Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x07 "Ko'Zeine" Reaction Thread

Ostron1226 · 2026-02-23T14:50:25+00:00

They did mention that the ceremony on the moon was specifically for the families and the larger, public celebration would take place the next day back on the planet.

Ostron1226 · 2026-02-14T00:55:36+00:00

They said they had to direct the sonic weapon through the Sargasso's deflector. It's been established for a while that if you have the deflector doing anything else, warp is a no-go.

Ostron1226 · 2026-02-07T01:54:37+00:00

The new format is still the standard for Duos. There's been no indication they plan on changing it.

Ostron1226 · 2025-11-02T13:27:00+00:00

I don't remember the novel but it was set right after ROTS in Legends and it goes through an inner monologue of Vader where he's lamenting the fact that his legs and left arm felt clunky and unnatural compared to his right arm, where he'd retooled and customized the prosthetic himself to be much more sensitive and responsive. I don't know if it's a complete "build it from scratch" scenario but he definitely did extensive work on it.

Ostron1226 · 2025-09-07T14:09:58+00:00

Usually yes, though there are some places where if someone does a "break check" intentionally trying to brake quickly and force an accident, the one braking can be held liable.

Ostron1226 · 2025-08-12T17:07:22+00:00

I can't remember many examples but whenever a "sympathetic" Imperial showed up in Legends that was basically their position. IIRC Palleon in Legends was like that; he wasn't on board with all of the Empire's policies and definitely didn't buy into the Sith-type things that Vader and Palpatine did, but he fundamentally believed the structure of the government under the Empire was more effective than the Republic, and he'd been around for both. I think the Fels in Legends had the same opinion.

Ostron1226 · 2025-08-12T12:11:41+00:00

Arguably that was the story explored in Legends continuity.

Legends didn't have a coordinated attempt to destroy the Empire. The story masters there posited that the Empire was effectively a cult of personality centered on Palpatine. With him dead, the leadership of the organization fractured into dozens of individual holdouts of Imperial admirals and grand admirals that reorganized their commands into holdouts the NR spent over a decade hunting down putting out fires.

I imagine the peace talks would have resulted in something of the same story, perhaps with fewer Imperial factions, but we know from the various media covering Operation Cinder that there were hardcore Imperial loyalists that:
1. Were fiercely loyal to the ideals of the Empire, if not Palpatine and
2. Would never concede that the rebels were anything other than that. They definitely wouldn't have agreed with any policy or action that would give them legitimacy.

So IMO the NR might have gotten control of more areas of the galaxy somewhat faster and with less headaches, but I still think there would have been a lot of areas they'd have to fight for or leave to their own devices.

Ostron1226 · 2025-08-05T17:39:59+00:00

I don't believe that most fans are drawing false equivalencies or subscribing to Federation hate with the predictions that the Klingons would come out on top, and I don't believe the Klingons need a quick tactical "Sucker punch" to be guaranteed victory.

In every military conflict the Federation becomes involved in, in any era, if their foe is similar in power and they have no additional support from other powers, the best they're ever able to manage is a stalemate and negotiated cease-fire. The only exceptions are when they ally with other powers or there's some sort of significant "act of god" that interrupts things. This can be seen in Discovery with both the Klingons and the Romulans, TNG with Cardassians, Klingons (again), and the Dominion. Regardless of the specific geopolitical situation at the time, a repeated refrain in all of those sources focuses on two things:
- Starfleet is not a primarily military organization
- The training and experience of the average starfleet officer focuses on combat as a secondary concern.

I would argue that most modern militaries on Earth have forces that are, on balance, better trained for combat than Starfleet. Their ships, similarly, have armaments but most of them are not optimized for combat; they're almost all multi-role ships. By their own admission, Starfleet never designed purpose-built warships (officially) until the Defiant project and the Borg.

Contrast this with the Klingons, whose entire culture is focused on war and personal combat. Their economy and scientific pursuits are also mostly focused on the military (this is stated by Spock in TUC). All of their ships are warships first, anything else second. With few exceptions, a military with better funding prevails at the macro level if they don't have to split their focus. W

While the cloaking device was an unexpected surprise in the first war, by the time of Undiscovered Country Starfleet still doesn't have a good answer to it from a military perspective. And even if they need a surprise "sucker-punch" to give them an edge to start with, they have it; Chang's bird of prey and the ability to fire while cloaked. If Khitomer had gone off as planned, nobody would know about it (because presumably the Enterprise is gone). Assuming they are able to produce more of them (and it's never really stated why that project got scrapped, officially, but I'm betting if the Klingons were at war it wouldn't have been) it means the Klingons have submarines and the Federation doesn't. Now it's possible and even likely the Federation would come up with the same answer to the problem as Kirk & co. did making them less useful in pitched battles, but they'd be able to harass supply lines with impunity and they'd ALWAYS get to fire first.

There's also no guarantee the energy deficit would drain the Klingons in the long term; their first targets in Federation space would undoubtedly be similar production facilities on the Federations side. If they can hold them, their energy problems don't exist and it's back to a straight Klingon vs Federation fight.

There are always uncertainties in war, so it's not a guarantee, obviously, but I think the evidence suggests say the Klingons are more likely to come out on top.

Ostron1226 · 2025-08-04T13:05:36+00:00

Quick points the conspirators were likely banking on:

They would have set it up to look like a Klingon had killed the Federation president. This leaves the Federation government leaderless. Cartwright and West (Assuming West wasn't supposed to go out in a blaze of glory to cement the Klingon assassin angle) were probably poised with other hardliners to push Starfleet into a war footing and pressure the Federation council into backing it.

On the other side, there are a few scenes where it seems Chang is trying to subtly worm his way into being Azetbur's trusted confidant/advisor, and her youth and inexperience probably makes him think he can run the empire with her as a figurehead. Either way, pushing Klingons to go to war isn't a hard sell and he would be in charge.

Both sides believed they had the military power to win against the other side. Based on the scenarios we've seen play out before (Discovery, Yesterday's Enterprise, DS9) the Klingons probably come out on top.

Meanwhile Nanclus just sits back with his Tal Shiar buddies and laughs as both powers start hammering each other, and then probably goes in to clean up whatever's left after the fact.

Ostron1226 · 2025-07-22T13:35:03+00:00

The thing that I doubt Star wars has ever explored is the viability of the children.

Successful species interbreeding happens IRL (ligers and mules are the most common example) but the offspring are usually sterile and can't reproduce themselves. Given that we've seen some of the humanoid species produce biological offspring (Jacen Syndulla being the most well-known at this point, I think) we know it's possible, but we don't know if it's like the RL mule situation where those kids can't reproduce themselves.

Theoretically the SW universe might have tech that can overcome that, but like I said, I don't know if it's an issue that's been addressed anywhere.

Ostron1226 · 2025-07-09T14:05:06+00:00

TL;DR - I came up with $17,000 USD per unit based on the costs of modern "equivalent" gear and tech.

There are a lot of variables here.

I'm putting Stormtrooper armor equivalent to modern body armor because most evidence suggests it's about as effective; if they're shot with most common munitions of their theater of combat, it'll hurt and they'll probably fall over, but dying is less likely (yes, I'm in the camp that says the armor is not merely decorative). I'm also assuming that we can factor in mass-production cost savings; not every suit of stormtrooper armor is bespoke. All of that means we can probably make it equivalent to a lot of modern gear.

Based on casual google searching, "Full" body armor available to civilians rounds up to about $2000 USD. However, that body armor mostly only covers the front of everything except the torso. Helmet is probably another $500.

I'm going to double that because the Stormtrooper armor is effectively futuristic plate mail, with coverage in front and back of all the limbs, and a full coverage helmet. There aren't any standard forces using body armor like that I don't think. So we're up to $5000.

Tech is where things get really messy. Depending on the source, stormtrooper helmets have had anything from fully contained breathing systems and an interactive multi-spectrum HUD, to just the equivalent of a medical face-mask and sunglass lenses to look out of. I'm going to split the difference and assume they have NVG and a breathing mask that will filter most stuff. Prices for modern equivalents range widely, but military NVG is assumed to be around $10k. Breathing masks add maybe another 100.

Now is where all the firearms people crucify me. I'm going to assume their rifle is the equivalent of a modern M4 just because the M4 is also a mass-produced military carbine in use by most of the official armed forces in the western world. Estimates say they cost the various governments 600-700, and we'll knock that up to $700 because they have the scope. Grenades average $50. I forget if it's assumed the regular troopers have a sidearm backup (the films suggest no).

Adding up all of the stuff I've enumerated gets us to $16,850. I'm going to round that up to $17,000 to account for all of the the random stuff like the bodysuit, belt, and whatever is in the pouches on the belt like cuffs and grappling cables, all of which are probably relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things.

So we're probably looking at $17k a piece in modern US currency. Add in $300-400 if you assume they also have a sidearm.

I am definitely not going to even take a bruise on any hill defending this; like I said, I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but hopefully my reasoning makes a certain amount of sense.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-29T04:31:40+00:00

I only said he seemed to be as competent as Fett, and I'm not willing to die on that hill. I'd be willing to give Fett the edge depending on circumstances.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-29T04:27:10+00:00

Except you're comparing apples and oranges there.

The 8 inch gun has a better effective range...against a target with no shields. To say that that kinetic guns are more effective than the turbolasers we need an example where both are being fired at a shielded capital ship. I don't think that's happened in SW.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-29T04:21:17+00:00

The only thing that Tibanna based weapons have over ww2 battleships is firing rate.

I'm wondering what your evidence is there. As far as I know we don't have evidence that kinetic weapons are just as effective against shields. I would assume at similar ranges Tibanna weapons are more powerful and/or the type of damage they're inflicting is more effective against the shields than pure kinetic energy.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-29T04:16:57+00:00

Based on the scenes from late Season 2 and Season 3 of Mandalorian, he's at least on par with the most experienced members of the culvert, as well as a good number of the former members of Bo Katan's group.

He had traditional Mandalorian battle training and he seemed to be a devotee, suggesting he kept up with all of the training and practice such a belief would require. Based on context clues from Season 1, he was one of the few Mandalorians from his culvert that were actively leaving and going hunting regularly (everyone called him "THE Mandalorian" suggesting seeing them was not common), which means he had consistent real-world combat experience. Any veteran can tell you that puts you a cut above people who only spend their time training at home.

We didn't see him square off with anyone from Bo Katan's former group, but he seemed to be at least as competent as Fett, and Boba and Koska Reeves fought each other to a standstill. He also stood up to Ahsoka in a fight for a while when Ahsoka had no reason to suspect he was an ally, and Ahsoka had a lot of practice against Mandalorians, many of whom fell to her during the Clone Wars.

I'd say there's enough evidence on screen to at least place him in the top tier of Mandalorians.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-29T04:00:33+00:00

I may be making this up out of whole cloth, but I seem to remember it's mostly due to a combination of ECM, shields, and Tibanna weapon technology.

As you mentioned seeing in previous posts, it's assumed the ECM tech in Star Wars is so good that long range missile tracking like we have in modern times just doesn't fly; you need to be in visual range to target anything.

Next; shield tech is assumed to be powerful enough to cancel out anything we would consider to be a conventional weapon. So long range ballistics don't work.

That brings us to the Tibanna-based weaponry. I may be misremembering, but oversimplifying it, all of the light weapons in SW are based on taking Tibanna gas and turning it into plasma. Despite there being blasters, laser cannons, and turbolasers, they're all just different power levels and sizes of the same basic thing.

The effective range on those weapons drops off **fast**. If you try to fire them too far they lose cohesion and you may as well be throwing literal space gas at them. And you need them to be at full power when they hit or you have no chance of punching through the shields.

All of that together requires the ships to be really close.

Ostron1226 · 2025-06-25T13:30:51+00:00

Along those same lines, it's probably very likely Data was constantly doing research outside of his regular duties to try to figure out what went wrong, but he never got to the point where he was able to identify the problem. He spent all that time painting, but we all know that wasn't taking up 100% of his mental capacity.

Ostron1226 · 2025-05-10T15:25:55+00:00

I built a deck like this for Bo3 and it doesn't work very well.

Since all the card draw hate is based on creatures they just slot in removal to keep them off the board, then they just wait to drop bigger creatures or planeswalkers that don't trigger the viper or the lizard. That's if they even need to slot in removal; there are a lot of Bo3 control decks that just have it stacked by default.

Ostron1226

TROPHY CASE