by the fans for the fans

'Macross Saga' is my favourite among the three original subsagas, but I do not like the final episode (#36 of the Robotech series), for several reasons.

1) The four-five previous episodes were slow-paced. Neither Khyron's revolt nor the love triangle between Rick, Minmei and Lisa were moving on. And then both were solved in just one issue?

2) Captain Gloval announcing that the next day, a long term mission will start to attack the Robotech Masters on their home world.
Without taking care of the immediate danger of Khyron first?

3) Seven characters, five of which had been around since episode #1, die in literally one blow?

4) Lisa miraculousely being the sole survivor of the crash?
Not that I wanted her dead, but it would have been more credible if others had survived as well or if she had died with the rest of the crew.

I love the rest of that series, but this ending seemed like a rush-job. "Final episode already? OK, let's end everything!"

yep oh well thats how it goes, you need to watch the sentinels saga its a continuation of that.
a short one, but it will help you understand the rest.

the macross saga was kinda rush job @ that

I was just thinking of this the other day. It occurred to me, how many times in the series was the main reflex gun used to wipe out entire fleets, yet somehow they managed to miss one ship, and one not dodging?

Issues with the last episode are pretty much due to the fact that, in Macross, all the loose ends were tied up, whereas in Robotech, it has to set up the rest of the series to come. That means making up more SDFs that were never there to begin with, killing off characters that will never be seen again, and concocting some wild plan to build even more SDFs and an entire fleet to accompany it when they can barely even keep one city together.

It doesn't make any sense, and killing everyone except Lisa was a bit excessive, since we never see her again either. They all survived in Macross. In fact, this was a big point of contention some people had on the old robotech.com forums. Khyron's ship did not even damage the bridge of the SDF1. It's there, in plain sight. Here is a comparison shot that I took to illustrate this:

i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz204/mbisho...ridgestillthere2.jpg

The scale is a little off, but you can clearly see the intact bridge in the supposedly "destroyed" SDF1. In the original source material, it wasn't destroyed.

DR-052 wrote: I was just thinking of this the other day. It occurred to me, how many times in the series was the main reflex gun used to wipe out entire fleets, yet somehow they managed to miss one ship, and one not dodging?

When they attempted to fire the gun, it literally crumbled apart into pieces. It didn't deliver nearly as much a powerful shot as it once could.

Alpha Bravo: Issues with the last episode are pretty much due to the fact that, in Macross, all the loose ends were tied up, whereas in Robotech, it has to set up the rest of the series to come.

I always stayed away from the Macross vs Robotech-discussion, but this seems an very good argument in favour of Macross.
Not using characters later on is no reason to kill them. You can simply not use them anymore.

Characters getting killed all the time simply because writers don't have use for them is basically why I lost interest in American super hero comics somewhen during the late nineties and the early '00's.

i think u can see lisa again in the sentinels and shadow chronicles.

ds55 wrote: i think u can see lisa again in the sentinels and shadow chronicles.

yes you do, in-fact the Sentinels ends with her marrying Rick, and she's in the RPG as well.

Regarding the missing SDF-2, it was fan-made, but there was a video I watched a few years ago someone posted on the old RDF HQ forums where the poster had edited the final episode to include the SDF-2 in the scenes of the city. Quite well done as well. What they had done was photo shopped in the SDF-1 from the first few episodes into the last one and made it look like the SDF-2 was being built in the city. If only it had been done 30 years earlier.

Here it is here: vimeo.com/17955050

X1 Commander wrote: Regarding the missing SDF-2 ... it look like the SDF-2 was being built in the city.

Here it is here: vimeo.com/17955050

No, I believe it was built on the captured Robotech Factory, as was the SDF-3. You see the SDF-3 under construction there in the Sentinels. Both are about the same size as a Zentraedi troopship (Quiltra Queleual), depending on the source. the SDF-2 lands at the city to pick up the rest of her crew, supplies and Captain and finish fitting out and supplying. Most naval ships do this, they are built at one yard, then transfer to another yard as soon as possible to finish fitting out. this frees up the queue for the next ship.


[really, the spelling editor doesn't have "Robotech" or "Zentraedi" as a word, nor the names of the Zentraedi ships?]

X1 Commander wrote: Regarding the missing SDF-2, it was fan-made, but there was a video I watched a few years ago someone posted on the old RDF HQ forums where the poster had edited the final episode to include the SDF-2 in the scenes of the city. Quite well done as well. What they had done was photo shopped in the SDF-1 from the first few episodes into the last one and made it look like the SDF-2 was being built in the city. If only it had been done 30 years earlier.

Here it is here: vimeo.com/17955050

It wasn't fanmade. In Episode 36 Rick is flying around talking over the comm to the SDF2. It is supposedly where Lisa is sitting in command, and runs through an access tunnel to the old SDF1 after Khyron's initial attack cripples the SDF2. Also it appeared in the Robotech comic books by Comico:

robotech.wikia.com/wiki/SDF-2?file=Tms_36f.jpg