So far Windermere had been the menace lurking in the shadows, stirring up Var trouble and flying around in unmarked planes without much of a explanation or justification for what they were doing. Not anymore, as last episode ended on a declaration of war, with this one opening with the reasons why Windermere wants it: to liberate themselves and the rest of their globular cluster from the oppressive menance of the New Unified Government. Whether those reasons make any sense to outsiders is another thing entirely, but it shows how Macross never goes for simple black and white conflicts.
Hayate is right: Freyja does have the best creepy smile in all of Macross. She and Hayate make a good team, with Mirage forced in the role of third wheel, her stiff manner and gruff behaviour contrasting with the open warmth of Freyja. Past Macross series tended to be a bit mean towards characters like Mirage, making them the butt monkey — think of Cathy Glass in Frontier e.g. — but here Mirage is left her dignity.
But that doesn’t mean her pomposity doesn’t get punctured. As when she talks about her grandparents, Maximillian “Max” Jenius and Milia Fallyna, the first ever human-Zentradi couple in an attempt to motivate Freyja, but is interrupted by Hayate asking what that has to do with anything. It’s a fun little scene further establishing each of their personalities, especially coming in an episode that’s ninety percent setup. What I like about it especially is that it’s not so much a love triangle as a friendship triangle, where Hayate & Freyja had hit it off almost immediately and so did Freyja and Mirage for all their difference in personality, while Mirage and Hayate keep managing to rub each other the wrong way but don’t necessarily dislike each other… It’s just that his frivolity annoys her, while her pomposity irritates him.
Not that Hayate isn’t free from pomposity himself…
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