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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Wouldn't that keep them out, though, given that the barrier is so incredibly destructive to ships? Yeah, but it's usually on-message. This reference to Coppélia is basically the polar opposite of where Picard is trying to go with its aesop about synthetic life. Doctor Coppelius wanted very much to bring his mechanical doll Coppélia to life using black magic and human sacrifices, but ultimately failed and his creations were doomed to remain lifeless automata. To call the planet Coppelius, a name presumably chosen by Soong, implies that contrary to his stated beliefs he doesn't actually see androids as people.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Kawamori's answer to why unmanned fighters haven't displaced manned aircraft is a pretty simple one... it basically amounts to "Seen Macross Plus? People know that sh*t happened in-universe. Nobody wants to trust fully autonomous AI fighters after a first public demonstration like that." I mean, do WE use giant fighting robots? Nope. They probably assumed that since the interior of the ship indicated its crew were at least humanoid, that they probably fought wars a lot like humans do... feet on the ground, the occasional fighter or armored fighting vehicle, y'know. The 1st Generation Variable Fighter concepts were intended for use in planetary defense rather than long-duration operations in deep space. Variable Fighter Master File is the only source that offers us a detailed view of the Earth Unification Government's defense plans to resist an alien invasion, and the picture it paints is one of engaging the alien fleet in orbit with reaction weaponry and the Grand Canons while alien landing forces are contained and mopped up by troops from local military bases in the attacked region and five rapid reaction forces operating out of paired Daedalus-class and Prometheus-class ships. The ARMD-class space carriers weren't conceived as ships, the original concept (in-universe) was that they would operate as orbital air bases. It wasn't until they started properly formulating how they were going to convert the alien starship for use as a defense warship that some bright soul concluded that all that really needed to be done to convert this orbiting air base into an aircraft carrier was attach some engines and install a navigational bridge. So the initial generation of VFs that were designed around the requirements from this era didn't need a ton of onboard fuel capacity. They were expected to operate in the Earth's atmosphere or at most up in a high orbit as part of the planet's space defenses. Even operating in deep space wasn't really much of a consideration, since they were expected to be within close range of their home carrier as part of its air defense. Not reactants, but they use intake air to produce thrust the same way as a conventional jet engine would. Yup... though it's UN, not US. A lot of the Earth UN Government's assumptions about space warfare proved to be... disastrously wrong. Of course, it's not like they had any way to know that space warfare in their universe firmly believed that "a million is a statistic" and was fought between two clone armies with nigh-inexhaustible resources. They were clearly hoping for something more like Star Wars, Starship Troopers, or even Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where fleets of a few hundred ships at most batter each other to bits while ground forces struggle to capture and hold terrain. Instead, they found themselves dealing with an enemy that didn't really care about holding terrain and wasn't shy about destroying planets.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    As far as I can tell, the VF-31D Skuld is something that Aoshima invented for their VFG model kit. There are only actually two variants of the Surya Aerospace VF-31: the VF-31A and VF-31B. The VF-31A is the Brisingr Alliance New UN Forces' 5th Generation main variable fighter still in operational evaluation with the expendable civilian mooks of Xaos, similar to how SMS's services were contracted to test the VF-25 in live combat. The VF-31B is indicated to also be a production version intended for military use, with a few hints being dropped that it may be a model conversion trainer. Xaos's Siegfried customs are unique aircraft that were modified from trial production VF-31s. It's implied in the series that they started out as VF-31As, as seen in the flashback episode where Arad is shown using a VF-31A with his distinctive livery. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried asserts instead that they were customized from YF-31s. The VF-1D and VT-1 are the only ones that leap to mind that are that specific orange and tan color scheme. The VF-17T is orange and gloss white. YF-19-3 "Bird of Prey" was also white with orange trim. Master File's YF-19-4 had a reversed orange with white trim scheme. Master File also has a YF-21-1 prototype that had an orange and white paintjob. The YF-25 Prophecy1 has a white, orange, and blue paintjob as well. Master File also has a squadron paintjob for the SVX-12 "Moon Shooters" squadron where one of their VF-0-NF2 units has an white and orange paintjob similar to the trainer scheme. 1. Well, at least the three YF-25 units built in the Macross Frontier fleet... the one from Sephira that Reon Sakaki flies in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy is seafoam green and white instead. 2. The aforementioned VF-0 outfitted with the QF-3000's FF-1999 engines for space testing.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    This is basically the in-universe justification for the VF-5000. The VF-4 was built to emphasize space performance, and ended up being a better space fighter than the VF-1 Super Valkyrie was by a pretty significant margin. The space focus in its design meant that its aerodynamics suffered somewhat and it wasn't nearly as agile in atmosphere... making it a poor choice for an all-regime main VF. That led to it being supplemented by the atmosphere focused VF-5000.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    It seems that it never occurred to them that the Zentradi wouldn't fight a conventional infantry war... rather than being a 100% mechanized force. Not any of the ones that were introduced during its mass production run and service with the UN Forces and New UN Forces as a main variable fighter. Hakuna Aoba's VF-1X++ custom may have gone a ways towards solving it by adopting the same, more efficient engine technology developed for 4th Generation VFs, but the VF-1 is really just too small to have significant endurance in space.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    It's been a long and depressing week full of news of rampant disease, death, corruption, and congenital idiocy... and to put the cherry on that sundae of suck, there's the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard, a series that has boldly gone where no Star Trek has gone before. Straight to the bottom. "Et in Arcadia, Ego" Part 1. The Good... it's such a relative term, isn't it? The Bad... there's just so much of it. The Ugly... it's omnipresent. Long story short, it turns out the Romulans were right all along... sentient artificial intelligence is evil and prone to hold organic life in contempt. If Picard had stayed on Earth and left well enough alone, he'd have prevented the means for galactic genocide from falling into the hands of deranged killer robots.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Well... CBS initially promised that Star Trek: Picard was going to focus on new characters and that returning Star Trek cast members would be used sparingly and limited to small guest roles. Nine episodes in, the content of the show has determined that was a lie. If we're charitable, it might constitute a massive course correction instead in the face of audiences finding the new cast to be underdeveloped, cliched, and generic enough to blend into the background better than a Jem'Hadar. They literally don't matter to the plot at all, except as vehicles for dialog Picard can't deliver to himself. Soji is literally the only original character who has any real relevance to the plot.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    I just want to say in advance... I am so very sorry for what you're about to go through.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Definitely not the brightest moment for our heroes... freeing the abused racing animals while leaving the children tending them in slavery. Is PETA a branch of the Resistance these days?
  10. Seto Kaiba
    A fair point... it does seem far more likely that Titan Comics cancelled Robotech Remix in the face of slipping sales and opted for a trade paperback as a way to wring a few more dollars from the material they'd already made. What's odd is that Titan Comics moved the release date for Remix #5 out a month from its intended street date and then mysteriously went dead silent about it. No news posts on the Titan Comics official website. No announcements about it on the company's social media. No responses to reader questions about the publication's status on social media. No actual news to be had from the minor hobby news sites Titan uses to publish promotional materials for new issues. It's Titan's abrupt and total silence about Robotech Remix that's cause for speculation that something might be up. Normally when a comic gets cancelled there's some kind of warning, usually in the form of a letter from the editor in the final issue or a news post on the publisher's website, unless sales are so apocalyptically bad the publisher has to replace the toilet paper in their bathrooms with returned-unsold inventory. The sales of the last issue of Remix weren't THAT bad, so Titan's abrupt silence about the missing issue and the series as a whole is enough to make you think something else might be going on... like a threat of a lawsuit for copyright infringement from Macross's owners.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    ... woah, now that level of negativity is just uncalled-for. I did see a fun little video on YouTube earlier today about how Jean-Luc Picard has become an incredibly manipulative old man in Star Trek: Picard. He's a classic toxic senior citizen.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    So... I wonder how long Titan Comics will continue to avoid mentioning that Robotech Remix is cancelled? Moreover, I wonder why it seemingly stopped development and publication so abruptly and without notice? Was it just further slipping of their already low sales, or has Big West taken notice of Titan's copyright infringement and filed a lawsuit against them in England? Titan's headquartered in Bankside, London... and the Macross trademarks belong to Big West in the UK these days.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Well, at least the folks in Venice confirmed the dolphins are still here. Just make sure you know where your towel is.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Like, the water-in-the-sky kind (sorta weird) or the server-on-a-network kind (pretty understandable)? Most of the fanbase... some of us are unhappy with the last series, but we've got plenty to enjoy in the form of tech manuals, toys, model kits, etc. The only one who seems truly unhappy here is you. This world was already doomed... it's been doomed from the moment it started to clot together out of interstellar dust.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    It was actually motivated by Battroid mode. One of the program goals of the Earth UN Forces' First Generation Variable Fighter program was to have the Battroid mode be close to the expected size of the alien giants (~10m), in order to fight them effectively in an infantry context and interact with them and/or their equipment. Constraining the size of Battroid mode ultimately constrained the size of the VF-1 Valkyrie and its unsuccessful competitor the VF-X-2 to around the size of the F-16. That, in turn, resulted in the VF's available internal space for fuel being too small for the VF to carry enough fuel for extended operations in space and made the addition of conformal fuel tanks and FAST Packs necessary. Master File explains the larger size, and origins, of the VF-0 as being the OTM-enhanced F-14s being used as a starting point for VF development. That proved to be convenient since that provided enough space for conventional jet fuel storage for short sorties when thermonuclear reaction turbine engine delivery was delayed. Yeah. They only ever built a few dozen VF-0s as technology demonstrators and evaluation airframes, and those were sidelined when production VF-1 Valkyries began to enter service in the UN Forces. Master File alleges that some VF-0s were updated with the FF-2001 to become the VF-0+ Phoenix Plus and were stationed in places like Grand Cannon III, but almost all VF-0 airframes were lost in the orbital bombardment. At least a few VF-0 airframes did survive the First Space War in storage, though. Hakuna Aoba's VF-0改 "Zeak" in the Macross the Ride light novel is a surviving/existing VF-0 airframe that was extensively modified with YF-25 parts by Katori Brown-Robbins. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix also features an aircraft called "VF-0A The Nostalgia", a remanufactured/restored VF-0 produced by Shinsei Industry for the 25th Anniversary of the First Space War Armistice made using parts from two VF-0A airframes (No.7 and No.13) and fitted with a reproduction VF-0S monitor turret and painted in Roy Focker's iconic colors.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Rather ironically, the UN Spacy probably had a better/more suitable space fighter in the VF-0+ Phoenix Plus... a VF-0 retrofitted to take the VF-1's FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engine. The VF-1's biggest problem in space operations was insufficient onboard fuel storage, and the much larger VF-0 doesn't have that problem... which was one reason that (in Master File, anyway) it was used for early space testing while equipped with the FF-1999 engines designed for the QF-3000.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Personally, my suspicion would be that Titan was actually counting on their own "original", heavily Macross-ized ongoing story to be the money maker and Dana's presence was the token effort being made to appease Robotech fans who might've accused the comic of being the glorified Macross fanfic it arguably is. "See, a Robotech character is the story's main character, this is totally still a Robotech story!" I don't think anyone would kid themselves that a story featuring Dana - even this vastly improved Dana who actually seems to possess a functioning brain - would be a draw... except for maybe two or three people who kid themselves about Southern Cross's (un)popularity. Yeah, they're basically trying to re-sell collected editions of the comics that rehash shows since those engaged in little-to-no copyright infringement and are usually the ones that the fans held in reasonably high regard. They're banking on nostalgia, which is a halfway workable strategy considering Comico is almost considered the apex of the pre-reboot Robotech comics. Eh, I wouldn't count on it... it looks like Tatsunoko leveraged Harmony Gold's desperate need for a renewal to get them to drop the debt owed from arbitration. That's pretty much the obvious course of action. The only purpose Robotech serves is cringe comedy... and to remind us how lucky we are that Macross's creators are competent and actually give a damn about the fanbase. ... I think that might say more about you than the design, to be honest. It was a very, VERY blatant ripoff of the Zaku II, even using the same sound effects when it was introduced. Southern Cross's creators didn't really bother to hide how much they were ripping off in the show's development either, like making Seifreit a watered-down Char clone and giving him a high-performance ace Bioroid in bright red that was faster than a usual model. It was basically a "scifi/robot anime by numbers" process, borrowing from Yamato, Gundam, and Macross in equal measure. Wrong generation... "Yeet" is something used by the kids a good decade younger than myself, 2000s kids.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    I've been poking at the engine section in Battroid Valkyrie a bit between meetings. It's interesting to see how radically the Master File writers assert the VF-1's engines changed during production. Most VFs are lucky to get one engine upgrade in their entire service lives. Master File asserts the VF-1 had AT LEAST FOUR. The initial type FF-2001 engine on Blocks 1-5, FF-2006 on Blocks 6-8, FF-2008 on Blocks 9-17, and two more engine upgrades after mass production ended (FF-2012 for VF-1X, and FF-2079 for VF-1X+, and then whatever they put into the VF-1X++ stock model). Anyone out there a network engineer looking for work? I need two, possibly three.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    As the youth say... "Yeet". Are we counting the number of people likely to actually buy this steaming turd, or are we guessing that issue five has been pushed back a full calendar year? It IS interesting to note that Robotech Remix currently has no further scheduled new issues releases on Titan Comics' posted publication schedule. The only Robotech publications they have on the docket are the April release of the Robotech Remix trade paperback collecting the four issues published thus far and a July release for a reprint of the first part of Comico's adaptation of Robotech's Masters Saga. There are no new issues of Remix on the schedule clear through the end of August 2020 and #5 is over a month late. It really looks like it's been cancelled.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    It's literally just a cheap knockoff of the MS-06 Zaku II.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    To be honest, 1,400 is a gargantuan number considering the Robotech fandom mostly considers the Masters Saga to be an unlovely and unlovable red-headed stepchild of a story that boasts the franchise's worst... well... everything. Worst writing, worst characters, worst mechanical designs, you name it. 14 or so actual members sounds much more reasonable. The hate for the Masters Saga was, and is, very real and VERY commonplace. The last time HG held a poll about whether the fans considered the Southern Cross Army competent the fans overwhelmingly responded "No". Let's just hope Titan finally decided to mercy kill this turd. Surely SOMEONE will let Robotech die with some remaining vague semblance of dignity.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Cleaning up around my study during isolation... I'd call my filing system pretty masterful in this case. (This is just the shelf of doubles for Master Files...)
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, they're using uprated versions of the same TO21 ISC used by the VF-25. The original model provided with the VF-25 was rated for 27.5G (for 120sec). The VF-31A Kairos's version is rated for 28.0G, and the VF-31 Custom Siegfried's is rated for 29.5G, both presumably for 120 seconds.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Granted, but we're not bombing naval ships that are only moving in two dimensions... this duty involves striking ships moving in three, which makes them more like really big, really slow enemy fighters than boats. All told, I think a big part of this has to do with the prevalence of powerful warship-based ECM, active stealth, and the use of laser and beam weaponry for point defense. The farther away you launch your missile from, the greater your chances that your missile will either lose the target as ECM and/or active stealth interfere with its guidance systems or that it'll be identified and shot down by a point defense turret armed with lasers or beam weaponry. Your best bet is to conceal your presence and get as close as possible before you launch to minimize the probability of intercept. That's mostly the domain of Strike Packs or the Konig Monster, then.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Current projections are that it's supposed to burn itself out before Autumn.
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