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  1. - Top - End - #1201
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    Billion upon billions, and yes. They literally travel the space between galaxies on planets. Living, mobile, hyperspace-capable semi-sentient planets!
    Worldships weren't quite planet-sized. They were more like Death Star-sized at the upper end.

    There's a sort of silliness to the Vong that I really hope never returns to Star Wars. We complain about JJ Abrams having zero concept of just how big space is but then we have things like the Vong. An enemy I could never take conceptually seriously, and the fact that the Republic beat them just makes it even more laughable.
    Del Rey let RA Salvatore, who had no prior experience with Star Wars and whose solution to basically every conflict he's ever created is 'it's dueling time!' write the first NJO novel, Vector Prime. For some unfathomable reason they let Salvatore define a great deal about the Vong, like making them a completely biotech-based species, with minimal oversight. The result was a concept that fundamentally did not work from the start and even though a number of others gradually repaired the Vong down to something a little bit less ridiculous by tweaking how their tech worked, it was never totally salvageable.

    IMO, Star Wars would do well to dial things back down. Local conflicts between a couple of systems. More localized (a few star systems) governments and empires.

    I think that's why Moff Gideon works. He's small. Big in comparison to the lone Mandalorian, but small in comparison to everything else. I hope the other TV series keep to a similar tone. It does wonders for worldbuilding.
    There has been, outside of the ST ridiculousness, at least something of a trend in this direction already. Many of the later season TCW arcs are smaller scale, usually they involve events centered on one planet at a time even though the overall conflict is huge. Rebels, though it cameos some big names, is mostly about the fate of a single planet, Lothal, that happens to be strategically important both in Force-related terms (because a Jedi temple was there) and in conventional terms (because the TIE Defender factory was there).

    Most of the proposed series to come seem like they're going to be fairly small overall. The likely exception is the Ahsoka series, but she's a character that can handle it.
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  2. - Top - End - #1202
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    Billion upon billions
    That's not really that impressive. There are "billions upon billions" humans right now and we fit on a single planet.


    Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post
    making them a completely biotech-based species
    What's wrong with that? That sounds like a genuinely good way to make them feel alien to the GFFA.
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  3. - Top - End - #1203
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    What's wrong with that? That sounds like a genuinely good way to make them feel alien to the GFFA.
    Their use of biotech made them completely incompatible with the existing technology and resource base of the GFFA. Consequently their invasion was completely one note. They couldn't seize or plunder any resources (aside from people which they turned into mind-slaves) of any kind. In order to build up any resource base of any kind they had to transform whole planets to their alien ecology. And, until a cheat was designed later in the book series, peace was completely impossible.

    More importantly, their biotech was totally BS. They were given armor that was completely immune to blaster fire and lightsabers, with no justification as to how any living material could possibly have such strength. Their communication devices were startlingly impractical and their ship propulsion relieved on 'gravity manipulation.' It was just a bunch of junk thrown together in an incredible hurry without any real thought.

    Also, it didn't make them alien. Somehow, despite being from another galaxy the Yuuzhan Vong were humanoid who breathed standard Oxygen/Nitrogen atmospheres, could eat human food and even engage in sexual relations with humans, and when the Republic developed an anti-Vong bioweapon, somehow their extragalactic biology proved so similar to existing life that the bioweapon also targeted ordinary GFFA species.

    The bottom line is that, prior to the introduction of the Vong Star Wars was basically devoid of biotech (this was before the PT after all, we hadn't seen Kamino yet). None of the writers called upon to write the series understood biotech or even general rules of biology. They just weren't prepared to handle the scenario Salvatore created. By contrast, had the reverse route been taken, and the Vong been a machine species, Star Wars would have reckoned with that just fine.
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  4. - Top - End - #1204
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    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post
    Worldships weren't quite planet-sized. They were more like Death Star-sized at the upper end.
    Ah, I suppose the term 'world' may have mislead me, though still, moving such a massive object requires JJ Abrams levels of sci-ignorance.

    Del Rey let RA Salvatore...
    Ahhhhh....see I get a lot of my Vong info from the later end of the EU, I disliked a great deal of the "middle" EU right around the time of Jania(Jaina? Who cares?) & Jacen and up and through Legacy (Cade? Eww). And I mostly stuck to the comics. I did not realize it was RA Salvatore who started them. He's the JJ Abrams of book-writing.

    ...The result was a concept that fundamentally did not work from the start and even though a number of others gradually repaired the Vong down to something a little bit less ridiculous by tweaking how their tech worked, it was never totally salvageable.
    Yeah I did seem to notice that the Vong seemed hell-bent on exterminating our Galaxy (because we used technology I guess? Their motivations always made me sympathetic to whatever force must have expelled them from their prior galaxy. Assuming they weren't just the Independence Day aliens from the get go) and then suddenly we were able to work things out, or something. Probably Force shenanigans, I'm gonna go with Force shenanigans.

    There has been, outside of the ST ridiculousness, at least something of a trend in this direction already. Many of the later season TCW arcs are smaller scale, usually they involve events centered on one planet at a time even though the overall conflict is huge. Rebels, though it cameos some big names, is mostly about the fate of a single planet, Lothal, that happens to be strategically important both in Force-related terms (because a Jedi temple was there) and in conventional terms (because the TIE Defender factory was there).

    Most of the proposed series to come seem like they're going to be fairly small overall. The likely exception is the Ahsoka series, but she's a character that can handle it.
    And I hope it continues. The "main trilogy" of movies can handle the great galactic conflicts. But there's always going to be a high level of handwaving to justify the galactic-level shenanigans.
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  5. - Top - End - #1205
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    Billion upon billions, and yes. They literally travel the space between galaxies on planets. Living, mobile, hyperspace-capable semi-sentient planets!
    I don't know enough about biotech to critique the rest of your post, but if you're going to take an entire galactic civilization on an extragalactic migration, you would expect them to use very, very large self-sustainable generation ships. Ships very like the worldships of the Vong. The GFFA is capable of building Death Stars -- the Vong did the same using their technology, only they built their ships for long-range transit rather than combat. Transport Star? Freight Star?

    The same goes for semi-sentient intelligence of the worldships; that's no different then installing a droid intelligence to run a Death Star. Again, if you're going to create a ship with an ecosystem, some sort of governing intelligence, or at least a federation of organisms working together, is vital.

    Even the use of biotech is reasonable if it can be made to serve. I would guess there is precious little metal or other resources in the space between galaxies, so if your ships are not self-sustaining entities I don't think they can make the trip at all.

    Of course, in a slightly different universe there's no reason for conflict; the Vong simply bring their worldships into uninhabited systems, or even around gas giants or other worlds currently unused by the GFFA, then initiate first a trading relationship and, ultimately, membership in the Republic.

    But we've gotta have a reason to fight, so the Vong Hate Machines and their users. Fundamentalists immune to reason and unwilling to consider any viewpoint other than their own -- at least, at the start of the books. By the end of the story the YV have come round -- necessary, because the only other alternative would be total extermination. Which writers, even in the 90s, wouldn't go for.

    Respectfully,

    Brian P.
    Last edited by pendell; 2021-03-20 at 10:13 AM.
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  6. - Top - End - #1206
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by False God View Post
    IMO, Star Wars would do well to dial things back down. Local conflicts between a couple of systems. More localized (a few star systems) governments and empires.
    It was something I liked in Star Wars: Uprising. Just a few planets. A local warlord and his troops, plus the Hutts, the Merchant's guild, some smugglers and some rebels.
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  7. - Top - End - #1207
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    It was something I liked in Star Wars: Uprising. Just a few planets. A local warlord and his troops, plus the Hutts, the Merchant's guild, some smugglers and some rebels.
    Force (Jedi, Sith) related stories are better at a small scale too.

  8. - Top - End - #1208
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
    Imean, he absolutely is. And I'm loving him in Better Call Saul. Buts it's weird to see him be the exact same character in Star Wars. I'm with Fyr, I wanted more of the Client.
    Yeah, I wanted to see more of the Client too. Like planning attacks on Mando, and taking action to hunt him. Like more of active threat. That way seeing him get replaced by the Moff is a sense that matters are getting more serious and dangerous.
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  9. - Top - End - #1209
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    Default Re: The Mandalorian Season 2

    I thought Season 2 was quite enjoyable. I am looking forward to the various spin off shows, especially the Ahsoka show. I really hope if they bring Luke back, they will get a younger actor (like Sebastian Stan) to play him so we can avoid the uncanny valley of Season 2 Luke.

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