CoryHolmes

Simply calling yourself a "Sith" won't actually make you one. Heck, I could call a press conference tomorrow and announce that I'm the President of the United States, but it obviously wouldn't be true. That's not really a fair comparison. The US President has the whole government & military behind him to support him. If you are the Sith Master, you've got er......one apprentice backing you up, that's it. And as there's only two of them, they'd have a hard time enforcing their dominance, if say a dozen other dark Jedi of similar power level suddenly decided that they wanted to call themselves Sith as well. This would make a great Monty Python type sketch IMO: - Upstart Sith: "We're Sith now". Real Sith: "No you're not, we are". Upstart Sith: "No we are" Real Sith: "Sod off, you can't be Sith!" "Don't you know the rule says only 2 at one time, a master and apprentice". "Upstart Sith: Says who?" Real Sith: "Says we" Upstart Sith: "You and who's army?" So what actually makes a Sith a Sith? What's special about them? How do they actually become Sith apart from one day just declaring "right, we're Sith" . Graham That's exactly why the "Rule of 2" was put in in the first place. The Sith were pretty badass on their own, but political infighting and petty bickering (by Dark Force users, no less) kept their numbers a manegable number. But once they started duking it out with the Jedi, they were fighting wars on two or more fronts, while the Jedi were unanimous in their desire to win. Each time the Sith went to war with the Jedi (which happend on two massive occasions), they were finally beat back because they weren't standing together as one. They divided themselves, and the Jedi would eventually conquer. Enter Darth Bane, who finally had a lightbulb go off over his head. With the Galactic Republic expanding and absobing those worlds that used to belong to the Sith Lords, Bane realized that there was very few placed he and the other Lords could run to to rebuild their strength. Bane decided that the safest place to be was up close and personal with the Jedi, and that there could be no infighting to destabalize them this time. He instituted the rule of 2 so that there would be NO bickering between contentious Lords. Instead of standing up and trying to take the Jedi head-on, Bane decided that stealth and treachery were the true skills of the Sith. So for the next upteen thousands of years, there were only TWO people who could lay claim to the title of Sith and the name of Darth. If someone else wanted in, one of the existing Lords had to be... "gone", if you get my drift. And it worked. For at least a millenium, the Jedi Order (who were cocooning themselves in an Ivory Tower) thought that the Sith were gone forever, while they were actually slowly and carefully preserving their teachings, one generation to the next. That's why the council was so shocked at Darth Maul's presence. Y'know, the Emperor really had to be laughing his ass off on a daily basis. Yoda, Windu, Kenobi and the rest regularly had audiences with him and never suspect who he really was. The most powerful Dark Side user of that generation, who had been manipulating events for decades... and they never even guessed. Oh, he really did have to be laughing about that. Anyway, back on topic, I wouldn't mind seeing something set in the Jedi Academy (NOT the NJO, though), but as long as it doesn't deal with the Solo kids. They've had their book and screen time, so why go back to them for more of the same? Go with some new kids so we can come to enjoy watching them on their own merits, not on the basis of their last name. EDIT: I totally forgot. It wasn't really the Sith Lords (Sideous and Vader) who destroyed the Jedi. Yes, they actually did the killing deeds and all the hacky slashy stuff, but it was how the Emperor turned the people of the Republic against them that really did the Jedi in. Gotta remember that by the time of the prequels, the Jedi aren't really well-thought of. They took their initiates from their families before the children were even six months old, regardless of what the parents might have to say. Force-sensitive? The Jedi stole them for their own uses. And to say that the Jedi had an attitude would be putting it mildly. Look back at Episode II. They go into the cantina, nearly start a gun fight, lop someone's arm off... and casually order everyone to go back to their drinks and forget it ever happened. Sure, Sideous and Vader did the bad stuff; but the Jedi were really killed by the lack of faith by the public. EDIT EDIT: Once again, I totally forgot. What makes a Sith a Sith? That's a toughie to answer, especially since both they and the Jedi use the Force. It's more than a simple philisophical difference. It's sort of like asking what's different about a bi-plane and an F-22 Raptor. Sure, they both use wings and thrust to fly, but there's a WORLD of difference between the two. I would imagine that most of the difference between the two groups are in traditions and training methods, though the end results are close to each other. Okay, that should firmly entrench myself in the Dork Side. You may all heckle at your leisure now.

Good cuz otherwise I was gonna think you were losing your mind. Not the first time I've been accused of such

Whoops. I was looking at the Anime Insider article, which is listing the best DVDs. Didn't realize I wasn't reading Newtype.

Making a hundred million dollars in total worldwide sales isn't something to really complain about. That's more than I am going to make in 3 months

Any idea when this is due out on DVD?

Doom != PG-13

Where are these people now? Oh, that's right. It's December and the movie has come and gone. And sucked, we can't forget that. /waits for somebody to show up and defend the lameness that was AvP Actually, I'm still here I stand by my earlier decision that it wasn't the greatest movie of all time, nor was it entierly lame. It was mindlessly entertaining summer movie drivel. That's all I went in expecting, and that's what I got. So there, take that (then again, I AM someone who likes Robotech, the American Guyver movies, Orgun...)

Does any of this "vintage anime" titles that are being tossed about even HAVE a DVD release? As I said before, that's what the critera for this list was, not stories or plots or whatnot. It was just about the quality of the DVDs.

This is a list of the best DVD releases, not the best anime in particular. The criteria dealt manly with the menus, special features, etc.

Heheheh. Welcome to my world

Gasaraki was alright, but it suffered greatly from Evangeltionitis. Far, far too much. The mecha designs were great, but the overall plot did nothing for me. I'll disagree with you on the mecha. It was a plot point that they had to be plugged in for power. I will agree with you on the ending, though. I feel Evangelion suffered from a terrible last quarter of the show and the endings were so incredibly anti-climactic that it's not funny. EDIT I'll agree with that, except for its ending. I found the last episode to be very terrible in terms of direction and writing.

Great answer! Can I borrow it?

If you don't mind old-school anime, Detonator Orgun is an oldie but a goodie.

I'm interested to know why you (and others) keep asking these rhetorical questions with answers already known or just don't exist (considering M+ had very few related elements as far other alien species goes). Perhaps I should be looking for a giant prehistoric bird in M0 (altho there's no reason or relation to it's exitence between M+ and M0). We keep asking because other people keep bringing the topic up to support their arguments.

According to Keith (if I remember correctly), whom I recognize as the most knowledgeable guy around here on the Macrossverse, DYRL Minmay was able to project and manipuate Spirita in much the same way as Basara. And you're right in that Plus has no mention of these sorts of people, which is probably why that's my favourite Macross of the bunch

It's not really that bad. We had a poll here on MW.com and it turns out that most people were happ with their Scott Alphas.

Says you. Gamlin was good enough, Max was good enough, Shin was god enough, Roy was good enough... etc etc. And what's the total effect that Gamlin had in Macross 7? Did he defeat the Protodevlin? Did he save the day in the end? No. It was Basara and his superhuman powers with Spirita that did it. Same thing with Max. Who did the most good in Macross 7? The regular human pilot/leader or the superhuman guitarist? Shin was good enough, but did he really do any good in the end of Zero? No. It was Sara, who (through some unexplained way) had "magical" powers of her own. All Shin really did was convince her to stop. Roy was a major character in SDF, which is what I said in my post. It's only in 7 and Zero that I see this trend starting. And in Zero, what did Roy really do in final scheme of things? It's just that to me, regular humans are being eclipsed by these superhuman/magical/spirita-using people in the Macross universe. Actually, the only way I'd buy it is if I knew who or what you were talking about

I love the gunstrap. Nice touch

That brings up a very good point. In SDF Macross, it was a military show in the sense that the crew, the pilots, and the civilians were are regular people thrown into extraordinary situations. And yet they somehow manage to survive and even win the fights. Now fast-forward to Macross 7, where it's not regular people. Now they've introduced the concept of Spirita and how only some "special" people can use it to fight and win, while everyone else is just fodder. FAR too many shows have taken that route lately (Evangelion, Gasaraki, Orgun, etc.) where the hero is special and/or supernatural in some manner, and I truely despise that. Now skip further ahead to Macross Zero, where it's obvious that Sara is a very "special" person with abilities and powers that far outstrip any of the other humans, with the possible exception of her fellow islanders. That reinforces the idea that regular people aren't good enough for Macross plots anymore.

Truer words have never been spoken

Not really. A story from the PoV of a destroid pilot on the Prometheus, to use an old example, wouldn't necessarily mess with the original storyline. Just add to it. Not gonna happen. The Destroids don't transform, and we all know that non-transforming mecha are just bit-players in the Macross universe.

I dunno, there's not a whole heck of a lot of room to work with on this beast. And people are complaining now about the apparent fragility of the MPC Alpha, I'd hate to think what the complaints are going to be about how a dinky little spring no longer works and that it totally ruins the toy and isn't worth the MSRP.

Yeah, let's see you say that to her face

Of course those would be the timeslots. When else would you air a kids show?

I find that to be about as supernatural as a stadium full of rockers or ravers being whipped up into a frenzy when the band is pounding. It's only supernatural if that's the sort of angle you're looking for and you use the ideas presented in Macross 7, about all that spirita babble. Because the only direct tie-ins Macross Zero has to SDF-Macross and Plus is transforming planes. That's it. Anything else is something the fans have to manufacture afterwords, with supposition, semi-educated guesses, and out-and-out fanboy wishes. And because very little has any factual ties to SDF-Macross or Plus, we're left to default to the closest thing to what we seen in Zero, which is 7. All this magic garbage (my opinion) that we see in Macross 7 is being legitimized by Macross Zero, instead of being a one-off in its own series. Like it or not (and I do not), the clown faces and giant space monsters of Macross 7 is looking more and more like the future of every Macross show. If that is the case, let me off the bandwagon now. I've had my fill of the story and it's one that I don't like at all.