Radd

That's pretty much the exact opposite impression I came away from it with.

I still really think people are taking Bilrer's comment far too literally. There is nothing that leads me to believe that he actually thought he was going to meet Minmay, and I don't believe the scene suggested anything of the sort, either. I stand by my earlier comments regarding that scene.

Long ago I came to grips with the fact that I'm not really any good at rating my favourites amongst a franchise. I see it as one big whole. I really enjoy Frontier, though. There are aspects that I believe it achieved far better than its predecessors, and there are aspects where I felt that it fell well short of them. It's given me some high expectations for future Macross productions, and some high hopes that we'll be seeing more in the not so distant future, given the popularity Frontier seems to be enjoying.

I loved the show. I gotta say that I don't really see many plot holes. Everything I've heard people bring up as a plot hole had some background to it. While I'd agree some parts of the story were a bit rushed, I'd say it was more a dramatic/editing problem. Story-wise, everything came together pretty nicely. I do agree that once everything is revealed, Macross Frontier is a simple story that is made out to be more complex than it is due to the slow way that everything is revealed. I don't see there being anything wrong in that, it makes you think as the show progresses despite the story not being all that complex. Like pieces of a puzzle slowly coming together. The picture at the end is easy enough to understand, it's getting there that's the fun part.

Fantastic episode. I had what I believed would be unrealistically high expectations, and it still managed to exceed them overall. Only read to about page 7 of the thread, though. I'm wondering if I've been seeing the same show as some of the people who have been posting. At least I didn't see anyone posting about how they didn't understand why the Vajra were suddenly on Frontier's side, seeing as how there were people posting about how they were looking forward to seeing Frontier triumph over the evil alien Vajra as recently as episode 24. Duke, I'd say Bilrer's line about "Soon I'll be able to meet you" was supposed to be ambiguous. Mr. Bilrer's intentions were never very clear, and some scenes portrayed him in such a way that we might think he was looking to exploit the Vajra for his own purposes (and many did come to that conclusion). However, it being revealed that he was waiting to see "Minmay" (that is to say, two races completely alien to each other being brought together by an outreach of culture) shows that he wasn't a bad guy at all, and his talk of "bringing the galaxy together" was a talk of idealism, not opportunism. It's not something to ignore, it's a bit of character development for Bilrer.

At this point, I seriously doubt it. Grace and Leon are the bad guys, it's the Vajra who are being invaded. They've gone so far as to point this out explicitly in the dialogue, reinforcing the idea with the reverse DYRL ending with Frontier playing the part of the Bodol fleet. I suspect before the end of the final episode both Leon and Grace come to their respective ends, and peace is made with the Vajra. Of course, they could do something like Grace takes over the Queen and so both have to be destroyed and Ranka winds up new Queen of the Vajra when the dust settles. Either way, it will be a serious curve ball ending if the Vajra wind up wiped out.

What makes you think the Vajra are a product of the Protoculture? Sure, there's some hints in that they have similar markings to the Mayan markings we saw in Zero, but on the other hand we also had a narration stating that neither the Protoculture, nor any race descended from the Protoculture or their works, had managed to get around the limitations of fold technology. The Vajra clearly have. The last time I brought that up, someone did chime in with assurance that the narration had not been mistranslated. Still, translation is a tricky business, while technically correct the way in which it was translated may not be the meaning that was intended, so there's wiggle room for debate as to the origin of the Vajra. I'm inclined to believe that there is enough to suggest a relation to the Bird Man, and so the Protoculture. However, if that is not stated, definitively and without question, by the end of the final episode, then it would appear to me that this link was not something the writer intended, and therefore lead me to believe that there is no connection and any aesthetic similarities are either coincidence, the same designers working on the projects (or just Kawamori himself), or intended as a nod to Zero, without the intent of being an outright story connection. Also, no, it's pretty clear that command ships have their own Queen-like entities, and there is a main Queen on the planet seen in the last couple episodes. They also established that multiple nodes in a fold network would be more powerful than the typical nodes, and the core node would have ultimate power over the rest. A hierarchy. Regarding Sheryl's homelessness, no we've never been lead to believe that there is no homelessness on the colony ships. In Macross 7 we see an entire slum area. Also, any song she sings emits fold waves. This is a byproduct of her late-stage V-type infection. The comments about Sheryl's singing had more to do with her attitude and personality, which had evolved over the course of the series.

Heh. Looks like I pretty much called it. Looking forward to the final episode.

Didn't we catch a glimpse of a flight suit and helmet way back when? Like his VF-27 got shook up and the hologram interior faded for just a moment?

That's early production footage that appeared at a concert. Either the colours for Alto's fighter changed between then and the first episode, or the image quality just did not provide accurate colours. That colour scheme did not actually appear in any episode of the series, unless I'm mistaken.

Ah, you're right.

Whether or not the Vajra planted the eggs there during the early battles, it still comes down to Grace and Galaxy bringing the Vajra to Frontier in the first place. What I got from one of the more recent episodes is that Grace did not expect the attack which came from those eggs hatching. So I'd guess it was the Vajra themselves, from possibly the battle in episode 1 (rather, the remaining Vajra which were then fought in episode 2 or 3). As for why, I'd say the most reasonable answer is that the Vajra, who were under attack and being invaded decided to plant a booby trap in case these invading aliens continued to try and wipe them out.

Well, then we've got evidence, that at face value would seem contradictory. Of course, there's wiggle room for further explanation, but we'll see. You know, it's entirely possible that the Nome earrings were not originally fold crystals, but that Mao replaced the original crystals while part of the science team studying the Vajra. Maybe to sneak some fold crystals out for whatever reason. Or maybe it wasn't Mao, but Grace who did it. That is, if it was done at all. Just on possibility that could make sense given a bit more context. We'll see.

In one of the earlier episodes it was stated that neither the Protoculture, nor any Protoculture spawned race could overcome the limits of fold technology. Fold crystals seem key to the Vajra ability to overcome those limits. Of course, the narration may have been mistranslated, so...

Nobody has said that Frontier shouldn't defend themselves, that's the thing.

Case in point.

We've still been seeing comments suggesting that a significant number of people still haven't figured out that Galaxy is behind the Vajra attacks, and that the Vajra themselves might not be quite the merciless killing machines Grace would have everyone believe.

Actually, this was covered. The only reason the Vajra have been attacking Frontier is because of Grace and those she is working with. They have been causing the attacks, using fold waves to goad the Vajra to Frontier. Of course, as things have continued on, it's become a self-perpetuating cycle of attacks, which is exactly what Grace wanted.

Er...that's not a new revelation. That was pretty clear when she left, and had been shown to be the direction she was going long before she left.

Yup, that's the one, but even that one is different. Neat head design, though. I'm out of ideas. I'd love to see those included in this line.

I've actually started breaking the Wii out again. Mostly Mario Galaxies and No More Heroes, but I'll probably break out Wii Sports and the party crowd games when I have people over for an apartment warming party. I still need to set up the router and Wii so that I've got it online again, lot of stuff I want to nab from WiiWare and the Virtual Console. Once I've beaten those, I've still got to finish Metroid and Zelda. Couple revamps of previous generation games I never got around to, might pick them up, too. Haven't looked in a while, but pretty much seems there's been some great multiplayer games coming out for it, but not a whole lot else. If this gaming streak keeps up, I'll probably start considering a 360 now that they've dropped to reasonable prices. Have to see if there's any significant differences between the PC and 360 versions of the new Bionic Commando. Hmmm, actually have to see if there's even a PC version of Dead Space coming. That looked pretty interesting.

"Character designs that you'd see in a comedy show"?

Ai-kun probably would be violent if goaded with the same stimulus used to provoke the other Vajra, now that he's out of his larval stage. Like other Vajra, he would not be violent towards Ranka of course. Ai-kun didn't move beyond his larval stage until after that last attack which left much of Frontier in ruins.

Wasn't the more detailed head used on that super-deformed VF-4 battroid Kawamori sketch from way back?

Regarding Galaxy, I'm kinda wondering what people expect to be revealed? Through Grace we already know most of the pertinent information. We know their immediate goals, and enough to infer their long-term goals. All we need to know about who they are could be taken care of in a couple minutes , beyond that would be akin to demanding to know Leon's favourite cereal, and where he went to highschool. I really doubt a second season of Frontier will materialize. Another new Macross next year? Possibly. Almost likely with the popularity Frontier has enjoyed, but a second season? I don't expect there will be enough loose ends left for one to run with.