#he survived the entire fucking empire I think he can put down one remnant of a dead order

[lucifra-writes]

Concept: Star Wars AU where everything is the same except for that like five minutes before Yoda shows up to confront chancellor Emperor Palpatine, Quinlan Vos drops from the ceiling and splits him in half before he even notices anything’s wrong

#fanfiction #lucifra speaks #star wars #quinlan vos #shitpost #kinda #this is just a silly oneshot idea #he’s like 5% less chaotic than obi-wan and he should have more screen time #you could not convince me this isn’t something he would try #he’s just as much a dramatic showman as the rest of the order #and I think he could actually pull it off #he survived the entire fucking empire I think he can put down one remnant of a dead order

[askmerriauthor]

Jedi: Fallen Order thoughts 2/?

Discussion on "Star Wars - Jedi: Fallen Order". First post here, spoilers and lengthy rambling after the jump.

Honestly, I love this box art so much purely for the facts that 1) I made sure to remove that poncho the instant I could because the game's cloth dynamic rendering had it flailing about wildly as if it were trying to attack the universe through sheer defiance of physics in every cutscene. And 2) see that alien dude on the left with a pistol? In-game, he's an utter coward who never once participates in anything remotely resembling violence and sure as hell never wields a gun. It just reminds me of how Kirby is always given angry eyebrows in the US because marketing people are fucking stupid and think players won't be drawn to the game with an abjectly cute mascot.

So! The story.

As mentioned in my previous post, "Fallen Order" basically wants to tell a Found Family tale about a ragtag group of remnants who leave behind their previous lives and forge a new future together. We have our main character Cal Kestis; a former Padawan who survived Order 66 and has been in hiding for a handful of years. Cere Junda; a former Jedi who's cut herself off from The Force, Greez Dritus; a gambling addict pilot with a troubled past he's trying to leave behind, and BD-1; an annoyingly named but utterly lovable Droid who is far and away the best character in the entire damn game. There's also Nightsister Merrin; the presumably last survivor of the Nightsisters and potentially Cal's love interest, but she basically only shows up in the last 10 minutes of the game and doesn't get a lot of screentime despite being presented as a major part of the cast.

The game takes place a handful of years after the purge of the Jedi in Order 66, where both Cal and Cere's core character thrust is tied into. Cal was a child who survived only due to his master sacrificing his life to save him and has been wracked with guilt and PTSD ever since. Cere, on the other hand, unintentionally abandoned her own Padawan and other younglings, directly leading to their death, corruption by the Dark Side, and almost falling to the Dark Side herself. The bulk of the narrative throughout the game is dealing with the relationship these two have with one another, coming to terms with their own trauma, and moving forward from there. Meanwhile, the overall plot itself focuses around finding a Holocron that has a map and list of Force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy, which the gang can use to rebuild the Jedi Order while also keeping it - and thus the children - out of The Empire's hands. The whole series of events culminates in a big showdown between Cere's former Padawan whom she abandoned and became corrupted into an Inquisitor, Cal contending with his own guilt, and the decision on whether or not the gang has the right to interfere with the Force-sensitive children's lives and potentially put them in danger if another purge were to occur.

On paper, it's a solid enough story. The actual execution leaves something to be desired.

Something I absolutely hate in games (which has become frustratingly abundant in recent years) is the illusion of choice. If a player is presented with choosing A, B, or C, that decision should matter. Which path is taken should have impact, consequence, and change the course of the story. If all three routes converge back together at the same outcome regardless of what you picked, then your choice never mattered at all. "Fallen Order' suffers from this. There are fairly sporadic points in the game where you're given the option to choose how Cal will reply to a given conversation, or whether or not to take a certain action, but it doesn't matter at all. The conversation's outcome nor the overall story isn't affected by your choice (or even if you bother to have the conversation at all), and the any time you try to do something other than what the game wants you to do, it'll just reset itself endlessly until you cooperate. You have no choice in the matter, but the game makes it appear as if you do to emulate your involvement.

I absolutely hate this in games. If a game presents you with choices, then your choices should have consequences. Your input should matter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a linear, plot-driven game where the player has no direct input on the narrative. If anything, that gives the story even greater opportunities to shine because it allows the writers and directors to be in full control of the presentation, characterization, and story.

At the risk of sounding like a cranky old man, this is very much a "back in my day!" sort of situation where older games wouldn't shy away from simply locking a player out of content if they chose a certain path. If you pick A, you don't get to see what happens down B or C. If you want to join the Jets, you don't get to join the Sharks. If you want to see what lies down those other routes, then replay the game and make different decisions. Sometimes it was a specific design choice, other times it was a way to handle hardware/programming restrictions. But there's a big notion these days in particular where there's a desire to make sure the player sees all the game's content up front. I anecdotally chalk it up to an increase in non-gamers entering into video game development at management level and making design decisions they're not qualified for, but that's just my own take. Like, I understand the thought process behind it. "We have all this content, so we want to make it a selling point and ensure the player gets to see all of it! If they play our game and miss a bunch of stuff, they might bitch at us and cause reviews". I get it, I do. But it's also bullshit because it directly harms the final product. If a game is good, players will replay it ad nauseum for ages beyond release. So they're going to see all the content one way or another. When the "we have to let the player access all content up front" mind set is in effect, it means the player's choices ultimately don't matter and the resulting abundance of content is quantity rather than quality.

In the case of "Fallen Order", your choices don't matter one bit and it's not even out of a case of accessing content. For some reason the developers put in this vestigial, pointless façade of a dialogue tree and choice system when the game frankly would've been far stronger if it had just been left out entirely. Developers have to invest one way or another. Either make it a fully narrative-driven game and tell a solid story, or make it a player-driven game and put in the effort to make the player's choices matter. Especially in a Star Wars game, as RPGs in this franchise have historically have Light/Dark Side choices, character deaths, and alternate endings based on your decisions. A big part of "Fallen Order"'s story is characters contending with the risk of falling to the Dark Side because of their trauma, but the game itself never actually gives the player any chance to explore that at all. It's a huge missed opportunity either way.

I think that's where a lot of the story's trouble comes from in the end. It's a lot of build up on a good idea that fizzles out and goes nowhere. Cal spends the entire game getting to a point where he's ready to move on, and then the game ends. Cere comes to terms with her past mistakes and tries to redeem her fallen Padawan, only for said fallen Padawan to be killed abruptly and completely cut off that entire story thread. Greez's past coming back to haunt him is shoe-horned in randomly and never goes anywhere. Merrin doesn't have enough time on screen to matter. There are three major villains throughout the game who are just cast aside casually and with no lingering impact for ever having been there. The biggest final boss, who has been the core antagonist and a major point of emotional conflict for the entire game, is discarded with no resolution because this is a Star Wars game and we just can't have one that doesn't feature Darth Vader sweeping in to steal the spotlight.

It's just... ugh. There's potential here. There's obvious, glowing moments of potential where things could've been developed into something really impressive if they were just given the opportunity. It feels like a huge waste and the end result is just a "meh" game that doesn't go anywhere, doesn't contribute to the setting, and could very easily be dismissed entirely from the franchise with absolutely no impact.

#star wars #jedi fallen order

[atamascolily]

Okay, I have calmed down enough after reading Aftermath: Empire’s End that I can address the bit that really got to me.

TL;DR: the entire “Contigency” business is based on an extended chess metaphor and... I have questions.

Previously, we have learned that a Jakku orphan named Galli Rax stowed away on Palpatine’s Space Yacht so he could get away, only to be caught by Palpatine. Palps told the kid that he had two choices: die, or go back to Jakku and make sure no one stumbled across the Mysterious Thing (”the Observatory”) Palps was constructing out in the desert. Galli chooses the latter, and Palps sends him back to Jakku and Galli does his thing. Ten years later, Palps shows back up with the space yacht to compliment Galli on a job well done and take him away.

O.... kay. I’m not sure how Palps was able to ensure Rax would keep his end of the bargain. Sure, he has a supervisor Yupe Tashu and a bunch of droids, and I suppose they could have killed Galli, but... there didn’t seem to be anything stopping Galli from running away? I doubt even Palps would have bothered to stalk one kid just to prove a point, but it just seems really weird from Palpatine’s perspective to be so hands-off.

Anyway, so the first thing they do in their Big Reunion is Palps teaches him how to play chess. And I don’t just mean Thinly-Disguised Space Chess as a stand-in for the real thing, I mean actual chess.

Here’s the passage that made me start to howl and gibber from a world-building perspective:

“It’s a very old game. Shah-tezh, in this interation, thought over the eons I have seen it spawn many variants. Dejarik. Moebius. Chess. In most of the iterations the core mechanism remains.”

To be clear: this is Palpatine talking. What the hell does he mean by “over the eons I have seen”? That’s not the sort of thing you say if it’s something you know from a book or a story, that’s what you say if you’ve personally experienced it. Is Palpatine really that old?? If so, this is HUGE, absolutely earth-shattering bombshell from a world-building perspective. Is it ever followed up on? Not that I can tell.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

(To be fair, I’m not against this, per se, but I just... feel like if it was important.... it should be relevant.... and not name-dropped once and never mentioned again? Like, it matters? AAHHHHHHHHHHH.)

The other thing that made me scream, is, of course, the fact he comes right out and says it’s Chess In Space, which.... While I have used “holo-chess” as a synonym for “dejarik” in my fics, and Wookiepeedia says “holochess” is an accepted synonym for dejarik in nu!canon, this particular passage reads weirdly to me because it implies that chess as we know it on Earth is a separate but related game to dejarik, not just another name for the same game. And I... have questions about that, just like I would if “poker” suddenly appeared in the GFFA lingo along with “sabacc”.

{Also, I just want to note that the Persian word for chess is shatranj. Per the “History of Chess” article on Wikipedia:

Players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – see checkmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.

This isn’t the first time real-life details have migrated into Star Wars - “Tatooine” is named after a location in Tunisia, and the Lars’ farm is located in the “Great Chott” which actually exists on Earth.... but still. I’m just saying.}

And again, this is probably me being stupid and petty about Details That Don’t Matter, except that the one is actually huge from a plot and thematic perspective, so it’s hard not to get tripped up on it.

Anyway, so Palps instructs Galli in the intricacies of shah-tezh, and it all boils down to one thing: “without the Imperator, the demesne cannot survive”.

And That’s the reason why Palpatine has to personally make sure the world burns after his death, because it means that his Empire has completely failed if he dies and deserves to be punished. O.... kay then.

(Granted, Palpatine is a crazed narcissist, but... there’s like no way this makes logical sense, right? And Rax doesn’t even think “oh, that’s insane, but I have to agree to stay alive”. Even at this juncture, when he barely knows Palpatine at all, he’s completely swallowed the Kool-Aid. Which is odd because he’s very skeptical about other things.)

Anyway, Palps repeats it because it’s his guiding principle: “If an Empire cannot protect its Emperor then that Empire must be deemed a failure. It collapses not only because its central figure is gone, but because it must not be allowed to remain.”

He’s so incensed he nearly strangles Galli, but then he relents, and says Galli is “the Contigency” and if he fails, he’ll be replaced, because literally, “destiny”. Then they go watch opera, because Palps hasn’t found anyone to watch opera with him since that one time with Anakin and... Vader isn’t into that, lol.

(The problem with making opera Galli’s thing is that ALL OF THOSE SCENES ARE FLASHBACKS or referred to in passing in the narrative rather than viewed directly. So we don’t see him poised at the opera, plotting, the way Palps did in ROTS, or contemplating art like Thrawn does. So it’s easy to forget that he has this quirk. Also, it makes him feel like a Thrawn knock-off. But I do like that it’s canon that he’s just the Biggest Drama Queen ever, though.)

I’ve said this before in earlier rants, but to repeat: I do not see Palpatine as having the relative humility needed to even consider his own death seriously. in ROTJ, he acts 100% confident that he’s gonna come out the winner. So to come up with an entire elaborate plot, on the off chance that someone might off him seems just... kinda OOC?

Sure, he’s the type to have wheels within wheels and all kinds of schemes going on simultaneously, but... this one involves placing a lot of trust in Galli Rax going along with the script, and I just... don’t get why he would assume Rax would automatically go along with it, or be able to. There are just so many variables that the novel doesn’t seem to address and it’s just hard for me to imagine Palpatine doing this without making other/additional Contigencies, not just one.

Anyway, so it turns out “the Contingency” is to lure both the Imperial remnant and the New Republic fleets to Jakku and then literally blow the entire planet up to take everyone out at once, while a handful of specially chosen loyalist ride off in Palpatine’s Space Yacht for the Unknown Regions to form a new Empire. Which... okay, sure, why not. In theory, this sounds pretty cool and it involves all of Palpatine’s favor tricks, including a planet-destroying superweapon.

Where it actually breaks down is in the details, of course. And Palpatine is still dead, of course, so it does shit-all for him, except for some vindictive satisfaction while still alive, I guess. 

(And if he is planning on coming back, it seems weird to burn down the house you plan on re-occupying later? I guess? *shrugs*)

Anyway, it turns out that Palpatine has a whole network of Observatories, where he does all kinds of secret, evil things:

Palpatine began establishing the Observatories before the start of the Galactic Empire, infusing each with purpose: Some were meant to house ancient Sith artificats, others designed to host powerful weapons designs (or the weapons themselves), others still meant as prisons harnessing the lifeforces of those captured within for a variety of strange purposes.

(which, given that the Ashmead’s Lock prison on Kashyyyk is powered by its inhabitants’ life force a la The Matrix, strongly suggests that it, too, is an Observatory, although the book does not say that directly and canon will probably never mention the energy-harvesting thing again despite ALL OF THE QUESTIONS THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH TECH RAISES.)

I’m okay with this passage, because it means that the Maw Installation, the Eye of Palpatine, and Wayland are all part of this system. It feels very much in-character. However, only Jakku is part of the Contigency, at least according to Galli, but--tbh, I kinda doubt it, because when have we ever known Palpatine to tell the truth? Or have Only One Plan?

Anyway, for decades, the Observatory computers have been plotting a route through hyperspace into the Unknown Regions. (I thought this was something only Jedi could do, since they were supposedly hard-core Space Navigators? Otherwise, what was even the point? *shrugs* Why do you even need a “Sith Wayfinder” anyway? *cough cough*) Then there’s an obligatory Thrawn reference, since Thrawn is canon, but Rax is pretty dismissive and says that the only reason Palps tolerated Thrawn was for his secret navigational insights into the Unknown Regions.

So if Palps loses his original demesne, he’s just gonna go conquer the Chiss or something? Except he can’t, because he’s dead, so what ever. I don’t even know, okay? Does anyone know what happened to Thrawn or the Chiss post-OT in the Disney ‘verse??

Anyway, Palps is convinced there’s something in the dark side waiting for him out there, which Galli is dismissive of. You’d think a guy who had literally been Force-choked would be more accepting of this instead of assuming it was just wishful thinking, but okay then. This is pretty clearly meant to be an obvious Snoke reference, which gets wonky with the TROS retcon that Snoke was a clone-puppet of Palpatine the entire time!

Anyway, Rax gets Yupe Tashu all geared up with Secret Evil Sith Gear and a Magic Kyber Crystal and tosses him into the planet’s core, and it starts the self-destruct process. Except it doesn’t because Rae Sloane kills Rax at the last moment, puts a stop to it, and steals the yacht full of feral children and flies off into the sunset to carry on Rax’s master plan because the New Republic destroyed the Imperial fleet while she was distracted and she apparently is tired of all this shit? Okay.

Anyway, she makes a deal with Armitage Hux that she’ll keep Brendol from abusing him if he keeps the feral kids from attacking her, and apparently it works out. This is supposed to be the origin of the First Order, and I guess they find Snoke or something, but none of the details are ever explained in any material I can find, so.... *shrugs*

I just really don’t understand how the First Order can be functional under the conditions herein described and how it logically evolves from This One Ship to a massive, disciplined force capable of wiping out the New Republic.

So I finished the book and... was kind of mad, because it just felt like a complete waste of my time. Overally, this whole thing just seems like a lot of build-up that doesn’t go anywhere, and provides weird backstory that only raises more unaddressed questions for things that really didn’t need it. 

also, it’s darkly amusing to me that this book comes out saying, “yup, the ST is a literal game-board reset of the OT, and Palps fully intended for it to be that way, even though we at Disney had no plans to bring him back as a villain at first” and I just... well, props for honesty, I guess?

anyway, the whole thing is a mess from a world-building perspective, and even though Star Wars is Fake and In Space, I just get grumpy when things don’t line up, especially since that was supposed to be one of the major selling points of this new canon in the first place.

#star wars #WHY DISNEY WHY

[dalekofchaos]

Villains better suited for The Rise Of Skywalker instead of Palpatine

The problem with Palpatine’s return is it undermines the entire story of the  Prequel and Original Trilogies. Palpatine outliving Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Han Luke and Leia is the ultimate desecration of Star Wars. “it was always the plan to bring Palpatine back” and that is the problem. The mere thought of bringing back Palpatine back undermines Anakin’s sacrifice and redemption. It also undermines the story of The First Order, instead of bothering to make Snoke the big bad or focusing on Kylo Ren as an absolute tyrant as Supreme Leader, they choose to instead go backwards, thus giving a giant fuck you to all 3 trilogies. So here are how I think the villain of Episode IX should have been handled.

Rae Sloane. Rae Sloane founded The First Order! Sloane was loyal to the Empire, so much so, rather than allowing it to cease to exist, she recruited other loyalists and they fled to the Unknown Territories beyond Jakku. She founded the First Order. Together with Hux, she could usurp control of the First Order and become Supreme Leader, which would start a civil war, those loyal to Sloane and those loyal to Kylo. We can have someone who could be a great antagonist to Leia. The founder of The First Order and the mother of the Resistance. What makes Rae a compelling character is the fact that she believes what the Empire is doing is right. In her eyes, the Empire is doing the right thing, purging lawlessness from a galaxy overrun by bureaucrats that care little for the common people. She’s wrong, but like great villains before her, audiences can see where she’s coming from even if they don’t agree with it. Throughout her many appearances in the supplemental Star Wars narratives, she is constantly pushing for the Empire to be “just.” When things start to fall apart after the Battle of Endor, Rae struggles to keep the remnants of the fleet playing by the unspoken rules of warfare and is frustrated to see the Empire careen into backstabbing and incompetence. You can see Rae’s influence in the First Order with its strict hierarchy and minute by-the-books stringency that makes Palpatine’s Empire look positively laissez-faire by comparison. Supreme Leader Rae Sloane would make The First Order a force to be reckoned with and what better way to end it than with the First Order’s founder?

The Grysk. The Grysks were introduced in the new canon novel Thrawn:Alliances. They are what brings Thrawn to the Empire in hopes of co-existing to fight this threat in the Unknown Regions. Grysks are a species living somewhere in the Unknown Regions. Creatures half of myth, whom few have ever seen. It is said that they are nomads, with no fixed home, traveling in spacecraft so numerous they blot out the stars. They are said to be terrifying warriors, overwhelming their opponents by sheer numbers and ferocity. The fact that these intergalactic conquerors are not the main threat in the Sequel Trilogy is baffling. You could've had Ben Solo sense they were coming during his Jedi days and made the ultimate sacrifice to become Kylo Ren and join The First Order because he knew the New Republic was not ready to face such a threat. It wouldn’t make what he was doing the entire trilogy right, but it would make explaiin why he turned and what his motivations are.

Supreme Leader Snoke. Killing off Snoke was a mistake, everyone knows that, so why not reveal he survived. Even Andy Serkis believes he should've lived and why waste such a talented actor? The perfect way to end the saga is to bring Snoke back. I know just how Snoke could have been brought back. The Darth Momin comics could've been the way to bring him back. Darth Momin kept his spirit within his helmet, so who's to say Snoke could not have done the same with his ring? Snoke's ring is from the catacombs of Vader's castle. It was made of gold and was enscribed with glyphs from the Four Sages of Dwartii. Ancient force users and Palpatine had the statues. When Snoke was cut with the lightsaber, everything but his hand with his ring fell off the thrown. It just sits there, untouched. And when Kylo puts the ring on, he becomes possessed by Snoke. It was all apart of the plan to transfer his soul into Kylo Ren, a younger and more powerful vessel.  Or even better, reveal Snoke as Darth Plagueis. It makes sense and ties the three trilogies together. Darth Plagueis was a powerful Sith Lord who could influence the midichlorians to create life and also save others from dying. He taught everything he knew to his apprentice, Sheev Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious), but he eventually lost his power and young Palpatine killed him in his sleep. How could Plagueis not foresee his own demise at the hands of his ambitious apprentice? Why did Plagueis suddenly “lose his power”? The truth is, he didn’t lose his power and he knew Sheev planned to kill him. It was part of the plan. By dying, I believe Darth Plagueis was able to transmit himself into Sheev and assume control of his body, almost like an infectious disease. Ever notice his name? Darth Plagueis. Plague, as in an infectious disease. Darth Plagueis unlocked the secret to immortality by moving from one body to the next, continuing his lifespan through multiple hosts over countless years. Ever wonder why Palpatine was so obsessed with training a powerful young apprentice? Surely he knew that one day the apprentice would want to overthrow him, so why train his own murderer? In Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine continually provokes Luke to strike him down. Why would Palpatine want to be killed if the goal is longevity? Because Emperor Palpatine was assumed by Darth Plagueis and, through his death, he would then be able to transmit himself into a new host body. He wasn’t just looking for an apprentice, he was looking for a new body since Palpatine’s body was growing old. Luke Skywalker was meant to be the next host body for Darth Plagueis. But unfortunately for Plagueis, Darth Vader had a change of heart and defeated the Emperor. Snoke was Plagueis. It’s the only way to make things work. StarWars.com describes Snoke as a seeker of arcane and ancient lore, and the Last Jedi Visual Dictionary shows that he is a collector of rare memorabilia. At some point, Snoke must have found the wreckage of the Death Star on the forest moon Endor, and was infected by Darth Plagueis when he came upon the corpse of Palpatine. Did you ever wonder why Snoke thought it was so important to complete Kylo Ren’s training? It’s because Snoke was Darth Plagueis and he was training his next host body. Plagueis didn’t have a choice but to infect a really old political influencer like Snoke. Kylo was being groomed to become the next host body. Remember the infamous(ly terrible) scene in The Last Jedi where Snoke is “predicting” how Kylo Ren will kill Rey? Wasn’t it a little too obvious? Wouldn’t Snoke have been able to foresee Kylo’s treachery? See through his conflict? It’s because he wasn’t predicting Rey’s death, he predicted his own. He knew Kylo would kill him. He deliberately bullied and provoked Kylo in order to stir his anger into hatred to further fuel his dark side and lead him to completing his training.  So let's say Kylo puts on his ring for his official coronation as Supreme Leader and Plagueis take's full possession of Kylo Ren, Plagueis had an apprentice who has fully cemented himself into the dark side and now a new and more powerful body. Darth Plagueis has everything he needs to way waste to the Resistance and the final destruction of the Jedi.

Kylo Ren and the Knights Of Ren. This entire trilogy has been building up Kylo Ren as the villain and the Knights Of Ren have been built in mystique ever since. Kylo Ren has fully embraced the dark side and The First Order, his story is not of redemption, but condemnation. We need to see his motivations. Show us why he chose The First Order and why he chose to rule it as The Supreme Leader after killing Snoke. Show us his tyranny as the Supreme Leader. We need to see that the Knights Of Ren being completely loyal to Kylo Ren. We need to see them as the only survivors of Luke’s Academy. Show us companionship between Kylo and his knights. We need to see them as being Kylo’s personal army and trump card. Unlike The Praetorian Guards who were faceless Guards who all just die. Let the Knights Of Ren be people and only unmask in the presence of their Supreme Leader and show them as Kylo's only true family in his eyes. We know that the purpose of The Knights Of Ren will destroy The Resistance and finally destroy The Last Jedi. Show us what reasons Kylo has that he thinks he can justify what he’s doing. And show us that Kylo Ren is wrong. Show us that Kylo believes that he’s right, but that his belief doesn’t justify what he’s doing, the people he’s hurt, the lives he’s destroyed, the damage that he thinks will be justified if they can only get what he really wants. Show us that Kylo Ren is wrong, show that his fall will be hard and that he has to suffer with the consequences of his actions.

The climax of the movie should be at Vader's Castle on Mustafar. The new Jedi have risen, The Skywalkers. Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose and Jannah have become the Skywalkers and will face Kylo and the Knights Of Ren. It ends in Kylo's defeat and Rey severs his connection to the force and live the rest of his days out imprisoned for war crimes against the galaxy.

#Anti Lucasfilm #Anti TROS #Anti JJ Abrams #Star Wars #Rae Sloane #The Grysk #Grysk #Grysks #Supreme Leader Snoke #Kylo Ren #Knights Of Ren #The Knights Of Ren

[erstwhile25]

Skin of the Teeth Part 3: Danger Lurks

“I’ll tell you this Gerrad…” said the minute Lalafel called Laloquer “...wherever you go, you have the distinct habit of picking up strays.  Mangy ones at that.”

“I seem t’remember a rather mangy bunch haulin themselves from the sea once, they didn't do too bad fer themselves.” Kail gently laid the last of the wounded in the hold. A small girl no heavier than a sack of potatoes, her blonde hair tinged a dirty scarlet by a head wound, and the remnant of someone’s shirt bound tightly about her left eye and the back of her skull.  By some small mercy she was unconscious and elicited only the occasional whimper, but that seemed to be where the world’s mercy ended.  If Kail was any judge, she'd lose the eye before the day was out.

Laloquer gave a disdainful sniff as he walked among the other wounded, scribbling down notes for triage in chalk on a piece of slate. “I don't remember much of them to be honest, I find it best to look ever towards the future, leave the past where it belongs...in the past.”

“How very practical of ye.” Said Kail, dry as the Thanland sands “While yer peeking at the future, think ye could make sure this lot has one?”

Kail hadn't met many folks that could twirl their mustache and not look like utter fools, but Lalo was among their number.  The Lalafel’s pomp was rivaled only by the care that he lavished upon his immaculately waxed and trimmed facial hair. “Put your worries at ease, under my care their survival is all but assured.”

Norah nudged the small doctor aside none too gently as she bustled past with a bucket of sea water and a rag. “A little less talk perhaps and a little more action then?  They will applaud for you when they are standing upright I'm sure.”

If Norah noticed Lalo’s scathing look of reproach, she didn't let onto it, rather she knelt by the girl to begin the business of cleaning and redressing her wounds.  Kail watched Lalo stalk off to begin his work, then crouched next to Norah, remaining tactfully silent as she mopped dried blood from the child’s forehead.

“I'm not apologizing to him, these people need help.”  She uttered under her breath.  Kail gave a small smile, slipping a folded sack under the girl’s head for support,  

“He likes Gridania rosés, I'll introduce ye t’my supplier...ye don't have t’apologize, jest pour.”  

Norah nodded, her face a stony mask of a duty unfinished, Kail could see she was forcing herself to keep looking at the girl.  He laid his hand on hers, despite the blood and filthy water, giving it a slight squeeze.  She looked up and though there was no smile on her face she seemed to come out of whatever torturous spiral she had been putting herself through.  “We’re getting them out of here.” She said horsely, it was a deceleration of fact, and there was no moving her on the matter.

“Aye.” Said Kail, he took a breath preparing himself for the argument coming. “Ye sure ye want t’go with Baroth and the others?  No one would call ye a coward iffin ye stayed.”

Norah frowned at him, and yanked her hand from his, flinging the rag forcefully in the bucket.  “They wouldn't have to, I would damn myself as a coward if I didn't.  They are my countrymen, and I won't abandon them.”

“We wouldn't be abandoning them, we’re coming back fer them.”

“Would you trust Baroth to get them to those islands?”

He threw his hands wide, and his voice took on a sharper edge “Funny ye should mention that, I don't trust him, not with their lives, nor yers fer that matter.”

“I can handle him, so trust me.”  She gently reached out and brought his hands together and between them  “Please.”

He didn't answer right away, he didn't particularly care to, some part of him rankled that these weak, dirty, frightened people had more of a hold on her than he did.  It told him it would be easier to simply slit the throats of Baroth and company then leave without a glance behind them. They would still be saving the wounded, those on the beach could take care of themselves.  They would be finishing the job within their contractual obligation.  Who was to judge them for not being able to stretch further?

“Kail?” Norah’s voice dragged him out of that small corner of his mind.  He was made aware of a pain in his cheek, where he had bitten the inside.  The iron taste of blood was on his tongue.  Norah’s face was knit both in concern and discernment. “You...went somewhere else on me.”

“I'm fine, I'll see how they’re doing on gettin the boats ready fer the trip back.”

He released her hands, and made for the stairs to the deck before he could change his mind on the matter.  All the way up he could feel her eyes on him.  

A few of Baroth’s men were huffing away in a fireman’s line to get goods from the hold onto the first of the boats.  They were struggling to keep up with Noyra, who tossed barrels and packages from below with the steady and inevitable chug of a steam engine.  Baroth leaned against the railing off to the side, his eyes were fixed upon those back on the shores.  Kail perched himself off to the side of the man, producing his flask, and finally giving in to the yearning of his guts for a drink.  

The sweet burn was a welcome one, and while it didn't drown out all the noise within and without, it dulled them to a low buzz he could manage.

“That...is the look of a man who’s been fighting with the wife.” Kail took another sip to try and drown out the smug undertones in Baroth’s voice.  He kept his eyes to the shore, and let a hefty silence roll though before he trusted himself enough to answer the man.

“Yer half right, which is about yer speed.”

“...Fuck you.”

Kail found himself smirking, clearing the air tended to have that effect.  He didn't have to look at the gruff highlander to feel the man’s pale blue eyes on him, scrutinizing him like a rider would a bought horse.  “Why are you here Limsan?”

First paramour, then pirate, then Limsan, Kail was starting to wonder if the man actually knew his damned name.  Finally glancing over to eye Baroth in return, Kail said “Came out t’make sure ye left my ship like ye got on it, quickly, painlessly, and quietly.”

Baroth shook his head, waving a hand towards the shore. “No.  I mean why are you here, helping us?  I've given it some thought...and Taltov wasn't paying you much, at least not enough to warrant all this trouble.  Clearly you’re not a supporter of the cause.”

“Ye’ve a roundabout way of asking why I ent twisted the knife in yer guts yet.”

Baroth winced as if he had been slapped, and in the instant of his embarrassment Kail could see he wasn't as old or as experienced as he made out to others.  His scowling bearded face was a front, a sham, a glamour he enacted so that those who followed him wouldn't be let on to the inconvenient fact that he wasn't cut out for command.  Kail accidentally found himself respecting the man a little for it, and wondered if he would have done anything different in the Mhigan’s position.

“ That was spoken in haste...and unfair of me.” Baroth finally said.  

Reminding himself that it had also been an attempt to steal the Rook, Kail offered the man his flask nonetheless.  Everyone had their turn playing the fool after all.  Baroth frowned for a moment, looking like the flask might bite him, then after consideration finally took the old and dented vessel.  As he sipped from it, Kail finally spoke up.

“This ent a ship oh fools, and we know how t’read more than the tides.  Varis is fresh to the throne, and it don't matter iffin yer a captain or emperor, first thing ye do is make sure those under ye know who’s in charge.  Fer Varis?  That means puttin down the rebellions in Ala Mhigo and Doma, an returnin the Empire t’the expansion days.  It suits me fine t’help ye stick pins in his royal Nibs’ arse, cause I don't like our prospects in a Garlean controlled Eorzea.”

“So that’s all this is…” said a very stony faced Baroth, as he took another sip from the flask. “Looking after your prospects.”

“No…” Said Kail as he reached over and snatched his flask back “But that’s all yer gettin.”

He capped the flask and stowed it back into his vest, ignoring the souring look from Baroth.  The first boat was almost finished loading, Noyra was climbing her way up the hold netting with the last barrel on her shoulder.  Kail made his way over, and while the Roe towered over him and outweighed him by well over a two hundred stone, he leaned over and made the mummery of helping her back onto the deck.  Noyra gave him a wide grin once she was back on her feet, then gave him a thump on the shoulder that would have brought him to his knees if he wasn't ready for it.  

It was during this exchange, with the eyes of the deck upon them, that they talked.  They spoke without voice.

It had started after Noyra’s throat injury, by some twisted blessing, a stroke meant to end her life had only taken her voice.  She had recovered well enough, she had always been a strong healer, but never again would Noyra be able to utter another word.  It was Laloquer who had come up with the solution.  Working together he and Noyra came up with a system of speech that used the entire body, not just the mouth and tongue.  After all, he had argued, the mouth and the tounge were the most superfical parts of language anyhow.  The most profound signals came from the eyes, the set of your feet, and the cant of your head.

It wasn't perfect, the more complex the word or concept, the more movements it needed, and there were still yet more words that Lalo and Noyra needed to assign.  Still, it was quick, efficient, and it allowed the survivors of the Howling Sin to do something few knew how to do.  To have a private conversation while the rest of the world looked on.

What's your measure of his men? Said Kail with a flick of his fingers, his eyes cautiously flicking towards the handful of armed fellows they had allowed Baroth.

They are strong, hardy, and tested. She replied with a sweep of her hand down the front of her clothes, that to anyone else, looked like she was dusting herself off.  But they don't respect him, and hardly know one another.

He nodded, and hooked his thumbs into his belt. I think they’ll leave peacefully, but be ready for the worst.

With a slight nod of her head she brushed past him to the long boat.  

He joined Baroth again at the railing, offering the man a brief smile.  “That’s the last of what we can offer ye lot.  Wish it could be more but…”

“Wish in one hand..” muttered Baroth.

“That's the long and short oh it aye…”  Kail reached over, offering the man his tattooed hand.  For a moment it looked like Baroth would shake it, but then everything went to hell.  

There was a sudden pop that echoed out over the bay from the beach, for a moment Kail was worried someone had been shot, but when he looked back to the forest line he saw what it was.  In the beginning grey of the dawn horizon, a lone red flare was arcing into the sky.  The kind of flare used to signal airships.  Kail flicked his eyes towards Baroth, and there must have been some sort of accusation burning there, because the highlander quickly rose both his hands in the air.

“That...that’s not us, none of my boys brought flares….why would they?”

Kail gave it a moment’s thought before nodding and placing a hand on Baroth’s shoulder.  “I believe ye.”

Then, quick as blinking, Kail sank a fist right into the middle of the man.  Baroth sank to his knees with a wheezing hiss, the air driven from his lungs as surely as if sucked away by a bellows.  Kail didn't give him a chance to recover, hooking an arm under the man chest and twisting, he hurled him neatly over his hip, and into the waiting waters below.

To their credit, the two of Baroth’s men nearest to the scuffle already had their swords out by the time he hit the water, but it took less time than that for Noyra to walk right up behind them and smash their skulls together.  As she deposited their unconscious forms into the loaded longboat, what remained of the Resistance on the Rook looked at each other, unsure as to their next course of action.  When the rest of the Rook’s crew simultaneously drew their weapons and pointed the mass of blades and barrels towards the Resistance members, their confusion dried up.

“Get off my ship.” Said Kail plainly and without malice.  “Get yer people t’safety best ye can.  We’ll take care oh our end.”

One of the Resistance apparently hadn't made the line the day they were handing out smarts, he sputtered as a cutlass nudged him towards the long boat  “What about the other boats?  There’s only one ready to launch.”

“Best ye get on it then, cause it ain’t stayin long.”  Said Kail as he drew one of his long curved daggers and began sawing at one of the securing lines.  Those on the long boat grasped his meaning and scrambled to grab for purchase.  With a whip crack snap the securing line parted and the long boat, cargo and all, plunged for the waters below.  There was a terrific splash as it hit the water, and miraculously didn't shatter upon impact, a testament to Limsan ship building.

Two of the Resistance members hadn't been quick enough and were thrown into the waters during the landing, when they surfaced coughing and sputtering, they had Baroth in between them.  As soon as Baroth had enough air in his lungs, he began hurling curses about treacherous pirates and the woman slattern enough to bare them.  Kail was only half listening however, there was a sudden dull whine in the air, distorted by the sea water and the echoing qualities of the bay.  

Shoving aside confused crew he forced his way across the deck to the bowsprit, where he began scanning the horizon with his spy glass.  It didn't take long to spot it, nothing had an outline quite like a Garlean gunship.  From the sound of her cerulean engines she was still a ways off, but she was faster than any sea bound ship to be sure, and now she had the scent of the Rook.  Kail spat a curse as he snapped his spyglass shut, glancing behind him to see the entirety of the crew looking at him.

Isral spoke up from among their number “R’haji?  What do we do?”

Kail looked about at the expectant multitude of faces, among their number was Norah, and he wondered how much of that exchange she had seen.  He supposed he should have been glad she hadn't dove over the side after the Resistance, yet there was something in her expression of shock...was it blame?  Resentment?  He didn't have time to discern, the others were still waiting for an answer.  So he gave it.

“Get this ship turned about ye scabrous currs! We’re runnin!”

#Final Fantasy XIV #roleplay #writing #Kail Gerrad #Shinorah Nightsbane #balmung #dufresne bellworks #written word

[lazybarbarians]

Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig

Ragnell: So over the past two weeks we finished up the Aftermath trilogy with Empire’s End and now we are totally up to date on the state of the Star Wars universe one-year post-RotJ as pertains to everyone but Luke Skywalker.

And Ezra Bridger, and Kanan Jarrus, and Ahsoka Tano or really any of the animated-verse Jedi or Sith and any of the EU Jedi or Sith like Mara Jade who still might exist in some way.

But for the soldiers and scoundrels and surviving Imperials we have a status quo for about 29 years. We also know what happens to the core characters from the first Aftermath book which is honestly (and impressively, considering how little patience I have for original SW characters) what we read this thing for anyway. (As usual, I pretty much spoil everything in this recap below.)

So we open with several threads going on. Gallius Rax is flashing back to his Tuesdays with Palpatine excerpts, and gathering the pathetic remnants of the Imperial Navy on Jakku. Because Palpatine had a big secret project there, of which Gallius was an integral part. So integral that Palpatine appoints Gallius Rax as The Contingency which we can immediately tell will be a great pain in the ass to the whole galaxy.

Norra and Company are hunting down Mercurial Swift, so they can track down Rae Sloane. Temmin is annoyed he’s always stuck on getaway driver duty. The bounties on Jas from her old bosses are mounting. Sinjir is still having his career regrets, which are worsened by the fact that without Luke Skywalker around to point out sensible things like “I don’t think that’s good for the soul”, Sinjir basically still has to do the same job only for Norra. And Norra has entered Terminator Revenge mode, which is basically what has her asking Sinjir to do the same job and limiting Temmin to getaway driver duty. This is generally what everyone has to work past the entire story. They find out Rae Sloane is on Jakku and follow.

Surprise surprise, the pathetic in comparison to its former glory but still a really really lot of ships remnants of the Imperial Navy are there. This leads the good guys to split up, with Norra and Jas taking an escape pod to the surface because Norra’s in revenge mode (followed by Mr. Bones because Temmin is worried about his mother) and Temmin and Sinjir to go back to Chandrila to get embroiled in the political plot.

Kalinara: I actually thought Norra in revenge mode was one of the weaker parts of the story, unfortunately. It’s understandable that she’d be conflicted and angry, but there were points where she just seemed cartoonishly irrational. Norra was my favorite in the previous books, but I wasn’t as big a fan of her here.

R: Mon Mothma is facing a election challenge from the appropriately named Senator Wartol, a hardline warhawk who accuses her of weakness that led to the Liberation Day attack last book. Long story short, her challenger is a corrupt asshole who has criminal ties and uses them to rig a vote to actually PREVENT attacking Jakku so that he can say he voted for it but she’s a shit Chancellor for not even being able to put this together. Sinjir teams up with the Organa-Solo family and his ex-boyfriend Conder to resolve this. He does so well that Mon Mothma offers him a job as her aide, which resolves his career path crisis, enables him to skip the Jakku attack and settle down happily with Conder.

K:: How’s that for one of the first, explicitly gay characters in Star Wars? He and his boyfriend both get to live, AND get a happy ending to boot!

R: Temmin spends his time pestering Wedge Antilles to put him on a ship and send him to Jakku. Wedge, after last book’s mini-rebellion, isn’t even allowed to go himself and is stuck being an expeditor in the hangers. After several guilt-trips, Wedge finally relents and puts together the same group of outcasts from last book to sneak, unauthorized, into the battle and lets the 16 year old join them because Wedge Antilles has spent way too much time with Luke, Leia, and Han over the last 5 years.

Temmin’s been wanting to go back to Jakku, of course, because that’s where his mother, his droid and his.. Jas have been. Both Jas and Norra got captured by Niima the Hutt, who is horrible even as Hutts go. Norra was on some work-detail where Mr Bones the droid broke her out. Jas got to pull ever-increasing acts of badassery to avoid being taken in for her bounty, steal Swift’s ship AND steal Swift’s crew.

Also in Niima’s area, Rae Sloane and Brentin Wexley, who convince her to lead them to the Imperial Secret Squirrel place where they are promptly captured and forced to witness a ridiculous speech by Gallius Rax. Sloane undergoes some of her own career angst while Brentin actually manages to get them both free. They proceed to try to fuck up Gallius Rax’s mysterious plan, and go into the Imperial Secret Squirrel place.

While in there, Norra catches up to them and they all find out that due to an overly emphatic chess metaphor Gallius Rax has activated a weapon in the core of Jakku that will destroy the whole planet and both fleets. He’s also sent the Huxes off with a bunch of children to outside the Galaxy to meet other ships with imperials and children, and the Eclipse, so that Palpatine can continue to vex the Galaxy from beyond the grave. On the bright side he kills Tashu, who was actually such a dick I was hoping they’d save him for the Jedi to kill in a later story.

Norra, Brentin, and Rae have a great deal of emotional interaction about trust and distrust, and a rather kickass three-against-one fight with Gallius in between trying to shut down the weapon. Brentin gets through all the defenses but stops to save Norra and gets killed. Rae actually turns down the weapon while Norra, feeling that her trust of Sloane was justified, drags her husband’s body out for burial. Rae then boards a ship with the Huxes and a bunch of feral brainwashed proto-Stormtroopers for the Eclipse, because she is not actually finished being evil yet.

K:: I was surprised by how much I liked Brentin, in particular, in this book. He was more plot point than character last time (even if he was a helpful juxtaposition against all those “no, Kylo is BRAINWASHED!” justifications), but here, we got to see more of who he is as a man. I was rather disappointed they killed him off. I might have liked the novelty of Norra and Brentin going through an amiable divorce.

Sloane was pretty great too. And for all of my complaints about Norra previously, she and Sloane had such a great dynamic once they finally met up. And I’m thrilled at the idea that we might see her again.

R: Wartol is arrested because he tries to kill Mon Mothma, but really only manages to destroy her office and kill the advisor who hadn’t been fleshed out until this book so we could feel bad about her. Mas Amedda manages to escape Coruscant and sign a surrender treaty. Leia attends the signing, during labor (because kid, you are gonna have to wait until galactic peace gawddammit) and thus manages to freak out her husband, attain galactic peace AND have a baby. Nothing in this book manages to excuse Kylo Ren’s horrible horrible crimes, and in fact knowing what’s coming you kind of cringe at one scene. Wedge Antilles and the Wexleys all go to the new pilot academy. Jas sets up shop with the crew she stole from Swift, and grieves Jom who went to Jakku to find her and was killed in the battle. Sinjir settles down with his new career and Conder.

K: Seriously. I didn’t see anything that remotely indicated any “mind control from birth” or whatever nonsense. It isn’t even clear that Snoke EXISTS at this point in time. Any passage that could even be remotely stretched to mean some kind of fetus communication actually has a clear explanation in the text itself.

R: Actually, every character that we might have speculated would BE Snoke was specifically killed off

For the rest of the Galaxy, Chewbacca finds his son. Lando Calrissian regains his rightful place as Baron Administrator of Cloud City (which I believe is a 4-point Freehold if you’re tracking SW characters with White Wolf rules). Jar Jar Binks makes a friend and lives out the rest of his days entertaining orphans and avoiding politics. Coruscant ends up run by Mas Amedda anyway, but technically part of the New Republic. The Sith-worshipping Acolyte group from the Interludes was revealed to be sponsored by Tashu and dedicates itself to causing shit across the Galaxy and will almost certainly factor into the Jedi storyline. A charismatic leader, Brin, forms the Church of the Force which we already know factors into the Jedi storyline. It’s revealed that there are facilities known as Observatories, set up by Palpatine, that have been receiving data from outside the known galaxy all over the galaxy and not just on Jakku and that’s probably going to come into play somewhere too. The crazy pirate who found a Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought last book has cobbled together a functioning society of pirates around the ship. The residents of Tattooine have decided to just raise their own damned Hutt, Borgo, from childhood so they can have one who’s more compassionate than Jabba was. Luke is stated to be looking for old Jedi stuff.

That was a long recap, but one of the most tantalizing aspects of this trilogy is finding out just what the status quo in the Galaxy was after they finally wiped the bloated corpse of the Empire’s bureaucracy off of the map and got their new government underway. In general, it’s pretty satisfying. You follow your six Republic heroes, with some of the named characters from the movies as supporting cast, and your two main Imperials and their support, and get kind of a view of the rest of the universe. In a couple of places, these interludes tie into the main climax but others are just epilogues for the locations in the movies or tantalizing threads for when we find out what Luke has been up to.

K: I admit, that’s what I’m waiting for most. This was a fun side trek, but where is my favorite character, damnit?

R: I’m hoping we get another trilogy explaining this after The Last Jedi premieres. Or it’s the focus of the next animated series. Ezra seems custom-made to work as a foil for Luke, and Ahsoka was written out in a way that places her in safe-keeping until after RotJ.

One thing I found myself thinking from this last book, though, is that I feel better about The Force Awakens. I know a few OT fans who were very upset about everything Luke and Leia lost in the prelude to that movie and during it. I know a couple I saw who commented that they didn’t think Luke’s actions in RotJ were even that big an effect, since the Death Star was destroyed anyway. The view of the galaxy as seen in this trilogy, PARTICULARLY Jakku as compared to what we saw in the movie, changes that. You get the impression that even though there are still darksiders active, that a remnant of the Empire has left to regroup, that there’s still corruption and pirates and bullies and innocent people languishing in extreme poverty and hardship… that there’s still been a lasting improvement directly attributable to the actions of the heroes in the movies and the heroes in these books. Jakku at Rey’s time is actually a less horrible place than seen in this book. Many of the locations from the movies show people taking action and spreading hope. The remains of the Empire are the Emperor’s last middle finger to the Galaxy, and even after thirty years of gaining strength are still not the relentless, overwhelming presence in everyone’s life they were in Rogue One. The Galaxy was not instantly fixed, and much of the progress was wiped away, but there’s still a lot to hold onto. They came a long way between RotJ and TFA.

There’s really only one disappointment about this book. Tashu’s death. I joked above, but in the first book of this trilogy his main role is torturing a captive Wedge Antilles. The fallout from this is more realistic than you usually see in action-adventure fiction, where Wedge is still recovering throughout the second book both physically and emotionally. They’re unclear on whether he’s still using a cane this book or not, but either way it’s a long-term lingering impairment. He gets to staredown and work a little on his rage at Sloane last book, but he is never shown confronting Tashu. He’s never in the same room as the villain who put him through all of that. Tashu also never has a greater impact on any other main characters either from just this trilogy or the movies, meaning this villain was specific to one major hero and had a huge impact on that hero’s life and role in a story that covers at least half a year. Tashu isn’t saved for a later book or confrontation, he gets offed by Gallius and that’s a bit of a bummer.

#The Secret Origin of Snap Wexley: Resistance Pilot 3 #State of the Galaxy #Missing: Luke Skywalker If Found Please Return to Grateful Fandom #A Happy Ending for the Gay Guy #All the het couples are kinda screwed #Even that one because you can see it coming #Hux was always a little douche #There is no justification for patricide #Lots of Dark Side Activity for Jedi to deal with #Politics is a bloodsport #The Evil is coming from OUTSIDE the Galaxy! #The Evil is also coming from INSIDE the Galaxy! #Palpatine was a sore loser #Star Wars #Aftermath: Empire's End #A Disney Prince(ss) in Space #Chuck Wendig #Ragnell's Pick