Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles

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Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles

Postby Halo » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:45 pm

SPOILER WARNING!


Okay . . . I just picked up the first issue of the 5-part Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comic series and was hoping someone could shed some light on a few things. First off, I must hang my head in shame for I never read the Sentinels novels. I know the general bits and pieces, but lack the details.

I know some of the details might have been changed from the Sentinels continuity, but thought I had read somewhere that Shadow Chronicles was supposedly designed to be a direct sequel, and wouldn’t be rewriting history.

So, I read this comic that is supposed to bridge Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles and it left me with a few questions.

- In general terms, how does “Sentinels” end? Since this picks up either at the end of that series or shortly after, it’s a little weird to read it with only a partial knowledge of Sentinels.

- What’s up with TR Edwards? Or, specifically, what is he up to at the end of Sentinels? For some reason I thought he died in that series, but given that I never read the books I have no idea why I think that. Anyway, he’s alive and well in Prelude to Shadow Chronicles.

- Speaking of “Shadows” . . . what role do Shadow Fighters and Shadow Technology play in the Sentinels series? I know what they are thanks to the RPG books, but always assumed they were created by Dr Lang. Prelude makes it pretty clear that Lang had nothing to do with it.

- Isn’t the Invid Regent dead? I thought Breetai killed him via suicide.

- What was Lynn Kyle’s relationship with TR Edwards?

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Postby Gideon Krieg » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:27 pm

Ahhh, the inner workings of Robotech. :o

Dave, as far as I know the Jack McKinney books are no longer Robotech Cannon.

They canned them.

The new prelude comics are a synopsis of what happened to the SDF-3 and crew in place of the "Sentinels". The Sentinels series was wrapped up with the last book "The End of the Circle" in which Protoculture/flower power is replaced with the new Eur-Flower power. The Regis goes off to some other plane of existence, and the SDF-4 is built (if memory serves).

Originally Edwards gets wasted on Optera (I think?) and Breeti does give the Regent a "bear hug" and blow himself up with him.

As far as I can tell, the new series will not have any of the Macross characters in it (Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayse, and Max Sterling are considered HG property). Breeti, and the Zentraedi are not supposed to be in this new series. There has been some speculation among the various anime fan sites that this may be due to the legal quagmire the SDF Macross franchise is in right now.

Essentially the Shadow Chronicles and its prelude is a whole new story replacing the old timeline.
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Postby Halo » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:47 pm

Interesting stuff, Gids. And I think you must be right about the Sentinels Books not being canon, but it doesn't jive well with the new comic series . . . just odd because it reads as if they expect you to know the Sentinels story . . . which looks like may not be correct. :-?

As far as I can tell, the new series will not have any of the Macross characters in it (Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayse, and Max Sterling are considered HG property).

I can't speak for the proper Shadow Chronicles, but the first issue of Prelude is Rick's story. It also features, Minmei, Lynn Kyle, Lisa Hayes-Hunter, Emil Lang, and Exodore . . . all of whom are drawn differently than their Macross counterparts (including a grey-haired Rick), but they're still in the story.


Breeti, and the Zentraedi are not supposed to be in this new series.

Although Breetai isn't seen, it is stated that "Breetai's Elite Warriors" will be joining Captain Grant and serving on the new warship Tokugawa.

Ugh.... the more I look at it, the more confused I get. LOL :lol:

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Postby Gideon Krieg » Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:30 pm

Ugh.... the more I look at it, the more confused I get. LOL


Hehehe, I know what you mean Master Chief. :lol:

There are all kinds of stories running around about it. The only one I know that is accurate/official is that the Sentinels are no longer considered cannon.

The various responses by Tommy and Steve Yunne make the whole Robotech story outside of the "original" 85 episodes very confusing. I am not sure they have decided on what is and is not completely official just yet.
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Postby araruin » Thu Oct 06, 2005 2:18 am

I read through the prelude today. I'm not sure what Shadow Chronicles will be playing at, but it seems to be building on what happened in the last novel. Everything that happened in the Prelude is from the Sentinels. It takes place as the Sentinels are returning from liberating the homeworlds of the other Sentinels member species.

Edwards does indeed kill Lynn Kyle, kidnap Minmei and join the Regent on Optera, the Invid homeworld. The Sentinels head to Optera for a final showdown with Edwards and the Invid. In this showdown, Breetai commits suicide to kill the Regent. I liked the Sentinels as a whole, but I just could not stomach the thought that the giant Breetai couldn't beat someone twelve feet tall without self destructing on him. Total BS.

Anyway, on the surface, somebody rescues Minmei. I can't remember who is involved, but the android Janice decides the only way to defeat Edwards is to carry him into a Genesis Pit, killing them both. Another wasted death.

For those not familiar with this portion of Robotech, Zor, the Robotech Master, stole the Flower of Life from Optera and defoliated the entire planet. He then set out trying to get it to grow on other worlds. The Invid got pissed and conquered every world he seeded. In a drug induced vision, Zor sees Earth and decides to send his ship there while he stays behind to die. The ship is of course the SDF-1.

After Zor's death, the Robotech Masters can't figure out how to make a Protoculture matrix anymore, which somehow has become the power source for everything in their society. As a last resort, they head to Earth to get the last known functional matrix from the SDF-1. They miss the SDF-3 in transit.

The SDF-3 arrives at Toril, the Robotech Master's homeworld, and chase off the Regent's forces from completely defeating the last holdout in their section of the galaxy. Because of the oddities of space fold, the Regis has already left for Earth, leaving the Regent with insufficient forces to finish off one ship, even though it only takes three days to conquer Earth.

A ship full of aliens arrives at Toril asking for help reclaiming their homeworlds from the Invid. Everyone important goes with them, leaving Edwards in charge of the fleet. Edwards hates Rick Hunter because he was left behind in the Alaskan grand cannon when Rick rescued Lisa.

The Sentinels hop around in one ship freeing world after world from the Invid, while Edwards secures his hold on the SDF-1. He arranges for the destruction of the Sentinels ship, but someone brings them a new one. I can't recall who. Along the way they manage to capture an Invid who arranges to eat some of the Flower of Life from each world they visit. He slowly gains more psionic energy and even gains control over several key characters. Unfortunately for him, the Flower from Peryton, a cursed world, reverses all of the changes he has undergone. In a final act of heroism, he decides to sacrifice himself to help remove the curse from Peryton.

At this point, the Sentinels return to Toril and the events from the Prelude unfold. Colonel Wolf returns to Earth to prepare for the Regis. He somehow beats her there and Dana Sterling uses his ship to rejoin her parents.

While the Sentinels were off playing, the Zentraedi learned that they were originally created to be giant miners, but were reprogrammed to fight the Invid. They spend month mining the resources to build a fleet. Breetai manages to score and even has a kid before commiting suicide to kill the Regent.

With the resources of the SDF and the Sentinels, they somehow build three seperate fleets to retake Earth. The first is lost at the beginning of the Next Generation(Mospeada) series. The second is lost during the series, and the third arrives at the end of the series, but is 90% destroyed when the Invid leave. The SDF-3 never reappears with the third fleet.

End of the Circle

All of the major characters from all three series are brought together as we discover the fate of the SDF-3. It was caught up in the wake of the Regis as the Invid left Earth to travel to a pocket dimension that she could mold as a god. She steals the SDF-2's fold engine so they can't escape.

Meanwhile, in the real world, we learn that the very ancient Haydon, the guy who played god with all the races involved in the Sentinels, is not one guy but a group of people who aren't dead, but in cryo waiting for their experiment to create a pocket dimension that they could be gods in. They move their artificial world to Toril, transforming into a Unicron-like robot along the way and destroying the Karbarran fleet. The Karbarrans were one of the Sentinel races that had been conquered by the Invid, so who knows how they got a fleet so quickly.

The Haydons use the new protoculture matrix created by Exedore and a Robotech scientist to open a rift to the pocket dimension. They fight the Regis and manage to kick her butt. They use their powers to restore the Invid to what they were before Zor and return them to their homeworld.

During the time in the pocket dimension, the SDF-3 suffers alot of turbulance and threatens to be destroyed. All of the shildren born during the journey develop psionic powers and finally manage to summon a fold drive for the SDF-3 to escape. Anyone want to guess where it came from? Yep, it was the original fold drive of the SDF-1 that mysteriously disappeared during their first fold.

Everyone live happily ever after, except that the Karbarrans have become a little war happy and will likely try to conquer the galaxy. The End.

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Postby araruin » Thu Oct 06, 2005 2:29 am

I did some looking around. It appears that Shadow Chronicles is supposed to pick up at the end of Next Generation and tell the story of Scott Bernard's search for the SDF-3. However, the videos I've seen look like they include the battle of Reflex Point.

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Postby ShawnBrady185 » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:57 pm

okay i have all of the sentinels books as well as the first 3 comics for the new series um as far as i can tell its a prelude to the new series which is scott brenards series and possibly the hunters? im not entirelly sure but i do know it does seem to stick to the main story arch of the sentinels story as pick up in a later version so i would assume its a continuation of the sentinels series as well as the 3rd robotech generation. they might possibly be able to explain the time lapses and the fact that folds take longer then though and explain a bit on how we ammases such a larege fleet in a short time span.


i can tell you that in the comics they origina l cast is all there and accounted for except the sterlings. but rick is their lisa the grants as well as some of the cast from the second generation louis nichols is there as well as a few other i believe. i can give you all an entirely point for point if you want it?

books one
is tr edwards escape from triol as well as a slight intro to lisa and rick hunter it deals with how edwards escapes triol as well as kill lynn kyle
it talks about the shadow fighters and how the RDF gets the technology.
it tells about the production of the fleets ect.

book two is the initial battle between edwards the regent bretaii and vince grant. grants ship pluments to optera vince and crew abandon ship. breatii and regent are killed by edwards. in the comic edwards fires on the regents ship after controling the invid swarm using his stolen invid living computer.

book3 vince grant and crew our captured edwards says what he did he did to kill the regis and free earth. rick hunter and the newly comishined ships arrive and sneak into optera using shadow technology. the battle begins for optera.

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Postby araruin » Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:31 pm

Max and Myria retire when their daughter Dana arrives from Earth. They all settle down on Hayden IV. However, I thought that this happened later in the series than this one is saying. I could have sworn the Regent was defeated before Dana and Louis came back in Wolf's ship.

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Postby ShawnBrady185 » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:02 am

yeah same here i dont know but all i can say is i believe shadow cronicles is not going to to start a new complete story arch away from teh original cast but rather it will explain what has happened to the original cast and continue to follow their storyline.

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