Going to part with all my Robotech and Macross collection soon, I always thought I would display them in my house, because I worked hard to obtain some of these and it was costly at times outbidding other collectors. Unfortunately, I have way too many hobbies and need thin out the herd. Found this stuff in one box. And I’ve got 13 more to go… 🤦🏻‍♂️

After a recent post on my thoughts from a rewatch of The Macross Saga, followed by a post on The Masters, here I am again, to conclude my trilogy of long-form, stream-of-consciousness thoughts, this time on The New Generation. I'm not calling this a review, because I don't think I have the credentials to review anything. I'm just some guy who likes writing (God knows, redditors have let me know that I write a lot), and I find a creative outlet putting my thoughts into words. r/robotech, in particular, has been fun to post to, because the community has been welcoming of my sharing my thoughts in this format, and I've had some fun, friendly banter with commenters in response.

Warnings:

1. Spoilers aplenty!
2. This post will mightily irritate you if you don't like long reads!
3. This is stream-of-consciousness. I tried a bit to organize thoughts roughly in episode order, but there's plenty that's just spur-of-the-moment commentary, and in no particular order.

My rewatch started on a whim: merely because I saw someone had uploaded the entire Robotech series to YouTube. After watching the first few episodes noncommittally, I soon found myself hooked, looking forward to my nightly episode or two. Many things date the show, but broadly, in terms of its story and character arcs, it's aged well. I first found myself pulled in by the cool transforming mecha, and exciting battle sequences. Then I found myself invested in the interpersonal drama, and intrigued by the alien Zentraedi culture, and the larger mythos.

Watching The Masters became a slog pretty early on, especially after the great Macross Saga. The last few episodes, that crammed a lot of mythos into a short window, became more interesting. But I was good and done with The Masters when it concluded, and left with a feeling of mild irritation. But I still thought The Masters earned some redemption in the last handful of episodes, when it started focusing on the mythos. Even here, though, the show shot itself in its foot with inconsistent explanations of protoculture.

I have recollection, though, from my very first watch of Robotech when I was 8 - 10ish years old, that I liked The New Generation a bit more than The Masters, though still not as much as The Macross Saga. Still, I went in with an open mind, mostly wanting to cleanse my palate from The Masters.

Right off the bat, it's instantly recognizable that Scott's fiancé, Marlene, is the same voice as Lisa Hayes. Similarly, Rand was obviously the same voice as Rick Hunter (Guess not, but they sound a helluva lot alike). Was this in response to fans' lukewarm reception of The Masters, in an attempt to trigger emotional callbacks to The Macross Saga through those instantly-recognizable voices?

Killing off Marlene, and Scott's immediate crew right in the first episode felt bold. I thought the disintegration/destruction of their ship was ambiguous, so all the way to the end of that first episode, I was expecting a reveal that Marlene and crew had survived. I felt a twinge of actual sadness that their deaths actually stuck. But that speaks to the writers' conviction of telling mature stories through the medium of cartoon/anime. It added some depth to the character of Scott Bernard, and was a quick way to foster empathy for him.

The transforming mecha are cool again after being a bit disappointing in The Masters. I've always felt that the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle were sort of "peak cool" among fighter jets, maybe partly from their representation in iconic pop-culture touchstones like "Top Gun" and "Transformers," during that 80s/Reagan era when Hollywood was pumping out steroidally-high levels of American patriotism that also fetishized the badassery of American military technology. The Macross Saga's Veritech fighters, seemingly modeled on the F-14 Tomcat, inherits the coolness/badassness made iconic by Hollywood output of that era. The Alpha Fighter, from The New Generation, to my untrained eye, appears to be loosely modeled on a mishmash of elements of the era's fighter jets...so it also inherits the coolness from the general shape/aesthetic of those aircraft, although perhaps a bit more abstractly than The Macross Saga's Veritech fighters. Robot mode, too, is cool, but again, not quite as iconic as The Macross Saga's Veritech fighters' robot mode, but an improvement on the somewhat insipid robot-mode mecha from The Masters.

From my childhood viewing of The New Generation, I had this feeling of being unclear who the "main" or "point of view" character was meant to be. One might initially think that it is Scott Bernard, since he's clearly the point-of-view character of the first episode, where you typically establish these foundational sorts of things. But, as the episodes progress, I felt that Scott seemed to be framed as a rather bland character. He's a very serious, upstanding, do-gooder kind of guy, perhaps a little too blindly loyal to the military -- nothing bad about any of that per se. I can't help but make comparison to Ultra Magnus from the great Transformers: The Movie, of that same era: Ultra Magnus is also a good guy, dedicated to the cause, upright, and a no-nonsense, get-the-job-done kind of guy. But he's lacking a certain charisma or personality or quirk or uniqueness that would make him a compelling main character. That's how I felt about Scott: a stand-up guy, that we empathized with from the very first episode because of his loss, but lacking that personality/charisma to make him a compelling main character. In my first post on The Macross Saga, a commenter pointed out that Rick Hunter is somewhat a dick to others. I hate to think this out loud, but I wonder if that little bit of asshole in a character -- as long as it doesn't go past a certain limit -- isn't what makes a character compelling? As a real-life analogy: there is the widespread perception that women "go for the bad boy" over the nice guys (kudos to those with the discernment to go for the nice guys, though 😃). I think, similarly, it's the reason why we accept characters like Walter White, or Tony Soprano, as compelling point-of-view characters, if not protagonists, per se. So it goes with poor Scott Bernard: a good guy, no doubt, just lacking that certain panache to his character that compelled my recognizing of him as the "main" character. What about Rand? As a Rick Hunter sound-alike, and definitely possessing a loudmouth/brash quality about him, perhaps he was our main character? I dunno...without a background in creative arts, I can't speak in technical terms, but I thought the way he was "framed"...he seemed clearly a supporting character. He didn't have enough "presence" to be the main character. I thought he bordered on comic sidekick. The same with Rook: I think her backstory (from reading the Robotech wiki) gave her the potential to be a compelling main character, but the way she was "framed" in The New Generation, made her squarely a supporting character. As a result, I personally felt left without a truly compelling main/point-of-view character.

I think you can successfully pull off stories without a specific point-of-view character; an easy example of this is A Game of Thrones, where there are many point-of-view characters, some of whom vacillate between protagonist and antagonist. Why was Game of Thrones more successful in pulling this off than A New Generation? Perhaps it was some combination of the self-seriousness of the show, the amount of time we had getting to know the various point-of-view characters, and more polished/mature writing. I could make a comparison between Scott Bernard and Jon Snow: both are serious, somewhat dour, get-the-job-done characters...why was Jon Snow more successful as a point-of-view character than Scott Bernard? I think it had something to do with the the fact that we were shown why he was dour, but also, that he had depth and complexity and fire and emotions that actively buried because of his desire to find honor in a society where (the false narrative of) he was denied certain rights and privileges because of his being a bastard. We had no such deep-dive into the psychology of Scott Bernard. The initial loss of Marlene made us empathize with him, but I don't think we had the follow-through deep dive into his psychology. Obviously, it's unfair to compare an 80s era anime to one of the peaks of modern "prestige TV," I merely bring this up to wonder out loud what makes for a "successful" multiple-point-of-view-character show versus an attempt that doesn't quite land.

From my childhood watch, I superficially remembered Annie LaBelle as a kid with an "ET" hat, always on the hunt for a boyfriend. Now that I'm older, I was wary of her because kids in "serious" shows are often the weak link: either because of underdeveloped acting ability, or because "childish" behavior like crying or being scared or whiny just comes across as annoying more than endearing. Mostly, I would say that Annie did not come across as annoying. Her "man-hungry" personality actually made her quirky in an endearing kind of way. We often laugh away, or consider it "cute," or chalk it up to play-acting when a child acts out adult traits or behaviors, e.g. Annie acting "man-crazy." But in Episode 11, "The Secret Route," that became awkward because the supporting character Eddie, who was either a young adult, or a mid/older teen seemed to reciprocate that flirting! The two were hanging out together an awful lot, sitting in the back of a truck together...I felt quite a bit uncomfortable with their relationship in that episode.

"The Secret Route" also raised the question: what exactly was the group's relationship with Annie? Did the adults consider themselves Annie's guardians? That certainly was implied by her being an orphan/on her own, and kind of "adopted" into the group. But then, how on earth could they be so nonchalant about Annie deciding to pack up and leave with another family/group that they barely knew? Not to mention that the primary reason why Annie wanted to move in with that new group was because of her flirting with teen/young adult Eddie! That whole affair was just awkward.

I appreciated that Annie was mostly not used as the stereotypical annoying/whining/crying kid character. But, unfortunately, in Episode 12, "The Fortress," Annie was used as the clumsy/goofy/pratfall type character at the worst of times: when she and Rand were infiltrating an Invid base. This was the annoying TV/movie trope: the clumsy/goofy sidekick character who goofs up, stumbles, or makes an ill-timed sound, etc. in the middle of some serious activity (cough, cough...Jar Jar Binks...cough, cough).

Perhaps I should address the elephant in the room: Lancer/Yellow Dancer. I honestly do not have any memory of this cross-dressing character from my initial childhood viewing. The first time this is addressed, it's played as a very risque moment. Yellow Dancer -- presented as female up until that point -- starts to undress; we even see a glimpse of bra. The men in the group are torn between looking and not looking, caught between embarrassment and arousal. Then suddenly: upper frontal nudity...only -- gasp! -- its chest and not breasts! I was right there with Rand embarrassedly hoping to see boobies.
I have no memory of this scene, or Lancer's cross-dressing nature from my boyhood viewing of the show...could it have been edited out for TV? The 80s were a different, more conservative era, and even if Minmei's butt made it past censors of the era, I think an openly cross-dressing character might have been a bridge too far.
I suppose this is a sensitive topic. Over time, we've generally become more accepting of people's proclivities and non-conformities. But it'd be naïve to pretend that this isn't a hot-button political issue these days. I am generally a live-and-let-live kind of guy, so honestly, after the initial shock of realizing that Lancer was a cross-dressing man, although a part of me couldn't help but go, "hmm..." every time he dressed up as Yellow Dancer, mostly I just accepted it.
But I do think this warrants at least a little discussion, because it'd be naïve to pretend this didn't push the envelope of what could be shown in 80s-era Saturday morning cartoons. The writers no doubt knew they were portraying something unconventional for children's TV, even for Japan's social mores on sex and nudity, which are different than in Western countries. I have to wonder what the writers' intent was with this character: did they have a sincere desire to try to bring awareness, or reduce social biases against men who cross-dress? Were they trying to be pioneers at shining a spotlight on the cross-dressing segment of society? I can't tell: on the one hand, there was the big initial buildup of the reveal, played partly for sexuality, partly for comedy, but subsequently, Lancer went in-and-out of character as Yellow Dancer, like it was no big deal. Perhaps that was the intent: make the initial presentation shocking -- after all, there is no denying that it was unconventional to openly be a cross-dresser in that era and genre -- but thereafter treat it as though it is no big deal.
All this makes me wonder where we will go as a society in the future: will we become truly accepting of every individual's individuality and nonconformity to "traditional" gender/class/racial/etc. expectations? Or will circumstances lead to a renewed conformance to traditional mores? Do these mores exist because they reveal something inherent and immutable us, or are they strictly social constructs that warrant being broken?

On a somewhat related topic, let me mention Invid Marlene's full frontal nudity. I've said this in one way or another in my first two posts, and I'll try to say it again, as straightforward as possible without being crass: I enjoy the female form, I think it's objectively beautiful, and, frankly, titillating, arousing, etc., qualities that can be heightened or enhanced in artistic media like anime. Nudity will obviously always cause a reflexive sexual thrill, and I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that - I don't believe in prudishly censoring nudity, or pretending that sexuality doesn't exist, but I can ponder its narrative legitimacy. I only recently watched House of the Dragon season 2, where I finally saw the much-talked-about scene of full-frontal male nudity from the character Aemond Targaryen, and I had no problem with it because in-universe, in-context, and in-character, that scene was completely justifiable. But it was also surely a sexual thrill to some viewers. That was a long-winded prelude to discussing Invid Marlene's full frontally nudity. I mean, we see everything. And yes, it's titillating. But I can't help but feel her nudity was an unnecessary attempt to echo the cheesecake moments from Robotech's prior chapters: Minmei's bare butt in a shower scene, Lisa Hayes' unbuttoning her top, and Dana Sterling's showing us her butt and breasts every other episode. On the other hand, I could also see the argument that Invid Marlene is so emotionally innocent (by being an Invid construct, she doesn't carry the baggage of human social mores), that she doesn't think twice about the "childish" or "innocent" act of stripping naked to jump in a lake in front of onlookers. Because this is the third chapter where we see out-of-the-blue female nudity, I wonder whether it's crossed the line between pleasantly surprising nudity and nudity for the sake of appealing to prurient interest. In fairness: one could make the same commentary about nudity in the prior chapters. Ultimately, the artistic depiction of nudity will always have an aspect of sexual thrill and titillation to it - you can't get around that; I think all I'm trying to say is: good art can also make it narratively relevant. In the case of The New Generation, I couldn't help but feel that Invid Marlene's nudity was included only because The Macross Saga and The Masters did it, and they wanted to "echo" that in this chapter.

All that said, Invid Marlene is hot.

I always liked the depiction of the alienness of the alien societies. But I feel that the Invid culture was not explored as thoroughly as that of the Zentraedi and Robotech Masters. In The Macross Saga, there was the uncanny dichotomy of the Zentraedi being physically (and genetically) human, but with "alien" voice modulation and an alien society ignorant of mignling sexes, peace, music, and love. In The Masters, that dichotomy between people who were physically identifiably human, and their creepily-modulated voices and radically different society was well-used to portray their alienness. In The New Generation, the Invid are just outright physically different from humans. The crablike form of their troopers is enjoyably creepy, and "alien" to behold. It inspires wonder what they might "natively" look like under their mecha. But there is no inspection of their culture, so there is not that physical/societal dichotomy, which is a bit of a shame. From childhood, I have memories of weird/fascinating dialog between the Invid Regent and Regis...I wonder if these could have been in those handful of episodes that weren't correctly uploaded at the YouTube playlist, or if I'm mixing up memories from one of the sequel Robotech media. I have a vague understanding that there were Robotech sequel works that chopped-and-diced from the original series, and remixed it into a hybrid, mutant continuity. That's another pet peeve of mine: retconning/reimagining/rebooting/multiverses...which is why I've checked out of a lot of modern Hollywood output...but that's another rant for another subreddit. 😛

A standout episode for me was "Ghost Town." It starts out dismally: with a cowboy/western trope. Shows of that era often had "themed episodes," which might be 60s/hippie, or cowboy/western, or King Arthur/Knights of the Round Table, etc., something incongruous to the usual tone or genre of the show. The start of this episode gave me every sign this was going to be one of those cheesy "themed episodes." But it took a tangent, and told a surprisingly moving tale about old/retired soldiers, who'd grown tired/jaded/cynical about war, but were roused to make one final stand for a rediscovered sense of self and duty. I did not expect it to be as moving as it was. The old soldiers have turned mercenary, selling scavenged/stolen equipment, concerned only for the highest bidder. One of the old soldiers, Gabby, was obsessed with a radio receiver (a transceiver with an irreparable transmitter) that receives transmissions from Rick Hunter's Expeditionary Force (I thought it was a bit contrived how they tried to shoehorn a connection to The Macross Saga, but oh well). Over the course of the episode, it's revealed that the face/voice of the transmissions is Gabby's son, and the last transmission that Gabby receives is his son relaying the REF's request for remaining resistance fighters to mount an attack on Invid bases. Gabby, ever a faithful soldier at heart, mounted what he must have known would be a suicide mission. As a dad myself, that notion of a father receiving communications from his long-separated son, unable to respond, then going off to die in response to the last communication he'll ever receive from his son...man, that hit me straight in the heart. What an emotional gut punch. How the hell did something that deep make it into an 80s-era Saturday morning cartoon? The amazing thing was: this mini-masterpiece of writing was just a minor subplot in the larger episode. Gabby's last charge, and the resolve of Scott & gang revived a sense of duty in the remaining old soldiers, who dusted off their salvaged cruiser for one last charge at their enemy. Battle-damage dooming them to an inevitable fate, they decided to ram their cruiser into their target, and unleash fury in the form of a suicidal close-range missile dump. A running gag through the episode was that one of the retired soldiers, nicknamed Shorty couldn't remember his real name, and hated his nickname. Right as the missiles were being unleashed, his last words were, "It's a funny thing...I just remembered what it really is; my name, it's..." then fade to oblivion. I found the dominant themes to be PTSD, and disillusionment about war from those who've actually fought, the cynicism that replaces patriotism/honor/duty, especially if you've realized unpleasant realities like war being a for-profit endeavor, often waged for the personal vainglory of oligarchs and politicians, while the soldiers themselves are nameless pawns on the chessboard of the rich and powerful. The fact that the Robotech war is a fight for humanity's survival against aliens perhaps muddies that message, but I understand the writers' intent: a message about veterans' disillusionment with war. But importantly, this episode also showcases the theme of renewed purpose. I think that speaks across time to this day and age...I just posted a little spiel over at r/batman about why I empathized with Arthur Fleck's Joker...I wrote about how the times we live in seems to oppress our collective sense of hope: we seem to live in times of bitterness, acrimony, sniping at each other across our various mass communication technologies while the wealth gap increasingly widens, making it easier to be dour about our collective future. In this atmosphere, can we find a renewed sense of purpose? Will some great fight, some great cause, inspire us to a passionate last stand? "Ghost Town" depicts all these heady themes in a subplot of a 30-minute cartoon! I found parallels to the much-lauded episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" from the late, great "Avatar: The Last Airbender." In that episode, we follow a character (Uncle Iroh), who up until that point, had largely been portrayed as laid-back, easygoing, mellow, and bordering-on-buffoonish. He goes about his day, doing laid-back, easygoing, mellow, bordering-on-buffoonish things, seemingly preparing for a picnic with a potential love interest. At the conclusion of his adventures, though, we see that he had actually been preparing for a memorial for his son, a war casualty under his own command. It's been widely memed that that episode has caused grown men to cry. The abrupt reminder that you can't judge a book by its cover, that you can't necessarily judge a man by his outward disposition, that even clownish or crass or insufferable people might secretly, silently be carrying emotional scars, can bring a grown man to a sudden stop for contemplation and reflection. I felt exactly this from watching the final acts of bravery of the retired soldiers in "Ghost Town."

On a total 180, tonally, the very next episode, "Hired Gun," had a moment of unintentional comedy I just have to comment on. In this episode, Rook develops a crush on a mysterious stranger named Dusty Ayres. Rook is the only one able to see through to this character's past trauma and his humanity. To all others, he has been framed as a murderous outlaw. There's a scene where, as Dusty is about to ride off, Rook coyly mentions, "You know, you never did tell me your name..." to which Dusty replies, "That's okay."
The comedy of the moment is hard to convey in text, but it has to do with the stilted dialogue: Rook and Dusty are cringingly flirting, trying to cram a lot of character development into a short amount of time, which comes across as the comedic anime-speak famously parodied by Family Guy. And I couldn't tell you why, but watching that scene, I couldn't help but view this as an unintentionally comedic parallel to Han and Leia's famous farewell from The Empire Strikes Back.
The comedy also comes from the delivery of these lines...it's as though there was no rehearsal, and the two voice actors are interpreting the scene in completely different ways...in response to Rook's obvious flirting, Dusty delivers his response, "That's okay," with all the emotion of politely forgiving a barista for serving him the wrong coffee order.

Iconic moments in scifi romance

I should note here that the YouTube playlist that I'd been relying on to watch Robotech has a few seemingly critical omissions: I think I missed some mythos-relevant plot points: the introduction of the humanoid Invid characters Sera and Corg. In the episodes available at that playlist, they just sorta show up and deliver their lines as though they're well-established characters.

"The Big Apple" is among the worst episodes in all of television that I have ever watched. This episode uses the New York/Broadway/theater trope. The episode starts with the recurring theme of the gang being low on protoculture, needing to resupply. This is pleasantly realistic as a recurring plot point, since it's completely plausible that a rag-tag gang of rebels with leftover and scavenged military equipment would need to scrap about to resupply since they don't have the luxury of a fully-functional military-industrial complex behind them. But the larger episode storyline is that the gang discovers a surprisingly well-organized gang of rogue Broadway dancers, clandestinely defying the Invid's brutal clampdown on...Broadway dancing. After the inevitable escalation of Invid brutality on the hapless New York populace, the Broadway dancers muster their resolve and dance(!!) on Broadway(!!) to inspire freedom fighters to fight. I mean...I know what they were trying to say...and it's nice to try portray the importance of the arts in inspiring people, especially in the midst of oppression and combat. But it all just came off as incredibly cheesy.

YOU...SHALL NOT...DANCE...!!

"The Big Apple" also lazily used Annie to create tension...let's take this 9ish-year-old kid on a stealth mission, where wits, cunning, self-control, and stealth are mission-critical skills...now watch as the kid inevitably can't control noisy outbursts and carelessly handles/drops items, generally making herself conspicuous.
I'm sure I come across as harsh on this episode...but this one just really hit many of my pet peeves: the irritating kid character who derails a mission because of childish behavior, and also the somewhat cringey attempt to portray the power of dance(!!) to inspire battle-readiness.

The "Reflex Point" episode itself is an interesting study in dichotomy. On the one hand, I felt completely disconnected and unattached to the A-plot of Sue Graham, military journalist. I was ready to write off the whole episode as inconsequential until the end, when Invid-Marlene bled green blood, finally revealing to herself and the others that she was indeed, an Invid construct. Invid Marlene's recoil of horror upon recognizing the reality she surely suspected but dared not believe was an earned moment of pathos, and - finally! - an emotional payoff of a character/relationship that had been built slowly, steadily, and carefully over time. At first, Invid Marlene didn't make much of an impression - she didn't have a "loud" or memorable personality, and barely talked at all. But I think her consistent presence, and her sweet, kind, thoughtful, and caring demeanor subtly endears her to the viewer. There was obviously a bond forming between her and Scott, and I think most of us will generally root for "nice people" who find love for each other, against the odds. The pregnant silence, when everyone saw Invid Marlene's green blood, spoke louder than volumes. This moment stirred emotions in me, in the way that the best of TV/movies/books have been able to, in their finest moments. My heart genuinely felt heavy when Invid Marlene finally broke down and ran away. Also: even though I didn't really connect with the character of Sue Graham, her death at the end of the episode was handled well, and was moving. So again, this episode was quite the mixed bag: it started out absolutely inauspiciously, and ended with surprising emotional weight.

During my childhood watch of The New Generation, I remember being excited by the intermittent references to Rick Hunter and his Expeditionary Force. I thought for sure that Rick, Lisa, and the remnants of the original cast would make a cameo. What a tease that all was. As a child, I was, of course, completely oblivious to the behind-the-scenes reality of Harmony Gold splicing together unrelated shows. So the references to "Admiral Hunter" were always just a tease, perhaps an intentional attempt at playing to lingering fondness for The Macross Saga.

The penultimate episode was surprisingly exciting. And it had pleasantly moving moments as well. I really liked this exchange between Rand, Lancer, and Rook -- it felt earned after all the adventures they'd been through together:

Rand: It's too bad: I wanted to hear Yellow Dancer perform again.

Lacer: Don't worry, you will. In the meantime, you can always buy my records.

Rook: They're a poor substitute for the real thing.

I was just like...aww...at that exchange. It was sweet. It captured the built-up camaraderie between the three. And their shared adventures - that we shared with them - added volumes of subtext to that moment of "saying goodbye without saying goodbye."

That moment was followed by equally earned farewells with Annie...

Lancer: Now Annie, you gotta promise me you won't go and get married behind my back.

Annie: (crying) I won't.

...and Lunk: his "happy ending," as Rand described it, was being re-drafted into the army.
Even Scott's salutes-as-goodbyes were moving because by now, we've spent enough time with Scott to know that he was as straight-laced, low-emotion, by-the-book of a soldier as they come, so we know that his salute is secretly emotional, heartfelt, and expressive for him, and I couldn't help but feel the endearment for him that had eluded me theretofore.

While it's true that I didn't form quite as strong a bond with them as I did with The Macross Saga's characters, I think some of that can be attributed to the primacy effect, where the first thing that you're exposed to (e.g. The Macross Saga), forms the strongest, most lasting impression. But towards the end of The New Generation, as the members of the little rag-tag crew are saying their goodbyes, the feeling of loss suddenly hit me, and I realized that these characters had actually, stealthily, endeared themselves to me.

The stakes of that all-out attack in the penultimate episode suddenly felt real again; I felt the possibility that main characters might actually not survive, unlike the majority of the prior several episodes, where it was mostly clear that each episode was merely "adventure of the week" followed by a reset of the status quo.

It was obvious to me that a romantic pair-up between Rook and Rand was plotted. I was skeptical that it would work, because I just hadn't felt that chemistry was sufficiently built up over the course of the series. Here again, though, the penultimate episode put my cynicism to the side: Rook and Rand finding their shared spark in the middle of combat felt right, and earned. If they were ever going to find and admit that romantic spark, in the heat of battle seemed the right moment to realize it.

But: I was quite unimpressed by the attempted Lancer/Sera pair-up in the final episode. I'll repeat that in the YouTube playlist that I was watching, one or a few episodes were incorrectly uploaded -- did they involve Sera's interaction with Lancer? So perhaps I missed relevant character-building interactions between those two. Regardless, there was definitely not a long or sustained establishment of their relationship. So the sudden, "hey, let's fall in love with each other" in the finale just felt forced, unearned, and I just didn't connect with it.

It was nice to see the gang rally into battle one last time in the finale, after their presumed final goodbyes.

The final final goodbyes were emotional, for sure. I felt genuine sadness at leaving these characters behind, unlike the relief I felt at finally being done with the cast of characters from The Masters, but not quite as strongly as I felt about saying goodbye to The Macross Saga characters. This must partly be because this was the third time I'd been through this, partly because I hadn't spent as much time with The New Generation gang as with The Macross Saga characters, partly the primacy effect.

Scott and Invid Marlene's farewell was sad for a couple of reasons: they had never actually explicitly stated their love - I wonder if they even recognized it. They closest they got to expressing their feelings was just longing glances and pregnant silences. And then Scott goes off to try find Rick Hunter in the depths of space, because he's determined to ever be the loyal, reliable soldier. This reminded me of a recent "deep" conversation with my wife, where I expressed the burden that some men feel obliged to bear: burying one's emotions, putting one's head down and soldiering ahead with the duty to provide and protect. I guess in that sense, I empathized with Scott Bernard, because perhaps I a representation of me, and many men I know: someone intentionally stoic and emotionally impenetrable for fear that it'll compromise his ability to fight, protect, and provide for his dependents. I know that Scott and Invid Marlene's story might have been continued in extended universe stories, but boy, what a downer it was to end The New Generations, and the original Robotech in its entirety, on.

I thought that ending Rook and Rand's relationship by showing them going off on continued feisty/flirty hijinks, without contrivedly forcing them into an explicit romance, did their relationship justice. I enjoyed their relationship on the whole: a bit playful, a bit antagonistic, a bit of rivalry, and only a hint of romance.

I loved the character of Rook a lot. It was nice to see a physically and emotionally strong female character who wasn't primarily a sexual or romantic object. She gave as good as she got with Rand, she could hold her own in a fight, and she was pretty much presented as just one o' the boys. That was refreshing.

I must talk about Lunk's haircut.

Enjoy Wonka's Hair Repair Éclair in moderation

I say this lovingly, but what the actual hell is that haircut?!
There's hair that's kind of creeping up under his eyes...they're not sideburns or mutton-chops...I mean, I don't think humans have hair growth on that part of their face...it's kind of like there's hair where there shouldn't be, and no hair where there should be...kind of like Anton Chigurh...

The New Hair Club for Men

Since The New Generation is also effectively the end of the original Robotech, I can't help but ponder Robotech in its entirety with the conclusion of The New Generation. On the whole, I feel that Robotech peaked with The Macross Saga, fell pitifully low with The Masters, and was okay with The New Generation. And I understand that this is completely because of the weaving of three unrelated animes into a single mythos.

I feel like a proper, narratively consistent explanation of protoculture and the Invid Flower of Life was mostly botched. The last few episodes of The Masters set up some fascinating, albeit self-contradicting, possibilities, only for The New Generation to not really follow through with satisfying explanations.

The shadow of The Macross Saga obviously loomed large over the rest of the series. Both The Masters and The New Generation sprinkled references to The Macross Saga events and characters, but there weren't many/any references to The Masters in The New Generation. I'm sure the writers felt the lingering affection for The Macross Saga characters, which is why they had to keep referencing Rick Hunter, etc., hinting at his return, so his ultimate absence made all that feel like a big cocktease.

I can't decide whether it was a good thing or not for Robotech, as a whole, to end on a cliffhanger. Obviously, out-of-universe, it was impossible to have a proper conclusion to the series as a whole, because Robotech was the Frankensteinian melding of unrelated source material. Something that seems to be common to us, as a storytelling species, is that we collectively seem to want our stories to have beginnings (introductions), middles (the stakes are raised/adversity is encountered), and ends (adversity is overcome/conclusions are reached). I somewhat feel that for the Robotech writers to have undertaken this endeavor, knowing there was no way to provide that conclusion, was somewhat cynical. And I understand, there were sequel shows, feature-length cartoons, books, comics, etc....but generally, I'm not a fan of when a story "jumps media" to conclude a story, or fill in critical plot or character details. To paraphrase the great Harry S. Plinkett, in his monumental review/takedown of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, "I don't give a f*ck if it's explained in a novel, comic book, or any other media outside the [show]; if it's not in the [show] itself, it doesn't matter. The [show] should stand on its own, and if something important is left out, that's the [show's] problem, not a side story's responsibility."
Now, that said, some of the commenters to my first couple posts did kindly point out the continuation/back-filling of the Robotech plot in novel format, and I would like to read those -- but that's strictly out of personal interest. I still think it's a narrative failure on the writers' part that they did not do this within the bounds of the original creation.
In this regard, I see a parallel with The X-Files, a show that was once near and dear to me. That show's creatives set into motion many intriguing plot threads in the original TV show. Then they added more plot threads via movies, then a sequel series. And after all that, they still have not given their viewers a narratively satisfying conclusion. And I think they've left their former fans frustrated as a result.
I feel similarly with Robotech. The lack of definitive conclusion within the context of the original medium is disappointing.

I think those of us who were privileged to have seen Robotech during its first airing witnessed the birth of a new kind of storytelling for older kids/young adults: serialized storytelling that respected its audience's intelligence and tolerance for dark and mature stories. It had its warts and imperfections, and certain tropes associated with its era, but I think it was pivotal to mainstream acceptance of serialized, mature storytelling among Western audiences, and influential to subsequent generations of writers and creatives.

Most importantly: every rewatch of Robotech brings me back to my childhood, to a time of wonder at invading aliens, transforming mecha, and my heart reflexively skipping a beat every time I see Lisa Hayes.

Goddamn, Lisa Hayes!

And with that...I think I might have said all I have to say about The New Generation, and Robotech as a whole. Thank you for tolerating my long post. It has been fun pouring out my thoughts on this show that's obviously left a lifelong impression on me as a viewer and others as writers/creatives. It's also been fun corresponding and cross-pollinating thoughts with commenters about this iconic gem of 80s-era Saturday morning cartoons, that is Robotech.