The Roboblog Chronicles: Episode 7
Featuring a discussion of one of the interesting intersection points of the different versions of the Robotech II: The Sentinels story -- the case of the Sentinels' flagship Ark Angel -- and a depressing realization I made about a handful of key characters in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.
Labels: And I just remembered something else I wanted to say, Roboblog Chronicles, Robotech II: The Sentinels, The Shadow Chronicles
posted by Captain JLS at
23:47
6 Comments:
Captain, you hit it right out the ball park with this episode. Yes the new Shadow Chronicles characters are retreads of MACROSS but I don't think that's a bad thing. MACROSS has influenced so much anime it's almost hard to break away from it. Even with all the legal restrictions ROBOTECH relys so much on MACROSS for it's back story.
By
Anonymous, at 14 May, 2007 11:52
My main problem with the TSC characters is that, even as Macross retreads, they killed off the only remotely interesting "new" character in the franchise: Alex Ramirez. He caught the viewers eye and was a joy to watch, while Marcus festered in his own whiny pit of despair. I wonder: had TSC progressed as an entire series, would Ramirez' death still have happened that early?
I'm surprised I never caught the SDF-07 thing. I mean, I knew what it was, but never gave much thought to the Ark Angel being such a small ship in McKinney's world. Although, maybe the Ark Angle was just a larger prototype for the smaller Horizont? I'm not at that point in the novelizations yet, so I don't remember entirely how that scene goes down.
By
JHC, at 14 May, 2007 14:33
heres another thing i noticed, super shadow alpha fights...the super armors from the vf-1s can clearly be seen on theses alpha, when in battloid it looks similair to the FAST PACKS of the Vf1s..funny
By
Anonymous, at 14 May, 2007 17:33
anon: Yeah, that's one of those things I wanted to mention but didn't have the time for; I mean, seriously, it's right there in the name. And if I remember right, didn't they deploy the Super Veritechs in Macross only after Roy and Ben had died? I think so. (Is that a bit of a stretch? Sure, but it's also TRUE.)
JHC: YES! I was thinking that very thing this afternoon after work. The most lively, animated, FUN guy in the entire damn movie, and they OFF him in a ridiculous heroic sacrifice scene. And I would say almost the most annoying thing about killing Alex is that it's what MAKES him such a Ben Dixon retread -- the fact that he's the "offed comic relief guy" overshadows everything else!
As for the Ark Angel/SDF-7 thing, I don't think McKinney knew the damn things were so small. As I may have mentioned, there's never a good description of them; McKinney didn't really do a good job of paying attention to or filling in the mecha details throughout the novels.
troubleman245: Most of the Macross shadings I don't have a problem with; it's the fact that these characters are so PERFECTLY mapped to the key fighter pilot characters of Macross that gets me all irritated, on top of the fact that they're so poorly sketched in the Shadow Chronicles feature that the comparison is made all the easier. Of the four, Alex Romero makes the biggest impression, and look what they did to him! Like I said, they killed him off in such a way that INVITES the comparison to his Macross predecessor! *sigh*
I'd say I must just be getting cranky and burned out, except that everything I'm pointing out is unfortunately true. >_<
By
Captain JLS, at 14 May, 2007 21:52
Do you think that we will ever have a new robotech series where all, or at least most of, the main characters from previous generations come together and interact with one another.
For me, the has been the most awaited yet, frustrating predicament with the robotech saga.
By
Anonymous, at 16 May, 2007 09:55
The whole Ark Angel thing was obviously meant as a verbal tribute to what has come before. Its HG walking the line of the different fan bases of Robotech, and it didn't bother me, really.
Given his limited description of the Ark Angel, and the fact that the novels can be considered their own universe, the McKinney ship size is kind of irrelevant at this point. The HorizonT never looked like a Cyclone payload-carrying ship to begin with in my mind, so I can understand why McKinney might jump to conclusions that Alphas were stored in those massive tubes–I know I thought they were! (To McKinney's credit, I was randomly reading Metal Fire last night, and realized that his treatment of the Robotech characters/world is for sure, in my mind, the most alive and compelling. It breathes like a real world, reminding me why I got into Robotech).
Personally, I never knew about the comics' Ark Angel, but its design isn't very appealing. I'm not sure if it would look good beside traditional Robotech mecha...
Finally, as for TSC mirroring Macross, that was pretty obvious. But, repetition is a literary device, and can be used to good effect, I believe. In this case, it wasn't so carefully done, but not the worst, either. The only thing that bothered me about it really was the fact that Alex and Taylor were killed so quickly. I think they wanted to make this feature get in and get out, giving as much as it could, in case future projects never came about, so I can understand them rushing plot points to some extent...
By
Anonymous, at 19 May, 2007 18:40
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