"I am No Longer Like the Others..."

For the life of me I have never understood how anyone could say they have no regrets. The very  act of making choices leaves one with a road not taken. The very act of living entails giving something up. Regret figures heavily in The Last Unicorn, one of the defining traits of the Unicorn is that she feels no regret. It's part of what makes her other than human (you know, outside of being a magical quadruped). The Unicorn has a lot of negative experiences she one would think might cause her to regret her choices. However, it's only when she is takes on human form and then changes back into a Unicorn that we see her understand regret.

Initially, the change is a desperate attempt by Schmendrick to save the Unicorn. During her first encounter with the Red Bull, she freaks out and the beast nearly send her into the sea. It's a brilliant idea, as the Bull discards her immediately. The plan works and Amalthea, along with Schmendrick, Molly and Lir, find the Red Bull and confront him. Schmendrick returns the Unicorn to her natural form and she chickens out again. Lir tries to get between them and is mortally wounded. This causes the Unicorn to snap out of her fear and drives the Red Bull into the sea the way it did to the Unicorns. Her brethren take this as their cue to re-materialize out of the surf and stampede out of the sea.

The transformation from Unicorn to Amalthea interests me on multiple levels. First, it feels like a price she must pay to fulfill her quest. Second, it's fascinating how the 'fake' identity of Amalthea becomes real. The transformation starts on the outside and works its way in. It's as if walking around in a human body has given her a human heart and a human mind. Even King Haggard starts to notice. The first time he creepily gets in her space, he sees the Unicorn's home forest in Amalthea's eyes. The second time he accosts her he sees his own reflection, which pisses him off. Falling in love with Haggard's son, Lir seems to have helped things along. While it is may seem obvious that the romantic connection between the Lir and Amalthea is what makes her identify as a mortal being, I'm not sure it's that simple. Lir only loves her because she's a pretty, human-looking princess. Love, for all its poetry is a superficial process.

Now that she has regained her immortality, the Unicorn will spend that eternity wondering what might have been had she abandoned her people to their watery prison and walked away from her quest. She would have lived a finite human life at Lir's side... wondering what might have happened had she faced the Bull and freed the Unicorns.That is why I can neither accept nor believe those who claim to live without regret. Every choice great or small carries with it the weight of what might have been. What the Unicorn shows in her final conversation with Schmendrick is that she can carry that burden with grace and dignity.

"Is That What You Wanted to See?"

Everything 

But the Girl:

Amplified Heart 

This album is known for one thing more than anything else and I'll get to that thing in good time but I have to start this review with a pet peeve of mine. It annoys me to no end when recording artists put out records that amount to singles and filler. It's insulting when I put more thought into my bedtime playlist than a singer or band's team puts into their album. While I understand that this sort of thing is generally a result of the creativity vs. business cage-match,  it still sucks.

Which brings me to Amplified Heart. Everything but the Girl are every inch the album artist. Their records are truly coherent bodies of work that hold together nicely.  A mostly acoustic album, Amplified Heart features some of the best songwriting I've ever come across in my life. It is, of course, the album which yielded the duo's biggest hit. But that signature song is often remembered in isolation from the LP it was born into. I find that there is much more to it when considered alongside its siblings.

Rollercoaster opens the album with a languid and very British take on bossa-nova. The 'other' single from Amplified Heart, it's one of my favourite songs from EBTG. It sets the tone for the rest of the album with its combination of wistfulness and  longing. Troubled Mind is a jaunty mid-tempo ballad with some jazz guitar popping in towards the end. It speaks about the inscrutability of other people. This desire to get inside the head of another and the anguish at not being able to recurs throughout Amplified Heart.

I Don't Understand Anything  carries us into EBTG's trademark melancholy. Much slower and more deliberate than the previous two tracks, the song delivers a great deal of pathos. Walking to You  is a duet with Ben and Tracy singing either side of a bittersweet reunion between two exes. Get Me wonders aloud about ever being understood, its mercurial lyrics going nicely with a brooding cello.

Missing is the song that EBTG are known for. In terms of commercial success, it eclipses everything else that they have done. One can speculate why "Missing" blew up the way it did, or why it was this song and not, say, "Driving". But I, personally, am not qualified to know what made it happen. I will say that it's the acoustic, album version of the track that I fell in love with and listened to endlessly through high school. The complicated guitar riffs, the dramatic strings and the ever so slight bounce of the bass guitar all adding up to a plaintive account of loss and longing. "Missing" fits perfectly at the centre of Amplified Heart.

Two Star gives us one of the more complex entries on this record. It narrates someone who can't resist commenting on another person's relationship. It's a wince-inducing character-study brimming with resentment and bitterness. We Walk the Same Line is a more rootsy song about adversity and difficulty. It takes the perspective of one person reassuring another that they are not alone in going through tough times. The lyrics are especially resonant for me given some  of the things I've been through since the first time I listened to this song. 25th of December sees Ben Watt takes lead vocals on a simply arranged number with a haunting refrain.  Disenchanted is a quietly low-key closer which seems to sum up the experience of Amplified Heart. Tracy Thorn's intimate vocals deliver contemplative lyrics in the second person. A saxophone takes on the role of a duet partner adding a level of sophistication and wistfulness to the track.

Amplified Heart to me represents Everything but the Girl at their apex. Obviously the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing" took over the world for a year and a half but the real triumph in my view, is the creative accomplishment represented by Amplified Heart. It is no less than one of the most beautiful  albums I have ever listened to. Pop music that is truly mature is hard to come by. These songs touched me deeply when I was young and they still work for me to this day. 

A Plague Upon Your Houses!!!!: A review of the Jedi Consular Story part 8

So your new Jedi has been travelling the galaxy trying to stop a mysterious plague that's affecting various Jedi Masters, pulling them under the thrall of a Lord Vivicar. Each time you're confronted with a possessed Master, you have the option of either killing them or using an obscure healing technique learned on Coruscant to save them (I've been killing them).

Once you've completed the class quests on Alderaan, Taris, Tatooine and Nar Shaddaa, Master Syo Bakarn summons you to the Jedi home-world of Tython.  Things are bad. More Masters are being affected by the plague. You tell the council What you've pieced together so far:  all of the Masters initially affected were all stationed once on the planet Malachor 3 and the name Parkanus comes up a lot. As it turns out, the Masters who wound up on Malachor 3, stumbled upon the apparition of a dead sith and had to leave one their own behind i.e.,  Parkanus.  The poor guy was possessed by said Sith Lord and resurfaced recently with this plague as Lord Vivicar.  Yuan volunteers to try and contact Lord Vivicar telepathically even though that might make her vulnerable to the plague again. It does, Vivicar possesses her and you fight. At the end of the confrontation, you have the option of killing her or  using the healing technique on her.  Since I played my Consular dark-side, I killed her.

All is not lost however. Yuon was able to give us a location and so off we go to Lord Vivicar's ship.  The confrontation with him is the same as with all of the bosses so far but with an extra fight or two. The dialogue is either about vowing to put him down (dark-side) or offering him redemption (light-side). I frelling killed him. Unfortunately that meant that a lot of the Jedi Masters he had infected in the meantime died with him. You even get an e-mail from the Council with a list of all of these dead Jedi.

Having played this Darkside, I was disappointed that there were no consequences to having fallen. I mean it's not even a subtle thing. My dark-side Jedi was ruthless, cold, vengeful and without compassion. It's not like he saved the day either: a whole bunch of Jedi Masters have died not the mention the five my character killed for the crime of getting preyed upon by Vivicar. The most that comes of this obvious slide down the slippery slope is Grand-master Satelle Shan throwing some shade about 'your methods'.

Here's the thing: I appreciate what Bioware tried to do with the Consular in Chapter1 but it didn't work for me. It seems that the story was supposed to be reminiscent of KOTOR II. The Malachor system and  the search for Jedi Masters are obvious references to the darker story-line of the KOTOR II. One broad similarity between KOTOR II and the Jedi Consular story as a whole is the feeling of being behind the scenes. The events of the former game were taking place inside of a secret history that few people in the era of the Old Republic are even aware of.

Your consular, however you choose to play him or her, is dealing with issues that are not public knowledge, unlike the Jedi Knight who is more front and center in Galactic events. This crisis of Jedi Masters going crazy is, on the surface, perfect for that kind of story. But SWTOR and KOTOR II are completely different contexts for such similar events. In the case of the latter, the Jedi were almost extinct, the atmosphere was bleak and the story took place on the margins of Republic space. SWTOR features a more powerful Republic with a strong Jedi Order, evenly matched with The Empire and its Sith.

Here's an idea: if Bioware wanted to reference KTOTOR II in the first chapter of the Jedi Consular adventure, then why not do so more explicitly. Instead of all this nonsense about LordVivicar, why not have a character from  KOTOR II be the villain? Say, someone who could conceivably live on as a Force Ghost?

I sincerely hope that they at least tried to include Kreia but just couldn't swing it for whatever reason. Because this version of the story writes itself.  Kreia was a historian and a keeper of secrets. She discovered the Sith Academy in the Malachor system. She was a Consular, epitomizing the concept SWTOR described for the class.  She hated (and I mean hated) the Force and almost succeeded in making it inaccessible to Sith and Jedi alike. Attempting to do so again through the Consular in SWTOR would have been more interesting than the plague. What if she had possessed Master Yuan in an attempt to find the perfect apprentice? The best thing about her was her perspective on Galactic history, what might she make of what's happening in the 'present tense'? Didn't she foretell the Sith Empire returning? God help me, I might write a fan fiction myself just to prove how awesome it might have been.

Until then I have Chapter 2 to review. While I have been somewhat critical of Chapter 1, things improve quite nicely from here on out.  Stay tuned!!!

I'm just a war machine...

A love letter to the Zentraedi:

Of all the things that the Macross Franchise gave me, one of the most cherished is the Zentraedi. Quite possibly one of my most favourite alien species in any medium.

They really have it all. They're giants. They travel in armadas of cool-looking spaceships. They have their own language. They own the colour green.  Their basic fighter mecha is a headless ostrich. Most of all, they're interesting.

The Zentraedi are the creation of a series of civilizations known as the Protoculture. Having a taboo against killing one another, the Protoculture did what any pacifist would do:  get someone else to kill for them.  So .

Wheels are for amateurs

they engineered an entire species of giants to engage in warfare by proxy. We don't get much detail on the nature of this conflict. There are references to a 'Supervision Army' which the Zentraedi are fighting against. In fact, the
SDF-Macross itself is a Supervision Army vessel, and looking for it is how  is how the Zentraedi stumble upon Earth. But other than that, we see the Zentraedi primarily through the eyes of the people aboard the SDF-Macross

What the Zentraedi lack is an everyday life. Leisure, relationships and creativity are all absent from their existence. Watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross, it's fascinating to see them collectively wake up as they are exposed to things like pop music and movies. It is worth noting that consumer culture is celebrated as much as popular culture in Macross. The things are as important as the ideas in this case.

As the fictional universe of Macross progresses and expands, we see the Zentraedi integrate into the surviving human population. While many Zentraedi still reproduce through cloning and live in armadas, some of them have children leading to... you guessed it, giant babies!  Others still form families with human partners creating a demographic of Human-Zentraedi hybrids. The Macross franchise has a fair number of characters who are one-half or one-quarter Zentraedi.

The animated feature film Do You Remember Love? was a redesign not only of the ships and mecha introduced in the series, but also of the Zentraedi themselves. This redesign becomes the basis for how the species is represented in the rest of the franchise making the change not only a reinterpretation  but also a bit of a retcon. Here, the  Zentraedi look a little less human and are given their own language.

All in all, the Zentraedi are one of the main ingredients of this enduring anime franchise. Their development from antagonists to allies is one of the great triumphs of the series. The Zentraedi characters in the cast are some of the most memorable of my youth: Breetai, Exedor, Miriya, Kamjim, Laplamitz, Warerea, Loli and Conda.

Robot Motorcycles: 'Nuff Said.

There are fantasies and then there are futuristic motorcycles that transform into body armour with missiles.  I first got to know Genesis Climber Mospeada through Robotech where it was 'season 3'.  Of the three anime series that Robotech adapted and mashed up together, Mospeada was deviated the least from it's original form. 

I might not love Mospeada as much as I love Macross but I feel affection for it all the same. The latter clearly had an influence on the former, as one can see from its own transforming fighter jets, the Legioss (a clear descendent of Macross' Valkyries).  Mospeada however is on a different scale and there's not a love triangle in sight. It is, above all, a post-apocalyptic drama, following a half-dozen characters on a journey through the Americas after an alien invasion.

In 2050, a swarming mass of aliens called the Inbit descend onto our planet Earth. They win. Humanity is reduced to pathetic remnants scattered over a desolate world. Luckily for these few helpless refugees, there were several colonies elsewhere in the solar system. The human colony on Mars sends multiple waves of their Earth Recapture Force. The story begins in 2080 as the latest wave from Mars has been defeated by the occupying Inbit. We follow a single survivor as he makes his journey to Reflex Point, the Inbit capital to hopefully reconnect with other survivors of the Recapture Forces.



The characters are, of course, a motley crew of misfits who are added to the party one by one as they embark upon their quest. I liked most of them. Stick (known as Scott in Robotech) I rather enjoyed as a cold, stoic person who gradually softens as he bonds with his rag-tag group of freedom fighters. Ray (a.k.a. Rand) was a likeable contrast to Stick. A scavenger and a rogue, he's the one who tries to see the bigger picture beyond the war. Houquet (Rook), is reserved young woman who hides her vulnerability behind a tough-chick exterior. Yellow Belmont (Lancer) is a cross-dressing singer whose ability to pass as a woman provides him with a cover for his freedom fighting. Lunk is a deserter from the war who redeems himself by joining the rebels. Aisha is a mysterious amnesiac. Mint is a teenage girl who ... just tags along.

Romance abounds over the course of this trek. The three couples are Stick with Aisha, Ray with Houquet and Yellow Blemont with Solzie. These pairings don't take over the show. Rather the bond between the group of rebels is the primary relationship explored over the course of the series. Seeing them get to know, work with and rely on each other is one of the joys of Mospeada.

Another pleasure of this anime is the transforming motorcycle. It just has cool written all over it in giant glowing neon letters. One can't get away from the inherent romanticism of the motorbike and this series provides it in spades. The bike also fits with the freedom fighter/ small group vibe of Mospeada.

Given all the legal issues around the release of Macross and related products in North America, the 2008 Robotech sequel The Shadow Chronicles was essentially a continuation of Mospeda. This year, the musical OVA Live Love Alive (which centres around Yellow Belmot being interviewed while on tour) was adapted into a Robotech title. As disappointed as I was with The Shadow Chronicles, I found it much easier to take this way. Mospeada is an awesome story in it's own right and has its own strong visual identity

"Am I truly the last?"

The Last Unicorn (Animated Feature,1982):

I was six years old I think, when I saw The Last Unicorn at school. I begged my parents to rent it on video and watched it hundreds of times. And in all of those hundreds of times, I never once tired of it. This is one of those films I can revisit endlessly because after more than three decades, it holds up perfectly. Its animation is flawless, its character design beautiful, its narrative spellbinding and its score mesmerizing. This animated classic carries truths I only came to understand as an adult (although they resonated on some level as a child).

The plot follows the quest of a unicorn who is, as far as she knows, the last in the world. Leaving her forest, she wanders off into a world that has forgotten her kind. She encounters allies and obstacles alike before finally discovering the truth behind this apparent extinction. She succeeds at finding the other Unicorns but at the cost of losing her self.

The voice cast in this film is perfect. Angela Lansbury as Mommy Fortuna, Alan Arkin as Shmendrick, Mia Farrow as the Unicorn are all brilliant. Christopher lee gifts us with a chilling performance as King Haggard without sacrificing any of the character's pathos. I think René Aubejonois is in this too. Special mention to Tammy Grimes for playing my favourite character of this story, Molly Grue.

The animation for The Last Unicorn was done by Japanese studio Topcraft who were also involved in Macross Do You Remember Love?. This sets the film apart visually from what one expects to see from western animation. The film's colour palate is vividly gorgeous, lushly evoking the contrasts between different landscapes, seasons and times of day. One thing I appreciate is how the Unicorn is not simply a horse with a horn stuck on its forehead. She really seems like a four-legged person rather than a magical animal.

What makes this particular hero's journey so effective for me is the fact that the hero doesn't quite win in the end. The Unicorn and her friends encounters setbacks at every turn, often finding themselves out of their depth.  When she finally confronts the Red Bull (sigh) and frees her brethren from their watery prison, it does not alleviate her fundamental loneliness.  Her adventures have turned her into something other than a Unicorn, giving her experiences that set her apart from her brethren.

There is literally so much I can say about this film, that I'm writing about it in a series of posts. I've probably babbled about this in real life to people who had no idea what I was going on about. So stay tuned, for there is more to come about this absolute treasure of the Fantastical literature.

My Sincerest Condolences.... A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 7:

We're getting close to the end of chapter 1! Our Jedi fixer is basically tracking down and killing mentally ill Jedi Masters because he's fallen to the dark side and the Council's pretending that they haven't noticed. Your main quest-giver, Syo Bakarn has sent you, your sidekicks and your hot, hot spaceship off to the planet of Alderaan.

Yeah, that Alderaan.

I was always curious about what Alderaan was really like. All we ever see of the planet in the original trilogy is a pretty epic explosion. Thus, Bioware had a lot of freedom in creating Alderaan however they wished. What we get is fairly interesting:

• Alderaan is neutral: This world left the Republic when the war broke out. Both the Republic and the Empire are trying to coax Alderaan to their respective sides
• Alderaan has intrigue: Caught up in a civil war, the various noble houses who rule this planet are all plotting against each other. 
• Alderaan has mountains:  The designers decided to go with a high altitude theme. It works with the courtly/feudal/fairy-tale motif with all these pretty people living in pretty castles on sugar-coated mountain-tops.  It's a ski resort, basically. Planet Whistler. 

The planet quest is about helping the Republic back their favourite team, the Organas, in their bid for the throne. You basically do everything for them that they cannot do for themselves and get them closer to winning their civil war. This one involves helping them in heir fight against House Thul (backed by the Empire) and House Ulgo (a wildcard who cause problems for both the Organas and the Thuls). Another factor in this world's situation is it's indigenous species, the Killicks described wryly by one NPC as genoshians "with more leg".

I have to say while I liked Alderaan, I didn't like the Alderaanians. I felt like I was dealing with a bunch of self-absorbed, good-looking aristocrats who were kind of getting off on their own drama. On other worlds, there was a sense that choosing one side or another of  the Galactic conflict might have consequences. Here, the various nobles are thinking locally and being oblivious globally.  There's also the awkwardness of knowing this sorry planet's future.  I mean, Tatooine is more or less the same now as it will be millennia later when Luke Skywalker comes of age. But we all know that that same year, poor Leia Organa will watch helplessly as Alderaan goes BOOM!  It adds a level of hopelessness to all the work you're doing here.

But you're not just here to interfere in local politics. There's a crazy Jedi Master to cut down! She's a sort of diplomat who's organizing a summit of the various Alderaanian houses. Unlike the other afflicted Masters, this one's doing a better job of covering up just how off-track she is.  You spend most of your time on Alderaan trying to get into the summit. Each house can only send one representative to this exclusive event. Your target is already representing Organa so you have to help a small-time noble house rise to enough prominence to be invited to the summit and then represent them yourself. Then you can kill her (Dark side) or heal her (Light side).

We're getting close to the end of the Jedi Consular's last chapter. In addition to wrapping up the plot, my next post in this series will include a review of the Chapter 1 story-line as a whole.

Sand, Sun and... um, yeah. A Review of the Jedi Consular Story: Part 6

We are now half-way through the first chapter of the Jedi Consular's class story. Your Jedi is travelling through the galaxy in his or her flash spaceship with a growing crew of companions on a daring mission to ... do something with various crazy Jedi Masters. The latest stop on this odyssey is quite possibly the most iconic world in the entire Star Wars Universe. In Knights of the Old Republic, Tatooine was extremely well-realized, rendered beautifully in all of its arid, blinding desolation.  Now SWTOR  has revisited the game and given us a more detailed, larger and richer version of the same. If you don't have a speeder, now really is the time to get one because Tatooine is huge. Actually, I got mine by Taris  because that was huge too.

The main planet mission for Tatooine is one of my favourites. It has a great plot, memorable and likeable characters and nice continuity with KOTOR.  Soon after  you leave the spaceport you are contacted by a mysterious man who refuses to give details until you meet with him. Soon you find yourself drafted by Republic Intelligence to track down a secret installation left behind by the Czerka corporation.  You run around trying to stay one step ahead of a really creepy Czerka executive eventually finding something left behind by the Rakata Infinite Empire!

I really liked Czerka in the KOTOR games. They weren't quite Weyland-Yutani or Cyberdyne, but as evil corporations go, they're quite fun.  Also making a welcome appearance are the Rakata. I liked their incorporation into the Star Wars Universe through KOTOR.  I really dig the notion that the Infinite Empire had the Force figured out long before the Jedi and the Sith ever came along.

The class mission involves tracking down a sort of Jedi anthropologist who's been living amongst the Sand People. As a result of this mysterious plague, he's gone a little nuts and is trying to create an army out them. He basically wants to model the Republic on his notion of who the Sand People are. Your main contact here is a likeable character named Rowan who used to work with the Jedi you're looking for. He's almost companion material. The idea of the anthropologist 'going native' is fairly cool and there are shades of  Heart of Darkness in this part of the class story-line. I do feel that the planet mission about Czerka overshadows the class mission somewhat.

Once you're done here, it's time to visit a certain doomed world.

Damsel? Yes. Distressed? No. A review of the Consular Story Part 5.5

Between Planet Sexy and Tunisia, we get a bit of a detour. You receive a distress call from a Republic vessel named the Carida. It has been commandeered and its crew terrorized  by one of its passengers: a fairly powerful padawan. There's a lot of airlock action here, the crazy padawan blows a poor engineer out into space for kicks. Then she blows herself out of the airlock!

Notable in this mission is your first encounter with Lord Vivicar. The name has come up here and there as the entity behind the plague. His end of the conversation amounts to standard villain dialogue where he shows contempt for you and the Jedi, taunts you about Master Yuon and rants that you'll never stop his dastardly plan.

Playing it Darkside, he does point out that you haven't been using the shielding technique on the afflicted Masters you've found so far. At this point you can respond with something defensive about how you had no choice but to kill the poor buggers.  Like I said before, the Darkside Consular is all about justifying their awfulness. This stems from a sense of superiority to everyone else because no one else is in a position to know what's best!

But as for the very pertinent question that Vivicar asks (abut how you've obviously fallen), that's the only time anyone actually asks about Darkside choices! The main villain of  Chapter 1 has more to say about your transgressions than the Jedi Council! I'll get to this issue in more detail when I reach the end of chapter 1. Until then, it's off to the mother of all dust bowls...

"Some days I think I could go insane..."

Everything But

The Girl:

Walking Wounded

If one record defines my adolescence, it's this one. Walking Wounded is one of my essential albums and literally chronicles my life in the mid-90's. Released a the year after their hit Missing took over the world, Walking Wounded signalled a shift in the duo's sound from the mostly acoustic Amplified Heart to a more electronic sensibility.  What did not change was their affinity for intelligent, perceptive pop music with depth.

I was sixteen when I listened to this album and it was a big part of the playlist for my young adulthood. It was my first experience of strongly identifying with a collection of songs. Connecting to this LP, I finally understood what people older than me meant when they talked about an album defining a period of time in their lives.

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn cover a wide range with Walking wounded. The title track was the first single off the album and a brave choice at the time. Liquid drum'n bass propels a haunting refrain by Tracey's plaintive voice. This song was my introduction to the concept of left-field pop music and the possibilities thereof. The album closes with a fresh, crystalline remix by experimental musician Omni Trio.

"Wrong", the second single, is a classic house track lamenting one's own mistakes and begging for absolution. When you hurt someone badly enough, you're connected to them forever. Todd Terry is brought back to remix this giving it a fuller sound and a similar beat to his immortal rework of "Missing". Notably, this is the only song on the album where Ben Watt contributes any vocals.

"Single" puts the 'down' in down-tempo. Quite possibly one of my most consistently favoured songs throughout my life, I may very well keep listening to it forever. The percussion sounds like an off-kilter heartbeat. A morose saxophone sample pops in and out just to remind us that this is, indeed, meant to be as gloomy as it sounds. The organ and strings set the standard for 'atmospheric' as far as I'm concerned. "Good Cop/Bad Cop" is my personal anthem; so much so, that I hesitate to review it. Suffice it to say that it's really, really good. A nice mid-tempo track reeling with angst and despair, it's the song I most identify with n the world. As with "Single", the strings are a strong element, this time emotive rather than oneric.


"Before Today" gives us some more drum and bass. But  instead of the drama and angst of "Walking Wounded", we get a cheeky ultimatum to an uncooperative lover. While not exactly happy, it offers a more cheerful interruption to the more depressive entries on the album. "Big Deal" is an unforgiving break-beat driven song chastising someone for wallowing in their problems. Tracey Thorn's delicately intimate vocals take on a bit of a sting here and one can't help but feel a little defensive."Flipside" gives us a drowsy bit of hip-hop with daydreamy lyrics.

"Mirrorball" is a nicely layered narrative song that reads like the diary of a crazy person. The acoustic guitar and Rhodes piano ground the electronic elements of the song. "Heart Remains a Child" has a similar vibe to "Mirrorball" but treads more relationship-y ground. It's a song whose point of view has lost all dignity to infatuation.

Revisiting this album is always a treat for me. While it's true that Everything but the Girl tend to make melancholy music, I find their sad songs comforting.  While most of the world might know them through the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing", I highly recommend looking at its immediate aftermath. Walking Wounded is a great snapshot of what was great about left-of-centre pop in the 90s. 

"...to live or die by your sword and your wits.", Phantasy Star III

Generations of Doom:

When I was a kid, I owned a Sega Megadrive console and only owned a few games. One in particular became my obsession. I played it through over and over again without ever getting sick of it.  

As an adult, when I started to look this game up online, I was somewhat taken aback by how unpopular it seemed to be. Ultimately I figured that it was because I'd never played the other games in the series, to which this game has an only indirect connection. 

I loved it for its complex narrative, its character design and its well-realized milieu. The main conceit of the game is that it plays out over three generations, each one having a slightly different story play out as a result. Only two games can be saved at a time, so one has to replay the game from the beginning at least once.

I find that having your own head-cannon is necessary for Phantasy Star III (PS3) since the script is, to put it mildly, somewhat underwritten. That wasn't a problem for me because the story gave my imagination enough to chew on. I won't lie to you, there are a few problems and the game takes forever to get you from point A to point B. But I personally feel that the good outweighs the bad.

One of those good things is the soundtrack. There are a few duds here and there that get old after the second time you hear them (like some of the fight scene music). But a lot of the music in this game is awesome especially considering that this is a 16-bit console game form the 90's.

The real draw here is the generational gimmick. At the end of the first and second generations the protagonist has to choose between two women. The protagonist of the next generation will resemble his mother and carry on with the story.  PS3's overarching plot is mostly the same story from different angles building up to a confrontation with the same main villain. The coda is different for each of the four end-game protagonists. I especially love the 'road not taken' aspect of this game and if a bit more care had been taken with it's development it might have a better reputation. 

A wonderful site devoted to this underrated classic can be found here.

It's off to Planet Sexy! A review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 5

Nar Shaddaa is one of the more memorable worlds of Star Wars' expanded universe. Deliciously Noir, the environment combines bright neon colours with dark shadowy  depths. That juxtaposition of the fun exciting nightlife with sinister sleaze makes Nar Shadda stand out from most other planets you'll see in the Old Republic.

Neither Republic nor Imperial, the "smugglers' moon" is controlled by the Hutts. That's right, the same species that gave us Jabba the Hutt in the movies. I guess there's a certain amount of hand-waving here as to the basis of their power and I'm sure there's some obscure bit of lore somewhere explaining it all away that's not even cannon. For the purposes of SWTOR, we're going to just go with the Hutt Cartel being a neutral power in the cold war between the Republic and the Empire.

The significance of Nar Shaddaa in story terms for the consular is that you meet your second companion character!  Tharan Cedrax is a flirtatious scientist with an almost too healthy self-esteem. He's actually an old friend of your quest-giver, Mater Syo Bakarn.  In game terms, Tharan is a healing companion with some ranged damage and crowd control ability (in the form of his holographic girlfriend Holiday dancing in front of a target to stun it). Unlike Qyzen Fess, he doesn't need subtitles.  Despite his associations with the Jedi, he's just not that into the Force. He loves knowledge for its own sake even if it's ethically so-so and he's not self-conscious about  avoiding danger.  Your character has a lot of options when it comes to dealing with Tharan as part of your crew. I certainly enjoying having him tag along.

The Jedi Master you're looking for is  messing with Nar Shaddaa's status quo. He's formed a gang out of a variety of misfits, controlling their minds through the Force. You need to stop what he's doing because if the Hutts get wind of the gang's ties to the Jedi, they might ally with the Empire. Luckily your new friend Tharan can help you out with his inventions.  One personal highlight for me is when you have to go into a section of the moon controlled by the Empire. You have to impersonate a Sith Lord. Nolan North does a great job with the Sith 'accent'. If you're playing Dark side like I did, the scene provides some pleasant irony for your fallen Jedi!

Again, I played this Dark side so instead of using the healing ritual I just killed the Jedi Master. It's sort of justified by how dangerous he was and how he could easily have upset the Galactic balance of power in the Empire's favour.

Now that we're done with Planet Sexy, it's off to Tunisia... I mean, Tatooine.

"That was all it took my dear..."

Mutya Keisha Siobhan 

One Touch, the Sugababes

Girl groups have been around for generations now. There's something universally appealing about  three to five young women harmonizing about love and heartbreak. The main genre associated with girl groups is pop music. And it's not just any old pop music, but the most saccharine, contrived and manufactured type of pop.

Enter one of my favourite exceptions to the above rule: the Sugababes.  In the year 2000, three London girls debuted their very first single: "Overload". Later on that year, their debut album One Touch came out. It is a work that has only grown better with time. Eclectic, mature and effortlessly cool, I've yet to find its like in any other girl group debut.

I find that the best pop music has something else going on. It's a little difficult at first, refusing to yield anything of itself until I've heard it several times.  It tends to be the kind of song that holds up nicely years or even decades later. One Touch is full of those kinds of songs.  Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy made a powerfully soulful combination.

It is astounding to me that this album was co-written by people so young. It feels like peeking into the diary of a teenage girl; but a teenage girl with depth.  At times full of attitude and at others  wistful melancholy, One Touch captures the ephemeral nature of growing up. It's a collection of moments when one realizes that the world isn't what it seemed and that one will never be the same.

"Overload" really is in a class of it's own as far as Brit-pop is concerned. I consider it to be the definition of Sugababes: their sound, their vibe, their identity. In the context of the kind of pop music we were getting in 2000 on both sides of the Atlantic, the song was like  a breath of fresh air in a coffin. "Overload" gave us this amazing blend of  chill vocals, electric guitar and amazing beats that was a good deal more alternative than what you would expect from a trio of girls in their mid-teens. It's mid-tempo which, time would go on to show, is where the Sugababes shine.

"New Year" is my favourite Holidays song. It describes the sorrow of running into an ex. soft and sweet on the surface, it betrays a depth of hurt that always makes me wince by the second verse. It's the musical equivalent of crying softly in the bathroom at a party so that no one else can hear. Again, the girls' youth comes into play here; the song is clearly from the perspective of someone going through this for the first time.

"Run For Cover" is just a little more heartbreak. As someone who's struggled against depression, I find it to be an apt description of what that feels like. Specifically, it recalls the shame and reluctance to talk about it that makes depression go undiagnosed so often. Keisha Buchanan supplies the lion's share of vocals here and she delivers them with beautiful fragility.

The title track "One Touch" is an interesting take on first love. Directly addressing a parental figure, the song's point of view defends her first relationship. A very relaxed down-tempo allows the girls to fill each bar of the song with richly layered harmonies making for a cool pleasurable listen.

The rest of the album continues to please. "One Foot In" and "Promises" chastise a two-faced paramour. "Look at me" again addresses a parental figure about the fear of growing up.  'Lush Life' is a moody, atmospheric bit of hip-hop that keeps its grit all these years later. "Just Let it Go" treads familiar ground for a girl-group, reassuring a friend that the latest ex isn't worth it.

Later iterations of the Sugababes had their charms and virtues, not to mention their fair share of great tunes. But with each departure of an original member, something essential was lost. It is an understatement to say that these three are magical together. Now, 13 years after One Touch, the girls have reformed under the name of MutyaKeishaSiobhan. Listen to their first single "Flatline"

We'll always have Taris: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 4

Of all the planets announced for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the one I was most intrigued by was Taris. Just like Tython is the starter planet for the Jedi Consular in SWTOR, so it Taris the first world featured in Knights of the Old Republic. As I mentioned at the end of my post on Coruscant, Taris was bombarded in KOTOR. Literally, as soon as you're done with Taris: BOOM!  It's a nice callback to what happened (sorry, what will happen) to poor Alderan. The difference is that Taris was left intact. Blasted within an inch of its life, but intact all the same. SWTOR allows us to revisit this broken world and reconnect with the beginning of it all.

There seems to be something a little despondent about the Republic side so far. Tython is a cocoon for the Jedi Order, still traumatized at having their asses kicked by the Sith. Coruscant is being held together by duck-tape. And now we get to tour a former megalopolis whose swampy ruins are crawling with zombies! Yay!

As morose as post-bombardment Taris is,  the main tenor of the planet missions is hopeful. The Republic is trying to reestablish itself there. From scientists risking their lives for research, to settlers trying to eek out a living, most of the quests you'll pick up revolve around the challenges of salvaging something out of the wreckage.  One thing I will say against Taris: I got sick of the Rakghouls (Tarisian zombies) pretty quickly which, I suppose, is the point.

The highlight of the planetary missions on Taris is the opportunity to explore the Endar Spire!!!! It's where the whole "...of the Old Republic" franchise began. The mission itself involves rescuing the survivors of a reconaissance team sent by the Republic to gather data from the crashed ship. You mainly have to contend with mercenaries (oddly enough, you don't run into a lot of Imperials on Taris). It truly was a treat to explore the interiors of the doomed vessel.

Another KOTOR moment comes from the Rakghoul story-line from the original game. You help a group of refugees in the lower levels find their way to a mythical promised land. Well, now you have a chance to see what happened to those poor souls and their descendants. It's... um, sad too.

The class mission is to search for a Jedi Master who has very suddenly become erratic and dangerous, just like Master Yuan.  One of your first interactions is with his Padawan and it's somewhat amusing how just an hour's game-play ago, you were also a Padawan and now your character is talking like they've been a full Jedi forever!

You basically chase this guy around the planet and when you've finally defeated him, you have a choice: you can either use the cure to relieve his madness for Light-side points, or you can kill him to slide further down the slippery slope of Darkness. I, of course, chose the slippery slope. Once you've debriefed with Master Syo Bakar, it's off to Narshaddaa, a.k.a Planet Sexy. Woo-hoo!!

On the Plus Side...

I don't know what it is about Macross Plus. It just has a hold on me that nothing else has. In many ways, it's the best of what Macross can be. In many other ways, it's the sequel which strays the farthest from the original series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (SDFM).  Overall, it's my favourite sequel in the franchise.

Plus really is a standard setter as far as what's understood to be possible with animation.  The notion that cartoons are for children therefore cannot have room for mature storytelling is maybe not as prevalent as it once was but it's sill out there. That's putting aside for a moment the highly problematic idea that children's fiction must necessarily be immature.  Anyone who still thinks so can be shown Macross Plus and have their mind changed.

There are two Pluses. The 4 part mini-series from 1994 and the movie edition which includes tighter plotting and  20 minutes of different footage. The result is the exact same story playing out in markedly different ways at about the same running time. While I have no preference, I've come across critical opinions stating that the movie is better than the mini. That might be down to the project having been originally conceived as a movie.

Reviews of Macross Plus will often reference the maturity of the series: the 'adult' narrative and the 'cinematic' quality of the animation. I have to say that the first few times I watched Plus, I was floored by how it seemed as if the scenes were, like, filmed rather than drawn.  The use of focus to differentiate foreground and background is one example. The combination of traditional and computer-generated animation is so good that it manages to hold up nicely 19 years later.

Whenever I watch Plus, I find myself really digging the fictional world being portrayed. I want to see more of it. Aside from a cameo of the eponymous ship from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and a minor character singing a Minmei song at karaoke, there's not a lot of the parent series in Plus. What it does have are the transforming fighter-jets, pop music and a love triangle. These elements are realized differently though: The pop music is otherworldly and electronic (courtesy of composer Yoko Kanno), its singer an unpredictable and powerful artificial intelligence.  The fighter jets are prototypes being tested against each other to see which will become the new mainstay for U.N. Spacy. All in all, I find myself relishing the glimpse of the milieu that follows on 3 decades after SDFM and wanting to inhabit it.

The love triangle in Plus, is so compelling it almost approaches that of the original Macross in terms of  how good it is. Rather than a man choosing between two women, we have a woman caught between two men. Myung grew up with Isamu and Guld developing strong feelings for both of them. Plus' back-story involves a painful rupture in the friendship between these characters. When they meet again on Eden, old wounds are re-opened and emotions run high.

The love triangle actually fuels the main villain of the series: Sharon Apple. A holographic, AI pop star, Sharon's emotional programming  is actually based on Myung herself.  Sharon is mesmerizing and, like so many artificial intelligences in science fiction, a little crazy.  The Zentraedi are a peripheral presence here. Outside of Guld being a human Zentraedi hybrid, we see Isamu briefly skirmish with some rogue Zentraedi in the opening moments of Part One.

The trinity of protagonists you get in Plus are each riddled with their own weaknesses. Guld is a hypocrite with severe anger issues, Isamu is a reckless, immature frat-boy and Myung can't face anything to save her own life. Most of the other characters come across well although we don't really get to know them as well as we would if this were a longer series.

As I said in the beginning, this series has a hold on me and I very much hope it never lets go!

"Off I go singin' a different tune."

Siobhan Donaghy
Ghosts.

One of the best albums I have ever listened to is Ghosts by English singer-songwriter Siobhan Donaghy. Released in 2007 when Donaghy was just 22, Ghosts retains its quality seven years on.  It is no less than a work of craftsmanship that, unlike most pop music, actually demands the attention of its listeners.

Watching and reading interviews from that time, one gets the sense that recording Ghosts was a very intense experience, emotionally and creatively. It was certainly one of isolation. The album was made in the North of France with producer James Sanger. Cloistered from media and the then current pop climate, Donaghy was free to choose her own influences and direction.

To be honest the album took a while to grow on me. I did not know what to make of it, having only known of Siobhan previously as the girl who sang "Overload" in the first incarnation of the Sugababes.  Not living in the U.K., I'd had no awareness of her solo career until I stumbled on the music video for "Don't Give it Up", the first single from Ghosts.  From there, I slowly got to know her post-girl group output. Suffice it to say that I fell in love with almost everything I heard.

I can't think of many other recording artists who release a concept album at 22. The sheer creative  ambition that Donaghy shows here is nothing less than inspiring.  The thread that holds the album together is intensity. Themes of struggle and desperation abound followed by a yearning to overcome. Genre-wise, I would classify this as a sort of dream-pop. The sound of Ghosts vary from oneiric and ethereal to frankly nightmarish.

One extraordinary piece of nightmare-pop is "Medevac", a powerful account of producer Jame Sanger's struggle with heroin addiction. In this, Siobhan delivers her most arresting vocals on the album. The whole thing rises to an incredible crescendo before being snuffed out like a candle.

On the oneiric side of things we have the title track "Ghosts". Distorted and weird, the vocals are recorded backwards for the verses.  The chorus is very Lord of the Rings "...sworn under an oath to war,". "Halcyon Days" is gentle slumber of a song that soothes the wounds of previous tracks. "Goldfish"  is an aqueous number that stands out as the album's most metaphysical entry. "Coming up for air" is an introspective song that mulls over the task of not being miserable for a change. "There's a place" is a heartfelt declaration of friendship and support that manages to avoid being even a little saccharine. "Don't Give it up" is a direct offer of encouragement to someone who's suffering, with neither pity nor judgement.

It's not all doom and gloom however. The somewhat country "12-bar Acid Blues" shows a wry sense of humour and an endearing wackiness. "Sometimes" is reminiscent of Kylie Minogue at her best and should have been considered as a single, in my humble opinion.

There is also a pair of 'relationship-y' songs on Ghosts. "So You Say" is a glorious guitar driven song where the two sides of Siobhan's voice are showcased quite nicely: the soft-spoken side and the belter. "Make It Right" is a song about culpability and hindsight, taking blame instead of casting it.

Siobhan's musical collaboration with Sanger is beautifully framed by her visual collaboration with photographer/director Floria Sigismondi. The artwork accompanying Ghosts fits the other-worldly tone of the album perfectly. Siobhan is presented as a beguiling, slightly distorted figure.

In a day and age where so many albums amount to a couple of singles padded out with filler, Ghosts is a welcome relief. It stands as an example to any aspiring recording artist of what's possible with the right combination of creativity and integrity.

Ms. Macross: The Passion and Pathos of Misa Hayase

Like many English-speaking fans of Macross, I came to know the franchise through Robotech. Robotech which began life as a straight-up English dub of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. I'm mentioning Robotech because it's where I first met one of my favourite female characters of  any medium. She was introduced to me as Lisa Hayes but, eventually, I came to know her by her real name: Misa Hayase.


I always considered Misa the true protagonist of Macross. More than any other character, SDFM is her story. That's not to take away from Hikaru and Mimnei who are iconic each in their own way. It's only to say that Misa embodies the themes of Macross through and through.

She's introduced to us first through her role in the SDF-Macross' command structure. We first see her assume station on the bridge. Naughty boy Roy Fokker speaks to her with respect.  Hikaru might insult her but it's with a little bit of fear on his part because Misa is an authority figure and a legitimate one at that. However Claudia might tease her about not having a man, Misa is all about the job.

Episode 7 "Bye-Bye Mars" (my favourite of the early episodes) is the first to focus on Misa as an individual. Making a pit-stop on Salla Base on Mars, Misa obtains permission from Captain Global  to explore and find out what happened to its occupants. We find out that, during the wars which occurred in the series' back-story, Mars base was destroyed by Anti-U.N. forces. What Misa doesn't tell anyone is that her first love, Karl Riber was stationed there. Misa might have joined U.N. Spacy because of her family tradition but her intention was to follow him to Mars so that they could be together. Watching her wander around the deserted base is hauntingly sad. The moment where she finds Karl's room and his personal effects is heartbreaking. This opportunity to reconnect is so powerful that she is content to die there as the base self-destructs. Luckily Hikaru rescues her and they're able to get away from the exploding base (Poor Misa had to be the one to flip the self-destruct switch).  Knowing that she's living day to day with this crippling loss explains why Misa takes forever to get together with Hikaru. For her to even admit to herself that she wants him is difficulty enough.

The degree of pathos generated by the character is extraordinary. She embodies a compelling combination of melancholy and dignity. Her courage in the face of apocalyptic war is quite moving. It's one thing to see the Zentraedi armada firing down on the entire planet Earth. Misa being trapped int he ruins of U.N. Spacy headquarters screaming at her console screen as she witnesses the devastation makes it all the more visceral.

When she and Hikaru and trapped on Breetai's ship, they have a bit of a conversation. It's the first chance they've had to actually think about what they've seen  of the alien army that's been dogging them for months. Hikaru is disturbed at the idea of an entire people whose existence is defined by warfare. Misa however gets it. She identifies with the Zentradi. Sad.

In a way, Misa's personal development parallels the cultural development of the Zentradi. She reconciles the civilian side of her self with the military one. She goes from hiding her vulnerability to confronting it. Her feelings for Hikaru bear this out. In the end, she gets to have it all: The guy and the career (she's given command of Earth's first colony ship the Megaroad-1) but unlike some useless rom-com heroine, she earned her happy ending.

Misa doesn't just have her 'will they or won't they?' relationship with Hikaru. She has her relationships with Captain Global, her more problematic relationship with her father Admiral Takashi Hayase and her close friendship with Claudia,  allowing us to get know her long before Hiakru does.

It's not really Macross without Misa
slamming her fist against her console...

Most importantly, Misa is a bad-ass. In addition to her heroics on Mars, she is the one who comes up with the Deadalus attack in episode 6 ("Deadalus Attack" funnily enough). A brilliant military strategy which saves the day more than once and is referenced in later Macross Series. When the long range radar is damaged during an attack, Misa volunteers to go on an unarmed reconnaissance craft with only a small escort for protection.

At this point, I'd be remiss in not giving props to the voice actresses who have made Misa come alive for me. Mika Doi and Melanie McQueen (yes I know she was on Robotech voicing Lisa Hayes. Details!). Their performances in concert with good writing and exquisite character designs, established a complex well-drawn protagonist that will occupy a special place in my geeky heart for life.

Summaries and great reviews of almost all Macross series episodes and movies may be found here.

Little red Corvette: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story part 3.5

So by level 16 or so, you've got your lightsaber. You've got a henchman in Qyzen Fess. You even have the title of a full Jedi with the confidence of the Jedi Council. But something's missing. There's just one more thing that  will make you really feel like an agent of change in this crap-sack galaxy.

The Defender-class light corvette is just that thing.

Playing Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel The Sith Lords, the most important location, as essential to the story as any planet you visited, was the ship. The Ebon Hawk  was where a great of of character interaction took place. It was the anchor, the thread which tied everything else together. In SWTOR, the ship your character acquires serves much the same purpose. It's your home, base of operations and, past a certain point, the only place where you can  initiate conversations with your companion characters.

The Defender-class is a beautiful place to live. Bigger than the Ebon Hwak and much more comfortable. Brightly lit with high ceilings and a warm colour palate, it suits the Jedi perfectly. It also comes with a droid who's programmed to crawl up your ass as soon as you step on board. Qyzen parks himself in the engine room. Each companion you pick up along the way will find claim their own spot on the ship. Once you've settled in, it's time to begin Chapter 1. The first of the ill Jedi Masters you need to rescue is on Taris. Now, why does that planet sound familiar?

(Very) Big City Blues: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 3

In the Old Republic, your experience begins the same way: an origin planet followed by an intermediate stage on the Capital of your respective faction. In our case it's Coruscant, everyone's favourite ecumenopolis. Everyone get your sad face ready for why the Republic's Capital is such a sad, sad place.

The glittering jewel of Coruscant has more than a few cracks as a result of the Sith beat-down they got a decade or so earlier. The damage done runs so deep that they're still recovering.Your character has the option of expressing surprise at how the devastation  lingers. Generally (and this goes for all classes) this is your character's first time visiting the Capital world.  The planet missions are all built around the attempt to rebuild those sections of Coruscant that have the most difficulty recovering. These lower levels are full of marginalized refugees, vigilante fiefdoms and criminal opportunists. It's actually quite compelling and I felt some satisfaction whenever my character could help out.  Alignment choices here seem to be about prioritizing. A Dark Side choice is likely to be about privileging the bigger picture at the expense of the vulnerable person suffering in front of you.  For my Consular, the ends definitely justified the means.

Coruscant itself is unfathomably huge, tall, deep and endless. The areas that you are able to explore feel like the tip of the tip of an iceberg. The time of day whenever you're on Coruscant is a lovely golden afternoon  in contrast to Tython's  permanent cool morning. The senate tower is suitably majestic and the lower levels suitably decrepit.

The class mission for Coruscant is very simple: SAVE MASTER YUON!!!! You see, poor Yuon scarcely announced you a fully-fledged Jedi before dramatically collapsing (in a very cinematic first person viewpoint with shifting focus and fade-to-black...). Master Syo Bakarn  has had her shipped off to Coruscant to be treated for... whatever is wrong with her. Your first undertaking as a newly-minted Jedi is to help find out what that is and do whatever be necessary to help cure her.

The knowledge you need exists in the form of three noetikons. These are basically AI's designed to fascilitate research in the Jedi Archives. Each appears to take on the persona of three ancient Jedi Masters (in the form of holograms) to facilitate interaction with whomever is using them. Unfortunately for you, the destruction of the Jedi Temple entailed the destruction of the Jedi Archives or, at least, the structures housing them. The noetikons have been scattered as a result. I really like the noetikons and finding each one yielded a cool scene of your character interacting with them. It's a good callback to the teaching holocrons that you collected back on Tython.  Also a few characters from KOTOR make cameos as noetikon holograms.  Anytime familiar names and faces from the KOTOR games show up I'm a happy gamer.

The scenes with Yuon herself are effective mainly because she's familiar to us from Tyhon. Her deterioration is quite sad if a bit cliché. Once she's been cured you have an audience with the Jedi Council who inform you that several other Jedi Masters have been afflicted with the same madness. I don't know why, I'm not sure what exactly they expect you to do about it...

  

First Thing's First: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 2.5

First thing's first:

There's a bit of an interlude before you get to Coruscant. The shuttle the leaves Tython to take you to Coruscant but you don't actually go there just yet. You wind up at Carrick station where you'lll be spending a lot of time.

You're a fully fledged Jedi now. That means you've reached 10th level and have to choose an advanced class.  The Sage is defined by two capabilities: Healing/Protection and Ranged damage dealing. The Shadow's two things are stealth and the double-bladed lightsaber. Both versions of the consular have some degree of crowd control.

Your choice depends on which play style fits your idea of the Consular. I find that all these specializations work nicely as forms of esoterica for a Jedi: masking yourself with the Force, fighting with a spinning saberstaff,  blasts of kinetic energy or healing trances.

The are a couple of missions here that are more tutorial in nature. You also have the opportunity to do the Esseles, the very first Flashpoint (SWTOR's terms for a group mission). Aside form giving you more social points than any other Flashpoint, the Esseles allows a nice way to step out of your individual story  and get a glimpse of larger Galactic matters.

Of the NPCs  that you meet in this mission, the only whom you will ever see again is Grand Moff Kilran. He's a good choice for your first encounter with an Imperial higher-up. He's given deliciously smarmy dialogue with voice acting to match.

Ambassador Asara has a cool background. "Ambassador" is, in this case,  not an official title. She basically trolls allies of the Empire tryign to get them to defect to the Republic which, frankly takes Death Star-sized balls. Considering the risks her jobs entails, she shows herself to be a ruthlessly practical woman (Dark Side points!!!). Whatever becomes of her, depending on your choices, she doesn't show up again.

Flashpoints to me feel like isolated incidents or little diversions away from the 'real' story. That's not to say that they're all stand-alone adventures. A few of them form two-parters and many of them reference the larger conflict that over-arches SWTOR.

As a Jedi Consular, your dialogue (when you can get a word in) is pretty similar to the Jedi Knight's. This is something I noticed with Planet missions as well. I've yet to play very far through the non-Force-using classes so I can't say that this is the same for them too.  I do know at least that the Esseles Flashpoint, the Smuggler and Trooper had more distinct voices during the various conversations.

Once you're done with Carrick Station, it's on to another shuttle to take you to Coruscant.

"Petit Pays, je t'aime beaucoup"

Cesária Évora, R.I.P.

I'm trying to remember exactly when I fell in love with Cape Verdean music. I think it was around 2006? I know it began with (the greatly missed) Cesaria Évora.  The first time I heard her voice was on the soundtrack to Great Expectations. She was crooning a lovely rendition of 'Bésame Mucho' but that was in Spanish. I didn't know who she  was or where she was from. A few years later I found myself listening to one of her albums São Vicente di Longe and I wasn't quite sure what to make of what I was hearing. The music and the language it was sung in were both new and vaguely familiar. As I educated myself on Cape Verde, it's creolized language and culture and its multi-faceted music, I grew to love it.  Musically, the archipelago has so much to offer. Literally dozens of genres exist in this tiny space. The Morna, a down-tempo genre, recalls the ebb and flow of the tide on a desolate shore. The Batuku, with it's syncopated poly-rhythms, points an arrow straight to Cape Verde's neighbours in West Africa. Between these two poles lie a myriad of genres that  belie Cape Verde location between three continents.

Thematically, traditional Cape Verdean music covers various themes that recur int he lives of the Cape Verdean people.  Rain comes up a lot. The archipelago's history is peppered with devastating droughts. No wonder songs  address the rain like a lost lamented love or an old friend welcomed home. The ocean surrounding the islands figures prominently in these songs as well. Ever present, Cape Verdean singers often address the waters around them directly as if they were some inscrutable entity.  Cape Verde was, and continues to be an emigrant culture and so its songs are full of yearning for far-away loved ones.

I actually saw Cesaria Évora in Concert in 2008. It was glorious to see her in the flesh (albeit from several rows away). Even then, she seemed fragile. There was chair and a small table with a glass of water on stage with her. She would sit down after every second or third song to catch her bearings. Of course, she was without shoes, thus the name "the Barefoot Diva".  Whatever health issues she had, she nailed every performance of every song. Her voice is often compared to Billie Holiday's and that is a well-earned complement but there's more to it than that. This woman literally put her country on the map. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any recording artist that contributed to their own country's profile the way Cesária Évora did. To me she is the perfect answer to anyone who doubts the relevance of culture.

Mayra Andrade

It her footsteps have followed a generation of brilliant artists, many of whom I adore: Simentera, Lura, Sara Tavares and Mayra Andrade. Many of Cesaria's contemporaries and collaborators have also taken root in my playlist like Tito Paris and Teofilo Chantre amongst others. We may have lost the Barefoot Diva but we will never forget her nor shall we allow her to be forgotten. Her legacy is truly precious and all we can do is listen to the recordings she left behind and be grateful that she got to walk this Earth in her bare feet in the first place.

Jedi 101: A Review of the Jedi Consular Story Part 2

The Consular game in SWTOR gets off to a perfect start in its prologue. The opening as with all of SWTOR's openings, is sublime and very Star Wars-y. "A long time ago in a  Galaxy far, far away..." followed by a scrolling introduction and finally, a shuttle flying ominously towards a planet.

Your character, however you imagine them, is a Jedi Padawan at the tail-end of their training. You're part of a new generation of Jedi that's come of age during the stalemate between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. If you remember what happened to the Jedi Temple during the sacking of Coruscant:

Ouch! Until  his name was established I always knew Master Ven Zallow as "Hot Jedi".

The Jedi had to relocate to Tython (handily discovered by Bastilla's descendant Satelle Shan), reconnecting  with their heritage and rebuilding their numbers with an eye towards the inevitable resumption of their conflict with the Sith.

From the very outset, you are established as being extremely strong in the Force. This is Bioware's way of explaining why you're allowed to go running around fighting and going on dangerous missions when you've yet get your first lightsaber.  You're able to get a bit haughty which matches up with the prodigy aspect nicely. The dialogue system generally offers  you three options: Nice, Nasty and Neutral.  The Nasty options for the Consular  are very much in the vein of "Don't you know who I am?". It makes sense for the most gifted person in the room to be aloof and contemptuous. When said Nasty options allow for Darkside points, it definitely feels like crossing a line in a way your special snowflake jedi can justify to himself.

The story of your time on Tython begins with the recovery of several artefacts of the ancient precursors to the Jedi. You see, the interesting thing about Tython is that it's the good guys' version of Korriban only more so. Just as the Sith Order originated on that dusty rocky world made famous by Tales of the Jedi,  Tython is the origin of the Jedi. But remember, the Jedi predate the Sith. Actually, Tython and the people who discovered the Force there predate the Jedi.

These ancient Force-Users had a conflict of their own between those who wanted to commune with the Force and those who embraced its dark side. One of the artefacts you're searching for is a holocron of the ancient Master Rajivari, a Dark-sider who amassed his own following and tried to destroy his fellows. Needless to say, he failed and the victors went on to found the Jedi Order.  Now his teachings have corrupted a Twilek from a nearby illegal settlement who stumbled on the Holocron.

The nice thing about the Rajivari drama is that he is not a sith.  In this game, your character's alignment (the Dark-Light axis)  is distinct from your affiliation (Republic vs. Imperial). A Dark Side Jedi  is not interchangeable with a Dark Side Sith. If your character falls, they don't suddenly apply for a visa to emigrate to Dormmund Kaas. Learning about Rajivari's history is a nice primer on what Dark Jedi can be and how distinct they are from the Sith.

As you progress through Tython, you begin to accumulate various resources namely: force powers, your companion Qyzen Fes and at long last, your lightsaber. I have to say, playing through those first ten levels, I got so used to being a Padawan and having to use a vibroblade that actually receiving a  lightsaber feels like a well-earned moment.

Qyzen Fes is effectively introduced. We meet and interact with him several times before he joins us. He's not my favourite companion character in the game but he's far from the worst and does what he's supposed to: draw fire away from the squishy Consular. I will say that I like his interactions with Yuon Par (your character's mentor).

Nalen Roloch is the Twilek who gets corrupted by Rajivari's holocron. He's an interesting choice of villain for the Consular given that themes of the class. It is worth pointing out that one of the recurring plot elements in the Star Wars Expanded  Universe is corruption via exposure to heretical teachings. The confrontation with Nalen at story's end is a definite 'graduation day' in that I could swear that there is a shift in the writing and voice acting for the Consular.

Tython itself is beautiful. The designers have done a superlative job creating a landscape that's beautiful but wild. The various ruins are nicely realized as well: an entire civilization covered with millennia of arboreal growth to contrast with the sands of Korriban.

But it's time to venture out of the cocoon of the Jedi Temple and get to the second half of the prologue...

Equilateral: Love Triangles Done Properly (Spoiler-free)

I adore Macross.

Like many all over the world,  I've watched Anime to one degree or another my whole life. However none, and I mean none, have taken hold of me the way the Macross franchise did. That said, if you're reading this blog you can fully expect a lot of gushing about Macross and how amazing it is.

One especially amazing thing about the original TV series, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (SDFM), is the love triangle between the three leads. Over 36 episodes, the whole narrative is executed so perfectly, I literally cannot stomach most of what passes for a love triangle on most media nowadays.

The characterization is handled  very, very well. SDFM's narrative allows us to see where each of its triad is coming from and why they make the choices that they do. By series' end, the three of them have been established within an inch of their lives and their actions make perfect sense. If someone doesn't know where they stand or if a misunderstanding happens, it's never out of character.

Another refreshing aspect of SDFM's triangle is that there is no cat-fighting. The two women are rivals, yes, in the sense that they are romantically linked to the same man. But the conflict isn't between them. The conflict is within the guy who's torn between them. His indecisiveness is the problem. They have their own lives to live given that there's an interplanetary war going on. That right there sets SDFM's triangle apart from that of so many movies and TV series.

The Feature film Macross: Do You Remember Love? takes a slightly different route. Everything I said before about the female characters' dignity and lack of cat-fighting still applies. The same level of characterisation unfortunately isn't possible in 2 hours versus 13 hours. What we do get is a more explicit undercutting of the traditional rivalry. The two female protagonists, Misa Hayase and Lynn Minmei actually save the day. Their cooperation provides the key to defeating the movie's villain.

The nice thing about how this all ends is that the male lead, Hikaru, makes his choice based on his own character arc and not because of some flaw in the woman he doesn't chose. Meanwhile, the woman he doesn't choose maintains her dignity. She doesn't lose it and become a villain. She doesn't hop into another relationship right away. She just accepts the decision and moves on.

As a pop-culture portrayal of romance, that seems pretty healthy to me. None of that "I can't live without you/love me forever" nonsense. Relationships end, so it's best to take it like a Macross girl.

Man + Skirt: A Review of SWTOR's Jedi Consular Story PART 1

Leading up to the launch of  Star Wars: The Old Republic, One of the biggest issues that seemed to come up in all of the discussions amongst eager players to be was the skirt. No kidding, almost every forum discussing the Jedi Consular included some guy or another whining about how he didn't want his character to run around the galaxy wearing a skirt. The next most common complaint was about being pigeon-holed as a healer, which... whatever.

Gender-policing aside, the Jedi Consular was definitely one of the most awaited classes in the game. The Consular was introduced in the Star Wars RPG and was an intriguing distinction: a Jedi who focused on the more intangible aspects of the Force itself.

Right away, there was interest in the more indirect cousin of the Jedi Knight. We were told that there would be a story focusing on the mysteries of the Force as well as  behind-the-scenes political story-lines dealing with the Republic. I was certainly intrigued by the bits and pieces that we were told about leading up to launch. Telekinesis and double-bladed lightsabers? Count me in! Unearthing lost knowledge and immersing oneself in the depths of the Force? Sign me up.

I knew early on that I wanted to play my Consular dark-sided. How could I resist the idea of a Jedi who looks a little too closely at the dark side? I love the idea of a fall from grace precipitated by innocent intellectual curiosity.

It took me longer than I would have liked, but I eventually finished the Jedi Consular game a few months ago. After having mulled it over for a while, I'm going to relate my experience of it.

First of all, I refer to this as the Consular game because it is exactly that. Each class quest in SWTOR is about the same size as either of the KoTOR games and takes around he same length of time to finish. This is excluding Flashpoints and Planet quests. Finishing this game is a commitment making plot and characterization as essential as game-play.

So I'll say this much for now. I loved it. Overall, I loved it. There were some parts that didn't work for me and some that were just okay. But the parts that were awesome more than made up for the parts that weren't.

Speaking so generally, I decided to make part one of the review spoiler-free. The rest of it won't be. I'm going to review each chapter of the game separately so, if you're new to the Consular's game, wait until after playing each chapter before reading my take on it.

Prologue:

The thing about blogging that always intimidated me was how very public it is. That and the fact that the Internet is full of trolls. There is not one thought or feeling I've had in my entire life that hasn't changed or shifted. There is not one thing about me that has not been subject to revision. So of course I'm going to hesitate at the prospect of putting these mental drafts out in the world. I mean, if one has a platform on which to say anything they want, shouldn't that make one nervous?

That's the thing about the Internet: it's a public space that can only be experienced in private or even in isolation... which sort of explains the solipsism that we often encounter and experience online. It's as if the Internet takes place entirely in one's head. Nothing feels entirely real does it? Certainly not other people and certainly not what we express about them. Communicating in real time with someone who you can't see or hear and whom you don't have to deal with if you don't want to encourages indifference.

That is why I have decided that, to begin with at least, Inclusive Or will not have a comments section. I would like to have a certain amount of blogging under my belt first. Until then, I'm just not ready to deal with the psychic drain of moderation.

I promise I'll endeavour to be thoughtful and restrained. No rants and minimal stupidity are the watchword of Inclusive Or.