d3v

Interesting. I got that feeling about Mirage when watching episode two. Something that she said to Chuck about whether the girls in the audition really knew what it takes to perform live in a battlefield. It felt like she had a longing to be part of Walkure.

You know, that could be an interesting plot development. I mean, Asami Seto does sing after all.

I really do like that the women aren't JUST idol singers, but rather full team members with multiple roles to play within the Delta Platoon. Makina and Reina aren't playing around with tech stuff, they practically lead the ground support crews. Kaname has been shown to have more value on the strategic/operational side than on the singing stage. Mikumo has only been shown talking to the sky outside of her singing role, but there's obviously more to be learned there, and she seems to have a direct line to HQ, which hints at greater capabilities.

In short, I like that these are all strong characters with multiple talents and values to the plot, not just one dimensional idols.

With how Makina seems to take the initative on tech stuff, it's almost as if she's equal to the crew chief or something. I'll bet she's actually in charge of all the holo stuff.

And who is that?

The old mechanic/crew chief from Macross Zero.

bingo...more hologram tech at work..

makina_reina_31.jpg

Hey, those keyboards look like the round plates worn by the walkure!

You can see the empty loop belt around maki maki's waist.

makina.jpg

Their belts are Holographic (DeeJay?) consoles!

Those plates are holographic though. They're not on their actual uniforms.

On a related note, would it be safe to assume that those uniforms are basically updated versions of the holographic suit Sheryl wore, except they no longer need to be bodysuits?

This episode makes me wonder more about MakiMaki's background. I used to think that playing around with the Valks was a hobby. But I wonder if she wasn't actually a mechanic or a tech before it was found out that she could sing with fold waves.

Depends on what kind of "jamming" the Aerial Knights used. If it's actually some sort of software hack, then that's something that's easy to protect against with a simple software update.

As for performance, who knows? It all depends on how those drones are powered and controlled.

Or one's out for maintenance/repair.

Seing as MakiMaki and ReiRei are doing work on top of the plane, maybe it's the one they pulled out to do work on.

Am I understanding this correctly? The Aerial Knights are operating from Windermere? And there's this Fold barrier thing happening? What exactly does a Fold barrier prevent then? I thought it would prohibit craft coming in and out. Is it not Windermere that has been shown as their base?

Slightly confused....

It's pretty obvious that it's not meant to prevent craft from coming and going. I mean, if it did, then we wouldn't have a show in the first place as Freyja wouldn't have been able to leave.

It's probably more like a localized fold fault around the planet in that it prevents spacecraft from folding in close to the planet, so that doing a Max and just folding in low to the ground and dropping reaction weaponry is likely impossible, but normal travel isn't.

Probably just obscured by the angle.

Milia's ears were not nearly as pointed, and nearly as.... HORIZONTAL, that's it, that's what's so different about Mirage... HORIZONTAL EARS.

MUTANT... yep, that's what she is, a mutant

Going back to the culture thing, I do agree that Frontier was a little about technology going amok, but there were also aspects of perverting culture, when Sheryl and then Ranka was used by Grace. How else would you term the Minmay attack on NUNS in episode 24.

As I've stated, they've just been trying to make the ears more prominent since Frontier, most likely because people barely ever noticed it in Plus, 7 and DYRL.

The real question now is if there's a war will there be an apple shortage in the rest of the cluster

They'll be forced to import pineapples instead.

While it seems apples are the only export Windermere leading to a trade imbalance, I assume, I wonder if the events of Macross Frontier has affected them economically.

Luca said whoever has the monopoly on Fold Quartz rules the galaxy. It could be with Protoculture ruins having Fold Quartz Windermrere is expecting a massive windfall making them an economical and political power house in the NUN. Ouroboros while having Fold Quartz in its ruins can be unaccessible for years.

Then Frontier receives a planet full Fold Quartz given by the Vajra. Either they have a monopoly on Fold Quartz flooding the market or the NUN restricts Fold Quartz trade as it is so weaponize.

Goodbye Windermere's dream of being great thus the monarchy xenophobes begin a revolution to kick out the NUN as in their point of view they had broken promises. Also seeing a bunch of cyborgs try to rule the galaxy offended their pride.

We don't know whether the "apples as the only export" this is before or after the war of independence though. Especially since we know that they did close off their borders after the war.

Granted, if it's written somewhere it's likely to have been the intent at the time. But who knows for sure, it's not the first time something in print was later contradicted by visual evidence - or as noted above, the shell could have been jettisoned or lost along the way. Since we don't see an NMC for sure, and since the City ship here looks both different and smaller than the ones in the picture I linked, I think that it could easily NOT be Macross 1, as much as I'd love to have that consistency maintained.

Mark

That's too many extra details that would need to be explained though.

Occam's Razor would lead us to the simplest explanation, that it is likely Macross 1.

i think in Macross Frontier the writing was much more about technological pitfalls than it ever was cultural (except for how those technological elements were defeated). Grace was scientifically motivated, not culturally. In contrast, the Windereans seem very much about ideology and winnign a cultural war as much as it is a military conflict. Roid doesn't even seem that interested in conventional warfare at all, though its clear he's prepared for it. While there may be a technological aspect to the Var syndrome in Macross Delta ('dem apples, lol), at least initallly it's written much more like a cultural/ideological war and is being fought as such.

I think it Mirage's character design for the ears may just be a stylistic choice on part of the character artists/animators, but there is the possibility she may have genetic traits from beings other than just Zentradi. It's still early and little trivia is being released, but maybe we'll see something.

I wonder if it's because contact was made with Winderemere when they already had a well established, medieval or even renaissance level civilization, whereas contact with Ragna (and Zola) was made when their civilizations were less established.

Especially since it episode 5 it looks like they retconned in the ears on Milia; though the scene is a-la SDFM.

Milia had pointy ears in DYRL as well.

As I stated earlier, Zentraedi have had pointy ears since then. Look closely at Guld and Mylene and you'll notice that they have them too.

I figure Messer is having trouble adapting to an environment that's not as strict as what he's used to back in the military. He probably has too much respect for Arad (even though he's part of the reason, since he seems to be pretty relaxed in terms of running his team) to take it out on him so he's projecting it on Hayate instead.

Note that Hayate basically got chewed out a little. There wasn't even any form of NJP against him!

They're technically civilian contractors so they're likely not subject to the same regulations as formal military. And Hayate himself had yet to sign the new contract.

Most likely, for something like that (outside of the new contract) he's most likely to get a mark on his file while having the fuel docked from his pay.

She's also really tiny. Not that they aren't playing fast and loose with the dimensions a bit.

Well there is that. She is 2 cm shorter than Ranka

I always assumed pilot comfort (heat/cold) was handled by the flight suit? Any experts care to elaborate. I really want to know.

Then again it was mentioned that Hayate's valk was modified so that he wasn't required to wear a helmet. Maybe the A/C system is part of those mods.

We previously saw the A/C system on Isamu's YF-19 in Macross Plus, so it's safe to assume that these are standard in all valks. I mean, not everyone flies with flight suits. Basara was in nothing but a tank top and jeans in some episodes of Macross 7.

Just wondering why Hayate turned the AC hotter?

There was no mention in the subtitles by either character of the cockpit being cold.

Actually, he increased the fan power while lowering the temperature. Probably to simulate feeling the wind in their faces, similar to what Sharon did to Isamu's YF-19 in Plus.

Does the 31 have AAMs and AAAMs as weapons loadouts?

31_display.jpg

Hard to say whether that's correct, or simply an error from recycling the interfaces from Frontier.

That said, the interface is scaled much better now. Even in the Frontier movies, they were scaled wrong and bits of it (including the weapons loadout) were cut off by the art. That said, it seems that part of it has gone holographic.

EDIT: Comparison shots from Frontier (movie 1) and Delta (episode 4).

Aside from the thrust/output gauges for the engines now being holographic, you can clearly see how they were scaled wrong in Frontier, with bits of the interface cut off. Also, I'm guessing the two gauges being holographic now has to do with how they'd be cut off if they weren't.

With these changes, it seems to be less of a quick recycling job and more or less trying to fix these small issues from Frontier. That said, we still can't tell if the loadout stuff is indicative of anything.

What I'm wondering about is why nobody just pointed out that Hayate was wearing a fold quartz pendant. I mean, the moment he said that he heard the Var song, someone should have just pointed that out to him.

Yeah. I really thought she was going somewhere, like she was about to bring up some other display. But no, she just wanted to eff with everybody.

Maybe she really is Dr. Chiba's brain in a new, female idol body.

Ah, right. I'm thinkin' too twentieth-century with physical consoles.

In that case... party on, Freyja.

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0K4hwLszLjbl3LBS/giphy.gif

Heck, the 31 might not even have flight controls in the back like the 25 did.

Also: Is there ROOM in the cockpit for that arms-extended fist-flailing thing? It is fun as heck to watch, but I can't help thinking she oughta be pounding the crap out of something.

Probably safe to assume that the backseater position in the 31s are mostly devoid of any equipment save for a monitor. From what we've seen, anything in the back is mostly done through holographic interfaces (e.g. Reina in episode 1).

I always thought DRYL and Frontier movies weren't canon, but NUNS propaganda.

I seem to recall that the DRYL is a movie released in universe for the launch of Megaroad I, and Frontier movies are just NUNS attempt to cover up things that went weird in the actual Frontier universe...

As said before the Max/Milia courtship in fighter combat sounds much better than having one stalking the other only to realize the other wants to gut him with a knife.

As per SK, both Frontier TV series and movies have the same level of canonicity. Actually, IIRC, everything Frontier related has the same level of canonicity now, which, while frustrating for some fans, allows them to pull from wherever they ant to without issue.

I would be looking to ships that already have a model built that they can stick there without a ton of hassle. The only time we've seen a Meltran ship outside of DYRL is Fleet of the strongest Women, I think. That makes it a very unlikely candidate. I'd think more along the lines of something they've got laying around. My money is on an Uraga, which kinda fits the two pointy bits and shape.

Alternatively, they DID build a model of the Meltran gunboat and that's why the Valk dancing backgrounds in this episode were really low budget.

It looks to be hand drawn though.