DeeBot

Actually... while Grace is a successful manager, I'd still say she's a pretty bad one, even ignoring all her evil scheming. A manager who kicks her talent to the curb isn't a good one.

One possible motive for cybernetization could be Brera and the VF-27. If it comes to pass that conventional pilots in conventional fighters can't beat the Vajra, the logical progression of that arms race is to further and further cyborgify, until you've eventually replaced piloted craft with Ghost-like cyborgs... which would be easier for the cyborg/AI/whatever conspiracy to dominate. Also, maybe humanity do wipe out the Vajra by the end of the series (or maybe all but do so), but soon realize that they've made a terrible mistake. (Beyond just feeling bad for wiping out a species, maybe they destroy the only possible supply of fold quartz.) Would make for a nice downer ending. I'd have to say a Macross tradition is for everything to not work out for the best. (Honestly, was vaporizing the Earth's surface really a good outcome?) It'd also be in tune with an environmental message concerning anthropological species extinction, if you want to go down that route. That said, I doubt it'll happen. Humanity's just not competent enough to efficiently wipe out an entire species without some hue and cry. In the end, all parties will have to come to some kind of understanding, although I have my doubts that it'll be rainbows and puppies peace. Maybe humans and Vajra just learn to go their separate ways.

The reason MF is so recorded probably has something to do with its late time slot. If I wanted to watch a show that premiered at 1:25 AM, I'd probably just set my DVR to record it and watch it later, too.

Oh. Em. Gee. is Sheryl's ! Well... maybe figuratively, anyway.

Well, since the dimension eater is a fold weapon, apparently, perhaps it could be modified to disrupt the fold communication links the Vajra seem to possess. Their big, glaring weakness is the same one Ranka seems to tap into with her fold wave-carried singing.

They still might be separatists, although of more of a benign kind. Perhaps the idea of a united government for all humanity is a bit quaint, considering how long it must take to travel to the various fleets/colonies. The various offshoots of humanity are completely autonomous. They share information, technology, culture, biodiversity, etc. (anything that's easily transportable, basically), but not power. Humanity isn't constructing a galactic empire, just dispersing itself. Changing this comfortable situation to one of more centralized control might be the objective of the Galaxy conspirators.

I don't really want a second season, an extension, or whatever. Some shows benefit from going on, and on, and on... almost by definition, though, these are shows without strong multi-episode plots. Monster of the week, basically, or your standard sitcom. Macross Frontier clearly seems to be a show with a definite arc. I fully expect the plot to be wrapped up in how many episodes they're doing, although I also expect some mysteries to be left unaddressed. If that's the case, I don't want them to add/remove episodes just to fill air time, or cave into fan demands for more. For similar reasons, I'm perfectly fine with the Megaroad-1 remaining lost for all time. It really is a, "And they lived happily ever after," sort of ending. I don't think anyone really believes Hikaru/Misa/Minmay were all pointlessly killed off in some sort of horrible, disastrous encounter. After giving them that sort of romantic, off-into-the-sunset send-off, bringing them back would just be incredibly lame. (That said, the post-27 episodes of SDF:M were some of my favorite. Not just for the love triangle plot, which really bloomed once the war was over, but all the scenes that took place on post-apocalyptic Earth. But if they'd ended it at 27, I think most people would have (correctly) assumed from the final scene in that episode that Hikaru ends up with Misa; I don't think it would have left anything hanging. It's only when we get to 28 that the love triangle suddenly seems unresolved again.) I don't think there'd be anything wrong with an encore OAV, but it would need to have its own identity. Making a sequel for the sake of making a sequel, just to continue storylines... fans always want the story to go on, but everything has a proper end, a natural time and a place. Part of what makes Macross special, I think, is the fact that it isn't a continuous series. There are similarities, but each series has its own unique identity. SDF:M, M+, (M2), M7, M0, and now MF... they're all very different, while still sharing a common heritage that is quintessentially Macross. None of these series are retreads, even Frontier, which sorta billed itself as a retread.

Just wondering about something... do we have confirmation that Sheryl's name was invented? Would explain why she seems to think invoking her name is some sort of talisman for indomitableness. Sorta a verbal crutch, similar to her "lucky" earrings. (Also, you could see it as asserting her identity. We/she might never know the real truth about her heritage, sorta like how we never really knew the truth about Basara's. But it doesn't matter, because she'll have forged an identity that's truly her own by the end of the series.) As for the flashback memory... it's pretty stylized. While I don't know if it's fake, it could certainly be wrong. Memories at that age are unreliable. Animation is art, not documentary. Not everything that's drawn needs to follow the literal truth. The sequence might merely be suggestive of a hazy childhood memory, embellished with nostalgia. Contrast this with Ranka's flashback of seeing some sort of ship (or is it a FAST pack ) destroyed. That's not at all stylized, probably dates back to a similar age (or perhaps slightly later), and we can probably assume it's accurate.

dreamweaver13 was talking about the military propaganda videos Sheryl made with SMS back around, oh, episode 10 or so.

Tell me about it. Being stuck with Alto... you can't help feel sorry for the girl.

Ranka's next hit single: "My Boyfriend is a Valkyrie"?

Yes, yes, I remember this clearly (which is why I decided the nest was probably in the same place). The problem I'm grappling with is that the only egg layer we've seen to date looks like the Vajra queen from episode 13/14. While I obviously have no basis for this, I assumed the red combat types are sterile. Maybe that one carried an egg layer in when it penetrated the Frontier. Or maybe it was there all along... funny how Frontier doesn't even know it was there when it broke out. Also, what was with that weird eye-thingy from episode 12, the one that seemed to emit the jamming wave? Still haven't figured out what that was supposed to be. Guess it could have been a close-up on some Vajra thing.

You say this in jest, but I've been actually thinking the same thing. No, I don't think it's actually AIDS, but perhaps they're similar in a number of ways. Just like HIV, the V-type virus is apparently only transmitted via blood or bodily fluids. I think the most likely scenario is that Sheryl got the virus during a blood transfusion, perhaps as part of Grace's research, using a source of blood that would trace back to the 117th's research program. I'm thinking Ranka is probably one of the original carriers, so Sheryl can't infect her; it's more the other way around. Now, Alto raises an interesting possibility. I don't think mere kissing is enough to spread the infection (saliva usually doesn't carry a very high viral load), but, err, other exchanges of bodily fluids might do the trick. So if, umm, Alto and Sheryl become very close, I can see how all three might end up sharing the same infection. The mental link theory then becomes pretty interesting. I don't think it's a plot hole; it really does seem like Sheryl only became really ill recently. It doesn't come across that she's been suffering from a chronic condition all this time; she doesn't even like the taste of her medicine, which if she'd been taking it for some time, and knew that she got sick if she didn't take it, she surely would be used to by now. There's also the fact that she seemed to get better when she stopped taking the pills, if only briefly. I think we have to assume that some of what we know from Grace is either not exactly true, or omits some important details. One possibility is that Sheryl's original illness was just a result of her destitution; while in the hospital, Grace infects her with the real nasty... In the end, I think we just have to wait and see what the explanation for all this is. But there does seem to be one. Possibility: The V-type virus has a long incubation period. The various previous failed Fairy prototypes showed exactly when Sheryl was reaching the end stages of her own disease progression, at which point Grace began taking steps to discard her. (This really begins to make sense of the scheming surrounding Galia 4.) I was thinking this, too, but thought it more likely that the man might be his brother or something, making Ranka his niece. Or maybe he was just a close friend of Ozma's. Whatever the case, I don't think Ozma and Ranshe had a thing; otherwise, surely Ozma would assume more a father figure than a brother figure. It might just be a character design issue, though. I get the impression that Ranka's father isn't very important, while Ranshe seems to be very important. Still, it would explain why Ozma latched on to Ranka in particular. More speculation about Cinderella's Horn: I like the idea that Ranka's singing jams the fold communication mechanism. It seems like in future episodes, Frontier discovers a way to eliminate the Vajra completely, once and for all. I'm guessing this might have to do with attacking the fold communication mechanism, perhaps on a galactic scale; it would have to be pretty big to end the Vajra threat permanently, since we've seen how easily they can adapt. Speaking of adaptation, the Vajra have been shown to evolve pretty quickly. It's likely they didn't start off with all their insanely powerful weaponry, but likely started off as quite feeble. Perhaps even making it feasible that humans created them after all (though I think this is unlikely). Finally, that last shot, lingering on the mysterious creatures... I think there are actually a good number of them. If you look at the shot just before that, you can see a number of identical cocoon-like things, forming a nest on the underside of one of the sub-islands (at least, I assume that's what it is from context). I think the final shot was just a close-up of a few of them. Rather than just being one creature, it seems to me like it might be all of those little Ai-kun-type Vajra metamorphosing into the combat types. Perhaps the little ones even combine to form the bigger ones; there certainly seemed to be a lot of eggs previously. (Assuming Galaxy didn't plant them there, though, where did all the eggs come from? I don't remember any egg layers coming close to Frontier. If Galaxy did plant them... perhaps that's why the Vajra initially attacked Frontier?)

You know... Sheryl looks sorta ethereal in those screenshots compared to Ranka, almost as if... Heck, she may not even make it to the final episode.

Does that mean you're going to have to change your signature to SOD: Sheryl on Deathbed?

Good catch. I was trying to figure this out, but I couldn't identify which constellation it was with my limited knowledge. sketchley already mentioned that Sagittarius also the name of one of her songs, and that perhaps it's her astrological sign. Comparing what the Sagittarius sign is supposed to mean, I could see how it might fit, at least partly. On the other hand, you can fit anyone to almost any sign, so that's a pretty worthless metaphor. Maybe someone here knows what month she was born? Another possibility that comes to mind is that since Sagittarius was a centaur (half man, half horse), it might have something to do with Sheryl being a hybrid. If it turns out that Sheryl is augmented (either cybernetically or biologically), this may hint at that.

I concur. If you examine the screen cap closely, you can make out the 4 circles of the gun "barrels". Once you've marked those, it's obvious that there can't be any obstructing protrusion similar to the one in the later screen cap. This is silly, though. Who really cares? I mean, I suppose they could have modified the ship to make it extra-badass against the Vajra, but I think this is just an art detail.

Alto can't hook up with Sheryl, because Alto is from a line of famous actors, and Sheryl has been revealed to be a nobody. Clearly, Sheryl doesn't deserve him. Seriously, though. What's Alto looking for? I wouldn't call him underdeveloped, exactly, but he's definitely still an enigma compared to the two female leads. We continue to wait to find out what drives him, if anything...

I predict Sheryl dies in the final scene of the finale.

Well, I think you have to go back to the first episode we see Luca meet with Leon, which was back in the early part of episode 14, I believe, when he's getting chewed out over handing the fold booster prototype to his friends. Having been puzzled by this myself for some time, I've come to the conclusion that Leon shamed Luca into thinking about what he can do to serve LAI's (his family's company) interests. Leon more or less threatened that LAI's ties to the government were being endangered by Luca's actions (which is likely to be very important to a defense contractor). Luca's doing what he can to make up for it. Luca's probably not being evil here, so much as clueless. Nothing he's done has actually been clearly wrong, given the limits of his knowledge about what Leon and Grace are really up to.

Going by the name "Cinderella's Horn," it would appear to be some sort of amplification system for Ranka. I'm guessing it has something to do with the work Grace was doing on the Frontier's bridge; Ranka will probably end up there, instead of out on the Monster. I'm not sure all the munitions are useless. The reaction warhead missiles bounced off a red Vajra in this episode, then detonated a short time later. If they had detonated on contact, it probably would have blown the thing away. Instead, it turned into a survivable near miss. Ditto with the Quarter's cannon; the Vajra seem to evade it, not stand up to it. You could probably crank out a few more cycles of effectiveness by tweaking the electronics, maybe.

Well, actually... I was thinking about voting neutral, just because the plot didn't advance very much, and it's pissing me off. But decided the good ultimately outweighed the bad Hrm, might explain why we haven't seen it in action until now; still working on the model, perhaps.

Me, too. I sorta figured it was something like this all along, though, the moment Sheryl mentioned she was an orphan (of course). For a while, though, it didn't seem quite that clear-cut, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's some deeper connection there, rather than

Oddly enough, the nose art was perfectly visible in episode 16 (Ranka Attack), and it's even in the background as he floats over from the Monster to his VF. Maybe it's covered in special paint that renders it invisible to Ozma.