TG Remix

12 hours ago, JB0 said:

On 10/5/2025 at 9:46 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The Zentradi are all clones, but they're cloned from a large number of different genetic patterns so each force has considerable diversity of attributes among its soldiers.  (Presumably this is more advantageous than just cloning the same guy a billion times the way the Republic did in Star Wars.)

Makes sense. Disease won't rip through an entire unit, and can't be attacked by a custom-engineered bioweapon that targets a specific genetic sequence.

 

On the other hand, it results in soldiers with diverse heights and builds, complicating supply of equipment. But the protoculture seemed to have solved supply lines with their typical excess.

Which serves to be ironic as when humans started to clone themselves to bolster their numbers to avoid extinction, they had to stop because they came across the issue of hereditary children's diseases popping up 2 decades after. 

It seems like DYRL made the cloning process a bit more uniform, as the trio seem to be a lot closer in size then they were in the TV series, not mentioning how Exsedol and Britai doesn't have as noticeable of a height disparity as well. 

The Cheyenne talk does make me wonder, the original ones in Zero were stationed as anti-aircraft interception units on Navy ships if I'm not mistaken. Would the ones that were that boarded the CVN-99 Asuka make more sense belonging to the UN Navy despite the UN Spacy marking? And maybe this is a general thing with ADR series like the Defender, but I wonder if there was actual merit to design complicated robots specifically for that role when you can have really strong guns attached to the ship.

Sorry for the double post, the forums didn't make me want to make a longer post!

On 7/13/2025 at 4:53 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Those 2nd Generation designs that entered development or service after Humanity started to discover habitable planets are the ones that, surely not coincidentally, are described with statements like "inexpensive" and "easily manufactured on developing emigrant planets".  Once emigrant fleets started actually finding habitable worlds that they could start colonizing right away, suddenly the need wasn't just for big Valkyries with high operational endurance in space.  Now they also needed something light and inexpensive that they could use for planetside service.  Something they could manufacture on the cheap without jeopardizing their development plans for the planet's surface.  So from there, we get a bevy of low-cost, low-complexity solutions like the VF-5, VF-6, VF-7, VF-5000, and finally VF-9 that all served as supplements to the VF-4.  

Honestly I'd love a series that focuses on a colony fleet researching the viability of a habitable world, especially early on since this made me think how inexperienced they'd be in terms of dealing with an entirely new ecosystem as well as juggling ergonomics and economics alongside that,

On 7/13/2025 at 4:53 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Based on what's said in the Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy novelization, the events of Macross the Ride straight-up created a market for replicas of those old model VFs.  Not only are there other cases of replicas being built, there's supposedly a direct causal relationship between the two.

In Macross 30's novel version, Leon mentions in passing that the VF-0 Phoenix in SMS's possession - the one Leon gets stuck with in the game version's tutorial - is a replica which was produced commercially to capitalize on the popularity of a particular Vanquish League racer's replica VF-0 from two years prior.  The only VF-0 that competed in the league in 2058 was Hakuna Aoba's VF-0改 "Sieg"/"Zeke", so apparently his participation made enough of a stir that someone (Shinsei?) decided to produce replica VF-0s with modern parts (from the VF-1C and VF-5000) for the civilian market. 

It wouldn't be at all surprising if Magdalena Zielonaska's SV-52γ, which participated in the league for far longer than Hakuna Aoba's VF-0改 did, created a similar stir and demand for a commercially-available replica machine.  Replica SV-51s are found on Uroboros in 2060, and someone has to be making them and selling them to civilians.  It wouldn't be all that surprising if they were already commercially available before 2060 and the manufacturer was engaged with the film's production as a product placement or something.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if The Ride's events sparked that interest, though considering the Frontier's movie novelization had Octos Bis under military usage and presumably those being replica units with advanced weapons on top, it almost seems like the "lost" technology from the Unification War period wasn't all that lost as believed. Though admittedly, a part of that is me wanting Sv-52-like units popping up in the universe in between the time between SW1 and The Ride.

On 7/13/2025 at 4:53 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Fold quartz in general is quite rare.  It does occur in nature, but it's implied that the vast majority of what's out there is synthesized either by the Vajra or the Protoculture.  The 5th Generation VFs like the VF-24, VF-25, VF-27, and VF-31 use the stuff sparingly and only where it's absolutely unavoidable.  Namely, the Inertia Store Converter protecting the pilot from the incredible g-forces the fighter is capable of.  The rest of its systems use high quality synthetic fold carbon.  The fold quartz they use is of a size and purity that's common enough to make ISC systems with reliable output in bulk.  Presumably it's similar in size to what we see them pulling out of Vajra carcasses... an oblong sliver of gemstone around three centimeters or so long.  (Maybe 20 or so carats if we assume a comparably sized and shaped diamond?

Does kinda make me wonder, fold quartz are said to be a natural resource, and we get a whole conflict around that with the Windemeran War of Independence. Makes me think if about the detailing of fold quartz's discovery on other planets and asteroids circa around VF-X2's time; goodness forbid they're also home of autonomous governments who don't necessarily agree with the central government's ways (not just Windemere, since VF-X2's Vulcan and M3's Cristrania has existed at least a decade before Latence put pressure on governments who didn't side with Earth's policies.)

On 7/13/2025 at 7:26 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

I wonder if the regular Marine Corps simply got absorbed by, or is interchangeable with, the Spacy Marine Corps past a certain point?

I wouldn't be surprised, since the two times we see the Spacy Marine Corps, not only they're Zentradi units but they're both stationed on planets as garrison units. And if you want to stretch it in a more liberal explanation of being a amphibious force, considering Marine Corps have operations done on the land and sea, I wouldn't be surprised if space was added in the mix for "amphibious" operations, like how sci-fi tends to have drop ships to land troops on planets from space.

On a side note, was reminded of the MF render with a UN Spacy VF-1 flying alongside a few NUNS Marine branded Regults; I'm assuming this was suggesting that it's somewhat common for giant Zentradi units to be under that branch in the military?

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

WRT Gundam and the Super Prototypes trope, the original series may have more or less defined the trope but ironically almost no Gundam series actually USES it.  The majority of Gundams in Gundam are basically bespoke ace custom machines rather than prototypes (super or otherwise) for any future machine or technology demonstrators.

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The only ones I can think of offhand that are actually treated as technology demonstrators or prototypes are all from relatively early works... the original RX-78 (the prototype for the initial Federation mobile suit), the GP series units from Stardust Memory RX-178 from Zeta (prototypes for the movable frame and all-sky monitor), the Zeta (prototype transformable MS), Xi Gundam (prototype MS-scale Minovsky flight system), and the F91 (small scale MS and next generation fusion reactor prototype, or the "yes, I have lost my will to live and will happily sit directly in front of a hair trigger thermonuclear bomb" prototype).

 

3 hours ago, PixelatedShinobi said:

It's rough being a ZZ fan out here. 

Rough is an understatement, and I'm one of the 5 people on the planet that has it as some of my favorite Gundam works, much less prefer it over Zeta itself!

On 7/10/2025 at 9:52 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The cockpit block was set up as a two-seater by default, at the request of the UN Forces.  It was designed to be operated by a single pilot, but it seems the UN Forces considered the VF-3000 a possible candidate for use in interstellar research fleets due to its excess of internal space.  The second seat was theoretically earmarked for use by research personnel who would operate any optional research equipment installed on the aircraft.  It was also tentatively considered a potential fighter-bomber, with the rear set able to be fitted out with the necessary controls for a RIO.

With a Battroid that towers everything that isn't a Variable bomber, I can believe it could be used for long term missions like that.

On 7/10/2025 at 9:52 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

One particularly interesting note is that the VF-3000 is said to have been purchased by some of the early private military companies formed in the wake of the First Space War, as government restrictions prevented them from acquiring the military's latest models (the VF-5000 at the time).  It's said that they were produced in small numbers in the 2010s, and that the total number produced is believed to be less than 100.

Not entirely sure if the Master File crew would even care about M3 beyond surface level lip surface (heck, even official material doesn't with any game with maybe VF-X2 and 30 as the exceptions), but my mind went to the few units the rebel group New York Liberation League had in Episode 3, alongside their VF-1 and Gnerls. Presumably it was to get stronger aircraft that wasn't a generation behind, but they seem to have enough influence against Neo York's planetary government that there's a delicate balance between them.

It's a bit of a shame that even in MF weren't a lot of VF-3000s built, but not only it was something official materials stated long ago, but considering the 2nd generation was about having cost effective units in the world of blooming planetary governments, its cost effectiveness wouldn't be worth it considering it's larger then any airframe in that period, and most importantly, the joint slipping would be too much of a detriment to any governing body to adopt.

On 7/10/2025 at 9:52 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

There is also an interesting point all the way back at the beginning of the piece, which talks about how the VF-3000 was for a time a popular choice of stand-in for the VF-0 when war movies were being filmed.  Its similarity in size and design apparently made it ideal for the purpose, and on one notable occasion it also doubled for the SV-51 with a simple coat of black paint.  It's said that movies that did this have become invaluable historical documents... not for their artistic merit (or lack thereof) but because they contain some of the only footage of this rare aircraft in operation

Reminds me of how apparently in the Frontier novelization, it was said that SMS seemed to have a few Sv-52s used for The Bird Man movie, which is a pretty rare craft itself; I don't doubt SMS is rich enough to have a few genuine aircraft, but with Magdalena's being a replica based on a Sv-51 frame, makes me think if there were other cases of them being found and having replicas built.

Although thinking about it more, I was under the assumption that the movie filmed in Frontier was the first public exposure of Zero's events, unless the MF's talking about war movies that depict other sorties and incidents with the Sv-51's involvement? They seem to be very few and far between.

On 7/11/2025 at 12:02 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The development history of the Sv-303 Vivasvat given in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus - which to date remains the only source to talk about the fighters in the second Macross Delta movie at any reasonable length - describes the Sv-303 as an offshoot/rethink of a series of manned fighter developments that Windermere IV's Chancellor Brehm commissioned from the Epsilon Foundation.

According to Master File, the original request (with the working designation Sv-300) was for a new manned fighter to supplement or replace the Sv-262 with better performance than the New UN Forces new VF-31.  Both the overtuned FF-2999/FC2 Stage IIG engine and the Twin Quartz Drive system used in the Sv-303 were originally developed for use in the Sv-300.  Changing priorities on the customer's (Windermere IV's) side led to the program being abruptly cancelled shortly before Sv-300 prototype No.1 was scheduled to be delivered for testing.  Two other related manned fighter programs, Sv-301 and Sv-302, were also cancelled at the same time.

It's placement in the timeline being very dubious, since it's another "bashing everyone in a single timeline" game, but Shooting Insight in its finial stages seem to have all grey units of the Sv-303 being regular enemies, perhaps prototypes of the ones piloted by Yami Q Ray? They were deployed by the main villain of the story, Eris Beatrix, who is a member of Epsilon Foundation, so it doesn't seem unlikely.

18 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The main roadblock to production and adoption of 6th Generation Variable Fighters has been established to be fold quartz.  Humanity can't independently synthesize it.  Supplies of the stuff are finite, it's a heavily restricted material due to the dangers involved in its procurement and its weapons potential, and fold quartz of sufficient size and purity to create a fold wave system is indicated to be vanishingly rare and nearly impossible to obtain even on planets with large deposits of fold quartz.

One has to wonder if we'll see an extension of the idea Master File tabled where the New UN Forces are willing to accept a lower-quality fold wave system made using the best and highest-quality fold carbon Humanity can synthesize (which is said to be only 1% as effective) or if they decide to reinvent the 6th Generation and ditch the fold wave system as one of its key requirements.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a VF-19 with the 5th Gen VFs and make up a in-universe excuse that explains why they can't make high performance units like the VF-25, or even its Delta era contemporaries and make the 5th Gen grunts have a low quality fold quartz to make the 6th Gen VFs stand out even more. Assuming they even dabble with it anyways, wouldn't be surprised if we're stuck with the stick figure frames for a little bit more.

On 6/20/2025 at 3:06 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

There's never really been a good explanation for why some of those atmosphere-focused designs exist.  The VF-4's Navy variant is a great example of that.  Who the hell needed that?

Presumably water bound planets like Eden-3? Or probably any government that has enough local threats planetside that it constituted forces like a Navy or an Army. Some populations are gonna be bigger then others after all, and the more people the more of a chance they want to act up.

There's also some merit with some of the standard VF types as well, the VF-5000 was designed as a lightweight air superiority fighter to work in tandem with the ground/local based VA-3, it just so happened that it was popular enough to be a next-generation fighter alongside the VF-4. Then there's why the VF-11 was chosen as the winner of the Nova Project over the VF-14; the latter has a longer cruise speed, sturdy, and has a lot of empty space in the airframe to make it easily upgradable, but the Thunderbolt was valued for it's versatility in all fields, whether be in space or in the atmosphere. Being designed as a carrier-borne aircraft also helps its case, where the VF-14 struggled in that field. Perhaps that's a reason why the UN designed the Varauta Army ships aside from giving fleets and planets ships that prioritized firepower.

On 6/20/2025 at 3:06 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd even question the claim that the Super Defender - explicitly a modified ADR-04-Mk.X - is a "second generation" machine.  It's a modified first generation machine, not a new design.

I'm reminded of the Day in Alcatraz story Kodachi wrote to tie in for his movie novelization where the OCTOS bis appears to respond to SMS' prison break to save Sheryl. I'd thought that design would be lost to time since it's even more obscure then the Sv-51, but there it was as a NUNS Special Forces Destroid; the thing was even given a VF-19EF gunpod in the place of it's original dual machine gun! I suppose replicas could be build sort of like the Sv-52s in The Ride and in Frontier's novelization supposedly, as the UN itself made 28 for themselves. Granted the production line was destroyed with obvious reasons, but history always gets unearthed in stranger ways.

On another side note, I do love the reverence the story gives the Destroid Tomahawk of all things, to the point that Alcatraz's warden, James, used it to fend off the OCTOS bis' alongside Temujin. It's a really interesting story showing the prison break scene in the perspective of those from the place, where they all group up together to help out. I recommended it if anyone wants more Frontier stuff to sink their teeth in. 

On 6/21/2025 at 5:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The Spacy Air Force makes less sense.  Presumably they're the non-carrier aviation arm of the space forces... but that seems to leave their role overlapping with that of the Air Force, since the one base of theirs that we see directly is planetside.

The best guess I have that it's sort of an aerospace branch? Where they have VFs act as interceptors in the stratosphere like the RF-12A2 and R-311 Remora in Ace Combat 3, where they have carrier ships patrol and cruise in high altitudes as a in-between point? Wish we got more elaboration on it so we wouldn't have to do all the guess work.

On 6/13/2025 at 3:48 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Given what we know about tactics in Macross, there's not a lot of value in basing defenses on a planet's surface.

The thousands of remaining Zentradi main fleets are the main threat at large in the galaxy.  Their usual MO is to blast their way to orbital supremacy and then simply flatten enemy surface targets from orbit like they did to Earth in the First Space War or to Spica III in Variable Fighter Master File.  That's why the New UN Spacy's defenses are organized around avoidance first and foremost using active and passive stealth technology, and then around keeping enemy forces away from orbital space with various defensive fleets and orbital defense stations.  

Destroids on the ground aren't much use against an enemy that's never going to come down there to fight.

That's almost certainly why the Al Shahal NUNS is only able to muster token resistance to the Var-affected NUNS Marines on the surface.  Their defenses are mainly up in orbit, so what they had on hand while the space defenses were occupied by the Aerial Knights was the Valkyrie units that'd been rotated to surface postings and the handful of air defense destroids that'd probably been configured for remote operation in static emplacements until things went south.  Maybe that's why they struggle to hit anything in the episode... hasty switchover from unmanned to manned operation and/or out-of-practice pilots.

I was more talking about local defenses, because with a looming threat like a Main Fleet hanging around everyone's heads, one forgets the ones that can pop up in their backyard. It's presumably a reason why places like Sephira and Al-Shahal had ground forces to begin with, and presumably places like the 90% water Eden-3 would have a blue water Navy, with VFs specifically tailored to those roles (namely the VF-4S as an atmosphere-specific type for anti-warship and the VF-5 which had sea landing capabilities for those type of planets....Where did we learn about that, or the other Sea Dart comparisons actually? It's hard to find another source that even mentions the VF-5 like the This is Animation Special - Macross Plus book and Digital Mission VF-X manual, the latter of which had to get it from somewhere else.)

On 6/14/2025 at 4:22 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It was, yes... but it doesn't seem to have achieved any kind of widespread adoption as it is only used by the Macross Galaxy Corporate Army and only on a trial basis.  

It's bio in The Ride's website and visual guide book seems to suggest it found its niches outside the Galaxy Fleet, as it's described to be a second generation Destroid that's considered a valuable asset in fleets and immigrant planets. The galaxy's (Not the fleet, army, or Macross class ship!) huge, and especially with how big the Macross world seems, I wouldn't be quick to assume that what we see or read about is the only place they'd appear in. 

On 6/14/2025 at 4:22 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Past 2030, though, giant Zentradi communities are quite rare.  They're banned on Earth, and most emigrant fleets don't permit Zentradi to live as giants for resource reasons.  The Frontier fleet is quite rare for allowing that.  One could call it a very substantial and very blatant display of the fleet's immense wealth.  

It seems like we get a few exceptions barring the odd stationed NUNS Marine unit. M3 had the independent colony Cristrania, which was described to be a "natural planet for the development of life for Zentradi," which seems to suggest for Zentradi fundamentalists at least, was a planet that allowed them to live naturally as giants, whether it was because of the gravity, terrain, resources, etc. On the other side there seemed to be a populace of civilian Zentradi on Ouroboros that work through life as miners and presumably other industrial jobs. Now this could also mean they'd have a miclonization chamber on standby like in Trad City, but at least with 30's novelizations, the woes of the made berserk Zentradi about being treated like "living Destroids" shows that it's common to some degree.

On 6/14/2025 at 5:02 AM, SebastianP said:

They did see plenty of use though - aside from standing around on the hull and potting battlepods that got close, as well as the Daedalus attack, they were also used in the city (both in the few fights that broke into the city, and for rubble cleaning and construction work. I distinctly remember it was a destroid that opened the way into the hull section where Minmei and Hikaru were sealed into.)

Not to put down any effectiveness any little Destroids might have (because otherwise why else they keep popping up lol), but on the VA-3's This is Animation Special - Macross Plus pages, variable attackers were designed to have superior deployment capabilities in regards to the role Destroids had for localized attacks. Makes sense as VAs are more ground orientated then the general purpose VFs, So I guess if one wants more advanced Destroids in the franchise, maybe lean more into variable attackers? They need the attention anyways, the VA-3 has been starved of it since 7 Dynamite and we never see its predecessor, the VB-171. We don't even have a design to work off from aside from presumably sharing the basic shape of the Nightmare Plus.

On 6/14/2025 at 4:22 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It stopped being a Destroid, though... it became a glass cannon variable bomber due to its structural issues.

It has a Destroid Mode, surely that counts for something lol.

I feel like Aegis would probably disagree about it being a glass cannon, whether on the receiving or giving end. Jokes aside, since it's a playable unit in Mission 7 and in the post game, I'm wondering how he was able to pilot it all by himself when unless it's installed with the EX-Gear system, it needs a pilot and 2 bombardment officers. Maybe VF-X pilots are just that cracked, who's to say?

On 6/14/2025 at 4:22 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

As of Frontier, they seem to end up in the New UN Spacy Marine Corps which has dedicated Zentradi units and seems to pull a lot of garrison duty to give them the structure they need in life.

The Queadluun-Rau was said to be favored for their dogfighting abilities by UN pilots, so my literal mind at least thought that there could be dedicated Spacy/Air Force units/squadrons/divisions/etc. somewhere as well.

On 6/15/2025 at 3:09 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The 3D modeled Battle-class ships we see in more recent Macross stories like the Battle Frontier, Battle Galaxy, and Battle Astraea look different from the Battle 7 because they are part of a newer and more advanced generation of Battle-class ships.  That idea wasn't dreamed up for Macross Frontier, either.  That actually goes back to Macross VF-X2, around nine years before Macross Frontier came out.  The Battle-class Macross 13 (Battle 13) that is Latence's final weapon is said to be the first of a new generation of Battle-class ships with more advanced technology than those before it.  (This point is important enough that it's actually written directly on the line art itself as well as provided in-story.)  The Battle Frontier, Battle Galaxy, and Battle Astraea are even newer models than that, and all three of those have been heavily remodeled to suit the needs of their respective forces as well.  

The entire talk about the battle ships made me think about the new Battle 13 captained by Kim Kamirov by Frontier, which I thought was a novelization thing, but it turns out the Macross Chronicle also mentions that in its glossary. Would it be a ship that's more or less the same to the Battle 13 that Aegis and Vinderance blew up, or played with by you and SebastianB, a different model of the same class of ship but in the colors of the original? It's fun to think of either way.

On 6/16/2025 at 11:25 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Manfred's Sound Jamming System using fold quartz

Technically VF-X2 got the drop first in that regard. Long before Frontier, the game itself introduced the "hyperspatial resonance crystal," which is essentially fold crystals in a different name, and from its discovery in 2043, it was used for the UN's Die Zauberflöte and presumably the Sound Jamming System since the UN through Latence was trying to achieve complete communication control though its military might.

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Destroids were practically abandoned as a concept after the First Space War.  The only "new" models we've seen are modernizations and retrofits of pre-war 03 or 04 Series units like the Cheyenne II or Super Defender.  The only commonplace one seems to be the Cheyenne II, partially (possibly mainly) via the unarmed Destroid Work model and the scaled-down Workroid.

You'd think they'd be mostly abandoned, but not only we have said modernizations (which seemed to be popular in their own right,) but they appear as the occasional enemies in VF-X2. Initially I thought they were only used by Vinderance, a resistance group that used what they can get their hands on, who may or may not got potential backing from Max himself (that's probably the reason why their fleet is made up of the same type of Meltran ships the UN uses in there.) But come Mission 10A, Defenders, Phalanxs, and Tomahawks acted as the main defense force of the under construction Ceres Base; and it wasn't a place in the middle of the boonies, Vinderance specifically target it as it was a front line base in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter against external threats, as its wide-range jamming capabilities can divert attention away from Earth.

(Granted the near identical Mission 10B where you destroy the Vinderance Base not only has the same Destroids and Annabella Lasiodora as the boss, but looks exactly the same as an incomplete Macro-Training Base Ship we see in the Macross 7 fleet, but it's Macross, you can hand wave it somehow, if not for how the Latence route almost definitively didn't happen.)

My guess is that Destroids would be better suited as a economic solution to base and city defense compared to the more costly VFs since Frontier and Delta have them in those roles; though then again there were the VF-1s stationed at Apollo Base in Mars and the Diamond Fleet being relocated as City 7's defense, so who's to say?

On 5/7/2025 at 2:27 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

If you think about it, it's not surprising that Zentradi would make up the bulk of anti-government militants.

There were 8 times as many Zentradi as Humans living on Earth after the First Space War, and there's likely been a fairly decent intake of Zentradi over the decades as the New UN Forces encounter and defeat various Zentradi scouting forces and such.  It's been fairly well established that a lot of Zentradi struggle to adapt to a life without the rigor of military discipline and the adrenaline high of combat.  Some get over it in time.  Some turn to substance abuse.  Some join the New UN Forces to find a "healthy" outlet for their urges, and some wind up joining anti-government groups either because they feel discriminated against or simply so they can indulge their designed-in instinct to fight.

It does make me wonder how exponential the process of the mass cloning project bolstered up the human population prior to its ban. It didn't seem like it took them long at all to start, since it was initiated in May 2010. By the 2040's they seem like the majority, and then the Frontier and Delta era subtly play with the concept that a good chunk of everyone has some mixed heritage one way or another. It's always been such an intriguing narrative concept that even for a little bit, Zentradi was the majority of "humanity" during that time, to the point where their technology through ships, mechs, and cloning itself was widely adopted.

On 5/7/2025 at 2:27 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

We do see other Zentradi with aggression/anger management issues in Macross 7.  The only hint we have as to why that tapered off is Master File's assertion that there was a gene therapy developed in the 2040s and 2050s that dialed the Zentradi's aggression responses back to Human levels, eliminating the need for the kind of medication that Guld was taking in Macross Plus.

I'm assuming you're referring to the Die Hard episode when Zentradi stormed the building? I was under the assumption that they only acted like that is because of Sivil's presence amplifying their instincts as a Protodevlin, like it was explained later on.

On 5/7/2025 at 11:09 PM, PixelatedShinobi said:

The Daedalus II type debuts in 2036 and returns in Eternal Love Song, a ship designed with the express purpose of accelerating to ramming speed and performing a solo Daedalus Attack on enemy ships, in one of the most metal things I've seen this year.

We need more assault/landing ships in this franchise, I still think that there could've been room for a Daedalus successor in Kawamori's Macross if everything didn't heavily lean towards carrier based fleets, exceptions like the pre-Protodevlin Varauta Army and Critical Path Corporation oddballs notwithstanding. 

On 5/8/2025 at 1:23 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

It is most commonly referred to as the "Attack Valkyrie", but sometimes/rarely as the Refined Valkyrie... which is where the R comes from.  It is a late 2010s/early 2020s-era major upgrade to the VF-1 Valkyrie.  Its boosters are a semi-permanent attachment called the Super Pack II that combines the functions of the Super Pack and Strike Pack.  There are 3 primary variants, same as the base model VF-1.  Komilia's VF-1SR, Lott's VF-1JR, and the grunt model VF-1AR.

Always appreciated the remodeling of the VF-1s in the II timeline, though it makes me wonder aside from the obvious production reasons, how come it took over 7-8 decades for there to be a proper successor of the VF-1 there?

On 5/8/2025 at 1:23 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

By this point in the timeline, Humanity has started incorporating both Zentran and Meltran overtechnology into their own ships and weapons.  A slow process that will culminate in the post-2054 major revamping of the UN Spacy fleet and the creation of the Macross II designs.

iirc here was a large war with a Branch Fleet that caused the revamping? I'm not sure if that's Eternal Love Song's story or another incident with the timeline.

On 5/8/2025 at 1:23 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

The Daedalus II-class is an Advanced ARMD that's one of the post-war developments.  There are at least 18 of the things kicking around in 2036-2037 including the Daedalus II and the Prometheus II.  They were developed to support extrasolar exploration fleets led by Macross and Megaroad-class ships.

So there was more Megaroads then the one we see launching in that timeline! Never get a feel of those exploration fleets since II and the PC-Engine games more or less stay in their Solar System bubble. Though I didn't know there was Macross ships made to be flagships for those fleets either, unless you're referring to the Macross Cannons?

On 5/3/2025 at 1:20 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Macross Chronicle's Technology "Macross Galaxy Fleet Technology" (a Macross Frontier movie one) suggests the New UN Gov't was worried the Zentradi might use cyborg tech to become more of a threat if development wasn't carefully supervised and restricted.  Basically, the didn't want Zentradi cyborg supersoldiers in the next Zentradi riot.

...Huh, well that's both underwhelming and mildly annoying.

Maybe it's because I've recently went through stories on the generic side like M3, Digital Mission VF-X, and 7 Trash, but I'm not necessarily of a fan of how the franchise defaults to making rogue Zentradi being the only source of Anti-UN activity within the government's sphere, when we had material like Zero showing that humans are still as a big as jerks as we can be. I suppose it is supposed to be some kind of irony that the one fleet who went over and beyond with their cybernetics is the one population that had no Zentradi at all, but still....It definitely makes me appreciate VF-X2 for playing it a bit smarter then just yet more jolly green giant falling back to instincts.

On 5/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

We know there are some health conditions, principally genetic ones, which prevent a person from safely using a micloning system and we know that the miclone system can both remove and install biotechnological components of the body like the Meltran bio-fiber optic nervous system or a records officer's expanded memory.  There's no word on whether micloning can work with cybernetics or even more minimal body mods like tattoos and piercings.

Since giant Zentradi are prohibited on Earth and aren't present in most emigrant fleets or planets for resource reasons, this may be something of an academic question even in-universe.

Reminds me of one VF-1 Master File book that had a small blurb about Regults being stationed as garrison units for Macross City because some giants were unable to be micloned....Which had to suck for them and others who had the same issue when the ban was put in place.

Even with the ban in place I'd imagine some areas being more savvy to researching it. Rich places like the Frontier fleet of course had a island block dedicated to them, and Ouroboros has a notable population of Zentradi that work as giants, even with specified mining suits for them. And at least with 30's novelization having some of their woes being treated as nothing more then "walking Destroids," if not living as one full time, instances can exist where some study can be done with them in a somewhat consistent basis. 

On 5/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Supplemental material for Macross 7 indicates that Exsedol did spend time among Humans as a miclone toward the end of the First Space War as we saw in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series.  It's noted that, by the time of the Macross 7 fleet's departure, he had returned to his giant size and original body plan because he was concerned that his miclone form's smaller size might mean reduced memory and information analysis capability compared to his specialized giant form.

I wonder if that was the material's way of having both SDF and DYRL designs work in tandem one another, where the former could be seen as his miclone appearance without the specialized brain capacity of a archivist type. Would that imply that with some cases miconization would actively change the physical form of someone if necessary? Macross Outside Story seems to suggest something like that, since it mentions giants having the placement and even amount of internal organs being modified, where their miclone bodies are the exact same as humans. Something's bound to change during the process.

On 5/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Ernest Johnson is a half-Zentradi "peace child".

Exactly what's going on with that metal on the back of his head is unclear, but it may be related to his unusual body proportions.  Macross Delta Character Design Works has some notes that suggest Ernest's height and unusual proportions are not natural, but are instead the result of some quirk of his half-Zentradi genetics not playing nice with repeated use of micloning systems and leaving him slightly deformed with a Hellboy-like physique.  It's possible that metal bit is reinforcing his skull due to those micloning-related health issues, or perhaps it's simply an affectation because he's bald?

Does seem like with his case, alongside Guld's and Micheal's, that even if some were more overstated then others, that they were still playing with the concept of unforseen consequences of Zentradi hybrids, or at the very least with Klang's, Zentran born through normal reproduction. Makes me wonder the other quirks we see with others in Frontier are a result of that, like Ranka's emotive hair, and a background one that I could've sworn had orc-like tusks. Definitely can be an amazing in-universe study on how random it is and why some are hit harder then others, since Guld seems like the odd man out regarding his enhanced aggression with other half-Zentradi, and Micheal's incapability to become giant.  

(Well ignoring the fact that they're not as marketable as those like Ranka and the Jenius daughters lol.)

Ernest being half-Zentran intrigues me somewhat; in Delta's mini theatre it presents him with a very extensive (and quite frankly questionable) career going between many insurgent forces; specifically the Kamujin Clan, rogue Zentradi, and Black Rainbow, which surprised me the most considering most of the animated material opted to not really mention or reference spin off material. Kamujin's mention also caught me off guard since his reign on Earth didn't really last beyond two years. I'm only assuming he'd have remnants to follow where he couldn't? His character page in Macross Chronicle did mention a child he was rumored to have with Laplamiz...

On 4/5/2025 at 11:12 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Unless it's not really coal as we know it, but fold carbon which is sometimes (rarely) called "fold coal".  Naturally occurring deposits of high purity fold carbon left over from a past supernova would be worth mining and have practical applications.  (It's implied this is also why Galactic Whales are hunted.)

That's what I assumed, at least retroactively since fold carbon seemed like a thing made for Frontier's worldbuilding, mainly for its fold quartz. From what I've been told it's also been synthesized early on by the UN so there wasn't any reason to mine it extensively like fold quartz. Though of course it's right to assume that more of the natural stuff is more richer, hence the whale poaching. And with our own coal deposits one source would never be the exact same as another.

On 4/5/2025 at 11:12 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It makes sense, considering the circumstances these colonies were set up under.

After all, Humanity's grasp of fold technology was not exactly great at the time of the First Space War.  Low purity fold carbon and an incomplete understanding of the mechanics of space folding left Human-made fold systems somewhat less precise and capable than they would have liked.  Planets that were days or weeks or even months away from the Earth became a lot more accessible as Humanity's grasp of fold technology improved.  Fold navigation became more precise and efficient, and fold communications networks were built up across Humanity's sphere of influence to make communication faster and more reliable.  Trips that used to take weeks or months were cut to days or even hours.  The kind of seismic shift in communication and transportation that occurred with the invention of things like the telegraph or steam ships that made it way more possible for a central government to keep tabs on things.

The scale of VF-X2's events, as future series (especially with Delta) always made it seem like it spanned all the way to even the deepest parts of the galaxy. Giving it the name of the "Second Unification War" also helps with that as well I'd assume. Kinda makes me wonder how some of the places we've seen before and after were effected by such a conflict?

Long range emigrant fleets seem like they'd be least involved, as they probably were cruising wherever in the galaxy. And even if the central UN knew where some were, I heavily doubt Latence would even DARE mess with the Macross 7 fleet considering they were quite literally in the center of a galaxy ending event and lived to tell the tale. That's probably how Max supposedly supported Vinderance (who's leader also may or may not have been one of his daughters that went incognito) behind the scenes without fuss. Planetary governments may vary; Eden may not have to worry as the first planet colonized and has previously mentioned direct relations with Earth, Zolan has it's bacteria as a factor that can't let humans live there long term, so insurrection probably wasn't an issue.

Considering how apparently corrupt the local NUNS government in the Brisingr Globular Cluster was, to the point that apparently in Delta's novelization they assassinated someone on Earth looking into the trade and negotiation with Windermere, it probably wasn't nice for them at all. iirc Kaname's home planet was still in a civil war because of it, and Windermerean's involvement in it was the catalyst for their first war of independence later on.

The Varauta system's government though....I'd assume they wouldn't have gotten off light at all when Blue Rhinoceros' interference with the ice planet is directly the reason why the Protodevlin were released to begin with, that'd be something the UN would hold them over until the heat death of the universe. As if their entire population of several hundreds of thousands of people being brainwashed for several years wasn't bad enough...

On 4/7/2025 at 10:50 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

This at least partly aligns with material from Macross Frontier, wherein Luca's three QF-4000 series Ghosts were also equipped with a fully autonomous air combat AI albeit under restraints and only with the special permission of the New UN Government.  (It pays to be the heir to a megacorporation, I guess?)  A production version of the Ghost X-9 would be under the same, or even stricter, restrictions.  

And of course the Galaxy Fleet threw caution under the wind and decided to mass produced their own take of Sharon's little nightmare with their AIF-9V (Ghost V-9/MG.) Not even the worst thing they did considering how the VF-22HG practically had the YF-21's BDI, proving more over time that there was no lessons from Plus learned. Though I'm assuming with the fleet's lost status, we won't have to worry about any surprise AIF-9Vs popping up, if the fleet was willing to share to begin with.

On 4/8/2025 at 3:51 PM, PixelatedShinobi said:

On 4/7/2025 at 10:50 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

That said, it's also a rather odd thing for Havamal to have... in Macross 30 it's kind of a plot point that they've gone off the grid a bit because they're acting outside their orders and are using whatever resources they can borrow from the local NUNS or use their clout to have manufactured locally.  I think the AIF-7S actually makes more sense, esp. since Leon shoots down like half a dozen of the bloody things in short order, where four was a damn near insurmountable task for the most elite Special Forces of the previous generation.

Thanks for reminding me of the 9B flight patterns in VF-X2... god those things are a niiiightmaaaaaaaareeeeeeeeeee

Aegis was certainly a trooper having to fend off 6-8 of those from the Macross 13, almost makes Tohma's VF-19 intervention seem elementary by comparison.

On 4/8/2025 at 1:00 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Ray's too burned-out by a decade-plus of Basara's BS to muster a decent response half the time,

As a side note, the one time he did lose his patience with Basara was when he got Mylene to leave the band for a stint over his stubbornness. If that doesn't say anything about Mylene's contributions, what really does lol.

Going back to finish up my findings for M3, because there's not much to talk about worldbuilding wise.

Episode 6 has the level take place in Planet Dahan, a resource planet which from its illustration looked like it only has 5 Namekian minutes left. But it seems important enough that if the terrorist group "Struggle" (made out of Zentradi defectors of course,) invaded the planet and destroyed the energy satellite system, the United Forces would have a energy deficit of 5% a year, severing limiting fleet operations. I'm not sure if we know more planets like those in the bigger franchise, the only exception being the coal mine in Planet Banipal Isamu was threatened with in Plus, and the remote planet from The Galaxy Is Calling Me with its Barunasium Ore.

Episode 5 and 8 has its setting on Planet Susia, it's described to have volcanic activity, and in the former's case it proves to be a problem where UN had to locate their Weapons Development plant there somewhere else due to it getting higher than usual. I'd question why you'd have one on a planet that's characterized by such, but once I saw it was essentially a giant mobile platform traversing through the Scarlet Desert, it made a tad bit more sense. The 8th and final one didn't make it clear if a civilian population is on there, just that there's a UN Spacy headquarters that Iron Discipline (ANOTHER guerilla Zentradi group, you think they'd just combine them all into one instead of having them be almost entirely unconnected) targets, after being the threat in Episode 5. The biggest takeaway is the previously mentioned "sisters" of Moaramia being the attackers specifically, of course that and the reveal that...

Episode 7 is the most outstanding one in terms of worldbuilding. For the mission where all three Dancing Skulls members reunite, the stage that sets on Planet Belfan is the most dire, as Lawrence Junkemar, a deputy consultant of the UN, was kidnapped when he visited the planet by anti-UN insurgents who took over the UN's secret base there. Negotiations seemed fruitless as it was seen as impossible to free the political prisoners, with the Algencius' Captain remarking that an autonomous and independent government in Belfan as an impossibility. With Neo York's New York Liberation League, and Cristrania's Zentradi fundamentalists with notable Anti-UN activity being hidden from the central government, and the final plot with Moa being the focus, it's interesting how as a semi-prequel to VF-X2's conflict between the central Earth government and colonial planets and emigrant fleets, showing the cracks and gears spinning of Earth's practical but very flawed ideology of having full control over their sphere to make sure future threats won't happen again.

And as I said I'd mention before, the reason why Max and Milia, was brought back for this mission, despite being the captain of the stealth cruiser Haruna and the director of the Eagle Nest Air Combat Center respectively, was that apparently some radical members of the regular army stationed at Belfan proposed an incursion to wipe out the enemy forces in the base, but as high command was very doubtful about their efficiency due to their inexperience, they wanted the Dancing Skull squad to preempt the regular army's arrival so the moderate Belfan faction wouldn't have to poke the bear with the hardline/radicals. And since this is the mission where you can pilot the brand new YF-11 prototype, it really reads as a publicity stunt for the sake of central UN morale if anything else, adding on to the conflict that accumulates with Latence around 2 decades after.

21 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The clear implication in the briefing is that the military set up the camouflaged laboratory in Area V672 on New Asia because the biological weapons R&D the facility was built for is quite thoroughly illegal.  (Macross Delta would later confirm that yes, genetic engineering to create living weapons/clone soldiers is very much banned by interstellar law.)  The whole mission is pitched as a highly classified face-saving coverup, as the incident would otherwise result in a large number of senior officers having to resign in disgrace.

It was to the point that the high command wanted the entire site wiped out, but opted to have a covert mission taken care of because a large scale offensive would reveal its existence to the public. Maybe that's how Mikumo later on was able to go under the radar even after the reveal.

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It wasn't until after General Galaxy was formed from the merger of OTEC and various other defense companies and Ghost production resumed under their banner that we start seeing AIF numbers.  Those AIF numbers are explicitly General Galaxy's internal product code for the Ghost, with the first mentioned being AIF-3Ex as the designation for their improved version of the QF-3000E designated QF-3100EX.  When General Galaxy and the Macross Concern developed next-generation unmanned fighter concepts, we got the (AIF-)X-9 Ghostbird prototype.  Macross Galaxy's corporate army developed that into the AIF-9V after equipping it with anti-Vajra equipment, while the Frontier fleet used two different versions of it under the names AIF-7S and QF-4000.  The problem is that the designations are backwards.  The civilian PMC should be referring to their Ghosts using manufacturer model numbers (AIF-7) while the military should be using the military QF designation.

So that explains the two different designations, although I never heard of the AIF-3Ex/QF-3100EX until now! I'm assuming it's under a novelization or some kind of short story? Would also explain why the Neo Glaug bis was described to have electronic warfare functions that can have it control 2 QF-3000Es, something that's several decades behind alongside the VF-1!

20 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

IIRC, in Macross M3 that's more or less explicitly the case... the Dancing Skulls are there to escort the Algenicus and oversee testing of the VF-5000.

It's more specifically the Dancing Skulls escorting the VF-5000 to the Algenicus itself so further testing could be done without a anti-UN group taking the opportunity to "acquire" it for itself.

I'm assuming after unit 2 I think New Edwards had enough of Isamu testing and galivanting away with their delicate machines and probably was one of the people directly involved in his "promotion," lol.

2 hours ago, Graham said:

With all this discussion about Macross M3, I'd like to ask is there any new information on the giant insectoid biological weapons that appear in the game?

After Macross Frontier was released, I've always wondered if the insectoid biological weapons in M3 were in anyway related to or developed from the Vajra.

Nothing official at least, although going through Mission 4 was quite a treat going through the absurdness of it all.

The research on the biological weapon project took place in New Asia, where it's said to hold ruins of a Protoculture-era civilization, apparently they seem to be spread out throughout the planet, so much so that the project's facilities not only took the shape of these ruins, but they were even camouflaged as sphinxes. Why Protoculture ruins look a lot closer to ancient Egypt ruins in a planet called New Asia of all things I'm not sure, but there's a place called New Alabama in a place called Neo York, so who am I to judge. There was very little military involvement with the project except for the periodic investigation reports, but of course this backfired when a biohazard outbreak wiped out the entire staff.

Considering there's ancient ruins tied to this and Protoculture revered the Vajra, I can see someone like Frontier novelization and 30's author Ukyō Kodachi connecting the two together for continuities sake. Although they don't look all that much the same, the Vajra are giant monster bugs with folding capabilities and cannons attached to them, while the New Asia biological weapons are more giant flies that had the scale tool used on them.

21 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Master File does throw a nod to it, though, with the statement that a small number of VF-3000As were subsequently produced and used by adversary forces.

A "small number" in the context of Macross can be very misleading considering how huge humanity's reach is through the galaxy lol. The VF-17's production was 718, and compared to the thousands of VF-1s and VF-4s, and MF's notion of several tens of thousands of VF-11s, that's a bit minuscule, but logical as a special forces VF with a steep learning curve to pilot.

It'd also seem the bomber-variant VF-3000B mentioned in Chronicle would have a better sell for more production numbers since it's bigger size could be to its advantage for that type of role.

21 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

As far as we know, pretty much every new (non-enemy) model VF prior to the VF-25 was designed on Earth.  The Test Flight Center at Eden's New Edwards AFB is Earth's favorite proving ground for new VF designs (likely due to the unspoiled planetary conditions), but both Shinsei Industry and General Galaxy keep their VF design teams headquartered on Earth.

Could be a case where the (or even a) VF-5000 was only tested on Neo York as opposed to being built there. In this game alone there's a later mission where either of the three characters can pilot the YF-11 for some live combat testing (And with Mission 7 it almost reads as a publicity stunt, more on that in some time,) and in some sources it describes there being more then one YF-19 and YF-21 for testing before and after the events of Plus, so it's not impossible that a frontier planet, probably with its own economical woes, was chosen for the inexpensive VF to spread its wings.

The planetary condition on Neo York is a bit interesting on that topic, since in the mission briefing the planet if seen from space makes it seem very green with regular clouds, not really a Class A planet like Eden and Vajra (which is still a funny name the Frontier fleet chose for the planet by Zettai Live,) but when you fight the New York Liberation League from the mesosphere, it's a more standard blue. Maybe just simple miscommunication between the art direction?

On 3/31/2025 at 1:58 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

The ISC system seems to be the more advantageous of the two in terms of its effects on performance, though also the more difficult of the two to manufacture due to Humanity's inability to synthesize fold quartz with its present technology.

Whether one could even use both at the same time is unknown, but it would likely require a phenomenal amount of energy.

Makes me wonder if things like the VF-22 and Queadluun-Rhea that uses VCS could be swapped with the ISC to lessen manufacturing costs while still keeping their performance (I'd mention the Feios Valkyrie, but those things pop up once in every 2 lunar eclipses.) A part of me wonders if the Variable Glaug and Neo Glaug were built with the former in mind as well, since both M3 and The Ride mentions that they were designed based on feedback from a Zentradi's physical functions; especially so since Moaramia was allowed to be captured since she and her "sisters" that serve as the final boss were born with experimental bodies to analyze their own physical factors using Earth technology. As VCS was a Protoculture thing it seems like whatever the Variable Glaug was using seemed to be some type of reverse engineering attempt to do that with the available technology they had.

Inspired by PixelatedShinobi's MTL journey of Macross Frontier, I wanted to share a little on what I learned worldbuilding wise from Macross M3 out of curiosity.

Episode 1 and Episode 3 takes place in Neo York. Nothing really any noteworthy about the former, the mission is just taking out the Zentradi groups before they reach the supply base in New Alamaba (an ironic name for sure,) and the VF-4 that acts as the boss had it's data presumably be used for the Variable Glaug, Episode 3 however establishes the conflict between the planetary government and the rebel group New York Liberation League, which seems to be made up of both miclones and giants as you fight their VF-4s, VF-3000s (which is especially odd as a unit that wasn't really produced in a wide scale) and Gnerl fighter pods. The captain states there's a delicate balance between the two, and the VF-5000's development on the planet would seem to cause "unnecessary friction" between the two. Considering the VF-5000 was designed as a relatively simple to maintain VF to be built in low numbers, it'd make sense that it would've had its origins on a remote planet, compared to the YF-19 and YF-21's on the more prestigious Eden.

(Ironic how the Algencius' Captain's worry that the capture of the VF-5000 would signify the public opinion of a decline of military control which would affect the political power of Neo York's government, considering our little maverick Isamu Dyson did that in a much greater scale 2 decades later.)

Episode 2 takes place on Cristrania, which is a planet that was handed to Zentradi fundamentalists, and given autonomy even as a NUNS colony as early as 2018. It was described to be a natural planet for the development of life for Zentradi, so it's implied that it has a potential population of mostly, if not all of giants. Of course, the reason why it's the setting for that level is that some of them have made contact with anti-UN forces, specifically those who were stationed in the New Nile Factory base that was producing the Variable Glaug. Of course the local government denies this and is reluctant to have a military inspection take place, hence the Dancing Skull's covert operation and the eventual introduction of Moaramia as the pilot of the variable battle pod. Considering even as a child (presumably born the natural way and not cloned, though the last mission makes that a bit unclea) she was raised to believe that Zentradi only exists to fight, I'm wondering if that was something that the anti-UN forces stationed there taught her, or it's a ideology Cristrania itself culturally seem to have.

(Interesting how not only the one NUNS Zentradi colony that's not the poor Macross 5 fleet is not only heavily implied to be made to have a strict conservative-like ideology that willingly houses anti-UN activity, but is one or two letters away from the anarchist commune Christiania, but I digress...)

We really don't get much of planetary conflicts or development in the franchise in general, so even if this was just flavor text for the sake of spicing up the game, I appreciate M3 for giving different glimpses of life in the smaller colonies that aren't just the emigrant fleets all over the galaxy.

On 3/15/2025 at 4:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Most emigrant fleets probably don't have quite the incentive to set up satellite cities, since they are often the only city on a given planet for a good while and the resources they'd require could also be obtained by processing ocean water or capturing and mining asteroids like we see them doing in Macross Frontier. 

Never really thought about that, but that seems to be consistent. Aside from Eden who's easily the most developed of the planets we've seen, like how Sephira from VF-X2 only seemed to have Hyde City, and from what I remember Al-Shahal only had its city. There are a few exceptions, such as Ouroboros in Macross 30, which aside from Britai City had towns spread throughout like Leopold City, Bowen, and Daoren. There's the multiple metropolis' in Digital Mission VF-X before they were mysteriously and appallingly abandoned.

On 3/15/2025 at 4:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Actually, we do see a giant space station or some kind in the Macross Frontier prologue... maybe that's a satellite city?

 I remember someone saying that's a spaceport, but we wouldn't know for certain. It's an eyecatching design regardless.

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's a brief digression where they talk about the development of General Galaxy's YF-14, and how General Galaxy angled for a larger all-in-one aircraft concept with a large size and long operating range in space partly to accommodate the broadest possible assortment of pilots.  It's mentioned that, because many Zentradi are unusually tall as miclones, the cramped cockpits of many VFs meant that a nontrivial percentage of applicants were unable to become pilots. 

I know there are come cases with Zentradi unable to miclone properly (like Klan Klan) and their size becoming a factor when they do (notably as shown with Ernest Johnson's introduction in Delta,) but at least with SDF it seemed like many who went through the process blended in with humans just fine? And that's not factoring others like Guld, Micheal, Timoshie, etc. It does seem a bit more situational, at least with what the main animated series showed, unless it's just the franchise more or less making Zentradi conveniently different from humans when it calls for it.

Maybe that's another reason in-universe to why the VA-14 was specifically made for Zentradi, but it would conflict MF's notion about fitting in the cockpit. Though I suppose Macross Chronicle said the VF-14 was popular with Zentran for a reason...

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Sorting this out was also expected to have the benefit of diminishing the number of Zentradi joining rebel groups by making it easier for them to pursue desirable careers. 

Seemed like the NUNS battlepods wasn't that great of a selling point anymore lol. Jokes aside, this would be by the time when Queadluun-Raus were beginning to get rarer within the military. There was also the Variable Glaug stolen and reproduced by the UN, but the only thing we get to imply how common it's operational usage was is seemingly hard handling, and The Ride's Neo Glaug bis' notion on how it'd be difficult to pull out its full potential unless you're a small (aka, child sized) Meltran.

15 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Honestly, my read of it is that General Galaxy was making an extremely posh, high-tech VF while Shinsei set out to make the most simple, rugged design they could be easily tuned to suit the preferences of a huge array of different pilots and organizations.  Kind of an M-16 vs. AK-47 sort of moment.

It's a bit ironic considering even though the VF-11 is essentially the second coming of the VF-1, the VF-14 was said to be built with the idea of being modified and upgraded through it's service due to it's larger airframe.

14 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Alternatively, if the Dejima/Acshio area did dock without proper authorization it's possible there is some legal reason that the 37th Fleet can't cut it loose or rebuild it.  If the ship's not able to support its unregistered population long enough to reliably return to a safe port or is no longer spaceworthy, then there are almost certainly military regulations and/or civilian laws and treaties prohibiting the 37th Fleet from de facto marooning the inhabitants in space.

Since it was conceptualized to be self-propelling, I wouldn't be surprised if sketchley's notion that it was specifically for Project M that something so nondescript or disused could be issued to be docked to City 7 without worry.

Sound Project seemed to still have research being done by 2047, as the Milky Dolls were said to be a source of income for it. Not entirely sure how they fit into it all as I'm still in the process of MTL'ing the game in a exercise of endurance and futility (especially when the rogue Zentradi only seemed to kidnap and hold them as hostages as a distraction for Commander's true plan...No I didn't miss an "I" there, he genuinely has no name aside from his role in the story,) but I am a tad curious on how it could affect the franchise since Frontier and the franchise forward took a lot of elements from 7.

1 hour ago, rematron said:

Is there an image anywhere of the YF-14?

Nothing at all really. And you'd be hard pressed to have any additional material on the VF-14 in general; out of the "main lineage" of designed VFs, they're easily the most overlooked in the franchise despite being the competing design of the VF-11. They don't appear much aside from a few seconds of Spiritia Dreaming in 7 PLUS, and it was completely redesigned for M3, but that's very minuscule compared to even the VA-3. Not even their Varauta counterparts get the spotlight aside from The Ride, and despite 7 being the franchise's money maker of the time I don't even think they got any merchandise period. Even the Sv-51 had a bone thrown at it.

On 3/9/2025 at 4:41 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

We've never seen a "Satellite City", so it's hard to say.  Artificial gravity is a thing, so they could be building Star Trek-style space stations in orbit of these planets.  My personal mental image, apropos of nothing in particular, is something akin to a Sunny Flower-class environment ship or a group of same in orbit of a planet. 

https://www.macross2.net/m3/macross7/sunnyflower.htm

We know O'Neill cylinders are also a thing in Macross, with some of the First Space War survivors and manufacturing facilities servicing the rebuilding of Earth being located in space colonies at the Lagrange points (even called Bunches, in Gundam tradition).  

Would make sense if it was either or, though I'm wondering if Satellite Cities would only be a thing within Earth's Solar System, as I'd assume most emigrant fleets, long or short distanced, would prefer wanting to find or work with a planet that could be livable as opposed to a gas giant or somewhere as hostile as Venus.

On the topic of colony ships, I've just recently learned that the Akusho/Acshio Area that's docked onto City 7 was a old generation self-propelled colony capsule, which was said in its concept art and repeated in the Macross Chronicle glossary, which would explain how decrepit it looked in the series proper. With it being stated to be around 300 meters, I'm kinda assuming that ships of its kind would've been for short range colony fleets back in the day, and with the timeline from the Macross 7 and Plus Movie Program book being the one that said they were from old cargo ships, it would match considering there's a leftover gas tank and container at the bottom as well.

On 3/13/2025 at 12:37 AM, Shawn said:

I found some pics of a Doujinishi I got a few years ago, and while it's not Macross "Canon" (Seto will cry Blasphemy!   ) it certainly can be classified as Super Macross Mecha Fun with the fan-made designs of what might have been.

Old doujin stuff like this is always fun, like a peek inside the obsessive fans of the old to see how they'd rationalize or further develop the world of a series with what they have at the time. The VFS-3S for example being a stand out with what Seto mentioned about what eventually happened to that lineage in modern official lore. It is kinda funny as a side note that it's more or less not just a pilotable bullet but like it's almost trying to miniaturize the Daedalus Attack into one single aircraft.

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

ZARUK REGULT

It looks just like a Regult-type battle pod with double the armament from the outside, but its internal technology is incomparable to the Regult's.  The ultra-high mobility thrusters on its back have thrust several times greater than that of the Regult, and it was the only battle pod that could compete on equal terms with the Meltrandi powered suits.  It was mainly used by Commander-class soldiers, but it was said to be more popular than the Glaug-type battle pod.

There are very few of these units left in the current New Unification Forces, but they are still used by squadron leader-class Zentradi soldiers.  The boarding and disembarking system is also fundamentally different from the Regult, allowing for smoother boarding.

Aside from really wanting to believe (and finding amusement of) a Regult potentially being as maneuverable as a battlesuit, the boarding and disembarking system comment made me wonder how you're supposed to get into or get out of Delta's Regult Type 106, considering the hatch on the regular model is completely obscured by the Queadluun backpack. I'm also assuming it probably wouldn't go into its "resting" pose like that in the way as well, unless there was a still of it in the background I wasn't aware of where it does.

On 3/8/2025 at 1:15 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

If we take Master File's remarks on scrapping VFs as guidance, it probably also helped that the structural strength of materials used in VF construction makes them difficult and time consuming to scrap and recycle by conventional boneyard methods.

Makes sense, considering a giant mech that can transform into an aircraft would be hard to deconstruct in general. And in this economy, best to use everything for their worth.

On 3/8/2025 at 1:15 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

One particularly backhanded connection I found is the first VF-11 paintjob in This is Animation Special: Macross Plus is a reference to the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, a decorated USAF unit that operated out of Japan at several points after the Second World War and was responsible for training foreign pilots on the F-4. 

Now I'm wondering what was the references for the SVMF-42 Blue Phoenix VF-4s, until Frontier's 33rd Marine Battalion there wasn't really any indicator of the Marine branch of the NUNS. I thought the same thing about the VF-2 Sonic Birds squadron for the VF-1, but that was understandably connected to the CVN-101 Prometheus before the plot literally connected it to the Macross.

On 3/8/2025 at 1:15 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

That's a bit of Macross II creeping in, I think.  In Macross II, the Mardook are noted to use songs to trigger emotional responses in their brainwashed Zentradi like a combat drug.  I think Mikimoto and co. slipped a fair few Macross II references in there.  The pilot suit Mahara Fabrio wears is a modified version of the one Mikimoto designed for Macross 2036, one of the Macross II tie-in/prequel games.

That would explain some things...But like you mentioned they were more stunted emotionally as opposed to "fighting unemotionally" like the brain in the jar explained. If anything it's been consistently the opposite even the standard antagonist rogue Zentradi forces are very passionate to living life as warriors.

The pilot suit always did feel faintly familiar, and I'm glad it probably wasn't just due to Mikimoto's general style. Always liked the 2036 and Eternal Song pilot suits, they're almost like a good blend between both Earth and Zentradi aesthetics instead of one of the other.

On 3/8/2025 at 1:15 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Maybe Galaxy Starliners are used to carry light cargo and mail and such like modern airliners are?  The Stellar Whale-type we see in Macross Plus was NOT small.  It could likely carry quite a bit.

Around 776 meters long and can accommodate up to 4500 people, I'd imagine so. It seemed more like a cruise ship then just a something of an airliner like Plus more or less painted it as.

On more unknowns of the UN sphere, I know I asked about how Apollo Base and the lunar colony would be like in Macross, and from what I remember there's more colonized moons like Ganymede. Though what got my attention was the other settlements in the rest of the solar system. Miho Miho was said to have been born on a satellite city named "White Flora" that was in Jupiter's orbit, and it seems that Neptune and Venus has their own as well. I'm assuming we don't know much of them as well, but I was imagining something like the City-class ships as a frame of reference, unless they were something more typically designed like O'Neil Cylinders and the like.

On 3/8/2025 at 1:04 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

We can safely say that Tracer rounds, Training rounds, and Paint rounds exist because they appear onscreen at various points... most prominently in Macross Plus.

Wondering for the VFs who have internalized beam guns like the VF-17 could have paint or training rounds stored inside them, since of course the ammunition wouldn't be physical.

On 3/8/2025 at 9:36 AM, pengbuzz said:

Ahnuld as Guld, Michael Biehn as Isamu...

Does this make Sharon and the Ghost Skynet and Robert Patrick lol.

On 3/5/2025 at 7:19 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Past a certain point, it starts to feel a bit weird seeing so many publications rave about how amazing and successful the VF-11 Thunderbolt was when its one major appearance in the anime (Macross 7) treated it like it was ineffectual and undercapable.  Variable Fighter Master File: VF-22 Sturmvogel II blows more smoke up the VF-11's arse, talking about it being essentially The Perfect Valkyrie of the 2030s and the most-produced Valkyrie of all time.  I guess the QF-4000 Ghost is what's standing between the VF-171 and that title.  It feels a bit funny to look at the VF-11 and then see a book say it has no obvious flaws.  Master File's take is that the VF-11 was apparently SO perfect that more than 30,000 of the bloody things were made and that the military apparently considered themselves to be set until ~2060.

Wow, no wonder these things were everywhere in the civilian market in The Ride, much less the Frontier fleet having a surplus amount of them still somewhat in use. Can never go wrong with a balanced performing grunt like that....until the story knocks them about, but it's not their fault they were dealing with VF-14s injected with space steroids with eldritch space vampires as their leaders. On the topic of Shinsei technology, are they known for doing more than just developing variable fighters, or they didn't really open their wings like General Galaxy and LAI did with ships and down to common appliances?

And another note, do we have any word on what kind of cargo ships the UN/New UN operated before and after SWI? Reading the timeline on the end of certain Macross 7 Trash volumes (Which side note, was not a fun read other then Mikimoto's almost criminal art direction, it's the only thing I'd say I dislike from the franchise overall. Seriously, where did he get the idea that Zentradi lacked emotions from humans they treat it as a drug?), it said while long range emigrant fleets used specifically designed ships for the journey like the Megaroad-class, the short-range emigrant ships only used lightly equipped, old transport ships due to the population boom on Earth and lack of resources. Though years later in the Otani interview, Kawamori said a lot of old Zentradi ships were used as colony ships for short ranges. Coupled with the fact that the Meltran LSTs were used as transport ships in VF-X2's third mission, I have the working theory that at least some of those and the Quiltra Queleual class ships of the same purpose were refitted into colony ships, whether as intact examples or some of the literal thousands of wrecks that crashed to Earth.

4 hours ago, Jasonc said:

These are really cool. With only a limited amount of Japanese I can understand. I was only getting about 25-30% of what was being said. It's great to finally get it all. Thanks!!!

The thanks should really go to @PixelatedShinobi, the one who recorded the videos as well as getting them up and in the internet!

Here's the final set of videos, being the alternate path if you decide not to join Vinderance, as well as alternate date scenarios if you finish certain missions with a high enough rank.

The finale missions 9-12 have been released! But don't worry, there's still going to be more bonus videos afterward as well.

Missions 5-8 translated!

On 2/5/2025 at 4:31 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Emigrant fleet defense forces become the emigrant planet defense force when the fleet finds a suitable planet to colonize.  Whether those designations are actual ones or just the ones used internally by the Special Forces for that specific operation are anyone's guess, but the unit names and designations we see in other works are more in line with modern ones.

That makes sense, and I was wondering why those designations were different from the norm. Would make sense if they catalogued them through codenames/IDs since there's probably a lot more overlap with squadron/fleet/battalion/etc. names all across the galaxy than we realize.

On 2/5/2025 at 4:31 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Given what we see in the game, likely just infantry and light armored vehicles like self-propelled AA guns and tanks.  Maybe some leftover First Space War-era destroids or Regults.

We did see some armored vehicles in the Frontier fleet and some modern renovations of Destroids in the Frontier and Delta era, so that tracks. Though considering variable attacker's Battroid form are said to be more analogous to Destroids in function (or at least the VA-3, Macross Chronicle seems to suggest it for all VAs in a general sense,) I'm wondering if their more ground based orientated designs would help in that regard too.

On 2/5/2025 at 7:57 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It occurred to me while I was eating dinner, there is one case I can think of of non-standard markings indicative of affiliation with a specfic planet/system rather than just New UN Forces.  Variable Fighter Episode Archive, which I have yet to work on, has some pictures of VFs badged as affiliated with the Sewell Independent Space Force.

First time I've heard of that, would that be related to the Master File books at all? The 3d models and similar drawn art style seems to suggest that.

On 2/6/2025 at 6:07 AM, JB0 said:

Sometimes people just get really lucky. When they found a usable world like right at the very start of their mission, someone was celebrating a speedrunning victory.

On 2/6/2025 at 7:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Like that short distance emmigrant fleet that found Eden. Imagine setting out on a multi-year mission to explore the area within a hundred light years of Earth and finding a Class A habitable planet practically on Earth's doorstep almost immediately. One has to wonder if the crew even had a chance to properly unpack their suitcases before the mission was over.

I'm just imagining the exact opposite reaction to the poor emigrant fleet that discovered the planet that they mine Barunasium from, or the people that were forced to abandoned Elysium. Spending who knows how long cruising through only to deal with the bare minimum at best lol.

Though the conditions of habitable planets got me curious. There's some pre-established places that aren't suited to be colonized like Gaul IV, and some planets had to be terraformed to live in like established with Sephira, but at least in the solar system we know there's people who live in the Apollo Base colony on the moon (which is how some of Shammy's family survived SWI), the H.G Wells colony in Mars where Gamlin comes from, and unless I'm mistaken, some colonies were established across other planets like Jupiter around the SDF era. So I'm wondering in the case of the moon or other similar uninhabitable places you make due with what you have and make underground cities a la Gundam's Granada and Von Braun.

On 2/7/2025 at 2:30 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

On an unrelated note, an interesting detail I found while working on Master File in a quiet moment offers an interesting explanation for the sudden (in-universe) renewal of interest in railgun and coilgun technology around the time of Macross Frontier.  A point that Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah keeps coming back to in several sections is how a closed-system environment ship like the Macross Frontier has to very carefully manage its usage of organic compounds in various non-recyclable contexts (such as explosives or combustible rocket fuels) because those resources are precious and necessary to the maintenance of the ship's artificial environment.  As a result, these compounds are a good deal more costly for emigrant ships than planetary governments and thus create a cost incentive to explore alternatives like substituting railguns and coilguns for cannons using chemical propellants and swapping rocket motors for plasma arcjets on some missiles.  

Makes a lot of sense that you'd have to prioritize what resources you need in a environment like that, in a way why by Delta the VF-31's regular gunpod is a railgun, since at a point physical ammunition would be a lot more tedious to handle economically.

Going through the on going translation videos of Macross VF-X2, there's a good amount of interesting things that are somewhat revealed for us English audiences.

Firstly, the briefing from Mission 2 gives us some distinct units and their designations; The Hyde City blockade force had the VC806 Laramith Air Force, FG651 Mobile Space Force, and the WE-9 Land Force. It's a nice look to see what a planetary military would have instead of what usually makes up a emigrant fleet, especially when the Air Force is named after the star system as opposed to the planet it's based on. Though I do wonder what would a "Land Force" entail in the Macross universe; almost sounds like a niche the New UN Army would have, if not a sect that has more emphasis on Battroids or even something like the Patroids the City 7 Police used.

On a side note, almost forgot that Hyde City is the capital of planet Sephira, which is where Leon Sakaki from Macross 30 comes from. Considering the game and novelization of which was written by Ukyo Kodachi, I like the sense of continuity he builds between side material as opposed to how loose Kawamori plays it; not that it's a bad thing, both have their merits after all. Although for a planet that was colonized and terraformed by the Macross 4, it seems like a awfully quick time for a long distance emigrant fleet to discover, as the terraformation process was completed in 2033, which judging from the launch dates of the others (the Macross 1 fleet in September 2030, and Macross 7 in 2038), seems like at most a couple of years to discover the Laramith system the planet belongs to.

The one that caught my attention the most when talking to the gameplay recorder was in Mission 3, where the VF-X Ravens are tasked to protect the UN transport ship "Embatelion" (a repurposed Meltran Assault Landing Ship), and their cargo seems to be something that more or less shapes the franchise after it; the Die Zauberflöte, which Wilbur describes as the UN's new communication device that uses "Hyperspatial Resonance Crystals" (which were discovered in 2043) to make fold transceivers. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It seems like at least the concept of Fold Quartz from Frontier had it's footing from this game, albeit in another, more colloquial term.

Missions 2, 3, and 4 translated! And I feel the need to give proper credit to PixelatedShinobi who's releasing these videos.