Knight26

I agree. TFA was at least fun and you walked out of the theatre on a nostalgia high. TFA broke down when you started to think about it and see that it was a carbon copy, and not a great one, but one that had serious potential. TLJ I nearly walked out of and when I left I had to justify whether or not I liked it. Even the kids left with WTF looks on their faces. It just didn't feel right, yet you could see that there was something good hidden behind all the RJ crap.

This preview page about says it all. I think that foreground valk is straight off of an old Hasegawa box. And Iknow we've seen that Super Valk in a million other places.

While the ship designs were interesting, and kind of cool. I only really liked the ones that were purpose built ships. I've never liked the UGLY concept. Sure, swapping parts, engines, etc... on a car or boat works, but you can't really Hot Rod an aero-spacecraft like that. The design requirements and G loads would make them rip apart.

Well, the latest issue of this abomination is out. And well, yep old school Robotech tracery comics are back, and really badly too. But there is one bright note. The last page ended with the following words: TO BE CONCLUDED This horrid series is about come to an end. Though it does give birth to the latest atrocity first.

I think you are on the right track here. What made the OT timeless was that it was just that, timeless. While it harkened back to the classic era movies and WW2 Nazi-ism there wasn't anything about it that screamed 70s/80s (other than hair and effects). The PT came out at the end of our last bout with Outrage Culture, hence the backlash against Jar Jar and Neimodians being racist caricatures. But, look at it this way, it was harkening back to even earlier cinema and pre-WW2 aesthetic. The problem with the New Trilogy is that they are pandering to the Outrage Cultural group and losing the rest of the audience. I had no issue with a female Jedi lead when it was first announced, but when they Mary Sued her, yes I had issues with how she was written. Black Storm Trooper, who might also be a Jedi, seriously, only OC people had issue. Unlike, say Marvel, who has a great pulse on the fans, the makes or the SW-NT have no idea what the fans want. What movie did we react best to? Rogue One. And why? Because it was Star Wars, no BS modern politics, a diverse cast of interesting characters and a coherent story. Had the makers of the NT wanted to make a more modern Star Wars then their take on the First Order is all wrong. The FO in the NT is Empire Lite, a bunch of wannabes and Neo-Nazis. Make them the Terrorists this time, backed by some mysterious benefactor (Snoke and others) that are wreaking havok through the Galaxy. But they pull off a successful 9-11 in that they destroy all those worlds and plunge the galaxy into chaos. We never get the real impact of what the FO did in Ep7. We never see the Galaxy in chaos after all that destruction. Also StarKiller Base was just plain stupid. IT would have made far better sense to have it be some kind of Eclipse type Star Destroyer that was a mobile ship capable of busting a planet. And to drive home the terror angle, not to blow up a world, but to crack it open, shatter the crust and expose the mantle, people die screaming in panic and fire and that all gets transmitted as they hit the next world, and the next. That really brings it into the modern world. But again, OC would be against that as being too much of a 9-11 allegory and anti-muslim. But the rest of the movie could have been left, largely, unchanged, though do some things to tone down the Mary-Sue. Star Wars, the new trilogy especially, could really do with some inner voice stuff going on to explain things, especially how Rey grasped using the Force so quickly. I could go into that more, but only if people ask.

That got me thinking about how Hyperspace Jumps are shown in SW. In the OT, most on screen jumps seem to take place over several hours, with exception of Sullust to Endor, which makes sense as Sullust was the staging are for the Endor attack. In the PT, I would again say that most, not all, jumps take several hours. Pilots carry relief bags in modern fighters so why wouldn't Jedi? Also Jedi could meditate and sleep while enroute to places. In the ST, We have a definite scale issue. EP-7 keeps to the hours or less jump time for the most part. Ep-8 due to the timescale issues already in place, yes hours or less, in some cases the jumps feel like they last for minutes. Overall, I'd say most SW hyperspace jumps are hours to days in duration depending on distance travelled. The on-screen evidence typically goes along with this; characters having training, multiple convos, eating, changing clothes, sleeping. That would still keep it in the realm of human endurance for pilots on solo-jumps, but they would likely launch attacks from staging points/carriers in nearby systems. By Contrast: Prime Trek has always established that Warp is limited and takes a great deal of time to get anywhere, with hard limits on how fast you can go with normal warp. JJA and his writing crew didn't like that so, they cheated and made pretty much everywhere in the Alpha Quadrant reachable within a few hours or less. They are more concerned with speed of plot then the actual writing, speed of plot is easy, keeping to set speeds and standards is harder. ST:B might have tried to correct some of this, but given the limited warp travel seen in it, one long jump at the beginning, it is hard to tell. But then Pegg is a better writer and would do better to keep it within established canon.

Thought I might dust this off, my thoughts no how a simple rewrite of Ep-8 could have saved it. The Last Jedi Fixes There is nothing quite like a good Shrimp burrito, when all the ingredients are there in just the right proportions and combinations it is a flavor explosion that cannot be beat. But, when the cook doesn’t prepare it right, using days old fillings, or the tortilla that’s been sitting just a little too long you get just a taste of the greatness, but not the whole experience. That was the taste left in my mouth by The Last Jedi. I’m not saying it is a terrible movie, at it’s core it was good with great potential, but it was mixed with stale ingredients, the wrong spices and wrapped up with tired cliches. The scenes involving the Jedi were great, though sometimes a bit odd, but those were the core of the story that kept it from being terrible, though even they could have been better. It could have been saved though, one more story revision and it could have been near perfect. Here’s how I would saved it. The biggest issue with the movie is one of timing. The movie takes place too soon after the last and over too short a period of time. It is a common misconception that in Empire, Luke was only on Dagobah for a few days, however it is established in canon that he was there for months as the Millenium Falcon trudged its way up to light speed and back down again on its much slower accelerating reserve hyperdrive. The movie just does not make that clear, something a single line of dialogue could have fixed: “We’re almost out of supplies too Lando, that reserve hyperdrive takes weeks to get you into hyperspace.” The problems with the timing are massive. The last movie ended with the Galaxy in utter chaos, the Republic capital has been destroyed, billions dead and its fleet scattered, this is bad for our heroes. The First Order isn’t much better off, their capital has been blown away as well, but as a smaller overall force, they would be able to rally faster. So give them a few months, 3-6. The Republic will still be in disarray, and skip the evacuation of Resistance base, instead start with the pursuit. The pursuit is 3-4 months on, the Resistance is haggard, down to just a few ships. They have been unable to call for aid, unable to resupply, refuel, rearm, rest, think the episode 33 from the NuBSG. Pilots and crews are all exhausted and the First Order is able to bring in its ships from throughout the galaxy to pursue them, each one coming with fresh crews as they track the Resistance through some unknown means. In a desperate gambit, Poe leads a bomber force against a First Order dreadnaught, but not the stupid B-17s in space we got in the movie. Instead we get the new gen B-Wing (or its replacement) making torpedo runs with one final bomber, piloted by a good friend (or lover) of Poe making a suicide run into the soft spot of the ship. But the bomber force is still devastated, giving Leia her excuse to demote Poe. Meanwhile (3 months earlier) Rey has her meeting with Luke, he still tosses the lightsaber and refuses to train her. Cut to a montage of her waiting outside his hut for days on end before he finally opens the door to start “Training” her. This plays homage to the old Kurosawa Samurai movies that also inspired Lucas. Much of what happens from here on can remain relatively untouched, but maybe show a bit more training actually happening. This takes us back to the Fleet battle. Leia has been injured and the Admiral (in a proper military uniform, or keep Ackbar/the new general from Ep7 alive for Force sake) has taken over. She/they reveals their plan (you know, respecting the intelligence of her troops instead of keeping them in the dark) that they are heading towards an old, disused base on the rim with a transmitter that can reach the remains of their allies and the scattered republic forces. But, they only have so long they can wait to get there due to their dwindling supplies. They need to lose their First Order pursuers and have only a few days to do so before they either run out of fuel or take their chances. So, she order Poe and the newly revived Finn to find a way through the shields of the First Order flagship to destroy the tracker, sending them off on their sidequest. Boom, we just deleted the second biggest issues with the movie, the Rose and Mutiny storylines. Instead we get Poe and Finn off doing their buddy cop thing from Episode 7 more, developing and maybe rocking that friendship some more, no forced love story, no criminally bad fan service. Now let me explain that Fan Service. Rose is the worst kind of fan service, she is a fan replacement, a fan of the film in the film. Her hero worship of Finn makes no sense in the timeframe of the movie as it stands, Finn would be little known at this point, especially amongst the lower level crew. At most, they would have heard about the First Order defector who helped destroy Starkiller base, but not much else in a day or two. You could also cut most of the slave/animal abuse angle. Star Wars has always been for kids, yes. But, the first two movies did so with minimal pandering, The Last Jedi pandered to the kid audience hard in those scenes, and it didn’t need to do so. The character of DJ, a wasted performance, did not need to happen or turn traitor. He could have been a legit ally, but what would have been better is this: Have it be Captain Fasma instead. We’ve never seen her face before this, so, while the audience might be in on her being coming betrayal, the characters would not. Or have it be that he was working for her the whole time, and it was all a trap or setup to wear the Resistance fleet down, capturing Finn is just the icing on the cake. The rest of the movie can play out largely the way it did, the hyperspace ram (most awesome scene in the movie) can still happen as a last ditch effort to get the Resistance planetside when the other plan fails, but keep the Admiral alive, an astromech could have piloted the ship at that point. Rey can still show up when she does, the scenes with Snoke could be expanded, but would remain largely intact, as well as the fight between projected Luke and Kylo Ren, as it was the most Jedi thing ever for Luke to do. But have Luke use Vader's lightsaber in the fight. Imagine: he ignites the red saber, Kylo demands it and tries to grab it. Luke just looks at it, shakes his head and "concentrating" turns the blade to blue or green, enraging Kylo even more. Even have there be minimal response to their call, but add one last thing, a rescue by the shattered republic. Instead of only a few dozen people making it aboard the falcon, have it be a hundred or so crammed into a handful or dropships getting cover by a squadron of advanced X-Wings. This gives us a bit more hope for the future, and maybe even a cameo by the real greatest pilot in Star Wars, Wedge Antilles, and even Lando. Imagine: Leia the other arrive at the Falcon with hundreds of survivors and start to lose hope because there is no way to fit them all on the Falcon. A TIE swoops in only to explode and a T-75/80 X-Wing in Republic colors swoops by. Everyone whoops in joy, cut into the cockpit, it's WEDGE MOTHER F'N ANTILLES "watch how a real pilot flies kid," clearly aimed at Poe and his Rogue Squadron holds off the 1st Order forces while numerous transports land to pick up the survivors. On the lead transport the ramp descends and the suavest man in the galaxy, Lando, walks down to great his friends. "Sorry it took me so long, had to pick out the right cape." Leia, seen only from behind, then collapses in his arms (dealing with the loss of Carrie IRL) and they rush her aboard where she dies. We then cut back to Luke on his rock, he disappears, but just as we are grieving the loss of Leia and Luke a hand, a right hand covered in skin, slaps onto the rock. Have there be a faint shimmer, like a force ghost, but solid. The movie could even close on the slave kid using the force, a clear sign that Jedi still exist and are being born. Overall I think that covers the biggest story issues with the movie. Does it address all the fan complaints, no, but it doesn’t need to. The identity of Rey’s parents was fine, they didn’t need to be connected to the rest of the movies because it shows that anyone can be a Jedi and opens up the possibility for a huge number of Jedi in the future. Snoke being a bit of a glass cannon was fine, though his identity should have been fleshed out, it showed that Kylo Ren was a real force to be reckoned with that he could fool his master in such a way. As it stands, Episode 9 will have a very weak base to stand on after these last two films. It has a lot of issues to address, the biggest of which is real life death of Carrie Fisher, something this movie should have fixed in reshoots. I do not feel that the franchise stands on solid ground at the moment and with Abrams coming back to helm Episode 9, I do not have much hope. Rogue One left me on a Star Wars high, Ep8, has dropped me back down, but I didn’t have my hopes high to begin with.

Don't get me started on the issues with JJ-Trek

It's not so much riding herd on the directors, but the writers. In a TV show they have a show runner, who acts as a lead writer and yes, does ride herd on the directors as well. Take the Marvel'verse Kevin Feige could be called the show runner for that once they decided to make it a giant interconnected universe before handing that off to the Russo Brothers. Star Wars always needed that, a boss who oversaw and approved everything, and while you can say that was Kathleen Kennedy's job, I think she was too far up the food chain for that. She's running Lucasfilm but not really running the movies. You need someone like Dave Filoni to take the helm of the movies and keep them on course. This brings us back to the big issue with TLJ in that RJ wrote and directed and wanted his vision to come to life, not the vision of Lucasfilm, or even Disney. He wanted to throw out all of the old, kill the past, and move on. But in the process he created a giant mess that I have serious doubts that JJA's team of hacks can clean up. Heck, even if JJA had stayed on to keep the story moving in the right direction that could have been better, at least it would have been consistent and moving along a story arc.

I think explanation was actually in the secondary media (a big JJ-ism). The Falcon had some manner of tracking device on it that Han never got rid of, and only started transmitting again once the ship was in space or some nonsense like that.

I would have preferred to see Luke go full on Grey Jedi, embracing both light and dark, but spent years wrestling with how because he did not want to fall like Anakin and Ben. Rey could then have been the lynchpin to show him how to maintain balance, somehow, I would have to think it out more. Though I do have to say that his force projection battle against Ben was the most Jedi thing ever, using the Force for Knowledge and Defense, Never to Attack. On the whole, the new trilogy is plagued my a ton of issues, including a lack of singular vision. Say what you will about the prequels, but with George riding honcho on it he had a singular vision of what he wanted to see happen. Whether that translated properly to screen, and whether it was a good vision is not the point, he kept it on track. The New Trilogy is just a mess and I have little faith in JJA to fix it in the span of a movie.

Dream Theater is bringing The Distance Over Time Tour to Tucson!!! So, I bought tickets to finally see my favorite band in concert. Will be taking my oldest son (12) to his first rock concert at the same time. Should be awesome, lower balcony, front row.

Interesting thought experiment. Imagine you could go back and buy the Robotech or Macross rights from HG. When would you do it? When would be the most opportune time, when HG had left the property stagnant the longest and they might be most hard up to offload a property that garnered them no returns? My first thought would mid-90s, before Mac-Plus came out and Manga snuck it into the US. The issue there is that they were still getting some trickle of money from Antarctic and Academy for their "comics." The next time I could think of would be in the 1998-2002 timeline. Nothing RT was coming out at that time, and they were almost willing to work with Yamato to get the Mac Plus toys on US shelves before they changed their minds and screwed us all. The other time might be immediately following the demise of Sentinels, but they still had the McKinney book money coming in and Macek holding out hope he could keep it all alive.

Except that Macek, IIRC, was the one with contacts that got them in bed with Tatusnoko in the first place.

What you are describing was Karl Macek's original plan. He wanted to start with those three mecha shows under the Robotech Banner, then license more mecha shows and turn Robotech into a sort of Anthology Franchise that specialized in showing mecha anime. The networks pressured HG to make it into one complete story and Agrama agreed. Had Macek stood his ground I doubt we would have the issues with the Robotech franchise that we do, as it would be the vehicle through which more Macross, Orguss, Votoms, maybe even Gundam, etc... were brought to the US in the 80s, 90s, and beyond.

Oh the bot thing is definitely true, if you look at the trending threads list most are spambot generated topics. Though the lack of moderation would likely allow the Lying Macross Purist squad to invade and spread the truth amongst them with relative ease and lack of ban hammering.

I checked the preview pages for the first three issues of Year Five, and I like what I see there, it definitely has me interested, especially the start of issue three, though there could be a plot hole there.

I was bored and did something today that I haven't in probably 4-5 years, waded into the Robotech.com forums. What a mess. The moderation in regards to what belongs in what section is minimal, if any. Their discussion of the new comic is only 7 pages, and it seems it is largely ignored. I saw many posts where the fans acknowledge that the series a recut of multiple anime and none of the friendly banter that we share here on MW. There was even a thread started by a TEENAGE GIRL about whether or not she should get an abortion. It once again leads me to the conclusion that HG only clings to the license as a means of laundering money.

All good points. Perhaps this particular VF-25 comes from a smaller unit that does not have or utilize QF-4000s, or has not found a way around the jamming the Varja used against them early on. There are any number of reasons why this stripped down VF-25 might exist, including animation error, but that is a pretty glaring error for a craft making such a close pass to the "camera."

A configuration like this could be useful as a high speed recon bird. Minimal, if any armament, but packed with cameras and sensors for a close pass of an unfriendly target. The leg FAST Packs would then be used mostly for fuel with the missile launchers a last ditch defense in case anyone gets too close. It's the Frontier Equivalent of an RF-4C Phantom, Alone, Underarmed, Unafraid.

I had two versions of that. The usual Clash of the Bionoids censored version, and one that said MACROSS in big bold letters on the cover, same dub, but with the missing footage. Lost them years ago though, I think I wore them out.

they never read the comic where Vader fought a clone of Maul and defeated him by stabbing through himself to kill the former apprentice.

I know that the author of the Spiral War Series plans to release book 5, Hell's Razer by the end of the year.

So, I am pretty sure I asked this before, like years ago. But Frank Agama is what, almost 90 years old? What are the chances that his kids, given that I think one is CEO, since HG is a private company, might just decide to sell the company after his death? Or at least sell the RT rights to someone else to handle all that mess?

No idea how much it is worth now, but I don't plan to sell mine. I think all of the old timers on here ponied up the money for that set. Those were early DVDs though, hence them being single layer and requiring 9 disks for the series. But the way Animeigo teased us for, what two years, showing us all the work they were doing, it was great. I remember I was on a trip when my set was delivered, and I could not wait to get home. To find it on my doorstep was awesome. And I just checked, dang those were announced in 1999, and released at the end of 2001. Feeling old age creeping in again, lol.