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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    OK, so help me out here... because this seems awfully contrived. (As if the whole sequel trilogy wasn't... but hey.) A highly conspicuous government official who is secretly evil and his not-so-secretly evil mentor who is hopefully much less conspicuous f*ck off on a business trip to the Runner Up for Planet Most Deserving of the Title of "Nowhere" to get some random lady they've just met pregnant with magical space AIDS? Why her? Why did they have to fly all the way to the planet farthest from the bright center of the universe for a dark side booty call? You can't tell me it wouldn't have been easier to just tap his secretary for the job and pretend that it was the product of some good old fashioned political philandering. Or was this some space magic ritual thing where the winds of fate got some rando they've never met pregnant and they just kinda trusted they'd find The Chosen One out of the trillions and trillions of people that must be living in the galaxy through sheer dumb luck (AKA "the force"). This seems less "sinister plan" and more "drunken dark lord's bar bet".
  2. Seto Kaiba
    ... wut.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    And you're probably better off for that. Rise of Skywalker was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Emperor comes back from the dead for no adequately explored reason. There's a great deal of nonsense about a chain of macguffins that will lead our heroes to his secret evil lair that takes up most of the actual movie. Many pointless in-jokes are made. Rey learns she's the Emperor's granddaughter, Ben/Kylo dies, Rey moves to Tattooine and commits identity theft by claiming to be part of the Skywalker family. The whole nine episode film arc is now the Palpatine Saga not the Skywalker Saga.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Yup... the painful irony being that they had several better designs already, from Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy, the Macross Delta modeling books, and Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried:
  5. Seto Kaiba
    IMO, this angle kind of exaggerates the actual increase in bulk... it's mostly in the wings. The inner wing surface appears to have been bulked up a bit to make room for the larger arms. The ordnance container on this version also looks a lot larger because the Kairos Plus's beam gunpod is lot larger than the standard issue one, being nearly as big as the pod itself.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    "Messer! The punchable surface at the top of your neck is back!"
  7. Seto Kaiba
    We don't have to... because the Factual Background section of this filing by the attorneys representing Johansson and her agency, Periwinkle Entertainment, is quite literally meant to be (as in, "this is how it's supposed to work") the facts of the matter put forward in the manner that best supports their claim. If the contract stipulated that Black Widow was required to be released exclusively in theaters for a period of time, the Factual Background section of the filing would contain quotes from the relevant verbiage. What they have - and remember, these are the facts laid out by Johansson and Periwinkle's attourneys to best support their claim against Disney and Marvel Studios - amounts to a complaint that Disney violated the spirit of the contract rather than the letter. The filing itself indirectly admits that Disney and Marvel have complied with the letter of the contract in terms of how it defines a "wide theatrical release" (playing on 1,500+ screens worldwide), and is making bizarre Karen-esque argument that the court should enforce what Johansson and Periwinkle Entetaiment believe the term should mean rather than how the term is defined in the actual language of the contract. Not really, no. We're reading the filing prepared by the attorneys representing Johansson and Periwinkle Entertainment and seeing what's there for anyone to see... that there's little to nothing in the way of support for the claim they're making in a presentation of the factual background cherrypicked and specifically tailored to best support that claim. A fair amount of it - like the claim that Disney is passively supporting piracy of its own IP by sending movies to Disney+ or the one about how the pandemic is going to just vanish in a few months - is just gun-eating insanity. I'm not a lawyer, but I have enough experience with contract law and IP law from my day job for this to feel like a spurious and incredibly flimsy lawsuit to me. My suspicion is that this lawsuit is not intended to succeed, or even make it past the initial review and petitioning. This move is pure theater - far better acting than Johansson's own - intended to allow Periwinkle Entertainment to apply pressure to Disney in the public sphere to give them money they're not actually contractually entitled to. This is all about Johansson and her agency having buyer's remorse over the contract they signed over a year before the pandemic started being a poor fit to the new realities of the industry.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    But it's really just a picture of Messer scotch taped to a bucket on top of a mop handle... nobody has the heart to tell Kaname.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... even then, their central argument is just so weak that Disney is likely to succeed with its very first motion to dismiss. Their whole argument here is that violating the spirit of a contract without violating the letter of the contract is still a breach of contract. (It isn't.) As long as Disney and Marvel Studios have Black Widow playing in theaters on at least 1,500 screens worldwide - not a tall order, with over 44,000 screens in the US alone - then they have fulfilled the terms stipulated in the contract with Johansson and her agency even if they don't sell a single ticket because everyone has seen it on Disney+. Really, this entire lawsuit and the few copycat suits likely to follow are all a product of how the pandemic influenced the release of motion pictures. Nobody ever considered the possibility that streaming would become a primary path for releasing a big budget motion picture. Everyone saw stream-on-demand as little different to home video physical media. Pandemic shutdowns changed the market considerably and none of the pre-pandemic contracts contained adequate provision for the idea of big budget Hollywood movies going directly to streaming in parallel with, or instead of, a theatrical release. Periwinkle Entertainment and Johansson are unlikely to get anywhere with this lawsuit because their argument literally hinges on the assertion that what they thought key terms used in the contract meant is just as enforceable as how those key terms are actually defined in the text of the contract itself.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    By the time the film actually comes out, that'll have more mileage on it than the Macross Elysion.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... the movie Black Widow was a dull, tedious waste of film I'd just as soon forget. This lawsuit, on the other hand, promises to bring some actual entertainment value. The filing by Johansson's representation from Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP makes for some fascinating reading... in no small part because of how flimsy Johansson's argument is. It all seems to hinge on this paragraph in the contract between Johansson's agency Periwinkle Entertainment Inc. and Marvel Studios: (Text taken from case filing 21STCV27831 in the Los Angeles county Superior Court, bracketed names by me to clarify the text.) Based on the content of the filing by the three attorneys representing Johansson from Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, it appears that Disney may not have actually breached the letter of the contract. Johansson's representation are arguing that Disney effectively breached the spirit of the contract, arguing that at the time the contract was signed it was understood by all parties that a "wide theatrical release" meant an exclusive theatrical release for an extended period of time exceeding 90 days even though the contract does not stipulate such. (From the same filing as above) Apparently a big part of why they're up in arms is that, a full year before the first pandemic lockdocks, Marvel's chief counsel confirmed to Johansson's agency that it was planning at that time to conduct a standard theaters-first release of the film... which was true at the time the statement was made. The remainder of the argument by Johansson's representation is kind of hilariously flimsy... amounting as it does to bizarre claims including: The theater market will magically recover in a few months time. (With the COVID-19 delta variant on the rise, this is hilariously unlikely) That Marvel Studios would have/should have delayed the film indefinitely until the theater market recovered to pre-pandemic levels if Disney had not intervened. That Marvel could not possibly have changed its mind about the best strategy to release the film worldwide in the TWO YEARS separating their last discussion about plans for its release and its actual release without some kind of malicious incitement from Disney, global pandemic be damned apparently. That Disney's decision to send the film to Disney+ was a calculated malicious decision meant to deprive Johansson of the bonuses she is entitled to based on the film's global box office performance rather than, say, cope with the realities of the entertainment industry during a global pandemic. That the film's availability on Disney+ for the base subscription fee after the premium period expires in 6 months or so is somehow incitement for audiences to NOT go see the film in theaters. and my personal favorite: By releasing Black Widow to Disney+, Disney is supposedly cheating Johansson out of bonus money by passively supporting digital piracy of its own films. This filing is such a bloody f*cking mess that I might actually be rooting for the House of Mouse. It's rare that I get to see a filing this stupid that doesn't have the words "Harmony Gold USA" under Plaintiff or Defendant.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Yes. Twice! First they were caught in the explosion of the mutual kill between Keith's Sv-262Hs and the white Sv-262Hs being remotely puppeted by Roid. Then the Star Shrine section of the Sigur Berrentzs blew up with both of them on it. At this point, the only way they're bringing Keith and/or Roid back for movie 2 is if it's snowing and they need something to grit the path with. ... while it was certainly passionate and fiery and there was some penetration involved, the explosion was definitely of the more literal "things blowing up" variety.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The Spacy is the space forces branch of the New Unification Government's military. What's mentioned in the movie is that the practice of cloning is prohibited under interstellar law/treaty. The New UN Government used the cloning technology it obtained from surviving Zentradi 118th Main Fleet defectors to carry out a large scale human cloning program that began in mid-2010 in order to duplicate individuals with valuable/essential skills and to accelerate the recovery of the human population to a sustainable level. The program was terminated in 2030 when a sharp increase in recessive hereditary diseases was detected in children and traced back to the overuse of cloning. The ban, at least as described, is more about the use of cloning technology for military purposes. By any rational standard, Mikumo Guynemer is an experimental clone soldier created by Xaos at Lady M's order. For all practical intents and purposes, she's a slave... and that's only the tip of the iceberg of awfulness surrounding her creation. The ban on cloning was probably intended to prevent, and criminalize, exactly the kind of abhorrent human rights abuses that something like that inherently entails.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    That would look awful. Like, full on "this is a parody intended to mock the series" levels of bad. That's rather different. The Macross Cannon-class from Macross II: Lovers Again didn't incorporate complete, functional Zentradi warships into its structure. The Nupetiet Vergnitzs-class battleships used in its construction were stripped down to little more than their super dimension energy cannons and the surrounding superstructure, and the cannons themselves apparently modified in an effort to increase their firepower. They're not able to detach from the ship and operate independently. It's possible, I guess... but I would consider it pretty damn unlikely that Xaos could afford to simply retire a ship like the Macross Elysion. In the TV series, the Macross Elysion was the flagship and de facto headquarters of the Xaos PMC division in the Brisingr globular cluster. That status doesn't seem to have changed in the transition to the movie version, which makes it pretty unlikely that Xaos would be able to just retire the ship outright and have a replacement in service less than a year from the end of the war. Xaos wasn't in great financial shape when the story started, and they were in truly dire financial straits with barely any operating capital by the time they had to organize a counteroffensive to retake the Brisingr globular cluster. Never mind that they were tossing around the idea of blowing a year or more's operating capital to remove the Epsilon Foundation-provided technology (and its backdoors) from their operations. The movie version of the story gave them two more ships of the same type in addition to their dozen or so frigates and stealth cruisers... but they also suffered far heavier losses including the complete destruction of the Macross Megasion and its two Enterprise-class carriers, one of the Macross Grasion's Enterprise-class carriers, and the Macross Elysion suffering a fair amount of damage from friendly fire as well. With Xaos explicitly cash-strapped, having lost about 1/3 of their total strength, and with less than a year to pick up the pieces... I just do not see them having replaced the Macross Elysion with anything, let alone a newer and more advanced warship. Whatever "Parmenides" is, I kinda suspect it's either from outside the globular cluster or some kind of emigrant ship, space station, or airbase that doesn't properly belong to them.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Or maybe they gave up being a PMC and became a pizza delivery service like they kept joking about Messer doing in the Blu-ray extras.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    The YF-29's in Hayate's colors and the drone has Xaos markings, so I think you may be misinterpreting those shots... Yeah, I pointed out there's some leading remarks made back in the TV series about Lady M's experiments in creating an Ultimate Weapon based on her research into the military potential of song, in which it's mentioned that she's rumored to be toying with approaching it both with cybernetics and genetic engineering/cloning. Keith, as others have pointed out, is quite busy being a corpse. It's possible the priest is a relative of Roid's, as his family were shrine keepers. Hermann Kroos is, as far as we know, the most senior surviving Aerial Knight... but he's probably too old to take up the mantle of the White Knight. The markings on the red Sv-262Hs are consistent with Bogue's markings. Xaos is a bush-league PMC that failed to defeat the Aerial Knights, who are so bush league they literally had no actual combat experience at the start of the war... there's no way either of them would last five minutes against the New UN Forces. It's been said the enemy in the movie is a new one, so presumably they are in fact new. Or the home airbase... and it's worth remembering Xaos's unit terminology is Air Force-inspired.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    All in all, I'm actually kind of disappointed by how few questions it actually raises... While I absolutely 100% think the Kairos Plus is a better looking aircraft than the previous Siegfried Custom, I still can't see a clear rationale for Xaos to have either scrapped their 3-4 surviving Siegfried custom units in favor of this new model or retooled them into this new model. Apart from the slightly heavier armament, the only thing I can really see is having a bit more fuel by retooling the wing surface to make it thicker near the root and swapping the forward-swept winglets for delta winglets. I'm inclined to suspect the new bicep armor there is meant to reinforce the upper arm... Hayate lost several arms below the shoulder over the course of the TV series.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    So, all in all, it looks like armaments-wise the VF-31AX Kairos Plus isn't changing much from the base VF-31A Kairos or VF-31 Custom Siegfried. The Mauler ROV-127E 12.7mm beam machine gun appears to be effectively unaltered from the base design. The Ramington LM-27s 27mm railguns on the forearms appear to have been exchanged for a larger model. The Bifors CIMM-3B micro-missile launcher systems in the legs seem to be unaltered. The weapons bay in the back of the legs also appears to be unmodified. The Howard LU-18A beam gunpod has apparently been replaced by one modeled on the General Galaxy GBP-35A beam gunpod used by the Sv-262. The multipurpose container has been exchanged for a type that has a gun of some type (likely a beam gun?) instead of a multidrone charger. Unless something unusual has been done to the fold wave system or the engines, this doesn't look like much of an improvement from the base VF-31 Kairos or Siegfried.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    It's a rectal thermometer. Xaos is getting into the challenging field of Zentradi healthcare. *snerk* Unfortunately, the sheet is vague on that note... it mentions the ordnance container has been exchanged for a type that contains armaments and sensors (impl. "instead of the multi-drone recharger equipped previously"). It looks rather odd seen from the other side (img. courtesy of Tamashii's website): It looks like the new gunpod attaches to the underside of the ordnance container and can be deployed beam turret style by unfolding the ordnance container into a turret mount. The new beam gunpod is DEFINITELY based on the one previously used by the Sv-262 Draken III. Another look at the side of the ordnance container with the gunpod deployed. One interesting detail is that the gun barrel on the ordnance container looks like it's hinged to rotate up or down... making it likely it is a beam cannon of some description. On checking Tamashii's website, it seems the movie's date has been given as 2068... so this movie is set only a few months to a year from the end of Macross Delta.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    So... this has a few interesting details to offer. Apparently the Kairos Plus will still have a fold wave system. Apparently that ugly splodge that replaced the lens we're used to is an enlargement of the system for some reason? As much as I like them going back to the much better-looking delta wing from the VF-31A I'm not sure I like the other changes to the design.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    This right here is EXACTLY how I want Walkure to deal with Bogue every time he opens his mouth. Not as such. You see, Xaos is an interstellar conglomerate which controls a bunch of different subsidiary companies in different industries. Walkure's members are employees of Xaos's performing arts division, a talent management agency owned and controlled by the parent Xaos corporation. Delta Flight's members, and practically all of the other Xaos employees we see in the series, are employees of Xaos's private military contractor division. The Tactical Sound Units are a joint venture between those two very different Xaos subsidiary companies, with Delta Flight acting as a de facto bodyguard detail to Walkure when it's engaged in Var suppression activities. Kaname mentions she had some self-defense training when she was a child, but I don't recall the series ever actually showing or stating that Walkure's members receive any kind of hand-to-hand or weapons training. They don't seem to even get any kind of training to acclimatize them to battlefield operations either, given that practically all of Walkure's early operations were a string of massive public failures when the group did little besides scream, cower, and flee once the fighting started... which, in all fairness, is kind of the expected outcome if you throw untrained civilians into live combat. The only training we see them do is some basic, vaguely military-esque PT (jogging in the rain while dragging a tire), an unconvincing bit of what I assume is survival training (eating canned food in the woods while wearing parkas), and parachute training. Probably.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    I'm down for it, if Walkure go after Bogue with harisen or at least a squeaky mallet every time he opens his mouth to say something stupid or sexist.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Nothing meaningful at this time... the only hint we've had so far has been that the VF-31AX's we've seen art for so far have affiliation markings for "PARMENIDES", though it isn't said if that's a planet, a base, or a ship.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Imagine being so incredibly dim that, as an editor of a popular hobby magazine, you go on your social media accounts and proceed to actively and vocally defend the people ripping off your magazine's readers thinking that that won't come back to bite you in the arse the instant someone reads your profile and figures out where you work. F***ed around. Found out. Don't weep for the stupid, you'll be crying all day.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    And Gundam ZZ.
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