Alternate Character Interpretation: Grace has drastically different depictions between the tv series and the films. In the series, she is shown as the heartless 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. The latter also extends to the "Sheryl - Kiss in the Galaxy" manga.
President Glass is not a bumbling fool in the movies (in some parts), but is one willing to make senseless sacrifices such as treating all legitimate SOS signals as forgeries to compete with other colonial fleets and secure Vajra fold crystals. Although Catherine did suggest that Leon is trying to manipulate her father's thinking.
Badass 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.
Complete Monster: The original version of Dr. Grace O'Connor plans to Mind Control the alien Vajra into subjugating humanity and the Zentradi under her control and killing those who resist. Murdering the parents of the seven-year-old Sheryl Nome, Grace torments the then-homeless girl while she is all alone, before using Sheryl in a painful experiment which killed her previous eight subjects, and guarantees Sheryl will die in a decade. Although Grace admits she grows to gain some genuine affection for Sheryl, she decides these feelings will get in the way of her galaxy conquering goals and electronically deletes them from her own brain.
Death of the Author: This along with the fact that the movies are Alternate Continuity have been what a lot 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.
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.
On certain internet forums, specifically those dedicated to comparing multiple series in fictional battles, the MDE weapons from Frontier have earned the name "Go the Hell Away Weapons" for their effect of simply warping whatever they hit away into super-dimension space.
He's Just Hiding: Movie-verse only for Alto and Sheryl. Fans questioned whether or not they were dead due to the ambiguity of the ending, but Kawamori clarified that they both survived: Sheryl was in a coma for a while but woke up, while Alto returned to the Frontier Fleet after a bit. Kawamori even expressed shock that anyone thought the two of them ended up dead, as this was apparently not even remotely what he was trying to imply.
Les Yay: Sheryl and Ranka seem at least as into each other as they are into Alto. There is a reason that Marry Them All seems viable to many fans.
"Hopes and Dreams" as the Fan Nickname for Sheryl's breasts, after she states that they give people them. This of course leads to.
Grace's own Fan Nickname. Grace never says the name, but she happens to grope her breasts anyway, causing fans to remember Sheryl's infamous scene introducing "Hopes and Dreams". Since Grace is evil, the fans naturally inverted the phrase to "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. Due to a slight but significant mistranslation of Yoshino's fanbook interview, fans then started blaming Yoshino. However, what Yoshino actually revealed in his fanbook interview was that "everyone" came to the same idea around the same time: that it didn't have to end with Alto choosing someone. But some of the fans still blame Kawamori or Yoshino for what happened.
Moe: Ranka is this to some degree. Klan also appears as such, though one could classify her as a deconstruction.
Ranka is also a bit of a deconstruction (arguably) with the Moe points she has, though not to the extent of Klan. Namely, despite her cuteness, it does not stop her from making decisions that are less than impressive to some viewers.
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.
Nightmare Fuel: Almost every shot of Grace in the last 2 episodes.
Right in the first episode, a Vajra mecha grabs Henry and crushes him in its bare hands like a bug despite firing his assault rifle at its face. We don't see the body fortunately, but we do see a lot of blood coming from between its fingers.
One True Threesome: While the Love Triangle between Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka has a large amount of Ship-to-Ship Combat, there is a substantial faction of fans who would rather solve it by having all three hook up. The amount of Threesome Subtext and open ending in the original series helps fuel this, and a few fanfics explore the idea.
Ship Mates: In a post Frontier world, many shippers that go for Alto/Sheryl also like to ship Brera/Ranka, that is if they don't ship them all together. It helps that the novelization supports both pairings.
It's even worse when both sides start using Slut-Shaming against the other. Sheryl/Alto fans say that Ranka is a barely legal skank and jail bait who uses her cute looks to attract Alto so he won't choose a "Stronger, Perfect And Better Developed Real Woman" like Sheryl, while Ranka/Alto fans retort that Sheryl's Stripperiffic outfits and large breasts make her a slut unlike sweet and poor and flatchested Ranka.
Shocking Moments: This is the Macross series' answer to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Just one example: for this series' appearance of the Monster they had the on-screen debut of the Konig Monster (notably, it caused this reaction in-universe when Alto realized what the shuttle called Rabbit 1 really was).
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-body hologram suit.
The Vajra's existence could potentially qualify, as much of the mystery surrounding themnote such as Ranka's connection with them via the V-type microorganisms in her gut as well as Sheryl's less potent version of her ability, the existence and purpose of the Vajra Queen and the true properties of the Fold Crystals that the creatures produce wasn't expounded in great detail until nearly the end of the series, which came across as a rush job. Some fans consider them a less interesting antagonist compared to the N.U.N.S. political conspiracy and even the original series' Zentradi because of this.
Due to a slight but significant mistranslation of Yoshino's fanbook interview, fans then started blaming Yoshino. However, what Yoshino actually revealed in his fanbook interview was that "everyone" came to the same idea around the same time: that it didn't have to end with Alto choosing someone. But some of the fans still blame Kawamori or Yoshino for what happened.
