I saw Robotech in its initial run in 1985. My local affiliate carried it until about a week into the New Generation/Invid Invasion, then pulled it due to enrage parental "we don't like war toys/killing/interracial relationships" complaints. The following September, another local station picked it up and I watched the entire series, twice.
Then it went away.
When I was in junior high, the RPGs, the MacKinney Novels, and the FHE VHS tapes came out. The tapes were stupid expensive and shoved three episodes into the timespace of one. The RPGs had glorious, glorious pictures--at least up until Southern Cross--but were, well, thin. And my attempts at role-playing never stuck.
So, pretty much until the Robotech DVD releases in 2003 or 4, the only Robotech I knew were the novels. I looked at a couple of the various comic books attempts, and actually bought one with Breetai and Khyron in the pre-series time and there was some weird outer space monster eating Zentraedi or something and I never bought another comic after that.
But I loved the novels. What I liked the most were the weird epigraphs that started every chapter, and the whole, epic sweep they gave the series. One of my favorite things about them were the idea of the Shapings of Protoculture, and then the dim mythic past of Hayden that Zor's own mythic travels seemed to be somehow following, to be again reiterated by Rem in End of the Circle--and Rem and Minmei somehow become Adam and Eve in another reality? Or maybe our own?
Weird, but it's that Dune-like epic sweep.
And then I got ahold of the Internets and discovered the Robotech Technical Files. I really enjoyed the hard-sci-fi edge they gave the mecha. Development, speculation about trials and refits and some unified, technical theory and design lineage. But . . .
They hated the RPG.
And they despised the novels.
And then the three "lost generation" novels written by lone-survivor Luceno of the former Daly-Luceno symbiosis of the orignal novels came out. And these novels seemed to concede to the McKinney-hate. "Yeah, that mystical stuff was dumb. Here it all is, in strict quantum-mechanic realism."
Er. Sort of.
That was one of the main factors in my decision not to participate in fandom. I thought that was the majority of fandom. WE HATE MCKINNEY. CARTOONS ONLY.
But I had gone nearly two decades without the cartoons. The McKinney novels were my Robotech. So, a hopelessly socially inept nerd languished alone with his inferior continuity.
Then comes the advent of "Harmony Gold/CarlMacek are CRAZY" and no post Macross Plus Macross is legal in the U.S. But, then, comes the advent of youtube. And I love Macross 7. And 0--even moreso. And Frontier is pretty awesome (but I like the intensity and near-contemporary immediacy of 0).
But for every one positive Youtube comment about Robotech, there are about 1500 declaiming Robotech as "for three-year-olds and retarded adults." So, I continue to cling to my inferior continuity, apparently because I am developmentally disabled.
No, it's not as if the Youtube trullz have any real impact on my self-esteem, it's just that they are obviously not the kind of fans with whom I can engage. I've gotten ahold of the original Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada stuff, and I can enjoy both the originals and Robotech. The Youtubers/robotech reference filers and I would simply not have many production conversations. (That, and the original Southern Cross AND the Masters saga of Robotech are my favorites. Despite what some former friends may have claimed, I don't go out of my way to be different, honest).
Then, I find this:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=532972
A forum thread from this past fall where a dude around my own age is rereading the McKinney books! And he likes them! And he likes both Robotech AND Macross and its sequels.
I thoroughly enjoyed that discussion.
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