Tor Vizsla and “hire your own enemy”type of trap

One of the most ironic details coming from sources focused at conflict between Jaster Mereel (True Mandalorians) and Tor Vizsla (Death Watch) that I will forever find hilarious is that the ideological split happened between Mandalorians Mercenaries...

⤷ source: Jango Fett: Open Seasons #1, 2002

⤷ source: The History of the Mandalorians, Star Wars Insider #80, 2005

⤷ source: The Complete Star Wars Encycopedia, 2008

and then the original source Jango Fett: Open Seasons never showed Tor Vizsla doing any mercenary job.

And sure, this does not cross out the possibility he was a merc in the past who simply changed his ways according to what he thought the Mandalorians should be (warriors / conquerors) or that he didn’t do side jobs between planning how to destroy Jaster & Jango’s group but it is hilarious to know Tor Vizsla - indirectly, but still - hired True Mandalorians to lead them into trap. TWICE!

And so we have KORDA VI and Jaster Mereel’s talk about the mission:

Listen up! Since this is Jango’s first mission as a squad commander, we’re keeping it simple. The job’s a routine extraction mission. Our employer: The Korda Defense Force. Our target: a rookie security squad pinned down by hostile locals on Korda Six. Korda recon suggests only minimal resistance. The natives are poorly armed and have no standing army. The security squad is holed up near our landing zone. Coordinates have been uploaded to your helmet targeting system. This should be easy credits. (Jango Fett: Open Seasons #2, 2002)

Only for True Mandalorians to learn in hard way it was a trap set by Death Watch:

With additional information from Fact Files #124 (2002):

GALIDRAAN seems like the closest thing to mercenary job Vizsla did  - or at least Jango thought it was the case, as he assumed governor of the planet harbored the Death Watch, accusing him of funding their rebuilding (what implies that Tor was working for said man to gain the money)

⤷ source: Jango Fett: Open Seasons #3, 2002

however once Tor revealed himself, the comics made it clear the governor of Galidraan was doing Vizsla’s bidding, not the other way. Tasks like begging Jedi to interfere and save his people from True Mandalorians (whom he hired in the first place)

and this interaction raises a question about the previous scene - did the man was so afraid of Jango Fett or Tor Vizsla whom he supposedly kept under his protection?

Because for me that does not feel a bit Tor was the merc at governor‘s service - and even if this is how their working relationship started, it is hard to see it that way at this certain moment. Tor is the one giving orders and the man in question is complying even if he already regrets being part of Death Watch’s plan to eliminate Jango and his group.

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (2008) even further dispels this doubt by stating the governor had been paid by Vizsla to lay a trap for Jango’s Mandalorians:

And you know what is the most hilarious and ironic thing about that? It is not even that Tor Vizsla was tied by sources to Mandalorian Mercs while working solely for his/Death Watch own interest instead just for money as far as original material presented back in 2002 and being the mastermind that TWICE managed to hire True Mandalorians, using their mercenary mindset against them. No, the best part is that Boba Fett did the same. The son of Jango Fett, the supposedly Legacy of Jaster Mereel? He went with Tor’s tactic - set the trap and hire the mercenary you want to kill off, as happened with Jodo Kast in Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction (1997).

The man in question was pretending to be Boba Fett to collect better payment but he wasn’t as good as the older Fett. Once Dengar noted Boba about Jodo’s activity, the Bounty Hunter hired the pretender through the Benelex Guide, gave a localization when the target was supposedly be

and

only for Jodo to walk into a trap and die by Boba Fett’s hand.

There is too little information to tell about Jaster Mereel’s methods, but Jango Fett as far as I know has never pulled a stunt like that. He spent years tracking Death Watch which led him sadly to Galidraan. When he ran away from slavery and settled the score with the Government that called for Jedi assistance, Fett went straight after Tor Vizsla. When he fought Montross, the Mandalorian comrade that betrayed Jaster Mereel on Korda VI, they were both on the same hunt and it was clear sooner than later they would face each other. Meanwhile Boba Fett decided to settle the score with the rival by using Vizsla’s logic: set a trap and lure the mercenary into the environment you control. And either Boba simply came to the same conclusion as Tor did decades ago or Jango - intentionally or not - passed this knowledge to his son. And so I’m laughing at the idea that Boba Fett, the successor of Mandalore Jango Fett and Legacy of Jaster Mereel, carries also Vizsla’s trademark cunning logic and even sort of passed this wisdom to his own granddaughter, Mirta Gev in Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice (2007):

"What's the best way to find another bounty hunter?"

    "Think like him?"

    Fett shook his head and set the speeder down with a thud [...]

    "No," Fett said. "You hire him."

So I guess, Tor Vizsla really got the last laugh at the end of the day if the latest Fett generations are following his logic.

@no-file liked for a starter

          The tracking fob in her hand tells her that her quarry is in the vicinity, but there’s no living thing around, and she has no idea why anyone would put a bounty out on a droid. Turning the fob off and shoving it in her pocket, Brighid’s eyes scan her surroundings. There’s a few protocol droids that don’t seem suspicious simply doing their daily duties. Finally, eyes land on a strange figure that seems all too human to be a droid but there’s a mechanical aspect about it that unsettles her. 

With cautious steps she approaches, making it seem like she’s just strolling in town and looking for a place to stay. “Geez, where can a girl get a drink around here,” the bounty hunter jokes hoping to put the ...being at ease.

vi. ‘ blaster for hire. ’ ┈ « star wars. / prequels. » vi. ‘ mercenary. ’ ┈ « star wars. / original. » vi. ‘ higher purpose. ’ ┈ « star wars. / sequels. » vi. ‘ private eye. ’ ┈ « modern. » vi. ‘ thrill of the chase. ’ ┈ « main. / alternate. » vi. ‘ adapt & overcome. ’ ┈ « walking dead. » vi. ‘ we are alive. ’ ┈ « detroit: become human. » vi. ‘ hunter life. ’ ┈ « supernatural. »

Final Fantasy VII Review

 Year: 1997

Original Platform: PlayStation One

Also available on: PC, PlayStation Store

Version I Played: PlayStation One

Synopsis:

The Shinra Electric Power Company rules over the city of Midgar, and the eco-terrorists AVALANCHE stop at nothing to try and prevent the life essence of the planet from being used as energy. Barrett, leader of AVALANCHE, hires a mercenary named Cloud Strife for their bombing mission on a Shinra Mako Reactor. Cloud doesn’t care much for the greater cause and only wants his pay. But then, after a mission goes awry, he meets Aerith, a flower girl who is the descendant of the Ancients. He quickly finds himself wrapped up in the greater conflict against Shinra.

 Gameplay:

Final Fanatasy VII utilizes magic spells via Materia – little orbs that come in a variety of colors pertaining to the natural elements. You can mix and match them on your weapons and equipment, which gives you access to different spells and stats. All your equipment varies with the number of slots for how many Materia orbs you can put in. Leveling up not only upgrades the character but the equipped Materia as well.

 Final Fantasy VII also uses an ATB system but is known for introducing Limit Breaks – finishing moves that build up after the character gets hit over time. Final Fantasy VI had a prototype called Desperation Attack – but it was very rare as it only appeared when your character had 1/8 of their total HP, and there was a 1 in 6 chance of performing the Desperation Attack after selecting Attack. I actually had no idea that was a thing until long after I finished the game, and never experienced it when I played Final Fantasy VI.

Graphics:

Out of all the Final Fantasy games, I have to say that this one has not aged well. It has the worst graphics of the entire series. The battle and cinematic graphics are passable.

(Most of the graphics power seemed to be put in Tifa’s, uh, bosom.)

But the characters in towns, the overworld, and in-game cutscenes are incredibly blocky. PC versions are supposedly sharper, but the PlayStation One version makes it nigh impossible to see any facial expressions. 

The graphics are definitely a product of its time. I always say that the beginning of 3D gaming was essentially like puberty – awkward and full of zits. It wasn’t yet at that stage where it could be aesthetically pleasing. We marveled about it when it was first released, yes, but then we cringed in retrospect.

The environment backdrops however are probably the strongest points, where they capture the industrial nature of Midgar, the reactors and other such buildings.

Story:

Final Fantasy VII became legendary the minute Square released it. Every aspect was memorable. Part of it could be due to the fact that it was the first Final Fantasy game to enter the 3D realm. Another part was Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs, which hit the cool meter to the point of sub-zero.

 The cinematics blew our minds. The opening action scene with Cloud, Barrett, and the rest of AVALANCHE attacking Shinra’s mako reactor is the most memorable opening to a Final Fantasy game. Period. Final Fantasy games really do know how to start at the right spot, no matter how good or bad the overall game is. The opening is always the best part.

Then there was the motorcycle chase. Cid’s airship. The gun fights. Battles with Sephiroth. The extra stuff to find, like summons and extra bosses. So much was jam-packed into the game.

 But the story was the primary factor in making VII famous. It’s definitely one of the better ones. Man, the story became so famous that even gamers who haven’t touched a Final Fantasy game knew the major spoilers. It is the equivalent to knowing Darth Vader’s line, “I am your father” without having actually watched Star Wars.

Aerith (Aeris in the English releases) Gainsborough – the innocent flower girl who holds the secrets of the Ancients – develops a romance with Cloud and fucking dies at the end of Disc 1 by the main villain – Sephiroth. The scene shocked everyone and practically made headlines. Everybody has seen the horrible image in one way or another.

It seems to me that since Final Fantasy V, the stories have gotten more and more used to main character deaths, ultimately transforming into a heavy-hitting TV series rather than simply a video game series. In other words – it matured. Looking back, Final Fantasy IV appears to be child’s play and a prototype of later dramatic storylines with fully realized worlds.

 Final Fantasy VII was also the first Final Fantasy game to create a world much like ours – one with cars and trains and airplanes and machine guns and even cellphones. The main city of Midgar reflects industrialization at its worst, with miles of slums and claustrophobic cities. Shinra Electric Power Company is a reflection of capitalism at its worst - a single entity in charge of so much that it’s pretty much the government. For the first time in a Final Fantasy game, you play as characters who dance between the morally ambiguous line of terrorism and activism. Funny enough, the theme of neglecting the planet resonates with us now more than ever. This game ended up being rather prophetic about the uncontrollable growth of corporations.

While the story is memorable with many intriguing elements, the plot itself is a tangled web. In my opinion, they really hashed in so many things that it’s easy to forget crucial details. It’s not straightforward, but at the same time everything does connect by the end. While Shinra is the driving force as a whole as the villain, Sephiroth takes over, then you learn about his backstory and then with the evil scientist Hojo and the extra-terrestrial Jenova and then “Weapon” and then the planet’s history and this and that and the other thing.

If I were to put Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII together and contrast them, as many gamers do, I would find that Final Fantasy VII is the summer blockbuster and Final Fantasy VI is the Oscar winner. Final Fantasy VII started introducing the sappy romance subplot to the series. A love triangle forms among Aerith, Cloud, and Cloud’s childhood friend Tifa. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a love triangle, the writing is like watching middle schoolers trying to express their feelings. Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IV treated any romance with dignity and realism.

But maybe I’m being a bit harsh. After all, Cloud Strife did go through some suffering as an adolescent. His backstory clearly drives his antisocial behavior, so that becomes a good arc. 

The goofiest but memorable part of the story deals with Don Corneo and Wall Market and running around store to store doing tasks in order to free Tifa from Don Corneo. It ends with Cloud needing to cross-dress as a woman to get inside Don’s mansion. Because, you know, it’s not like Cloud can just break in with his sword and Aerith’s magic or anything like that. But whatever. It’s anime.

The recent Final Fantasy VII Remake for the PS4 seems to streamline the story, and actually enhances the emotions they were trying to deliver in the original. I will be talking about the remake in a separate post altogether since I’m almost done with it at the time of this writing. But there’s a lot that I want to say about comparing and contrasting the remake and the original.

The latter half of the plot takes a couple weird turns. At one point, Cloud became catatonic and confined to a wheelchair.

That part of the game became the sluggish part for me. Sephiroth also tries to confuse Cloud, which confused me. Cloud apparently suffers from some alternate subconscious mumbo-jumbo and like. . .ungh. I get an aneurysm thinking about it sometimes.

Complicated plotlines like Final Fantasy VII start showing up from here on out in the Final Fantasy series. The trend of bishonen characters also begin here, bishonen being the Japanese term for “beautiful boy.” Cloud and Sephiroth have that look. The series starts hashing in sappier romances and much more of an anime feel.

Final Fantasy VII ultimately marked the start of a new era for the series – introducing both cool and overused tropes.

Music:

Hands down the best Final Fantasy soundtrack of all.

The entire soundtrack of this game is memorable. The opening tune, with its light twinkle when the stars show up, is enough to make any gamer know exactly what that’s from.

With a story set in a more modern world, we have music that is more modern. After Final Fantasy VI had a more serious and operatic score, Uematsu displayed his love of progressive rock here. The motorcycle chase incorporates a lot of synth, which was fitting for zipping through the streets of Midgar. However, Final Fantasy VII is the first Final Fantasy game without that familiar starting bassline for the battle them. The battle theme is instantly recognizable but also radically different from its predecessors. It’s dramatic and displays danger.

Meanwhile, the boss theme is one of the best boss themes in the series, or any video game really. It’s an electrifying progressive rock piece, and it’s my personal favorite boss theme.

 The more instrumental pieces are somber, given the dreary atmosphere of the planet. The world map music is very different from its predecessors. It’s romantic one moment, soaring the next, and then dips into foreboding terror. I guess that sums up the story of Final Fantasy VII.

And we cannot leave out One-Winged Angel, which I will talk about below.

Notable Theme:

Without a doubt, One-Winged Angel – played during the terrifying final battle against Sephiroth – is the most memorable piece of music in Final Fantasy VII.

It may very well be the most popular song of the entire series. Nobuo Uematsu was inspired by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It’s a whopping 30 something minute classical piece. If you look it up on YouTube and browse through it, you can definitely note the similarities. However, Uematsu didn’t want some boring classical introduction to the piece. He wanted to add the destructive impact of rock. The theme has a very distinct stamping-your-foot-down quality to it.

I had noticed a certain piece-by-piece feel of the song and that’s exactly how Uematsu composed it. This is the only song that Uematsu has composed where he created several tunes in his head and then rearranged them to make a single comprehensive song.

If you want to get technical, One-Winged Angel is the first Final Fantasy song with lyrics. The chorus sings in Latin about Sephiroth’s burning anger, with some lyrics actually taken from the medieval poem Carmina Burana. It sounds fantastic when fully orchestrated.

In Advent Children, the animated sequel to Final Fantasy VII, the music is accompanied by hardcore metal. This new rendition really illustrates the destructive power of Sephiroth. Uematsu changed the lyrics for Advent Children. They are more original now. I specifically noticed the lyrics “Veni, veni, mi fili”, which translates to “Come, come, my son.” Sephiroth is inviting you so he can kill you.

 Uematsu has stated that the original orchestration didn’t sit well with him. As I suspected, Advent Children’s hardcore metal version is the one he preferred, the one he would have composed had he the technology at the time of Final Fantasy VII.

Verdict:

Another must-play for any RPG fan, even if you think it’s overrated. It’s a must-play because of its popularity, in the same way that people are wide-eyed when you say you haven’t seen Star Wars or such-and-such other popular movie. It’s a whole lot of fun, especially in the scenes that involve other forms of gameplay, such as the motorcycle chase and even a battlefield strategy game in protecting Fort Condor. 

Direct Sequel?

Yes – first there was the CGI movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

I actually watched Advent Children before playing Final Fantasy VII. I had already known most of what happened in the game and Advent Children became a monumental craze when it first came out. Everybody was talking about it. Watching the sequel before playing the game skewers your interpretation of things. My first impression of Cloud was that he was always whiny and angsty, and meanwhile Tifa kept nagging him to move on. I felt really bad for Cloud losing Aerith.

Then when I actually played Final Fantasy VII, I saw that Cloud starts as this badass mercenary. Tifa is spunky and clearly is the better choice (IMO) but Cloud is enamored by Aerith after only meeting her briefly. WHAT? Cloud. Bro. Make a move on Tifa, you nitwit. Tifa is AMAZING.

 Square Enix then continued the story with Dirge of Cerberus – Final Fantasy VII. This video game sequel focuses on Vincent Valentine, a fan favorite of the original game.

Let me remind you about something – the original game revealed Shinra’s inner deep secret experiments, namely with Sephiroth and Jenova. Dirge of Cerberus introduces an even deeper research team within Shinra called Deepground. I don’t know about you, but it already sounds like the start of a terribly redundant string of sequels, like how the Jason Bourne movies keep revealing an even deeper level of conspiracy theories. Vincent’s mysterious background is now fully revealed. He is defined by – guess what? – another angsty lost lover story, this time with a woman named Lucrecia. Now, okay, look, maybe I’m just being a dick about these types of love stories. But when it keeps popping up within the same series in the same manner, I start asking if you have anything else to offer on your menu.

Lastly, there is the prequel for the PSP – Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Of all the games in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core has received the most positive reception. If anything, play that after playing Final Fantasy VII before bothering with anything else.

 Oh, and of course there is the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which we thought wasn’t going to happen for the longest time but they finally released it in April 2020. More on that later after I finish it, and after I post my entire series of Final Fantasy reviews!

Fallout: Mass Effect AU/Crossover [2/?]

FO3 Companions reimagined as Mass Effect Squadmates + Bonus LW

Butch DeLoria - Vaal’Daris nar Vayyam | Dossier: Quarian Pilgrim. A young quarian delinquent who wants to start his Pilgrimage so he may escape his life on the Vayyam. He dreams of having his own ship and forming his own crew. Recruitment location: The Migrant Fleet.

Charon - Kharon | Dossier: Hired Muscle. A drell assassin trained under the Compact, who mysteriously ended up as a bodyguard for a batarian bartender and drug smuggler in Afterlife, where he acts as the bouncer too. Rumors are he’s discontent with this arrangement. Recruitment location: Omega.

Clover - Calinth | Dossier: The Servant. An asari prostitute who was captured by batarian slavers in her youth, brainwashed to follow whoever owns her. A competent biotic, she is currently serving a slave broker in Eternity. Recruit location: Illium

Star Paladin Cross - High Commander Crucis | Dossier: Veteran Turian. A turian high commander who chose to continue serving after the mandatory 15-year conscriptions turians go through. The years are getting to her, and she’s looking for one last mission before she retires. Recruit location: The Citadel.

Fawkes - Forryth Drox | Dossier: The Mutant. A Krogan warrior shunned by his kind because of his noble, pacifist ideals, an anomaly among Krogan males. He was betrayed by one of his own clanmates and ended up in Purgatory, locked up in maximum security. Recruit location: Purgatory.

Jericho - Ghorak | Dossier: Ex-Con. An old batarian working as security for the Blue Suns in the Gozu District. He is rumored to be an ex-convict from Purgatory who managed to rise to power in the mercenary group, but his fellow mercenaries think he’s too old for any real action now. Recruit location: Omega.

Dogmeat - Dax | Tuchanka: Forlorn Varren. A varren who just lost his krogan master in a clan war. Ferociously loyal, and can be tamed by a little love and pyjak meat. Recruitment location: Tuchanka

Sergeant RL-3 - RL3. | Migrant Fleet: VI for Sale. A VI, particularly a combat drone, can be acquired from a quarian in exchange for supplies. Recruitment location: Random

Bonus: My Lone Wanderer as a squadmate: Persephone “Percy” Zhou - Fera’Zael nar Vayyam | Dossier: Wandering Scientist. She is a young quarian scientist whose father was accused of treason and exiled by the Vayyam’s captain while she is on Pilgrimage. She wants to know what happened to him, but she’s stuck in Omega after incurring a debt in Afterlife. Recruitment location: Omega.

Author’s Notes: See below.

Oh boy this was fun to write and research!

Naming Butch was a little difficult, but him being a young Vault Dweller who wanted to explore the outside (who, according to Doc Mitchell, have weaker immune systems due to the sterile environment of the vaults) drew an almost perfect parallel to a young quarian who’s excited to leave the Flotilla for his Pilgrimage, so I endured the research. I can totally see quarian!Butch freaking the hell out the first time he experiences a suit rupture, complaining that places outside the Flotilla smells so bad that he has to replace his filters often. and accidentally consuming levo food.

Charon’s contract could easily be analogous to the Compact, and his name was easy to adapt into Drell (Feron, Kolyat, Rakhana). Plus, Thane’s last name Krios is from Greek mythology, and so is Kharon, the alternate spelling for Charon’s name, so it’s basically a no-brainer at this point. It also helps that there’s a bar in Omega called Afterlife, which can act as a parallel to Fallout’s Underworld/Ninth Circle. Additionally, Charon wears dark leather armor anyway. He’ll probably look good in drell clothing.

Fawkes reminded me of Wrex in his own way, being an exile among their kind (though Wrex evolves past that and leads clan Urdnot). Add Fawkes’ nigh-indestructible nature and bloodlust, plus the Super Mutant’s sterility that could parallel the krogans’ sterility from the genophage, and being a badass krogan would be a good fit with him.

I don’t have much to say on the other humanoid companions because I’m not as invested in them emotionally as those three, but I did my best to make sure their counterparts stayed true to the essence of their characters! (I lost all creativity on RL-3 though. Sigh.) The easiest ones to do are probably Charon’s and Butch’s counterparts.

I think I’ll draw them after I finish my current comic project or in-between inking pages. Who knows? Maybe these counterparts might evolve into characters of their own one day! I hope you guys enjoyed this!

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (78/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[20 April, 234 Before Age.  Fanzer VI.]

Luffa crossed her arms as she paced around the office, her furry tail waving lazily behind her with each step.

“The truth is,” she said, “I don’t really do mercenary work anymore.   I stopped seeing jobs that appealed to me, and after a while I stopped looking  at the listings.  But money’s been a little tight lately, so I decided to jump back into the game.”

“Well, we’re glad you finally responded to our calls,” said the man behind the desk.   His lavende-skinned face was mottled with acne and wisps of curly hair on his chin and neck that might generously be described as a beard.   “The slorg infestation on our sister planet of Fanzer VII has gotten so bad that we’ve been forced to evacuate the whole planet.”

“Evacuated?” asked Zatte, who was admiring a small aquarium tank in the far corner of the room.   “We detected Fanzeri life signs there on our way into the system.  Are you sure you got everyone to safety?”

He gestured nervously at the question.  “Ah... well, we do have a small crew of... well, you might call them observers down on the planet.   They’ve been filming the slog population for some time now.   It’s part of a nature documentary, you see.”

“If they get in my way, I’m not responsible for what happens,” Luffa said.   “Now if you want, I can cover them while they leave the planet, but that’ll cost more.”

“Nature documentary?” Zatte asked.   “Who’d want to watch a bunch of slorgs?”

Luffa smiled.  “They’re kind of cute, really.   I mean, they’re not for everyone.   The six-inch teeth and venomous drool can be a turn-off.”

“What about all the tentacles?” Zatte added.

Luffa rubbed her hands together excitedly and licked her lips.  “We’re gonna have leftovers for weeks after this.”

“Um.   Well, the camera crews are very well protected,” the man said.  “And they know to stay put while you’re in the field.”

“Hmmph.    Have it your way,” Luffa said.  

“Now, uh...” the man wrung his hands together as he struggled to find the right way to approach the topic.   “You do plan to fight the slorgs in your transformed state, yes?”

Luffa looked at him skeptically.   “Depends on the situation,” she said.  “What’s it matter?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he said quickly.   “It’s just that we’ll be getting a lot of footage of you slaughtering them, and we’d like to know what we’ll be in for.”

“Are you making a movie here?” Zatte asked, suddenly taking a greater interest in the conversation.

“A movie?!”  He was starting to sweat.   “Why, whatever gave you that idea, Ms...  I’m sorry what was you name again?”

“Zatte,” she said.  

“Nice to meet you.  And will you be joining Luffa on Fanzer VII?”

“No, she won’t,” Luffa said.  “I need her in orbit giving me a headcount on the slorgs with the ship’s sensors.    Do you want me to transform for this mission?”

“Well, um... it’s entirely at your discretion of course,” he said sheepishly, “but I think it would satisfy everyone if you alternated a few times.”

“They are filming a movie,” Zatte said.   “They want you to switch back and forth because it looks cool.”

To emphasize this point, Zatte widened her stance, raised her fists to either side of her torso, and cried out: “HIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAHHHH.”  

Luffa looked back at her with a disgusted expression.  “Never do that again,” she said in a low voice.  

“Fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh--” Zatte added.

Luffa ignored her and planted her palms on the edge of the desk.   “Are you telling me,” she said as she leaned in closer to the man, “that you people deliberately bred slorgs on your planet just so you could film me killing them all?”

“Well, that’s not quite true...” he said, tugging on the collar of his shirt.   “The fact is that we did it to film several other mercenaries in action, but the underwriters refused to insure the project unless we gave them additional help.  And you are a major celebrity in your own right, so it seemed like the perfect solution.”

“What other mercenaries?” Luffa demanded.   “If this a team effort, then I need to coordinate with-- What the hell is this?”

He had taken a flier out of his desk drawer and handed it to her.   The image printed on the front was a slick promotional composition, featuring four women in low-cut tank tops.  Each of them was bearing a large firearm and and aggressive expression.  Behind them was a slorg, who was pointing its tentacles in a suggestive fashion.    Luffa held it up for Zatte to see.

“You’d fit right in,” Zatte said with a smirk.

“You do want the slorgs killed, don’t you?” Luffa asked.   “Or would I just be there to keep these four alive while you film them?”

“Oh yes,” the man said, “we absolutely need the slorgs removed.   We’re expecting a shipment of tharrgs next year, and we can’t risk any of them interbreeding.   A litter of thlargs would be a serious setback to our production schedule.”

Luffa rubbed the bridge of her nose as she took all of this in.  “You’re lucky I like the taste of slorg hash so much, or I  would have stormed out of here already,” she said.  “As it stands, we need to renegotiate my fee.”

“Is that all?  Well, I’m authorized to triple your payment.   Honestly, we were surprised you were charging such a low rate in the first place.”

“Done,” Luffa said.  “Now let’s get on with this before I change my mind.   I need to talk to these ladies and patch their comm equipment in with my ship.”

“Oh, there was one other thing, before you go,” he said as Luffa turned to leave.    He reached into his drawer one more time and withdrew a manila envelope.  

Luffa took the envelope from him and looked at it.   “I don’t accept payment in paper bills,” she said.  “You need too transfer the money into my account.”

“Oh, that’s not money,” he said.  

“Then what is it?” Luffa demanded.

“It’s the costume we wanted you to wear while you fight the slorgs.”

Luffa looked at the envelope as if it were a live cobra.  She shook it slightly, and heard something jingle inside.  Then she heard Zatte giggling behind her.  

“If it doesn't fit, I’m sure we can have wardrobe make some adjustments,” he said.  

Luffa glared at him, and then slowly reached for his throat...

********

“I can’t believe you gave them all wedgies,” Zatte said.  

Luffa made a satisfied grunt as she settled into the captain’s chair of her star-yacht.  “I took care of their slorg infestation, didn’t I?   All it cost those slobs were a few hundred cameras and some wardrobe adjustments.”

“What do you want me to do with this?” Zatte asked, holding the manila envelope with Luffa’s proposed costume inside.    

Luffa shrugged.  “Put it in storage.   If you behave, maybe I’ll wear it for our anniversary.”

“I can hardly wait,” Zatte said.   “But we still need some income.   You’ve used up most of the money you saved up from before you started the Federation, and the Fed doesn’t pay you a dime.”  

“I know,” Luffa said.   “I never thought I’d need to worry about it.   Keda always handled my finances so well that it never came up.    I’d just head out  into space and people would line up to hire me out.   The galaxy’s gotten a lot more peaceful lately.”

“You can blame yourself for that, xan’nil-Dor,” Zatte said.   “No one wants to start trouble anymore now that they know you’ll come along to settle it.   You’re forcing people to accept that they can’t use war to solve their problems anymore.”

Luffa slumped in her seat.  “Yeah, but what happens after I die?   Does the whole thing start up again?”

“Maybe,” Zatte said.   “But if you keep this up long enough, maybe it’ll make the galaxy a more stable place.”

“That’s kind of a depressing thought,” Luffa said.  “Not that I wanted to spend my life beating up small fry, but it’s better than nothing.”

“We could always go back to Luffasworld,” Zatte suggested.   “You and I can live off the land for a while.”

“I’d get bored within a week,” Luffa said.  

“We could get jobs,” Zatte suggested.  “Construction, demolition, public appearances, restaurateur, there’s all sorts of things you could do to make some extra money.”

“I don’t know,” Luffa said.  

“What about the message we got from Drang Dedruhn, then?”  Zatte asked.  

Luffa drummed her fingers on the armrest of her chair.   “She seemed a little... off somehow, didn’t she?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Zatte said.   “I’ve never met her.”

“Right, right,” Luffa said.  “Maybe it’s nothing, but she just didn’t seem like her old self.   That jewelry on her neck, for instance.   I’ve never seen her wear anything like that before, but I’ve been away from the Federation for a while.   Maybe she’s just trying something new.”

“Forget Drang’s fashion statements,” Zatte said.  “I’m talking about what she said.   About the Saiyan King asking you to return to your homeworld.”

“First of all,” Luffa said with a frown.   “That planet isn’t my homeworld.   I was born in my parents’ spaceship, at least twenty thousand light years away.”

“You know what I mean,” Zatte said.   “Your parents were born there, right?”

“Second of all,” Luffa went on, “it’s not the real Planet  Saiya, where the Saiyan people first originated.   That planet was lost to time, and probably destroyed in some great war.”

“Why do you think that?” Zatte asked.  

“Because that’s what happened to all our other planets,” Luffa said with a shrug.  “Every so often, a bunch of Saiyans try to establish a base of operations on a suitable planet, and the really successful ones end up attracting more Saiyans to their banner.  Eventually, it ends up becoming a ‘homeworld’, for lack of anything better to call it.  And sooner or later, they end up starting a war they can’t win, and the planet ends up becoming a casualty.   The Saiyans who survive the aftermath move on, and eventually the whole cycle starts over again.”

“Who would attack a planet full of Saiyans?” Zatte wondered.  

“Use you imagination, Zattie,” Luffa said.   “The Shockmaster could have done it, if he had a reason.   There’s no telling what kind of powerful aliens were running around in the old days.  They’d see a population of Saiyans the same way a Saiyan would look at an army of Dorluns.  Besides, you’ve seen how well Saiyans get along.   There were only eight of us on Nat-Chezz II, and all we did was bicker.   Hell, Lesseri killed her own mother.   Multiply that by a hundred thousand, and ask yourself how long a planet can last with all that infighting going on.”

“Are you saying that Saiyans aren’t meant to settle together in large groups?” Zatte asked.  

“I’m saying that this new Planet Saiya is a sham,” Luffa said.   “Sadala fell, and so did Guardenn, Tabul, Krispa, and  all the others before it.   But His Majesty thinks he has it figured out this time, so he named his planet ‘Saiya’ to convince people that it’s more legitimate, as if the name makes any difference.”

“Do you think that’s why he wants to see you?” Zatte asked.  “Maybe he thinks you can help him unite the Saiyans.”

“Hah!   If that’s what he thinks, then he’s a bigger fool than I imagined.  We’re enemies, remember?  Or did he forget about those ten Saiyans he sent to kill us two years ago?”

“Maybe he wants to make amends,” Zatte said.  

“Then he should send me his severed head on a platter,” Luffa muttered.  “It would be a good start, at least.”

*******

[21 April 234 Before Age.  Interstellar Space.]

“Come on, keep it up.   You’re doing great!”

When Zatte and Luffa sparred, they usually used the cargo bay, since it was the largest empty space on the ship, and the furthest away from any vital systems.  Luffa used only a tiny portion of her full power, while Zatte fought with everything she had, trusting Luffa to stop her before she did any harm to either of them.  

Zatte had a love-hate relationship with these sessions.   It was great exercise, and Luffa was probably one of the finest martial artists in creation, so there was definitely a benefit to it.   Furthermore, it was a guaranteed way to cheer Luffa up from even the foulest of moods.    And Zatte suspected that sparring was key to a healthy Saiyan marriage.  On the other hand, Luffa had a tendency to get carried away.  She would either push Zatte too hard, or drop her guard and let Zatte tag her a time or two.    

Today was no exception.  Luffa failed to block one of Zatte’s punches, and thus took a hard right to the face.  A trickle of blood slowly emerged from the corner of Luffa’s mouth, and she smiled proudly as she resumed blocking.  

“Would you please stop doing that?!” Zatte shouted.    

Luffa simply grinned and made a savage noise from her throat.   Sparring was fine, but Luffa craved genuine combat above all else.   In lieu of the real thing, letting your sparring partner get in a few free shots was a good way to satisfy the craving.  It was pointless to try to reason with her on this, so Zatte tried another tack, and turned her back on Luffa.  

“Wh-what are you doing?” she asked.  

“Quitting,” Zatte said.  She walked to a rack on the wall where they had hung towels.    Zatte took one and wiped her face and neck.  

“But we just started,” Luffa whined.  

“I had a personal goal for today,” Zatte said.   “I was going to tag you at least once, and I did.    So I’m calling it a day.”

“But I let you--!”  Luffa was furious at being caught this way, but then she chuckled.   “Serves me right, doesn’t it?  I’ll have to be more careful.”

Zatte sat down on the deck and opened a bottle of water.  “Was it worth it?” she asked.  

Luffa wiped the side of her mouth and sat down beside her.   “Absolutely,” she said.    “You get a little stronger each time.”

“I wouldn’t think you’d be able to measure the difference,” Zatte said.   “As strong as you are, any improvement I make must be tiny.”

“Oh, I can tell,” Luffa said.   She looked at Zatte with a glowing admiration, which Zatte could only vaguely understand.  

“What’s wrong with King Rehval wanting to establish a strong Saiyan nation?” she asked.  

“What?” Luffa asked.

“We were talking about it yesterday,” Zatte said.   “I know you always used to say your mother was staunchly against the monarchy, but I want to know the political theory behind it.”

“Oh.   Well, it’s a matter of biology,” Luffa said.  

“Biology.”

“Right.   My people are just unruly by nature.   Trying to set up a kingdom for Saiyans is like building an aquarium for dogs.   It just doesn’t work.   The king has to keep his subjects on a tight leash, or they won’t obey him.   But if he tries to exert too much control, they’ll rise up and rebel.”

“So your mother left Saiya because the king was too strict?” Zatte asked.

“She left because he was too soft,” Luffa said.  “Rehval thinks the key to everything is to style his reign after leaders from other cultures.   He wears alien clothes, keeps his hair in an alien style, and he loves rubbing elbows with alien diplomats.  He practices statecraft and palace intrigue to maintain his power.   A worthy Saiyan prince would rule through strength and honor alone.”

“Like you?”

“Me?”

“You’re the only other Saiyan head of state I know.    You do run the Federation, don’t you, Madam Federatrix?”

“That’s different,” Luffa insisted.   “The Federation Council does all the governing.  I just make sure they don’t fight among themselves.”

“Maybe so, but you’ve done your fair share of meet-and-greets.   You went out of your way to recruit other planets to join the Federation.”

“Well, so what if I did?” Luffa said.  “None of those people are Saiyans.”

“But you are,” Zatte said.   “All of it was your idea, which makes me wonder if this ‘unruly’ talk is a lot of hot air.   Maybe you don’t give your own species enough credit.   You’re not a bunch of wild savages.   I think Rehval may have realized that, and he’s taking it into account.”

“You actually agree with him?” Luffa asked, visibly unsettled by what she was hearing.  

“I didn’t say that,” Zatte said.  

“I don’t see the Dorluns all gathering together on one planet,” Luffa muttered.   “It’d, sure make you guys a lot easier to find...”

“We’re supposed to scatter ourselves throughout the universe,” Zatte said.   “It’s written in the Dorlun Holybook.   If I get cut off from the others, that’s just how it has to be.   But that doesn’t mean the Saiyans have to do things the same was s my species.   They might be better off working together in the same place.   With the right leader...”

“Rehval?” Luffa asked.  “There’s nothing right about him.   He’s a disgrace.”

“Then overthrow him,” Zatte suggested.   “All I’m saying is that he might be taking the Saiyan people in the right direction, even if he’s only setting the stage for someone else to take over as their leader.”

Luffa laughed.  “Oh, that’d be rich.  Crown myself Queen of the Saiyans.  Mother would be rolling over in her grave if there had been anything left of her to bury.”

“Fine, fine,” Zatte said.   “Don’t be queen.   Appoint yourself Prime Minister, or Commander in Chief, or Venerated Sex Machine, whatever.  The Saiyans would still follow you.”

“The Saiyans hate me,” Luffa said.  “They think I’m an alien pretending to be a Saiyan because they can’t stomach the idea of a Saiyan who can change her hair.   Most of them think Super Saiyans are a myth, and the ones that don’t think I can’t be a Super Saiyan because I’m a woman.  Or they think I can’t be a woman because I’m a Super Saiyan.    That’s why the public is so confused about who I really am.   They prefer the lies and rumors over the truth.”

“But that’s exactly why you should take over the Saiyan homeworld!” Zatte argued.   “Then everyone would have to accept the truth!    They’d have to see you for who you really are, and then they’d finally love you, just like... well, the way I do.”

Luffa put her arm around Zatte and scooted closer to her.   “I’ve got all the love I need right here on this ship,” she said with a contented smile.   “As long as you know what I’m about, that’s enough.”

*******

[22 April, 234 Before Age.  Interstellar Space.]

Luffa’s star-yacht was designed to accommodate several dozen passengers.  In spite of this, Luffa usually slept on a pile of mats in the gymnasium.   It was a place she used to let off steam, and the broken and twisted exercise machines strewn across the deck bore silent testimony of this.  

On occasion, she would sleep in Zatte’s cabin, which was one of the more spacious guest rooms on the ship, but Luffa never slept well, and she worried that she might injure Zatte, or at least keep her awake all night.  It was one of the unspoken problems with their marriage.   Their frequent arguments only made it harder for Luffa to justify sleeping in her wife’s bed.   It was just easier to stick to the routine, to lie awake on the gym mats and wait for exhaustion to overcome her.   If the nightmares came, she would face them alone, and no one else needed to suffer.  

Two hours later, Luffa awoke with a scream, and realized she had transformed in her sleep.   The beach towels she used for  blankets were tangled around her ankles and knees, and she was drenched in sweat.   Fighting her panic, she grabbed her hair in her hands and levitated herself into the air, just high enough that she wouldn’t kick anything while she fought to power down.  

The key was to ride it out without tearing a hole in the ship.  As long as she exerted her strength against her own body, she could get through it.   Eventually, she shifted positions, curling up into a tight ball, and digging her fingernails into the flesh of her palms.  She hated to do this, because the wounds on her hands had worried Keda so much.   After Keda’s death, Luffa had resolved to stop, but it wasn’t so easy.   For a few minutes, all Luffa could think about was how brave Keda was, far braver than the “ultimate warrior” who was currently in a fetal position, sobbing over a bad dream.  

Little by little, she forced herself to calm down, at least enough to lower herself back down to the deck.  Her aura faded, and darkness returned to the room.  She smelled her own blood on her hands and took some strange comfort in the odor.    It was real: the pain, the blood, her hands, they were all real.     She was ashamed of her own weakness and fear, but she would be all right.  

And then the door slid open, and she was bathed in light from the corridor outside.    Luffa was startled, until she recognized Zatte’s silhouetted figure  step into the threshold.  

“I sensed your ki blowing up.   You okay?” she asked.  

“Nope.”  Luffa replied.  

*******

After tending to the cuts on Luffa’s palms, Zatte carried her back to her own cabin.    Luffa found this rather undignified, but supposed it served her right for waking Zatte up like this.   Besides, Luffa wasn’t so proud that she couldn’t appreciate being held.  

“I’m okay,” she murmured.   “I’ll just go back to the gym and--”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay, all right?” Zatte said as she opened the door.   “And I’d rather sit with you in a real bed than on the floor.”  

She gently lowered Luffa onto the mattress and wrapped one of the sheets around her.   “Tell me about it,” she said.  

“It’s... nothing you haven’t heard before,” Luffa said.  

“So bore me,” Zatte said as she lay down beside her.    

“It was the usual,” Luffa said.   “The Tikosi.”

It was a simple word that spoke volumes.   The Tikosi had massacred Zatte’s community, then took Luffa captive and tortured her for months as part of a cruel experiment to learn the secrets of Saiyan potential.  This alone would have been traumatic enough, but Luffa learned that her own father had conspired with the Tikosi.    Worst of all, she happened to be pregnant at the time, and so the Tikosi removed her unborn child, handing the remains over to her husband Kandai.

It was this terrible ordeal that had transformed Luffa into a Super Saiyan.  The Tikosi never dreamed that their experiments would backfire so disastrously.   Luffa’s father had believed that her power could be transplanted from one Saiyan to another, but he couldn’t replicate Luffa’s rage, or her compassion for the aliens who had risked everything to free her.   What Orij failed to understand--what all Saiyans failed to understand--was that mere ambition was only the beginning.   The true potential of the Saiyan race could only be realized through suffering and intense empathy.  This was Luffa’s greatest strength... and her greatest weakness.  

Zatte could relate to a certain degree.   She had lost her right eye fighting the Tikosi, to say nothing of her friends and comrades in the Dorlun colony.   And yet, she had found a measure of serenity at Luffa’s side.   It wasn’t quite as dark a bargain as Luffa’s, but the name “Tikosi” still held a similar meaning to both women.

“It was like... I was here,” Luffa said.   “On the ship.  And then I thought about my son, and I remembered he was back on the Tikosi planet, so I was suddenly there again.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“You miss him,” Zatte said.  

“I felt like I abandoned him,” Luffa said.  “Like I had to be back there, paralyzed and helpless, because at least then I was still with him, sharing his fate.”

“Listen to me,” Zatte said.  She sat up and took hold of Luffa’s shoulders.  “Listen to me.   You didn’t abandon your baby.   They took him from you, and there was nothing you could have done.”  

“I know,” Luffa said.   “But sometimes...”

“Go on.”

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Of course.”

Luffa took a deep breath, as though gathering the courage to ask.  “Do you miss the colonists as much as you used to?”

“No,” Zatte said honestly.  “I mean, losing that battle hurts, and I guess it always will, but it was years ago, and a lot’s happened to us since then.  I try to think of us as honoring their memory with our actions.   We stay alive, try to help other people out.    It won’t bring the colonists back, but it’s all we can do.”

“Is that how you feel about your eye?” Luffa asked.   “And Keda?”

“My eye?  I’m pretty used to that now.”  She ran her fingers over the patch that concealed the old injury.  “Sometimes I forget that I haven’t always been this way.   As for Keda... well, I don’t think that’s going to stop hurting for a long time.”

They were quiet for a moment, as they each considered what they had lost, and then Zatte realized what Luffa was getting at.   “Luffa, is that’s what’s eating you?   Do you feel like you don’t miss your son as much as you should?”

She looked down at her knees.   “Keda told me once that Dorluns don’t believe in revenge.    She lost everyone in the Tikosi attack, and she was still asking me to show mercy.  I didn’t really understand it, but that was why I didn’t kill all the Tikosi when I first transformed.   I couldn’t bring myself to attack the ones who couldn’t fight back.  

“The ones I really wanted to kill were my father... and Kandai.   Hunting him down was what kept me going for a long time.   But then we found him, and... Well, he’s been dead a long time, and my son is still gone.  Killing Kandai didn’t really solve anything.”

“I’ve been wondering about that,” Zatte said.  “You told me that Kandai said he sold your son’s remains to Planet Saiya.   And you seemed to want to do something about that after you finished the Shockmaster, but then you beat him, and you never brought it up again.”

“I don’t know what those bastards were planning, but it never really mattered,” Luffa said.    “Kandai thought it was for some genetic engineering research, but the Tikosi learned the hard way that Saiyans can’t be reduced to numbers.   At first I wanted to kill Rehval because it would give me another target for my wrath, but the Shockmaster changed my plans.   I trained to beat him, and married you... spent time with Doc and Keda and Wampaaan’riix and the others.   And then when Keda died, I realized that what happened to my son wasn’t the only thing motivating me anymore.”

She ran her finger along her abdomen, where Zatte knew there was a surgical scar from where the Tikosi had removed her child.   Then Luffa looked up at her and shrugged.   “It’s like your eye, I guess.  I’ve gotten used to it, maybe.”

“I think your dream says otherwise,” Zatte said.   “You still care about what happened to your son, Luffa.   It’s just that you’ve come to care about a lot of other things too.  That’s life.  The dead remain where they fell, and we keep moving forward.”

“All right,” Luffa said.   “What would you do about this if you were me?”

“If I were you?” Zatte said.  

“Yeah,” Luffa said.  

Zatte made a mischievous grin. “The first thing I’d do is step in front of a full-length mirror, strip down, turn Super Saiyan, and--”

“Cut it out!” Luffa said.  “I mean... I don’t know.   How would a Super Dorlun handle this?”

“Huh,” Zatte said.   “Now there’s a thought.   Do I have a tail in this scenario?”

“Sure, why not?” Luffa muttered.  

“I think I’d shave stripes into the fur,” Zatte said.  “Make it look really cute--”

“Zattie, please,” Luffa said.  

“All right,” Zatte said.   “If it was up to me, I’d go to Planet Saiya and settle things with King Rehval.”

“You’d avenge your dead son?” Luffa asked.  “That’s not very Dorlun at all.”

“I’m not talking about avenging anyone,” Zatte said.   “Rehval’s an unknown.  He made arrangements with your enemies, then he sent soldiers to kill us, and now he’s asking you to come meet him face to face.   Maybe he wants to make peace, or maybe he’s finally come up with a way to destroy you, or something else entirely, but you need to find out.   He’s too dangerous to ignore.  A Dorlun would want to assess the potential threat, and find exactly what his intentions are.”

“Then what?” Luffa asked.  “I should overthrow him and take over?”

“That’s up to you,” Zatte said.   “Aside from Rehval, the other Saiyans are no threat without him giving them orders.  Personally, I’d crown myself queen and have a harem of Saiyan babes give me foot-rubs all day, but that’s just me.”

“Hmmph,” Luffa said.   “He owes me an explanation at the very least.   And it’s not like I’ve got any other pressing business.  Maybe I’ve been avoiding this.  In a way he’s all I have left of my son.   Once I settle things with him... I really will have to let my boy go.”

“I’ll contact Drang in the morning and see what we can arrange,” Zatte said.   “Why don’t you lie down and try to get some rest?   I’ll wake you up if you start to have another episode.”

Luffa shook her head.   “Nah, I’ve kept you up long enough,” she said.    

“It’s okay,” Zatte said.  “I’m not really sleepy right now.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of wired myself actually,” Luffa said.  

“Well, if you need to work off some of that nervous energy...”  Zatte began.

“Yeah...?”

Zatte swung her legs around and placed her feet in Luffa’s lap.   “You could always give me a foot-rub.  You know, until I conquer Saiya and get the harem set up.”

Luffa shook her head and went to work.  

*******

NEXT:  The Homecoming

Manda-Lore: 10 Things You Need To Know About Mandalorians Before Watching Disney’s The Mandalorian

Bounty hunters are cool no matter what fandom they belong to. However, among all these tough-as-nails guns and swords for hire, one stands out as the most stylish of them all, Boba Fett. Sadly, he got eaten by a Sarlacc and was defeated by a blind man... by accident. Thankfully, Disney was kind enough to do justice to their other Star Wars bounty hunters in the form of The Mandalorian.

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It's pretty much the Boba Fett fan service show we Fett fanboys have been clamoring for over the years. Of course, it's not exactly about Fett but another strong, silent type badass who wears the same armor - the iconic armor of the Mandalorian race in Star Wars. So before the show officially lands, it's time to brush up on your Manda-lore. Here's what you need to know about Mandalorians.

10 A RACE OF WARLIKE SUPERCOMMANDOS

These guys are pretty hardcore. They were born and bred to be conquerors and conquer they did. Mandalorians are human but they are of a different breed since they originated from warriors, bounty, hunters, and mercenaries. That is something they used to full effect. They even managed to have their own commendable pocket in the universe called The Mandalorian Space; it's their conquered domain.

Due to their reputation and expertise for war, they have become feared in the Outer Rim. Eventually, their aggressive expansion led them to the Jedi's area of jurisdiction in the Inner Rim. As you can imagine, the Jedi did not warm up to their arrival and quickly resisted the Mandalorians. All-out war between the two factions ensued.

9 THEY HATE THE JEDI

The Jedi Order and the Old Republic that they were defending proved to be more than a match against the Mandalorians. The race of warrior humans soon became outmatched with the Force on the Jedi's side. Still, they quickly adapted and built new technologies in order to counteract the formidable Jedi knights.

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The Jedi were unyielding (they had to be) and the Mandalorians were stubborn, meaning their conflicts were long and drawn-out. One could even assume that the Mandalorians treated the Jedi as their sworn nemesis faction. Due to having several wars and victories against the Jedi Order, Mandalorian warriors soon became known for their capability to fight the Jedi; they are among the few (probably the only) non-Force users in the Galaxy who could go toe-to-toe with Jedi.

8 ONE OF THEM BECAME A JEDI

It wasn't until a Mandalorian named Tarre Vizsla took over that the Mandalorians shared a prolonged peace with the Jedi. Tarre was from a prominent house (royalty) in Mandalore and was somehow inducted into the Jedi Order. There, Tarre became a Jedi and was considered as the first Mandalorian to do so.

Eventually, Tarre would return to his home planet to set things straight; he became the ruler of Mandalore at one point. He was well-liked- even revered by the Mandalorians, despite being a Jedi. Tarre even had a statue of his own which the Mandalorians erected in his honor after he died. Likewise, the Jedi also respected him enough to recover his lightsaber after his death. Speaking of which...

7 THEY POSSESSED A REALLY COOL LIGHTSABER

Tarre, being a unique member of the Jedi Order, simply had to distinguish himself from his space-monk peers. So, after graduating from the Jedi Academy, Tarre built himself a special kind of lightsaber. It was neither green, blue, nor purple-- it was black.

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Tarre called it the Darksaber and its shape resembled an actual saber instead of the usual popsicle light-beams most Jedi used. The coolest part was that it had a white glow but a pitch-black blade. Move over Mace Windu, Mandalorians got more swag than you. Anyway, such a unique lightsaber became a symbol of leadership among the Mandalorians; they even stole it back from the Jedi after the space-monks recovered it.

6 THEY DESTROYED THEIR OWN HOMEWORLD

Soon after Tarre's death, the Mandalorians went back to their old ways. Warlords vied for power and waged a civil war against other warlords all the while waging another war against the Jedi. War after war on many fronts did not bode well for the Mandalorians' homeworld.

During their final struggle with the Jedi, the war caused a cataclysmic event of planetary proportion on Mandalore. This destroyed nearly half of Mandalore and turned the planet into a barren and uninhabitable white desert.

The Mandalorians only survived because they adapted and built dome cities to shield their civilizations off from the devastation. Only then did the Mandalorians gave up in their war and dreams of expansion.

5 THE SITH RULED THEM AT ONE POINT

Because of their extreme capabilities of withstanding the Jedi, one would think that Mandalorians would've been a valuable asset to the Sith and they became one at one point. During the Clone Wars, Darth Maul, who was previously thought to be dead, turned out to be alive. He was then rescued and repaired by Pre Vizsla, a descendant of Tarre Vizsla himself who wanted to plunge Mandalore back to its warlike state.

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Maul eventually killed Pre after the latter managed to unite the warmongering Mandalorian clans under his banner. Essentially this made Maul the effective ruler of Mandalore and the Sith managed to rule the Mandalorians. His rule was short-lived though; Maul was quickly deposed by peaceful Mandalorians who allied with the Jedi.

4 THEY ALSO HATE THE EMPIRE

Maul did try to take Mandalore back but its current acting ruler, Bo-Katan along with the Republic's help, fought against him. The siege of Mandalore, however, was interrupted by Darth Sidious after he initiated Order 66. Maul managed to escape the carnage and his failed campaign.

Meanwhile, Bo-Katan was left as the ruler of Mandalore and refused to recognize the authority of the abruptly-formed Galactic Empire. She was momentarily replaced by the Emperor's puppet but came back to power again thanks to a young Mandalorian rebel who found the Tarre's Darksaber.

3 THEY DRESSED LIKE BOBA FETT

Now, let's talk about style. That Mandalorian uniform is simply too awe-inspiring yet mysterious at the same time to omit. Boba Fett wore it first and it was noticeably weathered and old in the original trilogy. Meanwhile, his father, Jango, wore a shinier version of the Mandalorian armor.

RELATED: Star Wars: George Lucas' 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Creative Decisions

It's arguably a more intimidating version of the Republic clone armor and the headpiece resembles the fearsome appearance of the Corinthian helmets in ancient Greece. This uniform is a staple Mandalorian armor too; it's what they use for war against the Jedi after years of adjusting their military technology and combat techniques to stand a chance against them.

2 JANGO AND BOBA ARE NOT MANDALORIANS

If you haven't heard of this heartbreaking canon reveal already, then we're so sorry to tell you that it's official; both Jango Fett and his clone son Boba are not Mandalorians. That painful truth was okayed by George Lucas himself. It was revealed in episode 12, season 2 of Clone Wars where Prime Minister Almec from New Mandalore denies Jango Fett is a Mandalorian.

Turns out Jango might have just acquired his armor from a hapless Mandalorian and then went on to dress the part. Now, since Boba is an exact replica of Jango himself, he's also no Mandalorian. This leads us to another questionable fact, courtesy of George Lucas' film/TV canon choices...

1 THE CLONES AREN'T MANDALORIANS

We all know that Jango Fett was chosen to be cloned due to his exceptional bounty hunter and mercenary skills. He has certainly shown that he knows how to handle the Jedi in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, especially during the fight against Obi-Wan. In all respects, such a feat is so Mandalorian; back then when we thought Jango was a Mandalorian, it made sense why he was the perfect clone template.

Turns out, he wasn't Mandalorian, and neither was Boba. That means the clones are just clones of some random seasoned human. Granted, Jango is fearsome and dangerous but making him and Boba a uniform thief (basically a fake Mandalorian) somewhat reeks of injustice. Hopefully, The Mandalorian gives us the "Boba Fett" we all want and have been waiting for.

NEXT: Star Wars: 5 Ways The Mandalorian Might Be Better Than A Boba Fett Movie (& 5 Ways It Could Be Worse)

source https://screenrant.com/mandalorian-things-need-know-before-watching/

The Ryder Siblings - Pathfinders for Humanity

Not everyone believed the Council when they dismissed Commander Shepard’s warnings about the Reapers as delusions.

And Cerberus was not the only extralegal organization to take matters into their own hands.

Unbeholden to government interference, energized by Shepard’s discovery of cryogenic pods on the Ilos research facility and later spurned into action upon her death two months after the Battle of the Citadel, these individuals - top scientists, military leaders, Spectres, and other experts from countless species - developed a fallback plan for the inevitable Reaper invasion that the Council and countless governments were content to ignore.

Launched in 2183, they called it Operation Pathfinder.

The plan was ambitious - build a spaceship (later named “The Ark”) capable of intergalactic travel, recruit a group of intrepid colonists from all species under Reaper threat, place these individuals in cryogenic stasis, and direct them to leave the Milky Way behind and find a new home, away from the specter of the Reapers and inevitable galactic extinction.

Operation Pathfinder was successfully completed in 2186, three weeks before the Reaper invasion. After the Reaper War, the project members turned over all information about Operation Pathfinder to a reformed Council.

200 years later, at the beginning of the Dark Energy Crisis, the galactic governments frantically attempted to resurrect Operation Pathfinder, and re-establish contact with the The Ark, racing against time as stars across the Milky Way began to prematurely die, costing trillions of lives.

Their endeavors failed, and The Ark soldiers on towards the Andromeda galaxy, unaware that the entire Milky Way galaxy has been extinguished, that entropy had destroyed what the Reapers could not.

The Ryder Family

Ayda Ryder (b. 2155) - The Mercenary

Eldest daughter of Zainab and Walid Ryder, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and joined the Alliance at 18. She earned multiple commendations, including an N7 designation, for her service during the Raid of Torfan. Later, she witnessed the Battle of the Citadel firsthand, serving on the S.S. Mogadishu. Disillusioned and demoralized by Alliance leadership that began denying the Reaper threat, she spoke out, frequently and vocally, and was dishonorably discharged for insubordination.

Cerberus took notice, and two months later, she was serving as a Cerberus operative. She later turned on her fellow operatives when she discovered that the Illusive Man was working directly with the Collectors, sacrificing Terminus colonies in exchange for information. Enraged and disgusted, she slaughtered every member in her cell and escaped, turning in vital information about Cerberus and their operations to the Shadow Broker in exchange for credits.

Operation Pathfinder found her on Omega after months of searching, working as a mercenary-for-hire and still on the run from Cerberus. Impressed by her combat abilities and apparently unconcerned by issues with loyalty, they extended an offer. She accepted, on the condition that they would find her siblings and her parents - whose whereabouts were unknown to her - and recruit them as well. She had no qualms about danger and sacrifice, but she refused to leave her family behind.

Malik Ryder (b. 2158) - The Soldier

Like his sister, he joined the Alliance at the age of 18. Unlike his sister, he refused to leave. Placing his faith in the Alliance, he trusted that the Reaper threat had been defeated with Sovereign. He and Ayda parted on incredibly bitter terms, believing that Ayda had betrayed humanity, and betrayed the family.

The Collector threat forced him to re-evaluate his beliefs. After being assigned to train under Commander Alenko under the 1st Special Operations Biotic Company, he was assigned to Fehl Prime as a covert operative, designed to monitor and neutralize possible Cerberus and/or Collector activity. Despite his vigilance, Fehl Prime was attacked by Collectors - assisted by a Cerberus operative. Upset by his failure to protect the colony, angered by the Alliance response, and facing demotion for his failure in Fehl Prime, he resigned from the Alliance in 2185 - taking a job as a security guard in Noveria on behalf of Elanus Risk Control Services.

Later, he was approached with a offer to join Operation Pathfinder at the request of Ayda and Amal Ryder. Dissatisfied in his current profession and unwilling to re-join the Alliance, he accepted, hoping that this would finally be his chance to use his skills for positive change without the weight of complacency, politics or ruthless disregard of ethics, and a final chance to prove himself.

Amal Ryder (b. 2161) - The Scientist

Amal Ryder’s stint in the Alliance was not spent on the battlefield, but in a lab. The Alliance, aware of Amal’s biotic abilities, initially attempted to recruit her as a soldier, but instead offered her a full academic scholarship after seeing her aptitude scores. She proved to be a scientific prodigy, graduating in two years from MIT with a degree in Xenotechnology. She then served as part of Alliance R&D for four years, helping to develop the Thanix cannon and developing pioneering advances in shield technology, developing a reputation as an expert on Reaper and Collector technology.

She left the Alliance after her required years of service and was later recruited by Jormangund Technology to develop handheld weapons and VIs integrating Reaper tech.

She was recruited by Operation Pathfinder in 2185, tasked with studying Prothean cryogenic technology and adapting it for multiple species. She accepted the position, on two conditions - that if Operation Pathfinder came to fruition, that her siblings and parents would be extended an offer of recruitment as colonists. And that she would join them.

For Amal, this request was not about escape or survival. This initiative was an opportunity for exploration and a new, exciting challenge - a chance to play even bigger role in the survival and advancement of galactic life.

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(this is a re-edit of a thing from my old blog where I replaced the dollmaker pics w/ faceclaims and ignore canon b/c I’m sick of Cerberus)

What we can piece together about the plot of Star Wars: Restiance

Most of the article focuses on Filoni and the other producers, plus confirmed voice actors. We have a premise and these two paragraphs to use when it comes to narrowing down exactly what the plot might be:

StarWars.com is thrilled to announce that production has begun on Star Wars Resistance, an exciting new animated adventure series about Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot recruited by the Resistance and tasked with a top-secret mission to spy on the growing threat of the First Order. It will premiere this fall on Disney Channel in the U.S. and thereafter, on Disney XD and around the world. Featuring the high-flying adventure that audiences of all ages have come to expect from Star Wars, Star Wars Resistance — set in the time prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens — will feature the beloved droid BB-8 alongside ace pilots, colorful new characters and appearances by fan favorites including Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma, voiced by actors Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, respectively.

Here’s the thing about Kazuda’s job description, it matches Vi’s intelligence job perfectly. They’re probably in Vi’s unit. She was a mercenary hired by the Resistance, however, the use of the word “recruited” implies that Kazuda enlisted rather than being a mercenary. However, one of the jobs Vi was assigned, beyond more traditional intelligence, was finding out the backstories of key First Order members. We know she traveled to Parnassos to research Phasma, and from Arkanis being on her navicomputer, we can assume she looked into the pasts of the Huxes and/or Carise Sindian. If Kazuda was assigned to look into Snoke’s past, it would be a really interesting way to do it. Rather than a book or series of comics in the form of flashbacks chronologically showing Snoke’s past (although I’d want that as well), we get more and more scraps of information along with the characters, allowing us to refine our theories before we get the basic premise of Snoke’s identity/past confirmed.

Despite Vi’s skills being more similar to that of a spy rather than that of a pilot, however, she was considered one:

“Good. Just a quick sweep of the area. We’ve heard rumors of First Order ships there, and it’s vital that we know if they’re true. If you see anything, be ready to jump. We’ve had several pilots go missing.”

 “Bet they weren’t as fast as I am.”

Leia sighs, sounding every year of her age. “It’s not necessarily about speed, but if they come back, you can race them in the Five Sabers. I’ll buy you a ship. For now, just a quick sweep and then home. I need those reports.”

And Leia’s reference to other pilots confirms that Vi is not the only member of the Resistance intelligence unit, while Vi’s boasts make it sound like she does have good piloting skills.  As for the ace pilots that could be in the series (of course there could obviously be new ones, but “fan favorites” could also be characters included from the new interconnected EU):

Hera Syndulla: Hera seems like an easy choice, but due to her rank as a flight instructor in the Aphra comics, I think it’s more likely that she’s the unnamed pro-Resistance female head of the Ganthel Flight School that sent Jo Jerjerrod to the Resistance. She could also redirect Kazuda from joining the NRDF to the Resistance.

Jacen Syndulla: If Jacen didn’t go to Luke’s school, it’s pretty likely he’ll show up in the show as one of the ace pilots. However, since he doesn’t show up in the Poe Dameron comic (wherein Black Squadron is made up of the best pilots in the Resistance) something would have to happen to him. 

Vi Moradi: I’ve already talked about this, but the Phasma book never really got a chance to show off Vi’s piloting skills, but she could be one of Kazuda’s team.

Joph Seastriker: Joph was a member of the Resistance from the very being. Despite being referenced in the Join the Resistance series (which is concurrent to the Poe Dameron comics), there’s a disturbing lack of him appearing anywhere other than Bloodline, despite the fact he and Greer would probably be Leia’s right hand before Poe. Either way, he’s a good contender for appearing. 

Greer Sonnel: Greer is in a similar situation to Joph. Although with her bloodburn, it’s pretty likely a dogfight could kill her without her being shot. Either way, if this series is closer to Bloodline rather than the comics, she could easily appear. Greer is also an exceptional pilot.

Temmin “Snap” Wexley: Joph vouched for Snap to be one of the first people to join the Resistance. With him appearing in the poe dameron comics, TFA, and Aftermath, it seems pretty likely that LucasFilm likes giving him big roles across the EU. And since he was part of black squadron, he would count as an “ace pilot”

Zari Bangel: Zari is another NR pilot Joph vouched for. She also appears briefly in the Poe Dameron comics. The end of Bloodline says Joph has a list of NR pilots ready to fight that he trusts, but since I don’t have a searchable digital copy of Bloodline, I’m having trouble finding the scene where Joph talks with other pilots, so I can’t throw out some more names. We also don’t know Zari’s skill, so she might not count as an ace pilot.

Jessika Pava: Jess has the skill to count as an ace pilot, but we don’t know when she joined the Resistance. Still she’s a pretty good candidate.

L’ulo L’ampar: If I’m right about this taking place well before the Poe Dameron comics, he’ll be alive enough to be a character. He’s another member of Black Squadron, so we got the skill part down.

Kare Kun/Poe Dameron: Poe has been confirmed to appear in Resistance. Although we don’t quite know when Poe and Kare joined the Resistance, the Cold War between the First Order and Resistance had already been well established. I think when Poe does appear, he’ll be a new recruit. We know that the second part of his Before the Awakening story takes place pretty close to the start of the Poe Dameron comics, so I’d put my money on a lot of series taking place between those two events. 

Star Wars Insights | Luke's Lightsaber

Where is Luke's green bladed lightsaber in The Last Jedi? Has Star Wars canon been teaching us new lore in order to prepare us for a reveal in The Last Jedi? Lets take a look...

Here is my theory about Luke's green lightsaber and why we haven't seen it since Star Wars Episode VI The Return Of The Jedi.

"Luke Skywalker is betrayed by his nephew and Padawan, Ben Solo. Luke is defeated by Ben who takes Luke's weapon as his own and bleeds the crystal to create his own distinctive red blade. Luke has around his neck the red Kyber Crystal from the heart of his father's lightsaber, and will use the Force to restore this crystal and place it in the hilt of a new lightsaber, giving Luke a white bladed weapon in Star Wars The Last Jedi."

This may seem like a radical theory, but there are indications in new canon that this may happen. Let's walk through the evidence. 

The Perfect Weapon

In Star Wars The Perfect Weapon, Delilah S. Dawson tells a short story about Bazine Netal, a mercenary who is hired by a mysterious client to retrieve an item that has been buried with a stormtrooper who had been stationed on Endor when the Death Star 2 was been destroyed. For a while I thought that Bazine Netal was hired by Kylo Ren to get Darth Vader's lightsaber, presumably from the surface of Endor, after the Death Star 2 exploded and showered the moon with debris. I still believe the item was Vader's lightsaber (a perfect weapon!), but now I think that Luke may have hired Netal to retrieve the item for personal reasons. We have heard that Luke has a red Kyber Crystal on a necklace in The Last Jedi, could this be the crystal from the heart of Vader's lightsaber? 

If this is in fact the Kyber Crystal from the heart of Darth Vader's lightsaber it has an interesting heritage.

Kirak Infil'a

The Kyber Crystal at the heart of Darth Vader's weapon was once at the the core of a powerful Jedi Knight's. Kirak Infil'a was a Jedi who had taken the Barash Vow and was in isolation on a remote world when the Jedi fell and the Emperor ordered his purge. The Emperor instructed Vader to hunt down and defeat a Jedi in order to seize the Kyber Crystal at the heart of the Jedi lightsaber, to bleed (corrupt) that crystal and make it his own. This is the way of the Sith. 

This new element of Jedi lore, introduced in the Darth Vader run of comic books could be designed to establish these rules for us ahead of the release of The Last Jedi. The Barash Vow itself could be designed to explain Luke's dedication to his time in isolation. More than that it could reframe the discipline used by both Yoda and Obi-Wan in the original trilogy. Both Jedi had to isolate themselves from galactic events, even as many innocents suffered, in order to be there for the new Jedi. For Luke, or Leia as they rise up to fulfil their destiny. The Sith method of corrupting, or bleeding the crystal at the heart of a Jedi weapon, might have been introduced to explain not only the look of Kylo Ren's lightsaber (did he go too far and crack to crystal?) but also the motivation for his betraying his uncle and former master. 

If there is any truth to Luke's having hired Bazine Netal to retrieve his Father's weapon, then the Kyber Crystal around Luke's neck may be the crystal from Kirak Infil'a's lightsaber. A Jedi master, who was once in exile, just like Luke. This is where another cool new element of Star Wars Lore will come into play and give Luke a unique weapon in The Last Jedi.

But before we get to that, a side bar.

The Skywalker Lightsaber

in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren made it perfectly clear to Rey that he viewed the Skywalker lightsaber as his birthright. I believe Kylo Ren once possessed that weapon. That it was once the lightsaber of Ben Solo and that he used this weapon to defeat Luke in battle. That the Skywalker lightsaber was lost and made its way to Maz Kanata, not from Cloud City, but from the location of Luke's defeat. Why wasn't that weapon enough for Ben? I think Ben, who has designs on becoming a Sith, would feel the need to win the weapon from a Jedi and bleed the crystal. Being gifted his grandfathers weapon would simply not be enough for Ben Solo. 

Now that the Skywalker lightsaber, or more specifically the Kyber Crystal at its heart, has called to Rey, it is her weapon, so Kylo would be able to win his grandfather's weapon in battle, bleed the crystal and place it at the heart of his own. Could anything be more appealling to Kylo Ren?

A White Bladed Lightsaber

In the novel Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston we learn that a Jedi can restore a red Kyber Crystal that has been bled by a Sith. Ahsoka, who defeats the Sixth Brother, a Sith Inquistor, takes the crystals from his red lightsaber and uses the Force to restore them, essentially freeing them from their enslavement. This is an important new element in Star Wars lore. Could we have been taught this new detail for a reason?

If Luke has the Kyber Crystal from Darth Vader's lightsaber in his possession, the Kyber Crystal that once belonged to Kirak Infil'a, is it Luke's intention to restore this crystal at some point, freeing if from the power of Darth Vader's bleeding. In issue 5 of the Darth Vader comic we see Darth Vader pour all of his anger, rage and pain into Infil'a's crystal, turning it red. Will Luke restoring Kirak Infil'a's crystal be his final act of redeeming his father. Undoing one of the most painful acts in Darth Vader's tortured past. If so, Luke will be freeing a great Jedi Master's crystal and potentially placing it at the heart of a new lightsaber hilt, which would give Luke a crystal white lightsaber blade, a blade that once removed his own hand, a blade that once stuck down Obi-Wan Kenobi. A blade that could be used by Luke to confront Kylo Ren, Snoke and the evil of the First Order. It would be a weapon with an extraordinary heritage. I can't think of anything cooler than that...

Thank you for reading, Marc 

Expert: The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all. It is true the population has increased. — Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot At the rounded tune of $1.0 million each. Times 59 missiles shot from the belly of American beasts of war — that is, as of Saturday April 8. That’s the wonderful thing about parasitic, predatory, military-IT-prison-legal-punishment-media complex America. Stocks go up as missiles kill Syrian civilians. The replacement value of those racist missiles (Calling them Tomahawks? Do white Americans think a 600 mph, computer-guided, white supremacy manned projectile with flesh, brain, innards busting-burning-imploding explosives is akin to a hand-to-hand, look-in-the-eyes-of-your-enemy weapon of real warriors?)… think of a new Tomahawk 2.0, costing us  $1.5 million a piece! Think about this country’s 20 percent – the ones making it, in their Uber rich and Uber upper middle class bullshit ways. Working as engineers, software designers, paper-pushers, personnel middle men/women for Raytheon, or for one of the other thousands upon thousands of industries and high tech places that put screw and hard drive and turbine and pneumatics and shrouding and decals to these perversions of the modern USA-EU-Star-of-David-Aussie warring coalition of the dead! The 20 percent, oh, that bullshit meme of “We Are the 99,” gone into the wind of a Republican-Democrat sulfur-infused bellowing that has come to symbolize USA since before 1776. These are the directors of non-profits, the tenured faculty, the industrialists, the managerial-dean-admin society. The planners and doctors, the investor (sic) class, the money managers (thieves), the insurance sellers (rip-off artists), the mid-level hierarchies of   fortune 1000 companies. All big and little Eichmanns, for sure, and I can say I have met and spoken with so many in so many fields, who are bred from the libertarian, neo-liberal, faux humanitarian, fake intellectual class of white Americans who have always looked down on the OTHER(s). Yet, those missiles launched by the perverted-thinking/acting/living  president with the superstructure and management teams of the military and generals, they symbolize the death of this culture way beyond a Truman bombing Japan, or leveling Korea, or the chorus of others attempting bombing back to the Stone Age in Vietnam, or the parade of Yale-Harvard misanthropes like Bushes-Clinton-Obama who helped launch dozens of penetrating “wars” in Latin America, Middle East, Eastern Europe. Police actions, Reagan and his sick mind and war games, Trump and his frontal cortex atrophying before our eyes. The military are the mercenaries, guns for hire, vigilantes, from private up to Colonel, with their supreme commanders and retired triple-dipping generals colluding with the arms dealers, all those graduates of tech programs, colluding with the war inventors, all those chemicals and kill switches and job-stick hero-makers, the American scum rising to the top of the proverbial Capitalist barrel. Yet your everyday American gets teary eyed thinking about those mercenaries in Navy whites off-shore launching death to people missiles. American might and right and never a naysayer allowed to breathe in any position of power! So these scions of industry, these propagandists on TV, sketched in movies, scribing in print, gesticulating on airwaves, punishing in the HR departments, in the schools, in the courtrooms, & in the boardrooms, after decades of unfettered access to the hearts and minds of the masses (not all of us, mind you), we have come to a point where people daily just stick chin to sternum and go about their days as number pushers, scribes of structural violence, or call them “intellectual workers,” never lifting a finger or raising a voice in their overly PC-ed worlds of American business, blue-pink-white-camo-black collared, it doesn’t make a difference. The masses have sucked the high fructose corn syrup of the controllers, the great Doctor Jekyll-Mengele-Moreau-Frankenstein juice of our age: consumerism as gateway drug to insomnia, obesity, unhappiness, prescription abuse, disassociative behavior, ADD, on-the-spectrum birth, allergies, racism, hatred of the other, mis-education, functional illiteracy, exceptionalism, boredom, ennui, madness, insanity, delusion, walking dead-ness! I tried to fire up something, yesterday (April 7), just in our weekly meeting of so-called social workers. You know, ice breakers for thirty people supposedly in the game to not only assist the homeless, the drug-addled, the psychologically different, but to change the culture of hate toward the poor, criminally defined, homeless, displaced. Oh, so, one social worker, me, plays the ice breaker differently: “What’s your favorite movie, your dream vacation, your favorite band, your favorite hobby, etc.?” they ask us. “My hobby, my movie, my band, my vacation is about politics, and today, I am angry this country – us – have once again bombed another country with the power of yet another mis-elected, perverted LOTFW (sic): leader of the free world (sic).” No solidarity, no discussion, no support, not even rebuttal or nuancing: just sticking chins to sternums and moving on. This is the culture of the walking wounded, dead people, one paycheck away from hawking it all, one misstated thing in the workplace away from the two-hour-and-you-are-gone firing. My fellow social workers at this place I perform miracles, for the most part, go to college, get MA’s not for the love of inquiry, not for the robust nature of a social work graduate program, not for the heady stuff of revolutionary practice, not for the communicative skills needed to think outside the box or articulate through a wet paper bag. They go to school for a raise above the $18 an hour with paid time off. And they can’t mourn for the death we heap upon nations, can’t mourn for the bloated, perverted illegal, disgusting budgets of the militarists, and can’t rebel against the perversion of yet another rotten leader with golf blistered hands pushing the button for more ship-to-surface (human flesh and bone) launched madness. The USA has billions of dollars invested in, AKA, ripped off of the state-municipal-county coffers for those perversions called Tomahawks. And now the chorus of nobodies on TV and in the Press (sic) chant “war-war-war makes the shitty little casino-hotel magnate (bankruptcy queen, AKA, welfare king) look and sound and smell presidential.” Ahh, the smell of napalm, cordite, nitrogen soaked TNT, black powder, white phosphorus in the morning makes a TV pundit and White House stalker orgasmic. Here, from yet another perversion of American think-talk-discourse, Popular Mechanics, on the Tomahawk: While the basic design has been around for decades—they were used as far back as the 1991 Gulf War—the Tomahawk has seen numerous upgrades over the years. This new tweak could improve the Tomahawk’s striking power through the power of what you might call extreme mixology. It’s all about fuel-air explosions. Ordinary high explosives such as TNT do not require any oxygen. The big molecule simply breaks apart, releasing energy. By contrast, a fuel-air explosion is a form of combustion in which the fuel combines with oxygen in the air and burns more rapidly. As any gearhead will tell you, the fuel-air mixture is all-important for efficient combustion. If one reads on in the article —  that is, one  who is both anti-establishment/revolutionary and critical of this regime and the empire of illusion vis-à-vis the corporate war lens  – it’s an easy rhetorical analysis of how war and bombs and that shit-hole of vaunting military and explosive might (all channeled in youth through violent movies and video games) gets embedded in everything the mass media produces, even Popular Mechanics (or especially PM). Nary a word about civilians paying the price (their implosions) of USA-EU-Star-of-David perversions of war and war games. My own team would rather find out the favorite movie in an icebreaker than ask, as social workers, how we are taking yet another mass manufactured consent of illegal warring, whereupon every stitch in the safety net is unraveling not just by-because-for Trump, but because of the chin-to-the-sternum PC lobotomized ignorance the so-called educated  class has self-served for decades! The emotional and spiritual lobotomies occurred decades ago. Each muted mouth in the face of slavery, in rallying around Indian War campaigns, in the obscenity of that theft of lands here and abroad have created the state of the United States of Nothingness. That lingering perpetual stupidity of a collective consciousness in this cheating nation of Capitalists has reached its low water mark with the perversions of this man-sexual assaulter prez spewed from the belly of the beast we all know is unchecked casino capitalism and the narcissism of an eroded culture. There’s no mistaking these people I call fellow Americans—they have all been created through the gun-sights of the insane: generals, captains of industry, money leveragers, the big and small-time Media, cultural perversions and insignificance. Do we prols worry about anything other than which side the butter on the bread gets spread, about mortgages, about how to self-actualize with this or that perversion of hobby-past-time-distraction? ls this where we are now, an endless pipeline of heads in the sand “liberals,” great social cause followers who speak no evil, but who hear-see-feel all the evil that is the root of the cause – the white race’s perpetual supremacy, the white race’s busy-body brains wanting more land raped, more cultures smashed, more ideas outside the narrow business-techno mind meld quashed? Is this country and the other white countries —  monarchs ablaze on flags, Star of David handkerchiefs used to shine the holy cross of Christianity – destined for collective dementia because of the nanosecond of pain inflicted with both physical and structural assaults? I try and understand the chin to the sternum complacency and fear and perpetual non-involvement of people on the margins, including one might expect to know better: social workers, those with liberal arts educations, people who once were poor or are still struggling with marginality. I have to give it to Gandhi’s grandson, whereupon his basic premise is peace begins with our children – teaching them the light of what it means to be human outside the world of drug-addled consumerism and Predatory Capitalism: Once there was a great king and he wanted with all of his heart to know the meaning of peace. He called people from his kingdom from all walks of life, but no one could satisfy him with their explanation. One day, a man from another kingdom came to the king and told him that if he wanted to know what peace was, he would have to ask a very old sage who was no longer able to travel long distances, so the king would need to leave his kingdom and visit the sage in his own home. The king agreed and off he went on his journey. When he met the old sage, the king asked him to please, finally, give him the meaning of peace. The sage put something into the king’s hand. It was a grain of wheat. He took the grain back to his kingdom and put it in a box. He then called upon the man who told him to visit this sage in the first place. He gave me a grain of wheat. Now I need you to tell me what this has to do with the meaning of peace? The visiting king replied, Peace is like this grain of wheat. If you plant wheat, one day you will have a great field of it. If you keep it in a box, for yourself, it benefits no one. If you keep your peace locked up in yourself, it does not fulfill its purpose, it does no good, for you or for others. But when you nurture it, it grows and spreads, nourishing all who come by it. The folly of our age is ignorance – planned, coopted, codified. This self-glorified ignorance is manifested at the so-called top, from Trump to Tillerson, from  the pundits to the think tanks, from the managers to the CEOs, and from the controllers to the prols who have no time for smarts but are fully throttled for  just doing, scraping by and razing earth and systems of humaneness, bent on building, pushing brooms and pushing papers. This is a country with no time for thought, for discourse, for energized education, outside the parameters of work or doing something that makes the engines of capitalism and earth destruction hum and synchronize. So I am schooled everyday, aged 60, once more steeled to think of how corrupt and corrosive this society is, more ready to engage the acts of stopping physical violence and structural and systems assault by using the Molotov, the very thing Doctor King spoke of 50 years ago: how we are the most murderous nation on earth, and maybe King saw the deeper structural homicidal pathways of Capitalism as more deeply death-incurring than the blasting of lung cavities of the children of Vietnam with civilian-manufactured munitions and university-invented chemical weapons and corporate-sold biological arms. Here, his anti-America-the-military-punishment-psychopath speech: My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years–especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action; for they ask and write me, “So what about Vietnam?” They ask if our nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. Ahh, in the future, ever-approaching future, when I have time in between my hard-assed social work job, and the job of looking to move on from this agency to another, from the Seasonal Affective Disorder of living in Portland, Oregon, which is experiencing more rain and overcast days in 100 years, I plan a decent interview of John Steppling – playwright, ex-pat, intellectual of the uncommon kind – and posting it here at DV, but for now, I end this diatribe with his words just posted in his piece yesterday, The average white American, that educated thirty percent who cling, ever more tenuously, to what passes for middle class life, is seemingly motivated most by hatred. Propaganda works because it grants permission to hate. Now, Trump provides the perfect figure to hate right here at home. His appointments are horrible, no question. But as I’ve written before, Obama’s were horrible, too. Only just a bit less horrible. Tim Geithner? Rahm Emanuel? Hillary Clinton? Joe Biden? Scott O’Malia or William Lynn? I mean Hillary Clinton’s under secretary Victoria Nuland is married to arch neo con Robert Kagen. How can one hate Bush and the neo cons but heap praise on Hillary Clinton? But as much as Trump is hated, the figure of the Muslim terrorist is even more hated. And even more than Muslims, Vladimir Putin is hated. But where does this sense of entitlement to meddle in the affairs of other countries come from? It is remarkable how little questioned is the practice of involving the U.S. state in the matters of other countries. Russia elected Putin. Syria elected Assad. And even if, EVEN IF, the elections were fraudulent (they weren’t, but this is a thought experiment) what concern is that of the United States? (Not to mention U.S. elections were not exactly models of probity of late). The U.S. has 800 plus military bases around the world. There is no corner of the globe where you will not find the U.S. military. Do Americans think other countries WANT the U.S. military on their soil? I suppose some do, the fascistic current regime in Poland probably does. And even here in Norway, a nation of inestimable achievements and daily sanity, the general feeling is that having U.S. and NATO around serves as protection. But protection from what? This is really the question, or rather two questions. Who can possibly be thinking of invading Poland or Norway or Japan? The U.S. has bases in Italy, South Korea, Djibouti, Spain, Bahrain, Kuwait, Greece, it has 38 bases in Germany, and bases in the Bahamas, and in Brazil and Honduras and Singapore and Belgium. The list just goes on and on and on. Why does the U.S. have a base in Bulgaria? The answer is, global hegemony. Total and absolute control of the world. That is the goal. And yet this topic is never ever raised in electoral debates or in mainstream media. Never ever. Why did the U.S. go into Haiti to remove Aristide? Why was there a coup in Honduras? Why was Gadaffi murdered again? Does anyone care? http://clubof.info/

Star Wars: Everything We Know About The Galaxy After The Last Jedi

Star Wars canon hasn't told many stories beyond the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but with a bit of a time gap before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker there's still a lot of story to account for. Star Wars 9 will pick things up one year after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and while the Resistance found renewed hope at the end of Rian Johnson's film, that hasn't fully spread across the galaxy.

With the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, a publishing program of various tie-in novels and comic books has been released, just as Disney did for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi (and will do for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). This means that fleshing out the backstory of Galaxy’s Edge, seeing how the Resistance attempts to take up refuge in the distant planet of Batuu, is also developing the backstory of Star Wars 9, prepping audiences for the First Order’s final, climactic push for galactic dominance.

RELATED: Star Wars Addresses Why Leia Didn’t Use The Force Before The Last Jedi

Star Wars 9 will end the Skywalker Saga and bring the conflict between the Resistance and the First Order to a close, and we have a good picture of what General Leia Organa, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, the two respective organizations they head, and the Star Wars galaxy as a whole have been up to between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The Hosnian Cataclysm, when Starkiller Base obliterated the five planets of the Hosnian star system in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has left the New Republic without its capital, its Senate, and the vast majority of its already-small fleet. Even worse, although the Resistance enacted a counterstrike that, in turn, destroyed Starkiller, no one in the galaxy seems to be aware of this fact – the First Order has a vested propaganda interest in covering that fact up, and the Resistance is too scattered to wage a PR campaign of its own. This means that the general populace of the Star Wars galaxy lives in perpetual fear of another system-wide murder, which they think could land at any location and at any time should they speak up against the neo-Imperial regime. (Making matters even worse is that, on some backwater planets like Batuu, they don’t even think the First Order really exists, as inexplicable as that may be.)

This has allowed Kylo Ren the luxury of not only moving into entire swaths of the galaxy en masse (though we have yet to see this militaristic push directly in canon), but also of mercilessly hunting the Resistance as it attempts to set up new headquarters in another hidden part of interstellar space. Think of this, then, as the exact same set-up we saw exiting Star Wars: A New Hope and entering The Empire Strikes Back: the good guys are too busy scrambling for their very lives to think about the next major military initiative, perpetually just one step away from utter and total defeat.

Even before the Hosnian Cataclysm, Leia Organa knew that the First Order had something major planned (thanks to the events of Star Wars: Resistance) and devised a new strategy of her own. She dispatched a handful of operatives to seek out new planets (inhabited, with an active port that the Resistance can piggyback off of, but nothing too major or obvious) that new back-up bases can be established on – the two biggest assets the general foresees needing are allies and places to hide should her years-long cold war with the First Order suddenly become hot.

Related: Star Wars Finally Reveals The Resistance's Fate After The Last Jedi

In the aftermath of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s disastrous Battle of Crait, after which only small handfuls of Resistance members were left alive, that directive takes on a whole new urgency, going from back-up plan to dire necessity. The Resistance’s top spy, Vi Moradi (a books-only character who now is meetable-and-greetable in Galaxy’s Edge), suggests Batuu, which has become a safe haven for smugglers and other never-do-wells in the millennia since faster-than-light travel rendered it from economic hotspot to forgotten has-been. Audiences only get to see Vi’s mission on the world’s capital, Black Spire Outpost, but they’re emblematic of all the other efforts in all the other neglected corners of space – and, even more, the agent’s occasional communiques with Leia paint a picture that is still dreary and bleak for their freedom movement, with base-building and recruit-gathering only going slowly and painfully, and with not enough resources around to spread from one site to the other.

That the First Order is mercilessly hunting them, of course, only makes the effort harder. The would-be Empire has hired the renowned mercenary Bazine Netal (a character originally introduced as a background player in Star Wars: The Force Awakens but who has since made several appears in the novels, comics, and short stories) to track the Millennium Falcon down, which she successfully does to Batuu; Hondo Ohnaka, that infamous space pirate from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels television series, has taken temporary custody of the legendary vessel, and he splits his time with it running mercy missions for the Resistance and running smuggling operations for his own pocket (this is the backstory for one of Galaxy’s Edge’s two rides, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run).

Though Hondo is cleverly able to throw Bazine off of his tail, that doesn’t leave her employer undeterred. Once word reaches them that Vi Moradi has also been spotted in Black Spire, the First Order arrives in successive waves of force, culminating in the Supreme Leader himself arriving to personally supervise the operation.

Kylo Ren isn’t only on Batuu to enforce the planet’s newfound occupation ahead of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – he may also just be there on a more personal mission. Although only fleetingly mentioned in Star Wars canon thus far, it is clearly established that the still-new Supreme Leader is actively searching for any artifact having to do with the Force, whether Jedi or Sith in nature. The reasons for this type of crusade could be legion: the progeny of Anakin Skywalker could be eager to finish his Force education now that his former master, Snoke, is dead, or he could have stumbled upon Emperor Palpatine’s huge collection (which we now know, thanks to the Aftermath trilogy of novels, he had hidden among dozens of different worlds) and wishes to finish it, or his idolization of his grandfather’s Darth Vader helmet has become more of an obsession over the past five months. There’s also the fact that Luke Skywalker spent a few decades attempting to gather his own library of Force-related lore and items before setting out to rebuild the Jedi Order from scratch – yet another rhyming device in a franchise that is already packed with them.

Related: Evidence Kylo Ren Is Reverting To His Force Awakens’ Self In Star Wars 9

Batuu is potentially filled with such relics – possibly much more so than the average planet in the galaxy. Dok-Ondar, the infamous black-market dealer, is the proprietor of Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities (one of the gift shops guests can visit in Galaxy’s Edge), a store that is filled with such treasures as an archaic Jedi statue carved with a lightsaber out of a large kyber crystal that was taken directly from the Guardians of the Whills and, even more ominously, the legendary Sword of Khashyun, which was fashioned by a sect of ancient Dowutin Sith warriors who deemed that normal lightsabers were for the weak (this old-fashioned blade is still so powerful and dangerous, Dok-Ondar patently refuses to allow it to fall into Kylo’s hands).

And then there is Savi, a junker who partially runs his salvaging company as a front to screen all of the galaxy’s trash for any hidden or otherwise overlooked Jedi accoutrement – particularly lightsaber components, which he gladly helps those touched by the Force build in secret for the day that the Jedi may be rekindled (Savi’s Workshop – Handbuilt Lightsabers being another of the attractions that costumers can partake in at the Star Wars-themed land). Savi’s backstory and guiding principles are particularly noteworthy, as he was a lifelong friend of Lor San Tekka and a fellow member of the Church of the Force. As he himself puts it to one of his so-called gatherers:

"We are gatherers, not Jedi. The flock, not the shepherds. We have no powers, no edict. We can only wait and watch and listen, not guide. We hold a candle but will not light any fuse. We do protect the balance [of the Force], but not always by shifting the scales. This conflict [between the Resistance and the First Order] is far from over. I’m certain we will play our part one day – but not today."

All of which is to say that Kylo Ren may have bitten off more than he can chew in the final months before the end of the Skywalker Saga. With the First Order retaining control, the Resistance weakened but still fighting, and the shadow of Palpatine ready to emerge, the Star Wars galaxy is in a fascinating position after The Last Jedi and heading into The Rise of Skywalker.

Next: The Star Wars Sequels Would Have Already Finished If Disney Followed Their Plan

source https://screenrant.com/star-wars-after-last-jedi-before-9/