by the fans for the fans

Since I been interested in Macross since last year,I got a few elements of Macross in my collection and one that keeps me thinking is Frontier and how it could have been better in so many ways.

Besides some of the "candid" things I disliked about Frontier there are some real things that I need to understand because I sat thru all episodes 2 times and could not grab the notion of "Singing a fold wave"

Either I got a bad fan sub or is singing a new way to make fold waves in Macross' future?

And if I am correct,UN Spacy is now being replaced by SMS,is that correct because I was led to believe that UN Spacy no longer had the touch and that is where SMS came in,is that an indication that maybe the Macross universe is changing its military?

I admit I am confused after going from Macross Plus to Frontier but I forgot where I read but those autonomous fighters that followed the "green" one might have had similar a.i. used in plus.Sorry I keep forgetting japanese names,except Ozma and Alto (spanish).

you know in essence you are trying to dig out truth in a complete fiction. I would say it is hopeless unless you go and ask those who wrote the screenplay. Why not just enjoy if you like it?

Pizza The Hutt asked:

Besides some of the "candid" things I disliked about Frontier there are some real things that I need to understand because I sat thru all episodes 2 times and could not grab the notion of "Singing a fold wave"

"Singing a Fold Wave" is actually a side effect, if you will, of Ranka's infection (In utero) of the V-type virus.

Since she's infected with this virus, she has microscopic trace elements of Fold Quartz in her body. This is the substance the Vajra use to fold without the time-dilation issues that Humans, Zentradi, and the Protoculture encountered, therefore presenting a more efficient and less time-consuming fold.

Now, since she's contracted this virus in-utero (basically, while she was still a resident in her mom's womb),the virus elements situated themselves in her stomach (where the Vajra's brain is, BTW), instead of moving to her brain, like it did with Sheryl, causing a slow and miserable death. This way, the virus presented a link, through the fold quartz, to the Vajra hive-mind.

As she sung, her singing produced low-level fold-waves, which carried the emotional content of her songs. The same kind of waves, by the way, that the Vajra use to communicate inside the hive mind.

As was explained in the end episode, the song 'Aimo Aimo' was a mating song to bring Vajra from distant galazies together, and thier communication is facilitated by the use of fold quartz.

And then, Pizza asked:

And if I am correct,UN Spacy is now being replaced by SMS,is that correct because I was led to believe that UN Spacy no longer had the touch and that is where SMS came in,is that an indication that maybe the Macross universe is changing its military?

This is almoist correct, but there are several small corrections needed.

Strategic Military Services, owned by Richard Birla, is a private military contractor, contracted to the Macross Frontier government, to test the VF-25, and provide security services for the Macross Frontier colony fleet. Also, since Birla has a large amount of pull with the Frontier government, he was able to form Frontier's mission to find and study fold quartz, and begin a technological revolution.

When you say "UN Spacy doesn't have the touch...", it's an astute observation, since the NUNS (New UN Spacy) was presented as a lackluster force in Frontier.

In essence, the SMS a civilian entity, taking on jobs that the Fontier government 'has no knowledge of', as well as extended operations like the attempted rescue of the Macross Galaxy fleet.

SMS isn't meant to replace the NUNS forces, but rather to supplement them... the NUNS's human pilots being somewhat ineffectual because of reduced training in an era where the focus is shifting increasingly towards the use of unmanned combat aircraft (the AIF-7S Ghost). The military is also less free to act because it fell under greater civilian oversight after the Vindirance group's attempted coup in 2051

And, finally, Pizza asked:

I admit I am confused after going from Macross Plus to Frontier but I forgot where I read but those autonomous fighters that followed the "green" one might have had similar a.i. used in plus.Sorry I keep forgetting japanese names,except Ozma and Alto (spanish).

(Special thanks go to Seto Kaiba for this reply)

After the Sharon Apple incident in Macross Plus, the U.N. Spacy decided the Ghost X-9's AI was too dangerous to run solo, but the design's merits were too good to ignore. Namely, it's much cheaper than VFs, it isn't limited by the human body's tolerance for high g-forces, and it's just as versatile (if not moreso) than the main VFs of the day in terms of what mission roles it could fulfill. So the result was the introduction of the Judah system, which essentially is a set of restraints for the AI that prevent it from operating independently of a human operator.

The Ghost's onboard AI does the detail work, like airframe control and attack patterns, while the general instructions (fly here, attack this target, return to base, etc.) are given by the human operator.

Because the completed design (AIF-7S Ghost) is free of most of the concerns that come from having a fleshy pilot (food, salary, training, biological g-force tolerances) and because it costs only 1/3 of what the VF-171 does, the decision was made for the NUNS to scale back their manned fighter operations in favor of unmanned squadrons of Ghosts.

In short, yes they have more or less the same AI as the Ghost X-9, but it operates under the Judah system's restraints due to the fear that it would go out of control like the prototype did.

Hope that helps!

(Seto Kaiba has extended the invitation to e-mail him, in case you want more information, since MEMO's afraid Seto will preach more heresy on RTX

webmaster<AT>macross2.net)

Alot of input there and I was lost on that whole "sing and fold" thing.I guess the fan sub I got is way off.So that means Macross is keeping it "real" in their stories? because I was thinking Macross was going to take a "fantasy and magic" turn and glad that it seems that it was mainly organic elements instead of magic.

I can understand the lady cyborg getting new bodies and all but what continues to make me think is why Klan needed a space suit in space because I remember Breetai was able to walk on a ship hull and when Micale (spell) was mad and sniping alone she had space suit on.

Well if I need to understand it better,I was on the fence about getting the Blue-ray version of Macross Frontier because I guess the one I got was rush made and I heard from a Macross friend (believe it or not,I have a Macross friend) that the correct public name for Sheryl is "The Galactic Fairy" and the dvds I got made her the "space nympho" and that is not too good.

Pizza wrote:

Alot of input there and I was lost on that whole "sing and fold" thing.I guess the fan sub I got is way off.So that means Macross is keeping it "real" in their stories? because I was thinking Macross was going to take a "fantasy and magic" turn and glad that it seems that it was mainly organic elements instead of magic.

Yeah, the folks that produced Frontier 'kept it real' (About as real as a show about tranforming robotic fighter planes could be), and gave a logical reason for stuff. The V-type infection also goes a long way to explaining the telepathic mind-link seen in the last two episodes.

Since Ranka and Sheryl had the trace-element levels of fold quartz in their bodies, and Alto had Sheryl's ear ring, it makes a whole lot more sense.

Then, Pizza wrote:

I can understand the lady cyborg getting new bodies and all but what continues to make me think is why Klan needed a space suit in space because I remember Breetai was able to walk on a ship hull and when Micale (spell) was mad and sniping alone she had space suit on.

Remember, Britai was only on the exterior of his ship for a short amount of time.

Even Ranka, who is one-quarter Zentran, could survive for a few moments outside the atmosphere of the Frontier island, without suffering the effects of explosive decompression.

However, I know of no real example of Zentradi or Maltrandi characters surviving for extended periods of time in cold-vaccuum.

Finally, Pizza wrote:

Well if I need to understand it better,I was on the fence about getting the Blue-ray version of Macross Frontier because I guess the one I got was rush made and I heard from a Macross friend (believe it or not,I have a Macross friend) that the correct public name for Sheryl is "The Galactic Fairy" and the dvds I got made her the "space nympho" and that is not too good.

LOL!!!

Yeah, I got suckered by the same fan-sub, at first. To be honest, it was a good way to break into the series, but it wasn't long 'til I was looking for another version.

I found that version, and it was well worth the time to get it.

PM will be sent, with the address to get it.

I will need to get a upgraded HDD for my PS3 to download this because I still got the old 60GB and too many games used up my HDD space and this takes atleast 16GB.If the fan sub is better than the one I spent $25 for on ebay then I may get a better view of things.

Thanks for the link

Now I get the idea a bit better with Ranka and Vajra infection,it is kind of like the Blade LAM,where Blade got the powers of a vampire but none of their weakness'

Too bad Manga was not allowed to sub in english this,because Macross Plus was subbed very well.

No problem, sir. It's my pleasure to be able to help.

Heck,
Since I now got a 3 day lay over at my current job I plan to watch what I can on Macross Frontier and I have no choice but to suffer thru the bad fan sub I got because the Blu-rays on Ebay are burned (since when can folks burn and copy Blurays?) and those prices are crazy.

One thing that was wierd is Vajra are able to "molt" and adapt to SMS weapons but Alto used a old Zentraedi rifle to "nuke" a Vajra point blank so why didn't SMS make that his primary rifle weapon if it could keep killing Vajra easily? Its like Clint Eastwood using a .44 magnum for one scene then going back to a .38 which would be bad.

So my days off will be used wisely to watch a show I been missing out on for a long time known as Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) and some time for Macross Frontier too.

Pizza The Hutt wrote:

One thing that was wierd is Vajra are able to "molt" and adapt to SMS weapons but Alto used a old Zentraedi rifle to "nuke" a Vajra point blank so why didn't SMS make that his primary rifle weapon if it could keep killing Vajra easily? Its like Clint Eastwood using a .44 magnum for one scene then going back to a .38 which would be bad.

Ah, let's get into a little historical exploration...

In the episode in question, 'Miss Macross Frontier', Alto and the rest of Skull Squadron were on a Final Evaluation mission, to see if Alto actually made it into SMS. For this reason, their weapons were filled with paint rounds.

About as effective as throwing a spit-ball at a Tiger Tank.

Now, before Skull Squadron had actually engaged Klan Klan's Pixie Squdron, they'd found the corpse of the long-dead Zentradi soldier, and next to said cadaver was a hand-held weapon (Presumably a particle beam rifle, since the Zentradi are in love with those things).

So, this sets us up for the scene in question.

Alto's gunpod, filled with paint rounds, was useless against a real enemy, like the solitary Vajra they encountered. First, he tried engaging the thing with his knife (the glowing blade owing to the pinpoint-barrier system incorporated into the blade), but the Vajra simply threw him away, ripping off a leg in the bargain.

Next, we have Klan, in her bad-ass Q-Rae (A variant of the standard Q-Rao Maltran power armor) as she throws a massive volley of missiles at the Vajra. Remember, she carried live ammo, such as missile, because her squadron was previously on a scouting mission, before Alto's evaluation.

With the Itano-Circus missle volley being worthless, she jumped on the back of the thing, and fired her armor's shoulder-mounted beam-gun, which gouged a hole into the Vajra's endo-skeleton, but ultimately, wasn't a fatal shot.

Alto, having found the ancient Zentradi's gin, raced back into the scene, and plugged a shot into Klan's previous impact point, finishing the job.

Quite simply, Alto's gunpod would've been useless, even if he'd been carrying live ammo. Remember how the shots simply bounced off the thing in the first episode?

There you go.

Thanks to Viper's Macross Introductory Program, I am happy to say i actually know what he is refering to. LMAO! very cool.