The Force of Heresy: Prologue

Excerpt from Inquisitor Wynd's private diary

Unpublished, declared Damnatio Memoria by order of Lord Inquisitor Schuld

…The Warp defies explanation. Although we, especially those of us in the Inquisition, like to believe we have corralled even a small segment of its powers, beaten it into submission, and now can harness its use, such beliefs are fallacious to the core. Should the majority of the Imperial citizens ever comprehend how little we understand of Warp travel, and how loosely deciphered the Geller phenomenon is. Should such understanding ever surface, we could bid farewell to the notion of any sane Imperial citizen ever stepping foot off his homeward.

With that said, anyone who ventures into the Void certainly understands the risks of Warp travel: the possibility to arrive centuries later, to be thrown off-course by magnitudes difficult to comprehend, and of course the possibility of losing all-hands to some unmentionable horror that had been patiently salivating at the very edge of the Field (if such fields can be said to truly have edges, which is another point entirely). However, such instances are usually caulked up to the vagaries of the Warp rather than our understanding of Warp travel, but any brief introspection upon this notion rapidly reveals the core flaw. 

The important point that anyone seeking to research the Warp and its related phenomena must understand is that nothing is impossible when it is involved. Full stop. If there is indeed an exception to every rule, that exception is to be found in the Warp. Nothing forbids an individual from amassing power greater than the sum of all armies currently fighting in the galaxy. Nothing stops an entire Segmentum from suddenly flowing directly into the Warp. Nothing stops the laws of the universe as we know them from suddenly becoming outdated.

Why, I wouldn't be surprised if some extraordinary Warp-related events happen on a near-daily basis. Take, for instance, the common occurrence of ships disappearing into the Warp. Various theories exist, of course, the most common being time-delay, and the other being total destruction. However, both are hard to prove conclusively, so chances of something else happening are, well, possible. Perhaps the ships are sent back in time, or to an alternate dimension. Perhaps they reform to a new shape, utterly unrecognizable from its prior form. Or perhaps some are nearly misplaced, thrown far enough away that they are good as lost. If the Warp is capable of ejecting a vessel on the entire opposite side of the galaxy, what is there to stop it from hurling it to another galaxy, much as the Tyranids are known to have made their way to ours? Perhaps some ships declared missing in action still exist, fighting for their lives on alien soil, in some galaxy far, far away…

Retcon To The Future: Thoughts on Expanding Universes

So the other day I was playing through the Gears of War 3 DLC "Raam's Shadow," which in a very cool move by Epic is technically a prequel to Gears 1, detailing the fall of one COG-controlled city a couple of weeks post-E-Day. It's a very interesting idea and makes a very stark contrast to the ruin that is the Gears 3 present.

However, one thing I noticed is something that has bothered me in the past that I decided to finally write about: retcons, for lack of a better term. In this case, weapons and enemy types that were not in Gears 1 that are suddenly appearing in this DLC.

In some cases, it makes perfect sense. The retro lancer being in the campaign makes sense, because they would have been around and were only not used till Gears 3 because the Lancer 2.0 was still in abundance/in production. It kind of makes sense a Scorcher would be around, since perhaps Delta Squad would not have used it since it's a speciality weapon.

However, it becomes a problem with other things. For instance, the One-Shot makes an appearance, in Locust hands no less. If either side had access to such a powerful weapon, why did it not make an appearance in Gears 1 or 2? Similarly, Grinders and Bloodmounts show up, and I question why they weren't walking around in Gears 1. Additionally, the Command Center upgrade was added to Gears 3, which allows you to remotely call down Hammer strikes. They decided to add this in to the DLC campaign, and you use it multiple times. If this technology existed, why in Gears 1 and 2 were there all those times when a Hammer strike would have been invaluable but wasn't sure because of a lack of a targeting device? Why wouldn't they just use this apparently common remote targeting system?

"Out of character," as it were, I totally understand why Epic did this. They didn't want to scale back things to only stuff that was available to Gears 1, since that would limit gameplay options, but from a universe perspective for me personally this is the equivalent of breaking the 4th wall. I know it's a relatively minor issue, but it bugs me all the same.

Other series have done things similarly. I was annoyed in Starcraft 2 when it was revealed that the Protoss had a ton of giant, robot death walkers they waited until after the destruction of their homeworld to release. Sure, it made sense to give background to a new unit, but from my in-universe perspective it seemed unrealistic and bugged me.

Similarly, Star Wars EU post-prequels is a huge offender. After the release of Episode 1, seeing Gungans in cantina and just around in general suddenly because very common. In a general rule, it seemed like just because something had been shown in the prequels, it suddenly became essential to include as much prequel races, items, etc in the books and comics, including Luke stumbling across a ship of the type Obi-wan and Anakin fly in episode 2. Again, I understand the intent, but to me it just seems incredibly shoe-horned, especially in a setting that is as widely expanded and defined as the SW EU. Especially irking is the idea of the Clone Wars: prior to the prequels, people never talked about them in detail and it was mostly hushed up. This idea made sense to me, since no one wanted to be heard slandering the Empire, most participants in the Wars were either dead or clones, and even many modern wars aren't talked about much anymore in most circles. However, post prequels all the mystery is shed, and suddenly everyone knows everything about the events and it's a complete atmosphere shift in every way. I know why they did it, and why there's a shift, but it ends up feeling very inconsistent overall.

Overall, although I realize the temptation of adding in new stuff to maintain overall consistency, stuff like this just really tends to bother me, although I couldn't necessarily explain why. I realize the occasional necessity, but I think it's oftentimes overused. As usual, I welcome your feedback (as if I could stop you :-P)

-HTMC

Back to the Basics: A Review of Choices of One

I'll come out right out and say it: Timothy Zahn is easily the best Star Wars writer. It's not just because he writes the movie characters in a very authentic way, it's not just because he creates excellent new characters, and it's not even just because he writes excellent stories. Other writers in the SW EU also do these things, and mean, for instance, that the X-Wing series is probably my favorite set of books in the SW universe. However, I say Zahn is the best "Star Wars" writer in that he is by far the best at capturing the spirit and feeling of the movies, making his novels feel quintessentially Star Wars-y, beyond just having droids and the Force and all that.

Therefore I was very pleased to hear he was releasing a new SW book, and not only that, but one set during the original trilogy era, specifically between New Hope and Empire. A while back he released Allegiance, another book set in the same time period, and I thought at the time it was a one-off. This it technically still true, but I discovered Choices of One takes place immediately after Allegiance and features much of the same cast of characters; the lack of an overarching plot between the two prevents me from calling it a true sequel.

A big problem that arises when you work in a time period in between already established events (in this case, destruction of the first Death Star and the attack on Hoth) you're obviously limited in some ways: any pre-established character isn't only unkillable but also immune to anything permanent, lots of events just cannot happen, and you have to move towards a certain goal. Another big tendency in SW is to make every event involving Han, Luke, and Leia into the biggest crisis since yesterday. Fortunately, Zahn manages to avoid both problems in Choices; they're definitely doing stuff, and it's important for the Alliance, but it's not critical to the survival of the everything ever or anything like that.

Alongside the main trio, we also get the triumphant return of Mara Jade, longtime fan favorite, as well as Thrawn, my personal favorite Imperial of all time (sadly he did not get as much screentime as I would have liked). Additionally, the Hand a Judgement, a rogue stormtrooper squad introduced in Allegiance, makes another appearance. Many other characters make brief appearances, such as Palpatine, Darth Vader, Generals Cracken and Rieekan, and so on.

Overall the book goes very smoothly and drew me in quite quickly, which resulted in me finishing the book surprisingly fast. There was only one glaring issue that bugged me, namely that in past books it was firmly established that Mara Jade had never seen Skywalker prior to Jabba's Palace, and they end up very briefly meeting towards the end of Choices. It's a relatively minor detail, and it's definitely debatable, but all signs point to that Mara would not randomly forget a guy with a lightsaber.

Beyond that, Zahn does a good job of telling his story and filling in small details that factor in to the later books chronologically. I don't think it's the best book he's written for the universe, but it's still a very enjoyable read, especially if you're looking for a book that very closely emulates the feel of the original trilogy. I don't think it's necessarily the best Zahn book to start with, since the important of a lot of characters and events will be lost otherwise. With that said, it's an excellent addition to the Star Wars library, especially compared to some of the other recent works.

-HTMC

Giant Backlogs: A Mini-Review Rampage

So over the break I consumed quite a large amount of media, and actually wanted to write individual reviews for all of them, but I never quite felt like writing them over the break, so instead I'm going to do a series of small mini-reviews just to get my thoughts down. Feel free to chime in!

Fun New Web Apps: A Trial

During dinner today I got in a slightly heated argument about the SC2 story with Max, which resulted in me claiming the SC2 story is bad and the prequel trilogy isn't, while he was arguing the opposite. He told me to try googling it, so I decided to and display my story using the newly discovered Rage Comic Generator!

Because Max apparently enjoyed it, I share it here with you all.

-HTMC

There's No Good Title for This: Star Wars Vs. 40k

So to finish off this trifecta of Star Wars related post, I'm going to increase my nerd factor by a significant factor and do a comparison that's been brewing in my mind for quite some time. Note this comparison will be more in a spiritual form than completely grounded in fact: unlike some people who analyze the impact of the Death Star's destruction on Endor, or argue over what would happen if the same fired on the Enterprise, I feel like with both the 40k and the SW universe it's important to focus more on the fiction than the science. I'll attempt to break this down into several subsections, going from most general to most specific, and deciding who has an edge.

Assumptions
The first big assumption would be location. The first problem is that the 40k universe is far larger than the SW one. 40k's Imperium of Man numbers around a million planets at a given time, while SW's listed planets number less than a hundred, and in total can't be more than in the hundreds. Therefore to get even  a balanced fight you'd have to assume the Imperium is launching an rather sizable expeditionary force against the SW's universe; so a new extragalactic invasion, but a different force. Timewise, we'll assume directly after NJO SW and "modern" 40k.

Structure & Organization
In general, 40k has the big advantage in that all the human planets are pretty much under one government, with one religion, one tongue, etc. Obviously it's not completely uniform, and many changes exist, but it's fundamentally far more unified than the SW universe is. Even the simple fact that the Galactic Alliance is still an alliance with a senate puts it at a disadvantage; there were beings arguing for peace with the Yuuzhan Vong even after the conquest of Coruscant. In comparison, while sometimes faulty, the Imperium benefits from a clear, unquestionable command structure and a fervent ideological belief, so is rather comparable to the Yuuzhan Vong in this respect, and would cause similar problems, and be similarly useless to negotiate with. On the flip side, individual commanders in the SW universe are given far more freedom and initiative, giving the GA far more flexibility and ease of response. This can obviously still work against them, since the GA is a bit more weak to infighting and clash of opinion than the Imperium, but it still is a nice benefit on a micro side of things. Despite this, though, the Imperium wins pretty easily in this category.
Imperium: 1
Alliance: 0

Technology
This section is where SW has a pretty big advantage. While the Imperium has some pretty awesome technology, and a lot of cool things, there aren't a ton of things that the Imperium has that the Alliance doesn't have something comparable. The other big advantage is the stagnation the the Imperium. Whatever they bring to the battle is often all they'll ever have, and often thing they lose are irreplaceable. The Alliance however is easily adjustable and is always evolving, and this gives a huge advantage. If they can get around YV black holes, I'm sure they can adjust to void shields, and if they can deal with amphistaffs I doubt chainswords will be problematic for long. Another nice touch is the Alliance's ability to use droids, especially things like the YV Hunter droids Lando develops, which would help balance out the sheer numbers of the Imperium and things like Sentinels and Dreadnaughts. Both the Tau and the Tyranids have used adaptability to overcome the Imperium, and I suspect the SW universe would also benefit from this. Technology can often vary widely through Imperial Worlds, to the point where you can sometimes (rarely) get IG regiments who use stubbers because they don't have lasgun technology. SW planets are pretty well distributed technology wise, with the exceptions of real backwaters, which is rarer than in the Imperium.
Imperium: 1
Alliance: 1


Standard Infantry
The standard lasgun and the standard blaster seem pretty similar in function and effectiveness, and the same for standard armor (I feel like Stormtrooper armor [in lore if not in the movies] is about the same as Carapace armor). Numbers-wise the Imperial Guard probably has an advantage, since the Alliance doesn't seem super hot on infantry combat, although 1v1 a Guardsman and an Alliance trooper are probably about evenly matched, again trading pure doctrinarian and standards for a bit more freedom and flexibility. Assuming even numbers, it'd be an even battle, but assuming respective norms the Imperium would probably have an advantage.
Imperium: 1.5
Alliance: 2

Ground Vehicles
While the movies showcase a lot of ground vehicles, in the EU and especially NJO they tend to have a very minor role, making them a bit harder to judge. SW is usually all about air and space superiority, and ground troops if you /have/ to take on ground targets. That being said, even assuming the technological adjustment I mentioned above, changing the whole way of making war would be time consuming and a bit difficult, so the Imperium would likely have a large advantage in mechanized combat and would enjoy it. (Not to even mention titans).
Imperium: 2.5
Alliance: 2

Starfighters
As far as I'm given to understand, Lightnings and Marauders and the like are simply more modern versions of our current fighter jets, in that they're simply armor and ballistics. SW has the advantage of true advanced fighters, with shields, lasers, missiles, etc. Fighters in the Imperium seem there mostly to engage other starfighters and harry smaller ships, whereas a concentrated starfighter strike will often take down capital ships given the right circumstances in SW. 40k fighters seem best suited to air support on planets, where SW ones have a complete superiority role often unless they're super specialized like B-wings. All in all, SW fighters would almost certainly outclass Imperial ships, giving the Alliance a huge advantage in space combat.
Imperium: 2.5
Alliance: 3

Capital Ships
The Imperium has an advantage in having bigger capital ships, while the Alliance has an advantage in them being much more numerous and much more easily produced. This is where things get a little tricky, given relative differences in fire power and weaponry, but it seems like the Alliance would have the pure advantage in terms of small and medium ships (both in terms of them being more common and usually packing more firepower and defenses). In terms of actual capital class ships, Imperial ones probably would easily come off the better in 1v1, but this is one case where SW has a big advantage, since the average fleet contains a number of Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari Cruisers, etc while it's a giant Imperial fleet that contains an equal number of large ships. They also seem far superior in terms of maneuverability and bringing fire to bear; Imperial ships seem like giant sea ships in terms of using broadsides, whereas SW ships are more like "true" space ships, giving them another advantage. The short story is that the SW universe is centered around space combat for the most part, whereas 40k is often more focused on ground combat. Nevertheless, it would still be a definite fight, even if SW has an advantage.
Imperium: 2.5
Alliance: 3.5

Elites
What you've all been waiting for this entire time, I'm sure: the question of Jedi vs. Space Marines. In a 1v1 setting, I'm going to say that an average Jedi will beat an average Space Marine every time. Jedi are notoriously hard to kill in ranged combat, and will close to CC range. The average Space Marine does not have a power weapon, whereas every Jedi does: this means that with anything up to and sometimes including a Sergeant the Jedi will win through pure weapon advantage (even a well-trained swordsman with a power sword in 40k lore will always beat a normal Space Marine, so I don't think this is at all a reach). When you throw power weapons into the mix, it gets a little closer. The Space Marine will have a lot of experience (oftentimes in the scale of hundreds of years) and the power weapon would theoretically the same as a lightsaber in terms of blocking and hitting, but the Jedi's Force ability usually means battle senses: no matter how much experience, the ability to foresee an opponent's move will usually be the deciding factor. Jedi are also faster and stronger than normal humans, albeit not as much as Space Marines, which is why I'll say that Jedi will probably often, if not always, beat a power-equipped SM. When you get to Librarians or Chapter Masters it gets interesting, since the Warp is way different than the Force. I suspect that one of the above versus a highly experienced Jedi Knight or Jedi Master would be a very close thing. If we get to named characters it's anyone's guess.
However, the key point is that Space Marines rarely work along, and are usually in squads of at least 5. Jedi often work in teams of 2 or 1, and it's a special occasion when you get more than that. So really the question comes down to statistically likely what size group would be fighting what other size. I was forced to do something I've prior to this been trying to avoid, that of looking up statistics.
In the SW univese, there's at the end of NJO around 200 Jedi left. According to Wookiepedia, there's about about 20 million planets with sentient life; a rather unhelpful figure, to be honest. The Galactic Alliance page puts the planets at about 1.2 million.
The galaxy pages states that the total population of the galaxy is 100 quadrillion lifeforms over 20 million planets, meaning an average of 5 billion per planet. I think these numbers are fishy, but let's run with it. That means that the Jedi:People ratio is about 1:3.6^13.
The averages for the Imperium are much much harder to come by, since they can vary from billions and billions on a hive world to mere hundreds on a frontier colony. However, the planets is an easy one million. To make thngs easy, let's also assume 5 billion per planet, giving the population roughly equal to the Alliances. Instead of 200 Jedi, though, you have roughly 1,000 chapters of 1,000, or a million marines, giving a much favorable ratio.
Even assuming the SW numbers of stupidly inflated (which it probably is, I don't think most SW writers would agree that the average planet has 5 billion lifeforms, or that the Alliance is composed of 1.2 million planets) 200 Jedi is still a tiny, tiny number, so the Space Marines would likely steamroll A LOT. I'm sure they could be taken down, but like everything else they fight, it would cost a lot.
Imperium: 3.5
Alliance: 3.5

Conclusion
I actually didn't have numbers or anything planned out while writing this, it all came kind of naturally, so I'm actually surprised the score came out even. Regardless, it seems the general gist is that SW holds the natural front on space combat, whereas the Imperium would dominate on the ground (although the space combat advantage would also likely turn into air superiority on the ground, which might change things; I doubt even hydras would do much vs. strafing X-Wings). It would probably be simply a race to make sure the Imperium never won a space battle to the point they could launch a ground invasion: in some ways, it would be very similar to the Yuuzhan Vong war in that respect, meaning the Alliance has some good experience fighting them off.
Again, I think the key point would be the technological one mentioned above. Much as the Yuuzhan Vong were a mostly static race, the Imperium would probably win a number of smashing victories out the gate, but as the Alliance adjusted that momentum would quickly peter out, and eventually the Alliance would have the upper hand. How much loss would occur before that is up for debate, but I feel an invasion of the SW universe by the Imperium would eventually end badly.
Of course, the big question is again the numbers. I assumed that 40k had a huge advantage, given the lore I've read in both, but apparently the technical facts on Wookipedia speak differently (I'm compelled to call bulls***, but who knows). Assuming the current wars-on-all-fronts of the Imperium, they wouldn't be able to devote as much resources as necessary; if they had somehow secured their galaxy, then they'd also be at an advantage. That would also mean you'd assume the SW galaxy was equally peaceful, but even at their worst they're never as war-torn as the 40k universe is.

Anyway, I've very curious to hear what you all think; what points you think I missed, what points you think I got wrong, etc. If I get enough interesting comments I might write a follow-up, since as I said this wasn't /that/ planned out. Other than that though, this'll probably be the last SW post for a while, so expect other things next time.

-HTMC

So Bad It's Bad: Grimdark & Star Wars

Since I ended up writing that post on the canonicity of videogames, and Star Wars in particular, I figure now is as good of time as any to write that pair of Star Wars posts I've been meaning to write, and make it into a trilogy (My enthusiasm for which has already been seen). Thus I again present you with two things I "like" and why they do not at all go together: The idea of "grimdark" and, again, Star Wars.

My interest in the grimdark has been more recent, stemming from things like Gears of Wars, various zombie things, war movies, and most particularly all the 40k stuff. Obviously there's a limit, and it has to be handled well, but a certain level of this works extraordinarily well in certain circumstances. Lots of examples exist, and while I don't think the majority of the media I consume could be labeled "grimdark," I definitely enjoy the genre (style?).

I've been a fan of the universe for as long as I can remember, although my actual count of watching the movies is relatively low; I've always been much more focused on the Expanded Universe, particularly the novels and short stories, and to a lesser extent things like video games, comics, the original Clone Wars shorts, etc. I devoured things like the X-Wing series and everything Timothy Zahn wrote, and supplemented it with anything I could find. If my memory serves me correctly, releases were fairly small while I was growing up, and there weren't so many spin-offs as there are now. I could be wrong.

However, all this changed with New Jedi Order. Although the writing team didn't use the word "grimdark," they specifically stated the goal was to make the Star Wars universe darker/grittier, which is why the series opens with the still controversial death of Chewbacca.

My opinion of the series is actually on the whole positive. Some of the stories are better than others. Some moments are treated amazingly, like Anakin's martyrdom, while others don't get nearly what they deserver, like the death of Tsavong Lah. Some of the stories, particularly the early ones, are forgettable to a large extent, while others (such as Traitor and the two by Aaron Allstone) are still worth rereading even out of order.

So yes, I think they achieved what they wanted. They wanted to get away from the predictable, the "Han/Leia/Luke get in trouble but everyone knows they'll barely make it out because we can't kill off those characters." I can understand some frustration from a writer's standpoint, wanting to do something different in a universe so many people love. And as I said, I think they handled it extremely well, for the most part. It was a good series, I don't regret reading it, and it definitely made for a different feel than the other works.

What I object strongly to is that now, since the NJO series sold so well, the writers seem to think that the rest of the books need to be grimdark in order to sell well. I read the Dark Nest Trilogy, which is the immediate sequel to the NJO series, and it basically said "let's take everything they resolved, destroy it, and have 3 of the strongest people in the entire SW universe fall victim to bugs... after defeating Force-blank extradimensional aliens."

Ya. That makes a lot of sense.

I honestly can barely remember anything from the series, because it was so bad both in terms of content, character believability, and actual writing style. I only finished the trilogy because I have some Completionist in me. I almost started reading the Legacy of the Force, only to read some of the plot summaries online, and then declare the entire series Excommunicatus Hereticus and thus non-canon (I would have burned all copies too, if I had the resources).

To give a summary of why I hate this book so much, I refer back to a book I referenced earlier, namely Traitor. It may be, in my mind, the best book of the series. It focuses on Jacen on occupied Coruscant, and his journey to come to terms with the Yuuzhan Vong, their alienness, and their lack of the Force. His descent into madness, confusion, and eventual reemergence as perhaps the wisest of the Jedi is one of the best stories I've read, period. It's philosophy and introspection through a Star Wars lens, and confronts the grimdarkness of the Yuuzhan Vong and takes from it something positive. Alien, but positive.

Jacen's key discovery is that the idea of the Light and Dark side of the Force is a farce. The Force is living energy; energy cannot be good or bad. What the Jedi refer to the Dark side is merely the evil within Force users themselves. Not only is such labeling detrimental, but by doing so the Jedi have blinded themselves to the full spectrum of the Force and cannot reach their whole potential.
Jacen solves the problem of the Vong Force-nakedness. He uses a Vong symbiot to fix his lightsaber, and becomes deeply in tune with it as as a result (as well as a symbiote implanted within him). He then becomes able to dimly, but still somewhat, sense the Vong in the Force. It's a huge breakthrough, and Jacen spends the rest of the series (although this book is 20/26, so towards the end) contemplating the Force and trying to learn as many of the non-Jedi Force-user cults as he can (such as the Dathomir witches).

Cool idea, right? Like I said, it's really well executed, an amazing character development and motivation for Jacen (who'd prior to that been Animal Boy, i.e. Pretty Boring). So what did Legacy of the Force do?

"Olololol I troll you! He's gonna become a Sith because he needs to learn ALL kinds of Force!"

"But wait, didn't he learn that the Dark side of the Force didn't really exist? What kind of motivation could he possibly have for this?!" you say in confusion and betrayal.

"I TROLL YOU" shouts Karen Traviss and Troy Denning.

So yes, Legacy of the Force (and everything else post NJO) is stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. You'd think that the fact that pretty much every SW novel, no matter how grimdark or whatever, is a bestseller would clue the writers off that it doesn't NEED to be grimdark. In fact, while NJO was a nice change, I prefer the traditional type. Star Wars was ABOUT the heroic, the traditional happy ending story; Han may be frozen in carbonite, all may seem lost, but they'll come through eventually. It's a good feeling to know that. And if you really want to kill people? Be like Aaron Allstone or Michael Stackpole, or Timothy Zahn, and make some compelling characters that sometimes become more popular than the movie characters (I'm looking at you, Mara Jade and Corran Horn) and then you can kill them off.

Also, in that vein, Karen Traviss, you f***ing leave Timothy Zahn's characters alone. He writes infinitely better and more interesting stories than you do.

Anyway, sorry for the long and rambling post, but I've been bottling this up for a long time. Grimdarkness is good, and it has its place, but that place is not Star Wars. I'll get that fix elsewhere, and meanwhile I can go to Star Wars getting what I'm expecting. I mean, I'd be upset if I read a 40k novel where every character lived; likewise I'd be upset if I read a SW novel where EVERYONE DIED. So get back to your roots. Side stories featuring none of the movie characters can be awesome (again, see the Rogue Squadron series). Write more of those or something. If nothing else, it's getting silly that Han and Luke are the only two people in the entire galaxy who can handle some things (didn't Luke make that Jedi Academy for this reason?)

I welcome your thoughts, and thanks for bearing with me through all this.

-HTMC

Video Games And Canon, or, The Lack Thereof

I'm supposed to be writing a short piece on Plato, but instead I'm going to talk about two subjects I enjoy far more, namely Stars Wars and videogames.

I actually have a couple SW related posts bouncing lazily around my skull, but this one is short and relevant to what I'm currently doing.

Anyway, Star Wars. I like Star Wars. I like the stories, I know the canon well, I have enjoyed and continued to enjoy the universe in its entirety, despite various ups and downs (and forcibly ignoring the travesty that is Karin Travess, may a Sarlacc consume her). I like videogames a lot too, as the number of posts on this site will attest. I don't think they work well together as a general rule, though, specifically when it involves story-telling.

For instance, KotOR. I'll admit I've never played through either game completely, but what I did play didn't impress me very much. For starts, the time period is kind of boring to me in terms of the SW continuity, and in addition they had to make things 2000 or whatever BANH (before A New Hope) but still maintain the Star Wars feel, which ends up being ANH with different names and none of the same characters. It would have been interesting if they had seriously messed with the look or feel of the universe... but they didn't, so I for one just was wondering where everything I know was. I understand why they did it, since it gives them far freer rein in what stories to tell and what to do with the characters, but I kind of ignore it for the same reason that I ignore the series set hundreds of years after the Yuuzhan Vong war.

Another example are the two Battlefront games. While being excellent games, they didn't make a strong attempt to be canon, and I think they gained from it. While I'll always be annoyed at things like using thermal detonators as grenades, it tried to be a good, solid shooter, and succeeded. Things like Battlefield 1942 didn't need much of a story, just a good background to set the war in, and this succeeded.

Another example is Super Bombad Racing. I'm not really gonna touch that.

Anyway, this brings me to the latest point, where I started today playing the Force Unleashed. This is where canonicity really rears its head. For starters, the first level is on Kashyyyk. On the ground.

Admittedly, a couple other games and the movie itself also featured ground on Kashyyyk. But in canon, you don't go to ground level. If you're there, you're dead and being eaten by giant predators. But to serve   a videogame setting, it's on the ground. Likewise you get Wookies dying in droves, despite how long lived and relatively rare offspring are. The game moves on to things like taking multiple lightsaber slashes to kill a single human, Force powers always having a physical appearance, and a Jedi Master sacrificing his entire battalion to draw out a Force user.

I get it, videogames need certain liberties in order to function. If you could always one-hit kill with a lightsaber, it would get somewhat old quickly. But then I hear things about the canon of these kind of games being contested, and I just want to say: No. They're no canon. They're games. In the same way that I view the Blood Angels as a fun fan Chapter that Relic made up, or even how a football team winning in Madden 200x doesn't represent real life, any videogame drawn from an outside canon is probably not actually going to follow the canon well, and I will likely not buy into it.

Videogames need certain parameters to work, and often this conflicts with the universe lore. While this isn't a problem in and of itself, when you try to force a videogame that simple conflicts into canon, then you have problems. I think the solution is to (again only for series not originating in videogames) simply leave the games as a fun side note, and leave the canon to books, movies, and other mediums.

-HTMC