by the fans for the fans

As far as I am concerned, Rick defenitely decided in favour of Lisa in #36 and Minmei proved she had come to terms wit that by singing at the wedding. Whatever her reasons for joining the REF-mission, I doupt it's because she tries to win Rick back.
I like Minmei as a character and therefore I hope she would remain on the series - not because of Rick and Lisa, but because of her.

I can name other characters I would miss, but Minmei being not military means she is a character that has to be consciously written into it. Personally I would not mind having Minmei and one or two other non-military people on board, because it is easier for me to relate to those characters than to military ones.
(which was less of a problem with Macross, when Rick started as a civilian who had to grow into the military mindset)
If the REF were to be on a strictly military mission -as was intended by Gloval in #36 - then it would be ridiculous to have civilians on board. But at the start of Sentinels, plans apparently changed - they were trying diplomacy first.
That might have opened the possibility of having a few non-military people on board as well, diplomats or cultural attachés for example.


Alpha Bravo, perhaps we could agree to disagree on Minmei untill other people join in on this (sub)topic? Not because I don't value your opinions, but with just two people, a discussion risks ending in 'am not - am too'.

Peter Young wrote: Alpha Bravo, perhaps we could agree to disagree on Minmei untill other people join in on this (sub)topic? Not because I don't value your opinions, but with just two people, a discussion risks ending in 'am not - am too'.

Does not!

Alpha Bravo wrote:

Peter Young wrote: Alpha Bravo, perhaps we could agree to disagree on Minmei untill other people join in on this (sub)topic? Not because I don't value your opinions, but with just two people, a discussion risks ending in 'am not - am too'.

Does not!

Ovbviously you are way more mature than me

Careful what you wish for. I just know how much you love hearing my opinion

What about colonel Edwards?

Haven't read comics or novels yet. It seems that the comics in particular presented him as an eighties villain: doing everything just to upset the good guys - even if that meands trying to sabotage a wedding. In the Sentinels movie, he actually announces to a corporal - whise loyalty he still has to earn - that he is going to 'take that flyboy down'.
His lines in the Robotech promotion real were far more plausible, stating he has more experience than Hunter - leaving it to the other to decide which officer deserves more respect. Not only would a genuine plotter not sate his purposes in advances, hew ould also know better how to get others on his side.

There are three ways to make Edwards a more convincing adversary:
A ) him being dissatisfied by being surpassed
B ) portraying him as a desillusioned patriot and warrior
C ) still showing him as only interested in himself - but by claiming glory for himself, not just sabotaging the others


A ) For an experienced officer, it must be frustrating to serve under commanders half your age and experience and someone who is your age, but served as a military scientist, not in the field. You will start wondering if Rick would have been promoted that fast had he not been a childhood friend of someone who truly earned his stripes in battle, Roy Fokker, and if Lisa was not just an admiral's daughter.
And then you find out that Rick was actually a pacifist untill just before the war and that Lisa's experience was on the bridge, not in the field....

It was then that Edwards lost his respect for those above him.

B ) Suppose Edwards started as a patriot and a dedicated officer in the Global War, untill someday the war was declared over and everyone had to pretend they were friends instead of foes?

(him prefering to continue the battle and/or sympathizing with the anti-unification rebels might be a right opportunity to commit treason, without simultaneously losing any credibility of becoming an officer again after the Robotech war. 'His record got lossed during the Zentraedi War'? Yeah, and every single individual who knew about him just happened to perish!)

Lots of examples in fiction and in reality.

In fiction: Zechs Marquise in 'Gundam Wing'. An honourable man, who spent years liberating his fatherland and when he realized that in order to do so, he had joined up with questionable allies, he tried to right his wrongs by joining the Gundam pilots... only to see his native country being dissolved after all. It was at this moment when he got approached by White Fang...

In reality: German (those originating from Prussia in particular) officers after WW I, Russian military and secret service agents after the dissolvement of the Soviet Union, Saddams forces after his downfall - they ended up with supporting Hitler, helping Putin in the saddle and forming an alliance with Islamic State respectively.


C ) Lots of reallife examples. But reallife generals who turned dictator never openly stated they did it for themselves. They usually refered to national of ideological pride in speeches, pretending they were serving a greater good. Something Edwards was not shown doing.

Besides: why stage a coup during the mission? Why not first help bring the mission to a succes and use you're being a part of that mission as starting point for a political career afterwards? Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower were officers before they became politicans (Note: I do not consider these last three villains - just saying that a reason should be given for Edwards going for the more riskier course of staging a coup instead of using legit ways of gaining power for himself)

My preference would be B for background.
C seems to be the closest to how he has been represented before.

I was young and stupid when I read the Jack McKinney novels, but even then, Edwards' motivations made no sense to me.

Edwards was a cliche villain at best. I remember there being literally nothing interesting about him, nor anything to give his character any depth.

When the Sentinels movie got released in 2011, a text was added stating the SDF-3 never returned to Earth. Apart from that, has ever an in-canon explanation been given for its absence after #36 of the original series?

See, I kinda doupt its crew would accept never returning home without mutiny. They volunteered for a specific mission - going to Tirol -, not to be on board of an U.S.S. Entreprise and keep on exploring.

Heck, even the makers of Star Trek realised that was the weak point in the plausibility of the original series. Every incarnation starting from 'The Next Generation' dealt with the fact that even spaceship crew members want to see their relatives and their homes every now and again.

So I would let the SDF-3 return to Earth after a few years to report on what has happened after departure. The SDF-3 not being on Earth could be explained for other reasons. Most realistic seems to me that a colony had been founded more close to Tirol. That way, Earth could maintain contact with the new allied races AND that way, in case of a new invasion, not all of humanity would be conquered or destroyed at once.

That would not even contradict 'Masters Saga' and 'New Generation'. Why could Dana and Bowie not simply have returned to Earth to enter military training and then the army? Scott could have grown op on the colony and seen Wolfe from a distance there. And it would explain better how Rick could have heard about the Masters'invasion and send Wolfe back if contact had been kept between Earth and colony.

I write this also because the Sentinels' comics and novels seemed to have had an open end and the early 2000's attempts to wrap things up seem to have been impopular with the fans.

i guess carry on the story line after the invasion of the invid.

It seems they've had many failed attempts when it comes to starting anything new. Now why exactly is that?