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Author	Topic: Journey Through the EU: Disc. Jedi Quest 6: The Shadow Trap
Rogue1-and-a-half Title: Manager: Amphitheatre Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 6/13/05 7:53pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project - Date Edited: 6/13/05 7:57pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Rogue1-and-a-half
	Dark Lords of the Sith – John Whitman Like Tales of the Jedi, an audio adaptation of the previous comic. I’ve listened to a lot of audio drama. When done right, it can be magical. When done badly, it can be hilarious. Guess which one this is? Nominee for most hilariously inept sound bite ever: “Wait, will you really want to touch that control panel once you realize it’s actually . . . a womprat?! chomp* bloodcurdling scream Seriously, it’s stuff like the above that just make you glad to be alive. Okay, the actress reading the part of Aleema is just enjoying herself a little too much, if you get my drift. Isn’t it amusing how on these things every time people are fighting, they do way more talking than anyone would ever do in real life? And they never seem out of breath. I especially liked how Exar Kun and Sylvar had a debate about what species made the better Jedi while they’re supposedly having a sparring match. Is it just me or does Vodo Baas sound hilariously like James Mason? Or rather a James Mason impression as filtered through a synthesizer? Someone needs to tell the actor reading the part of Cay that it does not add veracity to constantly be saying “um” and “uh.” What it adds is annoyance. First time someone blurts “FREEDON NADD?!?” in shock and horror. It won’t be the last. Okay, as stupid as it was for Master Arca to get shot from behind while lecturing his students on being watchful in the comic, it’s even worse here as we hear the droid basically announce three times that he’s preparing to shoot. Does Arca not hear this crap? Does Ulic not? I mean, seriously . . . By the way, these people talk way, way too much during action sequences. Admittedly, in audio drama, this is believed to be a necessary evil. It’s not though. Leave it all out except the sounds of violence. We’ll figure it out. Don’t condescend to us by having the characters say things like, “I’m just killing this droid and then I’ll help you, Cay.” “Thanks, Ulic, these droids have me pretty well pinned down.” Master Arca’s body fades into the Force, leaving only his robes. “Such is the way with Jedi Masters,” Nomi muses. Really? Cause . . . um, oh never mind. Okay, why is Exar Kun so freaking surprised every time Freedon Nadd’s spirit shows up to help him. He literally bellows “FREEDON NADD?!?!?!” every single time. Criminy . . . How do you do a Twi’lek voice? Record the guy reading his lines and then loop it together twice. Ah, the miracle of overdubbing . . . thank you, Patti Page. I’m not sure who propagated the idea that high pitched laughter was frightening (probably Frank Gorshin, may he Rest in Peace), but it’s not true. It’s just . . . not . . . true. And in the final moments, it is also proved that LOW pitched laughter is not menacing either. out of **** stars. -----signature----- Don't be a fool, don't be blind Heart of mine If you can't do the time, don't do the crime Heart of mine
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dizfactor Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 6/13/05 11:10pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	Rogue, i've just got to say: you're a far, far braver man than i. and you still have Jedi vs Sith to look forward to! -----signature----- "Play is going to be for the 21st century what steam was to the 19th century." Julian Dibbell "You gotta love an elite killing force that you can fool by putting on a hat." Gryph
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Kast_Morben Registered: Aug '01	Date Posted: 6/14/05 1:19am Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	<<Anyway, Ulic is grievously wounded by shrapnel when a ship crashes into the bridge of the Republic flagship. Hilariously, this just sprays shrapnel around and doesn’t make anything depressurize or vent into space or kill anyone or anything. Which is not how it would actually work.>> Maybe it was like the consoles on Star Trek that spontaneously explode every time the Enterprise* takes some damage. <<If only the rest of the story had been so bleak and horrifying.>> I'm sure that someone nastier than I would say this was implied with the words "Written by Kevin J. Anderson" on the front cover. I do wish that Dark Horse would reprint all of these in an upcoming super-combo like they are going to do with the Rogue Squadron TPBs. I don't own any of these, but would love to check them out, but the cost of collecting them all doesn't seem worth it in view of the reviews being given here. -----signature----- Thanks to everyone who supported the bid London 2012, here we come!
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Sturm Antilles Title: Former Manager Registered: Jun '00	Date Posted: 6/14/05 2:35am Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	Again...Rogue hates everything. Except The New Rebellion, apparently. Only my most-hated piece of EU... -----signature----- "You're the most compliant rebel I've ever met." - jaya02 Currently reading : About seven different novels at once.
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Rogue1-and-a-half Title: Manager: Amphitheatre Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 6/14/05 2:36pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	I'm telling you, you're going to be shocked at how highly I praise some of the stuff we're coming too, buddy. -----signature----- Don't be a fool, don't be blind Heart of mine If you can't do the time, don't do the crime Heart of mine
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Mastadge Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '99	Date Posted: 6/14/05 3:15pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project - Date Edited: 6/14/05 3:16pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Mastadge
	So at this point, Jedi could be openly married? Well, it’s not too much to except a shift in tradition or even straight rules over, literally, millennia. Except that in Tales #23 story "Shadows and Light," set "three years after the war of Exar Kun," there is not only a Jedi Council as it exists in the films, but a group of Jedi (including another Qel-Droma, natch) splinters in animosity because "Jedi do not behave like this. We do not form attachments. We protect a way of life that we can never have -- that is our sacrifice. 'There is no passion, there is serenity.' Sound familiar?" Not only is that a very dispassionate, serene little self-righteous speech, but it comes from a guy who just slept with some random woman, and who immediately proceeds to stalk off in a rage. This story also spends a lot of time foreshadowing the KOTOR games, which I unfortunately have not been able to play, so I fear I didn't understand some of its main points. . . -----signature----- "This will be our reply to violence: To make music more intensely, More beautifully, More devotedly than ever before." - Leonard Bernstein
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Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 5:05pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project - Date Edited: 6/14/05 5:09pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Excellence
	KOTOR and Redemption are the only comics of that series I've reviewed, and the others are long over due for one. I read Dark Lords yesterday, and still liked it. Has lots of credulity problems, but it's creativity and audacity to dare show something other than the holy Six Starwars Stuff shows it's bravery. The SSSs are sabacc, cantina, Corellians, Twi'leks, Rodians, Tatooine. Just look at Dark Lords! All the exotic aliens, the inventive locations, characters. I say exotic aliens---like Thon, Bnar, Baas. Many of the space platforms there are massive too. The scenery is distinctive, as was the transformable ships. I hate humans, and there were hardly any. Measely two arms and legs, how anyone can write entire books on them is astonishing . . . There was a T-12 droid that looked alot like the T-3 of KOTOR game too. And the cover art was incredible. I long for a comic whose every page is like that. Mmmmm, as Homer says, cover art comics . . . Unfortunately, Sith War was badly done, and just because everyone uses full names doesn't mean Excellence is going too. Sadow was human looking in DLOS, scarlet in those spastic prequels, but it doesn't matter. TOTJ is a gold mine, one they're going to tap eventually. In fact, it's good they haven't, since the decimation of the Jedi in the Civil War is no different to today's NJO Jedi numbers really. I must also point out, Fall of the Sith Empire ended with the empire completely untouched. It was never showed as destroyed by Republic forces. You can still show that, since DLOS says it's been destroyed by then. Comics are the perfect medium for a TOTJ/KOTOR series. A 180 page 6 issue KOTOR TPB is feasible. Or was it? Sith Lords says there's an empire out there. Maybe it relocated secretly? -----signature----- Rock-a-by baby, on the treetop, Beaming with pride, the filth they hold, But when the wind blows, my temper implodes, High above a pit, filled with sharkticons, Down will come hardcover addicts, beaming no more. ©
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Silky Registered: Jun '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 5:21pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	aleema sounds like she was enjoying herself too much?? Well maybe that was due to Nadd's uprising. Sorry guys i had to do it... -----signature----- Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3 - Boris Johnson (a National treasure)
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Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 6:02pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project - Date Edited: 6/14/05 6:19pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Excellence
	Did I see that right---Mas hasn't played KOTOR?! It has an actual storyline, something I thought Star Wars was anathema about these days. The TOTJ continuity is flawless, and you'll see a ton of tidbits of it. And the capper: it's not set in the old trilogy years! What more could you want? -----signature----- Rock-a-by baby, on the treetop, Beaming with pride, the filth they hold, But when the wind blows, my temper implodes, High above a pit, filled with sharkticons, Down will come hardcover addicts, beaming no more. ©
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Rogue1-and-a-half Title: Manager: Amphitheatre Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 6/14/05 6:40pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	3,996 Years Before ANH: The Sith War – Kevin J. Anderson Oss Willum and Crado are Dark Siders now? That was fast. They must have fallen in like ten seconds flat. And Aleema is still alive? I thought sure Exar and Ulic would have killed her after they formed their allegiance. Oh, I see now. She had to be alive because otherwise she couldn’t betray Ulic, now could she? I see . . . it’s all coming together now. A General Mandalore makes his appearance here, leading some shock troops. I think this will come into play later . . . The personal conflicts are interesting . . . Exar is loyal to Ulic and Ulic to Exar. Aleema is not loyal to Ulic, but Mandalore is loyal to her and to Ulic . . . never mind, it’s not that interesting after all. That’s fairly gruesome, those people being blasted to skeletons by massive explosions. And Exar Kun kills Crado because Crado, er, has too much respect for Exar Kun? That’s a new one. Hmm, we don’t see Odan Urr here and I’m hoping he died between the last story and this one, given that the Jedi are fleeing Ossus, leaving the library to be destroyed. One Jedi, desperate to protect some lightsaber crystals from Exar Kun turns himself into a tree with the crystals inside of him. I’m not kidding here. Cay goes up and tries to shoot Ulic down. Hilariously, when Ulic gets the better of him, Cay calls over his radio, “Brother! Stop, I’m going down!” Uh, given that he’s just doing what you were trying to do to him three seconds ago, I doubt he’s going to be swayed. My God, that’s like the third time Cay has gotten his droid arm cut off . . . And, just when we most expect it, Ulic kills Cay. I don’t know why everyone’s surprised. I saw that coming since their first scene together way back in Beast Wars of Onderon. You don’t have brothers in a saga like this one just so your main character can have someone to talk too. Oss Willum is back on the side of the light, by the way. Apparently turning to the light is as quick and painless as falling to the dark. Unless, of course, you’re the main character. Nomi cuts Ulic off from the Force and then says she didn’t know what would happen exactly or how to stop it or reverse it. Um, yeah, that’s a good thing to be using then, ain’t it? And, by the way, Nomi? You had the chance to pull that guy out of the Sith’s lair a little while ago. You didn’t, because you said he had to pay for his decision. I wonder if all the people he killed on Coruscant and Ossus are happy with that judgment call of yours. I wonder if Cay is. And also, you said he had to follow his own path and suffer the consequences. He seems to be doing that, having just suffered a nervous breakdown after having killed his own brother. And NOW, now that the damage is done and thousands are dead, NOW you’re interfering by cutting him off from the Force? Damn, bitch . . . so, basically, you couldn’t interfere in any helpful way that might save lives, but you can hurt him in a completely spiteful and vindictive way now that all the damage he can do has been done? Yes, it’s no wonder the Jedi disintegrated . . . In short, Nomi, screw you and the Sun you rode in on. You are a vindictive, bitter, self absorbed bitch and if anyone really falls to the Dark Side, it’s you. See, here’s the problem with this whole arc. Exar Kun falls to the Dark Side because he’s intellectually interested. I don’t get that. There’s no emotion, no anger, no rage, no fear, no hate. He’s just curious. Ulic falls to the Dark Side because he wants justice. The council argues that he wants revenge, but that’s not true, because he gets to where Satal and Aleema are and kicks around for weeks, trying to learn more. If it was revenge he wanted, he’d have just killed them. He too, like Kun, is interested in learning about the Dark Side. His motives are, if anything, purer than Kun’s, since Ulic is concerned with stopping the Sith. Nomi, on the other hand, gives into emotions of pure rage, bitterness and hatred at the end of this story and commits a truly crippling (both physically and emotionally) act of violence on a surrendered enemy. But she, according to the other characters and herself, DOES NOT fall to the Dark Side. Nomi’s the one touching the Dark Side, not Ulic and Exar Kun. This is idiotic. When she was first introduced, I thought Nomi was a very interesting character. But at this point, she’s a truly annoyingly self-righteous bitch. And I don’t use that word lightly. Not to beat a dead horse here, but these are the worst most ineffectual and anti-philosophical Jedi I’ve ever read about. So, Ulic agrees to lead the others to Exar Kun who has fled back to Yavin. So, at this point, for some reason, they can interfere? Before they said they had to let Exar Kun follow his own path. What’s changed their minds? Seriously, these guys are just annoying. So, Exar Kun escapes them by, I don’t know, possessing the buildings or something . . . this all leads up to the Jedi Academy Trilogy where Kun returns. And as stupid as it looked there, it looks even worse here. I mean what the hell? You might expect Ulic to die sacrificially defeating Exar Kun. Nope. We’ve got one more book to wring out of the poor bastard before we can let him go quietly into that good night. * 1/2 out of **** stars. -----signature----- Don't be a fool, don't be blind Heart of mine If you can't do the time, don't do the crime Heart of mine
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Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 6:53pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	That's why Sith War is a waste of potential, and more issues than Sith chicks in mating season. My favourite parts were the awesome cover arts, and pondering how Odan-Urr dies just by Kun walking in. -----signature----- Rock-a-by baby, on the treetop, Beaming with pride, the filth they hold, But when the wind blows, my temper implodes, High above a pit, filled with sharkticons, Down will come hardcover addicts, beaming no more. ©
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Mastadge Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '99	Date Posted: 6/14/05 6:56pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project - Date Edited: 6/14/05 6:58pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Mastadge
	Did I see that right---Mas hasn't played KOTOR?! I've played most of the other games. I really want to play this one, but my computer doesn't support it, and I'm not willing to make expensive upgrades for the sake of a game. *One Jedi, desperate to protect some lightsaber crystals from Exar Kun turns himself into a tree with the crystals inside of him. I’m not kidding here. This comes in to play later. 4,000 years later. -----signature----- "This will be our reply to violence: To make music more intensely, More beautifully, More devotedly than ever before." - Leonard Bernstein
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Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 7:06pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	That's fair. My GeForce 2 didn't let me play very long. A GeForce 4 cost me nearly $200, but it's worth it, since it'll last me to play games for another decade. Still, it's the one game that's quality in every aspect. Just don't get the sequel, and you'll be happier. -----signature----- Rock-a-by baby, on the treetop, Beaming with pride, the filth they hold, But when the wind blows, my temper implodes, High above a pit, filled with sharkticons, Down will come hardcover addicts, beaming no more. ©
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jaya02 Registered: May '02	Date Posted: 6/14/05 7:26pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	Oss Willum and Crado are Dark Siders now? That was fast. They must have fallen in like ten seconds flat. Anakin (Skywalker) still holds the galaxy's record though, at five-seconds flat. One Jedi, desperate to protect some lightsaber crystals from Exar Kun turns himself into a tree with the crystals inside of him. I’m not kidding here. This comes in to play later. 4,000 years later. Yeah...correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this character come into play in the YJK novel Jedi Under Siege(sp?)?
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Sturm Antilles Title: Former Manager Registered: Jun '00	Date Posted: 6/14/05 8:19pm Subject: RE: Journey Through the EU: A Retrospective Project
	I dunno about that ( still need to read YJKs ), but he's in Dark Empire II. -----signature----- "You're the most compliant rebel I've ever met." - jaya02 Currently reading : About seven different novels at once.
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