History Anime / RobotechIITheSentinels

Due to the show being canned, the bulk of the story was told through various adaptations, based on the scripts and technical notes provided by Harmony Gold. The one adaptation that reached completion was the {{novelization}} written by Jack [=McKinney=][[note]]A PenName for James Luceno and Creator/BrianDaley[[/note]], published in 1988 after the adaptations of the original series. A [[{{OEL Manga}} comic book]] adaptation of the story published by Eternity Comics (an imprint of Malibu Comics), and later by indie publisher Academy Comics, ran from 1988 through 1996, but was cancelled short of completion.

* BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: In ''The Sentinels'', [[spoiler: Breetai]] activates a SelfDestructMechanism to [[TakingYouWithMe take down]] [[spoiler: the Invid Regent]].

* DownerEnding: ''The End Of The Circle'' picks up at the same point as ''Shadow Chronicles'', but proceeds with wildly varying, yet ''completely'' different tones, ranging from Downer ([[spoiler:Sera wastes away without the Regis, and Ariel/Marlene is next for most of the book]]) to just plain stone cold stupid ([[spoiler: After a variety of weirdness including the main characters' kids summoning the SDF-1's missing fold drive by chanting "Ro-Bo-Tech", Minmei is stranded in a pocket universe with Rem -- a ''Sentinels'' character who was another clone of Zor -- and pregnant with Rem's child, who is somehow going to actually ''be'' the original Zor, bringing time loops into everything at the last minute.]])

''Robotech II: The Sentinels'' was an attempt to produce original content and a sequel series after the end of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}''. Harmony Gold USA worked with Tatsunoko Productions in producing the show, but only three episodes were worked on before the rest was cancelled because of the crash of the Dollar to Yen exchange rate in the 1980s, which forced Matchbox to back out as a sponsor. Since HG was not able to finance the show's production, it was decided to make it a feature film instead, which was released initially on September 1988, followed by Creator/StreamlinePictures later released it in 1992. A remastered version was recently released with the ''Robotech: The Complete Set'' collection in 2011 and in 2013 from Lionsgate, showing the first three animated episodes as originally intended.

''Robotech II: The Sentinels'' was an attempt to produce original content and a sequel series after the end of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}''. Harmony Gold USA worked with Tatsunoko Productions in producing the show, but only three episodes were worked on before the rest was cancelled because of the crash of the Dollar to Yen exchange rate in the 1980s, which forced Matchbox to back out as a sponsor. Since HG was not able to finance the show's production, it was decided to make it a feature film instead, which was released initially on September 1988. Creator/StreamlinePictures later released it in 1992. A remastered version was recently released with the ''Robotech: The Complete Set'' collection in 2013 from Lionsgate.

** In the novelizations, the Invid Regent and Breetai die in single-combat in the skies over Optera. This was invented for the novelizations; in the TV series the Regent died much earlier at T.R. Edwards' hands, who proceeded to crawl into his exoskeleton and take control of the Invid. Daley and Luceno chose to have him die in a more fitting way, and give Breetai (who hadn't been doing much in the TV series) a heroic death. The trouble is that the novels also had Breetai returned to giant size so he could lead a contingent of Zentraedi to mine monopole ore on Fantoma. The Regent is only about 15 feet tall, Breetai should have been able to squash him in his hand, like Creator/JohnGoodman did to that frog in Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou . (The cover artist seems to have seen this problem, and has the micronized Breetai on the cover of ''Rubicon''.)

''Robotech II: The Sentinels'' was an attempt to produce original content and a sequel series after the end of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}''. Harmony Gold USA worked with Tatsunoko Productions in producing the show, but only three episodes were worked on before the rest was cancelled because of the crash of the Dollar to Yen exchange rate in the 1980s, which forced Matchbox to back out as a sponsor. Since HG was not able to finance the show's production, it was decided to make it a feature film instead, which was released initially on September 1988. Streamline Pictures later released it in 1992. A remastered version was recently released with the Robotech: The Complete Set collection in 2013 from Lionsgate.

The Sentinels takes place in 2022, with Rick and Lisa already married and the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) being raised and the SDF-3 being deployed to search for the Robotech Masters' homeworld, known publicly as the '''Pioneer Expedition'''. The SDF-3 would work alongside [[LaResistance the Sentinels]] in fighting the Invid Regent. Meanwhile, the United Earth Government has been defeated by Invid forces under the command of the Regess. This forced the UE military to scatter and go underground.

Due to the show being canned, numerous novel and comic book writers have written various adapations of the Sentinels based on the scripts and technical notes provied by HG.

However in 2005, HG had announced that the Sentinel saga was being retconned in favor of having ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles'', although a prequel comic ''Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles'' was used to connect some Sentinels events to the Shadow Chronicles arc.

** In the ''Sentinels'' novels Breetai is proud of how the Zentadi have fixed this design flaw, something his culture was psychologically incapable of doing before.
* AttackItsWeakpoint:
** In the first Robotech war, Miriya tells Max where to shot the Zentradi battle pods to disable them without killing the pilots. Of course you have to be BEHIND the battle pod to do this, and it's a small target.
** The rank and file Invid mecha and the ironically named Bioroid Invid Fighter, both suffer a similar design flaw: the lens that lets the pilot see out of the mecha. This gives you a clean shot to the pilot inside.
* Deconstructed with the Robotech Master's flagship, the heroes find a weakness, and ''Film/ANewHope'' style manage to bring down the alien ship... but when the heroes try the trick again, they find out the [[ItOnlyWorksOnce Robotech Master have correct this flaw.]]

* BackForTheDead: Lynn Kyle in the Sentinels. He reappears at a crucial moment to save Minmei, and is shot dead by T.R. Edwards. It was not intended to be this arbitrary, since Kyle was supposed to appear as a mysterious character in the background throughout the series before suddenly revealing himself when he tried to save Minmei, but the authors of the novelization only put in one of these references and there is no implication that he's anyone other than a normal bartender. (He's the one who switches on the intercom and broadcasts Minmei's lonely rendition of "We Will Win" at the bar piano as the Sentinels leave the Tirol system.) This is similar to how Sue Graham and young Scott Bernard were supposed to be reoccurring characters but only appeared once or twice in inconsequential roles.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Jack Baker and Karen Penn (The Sentinels, especially the Jack [=McKinney=] novels). It was meant to be a counterpart of Rick and Lisa's initial arc.

* CanonForeigner: Most of the cast of ''The Sentinels'' in an effort to give the show original content.

* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: The [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] of the Garudans ([[BeastMan fox people]]) from ''The Sentinels''. Their homeworld's atmosphere is a mixture of chemicals and microorganisms that drive most other species to madness if they breathe it; Garudans have evolved (with the help of the Precursor Haydon) into a symbiosis that allows them a virtually mystic awareness bordering on full-fledged PsychicPowers. [[spoiler:During the last battle against T.R. Edwards in the ''Sentinels'' novels, Rick and Lisa are forced to take a few controlled breaths of Garudan air in order to avoid the dangers of the Invid hive on Optera.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: The Sentinles has another instance at the press conference before the launch of the Pioneer Mission and the Robotech Expeditionary Force with the heavily armed SDF-3 to try and reach a compromise with the Robotech Masters before they attack Earth. When Exedore explains that the Pioneer Mission includes so many heavily armed warships in spite of being a diplomatic mission is because they don't know how the Masters will react and there are no apparent threats to Earth anyway, Leonard jumps up and starts screaming apocalyptic predictions that ''come to pass exactly'': he's not so optimistic about the lack of an enemy threat, and as the watchers already know ''the Masters are already coming to Earth'' (also making the Pioneer mission useless), and that's without Tesla, TheDragon to the Invid Regent, suggesting to track down Zor's ship (the Regent refuses because he hates the Masters too much to abandon the attack on Tirol, but that could have been another threat to Earth), or the Regess deploying the Sensor Nebula to track down the Flower of Life (and that ''is'' another threat to Earth); he declares that "the departure of the SDF-3 and its weapon systems will make Earth hopelessly vulnerable to attack!", and the Masters' motherships have DeflectorShields that make them heavily resistant to anything less than the [[WaveMotionGun Reflex Cannons]] mounted ''exclusively'' on the SDF-3 and some of her escorts, and it's only the return of two waves of REF ships that give the Southern Cross the firepower to score a PyrrhicVictory; he shouts that in case of attack the Robotech Expeditionary Force will be at the other side of the galaxy , and when the Masters arrive the REF is in fact going in that direction. He's so right, and being a jerk about it, it's almost painful to watch...

* PlotHole: In the novelizations, the Invid Regent and Breetai die in single-combat in the skies over Optera. This was invented for the novelizations; in the TV series the Regent died much earlier at T.R. Edwards' hands, who proceeded to crawl into his exoskeleton and take control of the Invid. Daley and Luceno chose to have him die in a more fitting way, and give Breetai (who hadn't been doing much in the TV series) a heroic death. The trouble is that the novels also had Breetai returned to giant size so he could lead a contingent of Zentraedi to mine monopole ore on Fantoma. The Regent is only about 15 feet tall, Breetai should have been able to squash him in his hand, like Creator/JohnGoodman did to that frog in Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou . (The cover artist seems to have seen this problem, and has the micronized Breetai on the cover of ''Rubicon''.)

* PragmaticVillain: While the Sentinels shows the Pollinators are not immune to captivity, in the novelization the Robotech Masters know that trying to simply shoot Polly is a waste of their now very precious time.