Forums of the Megaverse®

Granted none of the McKinney books are canon any more. But for those of us who will still occasionally refer back to the age when protoculture and the FoL meant something. What is wrong with EotC. Especially wondering about those in the what is PC thread who refer to McKinney but don't include EotC.

So voting but no comments? Aww man.

I never foudn a copy of the book to read so I can't really post an opinion.

Mainly? Because it's probably the most odious example of something I truly hated about every McKenny book-- the elevation of protoculture from a simple power source to a mystical entity-- in fact an entity little short of God that was manipulating the entire universe for it's own purposes. Most importantly, it was something that was *absolutely* not backed in any way, shape or form by the series.

lousy characterization, bad plot, doesn't actually resolve anything left hanging in the show...

Ugh. Hate the McKinney novels. They were a truly cynical way to cash in on the popularity of the Robotech series. So many breaks with the series and common sense. Thinking caps? The "Shapings"? That weird thing at the end of the Southern Cross books where Lazlo Zand shows up and does... whatever the hell that whole thing was about.

The only thing that I like the books for is that they give us a general idea of what happened during the Sentinels campaign, baring any additional information from Harmony Gold.

Tim Wing wrote:Ugh. Hate the McKinney novels. They were a truly cynical way to cash in on the popularity of the Robotech series. So many breaks with the series and common sense. Thinking caps? The "Shapings"? That weird thing at the end of the Southern Cross books where Lazlo Zand shows up and does... whatever the hell that whole thing was about.

The only thing that I like the books for is that they give us a general idea of what happened during the Sentinels campaign, baring any additional information from Harmony Gold.

Oh Lord. Zand. Yeah. I forgot about him. Now You made me remember him. You evil, evil person.

Zer0 Kay wrote:What is wrong with EotC.

Too many things to comfortably list...

For at least as long as the Robotech fan base has been interacting online, the "McKinney" novels have been the subject of scorn and derision. "Why?" is a fairly straightforward answer... because the books had taken so many liberties with the Robotech setting and story that most fans can't call it Robotech with a straight face. It deviated too much, too pointlessly, for most to find it even inoffensive.

After I first encountered the novelization of Robotech in the early 2000s, the impression I got from it was that Luceno and Daley had pulled a C.S. Goto. The series as a whole left me with the impression that it had originally been planned out as a series of novels for another franchise (like Star Wars), and it had been subjected to a hasty find-and-replace for key terms after its authors secured the Robotech license instead. It didn't help that Luceno and Daley's work departed from Robotech so thoroughly it felt like they had never actually seen the show... like the whole thing had been edited based on the blurbs on the backs of the VHS boxes.

They basically made Protoculture into The Force...

End of the Circle was a disappointment to me. It seemed like a cheap way to wrap up a 'Happily Ever After' sort of ending, and a quick and dirty method of wrapping up the loose ends from the American series' plot holes.

My favorite scene from EotC: Annie riding a T-Rex. (He said... sarcastically.)

I tend to view the McKinney books in the same vain as the old Gold Key Star Trek comic. I don't think HC was giving him the level of cooperation he needed and he did the best he could with what he had.

So. PC was only EVER just a simple power source in the anime?

Not RTnology's basis and the reason the mecha responded so fluidly instead of like forklifts and front loaders?

Not the source of life for the Invid and possibly their source of power?

Not capable of signaling the Invid of its location light years away when it spores?

Not capable of transforming Tirolians into Zentradi?

Not capable of changing Zentradi from giants to Micronians and back?

Not capable of allowing the Regis to manipulate an organic being on the genetic level and make them into a completely different species.

Not capable of being tracked only by invid visually (I.e it doesn't emit an em frequency and it isn't pheromones as it doesn't act like a gas but as an energy emination from the active power source)?

Not capable of extending RTMasters life span?

Not capable of granting RT master and other consumers psychic powers?

Not capable of evolving the Invid?

What isn't mystical about this plant?

If it was just a simple power source then the RT Masters wouldn't have bothered coming after the last known matrix as development of a new "simple" power source would have been less expensive than sending your massive fleet of giant warriors and then going after it your self?

I think too many see the departures of McKinney and it negates the whole series for us. We don't recognize that it is closer to Carl's notes than the direction Yune is going. I've seen a few of you applaud the Voltron Cross over and there is NO WAY that could be better than McKinney's. Then there may be others among you who are stuck on it being SDF: Macross, SDC: Southern Cross and MOSPEDA that you can never appreciate it for the unique work it is and the effect it had on the popularity of anime in America. I hate that McKinney did some of the deviation but those deviations and attempt to cash in on popularity of the series is closer to Macek than Yune's attempts to cash in and his devi... no perversion of the series. If Yune really was interested in the RT continuity he'd complete Sentinels and then expound on Shadow Chronicles. Shadow Chronicles was a good start but the Voltron thing... seriously.

wyrmraker wrote:End of the Circle was a disappointment to me. It seemed like a cheap way to wrap up a 'Happily Ever After' sort of ending, and a quick and dirty method of wrapping up the loose ends from the American series' plot holes.

Well those last four words are telling. You still compare it to Macross, SC and MOSPEDA, instead of viewing it as its own unique story with no connections to those. I'm sorry

There IS ONLY an American series.

The book still sucked even after all tfhese years.

SRoss wrote:I tend to view the McKinney books in the same vain as the old Gold Key Star Trek comic. I don't think HC was giving him the level of cooperation he needed and he did the best he could with what he had.

They actually, multiple writers under a pseudonym. I agree. They probably said here are the scripts and Carl's notes, now go and write.

Arnie100 wrote:The book still sucked even after all tfhese years.

But does a poorly written book mean we need to ignore what canon material was in it? Or do we apply the material and ignore the suckage?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

But dislike of the book doesn't tell me why people don't include the canon material, which is what I was trying to find out.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

But dislike of the book doesn't tell me why people don't include the canon material, which is what I was trying to find out.

Because there's nothing canon in it.

Zer0 Kay wrote:So. PC was only EVER just a simple power source in the anime?

Not RTnology's basis and the reason the mecha responded so fluidly instead of like forklifts and front loaders?

it is amazing what decent computers can do.. note that we already have robots that movem uch more smoothly than thw stuff in the show, and we're still getting by with coal, oil, and batteries..

Not the source of life for the Invid and possibly their source of power?

the plant is their food yes. but their mecha are technology.. which would include powerplant.

Not capable of signaling the Invid of its location light years away when it spores?

wasn't actually the plants that did this.. is was a (technologically made) invid sensor nebula that had drifted into earth space before it happened.

Not capable of transforming Tirolians into Zentradi?

actually that is the result of tirolian genetics technology, not the plant.

Not capable of changing Zentradi from giants to Micronians and back?

Tirolian genetics and cloningtechnology.. not the plant/fuel.

Not capable of allowing the Regis to manipulate an organic being on the genetic level and make them into a completely different species.

amazing what sufficently powerful technology can do if it has enough power, eh?

Not capable of being tracked only by invid visually (I.e it doesn't emit an em frequency and it isn't pheromones as it doesn't act like a gas but as an energy emination from the active power source)?

a side effect of it's use in powerplants.. akin to neutrino emissions from fusion, or radiation from a fission reactor.

Not capable of extending RTMasters life span?

the result of their genetics, cloning, and pharmaceutical technology.. all made possible by having lot of power available.

Not capable of granting RT master and other consumers psychic powers?

the result of their genetics, cloningm, and pharmacutical technology.. all made possible by having lot of power available.

Not capable of evolving the Invid?

sufficently adavanced technology with a lot of power available to it.

What isn't mystical about this plant?

not much, unless you go into it thinking "whoo magic!" to begin with.

I thought the novel wrapped things up nicely for the novels, with all the major mysteries explained 'enough'.

The Kris Longknife novels might not be Honor Harrington grade, but they are fun books to read.

Zer0 Kay wrote:But dislike of the book doesn't tell me why people don't include the canon material, which is what I was trying to find out.

Didn't drewkitty ~..~ already answer your question in the other thread though?

For want of an official explanation of how protoculture works, some people turn to the explanation of what protoculture fuel is in the novels. That much, on its own, is pretty straightforward stuff even if it's a bit at odds with the show and the other abortive attempts to explain what protoculture actually is and how it can generate energy.

The completely ridiculous and entirely unnecessary metaphysical aspects of the stuff that the novels of the Sentinels arc is a big part of why people drawing on the novels still avoid EotC like the plague. That bizarre nonsense about the "shapings" and other tangible magic nonsense turns a lot of people off, since it doesn't really fit with anything in Robotech and doesn't even really fit the genre... Robotech's a sci-fi/drama mecha series, not a "science fantasy" series like Star Wars.

Don't forget the psychic kids and transforming planet...uuugggghhhh...

Arnie100 wrote:Don't forget the psychic kids and transforming planet...uuugggghhhh...

The MechaMorphing Planet-Sized Stasis Chamber with energy anti-bodies and limbless android caretakers.

Zer0 Kay wrote:So. PC was only EVER just a simple power source in the anime?

Yes.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not RTnology's basis and the reason the mecha responded so fluidly instead of like forklifts and front loaders?

Not as such, no... there is, in fact, almost nothing in the series that even indicates that human mecha use the stuff until the New Generation. That's why Tommy Yune was able to decree that the earlier mecha of Robotech ran on fusion, based on Roy's statement that the VF-1's engines were "based on a reactor design".

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not the source of life for the Invid and possibly their source of power?

That much is still true, sort of. At the very least, the Invid still eat the Flower of Life or use it for food in some way.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of signaling the Invid of its location light years away when it spores?

Nope... detected by an Invid sensor nebula in the series.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of transforming Tirolians into Zentradi?

That was never a thing in canon Robotech.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of changing Zentradi from giants to Micronians and back?

Exactly how protoculture is used in the Zentradi cloning and sizing chambers is not explained. It's used in some way, but that's all we know.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of allowing the Regis to manipulate an organic being on the genetic level and make them into a completely different species.

Debatable... the Regess is an immensely powerful higher-dimension life form (per Harmony Gold's own notes), so a good part of that is probably just HER.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of being tracked only by invid visually (I.e it doesn't emit an em frequency and it isn't pheromones as it doesn't act like a gas but as an energy emination from the active power source)?

The Invid are said to be able to detect the characteristic emissions of protoculture when used to generate energy in a reflex power system... like the engines of Cyclones and Alphas.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of extending RTMasters life span?

Not directly, but through its use in technology.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of granting RT master and other consumers psychic powers?

Officially, no... the "Aurora" scene in the Masters Saga has been confirmed to be a mere hallucination, Aurora Sterling does not exist.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Not capable of evolving the Invid?

Not directly, no.

Zer0 Kay wrote:What isn't mystical about this plant?

Everything.

For me it goes back to suspension of disbelief. You tell me someone eventually finds a way to turn a plant into an extremely potent power source? Okay, that I can wrap my brain around and even cheer on. "Screw you dead organic material, fossil fuels, we can now get all our power from living plants."

Makes a war over the stuff downright plausible too considering all the conflict that already takes place over something less potent like oil.

You tell me the plant is sort of like "the force?" My brain starts giving you the same look I give Uncle Chester when he again volunteers to babysit my kids. "No thank you." Whether they had Macek's notes or not what they made out of it never felt right to me. So McKinney is McKinney and Macek is Macek and Yune is Yune.

Of course it didn't help that the books themselves were not great reads but at least it helped keep Robotech alive.

Hopefully we'll get a detailed retcon at some point but we'll probably have to wait until I win the lottery and buy it from HG.

I wanted to respond to this separately, since it addresses the direction Robotech is taking rather than the actual EotC novel.

Zer0 Kay wrote:I think too many see the departures of McKinney and it negates the whole series for us.

Really, I think that's rather dismissive of a lot of legitimate complaints about the substance of the "Jack McKinney" novels. There are a lot of people for whom the departures from the series are just putting a metaphorical cherry on a mediocre and unengaging story.

Zer0 Kay wrote:We don't recognize that it is closer to Carl's notes than the direction Yune is going. [...]

At the risk of pointing out the elephant in the room... that the "Jack McKinney" novelization is supposedly closer to Carl Macek's notes than the direction Tommy Yune has chosen for Robotech isn't what you would call a point in its favor. Macek's track record of failure with Robotech speaks for itself... as does Harmony Gold's decision to replace him. He didn't get dubbed "the Antichrist of Anime" or have his name become the term for a hackjob adaptation so poorly done that it's a mockery of the original work for having great "creative vision" or being a good writer.

Zer0 Kay wrote:there may be others among you who are stuck on it being SDF: Macross, SDC: Southern Cross and MOSPEDA that you can never appreciate it for the unique work it is and the effect it had on the popularity of anime in America.

Let me be frank for a moment... the dislike of the McKinney novels has pretty much nothing to do with the original series being an adaptation of Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA. It DOES, however, have a lot to do with the novelization completely missing the tone, themes, and "flavor" of the series... to the extent that it doesn't feel like Robotech anymore.

Mind you, the alleged effect Robotech had on the American anime industry is a claim Harmony Gold started making when they rebooted Robotech in 2001. They didn't start claiming to have been anything other than a middle-of-the-pack series that got plowed under by Transformers until then, and they're pretty much the only ones crediting the show with any influence. (Quite a few of their claims are demonstrably false too...)

Zer0 Kay wrote:I hate that McKinney did some of the deviation but those deviations and attempt to cash in on popularity of the series is closer to Macek than Yune's attempts to cash in and his devi... no perversion of the series.

Yet Robotech fans hated McKinney's story and its deviations from Robotech... and have done so since long before Tommy ever got involved, while Tommy's tends to garner at least grudging tolerance by what's left of the fandom.

Zer0 Kay wrote:If Yune really was interested in the RT continuity he'd complete Sentinels and then expound on Shadow Chronicles. Shadow Chronicles was a good start but the Voltron thing... seriously.

Yune doesn't have absolute power over the Robotech creative process... like Macek, all he can do is pitch ideas to management and, if management likes it, they give him money and say "Make that thing".

Harmony Gold is, for a variety of reasons, unwilling (or even unable) to revisit the Sentinels. The Shadow Chronicles second installment was put on hold by Tommy's bosses, who were hoping they would be able to cash in on the hype generated by the big budget Robotech live-action movie that Warner Bros shows no inclination or interest in making to get a bigger budget for Part II of RTSC. That never materialized, so they're back to square one.

I suspect Robotech is borderline abandonware as it is. Didn't even that kickstarter Academy thing fail to generate much interest? Is there anything "new" coming out for Robotech besides Palladium? Apologies, I've been out of the Robotech loop for years.

/quick trip to robotech.com

Voltron?

Is there a bottom to that barrel because I think I hear a whole lot of scraping.

SirRobin wrote:I suspect Robotech is borderline abandonware as it is. Didn't even that kickstarter Academy thing fail to generate much interest? Is there anything "new" coming out for Robotech besides Palladium? Apologies, I've been out of the Robotech loop for years.

Harmony Gold reps have made some vague remarks that could be interpreted as a Robotech 3000-esque refusal to admit that Robotech Academy is dead... unfortunately that's about all there is to be talking about these days in terms of new Robotech stories. Part II of the Shadow Chronicles is allegedly in the works, but they've been saying that on and off for seven years, and neither the hasty edit of the MOSPEADA wrap-up OVA nor the Voltron crossover comic were well-received (the latter peaked in its first issue with less than 6,500 copies sold worldwide).

On the merchandise front, all that's coming out is a de-remastered re-release of Robotech on home video, the rather contentious Robotech tabletop game, and a promised "UEEF Marines" book in the vague and unknowable future.

I'd be more precise, but I'm all outta chicken entrails.

And also, there were numerous times where "the shapings" were turned into a "Wizard did it." Why didn't Zor manage to destroy the protoculture? The Shapings. Not that he made an error.

Which means that Zor has just been rendered completely irrelevant. His *choices* didn't matter. Unless that is the point of the story, which it was not. That is Horrible writing.

Seriously, it's the kind of writing that gets your paper returned with lots of nasty editorial comments.

Fundamentally the authors, for whatever reason, did not want to write about *robotech*. It was like Ang Lee with the "Hulk" where he openly stated he didn't like comic books and he wasn't writing about the Hulk, but Banner's rage issues. There was of course, just one minor problem-- everyone going to the movie wanted a movie about the HULK.

If you are writing in someone elses universe, a cardinal rule is that you do not make fundamental changes to that setting. It's not your sand box. You're being allowed to do stuff in it, and you can make extensions to what is already there. Most writer's bibles for shared universes like star trek are quite clear about this. The writers for the robotech novels didn't care about this and at that time HG really didn't care about policing it. So for whatever reason, in addition to the books many other flaws, they turned protoculture into a wizard-- a wizard who changed the plot or who it was retroactively noted HAD been behind many of the decisions that originally (in the animated series) been shown to be the responsiblity of the main characters. Thus, those main characters suddenly became irrelevant. You could have used anyone in their place.

And that is truly, truly, worse than Twilight, bad writing.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Granted none of the McKinney books are canon any more. But for those of us who will still occasionally refer back to the age when protoculture and the FoL meant something. What is wrong with EotC. Especially wondering about those in the what is PC thread who refer to McKinney but don't include EotC.

While the Novels are what got me back into Robotech in the early 90s, EotC is actually the only novel I didn't really like (hate might be to strong) and can probably say I've only read it a few times unlike all the others. Compared to the other novels, even the ones that came after it, it just did not feel like Robotech to me.

Arnie100 wrote:

Zer0 Kay wrote:Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

But dislike of the book doesn't tell me why people don't include the canon material, which is what I was trying to find out.

Because there's nothing canon in it.

Yeah cuz Yune pulled away from Sentinels and away from Macek.

Seto Kaiba wrote:

SirRobin wrote:I suspect Robotech is borderline abandonware as it is. Didn't even that kickstarter Academy thing fail to generate much interest? Is there anything "new" coming out for Robotech besides Palladium? Apologies, I've been out of the Robotech loop for years.

Harmony Gold reps have made some vague remarks that could be interpreted as a Robotech 3000-esque refusal to admit that Robotech Academy is dead... unfortunately that's about all there is to be talking about these days in terms of new Robotech stories. Part II of the Shadow Chronicles is allegedly in the works, but they've been saying that on and off for seven years, and neither the hasty edit of the MOSPEADA wrap-up OVA nor the Voltron crossover comic were well-received (the latter peaked in its first issue with less than 6,500 copies sold worldwide).

On the merchandise front, all that's coming out is a de-remastered re-release of Robotech on home video, the rather contentious Robotech tabletop game, and a promised "UEEF Marines" book in the vague and unknowable future.

I'd be more precise, but I'm all outta chicken entrails.

Try some feet and beaks or if ya can't get a real chicken I'm sure the voodoo spirits would accept a chicken walker, after all an original costs a lot.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Yeah cuz Yune pulled away from Sentinels and away from Macek.

As comforting as it sometimes is to have a public face and name to blame for the misdeeds (perceived or otherwise) of a corporation, this isn't a decision that was made by Tommy Yune. The man simply doesn't have much in the way of authority at Harmony Gold. If you want to blame a single person for it, there IS one person who probably deserves more of the blame for Harmony Gold backing away from the pre-2001 material and bringing in Tommy Yune to replace Carl Macek... Carl Macek himself.

It was the lukewarm reception of the Robotech television series and Macek's various failed attempts to develop an animated continuation of Robotech that ultimately put Harmony Gold in the position of "beggars can't be choosers" when it came to licensees for the Robotech name. That resulted in (per Harmony Gold's own statements) a lot of internally inconsistent, poor-quality material.

Carl Macek got replaced by Tommy Yune after his brainchild, Robotech 3000, sank without trace and took over half a million dollars of Harmony Gold's money with it. At that point, management decided that the best way to salvage what was left of Robotech was to start over, canning all the contentious and copyright-infringing material while bringing in someone better qualified to reboot the series using a comic book format... moderately-celebrated manga-imitating comic book artist Tommy Yune.

Revisiting Sentinels has been right out since the final years of the Macek era... when Harmony Gold made some very poor judgment calls and threatened a lot of legal action under false pretenses, a serious mistake that caused no end of grief for their partner Tatsunoko Productions and soured relations with the owners of the Macross IP. That breakdown in relations made using Macross characters in any new Robotech animation VERY risky... which is why they'll never revisit Sentinels. It's simply not worth the risk. Neither Tommy nor Carl would have been able to sell Harmony Gold management on taking up a project that could easily end in a lawsuit from the copyright holders that could land them with an injunction to cease using certain characters in mid-series, or leave them paying monetary damages out of the show's production budget.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Try some feet and beaks or if ya can't get a real chicken I'm sure the voodoo spirits would accept a chicken walker, after all an original costs a lot.

I wonder if Baphomet would accept some KFC instead...?

And there's also the problem that HG just doesn't have the resources for a good animated series. Yes you can get away with a small budget for something like Total Drama Island, but that isn't going to go over for the people who want to see robotech. HG isn't someone like Disney who can buy an entire 26 episode series and have it ready to go before episode 1 hits the airwaves. And that, sadly, is what most buyers want before they'll commit.

This thread got me thinking on my way into work today: Why doesn't HG or Palladium commission a new novel series that is 1) consistent with the new canon and 2) actually well written.

Hell, I should write a manuscript and submit it! lol.

mech798 wrote:And there's also the problem that HG just doesn't have the resources for a good animated series.

Only as a consequence of management knowing the potential return-on-investment doesn't justify the kind of spending necessary to attract the resources to produce something rivaling the modern anime industry's output (by several orders of magnitude), and that the franchise's reputation is so dire at this point that, in the unlikely event they DID get funding, they wouldn't find many people willing to actually worth with 'em because they don't play well with others.

The age where a company like Harmony Gold could potentially make and market its own television series are long gone... and no network is going to want to touch Robotech because of its track record. Too big of a risk, and serious animation is more or less limited to one mainstream channel these days... Cartoon Network, who can do much better, much cheaper, by getting the real deal from Japan.

Tim Wing wrote:[...] Why doesn't HG or Palladium commission a new novel series that is 1) consistent with the new canon and 2) actually well written.

Simple answer in several parts:

First, because there's no market for it. The Robotech franchise subsists on a feeble trickle of super low-volume, direct-sale merchandise, to such an extent that they apparently consider selling just 4 or 5 thousand units of any new product to be "selling gangbusters". Their comic book crossover with the Voltron franchise hit its peak at the very first issue with a mere 6,408 copies sold... and that was a title that supposedly had broad appeal and multi-franchise appeal. The McKinney novels are so reviled in the Robotech franchise that new novelizations would almost certainly be a no-sell to most fans... an increasing number of whom just want Harmony Gold to focus on the animated story anyway.

Second, because they don't have the money or reputation to attract a competent author. Let's be frank... the Robotech franchise's reputation was lousy even in the late 80's and 90's when they had run multiple projects into the ground. After 1999-2000, it would be hard for their reputation to honestly get worse without the involvement of Nazis or a spirited and highly publicized puppy-kicking contest at the company picnic. With borderline nonexistent sales prospects, no author worth his salt is going to want to touch Robotech... and Harmony Gold management isn't going to want to pay for an author worth his salt because they know the potential ROI is dismally small.

Third, because the "new canon" is almost as inconsistent as the old one and nobody wants to have the unenviable task of sorting out what's what and filling in vast swathes of time not covered in the show in detail... because, as one good look at Robotech.com will show you, the one thing Robotech's fans care about is the ongoing story of the Macross characters... and that means Sentinels, which Harmony Gold doesn't want to touch with a ten AU pole.

Seto Kaiba wrote:

Zer0 Kay wrote:Yeah cuz Yune pulled away from Sentinels and away from Macek.

As comforting as it sometimes is to have a public face and name to blame for the misdeeds (perceived or otherwise) of a corporation, this isn't a decision that was made by Tommy Yune. The man simply doesn't have much in the way of authority at Harmony Gold. If you want to blame a single person for it, there IS one person who probably deserves more of the blame for Harmony Gold backing away from the pre-2001 material and bringing in Tommy Yune to replace Carl Macek... Carl Macek himself.

It was the lukewarm reception of the Robotech television series and Macek's various failed attempts to develop an animated continuation of Robotech that ultimately put Harmony Gold in the position of "beggars can't be choosers" when it came to licensees for the Robotech name. That resulted in (per Harmony Gold's own statements) a lot of internally inconsistent, poor-quality material.

Carl Macek got replaced by Tommy Yune after his brainchild, Robotech 3000, sank without trace and took over half a million dollars of Harmony Gold's money with it. At that point, management decided that the best way to salvage what was left of Robotech was to start over, canning all the contentious and copyright-infringing material while bringing in someone better qualified to reboot the series using a comic book format... moderately-celebrated manga-imitating comic book artist Tommy Yune.

Revisiting Sentinels has been right out since the final years of the Macek era... when Harmony Gold made some very poor judgment calls and threatened a lot of legal action under false pretenses, a serious mistake that caused no end of grief for their partner Tatsunoko Productions and soured relations with the owners of the Macross IP. That breakdown in relations made using Macross characters in any new Robotech animation VERY risky... which is why they'll never revisit Sentinels. It's simply not worth the risk. Neither Tommy nor Carl would have been able to sell Harmony Gold management on taking up a project that could easily end in a lawsuit from the copyright holders that could land them with an injunction to cease using certain characters in mid-series, or leave them paying monetary damages out of the show's production budget.

Zer0 Kay wrote:Try some feet and beaks or if ya can't get a real chicken I'm sure the voodoo spirits would accept a chicken walker, after all an original costs a lot.

I wonder if Baphomet would accept some KFC instead...?

I heard Extra Crunchy with Sweet and Spicy sauce and it better be a sealed sauce container.

As someone that has never watched the Original 3 Japanese Anime Series, and only the American Version, I liked the books when I first read them. I still like the book overall, and can hand-wave over some of the bad literary errors. Granted the N'Terprize scene against a transformed Haydon IV, I skip over... For what its worth, for the American Series, and solely based on that, it does wrap up a few things, and gives a launching pad for future tellings and stories.

But as the old saying goes, "Even a bad Sci-Fi story, is better than no Sci-Fi story."