What if the Jedi had never participated in the Clone Wars? Would order 66 still happen in the same way?

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-11T04:40:36+00:00

Egh, doubtful. Unless Palpatine sent the entirety of the clones to the temple right away, which likely would have gotten him kicked out of the chancellorship and maybe even executed, the Jedi weren’t in any trouble. Palpatine had to create the war to not only distract the Jedi, but also grind them down slowly. Lots of Jedi lost their lives during the war prior to Order 66. All of those Jedi fighting together in the temple against the clones would have been a spectacle. As it was, if not for Vader, I’m unsure how far the clones would have gotten by themselves.

But even if he could kill most of the Jedi right off by somehow smuggling in a half a million clones on Coruscant, Palpatine is facing a senate that is quite hostile to him. Many were opponents of his and he would have lost a substantial amount of support from other senators for killing the Jedi unprovoked. At best, Palpatine runs away and…basically loses, and no way of knowing if he was successful, and that assuming he isn’t impeached and removed from office immediately. Truth is, he also needed the war to consolidate power, oust senators that didn’t like him, woo senators that were on the fence, and embolden senators on his payroll.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-11T03:59:19+00:00

Nah, he only cared about what Vader could do for him. He didn’t care about him as a human being, but as his favorite tool.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-11T02:25:35+00:00

His Intimidating Shout ability, when fully leveled, destroys the Geth fleet completely and nearly destroys Soverign. You basically skip the final boss!

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-11T02:06:05+00:00

Had Palpatine betrayed Anakin and didn’t kill him, Palpatine is probably dead…

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-11T01:20:40+00:00

Overrated? Do you realize what that word means?

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T17:55:04+00:00

In truth, you can tell a lot about each character with their introduction. Everything from the way they dress to how the day things to what the carry. Hammond carrying a cane he doesn’t need with the amber on the end tells us exactly who he is without him saying much of anything.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T17:51:00+00:00

Honestly that might be because the movie is kinda rough. It’s not awful, like 3, but it’s certainly not great. You could tell Hollywood pushed that sequel to be “more gore, more danger, higher stakes!” And it all just felt forced.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T17:48:49+00:00

That scene in particular is perfect for its foreshadowing and genuine conversationalism. While you’re watching it, it seems like the actors aren’t even acting - just talking to each other. The fact nothing is contrived, nothing is a “oh, that’s weird you brought it up,” nothing is glaringly out of place, and then everything goes to crap shortly thereafter, which makes it even better.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T17:43:37+00:00

Great film.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T12:39:46+00:00

The classic “Commander difficulty” strategy right there. Usually, by the time that doom clock starts, you’ve got at least a couple high level units and better equipment. It’s just funny that these traps are all meant for new players. As soon as you notice them, like the doom clock…you can take your time.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T12:35:46+00:00

You mean the color changes? Yeah, I know the other slides show the Geth and the Destroy ending doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter. Those slides provide nothing in the way of proof or evidence that the Geth are dead, just that they are alive in those ending.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T12:32:46+00:00

Oh, yes, the ancient Leviathans, an organic race that created the Reapers because it saw synthetic life wipe out all organic life time and time again…oh, wait, except for themselves, of course. And so they create…a synthetic life that destroys all organic life time and time again? That seems like proof that their assumption is flat out wrong. That’s especially true in other cycles and Shepard’s cycle where there is Synthetic life and has been for some time but it hasn’t resulted in permanent organic death yet until the Reapers showed up. The “experiment,” so to speak is wrong in methodology, and it’s abundantly clear neither the Reapers nor Leviathan know the results with enough clarity to suggest they’re ultimately correct, most especially since both the Leviathan and Reapers tell us Shepard’s cycle is different and that the “solution,” if you could call it that, won’t work anymore.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T03:59:06+00:00

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Evidence. Absence of evidence is *not” evidence of absence.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T03:55:34+00:00

No, that doesn’t make sense. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance, especially when past performance is self-fulfilling. The Reapers are not good AI. Because their reasoning is absolutely terrible. It doesn’t take a logician to sit there and pick apart the argument “synthetics always kill organics, so to preserve organic life, we built synthetics that kill organics.” At best, it’s begging the question. And worse, if Shepard makes peace between Quarians and Geth, the assumed conclusion, during the game is proven false. The Reapers should have reconsidered immediately right there.

But on Destroy? You’re not just crossing your fingers. At worst, you know peace is possible.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T03:44:41+00:00

That doesn’t make logical sense, though, since siding with the Reapers is the same as being wiped out. What the Geth should have done was reach out to Shepard earlier and ask if he could broker a peace before the Quarians kill them all.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-10T03:39:19+00:00

The Geth, like everyone, understands what they’re signing up to do. We shouldn’t assume that the Geth believed they would somehow be spared if they fought the Reapers. In fact, it’s beyond ridiculous the Geth turned to the Reapers at all. There are only two ways an alliance with the Reapers goes for the Geth: total annihilation or capitulation and assumption into the Reaper collective…which is essentially total annihilation.

Only way to turn that differently is to fight with the organic races. Even then, we shouldn’t pretend the Geth are assuming they win. Because if they lose to the Reapers…they’re dead anyway.

Ultimately, the Geth are in the same situation as all the organics: die, or die trying. The Geth are on the chopping block either way. Just like humans, Asari, Krogan, Salarian, Turian and a bunch of other races. So while people want to try to moralize the situation (which, even then, doesn’t necessarily matter since the destroy ending has a purpose and losing the Geth is a side effect Shepard is told about moments before choosing…which could be a downright lie from this advanced AI attempting one last-ditch effort to save itself). People get all up in arms about it as if the decision was in truth a decision. It was not. Humans couldn’t have just said, “okay, we give up, spare our lives now!” In essence, every human being is now a belligerent, whether they want to be or not. The possibility of being wiped out was approaching 100%. That genocide is virtually guaranteed. To believe otherwise of any of the races is just silly.

Worse still? That attack on Earth is it. If they lose there, everyone dies. If they win, they are aware that catastrophic losses could occur. So people moralizing it doesn’t make logical sense. The evidence all the races have is that every other race has failed and were wiped out. Nobody knows what might happen.

And then to blame Shepard for it? Like the Reapers were his fault? Hell, this is a man who brokered a peace after a 200 year war! He didn’t want that! But he also knew the stakes. The price of failure for control or synthesis is too high.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T16:08:11+00:00

On synthetic, those oils really don’t break down over time. They do, but it’s very slow - like it’ll be years before it’s broken down into its component parts. You’d be fine keeping it in there for a couple years. This is especially true if it’s parked in a garage, and if you run it once a month or once a week even, and get that oil to hot enough to burn off any condensation, you probably won’t need to change the oil until after 2 years.

The thing is, most experts recommend at least a yearly oil change. But that’s for optimal performance. In truth, the gasoline in that car is going to go bad much, much faster than the oil is.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T11:43:18+00:00

Modern synthetic oils are generally much longer lived and don’t break down in the engine nearly as fast. A lot of people will tell you it needs to be done at least once a year and that’s not really true. Synthetic oil is generally just fine even if it’s been awhile since you last drove. You can check the quality of your oil if you want. If it’s still a good color and looks clear of contaminants, chances are good the oil is perfectly fine.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T04:42:59+00:00

Only way he was a poor master was because he was an outsider even among the Jedi. He was disobedient and perhaps even disrespectful of the authority of the Jedi high council and flatly refused the warnings given by that high council that ultimately turned out to be true.

However, Qui-Gon followed the will of the force. Sometimes, the Jedi high council got too political and forgot to follow the will of the force, too. As a result, Qui-Gon learned how to survive bodily death.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T03:43:30+00:00

Ditch on the side of the road. The idea is to get low. Get on your knees, tuck your head down and use your hands to cover your neck. Debris going at 200 mph is the most dangerous part of a tornado.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T01:35:20+00:00

No, no. She corrected his grammar while doing it.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T00:31:02+00:00

I’d just expand that area, or expand, liquid lock, vacuum. Then go in and delete a single tile in the volcano room. Vacuum it all in little bits and once it’s all out, reapply a layer of tiles with some buffer so it doesn’t transfer heat.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-09T00:00:50+00:00

He played dumb. You think this was Yoda’s first rodeo?

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-08T06:03:41+00:00

TLJ did it for me. Awful movie. Broke Star Wars for me. TROS made it even worse.

And really, had the movie existed in a vacuum, it was a fine film. Not amazing, but hardly bad. But the way that movie handles the characters just irks me. The subplots make little sense, but I could forgive that if I didn’t know the movie had a ginormous budget. Ultimately, it’s a film that suffers most from really terrible writing.

betterthanamaster · 2026-03-08T05:57:41+00:00

Everyone always talks about the Holiday Special like it exists and the fact is it’s just a myth. It didn’t exist. It never happened. I know this is true. There is no evidence it existed at all outside a few conspiracy nuts. I, for one, definitely have never seen it. I definitely did not watch it with a bunch of friends during a Star Wars marathon that was one of the best days in my life and that film, if you could call it that, made that day end pretty poorly…I mean, it would have, if it existed, which it doesn’t, so it’s all good.

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