Macross Frontier/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Grace has drastically different depictions between the tv series and the films. In the series, she is shown as a Complete Monster and the main Big Bad who was willing to sacrifice anything and anybody to achieve her goals. In the film, she is depicted as a more sympathetic character who genuinely cared about Sheryl and was being mind controlled by the Macross Galaxy leadership.
• Black Hole Sue: Movie!Sheryl is hailed as the new Lynn Minmay before she's even introduced, suddenly knows Aimo from her childhood (and sings it more than Ranka), has Brera as a bodyguard, and is more or less aware of Grace's machinations from day 1. And that's just the first ten minutes.
• Cargo Ship: some fans joke that Alto's 'One Twu Wuv' is his VF-25, which can lead to an amusing Take a Third Option regarding his Love Triangle.
  • The VF-25 Alto bails on while it's literally going down in flames?
    • He can get a new one! He's used to it blowing up on him! It's like GIRxPiggy!
• Complete Monster: Grace and The Omniscient Council of Vagueness. If their plan to Take Over The Galaxy including subverting everyone's free will with mind control implants and killing everyone who resisted didn't tip you off, there's always Sheryl's backstory. The way Grace sadistically discards Sheryl after watching her grow up from age seven leaves it pretty clear that Grace crossed the Moral Event Horizon a long time ago.
• Continuity Nod: Alto does the same hand-airplane sign that Isamu does in Macross Plus, the apperance of Ghost V-9's in the final battle, The "Legend of Zero" episode, episode 17 being one long refrence and subversion of the old Macross episode "Pineapple Salad", the ironic twist on "Do You Remember Love". Heck, we could just say the entire show crosses the line into Continuity Porn (although in this case, damn few people would argue that it hurts the series... so far).
• Crazy Awesome: From Sayonara no Tsubasa, I give you Macross Quarter's Big Wednesday Formation.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: A fair few, but special credit has to go to the end of The Wings of Goodbye... Where the Love Triangle featured as the trope pic is resolved after four years.

Alto Saotome: "Sheryl... Even though it may be too late, I love you."

• Crowning Music of Awesome: Considering how important music is to the overall plot, this comes as no surprise.
  • Considering the soundtrack was composed by Yoko Kanno, this should come as no surprise.
• Death of the Author: This along with the fact that the movies are Alternate Continuty have been what alot of Ranka/Harem fans have been hanging on to since the movies came out.
• Die for Our Ship: Ranka, in the eyes of Sheryl/Alto shippers. Sheryl, in the eyes of Ranka/Alto shippers. Both sides are equally pretty bad though.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Subverted, though Grace is really popular amongst fans, they don't make her out to be an victim.
• Fan Nickname:
  • As a result of Memetic Mutation, Ranka is sometimes referred to as "Nyan Nyan";
  • Part of the fandom has started calling Brera "Evil Jesus" due to his resembling Kira Yamato (and having the same voice actor), whose Fan Nickname is "Jesus Yamato". The movie version of Brera is known as Undercoverpriestcop because of his outfit.
  • To differentiate between her two forms, some referred to macronized (Zentradi size) Klan Klan as Klan-sama.
  • Bobby Margot, SMS helmsman of the macross quarter, is often called GARby by fans when he has his Hot-Blooded moments (those moments being referred to as entering GARby mode).
  • towards the end of the series, the three bridge bunnies (Monica, Mina and Ram) were referred to as "Bobby's Daughters".
  • Alto has several of these, there's Alto-hime (that was used in the show by mikhail) Pilot-hime (after he finally got designated a pilot) Kabuki-hime (reference to his past as a kabuki performer) & Sakura-hime (again referencing his past in kabuki theater, but more specifically the name of the last kabuki play he performed in.).
  • Sheryl's boobs have the nickname of Hopes and Dreams after an infamous scene in episode 11 which basically involves Sheryl groping her own boobs while declaring that her chest gives people "hopes and dreams".
  • Grace's boobs are known as Despairs and Nightmares after a somewhat less infamous scene where Grace gropes her own boobs while she monologues her evil plan, earning the nickname by Memetic Mutation from Sheryl's own scene.
• Internet Backdraft: Do not and I repeat do not bring up Ranka's character development, or her behavior, actions or lack thereof over the course of the TV series in any Macross Forum. You will start a war. Movie Ranka is safe though.
  • If you think this was bad, just wait till more people see the second movie. Kawamori, You Bastard!
• He's Just Hiding. Alto Saotome's fate in the end of Sayonara no Tsubasa: Movie-verse only.
  • And in Sheryl's case it's "She's Just Sleeping", though this is slightly more justified, as she visibly stirs at the end.
• Magnificent Bastard: Grace O'Connor. She turns the entirety of Macross Galaxy into a Hive Mind with herself as the Queen, infiltrates Macross Frontier without even bothering to use an alias or hide her cybernetic implants, killed a little girl's parents for revenge on her family, then had said little girl live on the streets as a beggar for her pure enjoyment, then infects her with the V-type virus which would slowly kill her, then turned little girl into the into a pop idol, solely to use her fame and fold-wave-producing voice for her own benefit (then dumped her the second that a superior replacement was found), manipulated Brera into kidnapping and brainwashing his own sister against his will, completely out-maneuvered co-conspirator Leon Mishima, died twice without casting suspicion on herself, and finally achieves her goal of becoming a Super Dimensional Being: The Verse's equivalent of a god. And she does the whole thing while rocking the sexy office lady/librarian look, which provides no real measurable effect, but is probably worth style points.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Nyan Nyan, Nyan Nyan, ni-hao Nyan! Gorgeous, Delicious, Deculture!
  • Ninjin loves you, Yeah!
  • How Grace got her Fan Nickname is a significant case. Grace never says the name, but she happened to grope her breasts anyway, and everyone happened to remember Sheryl's infamous scene introducing "Hopes and Dreams", and since Grace is EVIL, it was inverted: "Despairs and Nightmares"
• Mis Blamed: A strange combination of types 3,4, and 5 in regards to Kawamori. Fans blame Kawamori for not resolving the love triangle in the last episode because of favoritism and marketing, however this belief was due to a bunch of faked interviews mentioned in the main pages description. In actuality it was Yoshino the series script writer who was at fault for the love triangle not resolving, and for none of the reasons previously thought. But some of the Fan Dumb who Did Not Do the Research still blames Kawamori for what happened.
• Narm: In episode 19, Ranka is running upstairs to the launch deck, elated because she thinks Alto loves her, when she suddenly barges in on Alto comforting Sheryl (who had collapsed due to her illness, but Ranka doesn't know about that). On the one hand, it's sad to see poor, brokenhearted Ranka stand there, saying, "It can't be..." with a frozen smile on her face. On the other, it becomes hilarious when one remembers that this is Alto Saotome, and that his predecessor was often caught in the exact same situations, with the exact same results. Ranka should have screamed "I HATE YOU, ALTO!" and punch him into the distance.
  • Then we have the acronym of the New U.N. Spacy. NUNS. YES, REALLY.
• Nightmare Fuel: Almost every shot of Grace in the last 2 episodes.
  • Right in the first episode, a Vajra mecha grabs Alto's partner and crushes him in its bare hands like a bug. We don't see the body fortunately, but we do see a lot of blood coming from between its fingers.
• One True Pairing: Mikhail and Klan.
• Ship Sinking: The writers finally made an effort to shut up the Alto/Ranka and Alto/Sheryl shippers in the movies by having Alto ultimately pick Sheryl over Ranka.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Alto/Ranka vs Alto/Sheryl. So vicious that the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the other. Well... sort of.
• Tear Jerker: Michael. Episode 20. Killed Off for Real.
  • Subverted with a Lampshade Hanging and a big middle finger to the audience with Ozma, which the writers decided to play as many parallels to Roy Fokker's death as possible.
  • The ending to The Wings of Goodbye.
• Theiss Titillation Theory: Sheryl's stage wear. Though, unlike other examples, Sheryl's physics-defying wardrobe has an excuse — it's entirely digital. She's really wearing a full-boy hologram suit.
• Ugly Cute: Ai-kun in his second form.
• Villain Decay: The Ghost V-9 drones, the mass-production model of the deadly Ghost X-9 of Macross Plus, which could singlehandedly dogfight two Ace Pilots in Super Prototypes to a standstill,) are reduced to being mere Elite Mooks in the final battle of Frontier. To be fair, it has been almost 20 years since the events of Macross Plus, with requisite advantages in technology. Besides, you still never see one get taken out by a human pilot - the only thing that is shown actually standing up to Galaxy's V-9s are Luca's own AIF-7S's once released to full AI control. Also, as soon as all of the non-hero pilots see them, they instantly crap their pants and are shown getting blown up rather quickly.
• The Woobie: Ranka and Sheryl, especially after Episode 18.