#nerdipost

[starborn-storyteller]

[starborn-storyteller]

so apparently people are complaining about a new interpretation of the force that shows up in acolyte e3. for context, the idea itself is that the force is like a thread that winds through everything instead of an omnipresent semi-being as the jedi believe.

people are acting like this is retconning lore and changing things when it's not. we've never known for sure what the force is- because how would we? from within the universe, there isn't really a way to know. the ashla, bendu, and bogan model gives us a light/mix/dark alignment, but there's also the idea qui-gon brings up about the cosmic and living force, and now we have the idea of the thread! this is great! more context, more perspectives, more depth to this world!

this fandom tends to forget, I think, that the jedi are not scientists. they're a religion. and believing wholeheartedly that the jedi have the objective truth of everything- which, by the way, the thread doesn't disprove as they could straight up be wrong- is genuinely a terrible way to interact with the medium.

[starborn-storyteller]

tbb finale thoughts

echo. echo's mind was used by the separatists for a long, long time on skako minor. he knows what it feels like to be helpless. he knows what it feels like to do awful things and just be unable to stop because how the fuck would you even do that. so him being the one that gets through to emerie, who is in a very similar situation- being used for a purpose she doesn't agree with and having no way out- is actually such a good moment holy shit. and the way both emerie and echo immediately offer their services to the cause they actually believe in the second they get the chance to.

[starborn-storyteller]

hang on I have to rant

if you're not already aware, the five-man band is a literary device used to classify teams of 5 characters. it's what I call an external trope, meaning that you fit the trope to the characters, they don't innately have it.

a:tla has a pretty solid one, and it's well known enough, so I'm gonna use it to show you what I mean

it is comprised of:

the Leader, who directs the group and is usually the main character (aang)

the Lancer, who serves as character foil to the Leader and is often a bad-guy-turned-good or rogue element (zuko)

the Big Guy, who solves physical problems for the team and is frequently a goofball (toph)

the Smart Guy, who solves technical/logistical problems for the team and typically serves as an "idea guy" (sokka)

and the Heart, who solves emotional problems for the team- if there's only one girl, she's probably the Heart (katara)

there are three star wars groups I want to look at: delta squad, domino squad, and clone force 99.

first is domino squad, as they fit this trope the easiest.

fives is the Leader, the most strategizing one in the group

droidbait is the Lancer, far less cautious and more prone to injury than the others (the foil to fives' effectiveness)

hevy is the Big Guy, serving the oh-so-common "big gun demolitions expert" variant

echo is the Smart Guy, in the "guys, come on, stick to the PLAN" variant

cutup is the Heart, lightening the mood with jokes (hence the name)

the first to die is droidbait, leaving echo to serve as fives' foil, which allows us to see that fives is probably the most prototypical clone of the bunch. then hevy sacrifices himself, and cutup gets eaten, leaving only fives and echo until the Citadel arc which I haven't yet seen.

then we have delta squad. the thing about delta squad is that there are four of them, and while the four-man band is a thing, they make this perfect incomplete five-man band that I think is really really tasty.

boss (player character) is the Leader, guiding the team

sev is the Lancer, playing the "snarky rogue" archetype

scorch is the Big Guy, again the "big gun demolitions" variant- but with the added flavor of being very by-the-book (which we see the consequences of when he aligns with not only the empire but doctor hemlock himself in tbb)

fixer is the Smart Guy, tech expert

notice anything?

there's no Heart.

and that works. these are clone commandos- meant to be the most effective troops the republic has. they almost never interact socially outside of their squad, and when they do it's kept pretty professional.

we see that again in clone force 99, or as they call themselves, the bad batch

hunter is the Leader, his enhanced senses leaving him the most generalist of the batch (and also he's technically their sergeant)

crosshair is the Lancer, a "silent, ruthless efficiency" type

wrecker is the Big Guy, "big gun demolitions" variant yet again (I told you it was common) in the goofball flavor

tech is the Smart Guy, btw he's really well done and it never feels like he just "knows because he's smart" you can always tell how he figures things out

again, there's no Heart. but wait.

in the Bad Batch arc in clone wars, they pick up another member- echo. we don't see much of echo's interaction with the batch in that arc, but when we come back, echo is solidly in a sort of almost-but-not-quite Heart role. and then.

omega shows up in the "sixth ranger" role, there to shake up the group dynamic. throughout season one, we see omega slowly take over echo's role as Heart- and as this happens, it becomes clear that that was the role he was playing, as he talks hunter through how to best take care of omega. but omega, tagalong kid as she is, is much, much more suited to the Heart role than echo, and she takes his place- which allows echo to run off and have his own adventures with rex throughout seasons two and three, WHICH WORKS because echo is a regular clone who joined the batch later in life and thus isn't quite the same as the others, but omega is a deviant clone just like them!

[starborn-storyteller]

sorry for the scavenger's reign spam. no I'm not. watch the show

[starborn-storyteller]

right, what the FUCK

[starborn-storyteller]

guys don't get covered in eyes please. it's episode 9 it's too early for anyone to die

[starborn-storyteller]

today's tech's fine actually rant (not all of these are my observations, but I couldn't tell you where I got half of them)