very Zentraedi feel to it, and I thought that fit well, since this was the first piece of PC technology we'd seen since Altlita (which may or may not have really existed in the Macross timeline). The body also had a really cool, semiorganic look to it. But then it metamorphosed, and the blue snake popped out of the side of the Asuka; and it grew into it's full body. Even then, the only thing that really bugs me is the giant foppish flower collar that it sprouts. Love the buster cannon, though...

I was thinking the same thing; after all, Milia does say that doctors haven't determined what the miclonization process does to lifespans. I used to think that, but I've begun looking at as more of a clone/destroy process lately. It started when thinking of the use of the word Clone, and the notes about Zentraedi cloning tech. But, also, we all know of the physics problems of having actual humans the size that the Z's are. Since it's not really gone into detail in the show, I've used this as a little way to fill that plothole. Totally off-canon, but I look at it this way: In the process of macronization and cloning of Z soldiers, they are semi-organic, utilizing OT materials and biotech to compensate for the physical limitations. When micloned, a body based on the original DNA used for th soldier is created, which is identical to a human. Bioneural interfaces such as those seen in DYRL, M+, M7, & M0 could be utilized for knowledge & memory transfer. Hmm, of course, this is totally off topic as well...

It was too far away to see if that was a defold or simply an activation.

Perhaps it's some ambiguity in the translation, but what if Sheryl's referring to herself as the "Professional?" Also, I'm beginning to suspect the floaty-glowy thing she had on the starliner was specific to her: Everybody else behaved just like their 757 had just landed at the airport - she was disoriented and murmuring to herself. It was also rather similar to Mao's controversial telepathic projection from the end of M0. I'm betting it's something to do with being a Nome in space, and that the bugs were attracted by her. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Phew! Finally caught up with the thread... What a whirlwind of fun this weekend! Gotta add my thoughts: The obvious woweewowwow! or ZOMG! is obligatory and appropriate. Awesomest, most exciting Macross I've seen since the opening of M+. It'll be interesting to see who becomes major characters out of all the little appearances made in this episode. Love the character style, also got a slight Mospeada vibe, but the instant availability of the X-gear compared to unpacking the ride armor is definitely better. X-gear = "X"tra-vehicular gear? Really, it seems like a logical extension of the old pilot suit, which had thrusters built into it, now it's just practical in atmosphere as well. The ghosts: Yay! I hope they counter the jamming later so we can see some serious M+ style arse-kickin' from them. NUNS: say what you will about the new logo or unfortunate acronym, at least they switched up the paint scheme! I love the new pale green, pale blue over the way too bold blue and white from M7. I wonder if Battle25 looks tougher, like Battle13 - shot was too quick to tell. The only flaw I had with the animation was the shot of Alto over the city. It was obviously CG, but it looked flat; like a weather map where they take a google earth pic and use it as a texture. All in all, love it, hope the rest holds up!

It looks like it burst out of the chest of Red, from Fraggle Rock. Seriously though, we've seen it become canon that the body style of alien is somewhat determined by it's host. But aside from being slightly more quadrupedal, the alien from A3 looked pretty much like all the others. Sometimes they have a smooth domed wiener-head and sometimes a ridgey wiener-head, but all of the aliens have looked very similar. I just find it hilarious that out of all the traits supposedly inherited from the Pred, the dreadlocks persisted. It's almost as silly as the tentacle nipples from Species - but at least that was pure HR Giger.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Maybe blue boy will cut his hair and take over Ozma's sweet ride.

Nonsense, he had a mustache! Ergo, Russian.

I think it looks a little off as well. Actually, it seems to be the neutrality of the pose and angle that makes it less appealing to me. At least the "S" has a gunpod and is looking at the camera. The other reason I'm not crazy about it now is that I really like the 3 eye setup on the S. I'll probably appreciate it more when we get to see it in action, though.

The funny thing is, if they'd just move the "Macross" to the left a little, they could have done away with the little f and everything would look fine.

It might be a stage/publicity gimmick: She walks around and dresses all proper normally, but you gotta see her in concert! It does look kinda like she's throwing off a captain's uniform in that shot.

Here’s what I’m thinking, based on what Kreshpy had beneath that great magazine scan: I’m betting we start in high school, Saotome & Ranka are classmates but don’t know eachother. The “EX gear” is that weird power suit we’ve seen glimpses of, and is probably some part of VF-training equipment - he’s the best in his class. Sheryl Nome (in 2059 just might be the right age to be the M7 flower girl ) arrives to rock the F fleet. The 2 students meet briefly on the way in to her concert. In the grand anime tradition, half way through, aliens attack. Special forces (SMS) arrive to fight and defend people. Continuing tradition, Saotome somehow gets his hands on a VF-25 and saves Ranka. Given his battle skills, and “Top-class” EX skills, he is placed into the SMS under Ozma’s command. I’m betting the blue Valk from the first trailer is his, b/c of hair color and blue trim on his suit. (The only anime I've seen to mess with this system was Voltron, and it seemed wrong somehow...) Oh, and as for fan service: let's not forget that, "real" or not, Sharon Apple spent half of M+ fully naked.

And here I'd just finished acceptance, and reasoned that no Variable 11 was better for my wallet... I'll still probably have to wait for next Xmas though, or at least for FAST packs. That 1/144 Bandai on my shelf just doesn't cut it for my love of the 11. Given the lack of a Hasegawa, the thought of this makes me wiggly.

James, you've got a few neat ones there, but... The Panda says no!

Haha, yeah. The only time I've gotten a stronger "This guy's toast" vibe was the doofus at the beginning of Transformers... "Anybody remember weekends?" *Unzips body bag* Physica's wife cheating on him made him more interesting posthumously. All of the sudden you could look back at the guy and realize that he was a poor abandoned sap, playing the "If I'm a better pilot, maybe she'll take me back" role. Really, I think Gigil died at the right time. We'd already learned a lot about him through his interaction with Sivil & Basara. What wasn't well followed was that the torch should have been passed to Sivil. We did learn more a bit about her and she did play a major role in the latter half of the series, but she remained fairly shallow. They could have pushed her interaction with Basara just a little further AFAIC.

I agree. I think Gigil sacrificing himself out of love for Sivil was the most moving scene in the entire series. Especially b/c of the way he sings to Sivil with his dying breath - and you can see clearly that, only then, does she realize how much Gigil loved her. Kinryu's death didn't seem to have to much on the series as a whole, except the loss of an interesting mental picture with the bridge bunnies. I think Gamlin's death would have been more powerful, as he along with Mylene, was the heart of the story. It's true, we would have lost the G-M-B triangle, but they could have shifted more to the Basara-Mylene-Sivil triangle and explored the emotions of the Protodeviln a little more. As it is, I'm happy he lived, he's a good guy. He even handled Mylene's rejection very maturely, showing how much he'd grown since the "Get off the battlefield! Ghaa!" early episodes. edit-grammar