1/1 LowViz Lurker

Well I'm in brissy and this was in the chinatown area in a tiny tiny import store (dont know the name) somewhere in an arcade near lots of restaurants. Sadly I think it is gone now. Me being lazy I never bother to talk to the people to ask if they could order any more of a certain type. Now this is the place where you can get the bandai 1/55 at the $250aud price and the banprestos for $60aud lol These import stores order tiny amounts of stock (consider the size of the 1/48 in relation to the tiny space they have) so I guess you should expect such a high initial price, but for me it's only as a last resort. I prefer shopping for the best deal online searching first for good reputable stores, and then if I can't be bothered, looking for people with good reps on ebay with reasonable shipping. (but never agree to use payment methods that aren't safe) I haven't popped by that place in ages though so it's possible they might have stuff (yeah even low vis) by now, but I doubt it. (I'll lyk next time I pass by again)

Did you notice how much more smarmy and confident max was in the tv series when fighting(and perving at) millia then he was in the movie? In the movie max was actually hit a few times and very worried and his expression was one of surprised and: "OMG I could die any second if I don't move my ass!". Constantly on his toes and alert to the danger of fighting aganist her. But in the tv series it seemed more like millia was blinded by anger and humiliation to be able to concentrate on the fight that her moves (and reflexs) were predictable and slow. Like a bull being led and tricked by a matador. With tv max always in control of the ebb and flow of the fight and much calmer than movie max. I liked the millia in the movie much better than the angry incompetant milia in the tv series for that. (it helps that we actually see her waste a few zentradi violently ) I can only come to the conclusion that: Max tv series is superior to movie max. The movie versions actor must have portrayed him inaccurately to make the movie more apealing. Or maybe he overacted. OR perhaps milia (like sigourney weaver) had too much input into the making of the movie and interfered by demanding that she be portrayed as a strong fighting woman with nothing to fear and no mistakes, as opposed to her real life egotistical and proud self in the tv series, who happened to lose each time the challenge was on. The movie director deciding "WTF, lets just make it so they are mostly evenly matched"

I think it would be interesting if we do a poll if anyone would mind. Then after that, if the people that would mind, won the poll and started acting violently, we then create one anyway. jk (yes I'm bored right now ) Personally this is what I want to see: -An ultimate pack with Roy vf1s complete with strike and super parts plus optional rubber hands or chicken fingers, and the 1/48 gbp armor in case of emergencies. Oh, and instead of stickers, everything will be tampo printed on. Cram it all into as tiny a box as possible and I'll be happy.

amen bro. Which is why my idea that they make a limited edition kakizaki or something to lure away some of the people who have way too much money. It's not easy if you still haven't had your first chance to get Roy heh. I was so pissed when I was just a few minutes late into coming into a store to get roy and then somebody got it before me. Grr.. They should just release a special Roy with FP/Strike combo like they did with 1/60.

I'd wait for the reissues. I want to see super and strike combo deal. Hopefully if enough people can convince the robotech crowd to buy yamato 1/48 valks it might create enough resurgence of interest to make more, so noobs like me can get them at sane price? I also wonder if they will release kakizaki in limited number? If they make it in limited number, it could help boost demand for it, and while people are fighting over Roy, the completists who has everything can get this, leaving us noobs time to catch up? ^ That is my all-time fave character in street fighter alpha series of games. He has like the best normal move combos. I just stole your avatar for future boards. I think he is the only one that can match and defeat akuma's/gouki's? killing moves and in his story he manages to beat him in a death match. (I'ts not fair that a murderer got to kill ryu's/ken's master and other 'old guys' from sfa1 and gets away with it imo) Theoretically it is possible to perform: jab punch>short kick>strong punch>forward kick>fierce punch>roundhouse. Of course that is assuming the dummy you are fighting is not being pushed back, so it is practically impossible to do. But the sheer idea that any normal can be cancelled into more normal moves is awesome.

That's been like that with lots of other stuff in the past like game releases and some import stuff. Also sometimes we don't get certain types of games released here based on certain genres just not being popular with the masses. Also no r rating for games so some get censroed or banned. Sad really. There is one good thing though: dvd players are all region so we can watch imports with no probs. ie my import r1 mac+ dvd works fine. I still think there are cheaper alternatives for us aussies with regards to buying valks. I guess his was an extreme example of needing to go to great lengths to get the items. I doubt it's normal for the average guy to pay that much. (although I have seen 1/48 LV @ $400AUD in a retailer at one time - this was before the price started rising I think. Yeah yeah, macross is a religion to some, but everyone, even fans, have limits. )

Oh well that's life I guess. Sorry to hear that. Just out of curiosity, what did ebay do? And did you get your money back? I always thought they covered you for items under a certain amount or something? (provided secure payment methods are used) There will always be that risk, but so far I have only trusted reputable peeps with high rating and reputation and have managed so far with no probs. As for shops I agree wholeheartedly but HLJ are pretty pricey with shipping. for eg even if all you wanted to do was buy a banpresto valk (say $4aud) you would still have to pay $20aud shipping. hah The key I think is getting a good balance of security (somebody you can trust) with good price. ....still $350 aud for max 1/48, man that is way out my price range. Just out of interest was it super tv max? I saw that for about 260 aud a few months ago incl shipping. Ah, it's HG, they be stunting the success of potential macross fanbase..

I'm leaning towards getting one but I will probably wait for reviews of it before forking out the money. Now I wonder if they will make variantions of the monster and release different paint schemes? It kind of looks a little plain in the shots, so I wonder how it will look with stickers applied? I need something about this size for the banprestos to guard.

Dude I know about the low viz. I once saw that in a china town import store (things are like 3 times the price!!!) and given the rarity now that one might be understandable. But the other stuff (super max 1/48? or just regular without fp?) you are getting ripped off. Try looking around online for better prices. Even with crappier exchange rates (but for now at the time of writing this, the exchange rates aren't bad at all, they are quite good infact: $1 aud = 0.763271 USD) that's too way too high to be paying for them. The qrau's should not be $250 aud. They should be more around the $150aud imo. (that's the red milia with pilot vers) Duuuuuude... you must be buying from one of those tiny import stores that charge 3times the price for things. that's true, the dollar is weaker, but THAT high? No way. It might be that he bought the stuff from a small retailer that stocks very little. I've seen some outrageous prices for things. For example Those little banprestos valks?This will make you laugh: $60 AUD!!! (and these are the plain, non-super or strike part ones!) Anyway whereever he got them from, he should shop around a little for better prices, and order them online from somewhere at more sane prices so he can get more stuff. If you buy from a tiny import retail store with a shopfront, you will probably be paying extra and on top of that, whatever profit they want to make off the sale. (usually they will charge double,triple or whatever price they can get away with) The first time I saw stuff like the banpresto valks at $60AUD or the bandai valks @ $250 AUD, I thought: whoah there is no way a little kid is going to be able to afford to buy any of this stuff let alone an adult who is looking for a toy. (unless it's rare or LE like low vis)

I agree here. Although I don't own many toys, my yamato yf21fp thighs have massive paint chips now. Also when I tried to pose it in gerwalk and I left it alone, the thing fell down off the desk and crashed to the floor cracking the head laser. I bet if the thing had weighed less like the 1/72 vf11b, it would have suffered less shock and still be ok. Too much excess weight is scary.

What they should do is a sidestory on gubaba. I've always wanted to know how he got seperated from his family. You know how sometime his fur goes on edge and he can sense the direction of missing people? I think this will be a key in a future series when a search party is sent to find the megaroad.

hell no, I just assumed that they probably would, because it appeared in dyrl and how easy it would be.

Maybe it all rests on how well Qrau sells? Once they finish releasing the purple (not the blue max one which looks purple, I mean the female purple ones) and maybe green ones, they might think nobody cares for the other mecha and only focus on the VF? Voting with the $ is the key to getting them confident enough to do it. I thought the qrau was expensive but I ate up the cost out of fear that less popular mecha would not get any love. Like I said in another thread, if only macross wasn't so old I bet there would be much more variety in the toy releases. And even though the konig tranforms there are still those who don't think it does anything for them. It's all conditional on how much excitement there is.

Ah, good idea: Maybe to preserve the fanbase we need to create a religion like some people have with star wars. I always thought of the macross as a kind of ark that saved civilisation in the series. They could name it Valkism or Macrossism and recruit new cult members to the cause. I nominate you as leader. The name Macross must not be forgotten. Generations must not fall under the curse of other evil mecha shows. Only the most dedicated can join and you must give up all your material possessions, money, family obligations, and duties to serve the 1/48 VF1..Staues of vf1 will be erected in battroid form to preserve the memory and members can pray and bow down to thier awesome power. /jk

I only just got into them and am happy to still have access to the variety of valks. I had a friend who had bandais but I was not impressed with the posability. Then I saw 1/48s and love the detail on them. To me this toy is an expensive toy that you are not meant to really 'collect' but kind of apreciate for its unique quality above other toys. At least that's the impression I get anyway. (kind of like the image HG are trying to pull off with thier master pieces ) It's kind of like my obsession with games: you tend to apreciate them better when you don't go crazy buying too much at any one time. I don't plan on losing interest, I think love of the series and interest can be expressed not by the size of the collection but just appreciation in general. People talk about interest waning because of the flooded market and being a little spoilt for choice but I think the passion shouldn't be affected by that. Just because you know something is widely available and cheaper than what it once was shouldn't change your attitude should it? I just wish these things were available locally so we can all collect more of them and the masses can start to apreciate the line of toys out there. Imagine going into a shop (non-import) and finally being able to see 1/48s on a shelf and buying them at regular price rather than ordering them from some online shop who has to ship them? Sales for the toy would increase, and maybe jog people's memories if people could see them upclose on display. I know a few people who would buy one on impulse but are too lazy and couldn't be bothered about them by online purchase. It's too bad that macross is an old series. Had these been available when we were little kids they'd probably ensure more variety in the releases because they could ride on the success and freshness of the name. (this is why if they could retell the events with a new cg series to a new generation, it would allow bigger sales of the toys imo You can't rely on an aging fanbase because they are jaded and won't be there forever)

The mistakes where roy rescues hikaru and minmay are funny. They just magically disappear for a while. It's the reba west songs that is hard to erase from your mind when watching macross because they were so repetitive from robotech. One thing I liked about the more about the tv series than the movie was how exedol was just better as a brown skinned alien than a green-skinned alien with a massive head and no hair. Why did they have to go and change him?

The combination of valks and the epic struggle of humans against superior alien force. Like starwars, I love space war epics and the sci fi themes so long as it had enough cool stuff to keep my attention. Of course as a little kid you don't care about romance, but I thought at the time the character design was real and that the kid's piloting those machines were not the usual hero archtype like you usually see in cartoons. The fact that major characters do die and are wiped out and the fact that the story continues (as opposed to having 1 episode wrap everything up in a half hour) over a long period of time were other factors. Even when you are little kid you can sense there is a deep story underneath it all, even if you don't quite pay full attention to it at the time. Actually it wasn't just valks but also the design of the enemy mechas and the destroids. All the mecha design was very cool and the fact that they use the transformations for functional reasons (and not just as a disguise like the transformers) was appealing because many of the ideas showed off the practicality of the mech's to justify why they had been designed the way they were. Eg gerwalks being used to rescue people, battroid to fight in close, fighter for dogfighting. As a kid I had known about other robot shows but I still thought macross stood out, and even the robotech version wasn't that bad in comparison to what was out at the time. I'm sure the vf1 has burnt it's image into all kids minds who had known it as robotech in the us back then and to newer generations. I will never forget the action sequence where hikaru does the barrel roll in gerwalk mode to mow down a swarm of micromissiles or the max and miriya mech duels. Roy's first demonstration of each function in the early episodes made a big impact and helped hook me in permanently, as did the first appearance of the regults which I thought were cool. The bad guys seemed to pilot just as cool machines as the good guys. The war theme as series as it was, was just icing on the cake to me as a kid. Looking back, you don't really care why they are blasting the crap out of each other when you are small. But it does help to set a good realistic backdrop for the mechas to fight in.

I'm confused: So the human race was genetically altered by the pc. Ordinary humans evolve and we are made. but.. Only the alpha bombay-blooded priestesses have the powers connecting them to the bird human which has the powers to lift rocks? (as evidenced by it lifting everything that contains an anti grav generator inside it?) And the shamanic training is the only way to get the rocks floating (without the use of these antigrav machines, since the pc and the people directly descended from them through blood, came from the subuniverse, therefore being able to see or feel these spirits/kaduns that we average people can't see?) What I am wondering is whether the rocks float because of the runes on them, or if they float because of something the bird human's body parts are doing whenever sara communicates with it. I'm thinking she has some telepathic link to the bird human, and like a wireless radio controlled toy, she can manipulate this machine so that the gravity is lessened on the painted rocks which results in the rocks floating. Just an idea. This way, whenever enough negative emotion (say like extreme fear or trauma) is induced in her, she is able to move the head and body closer together based on this "head moves closer to body when people are possessed by evil thoughts/intentions" rule. Either that, or the head and body have a life of thier own and move together by themselves. So that when enough hate and war is in people's hearts, it speeds up the decision to destroy the world. The prophecys timing is conditional on whether love can postpone the coming of the end.... ..but the end is still inevitable based on imperfection in humans who always fight all the time. We failed the test even in the old days when we had primitive weapons and were easily corrupted. Sara's inability to prevent her blood being handed out was just part of the prophecised end of the world. So..Hasford then asks sara to please speed the process up so that the war can end and a new age of peace can begin. (so that the world can be remade from the ashes of the destruction of the old powers; like the phoenix) He was probably ignorant of any future possibility that aliens would come to earth, and thought the prophectic "end of the world" all the legends were reffering to had something to do with the war the anti-un were having with the un instead of alien invasion. All this, given that it would have been a global world war where man would fight to the death until extinct; until 1 side won or both sides destroyed each other to not let one side gain control of the world. (ie mass nuking all over the world? ) But given that shin prevents this process from happening, and the bird human folds away, history is changed and the "end of the world" prophecy is postponed till much later. ie the end of the world actually occurs when the Zentradi unleash thier beams of death all over earth in sdf:macross, ....thus creating a new beginning. Man truly finds peace after the last threat (Kamjin who is defeated in a final battle) is wiped off earth in 2012 when the 'new age' begins as promised in the legends of all the ancient cultures. As a sidenote: I think the real end might have something to do with resources than aliens which is why I think we are being bombarded with environmental preachiness.(ie our future is grim, prepare to go back to a less comfortable form of living or kill your neighbour for survival. ) So in mac 0, the end of the world did NOT occur at all. Love saved the day and the future "new" world (the one that hasford mentioned before he dies) is the one that is rebuilt after SW I. Is that correct? The end is supposed to be 2012 so hasford was a bit too early to be the crucual player he assumed he was.

Is it possible that the floating rocks were a result of manipulation of energy through the subuniverse? We see sara able to see the Kaduns (as black shapes surrounding the weapons) when she is looking at the world through the afos. So she wasn't just being superstitious as others had thought. We see sara able to create an energy barrier around her body when she breaks the fall when shin and herself are descending after thier floating rock, which they are riding on, starts to crumble when Nora shoots it. We also explicitly see them performing some kind of magic ritual on mao to bring her back to consciousness and awaken some new dormant power inside her. So is is possible that those rocks with the glowing runes on them were a result of energy beings (nature spirits) that live in this sub universe who can be used to manipulate certain forces in nature? Like say, gravity, wind, the ability to heal the forest etc anything to explain all the magic (floating rocks) that happens in macross zero? I find it hard to believe Sara has some kind of technology inside her body that allows her to create barrier or levitate. I've always thought the emotions and intent were factors in whether the protection spell or curse would work. She is using the staff in a threatening way as if it would really do harm on a spiritual level. Keep in mind she has the usual heightened senses like seeing into the future (first episode where she foresees roy's fight in the battroid) seeing in the dark well, sensing danger from nature etc. (in the first episode she mentions kadun of water, which I assume are the antiun submarine and octos that would threaten shin if they didn't let him stay on thier land longer to heal - this came from her merely putting her hands next to her ears as if she can hear them) When she is talking about kadun's and how they can possess the person, and when we actually see these things literally moving around in episode5 you got to wonder how they relate to the beings in the sub-universe. Everytime she sings she is creating energy for the plants to grow. But Hasford refers to this energy as not just vibrations in the air but something happening on the spiritual plane as well. ie meaning there is something magical happening too; as in like you would see happen with a healing 'spell'. The singing being the conjuring up of this spell, and the effect being a faster recovery from illness and disease. Why does the singing have a healing effect? Why does the blood sample become active from the song? The rocks themselves can't be alive so it must have something to do with the person who can control and manipulate these sentient lifeforms living in this other universe. My theory has always been that the emotions and mind of the person play an important role and the spirits are atracted to you based on what emotions there are going on in the brain. (anger, hate, revenge etc being emotions where you are possessed by kadun. This offering an explaination as to why shin is sayin that sara is possessed in ep 5 because she is reacting angrily and causing destruction with it. While earlier the head glows in response to love. ie shin + mao kissing. so the feelings and intent of the person play a role in what can happen)

Ah yes Hikaru deserves it, but even when she is off duty she pretends to still be superior. She wouldn't even relax at the bar with Roy. And in the Tv series, the bridge bunnies thought of her as loving her job a little too much, almost overstepping her own duty to tell others HOW to do thier own jobs instead of assigning them the task and leaving it at that. There's a certain loneliness in misa when she is given time off. You sense that in the tv series where she has to admit to herself that she has nobody to turn to for comfort. And if the war ever ended, I doubt she would find that much hapiness. Like sara and maybe even the zentradi she was "trained" that way. But we want to know who the real misa hayes is. Like with Millard in Mac+ who pretended to be all strict and proper at first but then admits later he was once a reckless pilot like Isamu who broke all the rules. It brings more sense to his behaviour at the inquiry where Guld's rep was at stake and he defended him. Sometimes the people in charge are just plain wrong and need to be reminded that taking and following those orders are a means to an end. (ie saving lives. even global screwed up with the "folding near the planet" idea, which claudia was against all along, and which global had to admit was stupid because of all the people that were endangered. Imagine if you were one of the poor bastards on the promethues who died instantly? People no matter thier position, should be held accountable for mistakes too - everyone has flaws that makes them more likable.) Also in the series we see that Global was close to Admiral Hayes and remarked about how Misa's own dad was a rule breaker too. ....so in the end it is up to misa to not be so bossy in her personal life if she is ever to find love. People in real life are turned off by that. It drives them away. Misa's bitchiness was not so much that she was good at her job and used her authority in the correct way, but in the fact that she thought she had to define her entire identity BY her job so that she wasn't being herself half the time. The tv series misa showed the vulnerability in interesting situations that the movie may not have been able to show due to time. There was one thing that really summed up misa's loneliness: when her dad asked if she had found anyone special yet. Misa's attitude of going above the call of duty at the expense of opening her heart up to stop hiding behind this tough facade, had practically ensured she would become the old lady others had jokingly reffered to her as. Because in real life you would not want to go out with misa, she would scare you away. Once you "become your job" off duty, (this was not the real misa) others can't relax and it makes them feel uncomfortable to be around you. It's not just her reputation as the admiral's daughter, but the fact that she felt as if she had to live up to that repution amoungst her own friends, who just want her to be happy. She was miserable throughout the whole tv series until she finally hooked up with hikaru, you can tell by her expression and mood. A similar thing happened with Shin in episdoe 1 of macross 0, where he had not learnt to relax and laugh once in a while. So, there are many occasions in the tv series where you really get to know the character in depth that a movie may not be able to cover. Just little things like when global had observed that misa hadn't been happy and was surprised to see her laugh during the episode where they are using a lift to go down the grand cannon, or that one 1 touching moment where she looked at max's baby and wanted to play with it, and everyone had noticed a "soft" misa - almost pitying her for not having a baby of her own. I know it might seem boring if you've been over it several times, but it makes the characters that much more likeable if you've accepted both the series and movie as complementary. I would never try to watch the series in 1 go because it puts me to sleep but I would put it up there with DYRL as a classic despite the choppy frames, poorer action scenes, and less tightly-compressed timing of events. In the tv series it almost feels like 3 years had passed, just based on the 'long journey' where in the movie, the events seem more like 1 week. There's nothing wrong with either, but for many people, seeing characters slowly growing and maturing and revealing little details was as important as all the cool stuff in the movie. If I had never seen the tv series I don't think I would apreciate the movie as much.

Actually early on, she was kind of playing the tough fearless superior (partly she feels as if men like hikaru insult her for 'being a woman') and applying this to her personal life. (pretty much faithful to the tv series imo) I found her to be the type of person that you wouldn't be able to relax around which is why she broke down and acted all feminine on earth and pretended that there was food to eat and drinks to drink. Remember Roy and Hikaru both wish she would just act more like a woman. It was almost too much for her to keep the tough act up anymore after the realisation that she wasn't in control, she wasn't able to ensure victory, she wasn't able to be perfect as she so wanted to be. Like Sara in mac 0, she's human like the rest of us and has feelings too. (and not just to her job and the sdf1 ) That's what I like about the characters they grow on you over time. The theme I see is like in macross +, the reckless extroverted types always get to teach the introverted ones a lesson. But in the tv series we are exposed to the reasons she acts the way she does: Because she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her dad and make a name for herself and be proud and because of her former boyfriend. In the movie we just see a flashback in her daydream which isn't as detailed or doesn't get the audiences sympathy as much. About her toughness and need to live up to her name: This is very interesting to me because her dad was not perfect. He made big mistakes by risking human lives just so he could see if he could take a strong position in future negotiations with the Zentradi. I thought Global was a more fitting father to misa than her own dad was. This sort of stuff is better suited for tv series where "it is long and dragged out". You get to be the fly on the wall and see thier life story and how they can change. Audiences can then sympathise with them better this way because it is all a rollercoaster ride and we were there riding on it with the characters. It's like in an earlier episode you can say: God this characters sucks he/she is such a jerk. But then later you think: "Yeah I'm starting to feel for them now that I know what a farked up history they must have had growing up and how they still hold onto demons with part of them living in thier past. Given the circumstances I would have behaved the same way if I were in thier shoes now.." This is what movies and tv shows can do, they may change your real life perceptions of certain types of people over time. I think they are both good. I didn't necessarily think one was better than the other just that they were different and unique ways of showing how a career can get in the way of a relationship and split two people apart. If you had a girlfriend who suddenly became famous and was so busy that her fans, relatives, and work got more attention than little old you, you would slowly feel insignificant and bitter that you were no longer an important part of her life. You would still love her, but also be resentful that you chose to be in the military when part of the reason you chose to be in the military was to be the noble knight trying to protect her. I guess the lesson the tv series is that people need to do things for reasons other than love and try to apply it on a bigger macrocosmic level. ie Minmay no longer sang just for fans but for sdf1 and the people to survive, (the world was depending on her to sing) Hikaru no longer served in the military just to protect minmay, and instead decided it was for bigger reasons, the whole human race was relying on him in a herioc messianic sense. (which is part of the reason I think they play the little white white dragon theme song for him in the episode where they defeat bodolza, to mock the hero archtype in the movie by the same name.) In the movie the theme was women trying to overpower men and denying thier femininity toward them in thier personal life. (the zentradi women fighting the zentradi men was similar to misa fighting hikaru because of this superiority complex where thier sex is used to put people in thier place. "Hmph! Does he think men are better than women?!" But it still stays true to the Microcosmic level being applied on the macroscosmic level like the series. I liked both but like I said, they complement each other. For exaample I thought the tv series helped explain better why they needed giant robots (to fight giants of course) why the sdf1 wasn't being destroyed in those 6 months when the zentradi clearly outnumber them, why civilians were being brought onboard a ship when it was in danger of attacks, why the humans didn't just fold thier asses out of the harms way of the zentradi. (in the tv series the fold generators just vanaished but at least we know this. In the movie: no explanation). Movies will always be easier on the eyes (for example I loved transformers the movie, but didn't much like the tv series that much) but remember: it is the series that gets people interested in the first place which decides whether a movie should even be made. I think writers, mecha designers, guys who come up with the conepts for the battle scenes, and character designers play an equally important part to making something a timeless classic as much as the quality of the animation does. If the characters are too flat and cookiecutter, the dialogue cheesy, the mecha design unappealing, I don't care how great the animation looks, I probably won't be fanatical enough to want to see a movie of that thing made.

I'm sad to see Evirus is gone. I used to imagine Minmay was singing about an evil dragon named 'evirus' that was finally slain by the main hero. In order to save the world the 'little white dragon' would need to beat the big black dragon known as evirus, using his martial arts techniques.

Keep in mind too that the antiun could use subversive tactics to get thier tech. After all, it was thought by Roy that Ivanov was dead in mac zero right? There could even be secret sympathisers within the UN itself whose history just haven't been found out yet. Unless there was some kind of mcarthy era-style paranoia over people's loyaylty to the UN, people may not know the true intentions of the people they work with. Hasford could have pretended all along to be friends with the UN and then decide at the last minute, nah, I think I'll join up with the opposition. And this is why all the surpise. They never 'disapeared', or were 'killed' which might have been the official story, they in fact escaped but it would have been embarassing for the government to admit in public. So unless they are assasinated and thier valuable knowledge kept under control, there is always the chance of the antiun managing to gain power secretly. Look at the octos. A variable submarine! It's arrogant to think technology can't be stolen and that just because you have the best weapons in the world they can't be taken and used against you or the information about how to build them can't be handed out.

Do we know that it didn't? Why was the ship so valuable to the zentradi that they wouldn't dare want to hurt it? Even exedol had no record of this and hes the zentradi cheif archivist. Maybe we didn't understand it, or just couldn't find materials on earth to repair it properly? I remember Claudia saying :"That's what you get for recycling parts.." after the incdient where the antigrav things burst through the sdf1. If something is damaged and you don't even know how it works and you try to use parts that you think should be ok, but aren't tested (and the sdf1 was an untested ship) then all sorts of unexpected things will happen. They were probably concentrating on other things as we didn't see hover cars or vehicles to indicate man had mastered antigrav yet to be able to make just anything float. We don't even know if man used clean (and safe) free energy systems yet. Weren't conventional cars still being used which indicates they need fuel? The vf1's were the cutting edge so that's thier excuse for using advanced technology. The governments always use technology first on military defense and weapons,.....and then consumer products later. (after all, what good is having valuable things on your land if you can't defend it from enemies?) In the future when the world runs out of natural resources how are we going to power our machines? We are going to need to find a way to renew the resources or rape another planet of its resources if we want to remain at a sustainable level of comfortable living that we have enjoyed in our industrialised society. This is why all the hippy environmental protection programs because the elite want to put us back in the stone age so they can keep the dwindling supplies for themselves. (controlling the prices will ensure they are kept in power and so long as they can suppress knowledge about alternative theories of efficient and free energy production, then they are happy.) To me, the forest being a renewable resource for the primitives is a perfect example of people living in harmony with thier god and with nature. They don't need to rape other planets for resources because everything they have is recreated and recycled. The priestess I assume had the ability to read the intent of the whites and could see they were possessed by a kadun of greed (eg hasford using bribes to get the information about afos to use in the next generation of weapons) and this is reflected to by the ability of the afos to read the emotions of the pilot and see the black demon thingys that had possessed the people using the weapons (monster) against it. Maybe the afos provides the pilot with the goggles to see what can't be seen? (the evil living in the sub-universe) Because we only believe what we can see, we think of it all as just fantasy like Shin in episode 1 whose dream is to just end war by fighting in it; who merely wants a world which ceases to shake. (because of the constant bombs and devastation and killings probably) To me those black clouds are probably symbolic of the similar mistake of the PC whose accidental unleashing of demons from this subuniverse resulted in extinction. If people fail to recognise the evil intents within themselves, the wars will keep going and people like shin etc won't realise thier dream.

The floating rocks had special runes on them. Maybe this had something to do with them bieng able to float? Remember the intent of the shamen/magician is as important to the singing or spellcasting itself. Without one, the thing you are trying to make happen can fail. When sara started singing her song of creation and the plants started growing, that was because she had her heart set on healing the forest. Now remember Hasford's speech about how music is not just the vibrations of wind, but a magical thing that touches people's soul? The earth itself and the plants and animals all can sing to manipulate things on the spiritual plane. Nature itself (including the control of gravity and maybe even wind) was being controlled through magic to make those mysterious rocks move like that. It's hard when you think about it from a technological perspective (especially because people think primitive cultures can't do anything like produce rain on demand for eg) but think of it as if the shamen can talk to beings from another parallel world (nature gods, spirit guides) who CAN control the forces of nature to do the person's bidding. This is why I think emotions might have a play on what the birdmech does. "We white people only believe what we can see." In the compendium isn't there mention of a parrallel world? A sub-universe? By dabbling in magic the PC must have unleashed some nasty demons from this realm by mistake. And they were able to combine technology and thier know how of this alternate universe to create biomechanical machines to synthesise the magical effects of a shamanic spell. It's hard to swallow but if somebody here knows a shamen and can ask them to perform a rain dance to see if it really works... maybe people's beliefs about an alternate dimension beyond what we can see will change.. It was known that hitler was into the occult (just watch the indiana jones moviies) but because all this knowledge is supposed to be secret "occult", it is natural for the priestessess to want to hide and keep these secrets from the destructive white people who are likely to see them as witches and hunt them down, if not steal it and take the power for themselves. Knowledge about this alternate realm is supposed to be forbidden knowledge to those who can't control thier evil urges in the material world. Because the PC failed, (the accidental unleashing of demons for war, which got out of control?) maybe it is the human race that needs to take the torch and avoid the misuse of the magic power? (ie using music and love songs to undo the damage the pc caused)