JB0

Not sought them out, as I don't understand the language. Is that why she was in the anime? As a hook for drama CDs?

It's possible to have some character development without being hardcore emo. If we want "true heroes," let's take someone repeatedly identified as such, by his friends, his coworkers, his boss, and the narrator: Gaogaigar's Guy Shishioh. He's sure of his path, and willing to do what needs to be done without hesitation. Similar to Basara. But he's still a PERSON. He has a past, he responds to current events, and he has thoughts about the people around him. Basara's past consists entirely of getting mad at a mountain for not noticing his guitar. His response to current events is to get mad because the military won't stop shooting back while he sings. His thoughts about the people around him are "Ray, fix my jet; protodevlin, listen to my song; everyone else, get out of my way." And the universe still doesn't know what Basara's lesson IS. Just that he defeated the protodevlin, and they were trying to eat everyone. Guy's lesson was clearer. Eating people is wrong and bad and you're going to get a giant hammer to the face if you keep it up, and as long as you have courage and friends nothing can stop you. I'd go so far as to say Flower Girl had more going on than Basara, and she didn't even have a speaking role. Her lesson is never give up, no matter how bad it looks. Keep trying, and someday all your hard work will be rewarded.

Flower Girl is the best character in the entire franchise. After Gubaba, of course.

The big obstacle on the VF-27 would be finding battery space, in my opinion. Everything else is available in incredibly small sizes. The big LED flash at the end could be a battery-killer, but still wouldn't be very large. Take a look at some of the cellphones they stuff those things into.

It's actually purely coincidence that the original toy line went through three Bumblebee molds, much as I'd like to claim it was part of my master plan. If Hasrbo would occasionally use Goldbug, we'd at least get a LITTLE diversi... well, okay, we'd actually just get another Cliffjumper-style shelfwarmer repaint. So more satirical comment on the cumulative effect of the movie toy lines and less homage. TF:BB is the obvious next step after the movie lines. It would star Bumblebee Prime and his cohorts Bumblebee Cliffjumper, and Bumblebee Goldbug, as they fight against the evil Bumblebee Wasp and his Killer 'Bees, the Seekers. Bumblebee Starscream deposes Bumblebee Wasp and takes command of the Killer 'Bees at the midpoint. Obviously, Bumblebee Prime can combine with the other two to form Bumblebee Maximus. And when the ancient warrior Bumblebee Sigma returns, they unlock the final, ultimate combination: BUMBLEBEE SUPREME!

Both of them are what I call secondary-mains. They are stars, but not THE star, and their story arcs are hindered by the need to spend more time on Basara. And pity poor Ray, who is a pivotal character to the plot(if only because he supplies and services Basara's valk before the formal creation of Sound Force), but has nothing at all happening onscreen.

I predict leader Bumblebee. With 3 mold variations and six paintjobs. Followed by a spinoff series, Transformers: Bumblebee, which features nothing but Bumblebee and his identical twins.

That's not all I need to know if he's going to be the main character. I need an idea of what makes him tick. I wouldn't watch an anime about an earthquake told from the perspective of the fault line. I wouldn't watch an anime about a hurricane told from the perspective of the storm. A force of nature is not an interesting focal point. That was actually what drew me into Macross 7. After the first few episodes, I WANTED to know more about Basara. He was CLEARLY someone with an interesting story to be told. By the end, I was just highly frustrated it was never told, especially as he got in the way of telling the stories of other people that wound up being more interesting.

You got the "movie", which is somewhere in the middle of the TV series and largely unrelated to anything.

Personally, I have no real opinion of Basara. Because I'm not allowed to KNOW Basara. He's a filler character given the spotlight. He has no personality, no backstory, no PURPOSE. WHY is he so passionate about his music? What makes him so unremittingly and extremely pacifist, that he will actively interfere with military operations to DEFEND THE FLEET FROM ATTACK? What, exactly makes him tick? We don't know. We're never allowed to know. He's a force of nature... with a guitar. Not a real person. And THAT, more than anything, is what bothers me about Macross 7. Basara never gets any backstory or character development, despite being passionate enough to imply there's a LOT that could be said. And other characters that have actual lives and personalities get shunted to the side because Basara keeps running in and stealing the spotlight when they try to get some plot going. To be fair, Dancouga didn't make them a band until AFTER the TV show ended. Shinobu retired and started a band. Then everyone else joined it.

Oh, I'm sure they were still deadly and cool as long as they weren't at a concert.

If I recall, the rules for non-indie/community/whatever games are: you can play it on the account you originally activated it with on any XBox(probably have to be online, though I'm not sure), and on the XBox you activated it with/transferred it to on any account. For the Communindie games, the rule is account purchased with, and you have to be online to play. So you should have access to your brother's beta, as long as you both use the 360 he activated the code with. Unless betas behave more like communindie games and less like "normal" games. You may want to test that before you delete your e-mail.

The Optimus Reguld? It looks like this: http://www.macrosswo...attach_id=68515 Edit: In retrospect, I should've found, if not a better pose, at least a better camera angle for Jetfire in there.

Dammit, this is making me VERY tempted to run out and buy Sentinel. He could be the Glaug to my Animated Optimus Reguld.

I concede the point, due solely to the eloquence of your argument. Basara is indeed one smooth mofo.

Basara's just a copycat. Max is the one true winner.

And 5 USD for 6-7 planes that are on the disk but aren't available until you pay five bucks is just right out.

"Do not want"?

George Lucas, are you taking notes? If we can't have our original movies, this is what we want.

That's not true! That's impossible!

Word! Best thing to come out of the Star Wars franchise aside from the original three movies and all those DOS games.

I don't think that line was ever there. Especially since it doesn't make sense even if the original movie is standalone. The droids are established as old and beat-up. Heck, Luke's uncle bought them from a rolling salvage yard.

Speaking of what he's done... I think that was the high point of the entire prequel trilogy, when the entire Empire became Jar-Jar's fault.

Wait, am I the only person that heard that "theory" about Palpatine stealing Amidala's life force for Anakin back when Revenge of the Sith was NEW? I thought that was.... well, as obvious as anything could be without it degenerating into a monologue. If I recall(and it's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong), they even cut back and forth with Amidala getting worse as Anakin stabilizes.

1988. He was one of several filmmakers speaking before Congress for them to do something to preserve our nation's films, in part because they were against the colorization of existing black&white movies and television shows. http://www.slashfilm.com/george-lucas-speaks-altering-films-1988/ Another choice quote is this one: "A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history." It's interesting to note that Stephen Spielberg was ALSO one of these folks. Though he's apparently since disavowed the edited ET, says it will never happen again to any of his films, and tells people to watch the original version(which he also says was included with the edited version in the DVD release... which is news to me). This is just another variant of the same argument ever since the first "Han shot first!" was screamed across a theater. It's the same debate as always, and if we've not reached a consensus by now, then we're not going to. I WILL, however, state that I have absolutely no intention of buying ANY edited version of Star Wars. If, as Lucas said, these movies belong to the American people, then it's not about Lucas not giving me the version I want, but his defacing of history and robbing future generations of their cultural heritage. If it's his movie to do with as he pleases, then I STILL have the right to my own opinions and can spend my money how I choose. And my personal opinion is that the edits stink, and I choose to not buy any release without the option of the original version, nor to watch any edited release. I'm skipping the prequels, edited or not, because they're just bad movies. Same reason I don't own Alien: Resurrection.