Seems we're agreement, then!

Some interesting back and forth. Some less interesting back and forth. I tend to side with the folks who point out that Kylo Ren was not a fully trained anything. He had a lot of raw power, but not a broad set of skills in applying it. Rey also had a lot of raw power, but no formal training (that we are aware of), and she was able to tap into that when she needed it most. She wasn't a 'Master' of anything. Hardly a new concept for Star Wars. The parallels between Rey, Luke, and Anakin also should have been fairly obvious to anyone paying attention. Natural aptitude with piloting and mechanics is a recurring theme with the main characters of the Star Wars films. She's hardly unique or any more of a 'Sue' than basically every other important character in the franchise. Lastly, and this is just a peeve, Finn was not a janitor. He was a Stormtrooper whose assigned post was in Sanitation. Calling him a janitor is like saying the Stormtrooper guarding the door of the command post is a General. Sanitation just happened to be the section of the planet sized super-base where he walked his patrols and performed his Stormtrooper duties. Oddly, the character I was most disappointed with in TFA was Han Solo. Just my personal opinion, but I really felt he was the comedy relief of the film. Rather than the charming rogue who survived with skill, luck, and a know-it-all grin I think I remember, he really came across to me in TFA as a bumbling, possibly senile, pratfall (most of the time). The places it really stood out to me were the entire freighter scene with the two gangs, and every time he picked up the Bowcaster. I remember thinking "Really? Han and Chewie have been partners for decades and he never fired the bowcaster before? Seriously?" There also this quick moment on Starkiller base that's like two seconds long, where they've 'rescued' Rey and are heading back up to the surface. Chewie picks up Han's parka and hands it to him, and Han stares at it like he has no idea where he is or what he's doing. Maybe senile and bumbling is what they were going for, and if so they were remarkably successful, but it was a disappointment to me, personally.

NYC http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/db1 PAX http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/db0

The difference is that Ziost is an 'everyone does the same thing' situation. On Balmorra and Nar Shadda, we don't use the Force at all to solve the primary problems. The Inquisitor is reduced to a huckster like 'The Great and Powerful Oz'.

These should have been available at launch, frankly.

Eh, the PC Inquisitor was always a bit of a fraud as far as I'm concerned. Look at how they solve their problems on Balmora and Nar Shadda, just as examples. They're supposed to be so special they have the Force dripping out of every orifice, but nah. Why would they bend the universe to their will and seek to advance their mastery over the Force, supposedly the key goal of a Sith's existence, to come up with a solution when they could just be an idiot or solve it like a smuggler? I think Zash got confused by someone else in the class who actually was an awesome conduit for the Force, and by the time she realized she picked the wrong apprentice she was too desperate to care and too embarrassed to admit it.

Sith are all about accumulating power and the right time to strike. My Inquisitor would kneel in a heartbeat for the promise of learning at the Emperor's side, with the understanding that one day he would attempt to usurp the throne. My other characters...maybe not so much.

The Rakghoul issue alone makes Taris impossible to recolonize. The moment they realized the planet was populated with billions of feral monsters who only needed to scratch you to turn you into one, they should have pulled back into orbit and glassed the planet. Why the planet isn't quarantined, with a fleet stationed to destroy any ship trying to leave, is beyond my comprehension.

The problem with the Kreia theory is that the Emperor, and his goals, would be anathema to her. Her stated goal was to free the Galaxy from the manipulations of the Force, in theory allowing them to make their own fates (a common theme in that particular writer's stories). The Emperor wants no such thing. You could argue that his ultimate goals are directly counter to the ends Kreia was working for. And he is like Nihilus, minus 10 pounds of hunger and plus 10 tons of paranoid insanity. There's just no way you can reconcile what she wanted with what he wants and say that she would support him, short of her completely losing it after her death (assuming you didn't already believe she'd gone off the deep end).

In TOR? the entire Tython storyline makes me think that until the PC (specifically the JK) comes along, the Council and the Order are absolutely puppets for the Senate.

That's funny. Because (BH class spoiler below): I guess you don't have to speak it to RP a Mandalorian after all.

Sorry, Imperials. The Republic's Malgus analog is already dead, which is why there isn't a FP to kill him. Malgus killed him in the first cinematic, "Deceived". Go look at the front page of this site, or the front of the box, or most of the online ads. The Jedi poster child is not Satele Shan. It's Ven Zallow. So, barring time travel, cloning, or "He was only mostly dead" plots, players will never get to kill the Republic's version of Malgus.

They're a 'by invitation only' club. You aren't one at the beginning of your story.

Knight in Shadow clothing.

You know, even putting aside the opinion that the gear looks horrible, you have to wonder at the competence of a team that can not even get set pieces, things theoretically designed to be worn as a single outfit, to work together without clipping. So not only does it look terrible, but it was implemented terribly.

No you don't.

Oddly, I got a very happy thank you letter from her. I axed everyone at the auction, confronted her, told her not to mess around again, and left. Mako even said "See you, Juda. Maybe next time we can get together in better circumstances." Shortly after, a little note in my mailbox "Dear Awesome BH, Mom's great, thanks for not killing me, everything's great, I'll never mess with the Mandalorians again. Kisses, Juda" Or something to that effect.

My thoughts are that the author should get a spell checker, a grammar checker and a fact checker before they produce anything else for public consumption. At minimum.

Her first two RC books are ok. Worth a read. You can skip everything else she has written or will ever write.

You know, even putting aside the opinion that the Consular gear there looks horrible, you have to wonder at the competence of a team that can not even get set pieces, things theoretically designed to be worn as a single outfit, to work together without clipping. So not only does it look terrible, but it was implemented terribly.

Not quite. Current Mandalore, and his Mandalorians, are just morons. The Empire manipulated events to put a puppet Mandalore in place as part of the prep for the War. This put the Mandalorians on their side marking the third or fourth time the Mandalorians have been manipulated and used as disposable troops by an incarnation of the Sith. HOWEVER! In a shocking turn of events, the current Mandalore challenged the puppet and killed him dead, taking the title and position of Mandalore for himself, and relegating the pretender to forever be known as "Mandalore the Lesser". Now, you'd think that discovering the Empire was manipulating their sacred traditions to suck them into a war as disposable troops would generally tick off your normal, rational individual and society. But not the Mandalorians! In a move worthy of Stockholm, rather than telling the Empire where to stick it, the new Mandalore said "Dur, we'll still fight for the Empire!" and had everyone who disagreed killed. As an aside, everyone who disagreed cited Canderous Ordo, Mandalore the Preserver, and his stated policy of protecting the Republic rather than getting slaughtered by them over and over and over, as has happened in every single Mandalorian/Republic conflict ever. So that's why you've got a Mandalorian enclave on Dromund Kaas rather than on Coruscant. To add to the stupidity, the Mandalorians willingly and happily admit to anyone that bothers asking, including the Sith, that they only want to fight worthy opponents, ones that can actually challenge them, and that means they only want to fight Jedi. I'll let the reader think about how a Sith would take being told they weren't an opponent that could give a Mandalorian a challenge, and the result.

I can't speak to Baras or the Empire side of things, since I haven't hit Taris yet with my BH, and I don't have a Warrior, but I can see how that would be confusing and contradictory. As for the Republic: The NPC says something to the effect of "We never did figure out how to defend against an Orbital Bombardment, if we had we could have protected Coruscant..." which is where you're getting that connection I suspect. As a smuggler, I gave a smart aleck response about being able to stop a Cruiser or two by myself, but a fleet being a little much.

You're going to have to point out source NPCs, because I don't recall a single person on Republic Taris stating that the Sith Empire ruled the planet. I also don't recall anyone saying it was the Sith Empire that bombarded it back into the stone age. Plenty of people say the Sith did it, which is true enough as Malak was clearly a follower of the Sith teachings and philosophy, but no one says it was the Sith Empire. I find it more amusing that everyone seems to know all about the Jedi Civil War, but no one but a few esoteric historians knows who Revan is. It would be like saying you know all about the US Civil War but have never heard of General Lee.

Nope, Light.

I'd rate The Clap about a 4. I dislike the exterior, and while the interior has some neat rooms, it feels...meh.