[QuickTidal]

Jeezus. Okay man. enjoy.

[Abyss]

Suddenly it all makes sense.

[the broken]

You realise that was a joke, right? There are in fact other, more important things than arguing Star Wars on the internet.

[Tsundoku]

Ok, now for something a little bit different:

https://www.realesta...gnPlacement=spa

Amazing Kyneton ‘Star Wars house’ property for sale

Approved plans for a house based on a Star Wars Imperial Light Cruiser are up for grabs with the sale of an otherworldly Kyneton block.

-----------------------------

OK, I'd do something like that if I had the $$$ and the design could fit all the things I wanted in a house.

By coincidence, my son put together a Lego version last year.

Unfortunately, we can't fit in it.

Attached File(s)

•  Resized_20230207_203137_3894.jpeg (44.04K)
  Number of downloads: 0

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 01 May 2023 - 11:45 AM

[the broken]

So now that the game is out, it went somewhere kind of interesting.

Ultimately, Jedi will keep falling regardless of their ideology because stories need antagonists, and Red v Blue makes Lucasfilm a lot of money. Jedi Survivor had an antagonist problem ahead of its release, and I was interested to see how it would be resolved (Cal had run out of darksiders on his level, once he can take inquisitors there's no one left except Vader and Palpatine, neither of which works because they're too far beyond him.) They do a pretty good job of highlighting Cal's strengths and limitations, he's terrifying to you average trooper, but can't take on properly fully Force users without help.

Spoiler

So we had Dagan Gera, who fell because he worked really hard to provide a refuge from the galaxy, with hints that he was in love with his friend and wanted a refuge, only for the Nihil to find and raid it in his moment of triumph (which makes sense because their Path engines can bypass the Abyss), rendering all his work worthless, so he cracked.

And Bode, who fell to protect his daughter.

Cal almost falls, but is brought back because of Merrin.

Insofar as it has a position, you can stand or fall either way, no matter your ideology. Fair enough.

But some of it has an ugly edge. Lines like 'The Jedi Order is gone. Maybe it's time to leave it behind'. If he said 'their path is not for me' that would be fine but instead the writers chose to lean towards the 'flawed/failed' angle. They could easily go for 'there are many paths in the Light' but prefer 'no, your path is WRONG', which is an unpleasant path to go down when it would be so easy to preach tolerance of diverse values instead.

[QuickTidal]

K

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

QT is salty

[QuickTidal]

Always!

[BK (NTS no politics)]

 the broken, on 17 May 2023 - 11:51 PM, said:

So now that the game is out, it went somewhere kind of interesting.

Ultimately, Jedi will keep falling regardless of their ideology because stories need antagonists, and Red v Blue makes Lucasfilm a lot of money. Jedi Survivor had an antagonist problem ahead of its release, and I was interested to see how it would be resolved (Cal had run out of darksiders on his level, once he can take inquisitors there's no one left except Vader and Palpatine, neither of which works because they're too far beyond him.) They do a pretty good job of highlighting Cal's strengths and limitations, he's terrifying to you average trooper, but can't take on properly fully Force users without help.

Spoiler

So we had Dagan Gera, who fell because he worked really hard to provide a refuge from the galaxy, with hints that he was in love with his friend and wanted a refuge, only for the Nihil to find and raid it in his moment of triumph (which makes sense because their Path engines can bypass the Abyss), rendering all his work worthless, so he cracked.

And Bode, who fell to protect his daughter.

Cal almost falls, but is brought back because of Merrin.

Insofar as it has a position, you can stand or fall either way, no matter your ideology. Fair enough.

But some of it has an ugly edge. Lines like 'The Jedi Order is gone. Maybe it's time to leave it behind'. If he said 'their path is not for me' that would be fine but instead the writers chose to lean towards the 'flawed/failed' angle. They could easily go for 'there are many paths in the Light' but prefer 'no, your path is WRONG', which is an unpleasant path to go down when it would be so easy to preach tolerance of diverse values instead.

Oh shit that game went into the digital trash heap like the few books went into the physical trash heap on my end. When I realized what was going on with that dumb HR crap I just hung my head. I did try for a few more weeks but I only got to 3 planets before the fuck this point. Glad you enjoyed it though.

[the broken]

Interesting. Is there something particular you object to about the High Republic? I'd be fine with it if they could think of anything else to do but 'complain about the Jedi'.

[QuickTidal]

I keep coming across the old "Non-Legends-Label" EU books in used books stores for cheap, and since I enjoyed most of the ones I read back in the day I've started to collect them. I doubt I'll ever get them all, but it will be a nice cheapish hobby to keep in the background whenever I visit used book stores of value villages.

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 17 April 2026 - 12:20 PM, said:

I keep coming across the old "Non-Legends-Label" EU books in used books stores for cheap, and since I enjoyed most of the ones I read back in the day I've started to collect them. I doubt I'll ever get them all, but it will be a nice cheapish hobby to keep in the background whenever I visit used book stores of value villages.

I'm amending this. As long as it's the original art for the covers with only the thin-gold Legends banner across the top, I'm still grabbing them. I won't grab any of the redesigned Black covers they've done for these, but the thin Legends banner across the old art seems fine....esepcialy since I just got Legacy of the Force BETRAYAL in hardcover (no banner) for $5, but also got LotF Books (BLOODLINES, TEMPEST, EXILE, and SACRFICE for $2 each in MMPB's with the legends banner on them but original art...you can't beat that price.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 05 May 2026 - 12:20 PM

[QuickTidal]

Found copies of DARKSABER (which follows directly on the Jedi Academy Trilogy) and JEDI SEARCH (Which I had lost) for $2 each last night. I like KJA's Star Wars input so it will be fun to finally read DARKSABER (I like Daala; she's a fun villain).

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 07 May 2026 - 11:28 AM, said:

Found copies of DARKSABER (which follows directly on the Jedi Academy Trilogy) and JEDI SEARCH (Which I had lost) for $2 each last night. I like KJA's Star Wars input so it will be fun to finally read DARKSABER (I like Daala; she's a fun villain).

People slam Andersen for a lot, and there's no doubt he's a licensed property writer-for-hire who is willing, probably happy, to take a paycheque for hammering out some mediocre fiction and moving along, and his own efforts have been bad-to-mid-at-best (all imnsho) , but honestly, his SW is/was mostly fun, solid reads.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 07 May 2026 - 01:38 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 07 May 2026 - 11:28 AM, said:

Found copies of DARKSABER (which follows directly on the Jedi Academy Trilogy) and JEDI SEARCH (Which I had lost) for $2 each last night. I like KJA's Star Wars input so it will be fun to finally read DARKSABER (I like Daala; she's a fun villain).

People slam Andersen for a lot, and there's no doubt he's a licensed property writer-for-hire who is willing, probably happy, to take a paycheque for hammering out some mediocre fiction and moving along, and his own efforts have been bad-to-mid-at-best (all imnsho , but honestly, his SW is/was mostly fun, solid reads.

Most people seem to think that his bets SW work is (funnily enough) the Young Jedi Knights series he wrote with Rebecca Moesta. 15 books about Jacen & Jaina (and how they meet Tenel Ka, Lowbacca, ect)...they are out of print, and hard to find though.

I liked Timothy Zahn's stuff, but his early SW work (before the prequels anyways) always seemed to lean WAYYYY to much on established language like Han telling Chewie to "Fly Casual" in HEIR TO THE EMPIRE...like everything had to be a direct reference to the OT and not its own thing.

To his credit KJA's SW content always let itself be its own thing without doing that, and his stuff it just fun Star Wars romps, so I'm happy to read and collect them.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 07 May 2026 - 01:56 PM, said:

Abyss, on 07 May 2026 - 01:38 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 07 May 2026 - 11:28 AM, said:

Found copies of DARKSABER (which follows directly on the Jedi Academy Trilogy) and JEDI SEARCH (Which I had lost) for $2 each last night. I like KJA's Star Wars input so it will be fun to finally read DARKSABER (I like Daala; she's a fun villain).

People slam Andersen for a lot, and there's no doubt he's a licensed property writer-for-hire who is willing, probably happy, to take a paycheque for hammering out some mediocre fiction and moving along, and his own efforts have been bad-to-mid-at-best (all imnsho , but honestly, his SW is/was mostly fun, solid reads.

Most people seem to think that his bets SW work is (funnily enough) the Young Jedi Knights series he wrote with Rebecca Moesta. 15 books about Jacen & Jaina (and how they meet Tenel Ka, Lowbacca, ect)...they are out of print, and hard to find though.

I liked Timothy Zahn's stuff, but his early SW work (before the prequels anyways) always seemed to lean WAYYYY to much on established language like Han telling Chewie to "Fly Casual" in HEIR TO THE EMPIRE...like everything had to be a direct reference to the OT and not its own thing.

To his credit KJA's SW content always let itself be its own thing without doing that, and his stuff it just fun Star Wars romps, so I'm happy to read and collect them.

I fell off Star Wars novels at some point after the Zahn sequel trilo and before Jedi Academy, but there's a moment in KJA's Corellian trilogy when very young Jacen has to pilot the Millennium Falcon based solely (hee hee see what i did there?) on having watched his dad for years, and of course a dogfight breaks out, and there's one glorious moment when the kid sees an opportunity, flips the Falcon and takes the shot and knocksout the bad guy ship, then freaks out that that actually worked, that has lived rent free in my head for decades since i read it.

[QuickTidal]

DARK APPRENTICE (Book 2 Jedi Academy Trilogy) by KJA is really good. Again, I love how much you can mostly align this stuff with Prequel era stuff...but subtle things are different like how before The Clone Wars TV show force users could use any crystal available to craft their lightsaber and focus the beam...Kyber Crystals didn't really become the defacto (type) of crystal for lightsabers till the Clone Wars made it so...I prefer the old way as it doesn't confine things. That said, it still aligns with new canon as places like Illum where the padawans go to find their crystals just has a mountain that is filled with crystals so it still kinda jives.

Or Kirana Ti (one of Luke's first students) being a Dathomiri witch (Nightsister) she's wearing (in the old art) a sort of helmet thing....which looks kinda weird....but if you change that material to various types of cloth hoods, she DOES align with the eventual Nightsisters look.

One thing I love is that Luke's Jedi academy (Praxeum) is on Yavin 4 utilizing the old Rebel base there from ANH, and old Massasi temples make a REALLY good spot to train his students (some canon reasons exists too, in that one of his students [Streen] is an older man who hears everyones thoughts too loud and Coruscant would have driven him insane, but I think it's Leia who points out that Luke can train Jedi far from the prying eyes of the main hub of the New Republic...It's not until the Yuzaan Vong destroy the temple on Yavin 4 that Luke moves the Jedi to the Temple on Coruscant proper.

There are little dashes of things that also align with post-prequel info, like Ackbar is sitting outside the main council chambers for the New Republic and the doors and walls are still decorated in the bas relief's the Emperor had installed that were subtle nods to Sith history and hieroglyphs...and if you watch the prequels Darth Sidious actually did this, with the Four Sages of Dwartii statues, The Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief, and Sith chalice and spirit urns in his office. So that jives too, and it makes me wonder how much of the prequels is informed by stuff the old Expanded universe authors came up with.

Anyways, great book and I'm blasting through it so I'll probably dive into the 3rd right after.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 11:57 AM, said:

DARK APPRENTICE (Book 2 Jedi Academy Trilogy) by KJA is really good. Again, I love how much you can mostly align this stuff with Prequel era stuff...but subtle things are different like how before The Clone Wars TV show force users could use any crystal available to craft their lightsaber and focus the beam...Kyber Crystals didn't really become the defacto (type) of crystal for lightsabers till the Clone Wars made it so...I prefer the old way as it doesn't confine things. That said, it still aligns with new canon as places like Illum where the padawans go to find their crystals just has a mountain that is filled with crystals so it still kinda jives.

Or Kirana Ti (one of Luke's first students) being a Dathomiri witch (Nightsister) she's wearing (in the old art) a sort of helmet thing....which looks kinda weird....but if you change that material to various types of cloth hoods, she DOES align with the eventual Nightsisters look.

One thing I love is that Luke's Jedi academy (Praxeum) is on Yavin 4 utilizing the old Rebel base there from ANH, and old Massasi temples make a REALLY good spot to train his students (some canon reasons exists too, in that one of his students [Streen] is an older man who hears everyones thoughts too loud and Coruscant would have driven him insane, but I think it's Leia who points out that Luke can train Jedi far from the prying eyes of the main hub of the New Republic...It's not until the Yuzaan Vong destroy the temple on Yavin 4 that Luke moves the Jedi to the Temple on Coruscant proper.

There are little dashes of things that also align with post-prequel info, like Ackbar is sitting outside the main council chambers for the New Republic and the doors and walls are still decorated in the bas relief's the Emperor had installed that were subtle nods to Sith history and hieroglyphs...and if you watch the prequels Darth Sidious actually did this, with the Four Sages of Dwartii statues, The Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief, and Sith chalice and spirit urns in his office. So that jives too, and it makes me wonder how much of the prequels is informed by stuff the old Expanded universe authors came up with.

Anyways, great book and I'm blasting through it so I'll probably dive into the 3rd right after.

Does this bk have one of Luke's apprentices get possessed by Exar Kun and whip out a double-lightsaber decades before Darth Maul ever did?

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 13 May 2026 - 02:15 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 11:57 AM, said:

DARK APPRENTICE (Book 2 Jedi Academy Trilogy) by KJA is really good. Again, I love how much you can mostly align this stuff with Prequel era stuff...but subtle things are different like how before The Clone Wars TV show force users could use any crystal available to craft their lightsaber and focus the beam...Kyber Crystals didn't really become the defacto (type) of crystal for lightsabers till the Clone Wars made it so...I prefer the old way as it doesn't confine things. That said, it still aligns with new canon as places like Illum where the padawans go to find their crystals just has a mountain that is filled with crystals so it still kinda jives.

Or Kirana Ti (one of Luke's first students) being a Dathomiri witch (Nightsister) she's wearing (in the old art) a sort of helmet thing....which looks kinda weird....but if you change that material to various types of cloth hoods, she DOES align with the eventual Nightsisters look.

One thing I love is that Luke's Jedi academy (Praxeum) is on Yavin 4 utilizing the old Rebel base there from ANH, and old Massasi temples make a REALLY good spot to train his students (some canon reasons exists too, in that one of his students [Streen] is an older man who hears everyones thoughts too loud and Coruscant would have driven him insane, but I think it's Leia who points out that Luke can train Jedi far from the prying eyes of the main hub of the New Republic...It's not until the Yuzaan Vong destroy the temple on Yavin 4 that Luke moves the Jedi to the Temple on Coruscant proper.

There are little dashes of things that also align with post-prequel info, like Ackbar is sitting outside the main council chambers for the New Republic and the doors and walls are still decorated in the bas relief's the Emperor had installed that were subtle nods to Sith history and hieroglyphs...and if you watch the prequels Darth Sidious actually did this, with the Four Sages of Dwartii statues, The Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief, and Sith chalice and spirit urns in his office. So that jives too, and it makes me wonder how much of the prequels is informed by stuff the old Expanded universe authors came up with.

Anyways, great book and I'm blasting through it so I'll probably dive into the 3rd right after.

Does this bk have one of Luke's apprentices get possessed by Exar Kun and whip out a double-lightsaber decades before Darth Maul ever did?

Yep. Gantoris...and it's interesting to read because he's trying to gainsay the speed at which Luke is teaching them, thinking he can make a lightsaber and all that before Luke is ready to teach it and that's how he gets into it.

And yeah, the one downside about using Yavin 4 is that Exar Kun's grave is literally there AND the Holocron that Luke has from an Old Republic Master talks about him, but never mentions him by name, so none of them realize till it's too late and Gantoris is already caught in the shit.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 02:38 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 May 2026 - 02:15 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 11:57 AM, said:

DARK APPRENTICE (Book 2 Jedi Academy Trilogy) by KJA is really good. Again, I love how much you can mostly align this stuff with Prequel era stuff...but subtle things are different like how before The Clone Wars TV show force users could use any crystal available to craft their lightsaber and focus the beam...Kyber Crystals didn't really become the defacto (type) of crystal for lightsabers till the Clone Wars made it so...I prefer the old way as it doesn't confine things. That said, it still aligns with new canon as places like Illum where the padawans go to find their crystals just has a mountain that is filled with crystals so it still kinda jives.

Or Kirana Ti (one of Luke's first students) being a Dathomiri witch (Nightsister) she's wearing (in the old art) a sort of helmet thing....which looks kinda weird....but if you change that material to various types of cloth hoods, she DOES align with the eventual Nightsisters look.

One thing I love is that Luke's Jedi academy (Praxeum) is on Yavin 4 utilizing the old Rebel base there from ANH, and old Massasi temples make a REALLY good spot to train his students (some canon reasons exists too, in that one of his students [Streen] is an older man who hears everyones thoughts too loud and Coruscant would have driven him insane, but I think it's Leia who points out that Luke can train Jedi far from the prying eyes of the main hub of the New Republic...It's not until the Yuzaan Vong destroy the temple on Yavin 4 that Luke moves the Jedi to the Temple on Coruscant proper.

There are little dashes of things that also align with post-prequel info, like Ackbar is sitting outside the main council chambers for the New Republic and the doors and walls are still decorated in the bas relief's the Emperor had installed that were subtle nods to Sith history and hieroglyphs...and if you watch the prequels Darth Sidious actually did this, with the Four Sages of Dwartii statues, The Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief, and Sith chalice and spirit urns in his office. So that jives too, and it makes me wonder how much of the prequels is informed by stuff the old Expanded universe authors came up with.

Anyways, great book and I'm blasting through it so I'll probably dive into the 3rd right after.

Does this bk have one of Luke's apprentices get possessed by Exar Kun and whip out a double-lightsaber decades before Darth Maul ever did?

Yep. Gantoris...and it's interesting to read because he's trying to gainsay the speed at which Luke is teaching them, thinking he can make a lightsaber and all that before Luke is ready to teach it and that's how he gets into it.

And yeah, the one downside about using Yavin 4 is that Exar Kun's grave is literally there AND the Holocron that Luke has from an Old Republic Master talks about him, but never mentions him by name, so none of them realize till it's too late and Gantoris is already caught in the shit.

I remember reading that and then a few years later Dark Horse does Exar Kun and company's story and my brain starts making all kinds of wild connections.

...unfortunately then the DH SW comics started to suck and i bailed yet again.