Seto Kaiba

Why not hide in a cave if you're the Master? Perhaps it's just my jaundiced eye view as a filthy casual, but the Sith seem to have an extreme flair for the dramatic. I guess it must come naturally if you're part of an ancient sect that has spent millennia devoted to taking revenge on a bunch of stuffy and repressed space monks. That sort of backstory practically demands being extra AF. (What are they taking revenge for anyway?) Joking aside, if that really is Qimir's master then he has good reason to spy on Qimir. The one and only path to Sith career advancement is the Klingon Promotion: kill your master to become the master. If his student's up to something behind his back he has every reason to suspect imminent and possibly fatal betrayal is in the offing. Keeping an eye on a person whose literal job it is to one day murder you and take your place is common sense if you're as death-adverse as Darth Plagueis supposedly was. For bonus points, Qimir's come home with a living specimen of life created by Force manipulation... so if he's really Darth Plagueis the only thing standing between him and doing an undignified victory dance and giving Qimir a congratulatory hug is probably his villainous image wouldn't survive it.

Macross Delta did establish that the New UN Gov't and other researchers think the Brisingr cluster was probably the last enclave of Protoculture before the species slipped into extinction, with a seemingly higher density of Earthlike worlds and sub-Protoculture species than other parts of the galaxy. We did see another sub-Protoculture species that isn't named in Macross Frontier: the Labyrinth of Time too... though it's not clear where in the galaxy their world is. Zola does seem to have been lucky in that regard. It probably helped that Zola's environment is not exactly suitable for Humans despite being Earthlike. The influence of Galactic Whales on the local ecosystem made the planet's microorganisms much more dangerous to Humans than usual. Depending on how you want to read it, descriptions of the state of Zola itself suggest it was possibly more culturally and technologically advanced than the worlds of the Brisingr cluster when first contact was made. Their tech level is around the first half of Earth's 20th century despite a low level of urbanization. If they were already in their industrial age when Humanity made contact, it would probably have been a lot less of a cultural upheaval... esp. since their culture places great significance on the Galactic Whales and thus presumably had some inkling of the idea of life in space for many years before Humanity found them. It was, and still is. The Macross Delta TV series showed us, via flashback, that the trial production VF-31A Kairos was first used in combat by Xaos in 2065 (I think it was Ep21?). Master File's story depicts the first use of Xaos's custom VF-31 "Siegfried" a year later in 2066, with only two of the eventual five aircraft in service. The VF-31's only been in service with Xaos for a year and a half or so when Macross Delta's TV series starts in April 2067. Per Kawamori (in Great Mechanics G), his concept is that the production VF-31 Kairos will be entering military service c.2069-2070. Xaos is basically doing the same job that SMS did, testing the new fighter in combat as disposable mooks whose deaths are legally accidents not combat fatalities to iron out any remaining kinks before it goes into mass production for the New UN Forces. Honestly, this lot sounds more like the Cardassians to me... particularly given that their invasion of Arkarelia was all about resources to fuel their economic growth and that they have a militarized government with strong expansionist leanings. It's not mentioned, but it's possible... and some of them were doubtless mercenaries in the employ of the Roakites like the four YF-30B pilots were. I'm sure I'll find more detail when I have time to delve into it... but the basic description suggests they were just scouting the area looking for the Supervision Army and ran into the New UN Forces instead. Yeah, I'm hoping there's some explanation there.

Palpatine won't be born for another 50-something years, so it certainly seems possible. Especially considering the turnover rate we've seen for Sith apprentices and the various students of those apprentices in titles like The Clone Wars.

Not that heavy... the rifles we see the Marines use are, according to the film's dialog, 10mm (.40 caliber) rifles firing light armor piercing rounds with explosive tips. That's not a fantastically heavy load by any stretch of the imagination. The smart guns supposedly use the same 10x28mm caseless ammunition too. We also see Hicks kill at least one of the xenomorphs with an ordinary 12 gauge shotgun. The only weapon in the movie that's ever shown to be ineffective is the Vasquez's pistol, which isn't discussed in the story itself but the prop is a S&W Model 39 in 9x19mm. Aliens definitely did not focus on setting up sequels, though the idea of successful horror movies becoming sequel factories was already well established and in practice when it was being written never mind filmed. Friday the 13th was a poster child for it, having run out an original movie and four sequels before Aliens hit theaters. Not to mention it's a matter of legal record that Brandywine Productions was pushing for a franchise basically right after they saw the box office performance of Alien. The main thing holding up the development of that franchise-starting sequel was Fox being a complete and total dick about it. (They tried to pass the first film's success off as a fluke and were sued for trying to cheat Brandywine out of profits from the film through creating accounting practices.) Aliens did well on its own, but it strangled the franchise in the crib in doing so. It's horror, that's pretty normal as outcomes go. The critics generally held that the problem with 3 was just its weak writing... it was a troubled production that went through a bunch of revisions and concepts trying to find a place for the story to go as an action story after Aliens before concluding it was a bad job and pivoting back to horror. Well, we couldn't very well go back to LV-426 again... so I guess the Engineers are just as irresponsible as the ancient Protoculture, the Forerunners, or any other ancient alien species now.

To each their own, naturally... I don't disagree the fight in the throne room in The Last Jedi is beautifully composed. The style of lightsaber fighting used in the sequels is kind of awkward. It lacks the speed and the fluidity that made the lightsaber fights in the prequel trilogy so very impressive. There's a lot of (understandably) inexperienced flailing from Rey in the first and second sequels but Kylo Ren's style is very jerky with a lot of heavy slashes that don't feel appropriate for a laser sword with a weightless blade. They don't mesh with the style we saw in previous titles... which admittedly is not a very practical style as it involves so much flynning, but it looks more impressive. Whoever choreographed the lightsaber fights for The Acolyte is probably the only person on this series besides the set and prop designers who really earned their keep IMO. Just gorgeous, fluid, wild fighting especially from Qimir and Sol. It's a treat to watch, which makes the quality of the rest of the show kind of a pity. Qimir's style is brutal without being heavy and slow. It's why Kylo Ren's style should have been.

Oh boy... here I go watchin' schlock again. The eighth and final episode of The Acolyte. Mog is back... which I'm sure will not please @Mog one bit. Well, that explains that... I guess we now know how this little Sithy secret didn't get out. Well, that was... I think underwhelming might not be strong enough. The writers clearly tied themselves in knots to make sure that this series ended with the rest of the galaxy in the dark about the existence of the Sith Lords... except it finishes with Green Karen knowing... ... and we also see her taking the subject to a member of the High Council, meaning that there is now a pretty substantial plot hole. Neither Osha nor Mae's story received a satisfying conclusion. The Brendok Jedi's arc is basically a massive waste of time that goes nowhere and does nothing interesting. None of what happens here adds anything new or interesting to Star Wars. Like I said a few posts ago, the showrunner and writers are so preoccupied with showing their love for the lore that they forgot to write an actual coherent story.

The Law of Diminishing Returns says that, no matter what you do or how well you do it, you will hit that wall at some point as long as you keep doing it. Looking back at the chaos that ensued when Alien 3 was being developed, I think it's safe to say that the newborn Alien franchise hit that wall more or less immediately once they pivoted from horror to action. They had an absolutely miserable time finding a workable concept for a third film in no small part because the previous film kneecapped the titular monster so badly and left them no room to build. Ripley may be the protagonist, but it's undeniably the xenomorph most people are coming to theaters to see. Prometheus went and proved that point beyond dispute. Pivoting from horror to action got them one good movie, and ruined the prospects of everything that came after. They tried to go back to horror despite the handicap of Aliens as their starting point and failed. They tried to do another action movie spinning off the premise of Aliens and failed. They tried to do away with the xenomorph entirely and shift to monsters of an entirely different sort with a soft reboot in Prometheus and general audiences said "Where's my xenomorph?" and it failed. Romulus seems set to be horror soft reboot attempt No.3... which just shows, IMO, that as enjoyable as Aliens was as a summer action movie it isn't evocative of what audiences actually want from Alien. They're here for Scary Monsters, and I don't mean David Bowie... though he'd have been a hell of a choice to play a synth. If only they'd let it die there, but once it's a franchise there will always be someone ready to head into the graveyard with a shovel ready to do an unboxing in search of more money.

Writing good horror is a difficult proposition, sure. It requires a substantial grasp of subtlety, nuance, and pacing to really get into the audience's heads to build and release tension in order to ensure a palpable sense of menace throughout. Horror movie after horror movie can work if you have very good writers... or if you're working a more forgiving and campy horror subgenre like slashers or splatter flicks where the sheer personality of your villain can carry an otherwise weak story (e.g. Nightmare on Elm Street). It's hard, but it's more rewarding in the long run than the quick burnout that you get by cheapening the monster with an action movie transition. Once "just shoot it" is a valid option, you're left fumbling for ways to make the monster threatening again.

The problem with switching genres like that is that you can't easily switch back once you've made the jump from horror to action. That's the reason that Alien and Terminator have struggled so much as franchises. They're known for that first iconic sci-fi horror installment that made them pop culture icons... but they both went for an action-centric first sequel that robbed the signature monster driving the story of most of its ability to invoke fear. So what followed was a string of poor quality and increasingly campy action movies trying to cash in on the original's reputation and doing worse each time until they hit legitimate commercial failure. If the franchise survives, they try pivoting back towards the original's horror... but with the significant disadvantage of all the reputational damage they've done to the monster with all the action-centric sequels. A supremely good writer and director can overcome that obstacle and make the monster scary again (e.g. Alien: Isolation), but it's far more likely it'll just end up another flop. Based on people's reactions here, it seems reasonably common that folks think switching to action got them exactly one good movie and a whole lotta schlock after.

Started No Longer Allowed in Another World after dinner... and this is kinda heavy. Like really heavy. Indecently heavy. I have to admit, it's definitely a fresh take on subverting the usual isekai formula. A hero who has zero interest in, and negligible talent for, heroing and who is genuinely upset that his isekai-inducing run-in with Truck-kun wasn't fatal because all he wants to do is die and Truck-kun interrupted his double suicide attempt. There doesn't seem to be any of the usual power fantasy and it seems determined to subvert the usual romance/harem fantasy too. Is it gauche to say I'm going to keep watching this bizarre death-seeking hero out of morbid curiosity?

Well, if they can't get to you they can't very well attack you right? Assuming one had the means to create and maintain artificial fold faults large enough to isolate a planet and intense enough to be non-navigable with a conventional fold system, that'd be a pretty dandy way to prevent attacks. The ancient Protoculture seem to have had the means to create artificial fold faults like that, given the unnatural fold faults surrounding planets like Uroboros and Windermere IV that were strong enough to disable or seriously damage ships attempting to traverse them and large enough to effectively isolate those planets from the greater galaxy. It's probably still a bit outside Humanity's capabilities, though. Their expertise with warping spacetime into an impassible mess are mostly focused on small-scale applications in realspace (barriers). To have any hope of matching a main fleet man for man, they'd have to mobilize everyone on the planet anyway...

TBH, I'm not sure that'd even be physically possible. What the Vrlitwhai branch fleet detected that led them to the Sol system were the gravity waves produced by the ASS-1's fold jump eminating from its defold point. Those radiate outward in every direction at the speed of light. Without knowing where the Zentradi fleet would appear in advance, it'd likely be nearly impossible to mask that.

Vintage audio tech is such a scam these days... it's long since fallen victim to "Monster cable"-ization, where objective performance quantification has taken a back seat to simply looking impressive and being conspicuous consumption "luxury" items. The old school audiophiles would be horrified to hear "the youth" romanticizing the imperfections in mechanically inferior record players with wow and flutter numbers that'd have been unacceptably high in the heyday of LPs. (This I know, because I've heard those strictures in person from the Ford audiophile society in person on a regular basis since I was a kid. At one of their listening sessions just the other day, they showcased a new model tube amp with MSRP in excess of $70K because expensive=good brainrot has taken over the whole industry.)

Yeah, the Cygnus multidrone plates aren't meant for air-to-air use according to the material we have. This seems to be an improvised use case inspired by the VF-31 Siegfried carrying less weaponry than the normal VF-31 because of having to carry Walkure's support gear. (The multidrone plates are said to be slower than drones meant for air-to-air combat, so presumably they wouldn't be able to actually keep up with the fighters at combat speed.) As sketchley noted, in the original Macross series and DYRL? the Earth UN Gov't and Earth UN Forces were well behind the point they wanted to be at in terms of defense readiness when the First Space War started. The scope of their defense plan was immense, and the Unification Wars surely did not help matters with the Anti-Unification Alliance forcing the UN Forces to divert resources to deal with them and doing things like blowing up Grand Cannon construction sites. Even if everything had gone perfectly, they still would not have been anywhere near ready for the Zentradi with just eight years of preptime. I doubt anything would be sufficient for them to be ready to repel a main fleet with just eight yeras of preptime... not even having a perfect understanding of the Zentradi forces tactics.

Fascinating. I'm going to give that a read. Thank you! 😀

Debatable... it seems to take a lot of bullets to actually hit one, but the Marines in Aliens definitely seem to be a sloppy and unprofessional unit to say the least. There are plenty of horror franchises that are able to keep the horror going beyond the first film with the same monster. Alien: Isolation is my go-to proof that it's still perfectly possible to make the monster pants-soilingly terrifying and paranoia-inducing even today... well after two dreadful sequels and two dreadful prequels and decades of audience exposure to the xenomorph itself. Alien and Alien: Isolation derive a lot of their horror factor from the same source as Jaws: the tension invoked by how little you see the monster. You know that it's out there. You know that it's hunting. But you don't know where it is and you can't see it coming until it's too late. That's what makes it scary: not knowing. Modern horror movies so often completely fail to do monster horror correctly becuase they're so determined to show us how detailed and gross their latest squidgy monster is in all its CG-rendered glory as often as possible. No matter how physically horrible the monster is, if you can see the bastard coming a long way off its ability to frighten diminishes considerably because it is known. You can, to an extent, compensate for that by making the monster an Implacable Man (e.g. Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees) but it's still less scary than when they pop out of the woodwork and get right to business. When your monster jumps out of a window or ventilation duct or whatever and has to stop and take ten seconds to display its mutilated glory to the audience before getting down to work, it can only really startle because it makes itself known before attacking. Aliens hadn't completely forgotten that lesson (e.g. the attack in the reactor complex near the start) but Alien 3 and Resurrection lost that knowledge and so the xenomorphs there couldn't build tension effectively. I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to turn into a lecture... but I'm pretty passionate about that lost school of subtle horror.

The one subtitled "The unproduced screenplay"? Because I am now very curious. If so, the book in question's available in ebook form on Play Books...

I was also looking at the VF-31AX Master File's story section, The Miracle of Foegal. It's set in March 2068, and might be the oddest one yet as it's the story of the New UN Forces and Xaos collaborating to defend an uninhabited star system that the New UN Government had designated an ecological preserve from a Zentradi main fleet whose scouting force was able to escape from a run-in with the New UN Forces. Perhaps the most interesting part is the Foegal system itself... an artificial solar system the ancient Protoculture constructed around a white dwarf star. Foegal is orbited by seven planets, five of which are Earthlike, and most of which are believed to have been moved there from other star systems by the Protoculture. Even weirder, only one of Foegal's five habitable planets is in the habitable zone. The other four are farther away from the star, but are kept habitable by a Protoculture construct in orbit of the white dwarf that uses gravitational lensing to focus the star's energy onto the planets like a giant magnifying lens to ensure they get enough solar radiation to remain in Earthlike condition.

True, but when your monster can be taken down by the simple expedient of bullets... well... it's not so scary anymore. Looking at the alternatives, I think I'll take the game.

Oooooookay, back to The Volunteer Knights of Arkarelia... When I left off, the King of Arkarelia had signed a defense contract with Xaos in the midst of the evacuation effort and Xaos's four Delta Flight VF-31s entered the fight on behalf of the Arkarelians against the Roakite invasion force occupying much of their capital city. They'd downed about twenty enemy Valkyries of different types in the first few minutes and with the 1st Lt. Christiansen's return with a full squadron's worth of unmanned and remotely operated VF-11L Thunderbolts the tide had temporarily turned in Xaos's favor until they detected the approach of another PMC fighting on behalf of the Roakites. The top of the page has a brief, quasi-related blurb about Arad's shiny new VF-31S. Its paintjob is more subdued in this version with a low-viz grey and a blue fantail out from the skull motif. It's noted that this unit was YF-31-6 as it existed in July 2066. It's also noted that the coloring is not a true paintjob, but a projection using the camouflage film that's applied to the exterior of the aircraft, which is able to dynamically change colors and even markings (as seen in the series). The low viz colors depicted were apparently the ones used for training flights. The section marked Siegfried's Battle is where sh*t finally starts to go off. Delta Flight were surprised to see some of the few existing YF-30B改 units deployed in such a remote region of space. The advantage Delta Flight had enjoyed up to that point in bullying the Roakites old 3rd Generation VF-14s and handful of 4th Generation VF-171s evaporated with the arrival of four 5th Generation YF-30B改 Chronoses. If their tuning had achieved the same performance as the 5.5th Generation VF-31S Siegfried, then the situation would immediately turn against Xaos's handful of troops even with a full 20 remotely operated VF-11L's supporting them. Arad ordered Delta 2, 3, and 4 to continue sorting out the numerically superior but technologically inferior Roakite force in the air while he led the mercenary unit operating the YF-30B改's away from the city. With the GGCF YF-30B改's in hot pursuit, Arad deployed one of his fighter's Cygnus multidrone plates directly into the flight path of the nearest pursuing YF-30B改 with its pinpoint barrier enabled. The YF-30B's pilot was unable to evade in time and the drone's barrier slammed into and sheared off his right wing. Arad was able to capitalize on the chaos and bring the now out-of-control YF-30B改 down with a burst of fire from his beam gunpod before diving towards the approaching enemy force. There's another brief digression here that talks about the VF-31's active stealth measures. It talks briefly about the ubiquity of active stealth technology being the reason that so many engagements take place at visual ranges, and that older aircraft are naturally at a disadvantage in such fights because newer and more advanced active stealth measures continually improve at deceiving enemy radar and optical target recognition systems. The VF-31 comes into this discussion specifically via the optical film on its hull that's able to freely change the aircraft's markings and coloration. It's incapable of going full Ghost in the Shell optic camo, but it can change rapidly enough to blur the aircraft's outline enough that it can briefly delay target acquisition by a few tenths of a second, which can be the difference between taking a hit and successful evasion in a fight. Cpt. Molders's VF-31S went into the dogfight with the advantage of its FF-3001/FC2 engines, significantly more powerful than the FF-3001A engines used by the VF-25 and VF-31A, and able to further increase their output by tapping into the fold wave system. Arad's plan was to essentially trick the enemy YF-30B's into attempting to match the VF-31S in terms of acceleration and turning performance, where he had a decisive advantage. Banking sharply to match their speed and changing to GERWALK mid-roll, Arad was able to land a direct hit on the cockpit of a second YF-30B改 with his beam gunpod, killing the pilot and taking the second of four aircraft out of the fight. Changing back to fighter and finishing the roll, he then applied maximum overboost, trusting the VF-31S's structural reinforcement to allow the otherwise perilous high-airspeed transformation. Because the airframe is specially strengthened to withstand the Fold Wave System and FF-3001/FC2 engines, it's able to transform and attack in 360 degrees at much higher airspeeds than usual. This type of acrobatic attack is a mainstay of VF combat against Zentradi pods, but normally at far lower speeds. Having maxed the capacity of his ISC system with that maneuver, Arad was forced to fight conservatively and rely on getting in close to the two remaining enemy aircraft in order to bleed off the accumulated g-forces and prepare for a counterattack. With enough ISC capacity restored, Arad then dived directly into the city, barely above the ground before changing to GERWALK mode, forcing the enemy YF-30B改's to pursue. While flying barely above the city streets and dodging Roakite ground forces, Arad turned 180 degrees to fly backwards and unleashed a warning shot at the two pursuing YF-30B's. Constrained by the streets, the warning shot ended up being a direct hit on one of the two remaining GGCF fighters, sneding it crashing into a building. Built-in safety measures in the YF-30B's airframe control AI activated and dumped all energy in its capacitors into its energy conversion armor, preventing major damage to the aircraft while the ISC protected the life of the pilot from the intense g-forces of the crash. However, the building then collapsed on top of the crashed YF-30B, immobilizing it and allowing a snap shot from Arad to further disable it. Having reduced the fight from 4 on 1 to 1 on 1, Arad launched vertically in Fighter mode with the remaining YF-30B in hot pursuit and threaded the needle through an enemy rear guard unit at 500m. The YF-30B, already slow to pursue, misjudged the timing and was late to turn. This hesitation allowed Arad to clear the enemy rearguard unit, reverse under maximum g-load, and launch a combined missile and beam gunpod attack on the remaining YF-30B... reducing it to a blazing wreck that plummeted to the ground. The Alkarelia defense forces, watching this outrageous engagement, raised a mighty cheer as the last YF-30B went down. Meanwhile, the Roakite air forces had been picked apart by 1st Lt. Christiansen's Siegfried, the two Kairos units, and the VF-11 drone unit. This devastating reversal and the loss of a significant part of their air power saw the Roakite army initiate a retreat. Thanks to Operation Gram and the intervention of Xaos in the politically difficult situation the NUNS had been prevented from intervening in, Alkarelia was able to repel the Roakite invasion and regain its sovereignty. The hostile political situation between the two worlds remained unchanged, but no party objected to Alkarelia voluntarily paying a PMC to help assist its defense forces. One month later, Xaos was formally contracted to provide a garrison force to assist in defense of the planet. Alkarelia's King Ragrand provided Xaos with fold quartz as part of the remuneration for their emergency aid and the price of their defense contract. It's hypothesized that Lady M may have intervened and offered a special contract price in exchange for the fold quartz. This new supply of fold quartz was, according to the text, probably used to complete the remaining VF-31 Siegfried units for Delta Flight. Cpt. Arad Molders and the other three Xaos pilots who participated in the defensive battle were also knighted by the Alkarelian royal family and Arad also received a promotion to Major for his valor in combat. An armistice would eventually be agreed between the Alkarelians and Roakites when the Roakite Prince Simka, who helped arrange the initial cease fire, deposed his father and negotiated peaceful relations between the two worlds. The Roakite military government was dissolved and the planet made a peaceful transition to industrial development. It ends with one more digression, noting that the Alkarelians were disappointed to learn that Maj. Molders was not going to be stationed on their planet. Instead, he was to return to Ragna and continue preparing the 3rd Fighter Wing's Delta Flight for joint operations with Tactical Sound Unit Walkure. It's said that when they visited Alkarelia again, the Delta Flight airshow drew louder cheers than Walkure's performance.

While the VF-4 was undeniably a better space fighter than the VF-1, because its development started before the First Space War it was still fundamentally a product of the same incorrect assumptions that drove the VF-1's development. It also shared a fair percentage of VF-1 parts because its development was completed postwar for use on emigrant ships so resource efficiency was prioritized. Kinda! I'd assume something a bit more autonomous, though, instead of needing gunners.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies is pretty much the center of the Venn diagram of Villain-san's Day Off and Love After World Domination. It's one of those half-length short series (11 minute episodes). The premise is basically a gender-flipped version of Love After World Domination but with more of a Villain-san's Day Off slow pace. The titular and extremely polite and proper Lieutenant from the nondescript Evil Organization falls in love at first sight with the equally polite and proper Magical Girl and, due to their shared incredible commitment to politeness, proper etiquette, and fair play they never do get around to doing any fighting.

My Wife Has No Emotion's latest episode... well... hmm... This is clearly meant to be cute and funny, but I can't laugh or find it cute because the protagonist is clearly mentally ill. He's a terminally lonely wage slave projecting his frustrated affections onto a humanoid household appliance... and outside of his sister, the people who've seen them together find it appropriately creepy and cringeworthy. His sister... *inarticulate noise of disgust*... imagine writing a story where a character has to be introduced with this caption superimposed over them: 「異種間恋愛フェチ」 (lit. "interspecies love fetish"). That's how the series chooses to explain the protagonist's sister being OK with him being "married" to a robotic kitchen tool. The whole premise is still incredibly sexist.

It's not reactants they're drawing in in atmospheric flight... the compact thermonuclear reactor's running entirely on internally-carried hydrogen either way. It's that they don't have to carry supplemental propellant with them to generate thrust. They can just pull in air and heat it up like a normal turbofan jet engine. As to the main question... well... they might not have even bothered. Had the Earth UN Government and Earth UN Forces had an accurate picture of what space warfare was actually like they probably would probably have decided to focus on large-scale static and mobile anti-fleet defenses rather than anything designed for infantry combat. Grand Cannons, weapons satellites armed with high-powered beam weapons and batteries of thermonuclear reaction missiles, guided missile destroyers, etc. Weapons designed to absolutely saturate near-Earth space with thermonuclear fire in order to wipe enemy fleets with overwhelming firepower. If they bothered with Valkyries at all, I suspect we'd see something more like the VF-X3 Medusa from the FamilySoft Macross games or a VF-25 with a permanent Armored Pack... something less like an aircraft and more like a heavily armored brick of a spacecraft built to carry the absolute maximum amount of "I want it dead yesterday" firepower. Even a transformation would probably not be bothered with in favor of maximizing the ability to saturate the combat area with firepower and manufacture as many of them as possible. If they were absolutely, doggedly determined to make a VF like the VF-1... probably something akin to the VF-0+ or VF-3000. Just, the VF-1 but bigger. The size constraints on the VF-1's battroid mode were what caused its limited internal fuel capacity for space flight. The source you are probably thinking of is Macross Chronicle (2nd Edition) Technology Sheet 01E "Variable Fighter", which says things like: "Energy conversion armor is said to be a technology obtained from the combat pods left in the ASS-1, [...]"

It's a franchise... a happy ending just means they have to force a Happy Ending Override when they come back to make Alien N+1: the Search for More Money. Like what happened after Terminator 2: Judgement Day.