Miriya Parina Sterling

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This article is about the character from Robotech. See Milia Fallyna Jenius for the original inspiration for this character in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into List of Robotech characters. (Discuss)

Miriya Parina Sterling, voiced by Edie Mirman, is one of the fictional characters in the anime television series Robotech. She is the self-styled "finest combat pilot in all the Zentraedi forces".

[edit] First Robotech War

Miriya enters the First Robotech War as Commander Azonia's first officer and the leader of the Quadrono forces. Miriya is a female warlord and is considered the greatest warrior of all the Zentraedi. She is a fearsome warrior who pilots the Zentraedi Power Armor and she considered herself to be unbeatable in combat. Upon a challenge from Khyron that there was a "Micronian" [human] ace aboard the SDF-1 that even she could not best, Miriya takes it upon herself to engage him in combat but finds herself frustrated as she cannot defeat him. Determined to maintain her reputation, Miriya, after being micronized to human form, infiltrates the SDF-1 to find the pilot. At a video game arcade, she again finds herself unbeatable until she is challenged to a duel by Max Sterling, an incredibly skilled pilot and the pilot whom Miriya had dueled against in real combat. Max, who is attracted to Miriya, challenges her to a video game, in which Max defeats her. Miriya concludes (correctly) that Max must be the ace pilot which she faced in real combat. Max asks her out on a date, and Miriya still determined to defeat her, accepts, although she secretly plots to kill him. Later, when Max meets with her, Miriya reveals that she is a Zentraedi and tries to kill him with a knife. After a short fight, Max disarms her. Beaten for a third time, Miriya becomes emotionally despondent, falls to her knees, and asks Max to end her life. Crying, Miriya believes she cannot live with the shame of being defeated and that her only option now is death. However, Max says he could never kill her because she is so beautiful. Max and Miriya look into each other's eyes and Miriya realizes that the feelings she holds toward Max are not of hate but of love. The two are quickly married him in a historic wedding aboard the SDF-1. They are the first union of a human and a Zentraedi, which becomes an unlikely symbol of peace between the two races. In a subsequent battle, Miriya shows Max how to disable Zentraedi power armer without killing the pilots and in response, a wave a mutanies spreads through the Zentraedi fleet, forcing Breetai to call a truce with the SDF-1.

Miriya sticks by Max's side through the war and helps rebuild Earth from the ashes left by Dolza's fleet. Miriya becomes Max's wingmate and pilots a distinctive red veritech fighter alongside Max's blue one. Within two years of their marriage, Miriya gives birth to a daughter, Dana Sterling, the first child born from a Human/Zentraedi union. For Miriya, the emotional changes she experiences during the series are profound - that she, a former Zentraedi warrior, who had known nothing but war, could ever fall in love or produce a life inside her own body. Miriya, along with Max, later blast their way into an enemy Zentraedi factory satellite and proudly displays her baby daughter to the Zentraedi onboard. The Zentraedi, who have never seen a baby before, conclude Dana is a mutation and might be contagious and flee in terror, allowing the United Earth Forces and their Zentraedi allies under Breetai to seize the factory. Miriya and Max also fight alongside Rick Hunter in the final battle against Khyron and the rebel Zentraedi.

[edit] Robotech Expeditionary Force

In 2022, Miriya joins her husband, Max, and their friends Rick and Lisa Hunter aboard the SDF-3 Pioneer Expedition in search of the Robotech Masters' homeworld. Max and Miriya reluctantly leave Dana, now eight years old, behind with Major General Rolf Emerson. Dana would become the leading character of the Second Robotech War. During the expedition, Max and Miriya have a second daughter, Maia Sterling, who would become the leader of Skull Squadron during the Battle of Reflex Point. Max and Miriya hoped that the mission would be over quickly but events would keep the SDF-3 away from Earth for the rest of Dana's childhood.

[edit] Current Status

Miriya's status and location in the new Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles saga is unknown. Unlike the rest of Robotech's surviving first generation characters, there is no mention of Miriya in the comic series Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Many fans consider this and the fact that all of the other Zentraedi characters of note are already deceased as evidence that Miriya herself has already passed away. One explanation that has been proposed is that Miriya died giving birth to Maia Sterling, which would also explain the tension between Maia and Dana Sterling in the comic series. Another explanation is that Dana is angry that, after being left behind on Earth, her parents had another daughter and that she had, in her mind, been "replaced" by Maia. However, there is no evidence to support either of these explanations, although it is possible that Miriya's fate will be revealed in a future Robotech installment.