2. The Death of Roy Fokker - Robotech

Characters: Roy Fokker (Dan Woren)
                  Claudia Grant (Iona Morris)

Scene Summary: Roy Fokker is wounded in a dog fight with a Zentraedi ace. It doesn't appear serious at first, but certain clues let the audience know that it's pretty bad. He receives treatment but as soon as the doctors leave him he disconnects the machine that is giving him a blood transfusion and goes to his girlfriend's quarters to keep the dinner plans they made. As Claudia is cooking she complains a little about his seeming non-chalance in combat situations. He responds my telling her he doesn't think of it as a game. Her back is turned as she responds to him and when she turns around it looks as if he's fallen asleep. She says his name trying to wake him, but he groans and falls face first onto the floor of the apartment. The scene fades to Roy covered on bed and medical personnel explaining to Claudia that he bled to death internally. The scene ends with a distraught Claudia falling beside the bed and sobbing over his dead body.

Thoughts: I can still remember the shock I felt when I first saw this scene. Cartoon heroes don't die, they just don't. It doesn't matter if they get shot at every day,they always come through and vanquish the enemy. The Japenese (Macross) version of this was even more raw. He actually bled to death. It was pouring out his back when he hit the floor. After rewatching the scene a few times I realized that this was an excellent commentary on the unpredictable nature of war. I also realized how brave it was to present. Truly killing a lead character in a cartoon was nearly unheard of in America at the time. The writing, voice acting, and animation in this scene were truly top notch as well. Robotech has many scenes of this caliber, but this was the one that's always stuck with me.

Quote: No quote or video today. I couldn't find a clip in either a dubbed or subbed format and transcripts are pretty non-existant.

See you tomorrow for the grand finale!