Macross Frontier Episode 12 Talkback Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Master Dex]

but... who IS the final cylon??!!

Like I said a number of pages back, the WTF-1 is the final cylon! *dramatic chord*

[Zinjo]

Like I said a number of pages back, the WTF-1 is the final cylon! *dramatic chord*

Bigger than I was expecting, that's for sure!

[MisaForever]

Erm, I forgot if it was this thread or not but whoever made my avatar, is there any chance you could shrink it down to about 220k?? ^^ I didn't realize it was 600k!! Or anyone, I'd appreciate it!!!

[dreamweaver13]

Like I said a number of pages back, the WTF-1 is the final cylon! *dramatic chord*

SDF-1 is shocked upon hearing this until...

kawamori says, "man you should have seen the look on your face, SDF-1!" (Damn BSG bastards got me good. still seething about it.)

[Mr March]

Episode 12, "Fastest Delivery"

Without doubt this episode was made for the fans. Almost everything about episode 12 is an echo of Macross past; the giant Zentradi, the language, the young idol singer, the speaker pods, the mecha combat, and so on. Starting inside the bridge of a Zentradi warship on the surface of the colony world Gallia 4, this episode opens with a scene of Major Ogotai and his advisor speaking in Zentradi of the Zentradi themselves, a scene very reminiscent of the opening to the 1984 film Macross: Do You Remember Love. From there Sheryl Nome's transport , with Alto in the VF-25 as escort, defold over the planet and adjust for the time difference in the transition to real space. Back aboard the Frontier fleet at Mihoshi Academy, Ranka surprises her friends by taking the day off. Nanase is overjoyed, but discovers Ranka has domesticated her curious green pet. Alto and Sheryl land upon Gallia 4, Alto leaving his Super Packs and Fold booster in a self-bundling configuration in orbit of the planet. The Zentradi prepare a grand salute for Sheryl but her illness gets the better of her. As Sheryl makes her way out and faints, the event sparks a battle as the ambitious Temjin seizes an opportunity to fan the flames of latent unrest among the 33rd Marine Battalion. Alto is subdued and Temjin takes hostages. On Frontier, Nanase warns Ranka of violating ecological protection laws within the closed system of a colony ship, but agrees to keep Ranka's secret. News of the Zentradi rebellion spreads quickly to the Frontier fleet angering President Glass who damns the Zentradi. Aboard the Macross Quarter Ozuma blames himself for not sending enough protection but Kathy is convinced the whole operation was a setup. Captain Wilder seems to have been through a similar scenario in the past, but remains silent on it and laments that it would take seven days to get to Gallia 4. But back at the Academy, Luca proposes a solution to rescue the hostages. Temjin prepares his force of Queadluun-Rea mecha and the Zentradi sit at a standoff as he demands the warship in exchange for the hostages. Alto and Grace speak of their situation over bed-ridden Sheryl; Alto determined to escape back to his valkyrie. On Frontier, Lucas describes the new Fold Booster built by his family company LAI; a fold booster vastly superior for fold travel and able to navigate through Fold Faults. Mikhail equips the device to his VF-25G Messiah and goes off to rescue his friends.

On Gallia 4, Temjin rallies his troops around discovery of a reaction weapon vault but is interrupted when he's informed via a comm unit about Alto's escape, implying Grace was an informant. Alto makes it to his Valkyrie, but is captured by Temjin. The hostilities between the Zentradi factions begin and Temjin goads Alto with sarcasm about singing to stop the Zentradi. Just then Mikhail in his VF-25, with Ranka aboard, flies into the delivery Ranka's singing with four speaker pods under the wings. The Zentradi, devoid of culture on this outer world, are entranced. Temjin, unable to accept defeat, tries to attack Ranka in his Queadluun-Rea, but Alto fights him. After a brief battle, Alto prevails and sends Temjin to his doom as he falls into the water fa below. Beneath the water, something reacts to the events on the surface, perhaps disturbed by Ranka's singing. Alto meets with Ranka where she wishes him a happy birthday and the two prepare to head back to Frontier when Alto looses control of his valkyrie by some outside force (possibly the creature below the water) and the two crash. When they recover, they discover what appears to be the SDF-1 Macross left abandoned in a wasteland.

"Fastest Delivery" has many elements that seem to add up to a classic episode for old and new fans alike. The Zentradi gain a long overdue spotlight in the Frontier story and there is much potential for a really great episode that it astounds me how little is actually done with it. At the half way mark it's clear that all the setup of the first half of this episode and the threads from episode 11 will be spent upon Ranka's debut. Trouble is that's Ranka's debut is all that happens; the rising tension ultimately serves only to swing the love triangle pendulum back into Ranka's favor. The Zentradi turn out to be a villains-of-the-week and the only dramatic confrontation is a tensionless aerial battle between Temjin and Alto. The majority of the episode is superficial and filled with guilty pleasures for the Macross fan, but little of it amounts to any substance. The best the episode offers is a few homages and some laughs when the Zentradi swoon over Ranka. The last few moments of the story end with a cliff hanger that is likely the most exciting aspect of the episode. This has definitely been one of the weakest episodes of the series thus far but is only the second such episode out of the twelve released to date so there can be little to fault Macross Frontier. Episode 13 looks set to deliver upon some of what has been built for the past few episodes, but this one feels like treading water while it satisfies what "needs" to happen in the plot at this point in the series.

Look forward to more promising events in episode 13. Deculture!

[Kronnang Dunn]

The Regults were certainly *the* cannon fodder of the Zentraedi forces. This is the usual problem of units that attempt to be the "jack of all trades", (ground and space assault). I think that using a Regult would be like using a Valk that was stuck in Gerwalk mode. A valk stuck in Gerwalk could do everthing but not as well as it could in either specialised mode. (Battroid or fighter)

I think a worse deathtrap to be stuck in would be the Gnerl Fighter Pod, which had very limited capabilities compared to the Regult and Valkyrie.

Taksraven

Actually, the Gnerl had lots of missiles and was pretty fast too... but just like the Regult, had very poor armor.

I agree. N.U.N.S. probably doesn't issue this type of low armored craft to Zentradi anymore... Episode 12 proves that with all those Q-Rheas...

Edited July 4, 2008 by Kronnang Dunn