Robotech has so many "Shaggy Dog" Stories to need its own page.
- In the "Macross" arc, Earth's goal is to defend themselves from the still mysterious invaders, while the Zentraedi have orders from the Robotech Masters to try and capture the SDF-1, that unknown to Earth contains the last working Protoculture Matrix and the seeds of the Flower of Life. After various battles Breetai, the commander of the Zentraedi expeditionary force, seeing his forces have been culturally contaminated by humanity realizes that their supreme commander Dolza would have them all killed to prevent a mutiny and decides to negotiate a ceasefire and an alliance... And his subordinate Azonia, not realizing the consequences, calls Dolza and informs him of what's happening, getting him to come and attack with overwhelming force now. While Dolza dies and his fleet is destroyed, Earth has been devastated by orbital bombardment, the Earth-aligned Zentraedi decimated, and many of the survivors, having trouble inserting themselves in Earth's society, start the Malcontent Uprisings, with some throwing their lot with Khyron, a member of Breetai's force that remained loyal to the Masters.
- After the timeskip in the "Macross" arc, Global and the United Earth Government have decided to send the Pioneer Mission, also known as Robotech Expeditionary Force, to Tirol, the Masters' homeworld, to either negotiate a peace or fight the next war away from Earth, and invested a large amount of resources into it... And at the end of the arc, Khyron's final attack destroys the new flagship SDF-2 and sets up the process by years, also killing Global and other important figures. The Pioneer Mission is eventually launched anyway, taking with it enough forces that Anatole Leonard claims that they're leaving the homeworld defenseless against the next threat. Not only Leonard is completely right (while the ASC wins against the next threat, that's after ten years of build up and with reinforcements from the REF, and it was a close thing), the Masters and their personal forces have left Tirol even before Khyron's final attack, and by the time they arrive to Earth the Pioneer Mission is already engaged by forces trying to take advantage of the annihilation of the Zentraedi to carve up their realms in the Masters' former empire and can only send back some task forces.
- Halfway during the "Masters" arc, the Robotech Masters detect the Invid sensor nebula, meaning that their old enemies will discover Earth's supply of Flower of Life and come soon, and while either them or the Army of the Southern Cross wouldn't have much trouble against them at that point the pace of the losses they were inflicting each other meant that if neither side won decisively right now by the time the Invid arrived they would be too weak to stop them even if they joined forces, and Zor Prime reaches the same conclusion. Thus the Masters making various attempts at ending the war quickly, at one point even coming clean and saying that the Invid would show up soon and they needed the Protoculture to rebuild their forces if both were to survive, but both the Earth United Government and the commanders of the Army of the Southern Cross, having no idea who the Invid are, think it's a bluff and continue fighting, defeating the Masters but at the cost of almost the entirety of their forces and the reinforcements from the Robotech Expeditionary Force and the infrastructure to rebuild, while Zor, seeing the situation, resolves to crash the Masters' flagship in the place the Flower of Life is growing to prevent its detection... But instead spreads its seeds all around the globe and makes the sensor nebula detect it much earlier. Thus the Regess and her Invid show up just as the ASC is starting to rebuild and quickly chases them off world, while the Regent and his Invid stay where they are and have just been engaged by the rest of the Robotech Expeditionary Force, keeping them from coming back to Earth and possibly turning the tide. By the time the REF has defeated the Regent, discovered another source of Protoculture and rebuilt their forces, the Invid on Earth have built up to the point they can easily take on expeditionary forces that would have made short work of their initial invasion, as they do in the first episode of the "New Generation" arc.
- During the entire "New Generation" arc, the Robotech Expeditionary Force, after their experience with the Regent, tries to destroy the Invid before they can build their numbers and start a universal conquest, and is ready to strike Earth with weapons of mass destruction if it comes to it. The problem is, the Regess doesn't care for conquest, only to rebuild the Invid numbers, modify their bodies to a form that she deems more suitable, and build up a supply of Flower of Life seeds for their future homeworld, and will leave Earth as soon as she's done. All the REF and the resistance succeed in doing is souring the Invid's opinion of humanity, to the point the Regess starts wondering that maybe the universe would be better if the Invid subjugated them and one of her more warlike subordinates decides that they're an existential threat that should be destroyed while they're still weak, and, as revealed in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, make the Regess aware that their ancient enemies the Children of Shadows are still alive and manipulating the Pioneer Mission to weaken the remaining Protoculture-using factions before swooping in and killing the survivors. The latter results in the Regess suddenly hightailing away from Earth to parts unknown and taking with her Earth's entire supply of Protoculture. And with the SDF-3 missing with their Protoculture Matrix and the one guy who knows how to make more, the Pioneer Expedition has only a year worth of Protoculture before their ships will shut down.
- The Whole Episode Flashback comic "From the Stars" narrates the story of the developing of the Veritech and the Destroids and how it intersected with a coup from the fascist Anti-Unification League. While Roy foils the coup, the mastermind behind it remains unknown to the character, through a panel reveals his identity: it's Anatole Leonard, at the time a colonel leading the development of the Destroids and already highly influential in the military. And from the series proper, we all know how that will end.
