Robotech Reactions will continue on Saturday (01/04/2025)! I hope you all have days of peace and laughter to end 2024! Thank you for letting me fly with you. See you in 2025!
When the mirror shattered - I have my own theory. In seeing multiples of himself in the falling shards reflecting back at him, Zor remembers the triumverate structure of Masters society triggering his PTSD.
I think a huge issue with this segment of Robotech is that it basically acts as the axis for all of Robotech. It’s essentially serving the 260 episode Robotech cycle that Carl Macek envisioned when he developed the show. Southern Cross is essentially where Robotech past and future collide, but we’re missing some of the impact because we haven’t been fully exposed to the full cycle and probably never will be. Although some of the novels offer some tantalizing glimpses as to what that would have entailed…
The Zor-Prime characterization is probably the weakest link in ROBOTECH: MASTERS. When people complain about how they didn’t enjoy MASTERS, I think the “all over the place” characterization of Zor-Prime is probably what bothers them most. For a spoiler-free glimpse of what’s ahead for Zor-Prime, I’ll say this: it gets increasingly interesting, but it also gets increasingly confusing. Part of it is because of all the three sagas that comprise ROBOTECH, SOUTHERN CROSS was the most difficult one to rewrite to fit the story (because of its innate qualities, but also because it had to connect to both MACROSS and to MOSPEADA). The character called Zor-Prime in ROBOTECH was Seifrette Weisse in the original SUPERDIMENSIONAL CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS. Unlike Zor-Prime, Seifrette was 100% an Earth human (not a member of the Zor race). He was a gifted soldier of the Army of the Southern Cross who was slain in combat, but resurrected by the Zor race (e.g. Robotech Masters) to serve as a bioroid pilot and later, a spy. ROBOTECH does this completely differently. Zor-Prime is the final clone of the original Zor, the genius who invented Protoculture and Robotechnology long ago, built the SDF-1, and sent it to Earth. When Zor died (in a pre-MACROSS battle between the Zentraedi and the Invid), he took with him the secret of how to make Protoculture matrices (the mechanism that actually makes Protoculture, the last functional one of which is hidden inside the SDF-1). The Masters' only hope of regaining that secret was to clone Zor, but their attempts have been unsuccessful. Previous attempts either never came to life or, as is the case with Zor-Prime, lack the memories of the original Zor. Now why they decide to risk him as a bioroid pilot or a spy is something ROBOTECH never explains well (because it fundamentally makes no sense to do this) and is one of the chief complaints that people have about the ROBOTECH: MASTERS arc. All I can say about that is…bear with it. It’s convoluted, but interesting, even though it never quite adds up. Case in point: from a SOUTHERN CROSS (original series) perspective, the flashback scene to when Seifreitte was fleeing from the Zor’s guards aboard their mothership and used Musica as a shield (they shot her dead, but in both SOUTHERN CROSS and MASTERS, she was resurrected as a clone, without the memory of this incident) makes sense (Seifrette was a POW who was trying to escape). In ROBOTECH: MASTERS, it’s much more opaque. For example, why is Zor-Prime recalling himself wearing a Southern Cross military uniform instead of his Tirolian garb (real world reason: animation adaptation limitations)? This was the trickiest part of ROBOTECH to adapt from its original source material and it’s something of a minor miracle that they managed to make it work even as well as the flawed way they did. When it comes to Zor-Prime’s characterization, expect more of this as the series goes on.
Also, it's kind of implied that the Musica, Zor, and the guards were Zor being confronted by an old friend for stealing the protoculture matrix and placing it on Zor's ship (the SDF-1) in the comics
Yeah, this is where Masters REALLY begins to lose me... there's a lot about Zor here that doesn't make much sense, starting with why they'd put him in the 15th, an active combat unit.
Robotech Reactions will continue on Saturday (01/04/2025)! I hope you all have days of peace and laughter to end 2024! Thank you for letting me fly with you. See you in 2025!
When the mirror shattered - I have my own theory. In seeing multiples of himself in the falling shards reflecting back at him, Zor remembers the triumverate structure of Masters society triggering his PTSD.
I think a huge issue with this segment of Robotech is that it basically acts as the axis for all of Robotech. It’s essentially serving the 260 episode Robotech cycle that Carl Macek envisioned when he developed the show. Southern Cross is essentially where Robotech past and future collide, but we’re missing some of the impact because we haven’t been fully exposed to the full cycle and probably never will be. Although some of the novels offer some tantalizing glimpses as to what that would have entailed…
Regarding Eddy, you have seen his brother. He was one of the two dead troopers the 15th saw on their way out of the Masters ship.
I assume that's from the novels...?
@ThinWhiteDork It's from an episode which the Jack McKinney novels expanded on.
"I'm late for my asshole class", I'm dieing over here
HaHa Glad you liked that,my friend!
Thank you for watching!
It's Saturday morning fan faaaaiiirrrr!
Este capitulo me encanta
Best take on Zor ever, lol. The voice acting for Zor is definitely off, lol. You're a positive dude! Vulcan Roll!
There is a total of 85 episodes to, 36 to go, and 2 movies left
Ate you doing anything special for the 50th episode?
The Zor-Prime characterization is probably the weakest link in ROBOTECH: MASTERS. When people complain about how they didn’t enjoy MASTERS, I think the “all over the place” characterization of Zor-Prime is probably what bothers them most. For a spoiler-free glimpse of what’s ahead for Zor-Prime, I’ll say this: it gets increasingly interesting, but it also gets increasingly confusing.
Part of it is because of all the three sagas that comprise ROBOTECH, SOUTHERN CROSS was the most difficult one to rewrite to fit the story (because of its innate qualities, but also because it had to connect to both MACROSS and to MOSPEADA).
The character called Zor-Prime in ROBOTECH was Seifrette Weisse in the original SUPERDIMENSIONAL CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS. Unlike Zor-Prime, Seifrette was 100% an Earth human (not a member of the Zor race). He was a gifted soldier of the Army of the Southern Cross who was slain in combat, but resurrected by the Zor race (e.g. Robotech Masters) to serve as a bioroid pilot and later, a spy.
ROBOTECH does this completely differently. Zor-Prime is the final clone of the original Zor, the genius who invented Protoculture and Robotechnology long ago, built the SDF-1, and sent it to Earth. When Zor died (in a pre-MACROSS battle between the Zentraedi and the Invid), he took with him the secret of how to make Protoculture matrices (the mechanism that actually makes Protoculture, the last functional one of which is hidden inside the SDF-1). The Masters' only hope of regaining that secret was to clone Zor, but their attempts have been unsuccessful. Previous attempts either never came to life or, as is the case with Zor-Prime, lack the memories of the original Zor. Now why they decide to risk him as a bioroid pilot or a spy is something ROBOTECH never explains well (because it fundamentally makes no sense to do this) and is one of the chief complaints that people have about the ROBOTECH: MASTERS arc. All I can say about that is…bear with it. It’s convoluted, but interesting, even though it never quite adds up.
Case in point: from a SOUTHERN CROSS (original series) perspective, the flashback scene to when Seifreitte was fleeing from the Zor’s guards aboard their mothership and used Musica as a shield (they shot her dead, but in both SOUTHERN CROSS and MASTERS, she was resurrected as a clone, without the memory of this incident) makes sense (Seifrette was a POW who was trying to escape). In ROBOTECH: MASTERS, it’s much more opaque. For example, why is Zor-Prime recalling himself wearing a Southern Cross military uniform instead of his Tirolian garb (real world reason: animation adaptation limitations)? This was the trickiest part of ROBOTECH to adapt from its original source material and it’s something of a minor miracle that they managed to make it work even as well as the flawed way they did. When it comes to Zor-Prime’s characterization, expect more of this as the series goes on.
Also, it's kind of implied that the Musica, Zor, and the guards were Zor being confronted by an old friend for stealing the protoculture matrix and placing it on Zor's ship (the SDF-1) in the comics
Yeah, this is where Masters REALLY begins to lose me... there's a lot about Zor here that doesn't make much sense, starting with why they'd put him in the 15th, an active combat unit.