Robotech Rewatch
Lately I've been re-watching episodes of Robotech III (New Generation) with my sister, who is a wee bit obsessed with the series. I remember watching it way back in the day when it was first run on American television in the mid-eightees.
My brother and sisters and I were huge fans of it back then. Max and his alien lover from the first series were pretty much my first OTP. I remember it being very dark and adult for the time.
While it is shockingly advanced for a mid-eightees cartoon marketed to children (I was like 7 when I first watched it), what I did not remember was how objectively terrible it was. The animation (at least in the third series) and plot are terrible. They're supposed to be travelling through South America to get to North America to destroy the Big Bad Alien center, but nearly everyone they meet is white (as in, there are more gingers per square mile in this version of South America than any other place on Earth) and every town looks like old timey American West meets post-apocolypse. And every single episode involves some sort of drawn out fight between Our Heroes and the aliens that ends the same way. Also, despite this happening in The Future, sometimes there are dinosaurs (I am not sure this is necessarily a negative, but I thought I'd throw it out there).
The plots I think could not help but be bad because what was shown as Robotech in the US was really three totally unrelataed Japanese series that were re-edited and put back together for the US to make one continuous plotline. It was bound to make no sense.
There was one thing that I totally forgot about and am still completely shocked made it into the US version. There's this character named Lancer who is a kickass freedom fighter. You don't meet him as a freedom fighter, though. You meet him as a female-coded lounge singer called Yellow Dancer. You see him donning the Yellow persona fairly often as she is famous and opens doors--the others are initially shocked/crushed by seeing their crush object revealed as a man, but then it's sort of a non-issue. His whole character is an interesting mix of feminine and masculine that I don't think you'd see in a US show even now. In fact, his characterization is one of the few things I did find compelling about the show (although to be fair to the show, I think the characterization is generally solid. I think Scott (the driven hero) and Lancer are the most well-rounded, but Rook (the tough biker woman turned soldier), Rand (the scout) and Lunk (the mechanic) get fairly three-dimensional treatments as well. The only one I don't like is Annie--the inexplicable child who they for some reason drag around everywhere). Lancer himself though is very, very pretty but also has a lot of traditionally masculine traits. He's the tallest of the group and has the broadest shoulders of anyone but Lunk. He's also the only active soldier outside of Scott, is shown working on their war-craft with Lunk, and is probably treated as the most capable of taking care of himself. But then he also has beautiful flowing purple hair and his fighting outfit has an interesting mix of masculine and feminine touches to it. I don't know if it's a deliberate gender commentary, but of the men he's probably written as the most nurturing and the one more likely to use strategy over aggression to solve problems. He's definitely the one to point out things like leering at women is not appreciating them. He gets his own love story, but his role is really one you see more often given to women. The alien princess falls in love with him practically at first sight, but it's not when they're fighitng. It's when she is armed and ready to kill and he is bathing (and playing with his pretty, pretty purple hair) in a waterfall. Some wrestling about follows, but it seems to me that even then he's written as the (naked) object of desire, not her. I can't see a US originating show writing a female general being unable to kill her vulnerable male enemy because he's just too pretty to die (a scenario which plays out several more times over the series).
Now I would desperately love to read some fic about him--and yet a) there is none and b) while I think the Robotech universe lends itself very well to fic, I would hate to see the usual tropes/prejudices applied to it. I just know Scott'd be written as the big meanie with the stick up his ass just for prioritizing the survival of the human race and Rook would be written as either the bitch who stood in the way of Scott/Rand/Lancer/whomever's be-penised true love or as the yenta who hooked up her beloved guy pals and stood saintly and appropriately chaste in the background. The other thing is, I really see Lancer as being heterosexual. As Yellow he's written as somewhat flirtatious with men, but I still see him being actually primarily attracted to women. That's one of the things that most interested me about him, really, the way they separated his gender expressions from his sexuality. I can definitely see him flirting with men as a sort of provocation and maybe being very toppy with Scott in a sort of friends with benefits sort of way but I like him best with women. I'd read the hell out of Rook/Marlene or any combination of Marlene, Sera (the alien princess) and Lancer, but I actually don't really see too much m/m subtext at all at least in the third series. So what I am left with wanting is het or femmslash about an obscure, objectively terrible 80's cartoon but still written with more of a slashy aesthetic.
I might as well wish for a flying sparkly pony with Lancer's pretty purple hair.
I may have to write some of it myself. I suppose writing about pretty intergalactive rockstars who are secret ninjas and who flirt with everyone in sight wouldn't exactly be a hardship. I would just rather the internets do their job and provide it for me.
You can watch Robotech on Hulu (although I don't actually recommend it). From what I recall the first series was significantly better than the latter two, although I haven't re-watched it yet myself for fear of ruining my beloved memories of Max, Ace Pilot extraordinaire. I will say that knowledge of the first two is pretty much unnecessary for watching the third and might also be harmful.
My brother and sisters and I were huge fans of it back then. Max and his alien lover from the first series were pretty much my first OTP. I remember it being very dark and adult for the time.
While it is shockingly advanced for a mid-eightees cartoon marketed to children (I was like 7 when I first watched it), what I did not remember was how objectively terrible it was. The animation (at least in the third series) and plot are terrible. They're supposed to be travelling through South America to get to North America to destroy the Big Bad Alien center, but nearly everyone they meet is white (as in, there are more gingers per square mile in this version of South America than any other place on Earth) and every town looks like old timey American West meets post-apocolypse. And every single episode involves some sort of drawn out fight between Our Heroes and the aliens that ends the same way. Also, despite this happening in The Future, sometimes there are dinosaurs (I am not sure this is necessarily a negative, but I thought I'd throw it out there).
The plots I think could not help but be bad because what was shown as Robotech in the US was really three totally unrelataed Japanese series that were re-edited and put back together for the US to make one continuous plotline. It was bound to make no sense.
There was one thing that I totally forgot about and am still completely shocked made it into the US version. There's this character named Lancer who is a kickass freedom fighter. You don't meet him as a freedom fighter, though. You meet him as a female-coded lounge singer called Yellow Dancer. You see him donning the Yellow persona fairly often as she is famous and opens doors--the others are initially shocked/crushed by seeing their crush object revealed as a man, but then it's sort of a non-issue. His whole character is an interesting mix of feminine and masculine that I don't think you'd see in a US show even now. In fact, his characterization is one of the few things I did find compelling about the show (although to be fair to the show, I think the characterization is generally solid. I think Scott (the driven hero) and Lancer are the most well-rounded, but Rook (the tough biker woman turned soldier), Rand (the scout) and Lunk (the mechanic) get fairly three-dimensional treatments as well. The only one I don't like is Annie--the inexplicable child who they for some reason drag around everywhere). Lancer himself though is very, very pretty but also has a lot of traditionally masculine traits. He's the tallest of the group and has the broadest shoulders of anyone but Lunk. He's also the only active soldier outside of Scott, is shown working on their war-craft with Lunk, and is probably treated as the most capable of taking care of himself. But then he also has beautiful flowing purple hair and his fighting outfit has an interesting mix of masculine and feminine touches to it. I don't know if it's a deliberate gender commentary, but of the men he's probably written as the most nurturing and the one more likely to use strategy over aggression to solve problems. He's definitely the one to point out things like leering at women is not appreciating them. He gets his own love story, but his role is really one you see more often given to women. The alien princess falls in love with him practically at first sight, but it's not when they're fighitng. It's when she is armed and ready to kill and he is bathing (and playing with his pretty, pretty purple hair) in a waterfall. Some wrestling about follows, but it seems to me that even then he's written as the (naked) object of desire, not her. I can't see a US originating show writing a female general being unable to kill her vulnerable male enemy because he's just too pretty to die (a scenario which plays out several more times over the series).
Now I would desperately love to read some fic about him--and yet a) there is none and b) while I think the Robotech universe lends itself very well to fic, I would hate to see the usual tropes/prejudices applied to it. I just know Scott'd be written as the big meanie with the stick up his ass just for prioritizing the survival of the human race and Rook would be written as either the bitch who stood in the way of Scott/Rand/Lancer/whomever's be-penised true love or as the yenta who hooked up her beloved guy pals and stood saintly and appropriately chaste in the background. The other thing is, I really see Lancer as being heterosexual. As Yellow he's written as somewhat flirtatious with men, but I still see him being actually primarily attracted to women. That's one of the things that most interested me about him, really, the way they separated his gender expressions from his sexuality. I can definitely see him flirting with men as a sort of provocation and maybe being very toppy with Scott in a sort of friends with benefits sort of way but I like him best with women. I'd read the hell out of Rook/Marlene or any combination of Marlene, Sera (the alien princess) and Lancer, but I actually don't really see too much m/m subtext at all at least in the third series. So what I am left with wanting is het or femmslash about an obscure, objectively terrible 80's cartoon but still written with more of a slashy aesthetic.
I might as well wish for a flying sparkly pony with Lancer's pretty purple hair.
I may have to write some of it myself. I suppose writing about pretty intergalactive rockstars who are secret ninjas and who flirt with everyone in sight wouldn't exactly be a hardship. I would just rather the internets do their job and provide it for me.
You can watch Robotech on Hulu (although I don't actually recommend it). From what I recall the first series was significantly better than the latter two, although I haven't re-watched it yet myself for fear of ruining my beloved memories of Max, Ace Pilot extraordinaire. I will say that knowledge of the first two is pretty much unnecessary for watching the third and might also be harmful.