Kelsain

You're right, they don't. You may note that I didn't say that the Vajra were trying to communicate with the Frontier fleet. I said I thought that the queen was trying to communicate with Ranka. I don't know to what end, b/c we don't understand the Vajra's motivations yet. The bugs have only taken 2 captives in the entire show: Luca, whom they seemed more interested in his VF-25 (I suspect b/c of the FoldComm system he had); and Ranka, whom they sealed in a protective shell, showed her the attack on Frontier and a vision of her mother(?) singing the lullaby. Who knows what they're getting at - the Vajra are the first truly alien species we've seen in Macross. But they are being useed as pawns by Galaxy, and being a pawn ain't cool.

The proportions look pretty good overall. It just seems like it doesn't hold together, all the seams look gapey and saggy.

Perhaps it was changed to work better in the film. I've only seen the movie once, and the OVA a whole lot, so how often is Guld referred to as Omega-1? With the removal of their battle and Guld's WTF sabotage on Eden, the rivalry between the YF planes took a back seat to the emotional rivalry of the pilots. Of course, they still have the end battle; but even in the OVA, that's more of an emotional battle than hardware. So, perhaps they sought to reduce the Alpha-Omega connection and instead combined the callsigns into something symbolic of the character. Throughout both productions, Isamu is a symbolically represented by the pterosaur. His little hand gesture, the pedal-plane, and his sky-writing. Switching him to Eagle only reinforces that in a format where you have less time to establish characters. If Guld is still Omega-1, you also remove the black and white distinction between them. Movie goers might just assume "Isamu is good b/c he's Alpha, Guld is bad b/c he's Omega." It blurs that distinction somewhat and allows the viewer to see the rivalry without jumping to conclusions too soon.

Also, there was that restaurant that Alto and his "brother" went to in Ep 11. That did kinda have the glass elevator thing going. Damn, that would freak me the hell out. As far as ship sizes go, while things certainly have gotten larger over the past 50 years, if Bilrer and LAI succeed in using fold quartz to connect the galaxy, colony fleets and gargantuan ships like the M25 will be meaningless. I think that's kinda sad...

We have seen what the Vajra have done to the Frontier fleet over several months, as well as glimpses and hearsay of what happened to the 117th fleet. As such, the Vajra has earned a reputation as mindless destroyers. (I'm not talking the red & yellows here, those are clearly just following orders and are, well, mindless) We know that Galaxy intended them to attack Frontier, and all of the blood the Vajra have spilled coats the hands of Grace and her cyber-buddies. We also know that the UNG has known about the Vajra since Macross Plus, and that they were experimented on by the 117th fleet. What we do not know yet, is what humanity has done to get the Vajra to be their chess-pieces. Perhaps something so severe that the Vajra either fear or hate humans so much as to attack them whenever possible. If your brother whacks a wasp nest and the wasps attack you, are the wasps to blame? You never know, the Vajra queens may think it's just as impossible to communicate with us. Ranka is clearly the bridge between the two species. I think the Vajra queen was trying to communicate with her in Ep14, and I bet that she will be the one to reciprocate shortly. SMS, and then Frontier will have to follow suit. I have a suspicion too that Alto will be one of the hardest to convince of such a turn of events. I am just speculating, of course. But I think that in scifi, a giant fleet of relentless, powerful bad guys killing because they're just bad is meh; but a giant fleet of relentless, powerful bad guys killing with a rational and undestandable set of motives can be awesome. Besides, from the Adoclas fleet to Gigil's sacrifice; Macross has never been black and white, and the enemy has always been reachable. I do not expect Frontier to be any different.

I'm not saying that what NUNS is doing and taking advantage of new tactics is evil. It makes sense really, and it is a tactic that the (N)UNS has held on to over the years. Narratively, though, there is a shift in direction here. For example, WAS it the queen Vajra that showed Ranka the importance of the song? "Galaxy Anonymous" stated that they led the Vajra to Frontier for their own reasons, regardless of how many casualties there would be. In fact, were it not for the effectiveness of SMS, there would be a whole lot more. Your first paragraph sounds exactly like what GA wants you to think! (Or so it seems, at least) It's entirely possible at this point that the Vajra were dragged in to this conflict. That the Vajra are now getting killed as a result of the ONE person who may be able to connect to them elicits my sympathy. My opinion might be different if Ranka herself seemed enthusiastic about it, but that might actually be more disturbing, and I would think less of her. After all, the power of music in Macross is about bringing people (as well as aliens) together. That's what Minmei, Myung, Basara and Sara all wanted; and in all cases the military has tried to exploit that.

Ooh, that is a neat insight. It really does work the the themes we've seen from Kawamori and also the capitalist overtones that have been established in Frontier. They really have worked to make the Vajra more sympathetic in the last few episodes, shifting the "bad guy" mantle to Galaxy. That's quite an interesting idea that Bilrer has his own greedy angle. Actually, it just adds ANOTHER triangle to MF; the poor Vajra are caught in the middle between Galaxy & SMS. Damn, I've lost count of just how many triangles this show has! The theme song really works well, in that regard. Green VF-27's look incredible! I wonder if they have the same head-unit as Brera? Mr March, I think you may need to tone down the green on the M3, it looks too bright compared to this ep. As far as their presence at Frontier, I got the impression that everyone (besides Grace, Leon and SMS) assumed that the Antares squadron arrived with the Vajra fleet. I thought this was a great episode for Ranka's character. Her reluctance is played really well, and only her brother's encouraging words convince her to try the Ranka Attack. Even then, she hardly looks out the window at all while singing; and when she does, she sees the Vajra being killed because of her actions. Deep, dark stuff! I had said back during the Zentran uprising that the show had lost it's serious and dark overtones that were established in the Deculture Ed. I take it back! This is MACROSS!!1!

Added the old SDF-1, just for fun!

I got the impression after Macross 0 that the Protoculture were acting like the Alliance from Serenity. Here's all this war and bloodshed tearing apart their republic; wouldn't it be great if people were nicer and didn't fight? Maybe the engineered sub-races like us and Zolans were meant to be peaceful versions of themselves. The Birdman, then, might have been less about judging the new race to see if they were worthy of progressing and simply quality-control. Who knows, the Zolans were pretty peaceful - all their weapons were non-lethal. Maybe they aced their Birdman test.

Those things were great!!! Man, the 80's were cool.

Here here. I happen to think that pets deserve the same empathy as our fellow humans, but an f-ed up human can cause a lot more harm than an f-ed up kitteh. Didn't read the article, but was this in Florida? Sounds like something that would happen around here... Anyway... Damn, this was a good movie. Fantastic thrill ride from start to finish. What a shame that Heath Ledger is gone; he certainly blew Nicholson out of the water and may have overtaken Mark Hammill in my mind. I'll have to watch Mask of the Phantasm again, just to be sure. I did have a couple of issues with it though: 1) The virtual fingerprint thing. Seriously? That was a little far-fetched. 2) The sonar goggles. I get what they were doing, but I got a little bored with it after a while. I did like how Lucius wasn't going to walk into the bat-analogy, though. 3) My wife and I are from Chicago. Ordinarily, we love when a movie is shot there, because it's fun picking out exactly where they are (Fugitive, FTW!) However, in TDK, it's not supposed to BE Chicago. Yet, we have Gotham City Hall shot within the Daley Center (city hall); Scottish-style funeral parades for city officials in front of the Board of Trade; ferries leaving from Navy Pier; barricaded bridges across the Chicago River; the Joker getting slammed up against a sign that says LaSalle Plaza; and a car chase on Lower Wacker Dr that proceeds into a shopping mall. At that last one, we were both humming the Blues Brothers soundtrack. Now, admittedly, most of the world won't have this problem; but I think they could have disguised the skyline a little - if I recall, it looked different in Begins. At LEAST change the street names for cryin out loud. /rant But that doesn't change the fact that it was a frackin' great movie. I just lost my suspension of disbelief for a bit and snickered my way through the bitchin' car chase.

Wow, that picture's just all-around cute! I love the SD VF-25! Would've been funny too if it was in the same colors as her backpack.

Now to me it begs the question, b/c you have used both terms: Strongest or Most Intense? To me these are very different concepts. Most intense, sure, I'll agree that Shin and Sara might have it. Close would be Max & Millia. "I kill you!"-"Nice Rack"-"I kill you!"-"Let's get married and make lots of hot babies and kick ass together"-"OK" Strongest, I'm inclined to say Hikaru/Misa. They went through enough trials (inc. Minmei) to establish a really solid relationship that will last. Well, depending on what happened to the Megaroad-1...

I betcha Millia STILL looks just as good 12 years later!

Cool pic, but I do have a little problem with it - both the Fire Valkyrie and Mylene are looking a little thick... Even Zentrans gotta shout, Daketto Baby Got Back!

Yup, there's even a scene in "The Galaxy is Calling Me" when Basara looks down beneath his feet. I think Pedro was actually sitting on that monitor. I'd bet you *could* potentially do the same with the 25, as it's cockpit pitches the same way, but the X-gear probably takes up too much space to make it worthwhile. Wasn't the YF-19 "Alpha1", Chase VF-11 "Chaser1", and Asteroid VF-11 (same plane) "Eagle7"? Or was that just the OVA? Voted for the YFs, b/c they look the most utilitarian. While I really like the face of the 19F, I don't like the bulgy curves of the production model. The face of the 21 is waaaay cooler than the 22. I just love mono-eye valks! * *Possibly with the exception of the 25S - but it has the one Primary and 2 secondary eyes - so it's close enough.

Ah, that must have been it.

Sweet... Actually, didn't she say that she has a thing for Alto as well? That's another strike against poor lil Luca.

This ought to do it! Linky

It was from a bunch of scans that Graham put up last week of the VF-25. I zoomed, cropped and flipped this from the upper corner of 1. Let's see if this works... * Nope, and I also hit add instead of preview!

Hmmm, looks like they reworked the cockpit pivot on the 171 there. Very different from the old 17. While it doesn't bother me during the show, it would be nice if they could up that ploygon count a little. The facets really stand out on the curves here. Ah well, it's not even a hero mech.

Alto-kun; for these reasons: 1) Sheryl 2) Ranka 3) Unlimited supply of VF-25s 4) Plot Armor 'Nuf sed

After seeing these pics, I could see getting this VF11. Only if they don't end up making the transformable 1/60, though.

Thanks for the pics, Graham; and for my new avatar!

I let a girl or two french braid my hair back when it was long. I really didn't like the way it looked or felt, but they enjoyed it. I cared about them and was perfectly content to let them have their fun. Perhaps it was those memories that made me think that was a cute relationship scene between Alto & Ranka. As for the rest of the episode, holy cats, Grace is a beech! It looks like someone figured out how Gigil's powers worked... The Global was interesting. As I'd mentioned in the WTF-1 thread, I'm a little disappointed that it was a red herring, but glad since it went boom. I'd be willing to bet that it was a very different ship internally from the SDF-1, even if it looked similar on the the outside. Probably fewer cavernous areas for teens to get lost in. All in all, great episode - the show's certainly gone back to gritty! Can't wait for this weeks, 171 FTW!