dreamweaver13

yup. all i remember about physica is that he has a family to go home to. sad, surely, but by no means an indication of pilot combating skill. graham, you're right about basara not being that much of an offensive weapon (unless anima spirita was specifically needed). but given that everyone is calling him a genius (while isamu is still referred to by other pilots as merely reckless), i would still have to give the edge, very grudgingly, to Basara.

the sole survivor of the protoculture!!

OH.MY.GOD. i guess the old guy never let go of his idol fanboy leanings. tsk, tsk.

good listing! and protodevlin aside, i think it more or less sits in well with the guidelines. and shame on me for forgetting gilliam! hmmm... now where should i put him? sure he was killed fairly quick, but he's an SMS pilot... anyways, added gillam to my list. as for Roy, i think it's possible that Hikaru has already surpassed him, even if you take leadership and experience into the equation. at the time of his death, roy has been piloting the VF (we can include the VF0 here) for 1 1/2 years at most. by the end of the series, hikaru has been piloting a VF for more than 3 years. it's just possible, not saying it's definite, though.

yup. your quote: The reason Max was considered a genius could be more to the fact that he got the skills of a trained and experienced pilot with so little instruction time, wich doesn't necessarily makes him the best pilot of all time... but from your reaction, i take it that you were questioning his "best.pilot.ever" status not against the younger generation, but against other races. so if he's not the best ever, and the younger ones (macplus, mac7 and pac F) are out of the picture, to whom are you bestowing the title of "best ever"?

but you said it yourself, the old-school pilots should be more skilled. ergo, if max was considered a genius even during his time (and acknowledged even by Roy Focker, a war veteran and ace), then following your reasoning, he would be the best even among the later ones. and also, if he was only the best among earth pilots, than we can say that he is only the best from a limited perspective of a race without any space war experience. but since he bested and defeated the person considered by the zentraedi as their best pilot, she with her years and countless battles of space war experience, (and using what is arguably the fastest and deadliest zentraedi mecha), then the genius of max is established.

that's actually how i remember it. hard to imagine the subconsciously egotistic max jenius ever admitting that someone is a better pilot than him. if ever he admitted he, he would place a proviso that "he's better than me now, but if i were young again..." but if gubaba has a more exact quote, i certainly defer to him, since i've only seen Mac7 once, and god knows how many times he's seen it. mylene has never seen millia in her prime, so you're right that mylene's observation is suspect. from what i remember, during their prime, chlore is only second best to the great milla fallyna. correct me if i remembered wrong. so who is better? basara or chlore?

i think sheryl was even better. just a few seconds and misa crashlands the valk. at least sheryl was able to avoid getting blown up by vajra for a while.

good points on the shin kudo-ivanov rankings. but i went with roy having such a hard time with ivanov, but shin can't hold a candle to roy. and i agree. klan vs. nora = epic!! hmmm... i think you're right about alto-ozma. at the very least, he should be below chlore. fixed. not too sure about brera though, coz we still can't be sure if his advantage is because of the mecha or his own skills. as for sheryl, i thought about that too. but i still think she isn't really a pilot. more like a piloting student who was forced to handle the controls at one point. because if we include sheryl, we would also have to include Misa Hayase (DYRL). but if sheryl pilots another valk over the course of the series, that's a different story. haha. as a fan of the legendary SW1 hero Hikaru Ichijo, i'd like so much to agree with you.

As Ricky Bobby would say, the film won the academy award for "best movie ever".

a part of my brain says you're right, but the rest of me just... can't... take it.

So, the only way to save President Glass on time is to call him on his cel and sing a fire bomber song! hurry cathy!

it's also possible that sheryl simply admits that she's dying. i think, in light of a revelation like that, a hug is definitely in order.

This is not a poll as to who is the best pilot ever. The answers would range around two or three people (ho-hum), and that wouldn't be much of a new topic. However, how do we rank all our macros pilots, from best to worst? Ground rules: - Let's say that they're all flying the same type of mecha (VF-1 or VF-25, take your pick) and pretend that that’s the mecha they've been flying all their lives. - For now, let's take the leadership factor out of the equation. - Major characters only (sorry, Machida) - AI pilots don't count! (sorry, Sharon Apple). - He may have been a hotshot pilot during his day (e.g. Millard), but if we never saw him or her animated flying, he doesn't count. - If a character's pilot skills develop over time, let's use the "peak" of his battle skills as our reference (but that "peak" has to be actually animated) So all things being equal, how do we rank our Macross pilots (major characters only) in terms of pure pilot excellence in battle? Off the top of my head, I'd say: 1.Maximilian Jenius 2.Milla Fallyna Jenius 3.Basara Nekki 4.Isamu Dyson 5.Chlore 6.Guld Bowman 7.Hikaru Ichijo 8.Roy Focker 9.Ozma lee 10.Alto Saotome 11. D.D. Ivanov 12. Brera Sterne 13.Quamzin Kravshera 14.Klan Klan 15.Shin Kudo 16.Nora Polyanski 17.Michael Blanc 18.Gamlin Kizaki 19.Docker 20.Kinryu 21.Nene Rora 22.Canaria Berstein 23.Luca Angeloni 24.Raramia Rerenia 25. Henry Gilliam 26.Temjin 27.Emilia Jenius 28.Ray Lovelock 29.Mylene Jenius 30.Physica Fulcrum 31.Kakizaki Hayao -Wow, Max at the top and kakizaki at the bottom. BIG surprise! Haha. Funny how the two extremes (arguably) of the pilot spectrum was originally part of the same team. -Placed Hikaru over Roy Focker; I think by the time 2012 came along, Hikaru had already surpassed his sempai in valk-piloting skills. just my opinion. -Hate to put a guy piloting a valk with a guitar so high on the list, but other pilots seem to be in agreement that he's quite the genius. Actually, would have placed him above Milla, if not for the fact that he never actually fights (all he does is avoid missiles all day). -Shin Kudo and Nora Polyanski are so evenly matched that I would have to put them next to each other. Although Shin wins out since nora died first (when will you learn to mind your surroundings?) -would have loved to put Luca below Raramia, but he's still alive, ain't he? -putting Ray Lovelock so low, coz there's not enough data to gauge how good he is. All is see him is as backup. -didn't put Veffidas in the list, because I don’t know if she's technically a pilot. -placed Guld far below Isamu, because without the distinct advantage of the superior piloting system, I think Isamu would have owned Guld easily. Same reasoning goes for Alto and Brera. So what do you guys think? Any thoughts? suggestions? Violent reactions? Did I miss anyone? Feel free to put up your own list. after all, mine is just a suggestion.

oh come on, as if you didn't want it to happen.

Yup, that's what i thought too. noticed it the first time, and found it funny. it's probably a dig at full-bodied cosplayers trying to cosplay skinny characters. actually it's fun to look at the crowd. one of the fans was trying to look like Ranka by wearing green hair, and she just happens to look exactly like Lum from Urusei Yatsura.

That would be the boson bomb (did i remember the term correctly?) from Martian Successor Nadesico. as if the "chulip crystals" similarity weren't enough. hehe. and maybe that's what the MDE that grace designed does. we know it's a dimension eater, so why grace's speech about developing the new weapon from the fold crystals, and learning the secret of the queen? could it be that she has discovered the main queen's homeworld, and intends to fold the MDE directly at her?

great find!!

a macross fan unburdened with horrid alternate memories of RT. sigh, some people have all the luck.

Kudos! that was the perfect song choice for your fanfic.

My first thought was Shoji Kawamori.

but then after that, all three of them would be trapped in some hidden hold under frontier. this time for several days, and with all communications cut off... and at this point, the daydreaming takes an entirely different direction altogether... nah, i was thinking more along the lines of some blue mice showing Alto the secret key that will activate the legendary red-trimmed VF-1....

after watching ep 19 again, and seeing that aerial shot of the red VF-1 on top of the school.... any chance it's still operational, and will play a little role near the end of the series? just daydreaming here; the vision of that red-lined VF-1 just brings so many levels of nostalgia to my head.

... or in this case, sometimes even a MAN.

What a fun read! thanks for this Gubaba.