Macross Frontier Episode 18 Talkback Thread *READ 1st Post*

[Radd]

Dr. Mao Nome (whom I was surprised survived the Zentreadi bombardment on Earth)

Mao, and all the other Mayans, were part of a top secret incident involving technology and revelations on intergalactic life that would not be made public for several years yet. They were likely kept on South Atari island, and many of them probably wound up on the Macross because of that.

[Lethalzero]

This death card is really interesting. Aside from the various factors in defining and analyzing Sheryl's character, we add a new one, her impending death. Please nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I perceive her as a vibrant yet sensitive and loving character. The author is actually doing good work in presenting and developing Sheryl's character, props to him.

thats why i think the sheryl character is more challenging than ranka's....

ranka's char is more of a typical heroine while sheryl's a bit complicated....

death...death... who dont fear death...

in manga's, we always see main char, villains do not fear death..

now this is something different...

[Sumdumgai]

no, Grace is ObiWan Kenobi.

More like evil Qui-gon Jinn or Ra's Al-ghul.

[Mr March]

More like evil Qui-gon Jinn or Ra's Al-ghul.

"Frontier's time has come. Like Macross City or Atarrrrrria before it: the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and (cue sexy eyebrow raise) injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die"

[dreamweaver13]

"Frontier's time has come. Like Macross City or Atarrrrrria before it: the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and (cue sexy eyebrow raise) injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die"

Also ties in with the fact that the REAL grace is not in the body, but in a collective of AIs hidden somewhere.

"Are her methods supernatural? Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity, gRAce?"

[dreamweaver13]

Perhaps his title should be "nothing lasts forever"?

or "flingsforever"

[MisaForever]

Where's my grumpy smiley when I need it? Oh well, this will do.

[Master Dex]

Where's my grumpy smiley when I need it? Oh well, this will do.

Oh don't be that way. Seriously, you walked right into that one.

"Frontier's time has come. Like Macross City or Atarrrrrria before it: the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and (cue sexy eyebrow raise) injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die"

Total Win.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Master Dex

[Morpheus]

So, is this discussion about episode 18 or..... ???

Anyone want to make a review of episode 18 before MisaForever change his name into FlowerGirlForever?

[Shaka_Z]

who wants to bet that Sheryl ends up hiring Ranka's former manager?

[MisaForever]

Hmmmm or Sheryl ends up BEING Ranka's new manager?

[brouken]

Right. So after reading the past "walls of text", I have an interesting theory to float into the discussion (with corresponding wall of text of my own) :

Sheryl is infected by the V-type infection correct? What do we know of this disease that has been more or less revealed so far?

1) That it is somehow related to the Vajra: Man-grace says to Leon in "Legend of Zero" - "Izure ni wakaru, Varja no hontou no ozoroshiisa wa..." (You'll soon understand how truly terrifying the Vajra are) after saying that they've transplanted a Eden raised Hydra into Frontier. We now know in ep. 18 that that Hydra was infected with the V-type infection.

2) That one of the V-type infection's known symptoms is, get ready...AGGRESSION.

Sooo, if Sheryl is suffering from V-type sickness, and all that Grace was doing was to inhibit the virus not cure it, what conclusions can we draw from this?

Is Sheryl's so called "aggressiveness" truly part of her personality? Or is it merely a byproduct of the V-type virus in her system, modulated as it is with the "receptor blocker" pills that Grace was secretly feeding her? Remember, Klan said that "It cannot cure the illness, but it mitigates the symptoms."

Of course one can argue that it is entirely possible that Sheryl already had a "strong personality" by virtue of her having lived in the slums. Poverty hardens you after all. But judging from the scenes of her during this time in her life, as revealed in ep 18, she seemed more frightened and lost to me rather than being strong and streetwise.

Now that Sheryl is NO LONGER taking the receptor blocker/inhibitor pills, can we reasonably expect her aggressiveness to increase dramatically? More interestingly, what happens to her once she is CURED of the disease?

What is V-type sickness? Leon and co. have been quite thorough in screening everyone who has come into close contact with the Vajra for this disease.

Point of interest would be his comments on Ranka, whom he had also screened. Ranka, as we know, first came into contact with the Varja during the 117th research expedition. So it is entirely possible that she is already carrying the V-type infection prior to her coming to Frontier.

But instead of exhibiting the aggression now associated with the disease, Ranka is generally meek and insecure. What is preventing the V-type infection, assuming that she is infected by it, from manifesting itself in this manner?

V-type. V. Vajra.

I forgot which episode that was (possibly in "Memories of Global") that there was a very brief scene of some microscopic creatures being affected by Ranka's singing. Is this the V-type disease? Or are these the true nature of the Vajra? Maybe both?

Which begs the question, are these things that the Frontier been fighting all this time not the true form of the Vajra themselves, but rather shells to house their true microscopic forms?

Sheryl. Ranka. Vajra. Triangular...

[DeeBot]

Wait wait wait.

Crazy theory time!

What if Grace, et al... ARE the Vajra?!?

[Lethalzero]

next episode i am hoping to see what really is the link between the triangular..

sheryl-alto-ranka-sheryl

except for singing etc of course...

[Final Vegeta]

And while I agree that both of them are exhibiting behaviours consistant with that archetype, it´s a bit too easy to just handwave their behaviour with a "tsundere" label. I like some deeper analysis on it, which I´ve tried to bring up.

This is the difference in "emotionality" I talked about. You spend a lot of words to describe the feelings of the characters, you try to get in their heads and such. I am unable to do this and view things from a simpler point of view, which may even sound sarcastic.

And while Alto behaves like a tsundere, you can say he is a different type of tsundere. I can see him being aggressive for two reason: 1) he can go to great lengths to help his friends, so his aggressiveness is meant to deter others from overexploiting him. 2) He is good a piloting (and formerly at acting), but he knows he is not an all-rounder guy.

And my comment on "disrespect" was because you used repeatedly that " " smiley about parts of my post, which is not exactly a sign of someone taking his conversation partners opinion seriously. At least not when the parts are trying to be serious ( as much as that gets to be so on the nets... ) analysis of the Sheryl X Alto relationship.

I think you can agree that sometimes speculations about what goes in character's heads are more convoluted than plot theories. You are not even the worst one, there are bricks of text long like fanfics here

FV

[magnuskn]

I think you can agree that sometimes speculations about what goes in character's heads are more convoluted than plot theories. You are not even the worst one, there are bricks of text long like fanfics here

True, true. But there is some very good stuff, too, like Swampstorms posts.

And haha! Vindication on Sheryls origin is mine! <points to the News thread>

[yaiba]

That's really one of the defining qualities of Sheryl's character. She always tries her hardest to remain strong for the sake of the people around her, and she's so good at doing it that they often don't realize the hardship that she goes through.

Except in the first episode when she runs off during the Vajra attack despite Alto's remonstration. She didn't really seem to give a damn until she got news that Galaxy had been attacked. That little episode was probably spread in the Frontier blogsphere with images from a video phone, which would account for the snide comments by those Frontier girls when they saw Sheryl's disks in the bargain bin.

[Mr March]

Also ties in with the fact that the REAL grace is not in the body, but in a collective of AIs hidden somewhere.

"Are her methods supernatural? Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity, gRAce?"

Total Win.

Hehehe. Geekdom...it's a wonderful life