Radd

Mikhail, dead? That seems like a really odd conclusion to come to. Injured, sure, but he didn't actually look to be bleeding any more than Isamu by the end of Macross Plus. You really don't think Alto or Luca could have rescued him, it didn't seem to be Sheryl they were bringing the medical cot out for when the group of them arrived back at the Quarter. I'll be incredibly surprised if Mikhail is dead.

You know, we really don't have enough information to declare that all the current fleets act so independently. It's fine speculation, but I don't know that anyone should be taking it as fact. We know there are differences between the fleets, and that some fleets have, apparently, different local laws, but we don't really have any solid information beyond that. It's entirely possible that Glass is the President of the entire New UNG, and that other fleets would be required to get his permission to break out the reaction weaponry. Just food for thought.

This wasn't exactly the final episode, you really think that's the end of the Vajra? Let alone the conspiracy we're seeing the edges of. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the Galaxy fleet is more or less intact, sitting on the sidelines as this plot plays out. I'm certainly expecting we'll see more of the Vajra. Plus, Alto didn't exactly save the day here. To be quite honest, he had his thunder stolen right out from under him. Not to mention the influence Ranka might have had on what was done. I mean, I know they haven't come right out and said, "Ranka's some sort of Vajra queen!" or anything like that, but they did say right out that Ranka's some sort of Vajra queen. Just putting that out there. But ja, Brera Stern kinda stole his spotlight and came off as being the one who rescued the girl and ushered in the changing tide of the battle as far as the Frontier fleet is likely concerned. That's build-up right there, not climax. That said, I do believe there's been pacing problems in the series since episode one. Poor pacing, and often cramming too much into an episode has really drained all the dramatic impact out of a lot of scenes that should have been great. On the other hand, I didn't think this episode suffered that nearly as much as some of the earlier episodes, and it did have a couple great moments, such as Sheryl's failed escape followed by Luca's failed rescue, finally culminating in the arrival of a very determined Alto. On the other hand, though they said that the battle was a stalemate in the war room shots, all the battle shots showed SMS and NUNS pilots smacking Vajra around like so many red-headed stepchildren. Like I said though, the directing and pacing problems of Frontier have been there since the start, I just don't see this episode being any worse in that regard.

Heh, I brought up Ender's Game in the "Watch Aliens Much?" thread after last week's episode, as in I felt it was reminding me more of that than Aliens. Still is. That's not to say it seems too close to Ender's game. I'm digging the similarities. It's still definitely Macross and not an anime rehash of Ender's Game. And it does seem like there's already more to it than a tragic misunderstanding between the Vajra and NUNS fleets. I mean, it's right out there that there's a conspiracy going on, and we're only like halfway through the series so there's quite a bit more to come, too.

Probably, ja.

In addition to the song name, there's also the symbolism. That humans were bringing culture and love and all that good stuff back to the Zentradi who'd lost it long ago.

Er...while I'll grant there's some broad similarities, I think it's a bit much to say it's a rehash of Aliens, especially with so much yet to be revealed. So far though, I can't recall multiple government/corporate entities in Alien, one of whom was trying to ensure war between the humans and aliens. To be honest, I came away from episode 13 with a distinct Ender's Game vibe, regarding the Vajra. Things are getting interesting.

I'm all about the VF-4, my all-time favourite Valkyrie. Has my favourite fighter mode, and my favourite battroid mode. Past that, probably the VF-14 or the VF-5000. I've got a special place in my heart for the ugly duckling VA-3. Not every Valkyrie needs to be a sports car. Macross needs more of that variety.

Actually, ship designs do tend to get mass produced. Also, the mass-produced Megaroad design also had the ARMD platforms connected to the sides, in exactly the same way as the original Macross. The original Macross was designed to dock that way with the ARMD platforms, it was intentional, not a spur of the moment necessity. Also, it's still unclear if the DYRL design is the official look of the SW1 Macross, or if the tv design is, and the DYRL look came about only after its refit. In which case, the DYRL look is significantly different than the orginal, and I could certainly see them building further such vessels that take advantage of what they learned from both the reconstruction of the SDF-1 and the post-war refit. Of course, that runs headlong in the realm of pure fan speculation.

Longer than that if we don't speak Japanese, and would rather wait than hear spoilers from those who do. Unless the fansubbers really outdo themselves.

I threw my vote away on a red headed meltrandi third party. But I believe they are the candidate who best represents my values.

Regarding the Macross' condition post-refit, I believe it's mentioned in the Compendium that it was kept as the flagship of the Earth Defense fleet for quite a while, as in an active battleship, before being retired to a more ceremonial/command position on Earth. Of course, we saw in Macross Plus that the ship was flight ready with no non-automated prep work. On the other hand, I'm not certain why people bring up Occam's Razor in defense of it being the SDF-1 Macross. If anything, it seems to require more assumptions than the idea that the UN continued building ships of that class to accompany colony fleets. If we assume that the UN continued building ships of the class, then you just need to assume such an accompanied colony fleet came through the general area and had a run in with someone, possibly the Vajra which we know are in the area. That's pretty much it. If we assume that it's the SDF-1, we must have some scenario which would bring the SDF-1 Macross to this far-off planet, which in itself would require many assumptions. What made Earth unsafe? Why take the Macross? Why not take it somewhere friendly to whatever side controlled Earth? Was everyone against the Earth for some reason? Was it the UN forces that moved the Macross, or was it someone else? Was there one more magical Robotech mystery left in the ship? I could go on, but you should get the point. There's more questions to be asked if it is the SDF-1 than if it's not. I'm still content to be blissfully agnostic, just saying that Occam's Razor may not be leaning towards the conclusion everyone seems to be saying it is. I'd also like to point out that there is a NUNS presence on the planet, and they seem to have not noticed the old style battle fortress that seems to be relatively close to the base.

Not very much time, by the looks of the Chronology. They began pumping out colony fleets very quickly. The factory satellite and fold technology provide the perfect plot devices to open the resources of the solar system to mankind at the writer's convenience. And, of course, we already know that Zentradi cloning practices were put to use to beef up Earth's population at an unprecedented rate, at least for a brief period early in the colony program.

Also, what's all this talk about lacking resources? After Space War I mankind had more resources available than at any previous point in human history.

I am not going to speculate on what it is we're looking at at the end of episode 12. I'm just going to throw out a couple things I noticed, that I have not seen anyone bring up yet. First, Alto referred to the Quarter at the end of episode 7, the same way he refers to the WTF-1 at the end of episode 12, "Macross!" Given that, isn't it safe to assume Battle 7 could have been sitting there and he probably would have said the very same thing? Second, well this isn't a statement or anything, more of a question. How "official" is Macross VO? Because in that game a ship more or less identical to the SDF-1 Macross is featured, but it's referred to as the SDF-9 or Megaroad 3 or something. I forget exactly, but it was not supposed to be the Macross by my understanding. Third, just how "wrecked" is the WTF-1? I mean, seriously. We do not see it clearly in the show. It certainly appears dirty. It definitely looks as though it has been sitting there for a very long time with no one dusting it off and cleaning the windows. But is it really wrecked? I imagine we'll find out next episode when Alto and Ranka go exploring, but in the meantime I'd say it's jumping to conclusions to say it's a wreck. Again, not speculating, not debating. Just tossing things out there. Given how quickly 12 came out, we might have our answers in 3-4 more days.

You're drunk!

I really should get around to selling some of my old TFs. I've got a bunch of RiD, some Armada, and a few of the early G1 reissues like Hot Rod and Optimus Prime. None of them exactly mint in box, but, aside from maybe two, they're all in really nice condition. Like, "if you could seal the packaging back up to look like new, you'd never know that the toy had ever been out of the box" nice.

Ja, the CG was pretty poor for ILM in many scenes. Even the sound also seemed kinda weak sauce at times. Seemed very odd for something that ought to have been a flagship title for everyone involved.

This whole fiasco with the seekers has really only reinforced my desire not to get into Classics. Just not worth it if there's going to be this much hassle to get a few figures I really want. I'll stick with the occasional Masterpiece or Binaltech release.

If that's legit, I'm Hugh Hefner. That's not even a convincing fake. One glance and it's obvious that it's fan made. That said, it's not bad fanwork, but obviously the work of a talented amateur, rather than a skilled professional. In addition to the quality of the Photoshop work done for that poster, the contents of the composition make it clear that it's not something Harmony Gold would do.

Only one way to find out.

The sci-fi elements didn't bother me one bit, but a lot of the people I saw the movie with felt that it ruined it for them. One of the things I thought they did perfectly was to place Indy in the 50's. There was that 50's flavour everywhere. McCarthyism, nukes, jets. The video quality seemed to have this texture to it that made me think of old movies, too. Something I've not felt about any contemporary movie in quite some time. If it weren't for the blatantly CG animals being dropped into any scene they could be squeezed into, I would have probably praised this movie for managing that. They weren't anything to really ruin the movie, but they were certainly groan-worthy. Some real animals in some of those shots would have looked better, and not detracted so much from the flavour of the film, which it otherwise succeeded with remarkably. Also, there was one loose end that was never, ever really tied up.

Didn't care for Fist Full of Energon, the moral of the story seemed kinda...off.

Just got back from the theatre. Absolutely loved the movie. It's not without it's flaws, Lucas and Spielberg both seem to have lost touch with that intangible quality the ancients called "subtlety". There were a couple of scenes that really would have benefited from it. I did like the 1950's flavour to the movie. It felt like Indiana Jones, 20 some years later. At the same time, it felt like a 1950's pulp adventure, every bit as much as the previous movies felt like 1930s serials. Being a fan of both, I rather liked the transition. The CG critters really were too much. Too many, too often, and too blatantly CG. But still, loved it. Best movie from Spielberg or Lucas in years. That I've seen at least. I heard Munich was good.