Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13136

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    Eh, if it were any other franchise... but Macross's creators are military nuts who operate on a level above even most of us. They're not shy about putting out reams of material about fighters and throwing all kinds of obscure military references into Macross shows...
  2. Seto Kaiba
    That's an eccentricity of the forum software's time display format when it rolls over to a new year. It'll straighten itself out once your time zone crosses midnight, IIRC.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    The only size metric that's been given for the SDF/C-108 Macross Elysion is that in Storming Attack mode it's approximately the same height as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (~828m). As such, it's approximately 2/3 the height of the standard Macross-class or Battle-class. It was a given that there would be multiple ships of the Macross Elysion-type... the military never builds just one of anything, barring some incredible administrative cockup like what happened with cost overruns on the real world1 Enterprise-class aircraft carriers that resulted in five of the planned six being canceled, leaving just CVN-65 USS Enterprise. Thus far, we've only seen a few cases where ships were one-of-a-kind at the time they appeared3: SDF-1 Macross, the first ship of a planned Macross-class. A second ship, SDF-2 Megalord, was under construction during the First Space War and was not completed in time to join the fight and was later converted into the first Megaroad-class ship. Twelve further Macross-class ships were built, starting with SDFN-1 General Takashi Hayase after the war ended. CVS-101 Prometheus, the first of her planned class of five Prometheus-class ships. SLV-111 Daedalus, the first of her planned class of five Daedalus-class ships. SMS Macross Quarter (series ver.) was a test article for the Macross Quarter-class to follow.2 Double helpings for Messer, Keith, and Roid! 1. An important distinction in this one very specific case, as the unofficial writeup for the Aether and Hemera's class in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried identifies them as Enterprise-class ships. 2. In the movie version, this was changed to it being a production level ship design already... having been developed at a shipyard on Eden and the specs shared over the Galaxy Network. 3. CVN-99 Asuka II from Macross Zero is often mistakenly put in this category, but she was actually one of two Asuka II-class ships built at Newport News... her sister ship, CVN-100 Graf Zeppelin II, has a cameo in Macross the First.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Less circuses, more bread! It's a remote possibility, but I doubt it... even the Macross Delta series showed that, in the seven years between Windermere IV's war of secession from the New UN Government and their second campaign's first offensive on Al Shahal in 2067, the Kingdom of the Wind's Aerial Knights had transitioned to the 5th Generation Sv-262 Draken III. (Arguably justified, since Windermere IV is a planet rich in the one material for which the scarcity is a limiting factor in adopting 5th Generation VFs: fold quartz.)
  5. Seto Kaiba
    His legal name is "Michael", which is the commonly-used Hebrew-derived version of the name... though he's noted as answering to both the French and Russian equivalents of the name as well.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Hard to say, given that prior to Macross Frontier the only emigrant fleets whose designations were spoken aloud had single digit designations... e.g. Macross 1, Macross 5, Macross 7, Macross 9. I don't recall, offhand, whether they mentioned the Megaroad 13 fleet aloud in Macross 7. I'd expect that the "official" one is probably a matter of personal preference on the part of any given fleet's government and its constituents, but in all likelihood both would be in use in the fleet. The military would almost certainly be using the NATO/ICAO "Two Nine" call in radio communications to minimize the potential for confusion, while "Twenty-Nine" would likely be used in informal/non-operational conditions and by civilians. (The obvious exception being the Macross-13, for which the bridge crew of the CV-565 Saratoga II refer to with "Thirteen" rather than "One Three".) Admittedly the Macross 29 fleet's use of "Two Nine" is rather odd, given that the fleet in question abolished its military component some years before Macross the Musiculture's main story in 2062. Mind you, Macross 29 is also the only 4th or 5th Generation emigrant fleet we know of that doesn't have an actual name too... something that seems to have become the norm at some point after the Macross 11 fleet's hybrid of City-class with a Milky Road system and physically-connected Island-class departed.1 Or it's someone who's used to the NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet and figure code... 1. One has to wonder if this bizarre design choice is sufficient to consider the City-11 to be a Generation 3.5 emigrant ship or something of that sort?
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, they had a really good one near the end of the series and a pretty good one about 2/3 of the way thru. They had a way to jam the Song of the Wind that was triggering Var syndrome outbreaks, and they got stopped partway into their permanent solution of blasting Windermere IV clean off the face of the galaxy. No wind singer, no song of the wind. No song of the wind, no Var syndrome. ;-)
  8. Seto Kaiba
    That'd be awful roundabout... softening up the New UN Government by waging a propaganda war against a corporation the New UN Forces think is an interfering pack of useless gits.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Smart money says that, as with the Macross Delta TV series, the writers have decided to copy Macross Frontier... in this case, Walkure will probably be accused of being spies or being behind the Var outbreaks they control.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Huh, a few mildly interesting things in the trailer... Χάος has multiple Macross Elysion-type ships, which I guess isn't surprising given that the Macross Frontier movies did the same thing to the Macross Quarter-class. Looks like we're also in for Walkure getting the same treatment Sheryl got in the Frontier movies. Messer's VF-31F Delta 2 equipped with Lilldrakens? (Odds on a Keith heel-face turn like fans thought would happen in the series?) Putting Hayate's battroid mode dance routine from the series' first episode in the movie with a VF-31 instead. Looking more like the twists in the Macross Delta movie will be the exact same twists from the Macross Frontier movies...
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, it goes back like 25 years... but he's never changed that stance. Like I said in my last post, the most recent indication that his position hasn't changed is from Mari Iijima just 2 months ago at Super Dimension Convention.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Yes and no. Kawamori-san's insistence that the story of the original Macross main trio is over and he will not revisit it is a stance that he has held for a long time now, and as far as we know he hasn't changed his mind any. At the Super Dimension Convention earlier this year, Mari Iijima herself noted that while she has somewhat recently changed her mind and is willing to return as Lynn Minmay, Kawamori isn't interested in revisiting the character or her story. As far as Kawamori has said, Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay's story is over. It ended with Macross: Flash Back 2012 when they sailed off into the metaphorical sunset together. There is no more story to tell where they are involved. He wants to move forward and tell new stories. Kawamori's only involvement with the anniversary commemorative events is attending them, and he doesn't have anything to do with the digital remastering of older Macross shows for home video release. Like I said, the story of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross cast is over... its epilogue was the 1987 Macross: Flash Back 2012 OVA, which was material that was originally storyboarded for Super Dimension Fortress Macross's 36th episode. There isn't really a story to tell with those characters from that point on. Thanks to titles like Macross 7 Docking Festival we know what most of the cast did after the war ended and Megaroad-01 launched and it's not exactly exciting stuff. Most of them quit the military and went back to civilian life. The only ones who had any real excitement in their lives after were Max and Milia, who kept their commissions and went into the New UN Spacy Special Forces before being assigned to the Macross-7 fleet, and that's well-documented already in Macross M3 and Macross 7. The rest is not particularly exciting: General Global retired from the military in 2016 to go into government, Britai got Global's old job, Shammy got married and had 11 kids, Vanessa got married and has a club in Macross City that she and her husband run, Kim never married and works a desk job in the New UN Forces, the lolicon trio kept working odd jobs and at least one ended up as an alcoholic, etc. Having been MIA for half a century at this point, even the fate of the main trio isn't likely to be good material for a series either. If they aren't long-dead, then they've been living peacefully on some planet isolated by fold faults.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Kawamori-san has repeatedly said he's not interested in doing a direct sequel to Super Dimension Fortress Macross. There's no point in petitioning him to do something he's adamant about refusing to do.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, give our best to Gargamel. Well... we don't actually have the option not to. We're at the mercy of Crunchyroll's catalog of licensed titles, the only version of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny they licensed was the high-definition remastered version. At nine episodes into Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, I can definitely see why this show has such a bad reputation. Shinn Asuka's supposed to be the main character, at least on paper, and he's so thoroughly unlikeable that the show seems to want to focus on literally anyone who isn't Shinn Asuka. Mostly Athrun Zala, the man with the Earth sphere's worst paper-thin alias. What with Kira having become a hermit or something and a new secret Earth Forces unit faffing about doing shady stuff, this show is really feeling like the bargain bin version of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. I'm kind of amazed that, after all that happens, nobody has yet remarked "didn't we do this exact thing just last year?" when OMNI forces under the direction of Blue Cosmos uses a paper-thin excuse to launch a nuclear attack on the PLANTs and it doesn't work because the PLANTs have a new superweapon. Not!Azrael has much worse dress sense than Azrael did though, what with the silver-trimmed yellow suit with the mandarin collar and the purple lipstick. I have a feeling I might hate the obvious Lacus impersonator more than I hate the genuine article...
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Less Walkure, more Valkyrie. Kinda pissing into the wind there... the only competent factions in Macross Delta are the New UN Forces and Epsilon Foundation, they're both background factions and they're the only ones in this bloody story who have a clue what's actually going on. Macross Delta's like a mecha version of The Mouse that Roared adapted for screen by Uwe Boll.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, this fanart is several decades too old to have any kind of connection to the VF-1G Valkyrie from Variable Fighter Master File. It's not clear why the writers who worked on Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1 felt compelled to come up with a new variant to replace the official VEFR-1 Valkyrie from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, but that's what they did. That variant was a new (non-canon) introduction for the first Master File book in 2009, and didn't exist prior to that point. Based on the references made in this fanart, it seems to be from some point in the mid-to-late eighties, very probably from before the release of Macross: Flash Back 2012. It seems to describe an improved space-use version of the VF-1A. (And a VF-4A based on the VF-X-4 rather than the final VF-4 design.) That's something else entirely, an unofficial/fanmade variant.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    I'm kind of surprised you let the "Ramba Rommel" comment slide... @BlackRose and I just moments ago finished the final (48th) episode of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED's HD Remastered edition. I have to say, this being my first time actually getting past the 12th episode of the series, it wasn't actually that bad. Not my cup of tea, Gundam-wise, but actually not nearly as bad as I remember from my attempts to get through its broadcast cut on Toonami back in the day. That said, it feels like the Cosmic Era setting is an even bigger craphole than than the Universal Century. There is absolutely nobody on either main side outside the main cast who is in any way admirable, honorable, or not a frothingly insane genocidal bigot. These people are 5x10^f'ed up. I'd probably have rated Gundam SEED a lot higher if there'd been any sign on the OMNI and ZAFT sides that there were people who hadn't totally lost the plot. Even the Zabis had more class and restraint than Patrick Zala, and Azrael's so obviously axe-crazy and suspicious that the absence of any reasonable authority figure is the only reason he didn't spend pretty much the entire series in a padded room somewhere. You're right, I absolutely did not notice any musical cues that seemed jarring our out of place. Tomorrow, when we're not watching my younger brother go mano-a-mano with an unruly kitten, baby ball python, and a large and ornery monitor lizard, @BlackRose and I will be starting Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny to continue our holiday march through the new offerings on Crunchyroll.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Smaller than the old Expanded Universe, where the same double-handful of jerks were at the center of absolutely everything?
  19. Seto Kaiba
    I confess that after watching The Last Jedi the other night, I came away with this weird impression that this latest Star Wars trilogy was a Tite Kubo-esque "Take that!" aimed at the fans who'd criticized the hell out of the prequel trilogy. Not just that every character from the original trilogy has now moved into the same role as a supporting character from that same trilogy1, but also that so many of the new characters have bios that read like they're right out of a fanfic. Thankfully, they proceeded to mercilessly subvert the hell out of the expectations that arose from that... but it does kind of feel like they've twice now thrown the baby out with the bathwater in the process of subverting those expectations. Feels like character development of important characters is too thin on the ground at present. Quite a few events and characters2 lack the impact they're clearly supposed to have because they're not developed.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    There's been a bit of on-and-off lag lately, it doesn't seem connected to anything in particular...
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, there are still a few areas in Macross's mechanical setting where things haven't been properly explained yet. The fold wave system and its big brother, the fold dimensional resonance system, are one example of something where all we know is that they "just work". I live in hope that my translations, or those of the far more prolific sketchley, will stumble upon the answers to a few of those unanswered questions in time. Rion being assigned to a YF-25 Prophecy at the start of Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy has a lot to do with the fact that the YF-25 in question was destined for disassembly. He was sent to Uroboros from the Sephira SMS branch to deliver that YF-25 Prophecy to Maj. Aisha Blanchett of the Uroboros SMS branch so that she could part it out, with the semi-clandestine goal being to use said parts to repair the damage the YF-30 Chronos prototype had sustained in an earlier testing accident and bring it closer to completion by adopting the YF-25's ARIEL II "Brunhilde" airframe control AI system. (That's why Aisha wasn't too put out that Rion managed to wreck his YF-25 fighting Havamal up there in orbit... the bits she wanted most all survived the crash: the cockpit, the airframe control AI, and a pilot to replace the injured test pilot her prototype had hospitalized.) (This is actually acknowledged in the VF-31A's spec, in which the ARIEL II airframe control AI used is noted as Brunhilde+, a more refined version of the same Brunhilde used by the YF-25 and YF-30.)
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Considering how Freyja reacts when Hayate touches her rune, it's pretty clear those ain't normal tentacles... they're henticles.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    With a military pilot and military-issue fold booster? Seems unlikely. Apart from a vague similarity in wing structure there ain't much VF-4 there... this looks far too different to be derived from a VF-4.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    A tentacle. They seem to enjoy braiding hair around it, though in Freyja's case you can clearly see said tentacle whenever her rune perks up.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, we got nothin'... this one's not covered in any depth in any Macross publication. Even Macross Chronicle ignores it. You'd think it would've at least landed in an Extra Report on a quasi-related sheet like a Mechanic Sheet, History Sheet, or Timeline Sheet, but no dice. All we know is that it's manned, it's approximately fighter-sized, and like every other craft in its size class it needs a fold booster to travel interstellar distances. Presumably it's got a BDI system cockpit, since the canopy is covered by an armored shield like the VF-27's. If the streamlined design and canards are any indication it was an all-regime craft, and its pilot identifies as a member of the Macross Galaxy corporate army (NUNS), but it has no obvious weaponry. It's too small to be a shuttle or courier craft, there's no reason for an escape pod to be equipped with wings and a fold booster. All I can think of is it must be some kind of two-seater VIP transport aircraft or a reconnaissance plane.
×
×
  • Create New...