Macross Frontier Movies

[hitokirigarou]

There are brown and blue/white Macross Quarters in the second MacrossF movie. I'm wonder which fleets they belong to.

The blue/white Macross Quarter reminded me of the Battle 7.

[NastyNate]

After seeing the new trailer for the second movie, I am getting so excited!
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/0 ... f_trailer/

[azrael]

There are brown and blue/white Macross Quarters in the second MacrossF movie. I'm wonder which fleets they belong to.

The blue/white Macross Quarter reminded me of the Battle 7.

They belong to Macross 17 and 23 fleets.

After seeing the new trailer for the second movie, I am getting so excited!

"Trailer" is a such bad word for the clip since this film has been out since February. Promotional video or commercial for the home video release is more appropriate.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Are we to assume then that most all modern Macross colony fleets have their own Quarter-class ship? (Is that even their proper designation?)

[azrael]

Are we to assume then that most all modern Macross colony fleets have their own Quarter-class ship? (Is that even their proper designation?)

It's Macross Quarter-class. And no, don't assume they all have one.

Spoiler

Macross Frontier has 1 while Macross 23 had, IIRC, 3 of them.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

I wonder if

Spoiler

those three that Macross 23 has are all owned by the fleet, whereas Frontier's Quarter is owned by SMS?

[azrael]

I wonder if

Spoiler

those three that Macross 23 has are all owned by the fleet, whereas Frontier's Quarter is owned by SMS?

Spoiler

They're owned by SMS. Or they're crewed and tagged by SMS. Who actually owns them? Who cares.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Do you think that might imply that NUNS has a deficiency in manpower by the time of Frontier? If so, that could be an interesting plot point for a future Macross show.

[zerogradius]

A lack of manpower is possible, especially given the extent of their exploration of space. Actually I think that given what we know about the survivors of the first space war, the number of macross fleets should be significantly lower.

[azrael]

A lack of manpower is possible, especially given the extent of their exploration of space. Actually I think that given what we know about the survivors of the first space war, the number of macross fleets should be significantly lower.

Cloning and rapid mass production and acquisitions would make this statement false.

Do you think that might imply that NUNS has a deficiency in manpower by the time of Frontier?

Absolutely no. In the Macross-franchise, the population isn't a problem as one would think. As the saying goes, "It's the economy stupid". There is no shortage of manpower but there is a price to be paid for have such "advanced" equipment. Training pilots and crew costs money. Maintaining variable machines takes a lot of time. And time = money. A simple Ghost costs 3-times less than a VF-171 Nightmare Plus to build and maintain. And beyond that you have to train, feed, and maintain a human pilot for that VF-171. This is the reason for using private companies like SMS. Their costs are lower.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

As the saying goes, "It's the economy stupid". A simple Ghost costs 3-times less than a VF-171 Nightmare Plus to build and maintain. And beyond that you have to train, feed, and maintain a human pilot for that VF-171. This is the reason for using private companies like SMS. Their costs are lower.

So why don't they just replace all living pilots with Ghosts and have done with it?

[Dark Duel]

"It's the economy stupid"

Wasn't that Bill Clinton's campaign slogan when he ran for President in '92?

That said, while I do agree with you, Arbiter raises a good point: Why not do exactly that?
The obvious out-of-universe reason is, of course, that it's the VFs that really define the Macross franchise.
But in-universe, it would make a lot of sense to do away entirely with manned VFs and simply use Ghosts or similar unmanned fighters.
Of course, the reverse is true: We saw in Frontier that Luca managed to fly his own VF and simultaneously control three Ghosts, so there is still some use/need for human pilots; And let's face it, there are sometimes things a human pilot could or would do that might be beyond the reach of a computer-controlled aircraft.

[Dendrobium Stamen]

We also saw that AI-controlled weapons can go mad and slightly genocidal in the Macross universe, as in the case of Sharon Apple of Plus fame, whose control over the prototype Ghost X-9 was nothing short of... well, impressive. A whole wing of those, under the command of an unfeeling machine intellect, would certainly be a force to be reckoned with, but impossible to stop if they turned on their masters.

Human pilots are, I should imagine, more easily reigned in than sentient artificial intelligence, what with the endurance limits of our squishy bodies compared to cold metal machines, which gives them another reason to persevere. Also, humans tend to breed a lot whether we want to or not - consider the population boom after Space War I and the cloning efforts, for example - so it's probably cheaper having humans you had laying around anyway piloting the mecha than building an expensive AI for each machine...

[azrael]

We also saw that AI-controlled weapons can go mad and slightly genocidal in the Macross universe, as in the case of Sharon Apple of Plus fame, whose control over the prototype Ghost X-9 was nothing short of... well, impressive. A whole wing of those, under the command of an unfeeling machine intellect, would certainly be a force to be reckoned with, but impossible to stop if they turned on their masters.

Human pilots are, I should imagine, more easily reigned in than sentient artificial intelligence, what with the endurance limits of our squishy bodies compared to cold metal machines, which gives them another reason to persevere. Also, humans tend to breed a lot whether we want to or not - consider the population boom after Space War I and the cloning efforts, for example - so it's probably cheaper having humans you had laying around anyway piloting the mecha than building an expensive AI for each machine...

Bingo. After the Sharon Apple-incident, the UN/NUN were afraid of what a full AI-controlled machine could do. The same could be said with the V-9 Ghosts in Macross Frontier. In the wrong hands, the Ghosts could wipe out entire fleets in minutes. Yes, Ghosts are cheaper and are becoming frontline aircraft, but if those Ghost target friendly forces, either by outside means or through bad programming, you're dead. And if the enemy uses weapons that could disable the Ghosts, there goes your air force.

[zerogradius]

NUNS were frightened of them to the extent that they forbade the use of the Ghost without a human pilot manipulating them, like Luca did in Macross Frontier. However, Luca knew how to release them from that control, as demonstrated in the final episode when he allowed his ghosts to fight independent of him. The crew of the Macross Galaxy also knew how to do this, which explains the acts of the Ghost V-9s.

[azrael]

NUNS were frightened of them to the extent that they forbade the use of the Ghost without a human pilot manipulating them, like Luca did in Macross Frontier. However, Luca knew how to release them from that control, as demonstrated in the final episode when he allowed his ghosts to fight independent of him. The crew of the Macross Galaxy also knew how to do this, which explains the acts of the Ghost V-9s.

Technically, all fleets could do this. Humans designed the code for the Ghosts's operation as they did the Sharon Apple-AI.

[zerogradius]

I thought that it would have been a closely guarded secret because of what happened with Sharon Apple and that the reason Luca knew about it was because of his connections. Makes you wonder why the Frontier did not counter by unleashing their own Ghosts.

[NastyNate]

Now that the second movie is out, anyone have any thoughts about it?

[DuelGundam2099]

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, although Brera got WAAAAAAAAY too downplayed. I also want to know what the new vajra are called.

[Dark Duel]

I actually still have not seen the second Macross Frontier movie, I'm ashamed to say. Though I hope to remedy that in the near future.
Brera being downplayed actually doesn't bother me too much, as while I was a big fan of the VF-27 itself(Until the movies came along and gave us the YF-29 it was my favorite Frontier design), I didn't like Brera all that much.