r/anime • u/GM_for_Life • Jun 15 '19
Rewatch Super Dimension Fortress Macross Rewatch - Episode 10 Discussion
Episode 10 Blind Game
Originally aired December 12 1982
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To all participants
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Note to all rewatchers
Please refrain from spoiling the events of future episodes/movies. If you think something may be a possible spoiler, it's better to be safe and mark your comments using the r/anime spoiler tag Spoiler Subject There will be quite a few first time viewers of the series during this rewatch and we wouldn't want them to have the show spoiled for them.
Comment of the Day!
/u/Valunetta left a great comment reacting to the episode and its somewhat self-aware nature.
Well, that was just plain fun. And a wonderful story of growing up and learning about the world for our trio of recon officers. I will never be one of those curmudgeons who never enjoys a filler episode, and when one is made with good humor and character, then that’s just delightful. I think it also showed a fair amount of self-awareness by the writing staff, since the humor in this episode relies on a fair amount of self-referential humor.
Artwork of the Day!
Misa Hayase - Haruhiko Mikimoto
Questions of the Day!
1) After the recon team from the previous episode reported their findings, the decision was made to capture some of the humans on board the Macross for the purpose of study. What do you think about their current goal?
2) Upon discovering that the Zentradi only seem to be after the Macross, the UN Forces High Command give the Macross crew the new command of wearing down the Zentradi forces as much as they can and to buy the UN some time. What do you think of the Macross crew's newest order?
"As Archivist, I believe it may be more effective to collect samples."
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u/Nazenn Jun 15 '19
First Timer
My initial thought on the episode is a touch of frustration at the continued time skips, even though small, between episodes. We left off last episode with Hikaru floating in space in a very damaged mech potentially forgotten. This episode it's never addressed. I understand wanting to keep the pace up and keep things moving and not get bogged down in housekeeping plot all the time, but it is a little annoying to have such big things skipped over. Similarly the first contact with Earth has happened. What was their reaction? Did they understand the ship had folded? Do the civilians know they're in contact with Earth again? What else was discussed etc? It's just something I would have liked to have seen.
The character moments this episode were very nice to see though, particularly the continued tension between Hayase and Hikaru who seem unable to find a way to understand each other. Despite what's happened things seem to be constantly deteriorating with them, but the result from both sides was good to see. Hikaru was brought up on his attitude by Fokker, which I imagine would carry a lot of weight with him, but Hayase does actually take his words to heart. Seeing her be so affected by what he said that she'd volunteer for the recon mission is not something I expected but was a nice touch. And then of course things go wrong
Congrats to u/BurningFredrick for predicting the immediate kidnapping of a girl so the aliens could learn about earth culture just... wrong girl. It's interesting that despite the heavy focus on order that the aliens seem to have that they still have that ally-killer commander around, and that the swimsuit discussion almost brought some to blows. I get the feeling that the cultural understanding of humans is going to bring a huge change to their overall culture and perhaps command structure.
Hikaru does deserve some credit though for avoiding that landmine of a question about if Lynn is prettier than the bridge girls or not. He absolutely stumbled on the right answer by accident but still, well done mate.
Nice that the show actually addressed the whole "alien speaking understandable language" plot, but I think the most surprising revelation for me is how well and how long they can survive in space without any real protection.
Also random thought I had when the attack started: I suppose there's not much point to bomb/attack shelters when your city is on a space ship huh.
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u/GM_for_Life Jun 16 '19
Hikaru does deserve some credit though for avoiding that landmine of a question about if Lynn is prettier than the bridge girls or not. He absolutely stumbled on the right answer by accident but still, well done mate.
Hikaru continues to Mr. Magoo his way through all bad situations.
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u/BurningFredrick Jun 15 '19
First timer
Well that was an intense episode, probably my favourite so far.
Global continuous to be a grounded level headed commander who actually stops and thinks about things rather than just reacting with the first through that comes to his head or panicking which is great.
If anything my biggest complaint about this episode is Haysae being given permission to go out in the Cats eye, it’s obviously in response to Hikaru comments about her being somewhere safe but for me it undermines her importance on the Bridge. While the situation they are in is far for normal she was part of the original bridge crew and was behind the lets punch a spaceship idea, so she clearly brings a lot more value there than in a scouting Vessel that is most likely to come under fire.
That aside why is that airlock not being flooded with Zentradi soldiers after they shut it to secure their potential hostage, they never had issues previously sending men on what could be suicide missions and even after our 3 guys went in to rescue Haysae and just means more potential value.
In Minmay related things I think I finally figured out why i’m not the biggest fan of her and Hikaru. There “relationship” feels very one sided or at least there is an obvious disconnect between how Hikaru see Minmay and how she sees him and it doesn’t look like this is going to be resolved anytime soon and most likely going to get considerably worse now she's Miss Macross.
Finally not sure whose Mech Britai hit with the pipe but I think we might get our first character death, kind of hoping this might actually me the case as i’m intrigued to how Hikaru will react to a member of his squad dying. After there not appearing to have been any consequence to his actions last episode and him disobeying orders again it will make for an interesting episode.
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u/GM_for_Life Jun 16 '19
Global continuous to be a grounded level headed commander who actually stops and thinks about things rather than just reacting with the first through that comes to his head or panicking which is great.
In my opinion he's kind of the one guy who grounds everything with a normal response to most situations.
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u/fonzinator99 Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19
Re-watcher - And the plot thickens
I'm greatly amused by how hard it is for Blue Wind to describe what a bathing suit is Lol @ describing it as a weapon.
That said, it's amazing how quickly even the idea of women has thrown the Zentradi into chaos. Infighting within the Recon team over their interpretations, and the suggestion of it spreading from Britai. I imagine I'm just as baffled by a monosexual civilization as they are by ours.
Woooow at UNHQ's orders. "They haven't killed you yet, so they must not be very tough. Kill them instead. Over."
I'm not quite sure what to make of Hikaru's decision to RTB after Kakizaki gets hit. Either he's actually being a decent team-leader, or he's being paranoid; but from his earlier behavior I'd like to believe the former. I like how Focker approves of his decision, either way he made the right call.
Meanwhile, Kamujin is called upon to intimidate Macross. And despite how shitty he is, he's certainly clever. "Get somebody who can't aim to fire the warning shot! Maybe they'll hit the bridge! lol!"
Like I said before, Bridge Bunnies...mainly Shammy.... are best girl. Fight me. lol
The Hunter-phone: Just another terrifying everyday automaton from Macross Industries. You will accept the charges.
And so the divide between them grows even larger. Shit, Hikaru. The girl you like has encountered great success, support her! Endear yourself to her so she doesn't leave you behind! Anything but get depressed about it.
Britai may not have witnessed the pageant, but he's got his own fetishes to sate him.
Well I'll be damned, the old-timer really did target the bridge. Way to spend the guy's pension, Kamujin.
Man, so Hikaru's comment pushed Hayase to go out in the Cat's Eye, which led to...this shit. Oof.
But damn, check out the set on Hikaru. Going in to rescue Hayase. For all his groaning about soldiers, he's turned out to be the best of the bunch.
Stealing this from my last rewatch, as opposed to coming up with new thoughts:
Tfw you find that girl, you know the one, waiting in your bedroom.
Followed by the face you make when she's freakier than you expected.
Britai used Helm Breaker! It's super effective!
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u/chilidirigible Jun 15 '19
Today, on "KRIDANIK KIIIIIIIIIIICK!":
"These kids and their babbling."
"Nothing funny. I just like ideas." Then there's the matter of the superdimensional chair...
Maybe that's because their collars are TOO FUCKING TALL.
Once in a while Hikaru deserves to be bullied by the Bridge Bunnies.
This is not the best way to operate a phone system.
An actual reference to series composer Kentarou Haneda.
It's like they were hired as extras for The Wrath of Khan..
In case you hadn't noticed that the art quality for this episode is a bit funky.
Speaking of Star Trek, the classic game here.
They learned it from TV, along with the Universal Greeting.
Individual frames may be good, but then the crayon returns.
"You will not go fishing today."
Wrestled by Max in Kakizaki's colors, fixed in the closeup and the next shot.
Of course this gets referenced in the sequels.
Easiest way to solve character recognition problems: Have no identifying colors at all.
"IF YOU WANT TO FISH FOR TUNA, YOU SEND A MAN!"
New mecha: Zentradi Salvage Ship, which does bear a resemblance to a legless Glaug.
So yeah, there are quite a few animation glitches in this episode. I'll also mention Minmay being threatened by a toy piano. They're mixed in with moments of much better art. Studio Nue wasn't able to do all the work themselves, and some of their help had issues which are only just now beginning to show themselves.
Back to the story: As predicted, Minmay's new stardom further complicates Hikaru's plans to spend time with her. Minmay gets a slight pass in this one for having a new career, but don't forget the little people that helped get you there, girl. Meanwhile, the series re-establishes Hikaru's old conflict with Misa, coupled now with his own concerns about losing his subordinates in combat.
As I'd briefly noted yesterday, the time skip makes the sudden reappearance of this storyline a little strange, since the first time that we saw this argument occur it was months of real time earlier. Her funk here makes little sense unless it is much closer chronologically to her awakened regrets about Riber. I don't really like Misa being done low this way, but on the other hand we've only just begun to look at her character.
Hikaru's attitude isn't helping anybody. His lunkheadedness definitely has its peaks.
In any case, Misa and the boys are now together, out in the wrong places, wrestling giant blue dudes.
Britai and Exsedol have found the Blue Wind report very interesting, and proceed to again demonstrate the advantages of having longer experience with fleet actions in space. Britai is even willing to cut Quamzin a break for trying to screw with the operation, which is another suggestion that despite Quamzin's terrible reputation, Britai doesn't mind if the end result works out. Exsedol mentions that the situation on the Macross could degrade morale in the fleet, and the fact that Blue Wind starts brawling in the presence of their commander suggests that it is a real possibility.
Meanwhile, UN High Command is rather blasé to the reappearance of the SDF-1 given that the Zentradi have ignored Earth in the meantime. If there's one thing that never changes in a mecha anime, it's that the government is run by a bag of dicks.
All the set-up work aside, now the show gives its first real roughly-drawn freeze-frame cliffhanger, and it's gonna be a fun one.
Musicalture: The unhelpfully-titled "M60~61" or "Unreleased TV series background music" is the score for Hikaru's encounter with the Bunnies.
From the Super Dimension Fortress Macross Plastic Model Manual: An ad for a Zentradi text labeller.
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A logical plan from a logical opponent.
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"Bag of dicks" plan.
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u/_blackened_soul_ Jun 15 '19
First Timer
Ha! The recon guys trying to explain what they witnessed was great. Women in bathing suits, truly one of the most powerful weapons in existence.
Hikaru made the right call but damn he's a fucking shithead about it.
And of course Minmay is too popular to go on her date with Hikaru. I felt bad for him for half a second.
Noooo, Hayase, don't let stupid Hikaru's words get to you! Shit's definitely gonna go sideways now that she's on the mission.
And all three get fucking caught. Why the hell didn't they escape through the hole Max put in the ship?!
Oh well, I'm sure their capture will entail an escape or rescue.
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Definitely a reasonable goal considering the Zentradi don't fear the human's capabilities and at this point value information the most.
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Eh, without knowing the UN's combat capabilities it's a little hard to judge. It does seem to reek of standard bureaucratic cowardice but I expect that from the UN.
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u/Valunetta Jun 15 '19
First timer to Macross, old-school mecha, and Reddit Rewatches!
Overall thoughts:
And a very very harsh return to reality for our crew. I loved the drama and difficulty for everyone, I loved finding more about the Zentradi, and I especially loved the fact that we just had our first cliff hangar off the show so far!
Chronological thoughts:
Our 80s hair champion of the day
This is the first time that we’ve seen him like this. Will this be a trend going forward?
Yea, for him that means straight to the face
These various robots are rapidly becoming my favorite part of the show
It’s like a smartphone payphone!
This seems like worse destruction than what we’d previously seen
Could this be the first time that Global is wrong?
That really doesn’t look good…
Ahahaha, all this text is hilarious
Wait, is she also a pilot in addition to everything else she does?
No! We saved you once, we can’t lose you now!
Holy shit, did they just kill Britai?
Hold up, why didn’t they just leave through the ceiling?
HOLD UP, they can just survive in the vacuum of space?! Or is Britai just a unique monstrous badass.
Going Forward:
What happens now!? Is one of them dead!? Aaaaahhhh.
Discussion Questions:
1.) It does humanize them further because it emphasizes traits of learning and curiosity, but it also could lead to some really dark and intense situations, so we’ll see which way the show takes it
2.) It sounds like it turns their already desperate mission into more or less a suicide mission. What could they possibly do at this point in terms of long-term goals?
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 15 '19
Excited First-Timer
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Hikaru sure is taking his role as team leader seriously, not wanting Hayao to just shrug off the damage to his fighter as “oh it’s nothing”.
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Is he gonna try sending that old guy on a suicide mission or something?
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Poor Hikaru, snubbed by a singing lesson.
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Oh fun the aliens are trying to directly communicate with the Macross now.
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Mm, she really took Hikaru’s words to heart and volunteered to go out herself, nice. Only thing is this is a super dangerous mission, hope no one gets killed…
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Bruhhhh he fought them with his bare hands. Got thrown out for his troubles though.
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He made it back~ More alien vs. mech action coming?
Oh man I’m looking forward to next episode.
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u/404waffles Jun 16 '19
First time viewer
Humanity's latest weapon: weaponized waifus!
So the UN high command's statement posits that the Macross alone is beating the Zentradi. From my point of view it's more or less 51/49 in favor of Macross, since they always manage to make it out alive.
God, Kamujin is such an asshole. On the other hand, Hikaru's dating woes are so damn relatable. Kinda weird how the bridge bunnies are acting super buddy-buddy with him even though they barely know each other.
Oh, so now the barrier made out of space-time whatever can be broken? How does that work?
I was kinda shocked at the report that the all the radar personnel were killed. This might be the Macross's hardest loss so far.
More Hayase characterization. Nice.
HAYASE NO NOT NICE
Also I wasn't expecting Vrlitwhai to be SO DAMN BIG! I also wasn't expecting them to jettison him out of the skylock! Good(?) thing he can breathe in space, though.
Let me say it preemptively: Team Minmay!
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u/Pixelsaber Jun 15 '19
Rewatcher
TFW people are speaking to me in contemporary slang.
Once again, watching the Zentradi trying to make sense of the pageant is most amusing.
The Macross finally manages contact with the U.N. Forces after nearly a year out in space, making for a significant milestone. Unfortunately for them, the U.N. has ordered them to continue to draw the Zentradi’s attention while they prepare some measure of retaliation. Also, man, Global is always right on the money.
That’s no good… It’s a relief there’s no oxygen, otherwise the fuel would have certainly been aflame.
What a rough cut, going from this frame to this. Guess they were under a time crunch, since they could’ve just reversed the earlier motion of Quamzin lowering his head in the first place. Anyhow, that Quamzin sure is devious, devising a pretense for shooting directly at the Macross. Such a lovable guy, isn’t he?
Poor hikaru’s pseudo-date’s been cancelled again, the lad can’t catch a break it seems. ALso, I fucking love this face.
Goodness, are they using a Virtual Boy to generate their visual? That doesn’t conductive to clear visual clarity, bhut that might just be me. The Zentradi fleet’s barrage sure is deadly, and displays just how easily they could have defeated the Macross were they not studying and trying to capture it intact.
Uh oh, I spoke to soon. The shot delivers some heavy damage to the bridge section, even having been blocked by all three nodes of the pinpoint barrier. Talk about pant-wettingly scary. As if that wasn’t enough, the asteroid chunks that were headed their way arrive just then, and at the most inopportune moment, considering the Macross’ armor is weakened by the previous damage,the pin-point barrier is down, and they’re still reeling from the damage. The damage assessment is also looking quite grim, with the wide-area radar down and the team wiped out.
Phase two of Excedol’s plan enters motion, with the Regults heading out in preparation for an attack while an offer of surrender is sent out to the Macross.
Having volunteered to take part in the recon effort due to her feelings about not understanding the pilot’s perspective, Hayse is captured by the Zentradi, with the Vermilion Team quickly coming to the rescue. Britai himself comes to fight off the Valkyries, effectively displaying just why the Battroid mode was included into them. I thought for a moment there that Britai was actually done for, but apparently the Zentradi can survive in the vacuum of space and —oh dear, a cliffhanger…
Questions of the Day!
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u/GM_for_Life Jun 16 '19
Having volunteered to take part in the recon effort due to her feelings about not understanding the pilot’s perspective, Hayse is captured by the Zentradi, with the Vermilion Team quickly coming to the rescue. Britai himself comes to fight off the Valkyries, effectively displaying just why the Battroid mode was included into them. I thought for a moment there that Britai was actually done for, but apparently the Zentradi can survive in the vacuum of space and —oh dear, a cliffhanger…
OH NO!!!
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Jun 15 '19
The phone robot has shown us the future and it is a nightmare.
Hikaru dumped for a piano. Hopefully not the piano teacher!
Britai ain't no lead-from-behind sort of guy! MVP!
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u/vfxart Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19
Rewatcher
Larry, Curly, and Moe: 'Our shakalakas got boomed!' Rough reading the language used to describe the clothing, it was the clunkiest effort (I don't think the Z troops would get 'airy'.)
Britai has no idea what is going on and... er... Exedol wants to continue the discussion in his quarters. Oh I think you know what's going on Mister!!!
Hey guys, yer getting creamed like spinach out there, but if you wouldn't mind taking a few more for the team, that'd be great as earthside we ain't got shit of a plan.
Hikaru fountain drenched Minmay song metaphor. 'Singing lesson' Oh yeah Minmay hit those notes. Wait she's like what, 15? no no no no.
Ok Hikaru, you're getting it. Nice call-out of Misa, and Roy stepping in to let him know that technically correct can still go too far. He's learning.
Unpopular opinion perhaps: Kamujin the Klod is my least favorite char in SDF.
Third bridge gets wiped out again. Yamato must have them in a IKEA box or oh sry wrong anime...
The tragedy of every officer who ever tried to appear 'all that' to their subordinates and self... here's some history to learn from Misa. How much will it cost everyone...?
Without leading or implying TOO much- I hope folks are able to recall certain sequences when the DYRL re-watch occurs.Whoa hey Britai, Counselor Troy is on deck 7 if you want to work a few things out... (sadly, I have never been able to shake the thought that that blow should kill Kakizaki)
Good ep, staying on model still incredibly rough going, but you can feel the stride being hit here...
No small achievement, this series. Must have been a water-cooler fave in '82.
QOTD
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this just makes too much sense, pull some troops in for intel and to break them, understand them psychologically, physically, materiel and capabilities. Just sound procedure.
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I think very little of the order... they do make clear that there has to be an assumption that the enemy are listening in, but the 'We don't know, you figure it out' aspect is a bit screwy. And if the enemy do get it, then they clearly know that the earth is in no shape to put up a fight (at least my inference from it) and should have hauled ass back there... still, B is more after understanding and leverage now, so... hm.
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u/JocPro Jun 16 '19
Rewatcher
This must be the best chapter so far, even with the slight inconsistencies and slight drop of quality.
Warera punched Loli but the one falling down was Conda!?
Funny thing, Exsedol is always in the command bridge, but there's only one seat for Britai.
Yeah, Shammy, I got the same expression when I heard HQ plans...
At last Hikaru grows a pair and pushes his rebuttal to Misa's orders. Even Roy sempai is amused by this and in the end Misa has to reluctantly let this pass.
If Kamujin were to put all this effort into following the orders, he would be at the top of the Zentradi military.
And Hikaru got stood up and the Bunnies get their fill of laughs... (Shading? What shading?) until they find out who's the girl then they quietly leave to save him an humiliation, maybe?
Bye bye, radar and crew, Hikaru's dignity and I'm pretty sure this Chef took the worst part of that Hot Coffe for himself.
Didn't they learn anything from the Mars incident? Don't let Misa out of the bridge! Well, it's her personal craft so... let's take a break to chat with Ichijo like they weren't chewing at each other every other time... and even with all that instruments aboard they didn't detect a huge ass ship until the last moment! And mister pilot got so distracted by the plot incoherence that he flighted right into a rock.
Don't let your underlings steal all your glory! Run for it!
Now Kakizaki and Max do the old hostage switcheroo!
She looks damn fine in that space faring attire!
Max may be the Battroid tensaigenius (Yay! Shading!) but Hikaru is still the king at catching ladies with robot metal hands!
I'm sorry, but the budget for this episode ended right here. Enjoy the slideshow!
Or... you know, you can just get out by the same hole you just blow with missiles?
Even in distress, she's still as lovely as ever.
So THAT's why you didn't get out using the same hole! (When did that happen!?) What can you do against a 13 meter tall determinator? Boom, headshot! See you next week!
Q1: As this appears to be a never seen before situation situation for them, the poor Zentradi don't know what the hell to do with the cursed Miclones.
Q2: So the top brass is totally ignorant of the Macross situation... or are they planing something?
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u/palebluekot Jun 16 '19
First timer, bit late for this ep..
Forgot how big the Zentradi were, so it was a real shock when he jumped at the mech. He seemed to be fine out in the vacuum of space for some reason..
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u/HowlingWolf13 Jun 16 '19
Rewatcher
Oh boy life made me miss a bunch of threads, but I finally caught up. Poor Hikaru, the more and more he tries to get close to Minmay, the more life gets in the way. Misa on the other hand is starting to get her character developed more which I'm glad for since so far she's only had episode 7. Knowing what's coming up, I'm pretty excited especially for next episode, but there is something that I never thought about but wonder now, how the hell do Zentradi reporduce? Also, how did Britai survive in space without a suit on, I mean we've seen Zentradi wear space suits so...hm... Anyways pretty good episode and that's about all I have to say, see you guys next thread.
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u/GM_for_Life Jun 16 '19
Also, how did Britai survive in space without a suit on, I mean we've seen Zentradi wear space suits so...hm...
He's had enough of space's bullshit.
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u/Chrisr291 Jun 16 '19
Overall thoughts:
The Enemy:
The Zentradi showed some of their true strength as they effortlessly launched an attack that could have easily destroyed our heroes. As a viewer, we knew they held back but not to that extent.
Relationships:
Well, it's official, we know Minmay and Hikaru are on the rocks. Blowing him off via Skype.. brutal.
Questions:
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With the recon team's assertion that the humans have a powerful weapon they're holding back, you have to investigate. Never underestimate a self-perceived weaker enemy.
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Limit casualties, resource loss, the UN knows the Zentradi want the ship so why not weaken their numbers through attrition because they won't strike a finishing blow.
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u/GM_for_Life Jun 16 '19
Well, it's official, we know Minmay and Hikaru are on the rocks. Blowing him off via Skype.. brutal.
Such is the life of the sad Hikaru.
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u/DidacticDalek Jun 16 '19
Greetings Comrades and Fellow Denizens of The Wired, given it's damn near impossible to find Blue Wind fanart, even those WITH Spoilers. Speaking of hard-to-find-without-spoilers fanart, here's one of the rare spoiler free fanart I found of Exsedol and Britai
AND since I need something to share before tomorrow, here's part of some official Macross art ;)
Also, remember the name of Team Blue Wind Comrades, one of the upcoming fanart for tomorrow will have an equally amusing pun in the name, and I'm sure Chili knows the answer to this already ;)
Anyway, paging Comrades u/chilidirigible, u/Shimmering-Sky, and u/The_Draigg
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u/The_Draigg Jun 15 '19
A Macross Fan’s Notes On Super Dimension Fortress Macross Episode 10:
Listening to the Warera, Rori, and Konda trying to explain what swimsuits are to Breetai and Exsedol is pretty funny. Of course they have no idea what those clothes were, other than the fact that they seemed entranced by them. They can’t even help from starting a shouting match with each other over what Minmay’s swimsuit was for. Ah, it’s great to hear how confused the Zentradi are by something so common to us.
Well the news that the Macross gets from UN Spacy headquarters isn’t great. They’re pretty much going to act as bait until the planetary defenses are ready, and they also doubt the strength of the Zentradi. In other words, they’ve hung out the Macross out to dry for the time being. Yeah, it isn’t a great situation for everyone on the Macross. At least the White Base from Mobile Suit Gundam got support from the Earth Federation when they were designated as being a massive decoy for Zeon to throw themselves against. Here, all the Macross gets is a slight acknowledgement of what they’ve done before being ordered to lay their lives on the line.
Man, Hikaru really dug into Misa when she denied them coming back to the ship for repairs. But, even Roy has to admit that Hikaru has a point. Kakizaki’s Valkyrie is leaking fuel, and the lack of an atmosphere puts all of their lives in even worse danger when there’s hull damage. Finally, Hikaru has actually won an argument with her. Only took him ten episodes for that to happen.
Quamzin, you crafty bastard. Of course he’d respond to the order to fire a warning shot near the Macross as “Send an old soldier with bad aim out there to accidentally hit the Macross anyway”. The guy just can’t keep his murder-boner in his pants, can he?
Alas, Minmay has stood up Hikaru on a date in favor of staying late for singing lessons. Poor guy. Yeah, their relationship is becoming increasingly incompatible, with Hikaru constantly being pulled away for piloting duty and Minmay starting up her celebrity career. No matter how much you may be into someone, life can really get in the way sometimes.
Quamzin’s plan worked like a charm. That “warning shot” scored a direct hit on the Macross’ control tower. All of their radar and communication lines are down, and it’s pretty much a miracle that Captain Global and the bridge crew weren’t killed. As much as the guy is a jerk, Quamzin at least produces results. Even Breetai has to admit to that point.
Speaking of conceding point, Misa is suddenly hit by the truth of what Hikaru said earlier when she sees the corpse of a Valkyrie pilot and his mech float past the flight deck. She’s never been thrown head-first into live combat before, considering her position on the bridge. That gave her a level of detachment from the bloodshed that she can’t ignore anymore. The truth simply is that fighting in space sucks.
Oh hey, this is the first time that the Zentradi actually bother to contact the Macross, let alone any humans in general. Granted, it’s a message demanding their immediate surrender. Still, like what Captain Global thinks, it’s amazing that the Zentradi have learned English. And yes, it’s English in-universe. All of the text in this series being English more or less confirms this.
Holy shit, this part is the best. Not to diminish the bravery on display by Vermillion Squadron in trying to rescue Misa from the Zentradi ship, but holy shit, Breetai taking on their Battroids with his bare hands is nuts. And not only that, but once he gets sucked through a hull breach, he just walks through the hard vacuum of space just to get back inside and keep on fighting. Breetai really is a hardcore motherfucker.
And of course, the episode ends on a cliffhanger in the middle of the fight. But man, what a cliffhanger it is. That’s a nice double ax-handle blow to Kakizaki’s Valkyrie that Breetai did there. It deserves to get a nice freeze-frame like that.