The look of the Macross Zentradi

[Shinigam_Newtype]

I'll start off by saying I've only seen SDF Macross, DYRL, Plus, Zero, 1st ep of 7, 1st 20 mins of Macross 2(LOL) and am currently on the 1st few episodes of Frontier.

Forgive me if this has already been answered in supplementary material but how exactly did the aesthetics of the Zentradi transcend over time?
I mean generally speaking, in everything but Frontier so far, they've been portrayed as green skinned, brooding, debatably hideous creatures, but in Frontier I have yet to see these Zentradi, instead I see mostly light skinned human looking Zentradi and Ranka with her autonomic hair.

What gives? Are they all just products of Humans and Zentradi making sexy time?

[Black Knight]

Even in SDF I'd hesitate to call all Zentraedi "brooding, debatably hideous creatures;" that would seem to describe only a couple of the Zentraedi, and specifically the ones who reject human culture. The ones who embrace it are shown as fairly happy, sympathetic characters.

Guld is pretty clearly portrayed as "brooding, debatably hideous" due to his own character flaws, rather than due to his race.

Watch more of Mac 7; plenty of Zentraedi in that show who work very much against your broad characterization.

[Arsarcana]

Or, y'know, the original. I must have missed Milia's green skin, brooding nature and debatable hideousness.

[Shinigam_Newtype]

Even in SDF I'd hesitate to call all Zentraedi "brooding, debatably hideous creatures;" that would seem to describe only a couple of the Zentraedi, and specifically the ones who reject human culture. The ones who embrace it are shown as fairly happy, sympathetic characters.

Guld is pretty clearly portrayed as "brooding, debatably hideous" due to his own character flaws, rather than due to his race.

.

But I'm sure you'd agree that speaking simply aesthetically, the Zentradi are a visually very definable race of aliens; a case couldn't occur where you'd mistake one for being human. In Frontier however, not so much.
Also, I'm focusing more on the look here, not much personality.

[Shinigam_Newtype]

Or, y'know, the original. I must have missed Milia's green skin, brooding nature and debatable hideousness.

It was in episode 37, she does a complete 180.

[Black Knight]

But I'm sure you'd agree that speaking simply aesthetically, the Zentradi are a visually very definable race of aliens; a case couldn't occur where you'd mistake one for being human. In Frontier however, not so much.
Also, I'm focusing more on the look here, not much personality.

If you're focusing on the aesthetics, I'd avoid words like "brooding" for your descriptions.

Zentraedi males have traditionally been fairly green-skinned, I'll grant you, but Meltrandi much less so, which easy explains the likes of Miria and Ranka, and why they don't look too far out. On the other hand, we saw in SDF that while most grunts are pretty green, there is sufficient racial diversity among the Zentraedi to allow the three hapless males to infiltrate SDF-1; those three didn't look the way we normally think of Zentraedi looking, so perhaps the genetics of the Zentraedi aren't intended to be as clear-cut as animation budgets often force.

There may well be genetic castes, such that the grunt cannon fodder (with which we are most familiar) are green skinned, while some others trend toward whitish pigments.

[Dark Duel]

Or, y'know, the original. I must have missed Milia's green skin, brooding nature and debatable hideousness.

It was in episode 37, she does a complete 180.

BTW, I always thought Milia's complete 180 in the series from trying to kill Max to being in love with him in the span of thirty seconds was the funniest thing EVER.

[Shinigam_Newtype]

But I'm sure you'd agree that speaking simply aesthetically, the Zentradi are a visually very definable race of aliens; a case couldn't occur where you'd mistake one for being human. In Frontier however, not so much.
Also, I'm focusing more on the look here, not much personality.

If you're focusing on the aesthetics, I'd avoid words like "brooding" for your descriptions.

Zentraedi males have traditionally been fairly green-skinned, I'll grant you, but Meltrandi much less so, which easy explains the likes of Miria and Ranka, and why they don't look too far out. On the other hand, we saw in SDF that while most grunts are pretty green, there is sufficient racial diversity among the Zentraedi to allow the three hapless males to infiltrate SDF-1; those three didn't look the way we normally think of Zentraedi looking, so perhaps the genetics of the Zentraedi aren't intended to be as clear-cut as animation budgets often force.
There may well be genetic castes, such that the grunt cannon fodder (with which we are most familiar) are green skinned, while some others trend toward whitish pigments.

I only used those adjectives to emphasise my point of not even seeing traces of this in Frontier.

As for your argument about their variation in skin tone, while I agree that a diversity does exist; the Zentradi(Pre-Frontier) have been distinguishable from humans.
For instance, when the 3 stooges infiltrate the SDF-1 and meet the Macross bridge bunnies, I recall one of them later stating something along the lines of 'Them looking very sick/green'
This would suggest to me that although ultimately being fooled, the BB's could tell just by looking that the stooges weren't 'normal'.
In Frontier however, from the Zentradi I have seen, they all seem normal(For anime anyway)

[azrael]

Hmmm, I didn't know there was an "episode 37" in the original 36-episode series.

There is a lot of genetic variation among the Zentradi thanks to genetic manipulation.

And thanks to the budget back in the 80s, they didn't have much of a chance to create diverse variations as they did in DYRL?,

[zerogradius]

I only used those adjectives to emphasise my point of not even seeing traces of this in Frontier.

As for your argument about their variation in skin tone, while I agree that a diversity does exist; the Zentradi(Pre-Frontier) have been distinguishable from humans.
For instance, when the 3 stooges infiltrate the SDF-1 and meet the Macross bridge bunnies, I recall one of them later stating something along the lines of 'Them looking very sick/green'
This would suggest to me that although ultimately being fooled, the BB's could tell just by looking that the stooges weren't 'normal'.
In Frontier however, from the Zentradi I have seen, they all seem normal(For anime anyway)

The Zentradi from Frontier were not all normal looking. I don't remember which episode it was (I think it was around episode 12), but Sheryl visited a planet that had a squadron of Zentradi that looked as they appeared in DYRL, which included clones of Bretai, Exsodol and Quamzin.

When it comes to the female Zentradi (Meltrandi), as far as I can remember, they all apear normal looking/Earthling like. I don't remember any of them having green or purple skin. The closest thing to that was the DYRL version of Lap Lamiz, but I don't think she looked anything like the Zentradi from the TV series.