ChronoReverse

Except they hand-waved it in Star Trek with "quantum level transfer" which means that doesn't happen. They even reference the style of "teleportation" you mentioned as old and not desirable.

I dunno, a lot of people still think about the F-14 when talking about fighter jets. http://www.globalaircraft.org/planes/f-14_tomcat.pl The VF-25 is kinda like a longer and pointier version of that.

I'm pretty much only interested in Operation Stargazer and FOTSW but this is still cool.

It's always amusing when someone thinks that having to get into scrapping range is an ADVANTAGE. Not that the Macross offerings lose any ground in that regard. I also like how the stealth technology in Macross has been iterative (as it should be). Even in Zero, they had stealth but the tech was continued to be improved with subsequent series (poignant in Plus). Likewise, the technology improvements are somewhat more logical than say, Star Trek. For instance, against the bugs that evolved harder carapaces (against bullets) and shell molting (against Reaction weapons), NUNS comes up with using bits of the bugs as part of the weapon and jamming the area to prevent information transmission.

I don't mind a terminator skeleton underneath as long as the entire exterior is properly covered with synthflesh and her mass was absolutely human.

Weren't the F-14's in that scene upgraded? I had assumed that since I also noticed that the motions Shin was pulling aren't exactly possible (or possible without severe damage) with a F-14. Still, it's all good since it's the Rule of Cool. I mean, who doesn't want to see someone dodge a Macross Missile Massacre using a F-14?

That's the thing, where's the mass? In an atmosphere, you can draw air and that solves a lot of the problems, but what about space? If you carry a lot of mass for propellant, then the fighter is too massive to maneuver well. A solution would be to use light propellant at higher velocity but that makes the exhaust a knife (literally). Therefore, they must have some kind of way around this hence my superdimensional energy crack =)

The only problem is that if the exhaust is as high velocity as you (and some others have) suggested, then the same exhaust would be incredibly dangerous. They'd be like weapons in of itself which is clearly not the case in Macross. In the end, it might just have to be left as Macross Superdimensional Energy Magic

Yeah. If we imagine up a "magic" OverTechnology gas expansion system for the thrusters, we could handwave the heat away to simple adiabatic cooling =D

Well, it's not so much the mechanics but how he flipped the plane into position for it. The three ways we know it can be done (so far) in Macross are Flight Surfaces, Vernier Thrusters, and the Inertial Vectoring system. However, the way he moved was drawn differently from the way the other three have been shown thus far.

He didn't pull a cobra though. That involves using air surfaces to pull up and bleed off airspeed. The VF-27 just flipped into that mode and THEN you see the effects of the atmosphere tugging it behind Alto. There wasn't even any show of thrusters hinting at how Brera pulled it off. That's what I said he "sort of teleported" into position (teleport as in Akuma from Street Fighter rather than Star Trek). This isn't the only time it's shown either. And if it's just speed, why is it only used for the shortline dash maneuvers the VF-27 seems fond of doing? It's a very different effect used only in very specific cases.

I'm pretty certain the VF-27 has some weird vectoring device not seen before. It always does this funky "teleporting dash" thing with the shadow trails that's not indicative of inertial vectoring or pure power thrusting. For example, Alto pulls a cobra in his VF-25 and then switches to GERWALK to get a shot on Brera, but then the VF-27 goes weird and basically teleports into a cobra position and gets behind Alto. Alto's response? "What the?!?" not "Argh, I screwed up"

Eh? If it's just inserting extra jewelry into a scene and it doesn't affect the story it was in, does it really matter?

It already plays a pretty large (if mysterious) role...

Is that real? If it is, then that's a nice catch.

Guld, there's no contest. A quick note about GAR. It actually really comes from "Gay for Archer" a character from Fate Stay Night that was sort of flanderized (although only just a bit) in terms of his manly manliness. Since then, it's devolved a bit to include less GAR-worthy characters but such is the way of the Internets.

I'd say that Alto is the best example of that this time around. His valkyrie is ALWAYS getting shot up, blown up or something.

I'd chalk it down to simply being immobile (relatively). The valkyries couldn't take the BFG from the Red's either but they're nimble enough to get out of the way usually. The tanks were unfortunate enough to have been clustered together just well enough for the Red's BFG to blow them all up at once =(

WHAT ON EARTH. I have a theory that Max really just took drugs behind the scenes and that his custom VF's through the series really had enhancements above and over his contemporaries. He really wasn't that good of a pilot but was relying on technology.

First off, a cobra is impossible in space. It depends on the atmosphere to work. In space, the best you can do is maximum reverse. Second, inertia does not disappear in space. Tight turns exert just as much force on your body in space as in an atmosphere. Incidentally, the ability for a valkyrie to flip around quickly as it transforms is actually more realistic than using vernier thrusters to flip around. By using inertia and the conservation of angular momentum (think of gyroscopes and Olympic platform divers), this is quicker than using thrusters to accelerate and then decelerate. Of course, combining the two would be even quicker but that's beside the point. Normally I'd say that atmospheric combat is more intense because certain tighter maneuvers are possible that aren't in space. However, I always come back to the intense battle in Macross Plus which demonstrates that the upper limits of the machines are so high that the atmosphere ceases to matter. This can also be seen in Macross 7 when Max is doing his bombing run; you can see his dodging is a greater portion of vernier thrusters.

Basara might not have killer instinct but he can hit his targets. He used a freaking Speaker Gunpod to great efficacy and only failed against Chloe (near Milia ability). Only Chloe, Milia, Max, Isamu and Guld have actually demonstrated flying maneuvers at or above the level of Basara.

The only thing about that type of bomb despite its efficacy is that you have to target it. But if you can see your target, you can shoot at it. And if your gun is the Macross Cannon, your target is just as dead (along with every other target within a half kilometer of it).

The thing is, (normal) flak isn't terribly useful against Valkyries. Real life airplanes are vulnerable because they're not armored or heavily armors. Meanwhile, Valkyrie armor in the protoype VF-0 iteration was already as tough as tank armor. Frankly, capital ships bristling with guns seems to be the more unwieldy setup. In space you have extreme line of sight. Therefore you really want to engage from as far as possible. A giant beam gun that has really long range was well as being really wide works quite well in that regard. Railguns also have the range but at space distances, even a minute shudder would throw it off by miles. Missiles are obsoleted at long range when point defenses are capable of shooting multiple missiles simultaneously. Considering the technology available in Macross, it's not completely farfetched.

Sweet! Thanks a million for the translation. Haha, I love the interaction between Sheryl and Ozma. Almost enough that I want a new shipping between them

Question. Is there a handy index for ALL the mecha at the same time? Sometimes I have trouble finding a specific mecha because I don't remember which Macross it was in...