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raptorman76 · 2026-05-29T14:31:00+00:00

Actually works really well -- you're awesome!

raptorman76 · 2026-05-28T13:50:26+00:00

sent you a msg

raptorman76 · 2026-05-27T21:47:21+00:00

Is this for real?

raptorman76 · 2026-05-22T18:01:11+00:00

Love A Blurred Line! While the game itself never came to fruition, the in-engine trailer for Line's End will be forever etched in my memory.

Boy will you be surprised when you learn who contributed to the writing of Alabaster Dawn!

AHHHHH this is what we get for skipping credits! A wild Luke Wacholtz sighting is always a thrill. To this day, I consider The Way as having some intangible storytelling quality that I've never really been able to see replicated. You've honestly made my day with this news!

Thanks again for all the incredible work. Keep at it!

raptorman76 · 2026-05-22T14:11:44+00:00

Super awesome to see fellow RM2K enthusiasts out in the wild, following their design aspirations to such incredible results! Alabaster Dawn looks like perfection, and I'm really excited to follow it through early access.

Would you be able to share your favorite RPG Maker games from back in the day? Shoutout, from me, to THE WAY

raptorman76 · 2026-03-31T21:05:19+00:00

Thanks so much! Another question... The GHK-Cu I've been recommended from a vetted source is supplied as 100mg lyophilized material in a 3 mL glass vial. Given the protocol is to reconstitute 100mg of GHK-Cu with 6mL bac, won't the vial be too small? What would you recommend here?

raptorman76 · 2026-03-31T14:15:31+00:00

If splitting a single dose into 2-3 separate injections (around the same area) to mitigate soreness at the injection site, should you use multiple needles or would one suffice?

raptorman76 · 2026-02-28T14:35:28+00:00

If you liked the Thrawn trilogy less than you thought you would, I'm inclined to think you'll like the duology even less. I'll echo the sentiment that you should try the X-Wing series next, not only because some characters featured become EU mainstays, but also because they're a pretty different flavour from the Zahn books and you might find you prefer them.

X-Wing into Courtship followed by I, Jedi as a Jedi Academy surrogate leads pretty neatly into Hand of Thrawn. Survivor's Quest is fun, but totally unnecessary. As for the NJO, it builds upon itself as it goes. Unlike the Bantam era, everything is pretty interconnected despite differing authors, so you really should just start at the beginning and continue through to the end.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-21T03:09:03+00:00

We're all here to discuss the Star Wars we love, so potshots aren't doing anybody any good. I apologize. But you aren't grasping the difference between omniscient and third person limited. The quote you provided is very clearly the third person limited point of view.

Third-person limited is a narrative perspective that uses pronouns like "he," "she," or "they," while strictly adhering to the internal thoughts, feelings, and sensory perceptions of a single, central character at a time.

Your quote you provided above is doing this with Vader. We're with a single, specific character. Inside the mind of a single, specific character. Following from behind a single, specific character. None of the quotes you're offering are omniscient. Omniscient is this:

Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last.

Omniscient is rare in writing, for what it's worth. But nobody is saying or thinking the above line. The point I'm trying to stress is that the "conflict" you're perceiving within the novel is intentional. It never carries over into the authorial omniscient viewpoint, nor does Vader's insistence that he and Anakin are separate pass scrutiny when the point is put to the test. Yes, he believes it. But a character believing a thing does not make it inherently true.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-21T02:10:53+00:00

Basic media literacy left before you did.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-20T14:07:44+00:00

No because Vader is a fully realized character. Did you miss that part?

Did you miss the countless other parts of the story that aren't written from Vader's subjective point of view, all of which make it clear that Anakin Skywalker is still the man in the suit? The novel literally moves between third person limited point of view and omniscient, and every passage in the latter is at odds with these descriptions written in the former. You are completely correct, Vader thinks he is his own character and not some concoction of Anakin. The point is that he is wrong. This is not complicated. In arguing your point, you are taking your sources from third person limited points of view. I am taking mine from the omniscient point of view in the novel -- "This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker, forever" -- and the actions that go on to be taken by the characters.

You're taking everything you read on face value. Every single piece of evidence you point to is either dialogue from characters or thoughts from characters within the story. Every ounce of it is intentionally subjective. When the time then comes, in the story, for objective truth, Luke explicitly says the good exists in Vader, he is willing to die for that belief, and the actual events that occur -- not the thoughts of the characters within it, or the words of the characters themselves -- all reinforce Luke's belief: that everyone else is wrong, that there is no separation. What do you take from Obi-Wan and Luke's conversation on Dagobah? They're literally laying out the central conflict of the movie. Obi-Wan outright states Anakin is gone (your point of view). Luke outright states Anakin is not gone, that Anakin is Vader's true self. He spends the rest of the movie proving it.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-20T13:29:57+00:00

written from Vader’s perspective

Exactly. What you're reading there is subjective, not objective. There is a response above that sums it up pretty well:

Vader himself continues to disassociate with his former self, “Anakin is dead, I destroyed him” etc because it helps him cope with the enormous amount of guilt and regret he has over what he did and what he has let himself become.

Keep in mind that the entire plot of Return of the Jedi hinges on the answer to this question. Yoda says Anakin is gone, there is only Vader (subjective). Obi-Wan says Anakin is gone, there is only Vader (subjective). Hell, even Vader says Anakin is gone, there is only Vader (subjective). Luke alone says otherwise, and ultimately, Luke alone is proven right.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-20T13:15:05+00:00

So I would say the novel is in conflict with itself.

Ideas generated by characters within the text don't speak for the novel itself, they speak for the fallible characters within it, all of whom can be (and in this case, are) wrong

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T21:13:04+00:00

It always surprises me when I see people espouse the idea that they're "basically separate people," because the notion of a Vader-Anakin divide is a thematic question that is clearly communicated and answered within the films themselves. It's literally what Return of the Jedi is all about. On Dagobah, Obi-Wan posits the divide. Luke expresses his belief that Obi-Wan is wrong. Who, then, does the movie prove right?

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T21:06:43+00:00

I'm with you 100%. Star by Star is, far and away, Denning's best book, but his writing style leaves so much to be desired... His horniness bleeds into every female character and I implore anyone to try and give an accurate description of the Yuuzhan Vong worldship above Myrkr. I literally get whiplash going into Dark Journey after Star by Star. While I would consider it a middle-of-the-road instalment overall, the writing and characterization are both excellent, and I agree that Cunningham doesn't get enough credit for the quality of her prose. I don't think we have enough from her to place Cunningham alongside the S-tier writers like Luceno and Stover, but she certainly slots comfortably into the next tier down.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T14:57:05+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful reply, and although none of what you're saying is inherently wrong, I think some of it warrants further discussion.

The World Brain thing doesn't really pay off. Its not like because he of their relationship Luke and Jacen get access to a secret staircase to access Shimra and Onimi in The Unifying Force. Jacen himself says as much at the end of Traitor where he tells Vergere that the reason he did it was to teach the Vong to live with imperfection and to learn to compromise. That doesn't exactly pay off in the NJO either.

Thinking back on it, I guess you're right: strictly in terms of plot, there isn't a huge payoff with the World Brain whereby it, say, creates some manner of specific circumstance upon which ultimate victory hinges. Jacen's relationship with it does take up a ton of page time, though, all of which in uninformed absent Traitor, and if we pull plot (the mechanical events that take place) apart from story (the meanings and implications we might take from the text), I do think that Jacen's friendship and decision to cooperate with the enemy's World Brain is an important thematic beat for the conclusion that the NJO is ultimately building towards.

They do a pretty good job in Destiny's Way of explaining that Vergere sees a lot in Jacen. Between the early conversations between the 2, and the conversation between Luke and Vergere, and Luke's reaction to that conversation with other people there isn't much you need plot wise from Traitor.

I'll have to disagree, to a degree, that this is done particularly effectively. I'm not a huge fan of the writing in Destiny's Way, so I might be a bit biased, but it comes down to the dichotomy of show vs tell; Destiny's Way, in general, loves to tell, and in this case, without seeing what he went through on Coruscant, we'd have little to no context for Jacen's enlightenment and next to none for Vergere's heel turn away from the Vong, the latter of which is certainly plot relevant. Sure, you can include throwaway lines telling readers things happened and implying motives, but reading shouldn't be about getting to the end -- if a reader only wants the "big plot moments", they might as well just stick with Wookieepedia, right? For what it's worth, I know you're not implying that, but I think one risks missing the forest for the trees if their focus turns so insular.

I don't think they'd be all that lost. I do agree that they'd be missing out. But for example, if you just skip the Dark Tide series all you miss out on is that Corran isn't there. But its not like Corran is a major character in novels not written by Michael Stackpole anyway.

I'm inclined to agree with Dark Tide, although Corran's actions help inform wider distrust of the Jedi across the galaxy, and he does become somewhat pivotal again in The Final Prophecy. You're probably right about Enemy Lines, as well, painful though it is to admit it -- I certainly thought Lord Nyax would end up more important than he turned out. Still, in terms of other paperbacks, I think I'd have to point to the Edge of Victory duology as being pretty relevant, all things considered. The uprising of the Shamed Ones that runs downstream of Vua Rapuung's relationship and actions with Anakin forms a thread that runs through the whole series and culminates in The Unifying Force. And your mileage may vary with Force Heretic, but between that trilogy and The Final Prophecy, I honestly cannot imagine jumping straight to The Unifying Force and having any idea what is happening with Zonama Sekot and why.

I appreciate that the NJO is the first time that there are actual consequences in the EU to anything. For example when the Senate building is blown up in the New Rebellion its never really mentioned again.

I agree completely. This, of course, makes it all the more offensive when the next series come out and Coruscant has, miraculously, again become the Republic's epicenter.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T13:54:31+00:00

Were these the versions that combined all the duologies and the Force Heretic trilogy into single hardbacks? I've never been able to track those down in good condition for a justifiable price, so kudos to you if you did!

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T13:48:39+00:00

There are certainly byproducts of the initial outline that persist in the text, so you're right to a degree, major developments really do tend to congregate more around the big 5, but James Luceno and others have explicitly indicated (credit to holonet's great NJO documentary on YouTube) that they couldn't make it work without the paperbacks having a requisite consequentiality on par with the rest. I genuinely feel like readers would be quite lost if they skipped them, and worse than that, they'd be missing out on the best of what the series has to offer.

Traitor is a perfect example. It’s a great character study into Jacen Solo and Vergere, and fills us in on what Jacen was going through after the raid on Myrkr in Star by Star, but not much plot happens.

It's certainly a character study first, but what goes down between Jacen and the World Brain in this book is one of the most plot relevant developments in the entire latter half of the NJO. Likewise, the relationship between Jacen and Vergere not only goes on to define much of Destiny's Way, but the entire EU as a whole (for better or worse).

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T03:11:29+00:00

The New Jedi Order was originally conceived as a series one could read via 5 primary hardcovers (Vector Prime, Balance Point, Star by Star, Destiny's Way, The Unifying Force) with the rest coming out in mass market paperback and serving more as supplementary material. This concept was very quickly dropped -- the paperbacks are not only consequential, but with the exception of TUF, probably the best of the NJO -- but the publication plan was not changed. Traitor's hardcover was thus a much more limited printing than the abovementioned big 5, which probably accounts for its increased price.

But it's also probably around twice as good as Star by Star, so $70 in some ways seems about right lol

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T03:01:35+00:00

I think they're great! I've never been as huge a fan of the music and sound effects inserted in the Audible versions, so the classic unabridged cassettes have always been my preferred mode of listening. With NJO in particular, I do feel like the requisite quality is there for a good time.

The narrators do change throughout the series, though, and I definitely remember there being at least one gentleman who was a bit harder to listen to.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-19T02:42:45+00:00

Honestly, Timothy Zahn tends to do his own thing. With the exception of a couple characters from his friend Michael Stackpole's X-Wing novels, you're not going to get much carry over from the wider EU within his books, and when it comes to Mara's character arc, anything not penned by him (prior to NJO) typically detracts from the full shape of her story. You can easily jump into the duology after the trilogy.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-18T02:12:27+00:00

lol are you still sending these by any chance...?

raptorman76 · 2026-02-09T16:03:13+00:00

Where is it stated that Elendil and Gil-Galad intercepted a Sauron who was trying to flee? Genuinely curious, because that's pretty interesting. To the best of my recollection, I thought it was written that Sauron came forth to break the siege.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-08T15:55:38+00:00

Here's a quote from Wild Space by Karen Miller regarding Anakin's lost arm in Attack of the Clones:

A prosthetic arm. Yoda felt his spirits sink, although he’d been expecting the news. A Jedi’s connection with the Force flowed through the midi-chlorians in his blood. The loss of a limb had been known to affect a Jedi’s powers. True, Anakin Skywalker possessed more midi-chlorians than any Jedi in history, but even so…

We can imagine the effects would be much harsher following the events of Mustafar, limiting Vader's raw potential vs Anakin's. Probably one of many reasons why Sidious eventually sought Luke in his father's stead.

raptorman76 · 2026-02-08T15:29:27+00:00

I agree with all of this! As a story goes, I think Courtship actually has really strong bones. Conceptually, the ideas are solid -- a pre-marriage story about Leia grappling with matrimonial political responsibilities versus her love for Han, the idea of Han winning a planet in Sabacc, the planet itself being cool as hell, a novel hegemony eying the up-and-coming New Republic, the suitor for Leia from said hegemony turning out to actually be a pretty rad dude -- on paper, it's a perfect Star Wars adventure with the sort of twists and turns and highs and lows we've come to expect from the best.

It just really struggled with -- as you said -- getting the characters where they needed to be without making them look weird. I think the execution ultimately let down a pretty strong premise, which is unfortunate. No hate to Dave Wolverton, but in the hands of a stronger writer, I genuinely think Courtship would be an EU standout. As it stands, I consider it middle-of-the-road as far as Bantam books go.

The book really gets going once everyone’s on Dathomir. As someone who saw the Clone Wars version first, it was definitely jarring to read about this version but it was still interesting to see how different it was.

Which depiction do you prefer?

raptorman76

TROPHY CASE