sketchley

I see a lot of talk on armour, destroids, VFs, and combat tactics... question: how does it relate to the POLITICAL CLIMATE OF MACROSS???

What about the upcoming GiTS movie that's supposed to be released this summer (here in Japan)? I read, just now, on wikipedia, that it's in the works for Production IG and will be based on the SAC version of the series. Has anyone heard anything above and beyond that? It's near future, but definitely science fiction. Also, there's the Appleseed II movie too...

*cough* It's a whole, wide world out there, and one's personal beliefs, or the beliefs of the society they live in, aren't necessarily applicable to people in other cultures. The three articles above were written from, what appears to be the US's cultural viewpoint and biases. A lot of the comments that followed, are also from the US's culture point of view. Is the US's culture the ultimate culture? No. Yes, there are good points to it, but there are bad points to it as well (the articles above highlighted some of them.) The same is true of all cultures on Earth - they have both good and bad points, and none of them are better than the others. They are all equal. Different, and equal. Is Japan a sexist country? Perhaps from your point of view. In Japan, a paternalistic country, the issue isn't viewed in those terms at all. In fact, the only way to truly inform you on how the Japanese view the issue, amongst other things, is "put yourself in their shoes." In other words, a culture can only be judged on its own terms, not the terms of another culture that holds different beliefs. I think the points to keep in mind is that anime is by and large entertainment. It is entertainment aimed at different subgroups and ages. These subgroups and ages all have different wants, needs, and escapism needs. Also, it is unwise to view anime by only the few releases that make it overseas - the ones released are already scewed towards whatever the companies releasing them feels their target demographic will purchase. There may also be mistakes inadvertently introduced due to mistakes in translation, or inability to accurately translate the finer nuances of the language used in anime. Not to mention that a lack of understanding of Japanese culture in general will bring about different interpretations of small things - things that may be a non-issue to the Japanese. (For example: nudity. Japanese have a totally different point of view on nudity. Up until a few years ago, and still in the majority of main stream media, below the belt nudity, of both genders is, against the law.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity

Uhm... what was the topic of this thread?

I thought they covered at the very beginning of Enterprise? The road that is hinted at throughout the first few episodes of Enterprise is that the Vulkans were holding back humanity. I don't think that there could be an interesting story - beyond what later episodes of Enterprise mention/show. The years between Enterprise and TOS would definitely be interesting. At the very least because Kirk-era diplomacy is so much more... physical (punch, punch, kick, kick) than the TNG era. That alone makes for more... uhm... dramatic conflict.

Good points above. If one considers that the battroid mode of the Valkyries is like the infantry, and the destroids are the tanks, it starts making more sense.* Gerwalk mode could equal (attack) helicopters, and jet mode is, well, the jet. Both VFs and Destroids serve vital functions on the Macross battlefield - along with conventional vehicles as well. The problem we are facing is that the producers of Macross animations focus on VFs above all else. So... other stuff probably exists. Probably... ... though in this day-and-age, of jet fighters being optimized for multiple roles, but not really the master of any, it makes sense for the VFs to do likewise. *As I know it, infantry are mobile, difficult to hit, and able to hide in the terrain. However, they are easily eliminated with low-power weapons. Tanks are less-mobile, easier to hit (bigger sizes, slow moving), and are only able to hide behind the larger structures on the battlefield.

*cough* Germany, pre-WWII *cough* Japan, post WWII *cough* - one must study more history... I think you are misunderstanding 'defeated foe' as being sunonimous with 'ending a war.' I rechecked the compendium, and it doesn't say anything other than 'conclusion of the UN Wars.' Conclusion? Peace Treaty? Both sides were at a standstill and neither side was defeated? Who knows. What is know is that the Anti-UN are defeated is NOT said. You also mentioned using STOLEN technology. As in, they made the fighters AFTER the war. In the case of clear victors and losers, it could have occured while war reperations were either being payed, about to be paid, or having already been paid. A la Germany, pre-WWII, post-WWI.

007-VF1: is there any possibility of getting a close-up shot of the Phalanx's head? If I'm not mistaken, it's not the standard head seen in the line-art, and it's the one that appeared on-screen only once: the battle between the SDF-1 and Bodolza.

I'm ignoring this last post, because a) it doesn't contribute to this thread in any way, and b) it's nation-love masturbating only serves to ruin the thread and whatever community there is between the diverse membership of Macross World. Get? Well, don't force people, and ask them nicely. People are more cooperative when asked diplomatically, then when they are forced. Now, please, as much fun as going off on tangents and debating semantics is, let's keep this on topic. My fingers are crossed that the next ST movie will be about B4 becoming Data, and having an extended flashback of the 'photon torpedeo on Tasha Yar.' Or something similar. It is supposed to be an academy movie, right? I see that as "Star Trek does college." We all know what happens in college, right? Beer, wet t-shirts, and mystery substances in the beer glasses.

I went in to watch "Event Horizon" expecting a science fiction movie set in the near future. What it really was made me turn green, literally. I wasn't expecting half the gore that was in the movie! When I watched it for the 2nd time, a few years later, I was impressed by the quality of the film sets, and special effects. Overal, it was a pretty good film, with some realistic science in it. Is it a good science fiction movie? Hmmm... I guess it's a parable on learning how to control your imagination, and not letting your imagination control you. In those terms, it is an interesting twist to sci-fi horror (actually making it science fiction horror.) In a way, it's thematically similar to "Solaris"...

IMHO, SWI (Space War 1) is simply much easier to say than things like "Terrain-Zentraedi War of the Sol System." Yes, it does imply that there was more than 1... maybe it's another untold story of the years between 2012 and 2045?

I disagree that it is cast into question. The events of Macross Zero happen AFTER the 'defeat' of the Anti-UN, and the end of the UN Wars. The VF (both VF-0 and VF-1) finished development and begun production after the end of the UN War. Fokker's flashback occurs during the UN War. Thus, during the UN War, there is no contradiction that he flew the F-203 Dragon II. The only thing that is really contradicted, is Fokker's comment in one of the first episodes (of the TV series) where he says something along the lines of being two years since his last time in combat. Keep in mind also that losing a war doesn't mean losing ones territory, nor the right to continue building weapons to protect one's territory/beliefs. There are too many examples in history of nation-states that went to war, lost, and later continued building an arsenal of war to use again in another war. The Anti-UN lost the war, that's all we know for certain. Speculating: the Anti-UN, in the ceasefire or peace treaty that concluded the war, may have stated that the UN can protect the rest of the world, and the Anti-UN will protect its own member territories. Thus a need for the development and manufacture of the SV-51 (the same role as the VF-1.) That, or the Anti-UN capitualted strategically, to give them time to rebuild, retrain, and wait until a better time to continue the war - so that they would come out as the winners.

Who needs power armour when you can make VFs? See -> Pheyos Valkyrie. Arguably the most lethal of the Anti-UN created VFs.

To be honest... I think there are a lot of 'true science fiction' movies out there. They are just overlooked or ignored due to the heavy market saturation and marketing of some of the other films. Solaris and Gattaca are the first to come to mind. Neither had big explosions or flashy special effects (admitadly Solaris had more special effects, but were they eye-candy, or only there to move the story along?) Both were meditating on something, and when the vewier left the theater (or turned off the DVD), they were still thinking about it... there's others out there... somewhere.

Conventional weapons. There's an episode later in the series showing Roy Fokker in his 'original' UN Fighter (McNell Douglar F-203 Dragon II) fighting Anti-UN (Mikolev MiM-31 Karyobin). Ground forces included tanks, and the Siokorvsky Comanchero. (See opening of the TV series.) There's also the possibility that they used Earth Trekkers too. It's pretty easy to come up with technology after someone else has developed and tested it, and you steal it... kind of like how humans get OTEC by reverse engineering the SDF-1. EDIT: forgot to mention: they did have access to reaction bombs. Did they make them or steal them? No idea. However, they did use reaction weapons to blow up one of the Grand Cannons mid-construction. I think they also used them (or was it nukes?) to blow up Saint Petersburg. UN Wars = VERY violent, IMHO.

I agree. Buying authorized licensed copies is a great incentive to people who produce those things. (Looks at the Bandai released DVDs of Macross on my bookshelf. Crosses fingers that Big West will produce more Macross in the near future.) Most of the 'big name' stuff that is endlessly recycled, is done so precisely because it is known to make money. The chance of a risk being taken on an unknown entity, that does NOT do things by the book is very slight. Even though that may result in a much higher quality or better final product... If you need an example: "Deep Impact" vs. "Armaggedon." The later paints by numbers, and sucks. The former is a great movie, but, in a sense, should probably be marketed as a human-drama movie, and less a sci-fi, or science fiction movie. Which one did you watch? Which one do you remember better? Which one do you want more movies to be made like it? Which one made more money at the box office, and has seen more clones made of it?* All rhetorical questions to get your thought-juices flowing. Please don't answer. *"The Core" is the first to come to my beer-muddled mind.

Hmmm... I don't really know what could be the problem then. The only advice I have is to keep the name of the file (and I guess that would include the linking URL address to, if possible) simple. I've had the experience in the past of html files saved in the past not being able to 'register and display' oddly named images, despite all being in the same folder, and saved at the same time. Odd name examples include having a 'space', -, \, and other non-roman alphabet characters that windows computers occasionally use as part of the file ID process. Therefore, I recommend as simple a name as possible. For example, my avatar image is: TrainStation.jpg in .../Sketchley/Locations/ (All "simple" directories.)

Uhm... a lot of the rest of the world likes and appreciates the Star Trek image the way that it is. Are you certain you're not generalizing your specific region/country's opinion and applying it to the rest of the world? So yeah, more SCIENCE FICTION Star Trek would be great, and less SCI-FI Star Trek would be better. Star Trek is a niche-market product, and it's probably best for it to be limited to that niche market.

What type of image are you trying to use? The site is limited to certain types only (.jpeg, etc.) and size limits. Maybe it is rejecting the image due to those sizes? That, or the adress that you are using for the image is for an image other than the one that you want?

It's all speculation... the copying (as in photocopying off of a master) version of cloning* makes more sense, especially in the light of the DYRL version of the Zentraedi: Breetai 7018 Exedol 135 Milla 437 etc. The numbers imply that they are the nth copy of the clone template. The clones are probably copied from an already aged master copy (why clone babies, when you can clone adults in their physical prime?) As far as training goes - the Zentraedi (or the Protocultures who designed the cloning technology) have the ability to transfer both memories and conciousness. They can pretty much do anything that we can come up with, and more... Kind of like the Matrix, but with the restriction of overwriting parts of the brain. Thus, once a clone is 'released', it can't go back to get a skill upgrade, without the risk of losing memories, and/or ones conciousness. Or something like that. (This last part was based on an online conversation somewhere and is entirely speculation...) *Isn't that a closer definition than our present day one - for if you grow cloned, it's environment will change it, and it'll probably become very different - a la the villian in ST: Nemesis who was a clone of Piccard.

Uhm, isn't there stance implying that they know that Big West (or someone else, namely the fans,) would, uhm, sodomize them?

Just curious - for all of those stating that Insurrection, Nemesis, and other ST films are no good, have any of you seen ST 5: The Final Frontier?

I wanted to make a big post stating how close Japan and Korea are in the anime/manga industry, and how, since Korean companies did a lot of the actual animation in Macross shows, they'd have access to the original masters used by the Japanese. Sadly, in my search, I found the following: http://www.mononari.com/tt/index.php?pl=316&ct1=9 There are real, licensed DVDs of these series out there in Korea... somewhere...

If I remember correctly, in Nemesis, they DID try to self-destruct the ship, but due to battle damage, they couldn't. Thus, they rammed the Scimatar. Funny, that when Worf wants to do it with the Defiant, it is considered cool, but when Picard actually does it with the Enterprise, it is not. Double standards? I do think that Nemesis was a good movie, with a great main point. True that I'm not a Star Trek mania-fan, nor do I like pointless no-brainer action movies. Nemesis was a good movie. Not the best, but definitely not the worst. I felt that it recaptured elements of the TV series - mostly the focus on characters, and the lack of big special effects (except for the ramming scene - that is probably as realistic as we are going to get - no "Daedelus Attack" where the attacking ship is undamaged...) Inssurection was also not bad. Neither was it good, but it wasn't that bad - mostly saved by the theme of the movie. The big question is, will the producers of the next movie be able to reverse this trend of releasing not bad (but also not the best) movies, and release something better?

Renato, you're misreading the 'mass cloning to repopulate the human species'. True, they used Zentraedi/OTEC cloning technology, but there hasn't been anything stated that use of micloning facilities is bad for the Zentraedi - except for Exedol's statement that he fears losing his extensive memories if he uses it. JBO - good points about the Zentraedi.