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JB0

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Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    'Cept mainstream society just calls it the new XBox or Nintendo. Gamers are the only ones rambling about generations. Any way you spin it, it's an after-the-fact justification of Wikipedia having a poor classification that's already gained too much traction to end. It's all spinning stories to try and justify why 1+1=3 instead of admitting 1+1=2. As someone who DOES care about that history that's being so horribly misrepresented, I hate that such a blatant wrongness is being perpetuated so heavily. And it really does have a lot to do with Wikipedia. It's TERRIFYING how many people use Teh Wikiz as a reliable, ironclad source of accurate information, and erroneous information on that website can rapidly become very widespread because of it. You're acting like this is some cult tenet we're arguing about instead of the cartoons being discussed explicitly saying something other than your personal theory. Sometimes consensus is as simple as "the show explicitly says this, and there's no reason whatsoever to believe the characters are lying." As an example, you won't see me denying the existence of fold faults and analyzing how fold quartz works to speed up fold travel in the absence of faults, because it was rather clearly laid out in Frontier that fold faults are a thing and that fold quartz lets you ignore them. I hate what they did, and consider it a very ill-considered addition to the setting, but I won't ignore the facts just because I don't like them. Also, I don't think you're thinking about the same historical franchise strife that I'm thinking of. When one thing is EXPLICITLY stated to be one way, and the interpretation in question is that this explicitly stated thing is actually another way, then no, it's not a matter of interpretation and rigorous proof. Sometimes it really is that simple. There's places where there's a lot of room for interpretation and analysis, and places where there just isn't. I do try. As do a few other people who you have been less appreciative towards. Also, you seem to be misusing "semantic" an awful lot, just FYI. It's generally better to correctly use a smaller word than to misuse a bigger one.
  2. JB0
    Destruction of unsold merchandise would be to get the tax writeoff on unsellable merchandise. It's not an uncommon practice in the video game industry, or other media markets for that matter. There's fine print in novels and CDs warning you that if the disk case was cut or drilled/book cover removed that the product was likely written off as destroyed and no one got paid for it. In some cases it's a notable practice for the sheer scope of the destruction, however, as in this case. I think the second most infamous instance is Dreamcast port of Half-Life. As the Dreamcast's footing in the american market eroded, it rapidly became obvious that DC HL was never going to be profitable if released. The game came within a stone's throw of actually seeing a release anyways. Close enough that the cheat book DID make it to store shelves(and I imagine they were livid when they found out the game DIDN'T). The DC-exclusive content Half-Life: Blue Shift would eventually be backported to the PC. Due to the sudden eleventh-hour cancellation, it's highly probable an entire print run was completed and then destroyed for a tax writeoff. * The MOST infamous instance, of course, is the Atari ET crushing, which is also notable for how badly it gets misreported, but that's another topic. *Tangentally, this could very well be why no copies of the US version of Macross VF-X2 have ever surfaced, despite the game being known to have been VERY near to release from the existence of magazine ads with a finalized ESRB rating, at a time when ads were for product on shelves, not preorders. Same is likely true of Megaman Battle & Chase, but that veers even further off-topic. To drag this all kicking and screaming back to the point... it's highly likely that the final runs of the Mechwarrior games were destroyed. Particularly as I seem to recall there being a rights transfer, and any inventory Activision had after that transfer COULDN'T legally be offered up for sale.
  3. JB0
    It's funny that you complain about people trying to nip misinformation in the bud before it gets out of hand and becomes gospel truth(as it has in the past with this franchise's tortured history), and then reference Wikipedia's godawful incompetent list of console generations, which was rather blatantly penned by a Nintendo fanboy with no actual knowledge of gaming history other than "everything before the NES sucked and Nintendo invented everything". Aside from trying to force an impression of lockstep console releases that simply didn't exist before the turn of the century, they also actively marginalize all pre-Nintendo hardware(and a good deal of early post-Nintendo hardware). Eighth generation my left buttcheek. The current crop of consoles is, by any sane tiering, closer to the sixteenth. But no one will ever stop people from quoting Wikipedia's game console generations at this point. It was left too long unopposed, and by the time the people that cared KNEW about the gross ineptitude taking place, it'd already become too firmly entrenched. In short, a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. And that is why those with knowledge are so eager to correct your (sometimes grave) misunderstandings.
  4. JB0
    Isn't the term "veritech"? *runs away swiftly*
  5. JB0
    Fight the power, Del Toro! We believe in your dream of giant robots punching monsters inna face!
  6. JB0
    There's typically a little excess around the edges to ensure no incomplete art makes it into the frame(and to ensure that everything important dodges the typical overscan area of a television of the era), but nothing like what you're imagining is available. Something like ten percent of the total frame area, which isn't much.
  7. JB0
    They didn't run in fear. They ran because it was protocol. That was the whole plan, Exedol told everyone this on camera, it isn't a secret hidden in a decades-out-of-print reference book.
  8. JB0
    I'd just like to note the film frames are 4:3. Only way to get a 16:9 release that isn't cropped down from 4:3 is to reassemble the cels and photograph the whole show again. Which ain't happenin'.
  9. JB0
    He's the supreme commander of the Bodol fleet. There's a strong implication other major fleets exist even in the TV show. Why else would everyone automatically leave once their command ship is destroyed? Their entire society is regimented military. It makes more sense to stick together and forge a new fleet, not to bug out and become wandering space nomads. You're the one that pointed out she DIDN'T seem to know the details of what went down. I agreed, and pointed out that's less likely "because sexism" and more likely because Bodol HAD to keep the exact nature of events a secret. Britai mutinied? Sure, tell 'em. They'll probably wonder what happened to ol' buckethead anyways. The fleet was contaminated with the culture? No one must ever suspect. And, well, they DO have a social structure. Historians ARE important to the zentradi, as they are the keepers of knowledge. If a commander needs to know something, they don't look it up on their computer or dig through a pile of books. They ask their archivist. The archivist knows, and can far more readily filter and relate the knowledge to current events than a simple machine could. There's nothing whimsical about it, just a healthy respect for the advantage of knowledge. As I recall the TV series, they were laboring under the assumption that the ship had advanced self-repair capabilities. The concept of being able to repair your vehicle with your own hands was fundamentally foreign to them. Also, they wanted the reaction weaponry. The idea that the people were important to the ship's repairs and armaments was not one they had in mind. But the point is, Britai was explicitly recalled in the TV series because of how much trouble he'd had dealing with the Macross. His assignment was simple, he vastly outnumbered and outgunned the enemy, why had he lost so much and still failed to captured their vessel? Anyone the escaping fleet linked up with would learn what THOSE SHIPS knew. NO ONE was to know the depth of the problem. The rebels knew, Bodol knew, MAYBE the highest command level under him knew(but not likely). There was no need to tell his subordinates anything other than "Britai's fleet turned traitor. We're killing them, and turning the planet they're defending to glass." And the ladies wouldn't have to force the information out of the dudes in the TV series. They were all on the same side, though they never interacted face-to-face. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
  10. JB0
    My synopsis is based on observation of how business actually works. And no, if you have a hot property, you can do whatever the heck you want to it and people will line up for it. Even knowing the original creators aren't involved. Even knowing you have a terrible track record. I hate people for it, but in many cases that is EXACTLY how it works. Why would they only want him as a director? Surely you would want one of the creators onboard at the early concept stage, not approaching them once you had a story set in stone. And that's a pretty fair approach to things. But as you said, it wasn't Macross. That makes it easy for a Macross fan to dismiss out of hand. Good show or not, it isn't Macross. I have no real opinion on it, having not seen it in many years. Mostly I just remember Ishtar and her business suit.
  11. JB0
    Indeed. Typically, when a rights-holder doesn't bring the original creator on board for a production, it means they don't want the creator's opinion, and will actively lock them out of providing input. I'm pretty sure THAT'S how this business works, as with most other businesses. I do acknowledge that in this case, the lack of Studio Nue involvement was likely more due to at least one of the primary staff being uninterested than an active attempt to shut anyone out, but that hardly bolsters any case that they were involved "under the table". Rather the contrary, actually.
  12. JB0
    I promise to share any brilliant insights/off-the-wall quackery that comes up. I'd rather not have a formal stake in it, as "on-demand" writing has always been difficult for me.
  13. JB0
    You know, I may sit down and synopsisize/ponder key episodes and arcs at some point. But really, some episodes there's not a lot to say about. I like what Global Report does with the framing scenes and dialog, but it's still mostly a clip episode for those who came in late. And the most fun parts to write in my rambling are where it veers off into rampant speculation. I mean, I ASSUME Bodol would lie in any reports to other fleets(or his superiors, if any exist), but I don't think that's really CANON to the same degree I laid it out. Chlore's information being so spotty DOES make me happy, though. It makes it clear, in-continuity, that he didn't tell his peers the whole story. But it doesn't really confirm he actively falsified updates to save his own skin/fleet. In any case, I'm about at the midpoint of a rewatch with some people, one of whom has never seen the show, and I'm struck how harsh the show is at this particular juncture. Focker dies, Kakizaki dies, and the Macross is banished from the Earth... in three consecutive episodes. But I AM pleased to note that said Macross newbie was blindsided by Focker's death last week. From the first post-battle hints that all is not well, right up until Misa breaks the news to Hikaru, dude's sitting there going "Nice fakeout, guys. But we all know Focker won't die. He's too cool, he's got plot immunity." That plan still pays out three decades later. So when you DO sell those friends on this... they're gonna miss Roy too.
  14. JB0
    If I recall the quote you're thinking of, he said the differences in story were because one would naturally tell a story differently for a movie than for a TV series. It was also stated at a time when the typical fan was not wildly obsessive about the canonicity of a given feature and how "real" it was. It was obviously never intended to mean "these are the exact same story", which they rather clearly aren't except in the broadest sense(a love triangle against the backdrop of aliens wrecking Earth's crap just because humanity got caught in their crossfire). All elements of the Bodol fleet. Not all zentradi ships ever. That was made clear enough in the TV series when they captured a well-defended factory satellite, and if I recall the movie flat-out states "but there's a few thousand more such fleets out there so we totally can't relax now guys." OF COURSE Chlore knew nothing of what actually happened during the Sol operation. What could it POSSIBLY profit Bodol to advertise to another fleet that his own fleet had been contaminated to some degree? That elements of Britai's fleet mutinied to demand an armistice? That Britai ACCEPTED this farcical motion and DID pursue a cease-fire? Most damningly, that he himself had directly witnessed an act of culture similar to the ones that had corrupted Britai's fleet?? No, he would have had no choice but to lie his gigantic backside off about the actual state of affairs in the Sol system. He couldn't hide a full-fleet deployment, but reporting the accurate details surrounding it would only invite action against him, likely extermination of the sort he attempted to deliver to Britai. Every fleet available would've come to help atomize his entire command. In short, what happens in the Sol system STAYS in the Sol system. He had but scant knowledge of the protoculture himself, and needed confirmation of his suspicions before he was going to start sharing those few nuggets of classified information. It's not a complex chain of logic. Also because Britai had been getting his crap WRECKED by a single gunship, lacking an escort fleet, manned by primitives from a backwater planet that had never even left their own star system before. And MICLONE primitives at that!
  15. JB0
    And that whirring sound you hear is Rudyard Kipling spinning.
  16. JB0
    It's not JUST that!
  17. JB0
    And Missile Command was 1980, and is close to what the girls are "playing".
  18. JB0
    I love this thread right now. I just wanted to say that.
  19. JB0
    Yeah, show officially starts next month. With opening by Jam Project, because keck yeah.
  20. JB0
    For diamond force to launch from, obviously.
  21. JB0
    After due consideration, and rewatching the best episode of Macross ever, I've changed my mind. My favorite Macross mech is actually the Magic Bicycle.
  22. JB0
    Personally, they lost me when the trailers and previews came out and we had more to judge by then photos of the new title character(which had already concerned me, but I figured things were still salvagable). To my eye, one of the main things of the original WAS the way they treated Murphy as a machine, just parts for their project. The big clunky cyborg body was, to my eye, intentionally dehumanizing of the meaty core. And this movie did none of that, aesthetically, or story-wise. They preserve both the appearance of humanity and the man behind the visor. Were I to compare it to another nostalgia cashgrab, it strikes me as similar to Team Knight Rider, where they changed the basic premise from "one man can make a difference" to "one man can't be trusted with that much power." As I said at the time, this may've been an enjoyable movie, but it was no Robocop. And I'm sick of Hollywood doing random projects with old names because it'll get more ticket sales if they slap a beloved title on it. I will watch a remake that appears to be respectful of the original content. Possibly even a bad film that's actually pandering to nostalgia. But I have no time for a simple cash-grab wearing the cloak of nostalgia only so it can turn around and crap on the original. And once you discard the entire main character concept, you've lost any claim to being a remake. I would've watched it if it was Mechofficer or CyberPopo. But not as RoboCop.
  23. JB0
    YES!
  24. JB0
    I am excited! ... But I haven't been reading much lately. As soon as I find the time/urge, I'll read through this. I'm sure I will savor it.
  25. JB0
    Trufax: I initially thought the Sazabi thumbnail was the VF-19 Kai, and thought the entire sequence of posts had been setting us up.
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