sabarte posted:

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I seriously doubt he's a Chiss. Too purple. Maybe...*glances over Wookieepedia* Brigian or something.

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WhillJedi posted:

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Hey Abel! Nice job on the Grievous endnotes - you did a good job outlining all the sources you referenced and I admire the way you molded all the pieces of Grievous' personality into one memorable character. Sorry us fans crack the whip so hard, what with wanting behind-the-scenes references and retcons and such, but we truly can't get enough of your work!

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Thrawn McEwok posted:

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Well, perhaps they took Quarmall's blood and did something with it...?

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Thrawn McEwok posted:

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Speaking of which... did the Grievous chassis still have Sifo-Dyas' Force-sensitive blood pumping round it after the bits of Kalee went squish-burn in RotS?

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Biddybot posted:

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Hey, what is all this discussion lately about whether Grievous's final tally of Jedi kills ought to include this or that particular individual? The heck with arguing over whether he should have just one more kill! This is one time I'm turning to the General Grievous comics series for my version of the 'facts'--I swear I read that some Jedi type there complained that Grievous had been responsible for murdering "hundreds of our brothers and sisters".

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Biddybot posted:

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what can I say...the more bloodthirsty Grievous is, the more I love him!

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Biddybot posted:

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Ahem... Just finished reading through the first two endnotes and am enjoying all the background info, even though I'm not really familiar with a lot of it and am not at all inclined to be a canon-stickler. Hopefully, it'll also help other people appreciate how much work goes into at least trying to keep consistent the background of a character who's already appeared in so many different mediums.

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Biddybot posted:

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I noted some earlier queries about the differing vespid/mantid references for the Yam'rii... That's an easy one to solve IMO. The Yam'rii are aliens, not the products of Earthly evolution. There's not the slightest reason therefore why they couldn't have their own unique blend of characteristics reminiscent of Earth-insect orders...why NOT a mantid that could also inject venom through a proper sting or even just a hollow spine? It would make the Yam'rii all the more formidable as foes, and if they're also in the habit of snacking on the Kaleesh as well as just catching and killing them, then you could further tie in such grisly specifics as having said venom be of the sort that acts by liquifying tissue...a little predigestion of the 'Huks'' food, if you will.

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Biddybot posted:

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Okay, I think I just grossed myself out there, picturing one of Grievous's kids being internally 'liquified', but I'm sure you catch my drift... Aside from that, the only real inconsistency I've noticed myself so far is that Grievous doesn't seem to recognize San Hill in the Warren Fu story. But that's another one that's easily solved. Grievous got bashed in the head during his shuttle crash...instant selective amnesia. Well, that'd be my excuse, anyway!

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Halagad_Ventor posted:

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That is a legitimate possibility, but unless someone is feeling particularly passionate about it, we'll go with Occam's Razor and not McEwok's Claw on this one.

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Halagad_Ventor posted:

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Always the master conspiricist. I specified in Lord of War that every last bit of living tissue from Grievous was gone by the time Necrosis inherits the body.

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Thrawn McEwok posted:

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It was just a random thought - the idea that it was actually Sifo-Dias' ghost in the chassis seemed like something you might have quietly buried down in subtext...

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Biddybot posted:

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To Halagard Ventor now: Thanks muchly for the replies to a post I made a few pages back! I wasn't expecting that and it was very nice of you.

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Biddybot posted:

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I'm also glad you didn't take my whining about wanting to see more alienness with any real seriousness. There's always what I'd most like to see, and then there's appreciating the realities of creating for a target audience, to the client's specifics, and working under a deadline.

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Biddybot posted:

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I try to keep the latter in mind whenever responding to professionally-generated work. For interest's sake, I've come to believe that the number of general SF fans who share my taste for really alien aliens is about the same as the percentage of the populace who find 'bugs' and other invertebrates fascinating and worth studying--just under 1%. The vast majority, I think, want aliens that they can easily relate to without needing to be naturalists or trained diplomats--the 'exotic ethnics' that are really more reflections of various aspects of humanity than alien per se.

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Biddybot posted:

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A lot of fans also seem to like aliens at the weirder, 'goofy' end of the scale, the ones who are obviously NOT all that humanoid, but who nonetheless still behave and emote in ways that make them readily comprehensible...I think of these as the 'real-life' cartoon character types and they're a sort which I think the Star Wars universe has always done exceptionally well, especially of late--I'm thinking here of aliens like Chewbacca, Nute Gunray, Dexter Jettster, and the Gungans.

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Biddybot posted:

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Given his official background to date and the good points that some other posters have made, I agree that Grievous best serves his purpose and appeals to the largest majority when presented as an exotic ethnic of the unrepentent villain persuasion. My own personal view of him is that he has a much less angsty background that's remarkable only for being unremarkable, and that his motivations, especially when a cyborg, are far more ambiguous, but I think that's a version that's really only suited for the printed page, and the fannish page at that. I dare say that far more of Grievous's fans will always be much more interested in how he fights and in who he kills than in how he thinks!

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Biddybot posted:

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Just remembered...I did get one little bit of alien Grievousy goodness of the kind I like in that 'Incredible Cross-sections' book--the entry on his wheel bike mentioned that the control panel he manipulates was set to visually display according to the colour spectrum as perceived by Grievous's species. I don't why I like stuff like that so much, really. I'd probably only ever use it to make some lame gag about humans thinking the Kaleesh had the most gawdawful colour sense when it came to Kaleesh fashions or something of that ilk...

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Biddybot posted:

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And while on the subject, that word-picture of Grievous using his wheel bike to lead a charge of hailfire droids into battle was THE best image for me that's come out of these articles about him to date! I wish some Photoshop genius would take up the challenge of creating the scene using AOTC and ROTS stills--it's such a good one!

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Biddybot posted:

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The only wheel bike image I like even better is picturing Grievous using the machine to mow through a whole wave of advancing clone troopers and other soldiers, but that's mainly me enjoying the guy's bloodthirsty aspects way too much again...

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Biddybot posted:

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One other thing about Grievous's vehicles which you might enjoy...when I first read that he'd called his Belbullab starfighter 'Soulless One', I just about snorted coffee through my nose. I'm sure it's because I'd read, just minutes before, that 'Huk' was a slur meaning 'soulless bug'. Personally, I don't think being called a 'bug' is so bad. To be called 'soulless' by people who are themselves very spiritual, though...I can see the insult there. Why, then, Grievous would apply such an insulting word to his ship...

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Biddybot posted:

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I guess I just instantly visualized this whole little scenario of the Belbullab crapping out on Grievous just as he was about to take out a Jedi interceptor or something and then Grievous being so mad afterwards that he leapt out and booted and swore at his starfighter as soon as he'd landed, using the worst Kaleesh curses he could think of. The name stuck, for the same reasons some people refer to their cars as 'The Rustbucket' or 'That Unreliable B----'... I doubt that this is the sort of reaction you intended when you came up with the idea of Grievous naming his Belbullab, but honestly, I don't know why else anyone would attach what seems to me a pretty nasty monicker to his vehicle!

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Biddybot posted:

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In closing, a serious query: I've been working off the assumption that amoung Grievous's cyborg enhancements are computer components that give him the ability to directly communicate with his droid soldiers and vessels--a sort of machine/organic brain interface and built-in comm net. This is something which I can see giving him a huge advantage during complex battles. I imagine he could also process and analyze ongoing operational data and intelligence far more swiftly than could your average all-organic commander. Does this sound reasonable and has this aspect of Grievous's cyborg being ever even been worked out? I also like the notion of him being able to speak the droid languages of all the droid types under his command, thanks to software packages uploaded into his own 'in house' computer

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Biddybot posted:

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...have this nice scene in mind of him standing in the hangar bay of Invisible Hand, surrounded by Vulture droids in walking configuration and talking to them with that funny machine dialect the Vultures used in ROTS. I'll keep the scene even if this sort of thing is not canon, but it would be neat to know if Grievous really were capable of such things.

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Biddybot posted:

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So--thanks again for all the continued alien cyborg love and interest, and keep those articles and pictures coming! Till the next set of endnotes then...
Cheers!
Biddybot

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Halagad_Ventor posted:

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The Law of McEwok's Claw has always existed, though its identification in this context is entirely new.

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Tam_Elgrin posted:

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Just a headsup - UNKNOWN SOLDIER has been printed in the latest issue of the UK Star Wars magazine, which should be hitting shelves very soon (got mine in the post today)!

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Tam_Elgrin posted:

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That's an awesome mental image, y'know. I like the idea of Grievous being able to speak droidish, too. As long as he doesn't sound like R2-D2...

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sabarte posted:

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Brigian might not quite work, looking at the original source- Daley's Han Solo and the Lost Legacy - references a less near-human appearance with an elongated skull, long limbs and somewhat protruding eyes. It'd be a little bit of a stretch to make the somewhat dumpy Mr. Purple one, but odder species appearance-changes have happened; look at the Bothans or what Knights of the Old Republic is doing to the poor Arkanians.

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sabarte posted:

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And I don't think the individual in question is just purple because of the light though, because there's no hint of yellow in his complexion and the light is orange. Compare with Yoda.

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Thrawn McEwok posted:

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McEwok's Claw being something along the lines of: "The simplest answer isn't necessarily the right one, or the best one, and certainly shouldn't be prioritized just because it's straightforward"?

*sighs*

That definition should be far more terse and aphoristic...

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Rogue_Follower posted:

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If you ever get the chance, could we have an Ortolan named Zog?

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Rogue_Follower posted:

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Obscure reference, of course, to this card and the GFFA-version of a certain scribble on the wall...

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Halagad_Ventor posted:

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Artoo-Detoo... with a Romanian accent.

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Halagad_Ventor posted:

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My high school sociology teacher always used to make an analogy using the "Purple People" whenever he was trying to make a point about race relations. Until this gets sorted out, I will call that Jedi Council member, Mr. Schwartz.

Convenient, no?

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