So in this episode Walkure and the Windermere Aerial Knights meet for the first time and it’s not a happy meeting, especially for the main trio. Hayate and Mirage get beaten up, Freyja almost is executed on the spot and worse they have to listen to Bogue –the red haired short tempered one– monologuing. Whether or not Windermere is justified in its actions, it’s clear that he at least has swallowed the justificatiosn hook, line and sinker. One does wonder about liberation needing biological warfare and permanent mind control though.
Certainly Freyja isn’t convinced. Anybody who can abuse her precious apples to wage war is by definition wrong. She got a lot of abuse these past three episodes from the Windermerians for her supposed treason but in the end none of it stuck. And why should it? She hasn’t done anything wrong, she just wanted to sing and help rid the galaxy from a dreadful disease. A disease that turned out to be engineered by her own people in order to subjugate other planets. To be honest, so far Windermere hasn’t really managed to give any convincing explanation as to why they shouldn’t be seen as pure villains, the individual nobility of some of the Knights notwithstanding — I hope they get at least a little bit more real justification later on.
This was once again a Freyja/Hayate centered episode, with Mirage reduced to a bystander for most of it, though she did get her one moment to shine early on. She’d managed to hang on to a flash bang grenade as they’d been disarmed by the red haired idiot and as Hayate deliberately taunts him to get him to overreact, she quickly throws it but as they attempt to escape they’re as quickly beaten down by the other Aerial Knights. It’s a remarkable effective scene for showing how far Hayate and Mirage have come to understand and trust each other. Rather unfortunate that like so much else Mirage tries, it doesn’t work.
Best couple is not surprised to see Hayate synchronise with Freyja during the end of the episode fight against the Aerial Knights as she sings to free a brain washed pilot from his enslavement and he duels with Bogue — poor old Mirage again reduced to bystander. Hayate and Freyja fit together well because their philsophy is so similar: she sings to save people and he is careful to shoot enemy Valkyries in the legs rather than kill them. Macross in general has always been wary of seeking military solutions in conflict and this fits in well with that philosophy of looking for alternate ways to resolve conflicts.
Finally, spare a thought for the hardworking people who bring you fansubs and how difficult it is to translate songs being sung on a battlefield — even if much of the first new song was in English. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy Macross Delta at all as the licensing rights are still fscked up thanks to the whole Robotech fiasco. However, the Japanese Bluerays come with English subs so if you want the option to directly support the series, it’ll be there.
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