False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
I'm not so sure about that. Even the creators knew that Build Fighter was a cash-grab, yes, but they were aware and passionate enough that there were some moments that shone through, like the Reiji vs. Felini fight.
Rarely do I start watching a series and not finish it. I stopped watching
Strike Witches partway through when I could no longer contain my discomfort at its blatant lolicon fanservice or shake the feeling that watching it would be enough for Chris Hansen to bust through my wall like the goddamn Kool-Aid Man. I stopped watching
Stratos4 when it became apparent it was an excuse plot for softcore lesbian fanservice.
Gundam Build Fighters was the first time I stopped watching a show because it felt like it was actively out to insult my intelligence. I was disgusted enough with a franchise that was founded on NOT producing shows just for the sake of selling robot toys turning into a toy commercial that I was only too happy to stop watching. I wouldn't lend anyone on the creative staff bus fare, I'm that appalled by it.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
If anything, Age was the bigger Gundam blunder of this decade. A shame really, since I do like Level 5.
Gundam Age was a mediocre series, true... but they were at least committed to telling a story there, not simply advertising gunpla kits with an excuse plot. I can respect
Gundam Age. I can't respect
Build Fighters.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
Anyway, was there any galactic congressional body to NUNS? What do colonist have to do when they want to express their opinion to the central government?
That'd be the New UN Government.
Every member nation - be it a planetary government, space colony cluster, or emigrant fleet - has some elected representatives in its parliament. Those elected representatives are responsible for expressing the viewpoint of the member nation they were elected to represent when parliament is in session.
We've seen relatively little of how the New UN Government actually functions. Usually when a MP or some other government functionary shows up they're being held hostage by some terrorist group. The exception is Chelsea Scarlett, protagonist of
Macross the Ride, who is mentioned in the
Macross Delta novelization to be representing the Macross Frontier emigrant fleet government in the New UN Government c.2067.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
Also, why is the VF-4 named "Lightning III". Was there a Lightning II, or did they named it in memory of the F-35 [...]
Well, there's a bit of a story there.
When the VF-X-4 prototype first debuted (as a model) in
Super Dimension Fortress Macross it had no name... it was just "Next Generation Variable Fighter Prototype VF-X-4". This trend continued when it had a cameo in the
Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie as a model in Hikaru's quarters. When the production version made its debut in
Macross: Flash Back 2012 it was referred to just as "VF-4" or as "VF-4 Valkyrie" in the
Macross: Flash Back 2012 Graffiti book.
Macross II's creators were the first ones to assign a name to the VF-4 in 1992 when Masaya was developing a pair of PC Engine video games to accompany the release of
Macross II: Lovers Again. The VF-4 was the late-game upgrade in the TRPG
Macross: Eternal Love Song. Since it had no transformation and no name, a new transformation was developed for it and it was given the name
VF-4 Siren. The VF-4 Siren transformation was more VF-1-like, and the version in
Eternal Love Song was given an S-type head and several unique new weapons like funnels and a large beam rifle.
Once Kawamori returned to the franchise for
Macross Plus and
Macross 7, they went back and filled in some of the history between the ending of the original series in 2012 and the start of
Macross Plus in 2040 using a featurette called
Macross: A Future Chronicle and a lengthy technical paper in one of the
Macross Plus artbooks called Variable Fighter's Aero Report. This is where the VF-4 first got the name
Lightning, in honor of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, which had a similar airframe structure. The name was later changed to
Lightning III once it became public knowledge that Lockheed and the USAF had unofficially nicknamed the YF-22 prototype "Lightning II" in honor of the P-38. It seemed a little silly after the YF-22 dropped the name and was officially designated "Raptor", but the F-35 came along and picked up the "Lightning II" name in 2006.
The VF-4's official setting materials do contain an unusual nod to the
Macross II version, with a notation that the VF-4's pilots and maintenance personnel nicknamed it the Siren for its exceptional beauty. One of the popular fan nicknames is similarly acknowledged, with some crews calling it the Arrow instead. (AFAIK, it's the only VF to have two known nicknames.)
False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
(does the thing even existed in-universe, considering the VF-0's development date and all?)
Well, we can say with some certainty that the Lockheed YF-22 would still have existed in
Macross history... the YF-22 Lightning II was flown in 1990 and the name wasn't officially changed to Raptor until 1997. Likely they started producing the F-22 (the first EMD lot rolled out in April 1997) and then stopped once it became clear the Raptor would shortly be obsolete due to the introduction of OTM.
Odds are the F-35 doesn't exist in the
Macross universe... or at least never got past the experimental phase. The Joint Strike Fighter program was launched in 1993 but the first experimental airframes (X-32 and X-35) didn't fly until September-October 2000. The crash of Alien Starship One and the discovery of overtechnology would've rendered them essentially obsolete before they got past initial flight trials.
The parts of the Unification Wars we see suggest that 5th Generation fighters never gained a foothold, and that the gap between the 4th Generation and the 1st Generation Variable Fighters was bridged by OTM-enhanced 4th Generation fighters like Shin's F-14A+ and original developments built on OTM and rushed into service for the UN Forces and Anti-Unification Alliance like the F203 Dragon II and MiM-31 Karyovin.
False Prophet wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:47 am
And what did the Vampire inherited from the Lightning III? They were both long-range heavy VF, right?
General Galaxy's VF-14 Vampire basically inherited its space-optimized airframe design from Stonewell/Bellcom's VF-4 Lightning III. I don't believe the VF-4 was ever referred to as a heavy fighter though. I'm pretty sure the VF-14 got that particular title because of its massive size, while the VF-4 was barely bigger than a VF-1.
General Galaxy took the VF-4's basic design and improved on it to address the VF-4's inferior agility in atmospheric flight.