Photo Essay – Part 2: Episodes 37 to 85 and beyond

The Robotech Masters at a mushroom-like control panel. The characters presented in this image as Robotech Masters are adapted from a cartoon titled Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross in which they are referred to as a race of beings called the Zor.

Fly agaric mushrooms

A triumvirate of Robotech Masters at a control panel somewhat resembling a jellyfish.

A jellyfish

Dana Sterling in her Army of the Southern Cross armor. This character was adapted from the Jeanne Francaix character of Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. Jeanne Franscaix’ armor was called an arming doublet. Her helmet resembles a Viking helmet or winged Valkyrie helmet.

A ceremonial Attic helmet from 300 BC.

Soldiers in the Army of the Southern Cross resembling Japanese Samurai.

Samurai armor originating in the year 800.

Samurai armor originating in the year 800.

Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard (Claude Leon) portrays the Bald of Evil trope. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay listing other examples of this trope.

An AGAC (Assault or Armored Gyro Attack Chopper) in battloid mode from Episode 50: Triumvirate (Triple Mirror) portraying vertical mecha fins. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay for additional examples of vertical mecha fins. The mecha portrayed here is also referred to as an Ajax, Veritech Copter, and Veritech Chopper adapted from the Auroran in the original Japanese series.

Dana’s VHT-1 Veritech Hover Tank (ATAC-01-SCA Spartas) in battloid mode possesses a red, white, and blue color scheme. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay for a discussion of this color scheme.

Musica at her cosmic harp. This character resembles Miriya from the first Robotech war as each character is a member of an exclusively female gender group. Each also surrenders a tool or instrument which may symbolize a male anatomical pseudo appendage. Each character has green hair. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay for an examination of similar imagery pertaining to Miriya.

An electronic massager or male anatomical pseudo appendage

An electronic massager or male anatomical pseudo appendage

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus from 1480 utilizes a scallop shell which resembles Musica’s harp. Venus is the Goddess of love, desire, and victory which may all be qualities of Musica’s character design.

Onboard the Robotech Masters’ Mothership the clones live in a city of structures reminiscent of Greco-Roman Architecture.

The Collosseum from the year 72.

This image from Episode 55 shows organic structures inside the Robotech Masters’ ship which are similar to those of the Invid Hives.

Bioroids from Episode 41: Half Moon somewhat resembling Zaku II mobile suits.

The MS-06 Zaku II which appearred in 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam.

A variant mobile suit known as MS-06S Char’s Zaku II from a 2001 manga.

An Invid Scout adapted from the Inbit Eager in 1983’s Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Dive Armor) somewhat resembles a crab.

Maryland Blue Crab

A cooked Atlantic Red Crab

Invid Shocktrooper (Inbit Grob with twin energy cannons)

Invid carrier (Inbit Sheldo)

Clams

Invid carrier

Clam

The Invid Regent’s flagship over the planet Haydon IV as seen in The Sentinels comic books. The Regent’s flagship somewhat resembles a starfish.

The Invid Regent’s flagship

A starfish

The Invid Regent’s flagship

An Invid hive with stalks rising into the sky. The Invid hive somewhat resembles a bee hive or insect colony.

A bee hive

A wasp nest

A wasp nest

A termite mound

An Invid hive with stalks rising into the sky. These stalks somewhat resemble something alien or foreboding. Humans have negative connotations with insects and fungus and this imagery may help define the Invid as the antagonists of the third Robotech war.

The fruiting bodies of a pin mold named Phycomyces blakesleeanus.

A carnivorous plant named Cape Sundew.

An Invid shocktrooper with stalks in the background

A colored scanning electron micrograph of a slime mold sporangium

Sporangium illustration

A Sotol plant with a bloom stalk. The desert habitat may allude to an inhospitable environment. This imagery may help define the Invid as the antagonists of the third Robotech war.

Sotol plants with bloom stalks

The Mexican grass tree with bloom stalks

The Regis, Sera, and Corg among possible Invid eggs as seen in Episode 76: Metamorphosis adapted from Episode 16: Trap Reggae of Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.

Ant eggs prior to the pupae and larvae stages.

Bee pupa

Sera and Corg among possible Invid eggs as seen in Episode 76: Metamorphosis.

Bee pupa

Bees and honeycomb

The village portrayed in Episode 74: Annie’s Wedding adapted from Episode 14: Mint’s Wedding March of GCM was broadcast in Japan on 1/8/1984. It somewhat resembles Bright Tree Village seen in 1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.

The Ewok’s Bright Tree Village

A Hellcat, an Invid inorganic drone, as seen in 1988’s direct to video Robotech II: The Sentinels. It somewhat resembles a prehistoric saber-toothed cat.

An artist’s rendering of a saber-toothed cat

Saber-toothed cat fossilized skeleton

A Hellcat

A Voltron Lion adapted from 1981’s Beast King GoLion.

Shock troopers marching into Tiresia on Tirol somewhat resembling crabs.

Giant spider crabs migrating.

Christmas Island red crab migration

Invid Scorpion Assault Carrier as seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels.

Emperor scorpion

Pre-production artwork portraying an Invid land crusier.

Zentreadi machinery mining for monopole ore on Fantoma. The machinery resembles a scorpion. This image is from Issue 19 Book 3 of The Sentinels comics.

Lance “Lancer” Belmont disguised as his female gender Yellow Dancer alter ego.

Japanese kabuki theater utilizes onnagata which are male actors portraying female characters which helps illuminate the Yellow Dancer character for Western audiences.

The SDF-3 somewhat resembling a locust.

A locust

A silhouette of the SDF-3

A locust

The Farrago as seen in The Sentinels comic books. Four ships docked together are shown in this panel. The central ship is a Karbarran design resembling a grasshopper.

The Farrago separating into its component ships to destroy an Invid Pursuer as depicted in Issue 4 of Book 2 of The Sentinels comic book.

This image portrays Sue Graham in Episode 83: Reflex Point. Her character design recalls Minmei as she was often dressed in red and portraying the Lady in Red trope. The color red symbolizes romantic availability and moral ambiguity in Western cultures. Red may symbolize good luck and happiness in Eastern cultures.

The Invid Regis from Episode 85. Her garment seems to have green faces resembling Janus masks. The Regis also portrays the Lady in Red trope. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay for examples of this trope and the Bald of Evil trope.

A bust of Janus from the Vatican Museum in Rome. Janus is a Roman god with two faces. He is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. Janus presides over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth, journeys, and travelling. These qualities may all help characterize the Regis.

The Sock and Buskin are the ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. The faces on the Regis’ garments somewhat resemble these symbols. This may symbolize the opposite natures of her children Corg, Sera, and Ariel.

The Invid Regent with a hood somewhat resembling a snake hood. This character design element along with unblinking reptilian eyes may help identify the Regent as an antagonist as snakes often have a negative connotation in human culture.

A king cobra

An illustration of the Invid life cycle.

Crab life cycle

Coconut rhinoceros beetle life cycle

Polymorphism in ants

Polymorphism in ants

Pre-production art for Robotech II: The Sentinels portraying a Praxian named Bela. The Praxians are an homage to the Amazons of Greek mythology. Bela’s helmet portrays a crowning animal head similar to the griffin crowning the Attic helmet shown earlier in this essay.

A Praxian named Gnea

An image of an Amazonian in a kylix or Greek bowl from 500 BC. Refer to Part 1 of this photo essay for a discussion and example of Valkyries from SDF Macross. While Valkyries and Amazons are unrelated, they do bear some similarities.

A mecha design based upon pre-production art portraying the RAT-1 Pegasus (Reconnaissance All-Terrain) later described in the novel Dark Powers by Jack McKinney and illustrated in The Sentinels comic books.

A Pegasus

Gnea and Bela in the saddle of their Pegasus mecha inside the armory onboard the Farrago in Issue 9 of Book 2 of The Sentinels Comic. Gnea refers to this mecha as Hallidarre.

Issue 6 from November 1989 of a fanzine (fanatic magazine) titled Protoculture Addicts. Enthusiasm for Robotech somewhat resembles Otaku culture in Japan.

An intravenous drug addict using a tourniquet to locate a vein for injection.

As the Invid exit Earth in Episode 85 they transmutate into pure energy which takes three forms. One of these forms is the shape of a phoenix. This avian imagery may recall a theme of romantic elusiveness demonstrated by Minmei providing cohesive thematic bookends to the Robotech television show between Episode 1 and 85. The phoenix may also recall Lisa’s emmergence and resurrection from the wreckage of the SDF-1 in Episode 36. This image may also borrow from the historic symbolism of a phoenix and portray the cyclical nature of life and the rebirth of the Invid race.

Phoenix and roses, detail. Pavement mosaic (marble and limestone), year 250 AD. From Daphne, a suburb of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (now Antakya in Turkey).

As the Invid exit Earth in Episode 85 they transmutate into pure energy which takes three forms. One form is a dragon which may recall subconscious impressions of the veritechs as dragons as discussed in Part 1 of this photo essay. This imagery may provide cohesive thematic bookends to the Robotech television show between Episodes 1 and 85.