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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, Star Trek: Picard seems to prompt that reaction from a lot of fans. There was a news post on Reddit the other day where Patrick Stewart expressed willingness/interest in doing additional seasons of Picard beyond its third-and-final season and almost all of the nearly one-thousand replies were folks hoping it would not come to pass. IMO, it's rather amusing and illustrative that the top streaming series on Paramount+ in 2022 was Halo rather than any of the five NuTrek shows that released new seasons in 2022. It narrowly edged out 1883 and Yellowstone to seize the top spot. After reviewing a number of viewership metrics trackers, NuTrek seems to struggle to chart at all. The only one of the NuTrek titles to break into the top 10 most-watched shows on Paramount+ in 2022 was Discovery season four, and only because it aired over the New Year's break. Picard peaked at 12th. It's also still the second-worst rated Star Trek series on review aggregators (ahead of only Discovery) and third-worst title in the franchise overall.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    So, in a lull between meetings I flipped thru to the final version of this page and it's almost exactly the same: The page title now reads "VF-31AX/X Kairos Plus" The mass has been revised downward to 7,342kg (-908kg) The ISC buffer has been revised upwards to 30.0G (+2.0G) The main engine thrust has been revised upwards to 1,715kN/ea (+70kN/ea) So, how this compares to the VF-31A Kairos and VF-31 Siegfried... The Siegfried's T/W ratio is 44.854 and the Kairos's T/W ratio is 40.664. The mass reduction played the most significant role here, bringing the Kairos Plus's base T/W to 47.637, a bit higher than the Siegfried's despite having a significantly less powerful engine. The ISC is comparable to the YF-29's, though not as good as the current frontrunner in the Sv-262 at 30.5G. Skimming to see if I can find the spec for the FWS.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Also, my copies of the VF-31AX Master File rolled in today. Gonna review those after work. One thing I did note is that the specs in the preview image are NOT the same as the ones in the final book.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    An excellent question we don't have a completely clear answer for. It's known that Earth had some issues replicating the alien overtechnology and that may have played a role in its design. It's mentioned in Macross: Perfect Memory that the SDF-2 was originally designed for long-range, long-term solo operations. The extra size may have been necessary to include the concessions to longer-term operations.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Not as such, no. Prior to the end of the First Space War, the hull that would become the Megaroad-01 was being constructed from scratch on the moon as a second (larger) Macross-class ship. Construction was halted during the war and the ship was never completed according to its original plan, instead being reworked into the first Megaroad-class long distance emigrant ship. Every Megaroad-class ship we've seen in official materials so far has looked essentially identical to Megaroad-01. (Miyatake's original design for the SDF-2 would have been used in the epilogue to the original series had it not been cut due to runtime concerns. It was replaced by the familiar Megaroad-01 design when the epilogue was animated as an OVA years later in Flash Back 2012.) The New UN Government did also build twelve new Macross-class ships based on the postwar repair design of the SDF-1 Macross, which were used to scout ahead of emigrant fleets before being retired or seconded to exploratory duty like the SDFN-04 General Bruno J. Global and SDFN-08 General Vrlitwhai Kridanik. AFAIK, the only time a ship named Megaroad has actually been depicted as a Macross-class ship in a story was the PC game Macross VO and its WInXP port Macross VOXP, which were not an official setting story.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Well... yes and no. There is an old truism that no two ships of the same class are ever truly identical. Ships develop their own individual quirks during construction as a matter of course, as well as thanks to many minor refinements and improvements made in the course of producing multiple ships of the same type. SDF-02 Megaroad-01 was the first ship of her class and unique in the sense that, of all her sister ships, only she was manufactured by converting a pre-existing partially-completed Macross-class spaceframe from a battleship into an emigrant ship. All of the later examples of the class were made from scratch as emigrant ships and differ from each other in little ways, but share the same general design. The New UN Government built many Megaroad-class ships in the 2010s and 2020s. The highest sequentially-numbered one mentioned is SDF-26 Megaroad-25, which were destroyed in an explosion at the factory satellite dock where they were being built. However there are also several unnumbered ones that have appeared like the Odin II in the Macross Frontier short story "Kabuki Warbird" and the Odin IV in the dating sim Macross: True Love Song. With the first emigrant fleet to use a New Macross-class emigrant ship being the 31st long-distance fleet, there may be 30 or more Megaroad-class ships sharing that same design. Yeah, high g-forces are nothing to sneeze at... and Valkyries are, if anything, more inclined to violent acceleration and turning g-forces than a conventional aircraft. Admittedly, their heads should NOT be snapping around like that with the neck supports in the flight suits. No pilot wants whiplash.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Might do for a dartboard once they're done dragging their respective beloved characters through the mud.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    There were some minor delays in delivery of the books to the sellers, and a fair number of buyers I've spoken to have reported the same experience I'm having with shipment issues in the leg of transit between the seller and the airport. My copies show as hung up on a shipment exception in Sennan-shi, for instance.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Well, yes. As I noted, the Uraga-class escort battle carrier and Battle-class supercarrier were made to operate both in space and planetside. The few times we've seen space carriers try to operate in atmosphere they've been stuck hovering over the planet's surface, and the ones we've seen launching fighters had to us some fairly odd setups for catapults like the centrifugal catapult of the Valhalla III in Macross Digital Mission VF-X2 or the strange right-angle catapults of the Algenicus in Macross M3 which launches fighters perpendicular to the ship's interior decks. The later Macrosses use linear catapults for mostly normal catapult launches from their support warships, but the only time I think we've seen a dedicated space warship do a regular catapult launch is the Gefion in Macross 30... that being a light carrier variant of the Northampton-class with two single fighter catapult decks.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Definitely not. The ARMD-class are dedicated space carriers. They were never intended to operate in a planet's atmosphere and, in fact, were originally developed as space stations meant to occupy geostationary orbits over Earth and at the Lagrange points to serve as floating docks for light warships and bases for fighter squadrons in Earth's space-based planetary defenses. The "floating stand" space station concept was hastily reworked to incorporate them into the Macross's defensive systems as space aircraft carriers. (In the oldest versions of the lore, that adaptation occurred only after plans for a much larger (800m-class) space carrier were scrapped.) The Macross itself wasn't really intended to operate planetside either, it was meant for long-term operations in space. That it could land doesn't necessarily mean it was meant to... and it took a fair amount of damage doing it. Similarly, the Guantanamo-class that replaced the ARMD-class and ARMD II-class was a dedicated space warship not intended for planetside use. It could hover over a planet's surface using gravity control but it was by no means intended to do so or capable of landing properly. Of the later designs, only the Uraga-class and Battle-class were truly intended for use in planetary surface environments. On the Guantanamo-class Advanced ARMD, the deck would be canted at a 45 degree angle or thereabouts in atmosphere, making a conventional catapult launch basically impossible.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    The End of an Error.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    In the Macross M3 opening, the arms seem to end in some kind of small block that attaches to the underside of the aircraft rather than a large clamp. For what it's worth, the ARMD-class has never been depicted using a conventional carrier deck setup. Exactly what the purpose of the markings on their upper surfaces are is unclear, esp. given that they carry over to the later Guantanamo-class Advanced ARMD. The only ship of that earlier period we know of using artificial gravity and arresting wires to recover fighters and conventional catapults to launch them is the Prometheus. Not surprising it might have larger bays, since the ship would doubtless have larger auxiliary craft in addition to fighters.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The one and only shot we have of VF-4s being launched in the main Macross continuity is in Macross M3's opening, where Max's VF-4G is shown being deployed via a launch arm similar to the DYRL? VF-1s. The gate they're shown launching from seems to have multiple tracks for launch arms too, since Milia launches from the same gate at the same time, only offset 180 degrees so her VF-5000B appears to be upside-down. Image shamelessly snipped from a YouTube upload of the Macross M3 opening by VF5SS. That approach is probably not used by the Megaroad-class. That's one of the through-deck elevators on the Prometheus... and the Megaroad-class doesn't have any "space flattop" features.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, localization teams seldom barrage the audience with news during the dub/sub production process. Plus mergers and acquisitions tend to upend production schedules at even the best-organized companies... and I unfortunately am living that experience myself right now. I see no cause for concern. Yeah, he and Naresuan seem to get that Jenius family "looks young into their 50's" thing. He actually puts in a couple appearances in video games and the like... though the only one that's part of an official timeline that has him make a prominent appearance is Macross 2036, where his ship is the flagship of the UN Spacy force defending against the Zentradi Neld main fleet.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    No, it did not. It went for some cheap shock value in the stinger after the credits, but other than that its only deviation from G-Witch's weekly directionless nothingburger of a story was a painfully forced attempt to build some pathos by killing off one complete arsehole literally nobody liked. Eh... the body count is almost entirely among nameless mooks and it's almost comically halfarsed. Plant Quetta's a Front the size of a small moon and a major Benerit Group weapons plant and the best they can muster for defense when attacked is... four Beguir-Pentes and a handful of armed Demi Trainers? They literally mustered more firepower for that 6v6 high school pissing match. It's so badly animated that most of them don't even fight back or dodge. They stand perfectly still and get shot. There's one scene where the animators got so lazy that they drew the Lfrith Ur just flying in a circle around a Beguir-Pente that fails to even react before shooting it in the back. The big fight between the Aerial and the two Lfrith units lasts maybe a minute and ends with neither side even managing to land a hit on the other. The only actual fight is... There's the cheap shock value of Suletta's one and only kill in the stinger... but that's not because it's consequential, just because it's unexpectedly gory. As much of a mess as this series has been, I'd honestly shed no tears if they decided to scrap it at 12 and go do something else with a different writer... or at least fire the writer and take the series in a completely different direction.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    The last time the topic was broached in-series in Macross 7, in-series medical science did not yet have an answer to the question of what the natural life expectancy of a Zentradi is. In "Which one do you love?", Milia gets sick and WebMD's herself into believing she's dying and goes on a rampage across the fleet to tie up her loose ends. The episode ends with Dr. Chiba chiming in to point out that her self-diagnosis is wrong and she just has a cold. The subject never really comes up again after that, though. It isn't until Macross Frontier and its side stories that we start to see Zentradi in the general populace on a regular basis, as they'd been restricted to Jenius family members and the occasional antagonist or throwaway background character up to that point. It's then that we start seeing apparently middle-aged and elderly Zentradi civilians like Ranka's (later Sheryl's) manager Elmo Kridanik and the owner of SMS and its parent company Richard Bilra. Based on them, Zentradi appear to age at approximately the same rate humans do, which would jive with what's said as far back as the original series about them being virtually identical to humans genetically. Richard Bilra was a former subordinate of Vrlitwhai Kridanik's during the First Space War, so he would be somewhere between 70 and 87 years old, and he looks the part. Ranka's (and later, Sheryl's) manager Elmo Kridanik is said to be the son of a famous First Space War commander (both Macross Chronicle and the light novel lean heavily into him being Vrlitwhai's son) and a retired Lt. Colonel in the Earth NUNS, meaning he's likely in his late 30's or early 40's. We don't know. The topic only comes up once, in an episode of the original SDF Macross series. Quamzin mentions an "old timer" aboard his ship who's due to be retired, but we never learn what that entails or when it occurs. They just use that older soldier's degraded abilities as an excuse to violate orders and hit the Macross directly with what was supposed to be a warning shot, setting up the events of "Blind Game". With the Zentradi lacking culture and any kind of society outside of their military organization and duties, it seems likely that "retiring" an old soldier means euthanasia and having their biomass broken down and recycled for the creation of fresh troops.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Definitely not, given that the VF-4's development contributed to the development of multiple successor aircraft developed by Stonewell Bellcom and its post-merger successor Shinsei Industry and arguably the entire General Galaxy lineup. The conformal missiles and thermonuclear ramjet engines did not persist into later generations of Variable Fighter due to the introduction of internal missile bays and launchers in its successors, but many later VFs use similar built-in beam weapons including the VF-14, VF-17, VF-19, VF-22, VF-25, and VF-27. Elements of the VF-4's transformation system (esp. WRT the cockpit) made their way into the VF-17, VF-171, and VF-31's designs. (The reason this shows up more in General Galaxy's works may have a lot to do with the VF-4 development chief Alexei Kurakin leaving Shinsei Industry in the late 2010s to cofound General Galaxy.) It's no different from the VF-1 in that regard... so I don't think that argument really holds water. Really, the problem the VF-4 faced is that Macross simply leapfrogged past it. All the 2nd Generation VF designs get shortchanged because Macross stories collectively skipped the late 2010s, 2020s, and early 2030s. By the time the story picks up in either timeline, the VF-4 and all other 2nd Generation VFs are obsolete and have been replaced by newer and more powerful models: the Valkyrie II in Macross II, and the VF-11 and VF-14 in Macross Plus and Macross 7. It's a victim of being the main fighter in an era of "Not much exciting happened".
  18. Seto Kaiba
    That was probably not this site, and as @azrael already pointed out we can't link to or endorse copyright infringing material here. The good news is that soon you will be able to replace those fansubs with legitimate subtitled home video releases for almost all titles thanks to the licensing stalemate being broken in 2021.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... it does, but the reference isn't exactly Japanese. It's not quite as bad as, say, Legend of the Five Rings where "as long as it sounds Asian" was in full effect as the writers conceived a bizarre melange of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean in their setting. It is, however, still very much in "as long as it sounds Japanese" territory and based on James Clavell's 1975 historical fiction novel Shogun. James Clavell's novel is based on the story of William Adams, the first Englishman to reach Japan shortly before the Battle of Sekigahara and the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The novel did some questionable things in terms of Japanese-sounding names while renaming actual historical figures. "Toranaga" was the novel's stand-in for daimyo, later shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Toranaga was his given name in the novel, not his family name. Neither "Toranaga" nor "Matsuhari" is exactly a correct Japanese name. (For instance, "Gunji-no-Kanrei" isn't exactly correct either... with that romanization, it could be read "District Governor of Chilliness" or "Cold Military Affairs" depending on the kanji used. A lot of the Draconis Combine stuff is like... the kind of Japanese you expect to hear from someone who learned it from the dub of Naruto.)
  20. Seto Kaiba
    The semi-conformal medium-range missiles and built-in beam guns were an effort by the developers to prevent the standard armament from degrading the VF-4's stealthiness or its top speed and cruising performance the way it had on the VF-1. Later models had newer materials, fully-internal micro-missile launchers, and better active stealth systems to make up the difference.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    As others have said, we've never seen it do so... and, really, we've never actually seen the VF-4 Battroid in animation at all. The rotation point does appear to be under the engine, so without rotating the engine itself it seems unlikely that it can do so. Only Fighter mode. The VF-4 has only appeared in a few Macross games to date: Macross: Eternal Love Song - which largely predates Kawamori's transformation design for the VF-4 and created a very different version of the VF-4 with a VF-1-like Battroid, a large beam rifle, super pack, and funnels. Macross Digital Mission VF-X - very brief appearance in opening animation in Fighter mode only. Macross M3 - appeared in the opening animation in Fighter mode only. Macross VOXP - gameplay only Macross Ultimate Frontier - gameplay only
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Given the distressing frequency with which surviving Protoculture technology is either a weapon of apocalyptic destruction or the seal on a weapon of apocalyptic destruction, I'm not sure I'd trust any appliance manufactured by the Protoculture to be benign in nature. That ice cream machine's probably an entropy control weapon or the cooling system from some autonomous genocide engine that makes the Death Star look modest in its scale and destructive ambition. In Macross Delta, they couldn't even build a telepathy machine without the damned thing carrying a serious risk of accidentally genociding every sentient species in the galaxy. As an engineer, I feel compelled to say that if "normal operation may cause the unintended destruction of all sentient life" is on your DFMEA as a potential failure mode, you are doing something very very VERY wrong and need to stop IMMEDIATELY if not sooner. (Such an advanced civilization would surely scoff at the primitive likes of McDonald's anyway... surely the base level of their fast food has to be at least Culver's.)
  23. Seto Kaiba
    The VF-25's GU-17A gun pod doesn't use a detachable magazine. Like the GU-11 or GV-17L, it opted for a larger single internal magazine.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-4 Lightning III's loading chart shows that the VF-4 can potentially take two gunpods, one apiece on underwing pylons as shown on that model. Since Master File alleges that the VF-4G is actually bigger than the VF-4A (officially it's not) the loading is different between the A and G variants. The A loading chart shows it on the pylons inboard of the engines, while the G loading chart shows it outboard of the engines. The only other one that presents a non-animation gun pod mounting besides the occasional VF-0/VF-1 Armored mounting spares on the forearms is the VF-25, which shows it able to carry three GU-17As, one center-mounted and one on each wing glove.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The image is a bit dark, but yes it appears to be what Master File calls the GU-11C.
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