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.