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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, it's a good general overview of Macross as it currently stands. It's more broad than deep, as it touches on a lot of different topics but doesn't get heavily involved in any of them. The sections about the setting and stories are mostly the old familiar tune, though it does have a few minor points of interest. It doesn't draw a distinction between the Protoculture's different backstories from the TV series vs. Movie. There's also mention in the Macross Frontier section that the massive suborbital ring and Vajra nest over the surface of the Vajra's planet is actually composed of native plant life affected by fold quartz, which is a detail I don't recall ever hearing before.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, it's been a pretty good couple years for Lupin recently what with Lupin III: the First, Prisoner of the Past, Lupin III Part V, and Lupin III Part VI, and now Lupin Zero and now Lupin III VS Cat's Eye, the latter of which is, I guess, the 28th Lupin III TV special? I should get one for my desk at work... just because it'd be the one thing there that absolutely nobody would recognize as a piece of anime memorabilia.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Looks like a good year for Lupin.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    I'm more or less with you on that one... Karn is a little too gung-ho about this and sooner or later he's going to get his chance. The more obsessive he gets, the more he becomes exactly the kind of psychopath the Imperials want. Either way, Javert your eyes... it's about to get awkward in there.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    OK, "Nobody's Listening!"... that seems like a super-plausible thing to say when something like 1/2 the cast is either currently or about to be involved in the business of espionage. The walls have ears. Eyes too. Hell, Jabba's front door could talk... and the less conventional alien anatomy means the walls might have a few other organs of questionable and/or indeterminate purpose! Good thing this ain't Star Trek: Discovery, or they'd have to title it "Nobody's Watching!". All in all, a light episode full of mostly inconsequential goings-on that feels kind of scattered and directionless. They're building up to several different somethings this time, but it's spread so thin it doesn't build tension as effectively as the previous story arcs did.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    It's worth remembering that Absolute Live!!!!!!, like the Macross Delta TV anime, contains many inconsistencies regarding Lady M and when she became active on the interstellar scene. It veers back and forth between "Lady M has been working behind the scenes since the end of the First Space War" and "Lady M only showed up after the events of the Macross Frontier series" without any apparent rhyme or reason... and the movie adds even more problems with inconsistencies regarding events in Macross Delta itself. We actually already knew it... Freya mentions in the very first episode of Macross Delta's TV anime that she's the ward of the village chief, and that she ran away from home due to him pressuring her to get married. Well, we'd still be biologically human... but this is a transhumanist group who've already elbow deep in Hans Moravec's philosophical quandries about the nature of artificial intelligence and the nature of postbiological humanity, chasing what was apparently the ancient Protoculture's definition of societal perfection to avoid what they saw as the inevitable self-destruction of the species if they didn't. The Vajra Queen. That's why Grace (TV) or the Cyber Nobles (Movie) connect themselves directly to the Vajra Queen in order to gain access to its ability to coordinate and route fold wave communications on a galactic scale. Trying to do it with a human brain would cause a "your head 'a'splode" rather like what the projected outcome of activating the Delta Wave System was and no computer was up to the job.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    OK, now I'm impatient to watch the episode to figure out WTF the context behind this is.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    The main issue there seems to be the inherent risks in actually making contact with a Zentradi main fleet. Due to the circumstances in which the ancient Protoculture lost control of them, Zentradi adherance to the directives the Protoculture issued them before the Supervision Army's emergence like "Do not interefere with the planets inhabited by miclones" is spotty at best. Boddole Zer destroyed Earth's surface and wiped out most of humanity because he'd seen what contact with Earth's culture was doing to his troops and was deeply concerned by, or even afraid of, it. The Zentradi attack emigrant fleets and planets when they find them for whatever reason and most emigrant defense forces only have the defensive ability to deal summarily with a branch fleet-sized force if things go south. Nobody seems like they're in a rush to gamble an entire fleet or a colonized planet, or potentially the entire human race, on making intentional contact with a Zentradi main fleet in the hopes of finding a commander who won't mistake their overtures for a Supervision Army attack and attempt to kill them. (Even in Master File, fending off even a very small main fleet 1/40th the size of Boddole Zer's required the New UN Forces to gather every available warship and fighter within 300 light years of Earth at the time. The taskforce mobilized to drive off the Zentradi main fleet included the newly-completed but unlaunched Battle 7 and many other warships from Earth and emigrant defense forces, as well as over 2,500 Valkyries drawn from 120 different squadrons. We're talking a New UN Spacy force larger than the Macross 7 fleet and much more heavily armed, given that it's said that 90% of the total reaction weapon stockpile held by the New UN Forces was used for this one engagement. Master File claims this battle had such a profound impact on the New UN Gov't and New UN Forces leadership that it directly gave rise to Project Super Nova and the nextgen Ghost program that produced the Ghost X-9 and Neo Glaug.)
  9. Seto Kaiba
    They're available on CDJapan and the like, and the secondhand sellers like Mandarake always end up with a few copies of books like this if it's a time thing. If there is any new or noteworthy information it's buried in the interview sections of the books. The only detail of note I saw on my skim through the rest of the books was that the events of Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!! take place approximately 13 months after the end of Macross Delta in October 2068. Really, it feels like General Galaxy gets the short shrift anytime it's not talking about the VF-22 or VF-27. Even though the VF-9 and VF-14 were successful and popular VFs among emigrant governments, they get forgotten because the Main VF role is dominated by Stonewell Bellcom/Shinsei Valkyries most of the time.
  10. Seto Kaiba
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Having some ship identification issues in the Macross Grand Analysis book. The Macross Elysion had the art for the Battle Galaxy, the Macross Quarter has the art for the Macross Elysion, and the Battle Galaxy has the storming attacker art for the Macross Quarter.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Nothing more than what's been said previously, sadly. I did notice some entertaining errors... the Macross Grand Analysis book has some images switched around in its ship section. The family tree of Macross-type warships has the art for the Macross Quarter, Battle Galaxy, and Macross Elysion switched around. The Battle Galaxy entry shows the correct fortress mode but the Macross Quarter's storming attack mode, the entry for the Macross Elysion shows the Battle Galaxy, and the entry for the Macross Quarter shows the Macross Elysion. Macross Super Encyclopedia's go at a VF family tree omits everything outside of the main/Shinsei line... so the whole second generation is just not present, as is the 3rd Generation VF-14 and it just goes VF-0 to VF-1 to VF-11, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, and 31.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Well, I got my hopes raised and dashed today. I got two new books today... Macross Grand Analysis and Macross Super Encyclopedia. Both are, on their own, fine high-level overviews of Macross as a whole with some interesting "how we got here" discussion. Worthy inclusions to any fan's collection. Grand Analysis has a family tree of main timeline VFs done in a similar style to the ones in Gundam's MS Bible series, which is a VERY nice touch and it's clear they put a lot of effort into it. Where my expectations were raised and then shattered is that they include basic stat blocks for many VFs on that family tree and the family tree includes the VF-31AX. The VF-31AX stats they printed are the ones for the stock VF-31A Kairos.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    FedEx is on the ball this week. My copies of Macross Super Encyclopedia and the Macross Grand Analysis books rolled in moments ago. Macross Super Encyclopedia is a nice general reference but nothing to write home about... nothing new or particularly interesting pops out on a quick skim of its contents except for its timeline putting an approximate date to the events of Absolute Live!!!!!! in October 2068. Macross Grand Analysis is more of same, really, though its timeline omits Absolute Live!!!!!! and it has a bit more focus on how things fit together. There's a basic Valkyrie family tree done in a style similar to the MS Bible books for Gundam that joins up all the different main timeline VF designs and it's substantially accurate to previously published sources. It has one teensy-tiny problem that really irked me. It put in stat blocks for the VFs on that family tree... and the famiyl tree DOES include the VF-31AX... but the stats it lists are for the VF-31A. They raised my hopes and dashed them most expertly.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    That's been the pattern with their dangerous toys since Macross Zero, at least.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Well, it's worked pretty well for the Vajra for millions of years and facilitated them developing into an intergalactic society completely free of internal conflicts. Small wonder, then, that the ancient Protoculture idolized and sought to emulate the Vajra. The Vajra weren't just more advanced than they are technologically, they had their societal sh*t together in a way the Protoculture very much didn't. The delta wave device they build in the Brisingr globular cluster was an attempt to reach what they'd come to see as societal perfection and fix what they'd broken when their civil war got out of hand and led to a literal Forever War between two inexhaustible clone armies. (And the Galaxy executives seem to have discovered the Protoculture's ambition, possibly from the New UN Gov't surveys of the ruins in the Brisingr cluster, and decided that Utopia Justifies the Means.)
  17. Seto Kaiba
    At this point in the story? I don't think so. As per Star Wars's usual idiom, the story of Cassian Andor (incl. Rogue One) is shaping up as a tale told in three distinct parts generally aligned to Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" monomyth. To break it down in those terms: Act 1: Departure - The events that drive Cassian Andor to join the fledgling Rebel Alliance. 1A: The Call to Adventure: We see Cassian living a normal life on Ferrix until his actions on Morlana One catch up to him and Luthen rescues him as he is attempting to arrange passage offworld. 1B: Refusal of the Call: Luthen attempts to recruit Cassian into the Rebellion after fleeing Ferrix, and Cassian refuses. 1C: Supernatural Aid: Not supernatural in this case, but you count either Nemik's thesis or Luthen's kyber pendant as the talisman from a mentor that sets Cassian on his path. That and the promise of a LOT of money. 1D: Crossing of the First Threshold: Cassian participates in the Rebel raid on the Aldhani garrison's vault to steal the sector payroll. 1E: The Belly of the Whale: Cassian is arrested for unrelated crimes he did not actually commit, and serves a sentence in the Imperial labor camp on Narkina V. <- YOU ARE HERE Act 2: Initiation - Cassian's time as a Rebel intelligence officer Act 3: Return - Cassian's final act as a Rebel soldier (Rogue One) Right now, he is just Luthen and Mon Mothma's weapon. It'll likely be in the near future that Cassian becomes a self-wielding weapon.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    The one in the VF-25 Master File? No. It was a rescue operation launched on the spur of the moment by a NUNS ship observing the Macross Valiant fleet's emergency fold away from a Zentradi main fleet it'd found in its immediate vicinity. The carrier Barbarossa and its fighters were operating under ECM in an attempt to remain undetected by as much of the Zentradi main fleet as possible while carrying out the rescue of the environment ship Sentosa's 1,200 crew and passengers and the subsequent destruction of the Sentosa by MDE warhead to prevent any possibility of intel on humanity falling into Zentradi hands.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    One on one, yes... but the reason the Zentradi remain an existential threat to Humanity is that they're practically never going to be fought on a level playing field. It's never just the one Zentradi soldier. It's him and anywhere from several thousand to several billion of his best mates. The VF-1 Valkyrie supposedly had an average K/D ratio of 12:1. The (New) UN Forces could expect to lose one Valkyrie for every twelve Battle Pods or Battle Suits downed. That ratio improved a bit after the First Space War as improvements were made to the VF-1's technology and armaments and grew at a more brisk rate as newer, more capable models were introduced. In its discussion of the historical events leading up to Project Super Nova, Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur mentions that the VF-11A/B Thunderbolt had an expected K/D ratio of up to 25:1 against the Zentradi. It's also noted therein that this was initially considered satisfactory until a run-in with a smallish Zentradi main fleet resulted in the total loss of a New UN Spacy defense force and the planet Spica III in 2037, prompting Project Super Nova. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah relates an anecdote about a rescue mission to save a ship from the Macross Valiant fleet that accidentally defolded in the middle of a Zentradi main fleet during which a force of 37 NUNS VF-25s and 3 SMS VF-25s operating from a single carrier scored 482 kills in a six hour period without a single loss while providing cover for the rescue of 1,200 civilians and one dog. (Yes, the dog is significant to the narrative.) EDIT: It should also be noted that Master File asserts this was a new record for a single engagement at the time, that 27 of the 40 pilots had never seen live combat before, and that all 40 were subsequently decorated for their heroism. Of course, even if you're capable of a 25+ to 1 kill ratio if your forces only have a few hundred to a few thousand Valkyries like most emigrant government forces you're still coming up quite short against a main fleet.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    They've moved the bar on that one a few times... https://xkcd.com/1189/
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Depends who you ask... and whether you're counting the Double Plus version. The VF-1X in Variable Fighter Master File does have some subtle structural and detail differences from the stock VF-1A Valkyrie (Block 6+ type), but most of the differences are "under the hood" so to speak. Being primarily a video game design, the VF-1X in Macross Digital Mission VF-X and Macross VF-X2 isn't really rendered in enough detail to look noticeably different from a regular VF-1. The VF-1X++ seen in Ranka's concert in the second Macross Frontier movie is only seen in Fighter mode but looks no different from a regular VF-1.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Are we talking official franchise ones only, unofficial professional ones, or just fan covers? The Japanese Wikipedia page for the song has an entire section devoted to the song's licensed covers:
  23. Seto Kaiba
    So... I did some digging, and the few official and semi-official remarks we've had about how fast impulse really is are unreasonably fast. Full impulse is said to be 0.25C, or 74,948km/sec. One quarter impulse power would be 0.0625C or 18,737km/sec. The closest I can find to official info for spacedock says it's 4.6km at maximum horizontal cross section. If the above is all correct, they might have UNDERSOLD it. The Enterprise would cover the ~2km separating it from the spacedock door in one ten-thousandth of a second at that speed. No fricking wonder regulations say thrusters only!
  24. Seto Kaiba
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The problem there lies with how the structure of the cockpit interfaces with the rest of the aircraft. Lengthening the cockpit would make the Battroid mode taller and the midsection longer, because the "hips" are actually on the sides of the nosecone.
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