DeeBot

(Oops, multiposted.)

I'm not really sure why you're bringing up B5. Other than glowy backgrounds common to most cinematic depictions of hyperspace travel, there are pretty few similarities. Folding doesn't even have portals, as far as I can tell. It's more like an Asimovian idea of hyperspace travel. As far as I know, though, there isn't really much known about it; the mention of discontinuities in fold space in this series was a major bit of new information. Anyway, I was just mentioning (in response to something someone else said) a mechanism that could explain the timing issue, without making any additional requirements on how FTL works in the Macross universe.

I liked this episode less than some of the others.

This brought to mind a very brief sequence in this episode that someone mentioned earlier. When Brera's fancy gun is shot out of his hand and apparently explodes, it ever-so-briefly knocks out the VF-27's virtual reality cockpit. You can see the physical Brera in the cockpit, and you can also notice how pixelated the view is when he focuses on one of the VF-25s, after the system restores itself (demonstrating its digital nature). Perhaps this is another source of Brera's combat superiority: He has an unobstructed line of sight in a complete sphere around him, something Alto doesn't have with his non-VR system. Every time Alto seems to think he's gotten behind Brera unawares, he's astonished when Brera performs some maneuver that shows he knew exactly where Alto was all along. Of course, sensors should play a similar role for both sides, but in the heat of a dogfight, and with who knows what stealth/jamming technologies available to each side, perhaps it's plausible that Alto should think he can get the drop on someone, and equally plausible that someone can turn the tables and get the drop on him.

Watched the episode again, had a few more things click into place for me. I'm pretty sure the entire 33rd was destroyed. Right after Grace does her little jump thing, she brings up an overlay which seems to show the extent of the dimension bomb's destruction radius, along with a number of little triangles that seem to match the location of ships (multiple). We only see one, but it seems like a reasonable assumption. I'm thinking she was making sure the entire 33rd would be caught in the destruction radius before she set it off. I think the quick flashback to the Global with its escorts at the beginning of the episode was to set a parallel with the Vajra fleet and its own escorts. I think we're supposed to draw the conclusion that the other ships in the Vajra fleet were also cannibalized from the 117th fleet (the scale is about right). If so, that's some radical modification taking place. Also, the same thing seemed to be happening to the Galaxy fleet, last we knew... (Also, is it just me, or does the Vajra mothership sorta resemble the Birdman? What if the 117th was designed specifically to go in search of the Birdman, maybe even found it, or something like it? And then the Vajra absorbs it? Granted, a bit far-fetched.) The rest of this I'm not as sure about, since I'm relying on the first sub, but it seems like Grace is acting to try and spark a civil war between Zentradi and humans by setting off the bomb. That seems like a pretty interesting development, if it bears out. What faction would have it in their self-interest to spark such a conflict? The other thing the sub mentions that I found interesting is something about the Vajra following the path of the fold communications. Perhaps the Vajra are attracted to these somehow? Perhaps as a consequence of the mysterious purple crystals they seem to have assimilated? On a final note, it seems pretty certain Grace survives, because she asks Brera to wait for further orders from her, right before setting off the bomb. She doesn't seem to be committing suicide, or just trying to spare his feelings. She's entirely in control of the situation.

I wonder if Ranka and the Vajra and the 117th research fleet and Mao are all linked up in some sort of terrible bioweapon project gone horribly wrong... it seems notable that Ranka was needed to trigger the whole lift-off sequence. What's the connection there?

Anyone wondering what Grace is up to in all this? She clearly tipped off the anti-culture faction about Alto escaping and making a run for his VF-25. Using the special fold booster was Luca's last minute idea, so Ranka showing up to save the day probably wasn't in her plans. So, in that case, what did she want to happen? Considering the other faction was about to let loose with the big battleship guns when Ranka shows up to save the day... With regards to Global, I'm sure he must have passed on by now. I don't think he'll actually be making a cameo in person. It could mean a lot of things, though... (Final thought: Maybe the rebels were just angry about having nothing but those six-colored carrots to eat. )

I did (it's almost the first scene, after all), but being cold doesn't cause illness, all motherly advice to the contrary. Of course, this is a fictional universe, so it's plausible the cause really is that simple, but I was kinda hoping for something more significant. Still, maybe this is just a case of a spade being a spade.

Well, if it is, the dot between the L and A seem to be missing. Not sure what "A·I" would stand for, though, and you're right, it does look more like an I than a 1. Something I might point out is that it's not a hangar door at all; this puzzled me to begin with, because it's clearly not at all door-like. It reminded me more of a shipping container, and if you look closely at that screenshot, you can see the handles for the doors on the side. It's a pretty poorly-designed shipping container, since that curvy bit on the bottom wastes space, but I definitely think it's probably an LAI shipping container.

Sheryl has been portrayed fairly sympathetically as of late, but I'm still not convinced she's The One in the end. There could be any number of twists before the end; the series likes to pay homage to Macross history, but also subvert it. I'm not the kind of person who gets a big kick over speculating on love triangles (in the end, the writers do what they want), but as an example of the kind of possible twists I've considered, one of the girls could die. Seems pretty unlikely, but that would definitely force the conclusion of any love triangle. Another is that Ranka gives up on stardom after all; it was mentioned earlier in this thread, and I think there's a good chance of it. She seems to have her head on more straight than some past starlets... if she decides her friends are the most important, she's not likely to lose sight of that. Speaking of Ranka's stardom, think Ozma's found out yet who was kissing Ranka yet? Me, too. I'm wondering why there hasn't been more speculation about this... it seems like it might be more than just a simple case of coming down with the flu. Did she just get sick recently, or is it a chronic condition she's been managing the whole time with medicine? If she has some sort of terminal disease, it might explain a lot, especially considering Galaxy's acknowledged expertise with biotechnology. But maybe I'm reading too much into this, and it's just to set up the storyline in the next episode or something. Perhaps someone who can pick up the nuances in the dialogue could clarify.

I was going to point this out as well, although who knows if the physics are perfectly accurate; the sequence was clearly dictated by the Rule of Cool, not a numeric simulation. As for Sheryl not hitting the ground at the same time as the Ex-Gear, if she pushed off it, then they'd start off with a velocity differential that might explain it. But again, Rule of Cool; animation is done by artists for artistic effect, not accuracy. I'm reminded of the story of Twister's tornadoes, and how they were much thinner and whipped around much faster than real tornadoes do, and all of this was intentional, even though the CGI artists knew they weren't doing it with scientific accuracy...

After watching the sub (which came out really fast!), I decided I liked this episode; it was a lot of fun. (Though I'm not a, ahem, fan of the fanservice; I can understand it's a different culture, though.) I think a good TV series needs a mix of different types of episodes; I think a lot of the early complaints about this episode (and many others) come from people who watch the raws without understanding the context, and are just eager to comment. (Or maybe they really do just care about the mecha pr0n. ) I always reserve judgment until after I get to watch the sub, since I don't understand the language and just use the raw to try and get a sense for what might be going on. When I watched the raw, I certainly noticed the change in the character animation. (Although in a way, the rougher, less nuanced quality does sorta fit the slapstick nature of the episode, so I wasn't entirely sure if some of the stylistic changes weren't intentional.) However, on viewing the sub? Honestly, I didn't really notice it that much, and this was my second viewing. I found the story engaging enough, lightweight as it might be, as I think it moved forward the character development of the high school cast by quite a bit. And I thought there were certainly plenty of good bits of animation, too. Closing out: Ranka in his entertainment class, and Sheryl in his piloting class? Poor Alto. Can't he have just one activity where he's free of those two?