Rater's Ridiculously Rambunctious Random Ranter #229

[Rater202]

While we're on the Star Wars topic, but changing gears a bit, something I really want to do someday is write a fanfic of the Sith Inquisitor from The Old Republic ending up somehow getting involved in the "modern-day stories."

A mildly insane but more or less benevolent* Sith who knows exactly what it's like to go from being a Slave to being part of a powerful order to wizard-monks seems like the perfect way to derail the canon storyline.

Unfortunately, the best way I can think of to import them is "betrayed by the rest of the Dark Council, frozen in carbonite since they know just killing you won't work, and buried somewhere in the deserts of Tattooine to be discovered ages later and unfrozen by Jawas who are then mind tricked into taking the Inquisitor somewhere where they can figure out where the Hell they are and how long they were frozen, coincidentally finding themselves in Mos Espa just as Queen Amidala's ship is coming in" and in order to do that I'd have to watch Phantom Menace again to make sure I don't wreck it.

*The Wookiepedia page on the Inquisitor, last I checked, was horribly out of date: They refer to them as Darth Nox and the article is written under the assumption that they made Dark side choices at every opportunity, but the DLC implies that they're canonically a Lightsider and goes by Imperious, and unlike other Lightside Sith characters their light side choices tend to involve helping people, showing mercy, and not being a dishonest, traitorous bag of lies and treachery.

[Peelee]

...I did.

Actually, you didn't. See below.

If I didn't have a source that explicitly said the tech was outdated, why would I continue to insist it was outdated?

Because you are using words that do not mean "outdated" to mean "outdated." See below.

1: Deliberately using out of date tec for important components(such as, "does it fit right") is a kind of poorly designed. It being poorly designed in one way supports it being poorly designed in another. Regardless, that was mostly an afterthought not fully related to the main discussion.

Fun fact! I went ahead and bought the book, and no, it does not say what you claim it says, because, again, "poorly designed" doesn't mean "out of date". Chapter 10 is where Vader has a lengthy mental aside regarding his suit, and he never once says anything is archaic, outdated, or obsolete. He is unhappy because it is bulky, awkward, heavy, and claustrophobic, and he does complain about the medical droids using a different metal for his prosthetic legs than he would have, but that's about it. Other than that, he also notes the advantages the suit allows him, but does not consider them advantageous since he could have replicated most of them with the Force when he was 100% biological, and is dismayed that he does not have the full scope of feeling and sensory input that he had biologically.

None of this is said to be outdated. None of this is even implied to be outdated. At no point did Vader ever say or think, "this is out of date." At absolute worst, he thought "this metal is inferior to the one I would have used". From all appearances, you are reading "Vader disliked his suit" and interpreting that as "the suit was outdated".

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Rogue One establishes that in the new continuity when he's not on-duty he spends pretty much all of his free time mediating in a bacta tank with all of his non-essential cybernetics removed.

Is this comedic exaggeration again? Because a single scene does not in any way imply "all his free time".

Wookiepedia

Wookieepedia. 2 E's

[Rater202]

Okay, I read something back in middle school that explicitly said it was outdated. I thought it was Rise of Vader becuase I remember reading it at around that time, the Wiki cites that novel for the statement that the cybernetics are obsolete, and the TVtropes page mentions that the stuff is outdated, but apparently someone else conflated...

Oh God, this is gonna be bugging me for months. Can we table this part of the discussion until I figure out what the hell it was that I read? I'm looking for citations but the only source that anyone gives for the statement is that book.

...Did you read the whole book or just skim it till you got to that rant? BEcuase the Wookeepedia page cites the same technology in the suit having been used decades ago to convert Grievous into a cyborg initially.

[enderlord99]

Presumably a different version of that technology.

EDIT: Peelee, your correction on the spelling of the word "Wookiee" re-introduced the "no 'i'" error.

[Peelee]

Oh God, this is gonna be bugging me for months. Can we table this part of the discussion until I figure out what the hell it was that I read? I'm looking for citations but the only source that anyone gives for the statement is that book.

Sure! Also, something that might be useful: A list of all old canon novels that I have read. I don't recall any of them claiming the suit's technology was obsolete. I haven't read all the books there are, and I largely skipped most of the YA books after the first six or so, so it's very definitely possible that I missed it. If you remember reading any books that aren't on my list, that's probably a good place to start. Though standard disclaimer applies, my memory sucks and I could very well just not be remembering it in one of the ones I have read. I hope that's not the case, because if it's in one of the ones I haven't read, it's a much smaller and more manageable list.

...Did you read the whole book or just skim it till you got to that rant?

Ebook (the B&M stores replaced most of the Star Wars sections with toys and chotskies somewhere around 10-15 years ago and access to the older stuff hasn't been the same since), so I was able to run several searches with various keywords - "suit", "cyber", "tech", "medical", and a few others - to maximize the odds that I wouldn't miss any context in either direction. Say what you will about ebook vs paperback (the smell is the best), but dang is a search function handy.

Reading the whole book is for later, but, well... it's not too hard to convince me to buy and read a Star Wars book. Also, that one apparently slipped in under the radar and I've read good reviews about it, so I totally appreciate you dropping that knowledge bomb on me!

BEcuase the Wookeepedia page cites the same technology in the suit having been used decades ago to convert Grievous into a cyborg initially.

I totally get your pain on having trouble finding where exactly it was called out as outdated, because I'm having that same issue in the opposite direction - I could have sworn that Lucas gave statements or had an interview or something where he talked about the advancement of cybernetic prosthetic technology and how, with Vader's and Luke's prosthetics as they were, he went the other way with Grievous in the prequels to show that as you went back farther in time things were not as good, but I can't for the life of me find it.

EDIT: Peelee, your correction on the spelling of the word "Wookiee" re-introduced the "no 'i'" error.

Well dang. I am shamed.

Fixed now. Thanks!

[Rater202]

So, one year in late middle school for my Birthday I got the most recent edition of all six at the time Star Wars movies and marathoned them.

The Box Set special edition of the original trilogy had a bonus feature disc that included more than one documentary--it was either that or an episode of Modern Marvels talking about "Star Wars tech" (this was just when the History Channel was starting to lose it) where it talks about Grievous.

What I recall is that Griveous's character design was done in a way to give an idea of what "Proto Type" Darth Vader would look like: Extensive cyber conversion, full replacement of limbs, integrated life support, environmental protective armor, and so on.

But it wasn't said that he was literally an outdated prototype, and I distinctly remember that the Novelization of Revenge of the Sith included a chapter from his perspective that mentions that he regularly upgrades and replaces his cybers in order to keep himself in peak condition so I'm going to assume that even if he started a prototype Vader that he was up to date when he died.

I clearly remember it being mentioned that the most recent overhaul included making him taller for the intimidation factor.

On the book: I just want to know why so many different places would cite Rise of Vader as a source for the armor being outdated if it doesn't actually say that.

[enderlord99]

What should I call the residential outskirts of a town or city when that city is only of semiurban density rather than truly urban? Can I call them "subsemiurbs" or is that silly? Does it need any hyphens; if so, where?

[Rawhide]

You could call them Keith, as long as the city is out in the country.

[enderlord99]

Gulls are aquatic birds with both necks and legs of the normal length for a bird of that size. They seem aggressive, but in fact are mostly just loud, and unlikely to cause serious injury to a healthy human.

Ducks are also aquatic birds. Their necks are a bit long, but not concernedly so. Their legs are still of normal length. They are a tad more dangerous than gulls, but not by much.

Geese are aquatic birds with necks somewhat longer than ducks' necks and legs slightly longer than ducks' legs. They are also significantly more violent than ducks.

Following this escalating pattern, the next waterfowl in line is the swan. Swans have much longer necks than geese, moderately longer legs than geese, and are (impressively, considering how vicious geese are) vastly more capable of savage brutality than geese. The common myth of a "peaceful swan" is just that: a myth.

However, we have still not reached the end.

Spoiler: Dare you learn even the name of this creature? Cower in fear at the mere mention of the...

Show

FLAMINGO!

[Peelee]

Gulls are aquatic birds with both necks and legs of the normal length for a bird of that size. They seem aggressive, but in fact are mostly just loud, and unlikely to cause serious injury to a healthy human.

Ducks are also aquatic birds. Their necks are a bit long, but not concernedly so. Their legs are still of normal length. They are a tad more dangerous than gulls, but not by much.

Geese are aquatic birds with necks somewhat longer than ducks' necks and legs slightly longer than ducks' legs. They are also significantly more violent than ducks.

Following this escalating pattern, the next waterfowl in line is the swan. Swans have much longer necks than geese, moderately longer legs than geese, and (impressively, considering how vicious geese are) vastly more capable OF savage brutality than geese. The common myth of a "peaceful swan" is just that: a myth.

However, we have still not reached the end.

Spoiler: Dare you learn even the name of this creature? Cower in fear at the mere mention of the...

Show

FLAMINGO!

Spoiler: Well, there's only one reaction to that.

Show

[Anonymouswizard]

So what you're saying is that as the length of the waterfowl grows, the fouler it becomes?

Sorry, I refuse to believe that anything can be more evil than a swan.

[enderlord99]

So what you're saying is that as the length of the waterfowl grows, the fouler it becomes?

Yes.

Sorry, I refuse to believe that anything can be more evil than a swan.

I know. It's hard to fathom. You don't need to open the spoiler if you don't want to.

[Peelee]

I know. It's hard to fathom. You don't need to open the spoiler if you don't want to.

Indeed, it was very scary stuff.

On an unrelated note, who's up for shortening the regen time for someone making the new thread to like 20 or 15 iterations instead of the current 50?

[Mystic Muse]

Indeed, it was very scary stuff.

On an unrelated note, who's up for shortening the regen time for someone making the new thread to like 20 or 15 iterations instead of the current 50?

15 seems reasonable, and might even be a stretch with the amount of posters in this thread.

[enderlord99]

You know what's bigger that 50? 54. You know what's slightly smaller than 15? 12.

New thread here.