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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    It is noted to be possible to use a miclone system to turn a human into a giant. It's also been shown to work on Zolans, with the Zolan conservationist Graham Hoyly having used one to become a giant for the sake of hunting the white Galactic Whale. The implication being that it'll work on any sub-Protoculture species... though it's also noted that some individuals may experience complications with the procedure due to how it acts upon their genetic structure. The naturally-born Zentradi Klan Klan is obviously the poster child for this, with a genetic quirk that causes the miclone system to convert her to a child form when she becomes a miclone. Michael Blanc is noted to be unable to use a miclone system safely because his mixed Human-Zentradi-Zolan heritage causes issues for the system that could severely sicken or even kill him with repeated usage.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Crunchyroll only has Legend of Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These. That seems to be the only LoGH title the major streaming services have.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I don't think it's quite that bad. After the Second Unification War, the New UN Government is letting the individual member governments manage their own affairs with a much greater degree of autonomy. So a scandal occurring at the level of an individual emigrant government isn't likely to impact them unless some bureau under the central government or its armed forces is involved in causing it. For instance, the Sharon Apple incident was a scandal for the New UN Government itself because the Macross Concern and Venus Sound Laboratory were developing the Sharon-type AI under a defense contract awarded to them by the New UN Gov't. Macross Galaxy's bad behavior, on the other hand, was confined to the Macross Galaxy fleet itself and its corporate government so the violations of interstellar laws and treaties by the Galaxy Executives didn't involve the central government except perhaps in terms of prosecuting the offenders after the fact. It's noted in Macross Delta that the New UN Government and the armed forces directly under its purview try to remain neutral in tiffs between the various local governments precisely to avoid ending up in politically difficult situations. Granted, that is what Xaos was hired for. The problem is that, once the Kingdom of the Wind made its formal declaration of war and the Aerial Knights began to operate openly under their nation's banner, Xaos's status as mercenaries and their continued participation in combat between the New UN Forces and Aerial Knights made them unlawful combatants. If they'd left the Aerial Knights alone to focus on protecting Walkure or avoided combat altogether to focus on security for Walkure's anti-Var live concerts they'd have been fine. Of course, participating in espionage is a whole other matter. Even if they were legally considered soldiers and not mercenaries, being caught in disguise and behind enemy lines would also void their legal protectons. In short, Xaos is remarkably blase about knowingly ordering its mercenary forces to violate the laws of war... and its forces are even more shockingly ignorant about the legality of the orders they're following. (Which is still not even in the top five stupid things they've done... nothing will ever top their repeated decision to send the most recognizable celebrities in the entire star cluster on undercover operations behind enemy lines. Especially since those people were also nigh-irreplaceable strategic assets. You'd think they were trying to get Walkure killed, as hard as they work to needlessly endanger them.) They seem to have no problem asking top-tier idols with biological fold wave abilities for their help without having to maintain a captive idol group to recklessly endanger... Of course, we should also note that the only members of Walkure who can actually accomplish anything are Mikumo and Freyja. The other members are repeatedly shown to be pretty useless.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, though when all is said and done the difference between the two seems to mostly come down to the quality and professionalism of their troops. Xaos is amateur hour. They're unprofessional. Uncooperative. Even sloppy. Their recruitment standards are low and their forces are full of troops whose personal problems led them to quit the New UN Forces. They even tolerate downright insubordinate behavior and unnecessary risk-taking from their troops. They don't properly vet their equipment. By comparison, SMS are consummate professionals. Their soldiers are well-drilled, efficient, and motivated. Recruitment standards are high, with troops recruited away from the New UN Forces, who quit the New UN Forces on principle, or who were drawn from top level pilot trainees in vocational programs. They work well in concert with the New UN Forces and on their own. They get better results than Xaos with less powerful or expensive equipment because the quality of their soldiers is so much higher. Basically, you get what you pay for... if you cheap out, you suffer the consequences of having cheaped out. IMO, it's worth more in the long run to spend more and have the peace of mind of a job done well instead of cheaping out and having to clean up the resultant mess.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    The irony in this statement is that for a fair number of those, the show indicates there are/will be consequences... and then just forgets. But yeah, it's bloody awful writing... though looping pack to the question that prompted this, if you were choosing between hiring Xaos and SMS, would you really want to hire the one that's on the wrong side of the law so often? It's not exactly implied that these things are secret... or at least, that the Windermereans are going to go public and condemn Xaos for the illegal clone operation they have going.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah... I can understand wanting to have a morally complex protagonist that isn't simply a White Knight (lol) boldly charging down the Forces of Evil from a position of total moral superiority, but the way Macross Delta handles it is just WEIRD. The writers will bring up something heinous Xaos did, then immediately sweep it under the rug and never mention it again. It's probably most blatant when Hayate, Mirage, and Freyja are put on trial on Windermere in episode 24. Mirage tries to invoke the spacefuture version of the Geneva Conventions regarding treatment of prisoners of war and is told flat-out by the tribunal that because they're mercenaries they're unlawful combatants not legally eligible for prisoner-of-war protections. Even after they escape, none of the three bring that little point up with their superiors... or anyone else. You'd think that'd be something pretty damned important to discuss, that your entire organization is participating in a war illegally. In hindsight, it's actually really surprising that's the first we hear of it. You'd think someone - and whatever their faults, the Xaos staff are not stupid people - would've had enough presence of mind to point out that mercenaries can't legally participate in a war like that. (That wouldn't have been a new development either, by the time the series is set that was a on the books as a part of the laws of war for 90 years.) Strategic Military Services at least gets a pass in that the Vajra neither knew nor cared about the laws of war.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... we're basically in the gap between Return of the Jedi and the point where the novelists felt compelled to address the point by explicitly and on no uncertain terms stating that that outcome absolutely would've happened had the Rebel fleet not put in a herculean effort to contain the damage in the wake of the battle. Xaos has explicitly been involved in a lot of explicitly shady BS... and they don't have an out like that (yet). The writers explicitly put them in those positions, and then just expected the audience to forget the heroes are keeping Mikumo as a slave, that her creation was illegal, that Xaos's involvement in the war is illegal to the point the protagonists were tried for it and only escaped execution for it via jailbreak, etc. ten minutes later at most. I understand TV Tropes likes to call this kind of a thing a "karma houdini"...
  8. Seto Kaiba
    *looks askance at several companies he works with on a daily basis* ... you sure? My own professional experiences suggest to me that it's quite possible for a company that's objectively terrible at what it does to stay in business and even thrive if the customers are gullible enough, locked into a difficult-to-escape contract, or the company in question doesn't have any serious competitors in the target market. Comcast and AT&T are the usual whipping boys for topics like that in terms of geographical market-monopolization. There are plenty of others I could point to (e.g. Tesla) that are wildly inept and kept afloat by a small group of hardcore fans and large government subsidies. There are a few outfits I've worked with where I know full well they're kept afloat by the difficulty of replacing them despite the issues caused by their poor quality. ... I mean, even if Delta wasn't a farce the results of Xaos's work and the manner in which they conduct themselves speak for themselves. Putting aside the funny bits, quite a bit of that list is factual: Xaos's forces were, in legal terms, unlawful combatants in the declared war between Windermere IV and the Brisingr Alliance. This was actually mentioned in the series, and the characters failed to refute it. Xaos's leadership all but completely refused to work with the local New UN Forces staff, which directly led to the New UN Spacy defense forces of multiple planets falling under Windermerean mind control and ultimately led to the loss of the entire globular cluster. Xaos conducted illegal cloning experiments in violation of interstellar law to create Mikumo. Xaos coerced Reina Prowler into working for them with the threat of criminal prosecution, which is itself a crime. Xaos's Brisingr Globular Cluster regional commander, Ernest Johnson, is notorious in-universe for being a failure as a commander. His reputation/nickname is literally given as 百戦百敗・無冠の名指揮官 ("Hundred Battles, Hundred Defeats - Uncrowned Commander"). That Xaos's forces are broke is the crux of an entire plot after they get run out of the Brisingr cluster. That live concert they hold is explicitly to raise funds because they can't even afford ammunition and fuel. The paramilitary organization Heimdall was created to hunt down Xaos's leader, Lady M, because of her extensive interference in government and military affairs. I phrased a lot of it in a joking manner but yeah, Xaos is a mess compared to SMS. Would you hire a company you knew was involved in criminal activity? Would you hire someone for a security job when it was a matter of record they were tried and convicted for breaking the laws of war? Would you work with a company you knew was complicit in slavery? Or whose leadership's reputation is so dire that they're mocked as incompetent or wanted dead for their involvement in flagrant corruption? Seriously. Even if you want to put some of that purely on the Ragna branch, some of that goes right to the top because it was ordered by Lady M... e.g. the slavery, the illegal cloning, etc. Even if it's just the one branch, that it's allowed to continue operating like that is a glaring, glaring problem that reflects poorly on the company as a whole.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    I wanted to work in a line about the quirky teammate... but Xaos doesn't really have one unless you count the seacat who's constantly giving Hayate sh*t. Bobby Margot is, of course, awesome not just for being an openly gay character who isn't portrayed as a joke or used purely for fanservice... but for being both a delicate feminine flower who's accepted by the girls and a veritable buffet of manliness at the same time.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    It's anime... even the chillest of health nuts has eighty gallons of blood at 500psi. Eh... a comparison between the two is so hopelessly one-sided that it reads like a "Virgin and Chad" meme. Xaos PMC Division Founded by Space Comcast. Works mainly in the space boonies. (Or maybe Space Doordash, given how many jokes they make about delivering pizza.) Main duty is protecting an idol group. Constantly puts them in danger. Parent company is a source of so much corruption that a paramilitary force is formed to hunt them down. War criminals on the payroll. Multiple arrests and convictions for being unlawful combatants in a declared war. Recruits are local New UN Forces washouts, and a forklift driver. Massive core competency issues. One "elite" pilot narrowly avoids causing a major accident and failing training. "Super hacker" and alleged top-tier mechanic can't manage a single electronic door lock in an undercover operation. Labor law nightmare scenario... one employee is kept as a literal slave (illegal clone soldier) and another was coerced into accepting employment there to avoid prosecution for criminal activity. Can't perform without an ultra ace custom version of the latest next-generation Variable Fighter. Scornful of the NUNS and doesn't cooperate with the local New UN Forces until it's absolutely necessary and way too goddamn late. Constantly playing into the enemy's hands. Repeatedly gets rolled by the Aerial Knights, who have never taken part in actual combat before... losing the entire war and causing the collapse of the Brisingr Alliance. Gets rolled again by Heimdall thereafter after Windermere takes its ball and goes home. Regional commander is notorious for his ineptitude. Organizationally broke and almost literally begging for money after being defeated. Joke-tier security, their entire system is compromised top-to-bottom by Epsilon Foundation hardware and backdoors despite a "super hacker" on payroll. Totally upstaged in their own movie by an ace pilot guest character. Top ace is a simp for, and creepy stalker of, Walkure's least useful member and an incredibly toxic coworker to boot. Dead team member is mercy-killed by the enemy (or dies needlessly) after violating orders while hardcore simping for the least useful Walkure member... gets her and the rest of the group captured anyway. Strategic Military Services Founded by one of the biggest interstellar shipping concerns to guard their cargo. Hired by the wealthiest emigrant governments to supplement their local New UN Forces. Main duty is evaluating the NUNS's next-gen main fighter in live combat. Parent company is a major intestellar shipping firm whose sinister ulterior motive is... finding Minmay and the Megaroad-01? Highly principled staff rejects unethical orders an investigates a suspicious transfer of power in their client government, uncovering and foiling a coup d'etat. Recruits are elite troops poached from the NUNS, top students from an elite vocational school that normally trains pilots for the NUNS and commercial service. New inductees so good they have to set the simulator difficulty up way above normal to prevent them from clearing it too easily and getting arrogant. No known labor issues. Uses totally unmodified production-intent versions of the next-generation Variable Fighter they were hired to test. Operates well in support of the local New UN Forces, despite being critical of them. Realizes they're being played when the enemy's plot kicks off, goes rogue to foil it. Repeatedly fought the Vajra to a standstill and achieved minor victories, then rescued the Vajra from the real threat once they uncovered it all on their own. Regional commander is a respected veteran. Organizationally sound, able to manage extended independent operations in the field. No known security issues. Ace pilot guest character has a small cameo without distracting from the action. Top ace is a certified badass who eats pineapple and doesn't afraid of anything. Dead team member dies valiantly protecting the woman he loves, buying her time to join the fight and save thousands of civilians. Let's be honest... which one of these would you want to hire? I'm pretty sure it's not Xaos.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Considering they're always outraged about something, I prefer to think karma is turning those salty buggers into actual salt.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Modern medicine alone seems to have done a fair bit... the average Windermerean life expectancy is 30 years, and at least two of the Windermerean characters in the series have exceeded that by a decent margin. Hermann Kroos is still physically fit enough to not only fight on the front lines but serve as a top ace at 33 (10% over) and King Grammier was said to be over 35 at the start of the series, meaning he beat the average by 20% by the time he was murdered. (It's not an exact comparison, but in Japan if you beat the average life expectancy by 20% you've made it 101.) I suppose extending the Windermerean lifespan would probably depend on what exactly their aging process does that causes them to seem to crystallize or whatever that is. It seems to be connected to their runes too, since overusing them accelerates the physical deterioration to a potentially incapacitating (e.g. Prince Heinz II) or lethal (Qasim) point. You can hardly blame Keith for being a bit salty toward the Protoculture for their decision to give the Windermereans such short lives. Well, we already had Hathaway's Flash-style funnel missiles in Macross II on one of the Mardook mecha...
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Most of the time, the way it's drawn is with the UN SPACY marking oriented so that it's right-side up when the gunpod is attached to the underside of Fighter mode... so upside-down when it's handheld, as in the box art.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    One and a half pages worth... not enough to justify buying the book for it, I think.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Finally got around to watching Lupin III: the First. It definitely hits all the major plot beats of a typical Lupin III red jacket story. The computer animation is even better than it looks in the trailer too, and it still manages to capture the slightly manic expressions the characters often had in conventional animation extremely well. It could've been a little better if the plot had fewer leaps of logic (esp. regarding how Lupin the 1st was involved), but it was still a great movie.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    If only the large-scale version... it's noted that the miniaturized version (MDE) was an invention of Legodt & Angeloni Industries in the Frontier fleet. Even if Macross Galaxy hadn't used a Dimension Eater to destroy Gallia IV, the New UN Government would almost certainly have still imposed the same restrictions on harvesting and trading in fold quartz to avoid seeing the proliferation of the smaller-scale but still incredibly potent Dimension Cutters and MDE weapons and avoid antagonizing more Vajra hives. Windermere IV's government seems to have been profoundly upset about practically any of their obligations as a New UN Government member nation. The New UN Government restrictions on trading in fold quartz were simply the most frustrating single point under the broad header of their discontent with their world's slow economic development. That may have been exacerbated somewhat by their short lifespans. To a human, 10-15 years is maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of their working life. To a Windermerean, that same period is pretty much the entire span as an economically active adult. Rather than take the time to develop their economy properly, given that they'd started out as an agricultural world still in its feudal period and skipped right to the interstellar age, they wanted instant economic success even though the entire region of space they were in was struggling economically as the result of its isolation. As firepower has increased, I think we'll probably see things stay the same size now that beam weapons are becoming the standard rather than increasingly powerful solid ammo guns. Hard to say... one of the problems underpinning all of these fold wave technologies is the need for an appropriate fold wave source to activate them. Master File, at least, takes the view that the YF-29's impossible-to-mass-produce Fold Wave System could force-activate itself without the need for an external fold wave source due to the massive amount of the ultra-high purity fold quartz it used. More resource-conscious versions need an external fold wave source to activate, which is why them used in Macross Delta when Windermere's Aerial Knights are burning up their runes and Walkure are singing. The whole funnels/bits thing has been done, but I'd expect an explosive warhead intended to breach energy conversion armor would probably be more effective against the armor than a high-velocity shank. Yeah, though in-universe the amount of time between Valkyrie generations has been growing. The 1st Generation was about eight years in development but lasted only about twelve years as main fighter. The 2nd Generation was in nominal main fighter service for around 18 years. The 3rd had 20+. The 4th is still hanging on almost 30 in-universe years. The 5th Generation is only JUST entering service in the 2060s in most places. So unless we skip a good couple decades down the road I'd expect to keep seeing 5th Generation YF-24 derivatives for a while. The full panoramic cockpit thing has been an on-and-off feature since the Gen 3 VF-17, but I'd expect the seamless version we saw in Delta to become the norm eventually... though that's not fold quartz tech, that's just holographic projection. (Depending on which source you ask, holographic projectors may use fold carbon tho, like Walkure's supposedly do.) I'm kind of expecting to see more emphasis on smaller Ghosts similar to the funnels and bits that were present in Macross II's timeline, as well as a move away from conventional cannons to railguns and especially beam weapons. Now that VFs have enough spare generator power to operate a large external particle or dimensional beam cannon, there's no major obstacle to doing away with solid ammo cannons in favor of something that has effectively unlimited ammunition as long as the generator is running.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Hard to say... we haven't seen any actual specs for it yet. I'd assume its Battroid mode will be close to the average 15m size. While it can be kind of hard to tell from the toys, many of which aren't in precise scale, Valkyries kind of hit a size plateau starting in the 4th Generation designs introduced for both the Macross Plus OVA and Macross 7 series. Later designs got simmer alt-modes now that hand-drawn animation has been replaced by computer-aided animation and ful 3D CGI animation, but starting from around the VF-17 they've all been tailored to produce a Battroid that's approximately 15m tall. That puts them at pretty close to the same size as your standard Zentradi battle suits and pods, and half-again the size of a Zentradi infantryman. Being around the same size as Zentradi standard mecha was probably the goal, at least in-universe. Once they hit that point, they rarely went bigger except in the case of special duty units (mainly Bombers). Both Macross Frontier and Macross Delta have generally set a trajectory towards fold wave-based performance enhancement systems being the Next Generation core technology. Macross Delta's Blu-ray extra features indicated that the 5th Generation VF-31 Kairos was considered to be a 5.5th Generation VF once it was upgraded with a fold wave system and compatible engine design. Master File also took a similar view, suggesting the YF-29 may technically be a 6th Generation VF. So I'd expect the next evolution of the VF concept is a productionized version of the Fold Wave System... probably with synthetic fold quartz. Not just for greater engine output, but a move towards powering VFs with fold dimensional energy conversion and probably some of the other fold wave-driven advancements like the Sv-303 Vivasvat's fold wave-based energy conversion armor.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    That's a different kind of resistance to stress... lol Still, that the military was experimenting with ways of artificially boosting a Valkyrie pilot's resistance to high g-forces even before the YF-19 and YF-21 is an interesting point. We know the VF-16 used the initial type thermonuclear reaction burst turbine engine and that those engines produced enough power for running up against a pilot's biological limit in terms of sudden changes in g-force loads as on the VF-17D type and 4th Generation VFs. One has to wonder if the systems trialed on the VF-15 simply weren't up to the job when it came to fighters able to pull 10+ G's in straightline acceleration. No reason explicitly given... I'd suspect that, as with most shady corporate deals, there were some kickbacks or other anticompetitive behaviors involved somewhere along the line like the promise of being awarded supplier contracts. Legodt & Angeloni Industries made a LOT of different high-tech products from personal computers to micloning machines...
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Palladium Books's Robotech and Macross II games got up to some shenanigans on that front because the writers had no sense of scale. For whatever reason, they ignored the show showing that Zentradi soldiers spend their off-duty time in bunkrooms and wardrooms little different to those on any naval vessel and decided that the Zentradi rank and file are kept in cold sleep outside of immediate battle conditions... even though that would've made it impossible for the events of Macross to happen, what with the spy trio exposing their fellow troops to artifacts from the Macross in their free time. Given that the Zentradi were regarded as disposable resources by the Protoculture and that mass production of them was a given, I doubt they even wasted the effort to give them unnatural longevity. We're talking about the same people who weren't willing to even consider operator comfort or ease of use on the Regult. It's never made clear what caused Vrlitwhai's eye to be ruined... there's no scar shown in the art, just a non-functional eye. He may have had a genetic defect that wasn't so severe it caused him to be rejected in quality control. Maybe... it's possible they didn't even need to consider it, since quality of life on its own has a pretty significant impact on your longevity and most accounts of their civilization at the peak of its power put them in "crystal spires and togas" territory. You can stay remarkably hale and hearty as a human well into your 50's and 60's with proper diet, exercise, and the benefits of modern medicine alone. (It's also possible some of them experimented with unnatural means of lifespan extension and the results were unfavorable. Ingues in Macross II has a lot more personality than an average living command computer, and he'd supposedly gradually lost the plot over time and become a complete psycho.) He's referring to the TV version, not the movie version. Vrlitwhai's animation model sheets for Super Dimension Fortress Macross - viewable on page 137 of Entertainment Bible 51 or his Macross Chronicle character sheet TV Zentradi 01A's reverse side - shows that the metal plate half-mask he wears is an outlandish eyepatch concealing a non-functional right eye. The way it's drawn, it's a lazy eye and appears blind as well. Macross Chronicle notes that it's not clear whether this is the result of injury or a defect in his construction. Not extensive ones... they have the connector to link their bio-fiber optic nervous systems to the controls of the Queadluun-Rau battle suits, but that's about it. The bio-fiber optics in their nervous systems are apparently a part of their genetic makeup. It's been explicitly noted on a few occasions, particularly in connection with Exsedol, that the micloning system can add/remove mission-specific Zentradi biotech features during the process. Exsedol stripped out his records officer modifications when he micloned, then reinstituted them when he feared losing his memories and storage capacity when he switched back to living as a giant. It's unclear whether this is simply enabling or disabling specific sections of their tailored genetic code or if the system is actually changing their genes. Since clones are created for specific roles at inception, I'm inclined to suspect the latter. It's been indicated that some of the necessary data involved in micloning is written in the spaces between genes normally active in humans, like the instructions for changes in biochemistry and body structure that restructure Zentradi anatomy to compensate for the square-cubed law among other things. That's one of the pieces of evidence in the series that made it explicit that the micloning system is determining the user's body state using their DNA. Klan is noted, both in series and official publications, to have a rare genetic abnormality that prevents her from micloning properly. Michael Blanc is also noted to have issues with a miclone system because of his genetic structure. His mixed heritage of Human, Zentradi, and Zolan, apparently causes issues with the process that could seriously sicken or even kill him to the extent that it's noted he'd only be able to go through the micloning system as a one-way trip. The aforementioned genetic abnormality, possibly a result of her being a natural born child to two Zentradi parents and some simple bad luck, is what causes that. Whether that can be done for real with modern technology... it's a popular convention in science fiction at the very least. You'd know far better than I how much actual support there is for Olovnikov's telomere hypothesis of aging. However it works in the miclone system, the system always seems to be able to produce a copy of the body at the exact same age barring rare malfunctions caused by genetic code abnormalities like Klan's. One nagging question about miclone systems that's never been addressed is if you lose things like scars and tattoos going through the process... since it conveniently seems to keep even your hairstyle.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Yup.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    That shouldn't be taken seriously though, as it's an acknowledged in-joke by the show's creators. Her aversion to being called obaa-san is a pretty standard cliche for middle-aged women.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    That's a bit different... Titan Comics did their own alternate universe story, then used it to take the piss out of Robotech after fans got pissy about them messing with the sacred cow that is the status quo. They turned the sequel into a borderline Macross fic so they wouldn't have to adapt the Masters Saga or New Generation. Yeah, the old Robotech comics were pretty bad both art-wise and in terms of a lack of creative thinking. They fell into the standard EU trap of having characters from the series written into every major or minor event in the setting's entire history. IIRC that comic tried to establish it was getting shot in the face by an Invid that got him his mask from the series.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    The body that's constructed by the miclone machine is, more or less, an exact copy of them genetically... and the cause of aging is technically a generic factor (telomerase), so cloning your way out of aging doesn't quite work.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    The New UN Gov't is still figuring out what the average Zentradi life expectancy is. Humanity hasn't been living with the Zentradi for long enough to have a clear picture of that yet. It's played for laughs in Macross 7's "Which One Do You Love?", when a 50-something Milia gets sick and WebMD's herself into believing she's dying of old age when she's actually just got the space equivalent of the common cold. By the 2050s, Zentradi who were in their 20s and 30s in the First Space War are showing signs of old age (e.g. Richard Bilra) but with modern medicine and the generally decently high quality of living they're still pretty darn spry for their age. It's usually assumed that Zentradi have very similar natural lifespans to humans, though modern medicine skews that quite a bit due to the high standard of care and living.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Granted, the whole line of inquiry here is completely idiotic and I've said as much in several previous posts. Why is it completely idiotic? Because I'm actually entertaining the OP's premise of doing a Robotech comic with this specific subject matter. It's an objectively terrible idea, but to actually give meaningful feedback to their topic instead of just dragging them for posting it I'm asking them the same questions and posing the same concerns they'd face if they were actually pitching the idea. Remember, the Robotech fandom is INCREDIBLY change-averse and generally apathetic towards anything that isn't "the Macross Saga". The status quo of the franchise is their sacred cow. Mess with it, and they'll burn your project down like they did to Robotech 3000, Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles, and Robotech Academy. If you tried to pitch the idea of a comic about the Zentradi fighting the Invid back when Harmony Gold was actually entertaining the idea of licensed comic tie-ins to the series, you would've been obligated to make your work compliant with the official setting. You'd be locked into the aforementioned scale issues with the biggest pre-series Invid mecha being not quite waist-high to the average unmounted Zentradi and most being the size of a small yappy dog and unarmed to boot. How do you make them threatening when the fighting basically looks like this? (Spoiler-tagged image is that statue "Angry Baby" from the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway... tagged thusly for those who don't want to be ambushed by an exposed bronze johnson.) I can't imagine there's much entertainment value in watching a colossal (literally and figuratively) group of elite soldiers gunning down hordes of unarmed aliens the size of small children. If you change the relative scaling, you're going to have to have a clear, believable explanation for why the Invid were so much larger and why they shrank by the time they met the humans... and for the continuity problems it'll cause... and a host of other issues like why the fight is happening at all when the standard Zentradi MO has always been "flatten the planet from orbit and get on with life". If you can't explain these things away convincingly, the fans'll get pissy and burn your story down with you in it. Of course, they might do it anyway just for spite. Yeah, the whole topic is ridiculous and completely idiotic... but that's what comes from trying to take this kind of fanfic nonsense even slightly seriously.
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