SMS007

Am I to understand that of all the Protodeviln who are still alive at the end of Macross 7, all of them, members of a natively incorporeal species, are still inhabiting their stolen bodies?

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Freyja was only experiencing that accelerated aging because she was burning up her rune singing fold songs at full blast to combat the Song of the Wind and Var syndrome.  Now that the conflict's over, she's not going to continue deteriorating the way Heinz was, since that was caused by over-using his runes to cause and control Var syndrome.

With the Star Shrine destroyed, there really isn't a lot more the ruins can do besides maybe open fold gates to connect the worlds of the Brisingr cluster.  It'd solve Windermere IV's issues with its interstellar commerce, but too little too late since they've alienated literally everybody.  You can't exactly send gift baskets to an entire globular cluster saying "Sorry for the mind control and all of the oppressive xenophobic totalitarianism"... and even if they could, after all that who's going to trust a fruit basket from Windermere?

Lady M's identity will never be revealed because she hasn't got one.  No, really.  According to the interview they did in Newtype about a year ago, they never decided on an identity for her as that mysterious nature is key to the character.  She wouldn't be an existing character anyway, there's nobody in the existing setting who could fit the few things said about her.

Mikumo's origin is explained in-series, she's a cloned human who was modified with the genetic information found in the ruins on Windermere IV.  Who she's a clone of (if anyone) is the only thing that's left unexplained.  I privately suspect Mikumo Guynemer of Walkure is a clone of the another, much older Mikumo Guynemer alias Lady M.

The final few episodes of Macross Delta pretty comprehensively declawed Windermere IV and the Kingdom of the Wind's Aerial Knights.  Thanks to his own overwhelming naivete, King Heinz is an invalid confined to bed because all that abuse of his runes on the Song of the Wind has him quite permanently at death's door and unable to continue capitalizing on weaponized Var syndrome.  A good number of the Aerial Knights and half their aces are dead including their commander (Roid) and top ace (Keith).  The Star Shrine was damaged and they lost control of Mikumo.  To put the metaphorical cherry on it, the corporation that was providing all of their technical assistance and military hardware bailed on them so their supply chain is effectively cut off too.

Edit: ... and the Aerial Knights aren't likely to renew the war on their own either, considering two of the three remaining aces are Walkure fans and the third is a closeted Walkure fan.

Why the New UN Spacy bombed Carlyle on Windermere was explained in the series (Hayate's dad did it by accident, he wasn't following orders), and Roid's little psychotic break is also explained in the series (he's got issues with his species' very limited lifespan and a misplaced belief in manifest destiny).

We're denied the closure of Windermere realizing its misdeeds and burying the hatchet the way so many other Macross antagonists have done, but beyond that the story's pretty much settled.

I admit we were only given a few seconds of footage showing it, but I thought when the Star Shrine on Ragna was destroyed, the feedback completely shut down the Wind Shrine on Windermere, hence why the lights on Windermere's tower went out.

I thought we were supposed to take Mikumo's flashbacks as the genetically-inherited memory of her Star Singer template from thousands of years ago (which of course from a real-world perspective genetic memory is bullshit, but sci-fi stupidly loves to use it).

The bombing of Carlisle is a bit confusing to me. If Wright's superiors wanted him to bomb Darwent, and they managed to remotely seize control when they realized he was trying to deviate, why drop it over Carlisle? Last resort second-best choice?

Oops, I made a mathematical typo. Mikumo's template lived no less than 500 thousand years ago (at least, the date of the Stellar Republic's heyday hasn't changed in any new canon work as far as I know). But still. Cloning and force-growing a member of an apparently extinct species just to test weaponized fold singing. And not even telling the test subject that she's vulnerable to the enemy. *snort* One would think Lady M is Tōdō Ushio.

37 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It hasn't happened often, but the Macross universe has at least been consistent about treating new aircraft derived from existing aircraft directly with wild number jumps like that.  The jumbo-ized VF-1 Valkyrie got designated VF-3000 despite technically being a contemporary of the VF-4.

 

Galaxy Fleet did it backwards, though... their fighter was a production aircraft, but because they never disclosed the existence of the production spec to the New UN Government it's officially considered to still be a YF even though it's mass-produced.

Ughhhh. I still hate it, though. If the Macross 7 VF-17 model had been directly adapted into a CG model for Macross Frontier, my sense of order would be so much happier.

How about after the end of the Vajra War, though? I can't swear to it, but I want to say that among the many fighters Hávamál fielded in Macross 30 included VF-27s. And all the loading screens in Macross 30 label Brera and May's fighters as "VF-27".

On 9/29/2017 at 10:06 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Granted, but whether the show actually capitalizes on it is another matter entirely...

Like how Macross Delta tried to portray the New UN Spacy brass as shady and untrustworthy but it all fell flat when their shady, untrustworthy behavior was nothing more than taking a realistic response to the crisis at hand.  They were supposed to be dickbags just because they were in authority, never mind that they were doing more good than the protagonists...

Heh, I'd call Chaos leadership at least as shady as central NUNS for cloning and force-growing a millions-year-old dead person and then deploying her against hostile conquerors who can exert mind control over her without telling her a word about her origins. Minmay or whoever Lady M is can have their ass nailed to a wall for gross lack of ethics.

On a different subject, why does the VF-171 have its number? Is there real-life precedent for a "17" fighter getting economized into version "171"? Petty concern, but "171" offends my sense of order when almost every other variable fighter designation has followed an obvious numerical scheme.

Damn, I want a Macross series that shows off the power of this VF-24 superfighter!

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

All we know of the Earth/Federal New UN Forces' 5th Generation fighter - presumed to be designated VF-24 - is that the YF-24 program was successfully revived by Shinsei Industry in 2055 as the YF-24 Evolution and that the final prototype was approved for adoption and mass production by the New UN Forces in 2057.  Once the Federal New UN Forces decided on adopting the YF-24 Evolution as their next main fighter, a redacted version of the specifications were shared via the Galaxy Network to the various New UN Government members and swiftly became the basis for all other 5th Generation VFs including the VF-25, VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30.¹ 

Indications are that it is uber as all get-out, and that the only emigrant-produced fighter able to rival it for performance is the YF-29[A] Durandal.²  The prototype is known to have beat a mixed unit of 12 VF-19s and VF-22s supported by 6 air-to-air specification QF-4000s singlehandedly in testing.

 

1. The VF-31 Kairos and Sv-262 Draken III are the only 5th Generation designs not known to be directly descended from the YF-24 Evolution spec.  It's unknown what the Sv-262's relation to the other 5th Gen designs is, and the VF-31 is indirectly descended from the YF-24 given that it's an economized YF-30, which directly descended from the YF-24 and YF-29.

2. The YF-29B Percival doesn't count, because it's an improved YF-29 produced for the federal New UN Spacy Special Forces unit Havamal and as a result counts as a federal forces VF.

I'm a bit confused by that wording. Why do you say that the VF-31 is only indirectly descended from the YF-24 when the VF-31 is basically just a modified YF-30? Haven't the other YF-24 derivatives gone through intermediate development steps? Didn't Frontier go from YF-24 to YF-25 to VF-25 and Galaxy from YF-24 to YF-27 to VF-27?

What are the realistic odds that the Windermereans will actually get their comeuppance in Gekijō no Walküre versus the writers letting them get away with everything as in the TV anime?

Do any official materials specify what the production version of the YF-24 is for NUNS Earth? I assume anyway that they made something for themselves before Frontier developed the YF/VF-25 and Galaxy developed the YF/VF-27.