Oh Star Wars journal, how I have neglected thee.

Haven't had a whole lot to write about in the last year, I guess.

But anyways, a while back I decided I wanted to make up a Star Wars version of the phonetic alphabet. Here's what I came up with. Suggestions are welcome.

A - Alpha
B - Bacta
C - Corellia
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Fondor
G - Gizka
H - Hutt
I - Ion
J - Jedi
K - Kessel
L - Lancer
M - Mynock
N - Nerf
O - Omega
P - Permacrete
Q - Quarren
R - Rancor
S - Saber
T - Tibanna
U - Ubese
V - Verpine
W - Wookiee
X - X-Wing
Y - Yavin
Z - Zabrak

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IMPORTANT: If you find this via a Google search or something, THIS IS NOT CANON. I made it up, and I have NO ties to Star Wars official types. If this list ends up on Wookieepedia or something as "fact", I will be most displeased. There probably is a canon phonetic alphabet, but since it's not public knowledge yet, I made up my own. All mine, nothing official, thank you.
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B (Bacta) and I (Ion) aren't mine, they're from Labyrinth of Evil. And a couple of them I left the same as our NATO alphabet (Alpha, Delta, Echo) because I couldn't really find anything better... and we already know the Greek alphabet exists in some form in the SW galaxy - see X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Republic Commando, etc.

So yeah, my name is spelled Alpha-Mynock-Yavin. Cool. :D

Just had to report that I now have my very own Scorch action figure. Walmart, I hereby take back anything bad I've said about you - yes, you do have too many people and too many crowded aisles of stuff, but you had Scorch. Yay! I'm still going to keep an eye out for other Scorches, because I know they're rare and I know several people online who might want one, but I only need the one so I'm happy. :)

BTW, I have no internet at home at the moment. I'll be back online in a week or two, hopefully.

Long time no entry. I've been kinda busy and haven't been doing a whole lot of SW-related stuff, that's my excuse. ;)

Anyways, I just wanted to show off my cool clone action figures. :D After my whining about how you can get squat in Canada, solsticedawn was nice enough to buy figures for me and ship 'em here. :) So I have four new figures now: Jango, Cody, Utapau clone, and Bly. Yay, lots of clones!

( Picture! )

They're all lined up on the shelf above my desk, so I can see 'em when I glance up from my computer monitor. :)

I wanted to make up a nickname for my generic Utapau clone trooper, but couldn't think of anything cool. Then I realised I thought of him as "Orange" and it just stuck. So that's his name. :) That's kinda how "Mr. Dude" got his name too. ;)

Now I just need a Scorch! I'd rather not do the eBay thing because... well, blah. And I'm not super-desperate. But I've got a few people keeping an eye out for Scorch for me, so maybe it'll pay off eventually. :) I think I have enough clones now (I'm really not all that much of an action figure person) but I would like Scorch still. (Actually I want Fixer more, but he doesn't exist yet so I'll settle for Scorch...)

Well, while I'm here, bit of a more general update. I don't have Betrayal because I don't buy hardcovers, but I've spoiled myself for it muchly and what I know sounds SO cool. :) I can't wait for Bloodlines!!

I'm re-reading Triple Zero again. Hehe. :D I badly need to update clonecommandos.net too. Especially the fanfic; I have ten stories to add. :o Seeing as the next couple weeks will be busy (my brother's getting married on the 24th, and I'm moving at the start of July), I need to get that done ASAP. (And I'm mostly telling you guys about this need because that way I'm more likely to actually do it!)

Guess that's it for now. Sorry for the slightly-less-than-compelling entry, but meh.

Just two links for you today...

Firstly, if you like Republic Commando music at all, you really should listen to Bart Klepka's Vode An Remix. I love game remixes SO much, but this is the first RepCom one I've come across. Very quality stuff. :) Even if you don't tend to like trance (like me), it's really cool!

And secondly, check out this video: Star Trek vs. Star Wars. Very clever! :D

To the guy I was fighting back in the day and alluded to in this post:

You're a complete and utter chakaar. Please get off the internet.

Note to self: Do not go to forums where di'kute hang out, ever. Even when you're bored. Especially when you're bored. Never again. As I suspected, the cool and detached debater guy was just a mask he presented - he was actually president ringleader di'kut.

Man, I'm wishing now more than ever that I never conceded anything to that fool... but then again, he's not worth it.

No one believes me when I say this, but compared to the US, you cannot find anything Star Wars in Canada unless a movie has just been released. But from my half-dozen visits to the USA, I know that it's a completely different story on the other side of the border. The last time I visited the US (many many years ago, between Episodes I and II, I remember) , I found a store that sold dozens of Episode I posters I never even knew existed. I had some SW posters I'd found in Canada, but that was right after TPM came out and they disappeared about a month later. Not in the US... every place I went, Star Wars stuff everywhere. The US is like the land of Star Wars, I swear. I'm not even on the lookout for rare stuff, I just want the normal stuff - posters, action figures, Pez dispensers. You really have to hunt around to find those here nowadays!

My parents were in Nashville the past week, and I have them trained to look out for Star Wars stuff for me. :D If I'd remembered, I would have had them check out the action figures for the elusive Scorch (which I highly doubt I'll ever find here, and I'm not even bothering to look!), but alas, I didn't remember. Anyways, they bought me two SW Pez dispensers (man, I adore Pez) - R2-D2 and Grievous. I already had another Grievous and a Stormtrooper (both sent to me by an online friend in the US), plus a Death Star one that I found around here. Yay! I still hope to someday get the clone trooper and Boba Fett ones (did they have a Jango Fett one too? I don't remember...) but I'm very pleased that I now have 5 of them (4 unique). :) They also bought me the Ewok Adventures DVD. I've heard some stuff about 'Caravan of Courage' and 'The Battle for Endor', but I've never actually seen them. This should be interesting... :)

I do find it funny that I'm the only one they bought stuff for, and it's all SW stuff. Land of Star Wars, I say!! I love living in Canada because we get almost all the same stuff as the Americans get (movies/games/books released at the same time, Star Wars Insider subscriptions (though super-expensive), etc.) but with a better international reputation (it's hard being the biggest and most powerful) and a less-militant attitude on issues (we're all so indifferent about everything... and cautious). But still... Land of Star Wars! It is tempting, though I don't think I could ever move to the US because I couldn't make fun of Americans anymore. ;) Hehe. (But the US does have palm trees too, which I'm very obsessed with...)

I have three things to discuss today: Hard Contact & hiking, my impressions of Triple Zero the second time through, and some of my thoughts on the "clone wars".

Warning: this entry possibly breaks some world records on length. I ramble, what can I say! ;) And maybe this makes up for my lack-of updating lately. I probably should have split this into three entries, but meh...

( hard contact )

( triple zero )

( 'clone wars' )


If you read all of that, you deserve a medal! :D

(This entry isn't really important to read; I'm posting for my own benefit and probably won't make much sense unless you run in the same fandom circles as I do. I'm also not cross-posting this, though I might link it later.)

So lately I've been watching some Clone Wars battles unfold.

I should probably mention that when I say "Clone Wars" above, I do not mean the war between the Republic and the Separatists in a certain galaxy far far away. No, I'm referring to the war about clone numbers, which has been raging in various places on the internet for 5 months now. Spawned by the Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic, the fighting has re-ignited due to the story 'Odds' in Star Wars Insider (which I haven't read yet, but know the important details about). I am also now a non-combatant, though I do have a vested interest in one side. Yet I'm refusing to allow myself to be baited by the few people on the 'enemy' side, who talk in a quantity much larger in number than they are. But this of course means that I have to avoid some things I'd normally participate in... the war spread to Wookieepedia a couple days ago but I've kept my mouth shut. I guess you could also say that my disillusionment with wikis is complete - I see so many personal agendas there now. It's sad. I already fought one battle over there to keep the definition of 'Fandalorian' non-inflammatory, but I don't have the time and energy to stave off the enemy everywhere.

I should probably mention: "the enemy" does not refer to people who disagree with my position or the canon clone numbers in general. Instead, it refers to people who flame others because of said numbers, take everything personally, boycott certain books and authors, and generally act like immature morons. And while I tend to skirmish with the enemy who disagrees with the clone numbers, there certainly are enemies among the ranks of the opposite point-of-view (my point-of-view, generally) as well. This isn't so much a war about numbers as it is about attitudes in discussing said numbers.

So instead I'm writing about it here, in my own online space... where these things should be kept. Not on forums, not on wikis, not on the blogs and sites of the enemy. Just in my own space, where my opinions can be expressed publicly yet not in a way that intrudes on anyone else.

You know, it's hard to be a non-combatant when I'm so incredibly stubborn. I once got in an argument with some guy on TheForce.net (about clone numbers) and I eventually gave up because he wasn't listening to what I was saying and it was a waste of time. But I think I was too concilliatory about it. He was a jerk the entire time we were arguing - one of those 'logical' jerks who hides behind multi-syllabic words and an arrogant tone, while outright insulting you and what you stand for - but as soon as I PMed him and said I refused to argue anymore because it wasn't fun, and I even congratulated him for "winning" (due to my giving up, I was still clear that I didn't agree with his views), he was all nice to me and said he hoped we'd meet again on the boards under better circumstances. I'm glad I got out of that before it got even worse, but man... there's one little part of me that wishes I hadn't admitted that he could have debated circles around me. I know that I'm not good at debating - anything I care to debate I get very emotionally involved about - but it bothers me that the guy probably thinks he won. I hate losing and don't think I lost... but maybe he thinks I lost. That's very unsatisfying. I like to win and have everyone know it. ;) That's why I'm mentioning this; hopefully it'll settle some of these 'issues' for me and I won't feel like I just gave up and lost. :)

I need some closure on this before I can truly be a non-combatant. This entry will be the closure, hopefully. I honestly don't care if even one person reads this, but getting it all out helps.

More later about hiking/Hard Contact, my re-read of Triple Zero, and other random stuff! :)

So I stopped by the JC Forums today - I only do at most weekly nowadays (all the threads I'm interested in have turned into Mandalorians suck/rule wars and I hate that, so I just stay out the of Lit forum in order not to get pissed off *rolleyes*) - and I saw a big long thread about the short story 'Odds', the mini-sequel to Republic Commando: Triple Zero. I am dying to read that story, but I don't have Insider yet. And probably won't for at least a couple more weeks. :( And while I don't care too much about spoilers, the thread is likely just to be another war and I don't want that to be the way I find out key plot elements. So no, Amy, you must not look in. Ever. *ties hands together* So tempting, but no. Forget that forum even exists, k? There, now it's all better.

Anyways, the real reason I'm writing this is because I noticed some cool continuity things with Mandalorians. So in Kotor, there's this one part on Dantooine where this guy tells you that Mandalorians killed his daughter and asks you to kill them for him. Now if you have Canderous (a Mando merc) in your party at the time, he says something like, "you should have protected her; and you call yourself her father" when he finds out about the dead girl. And you know what? That makes SO much sense when you take into consideration all the Mando culture stuff that's being told via Triple Zero and other sources lately about how Mandalorians view family.

I was even looking through the Mando'a word list the other day and I came across the word ver'gebuir, which means "bodyguard". But if you look at the word literally, it seems to be from 3 words: the verb verborir which means "to hire, buy, or contract", the word ge which means "almost", and the word buir which means "father" (or "mother"). So the word for bodyguard is literally translated as "hired almost-father". That says a LOT about the role of parents in Mando society. The person you hire to protect you is like your father, almost your father... clearly, it's a key thing for Mando parents to protect their children personally. All Mandalorians should know how to fight and protect their families; they don't expect certain elements of society to, like we do with police officers and soldiers.

That's why Canderous wasn't very sympathetic. The man whose daughter was killed wasn't a soldier or trained in combat. He was just a normal guy. Yet to a Mando, if you're capable of fighting physically, you must learn how to and be equipped to defend your family. Combine that with the way Mandos teach their children combat at a very young age (normally 8 years old) and how the most important thing Jango wanted Boba to be was self-sufficient (from the Boba Fett books). The Mandalorians obviously take parenting very seriously, and it's a personal family thing to defend your children until they can defend themselves. To do any less shows you're not cut out to be a parent. "And you call yourself her father," Canderous accused.

Anyways, I just thought it was neat how those completely separate aspects of the Star Wars EU mesh so incredibly well. :) I can't wait till I can replay Kotor II and see how the Mandalorians in that game act. (In fact, it was those Mandos that made me first start liking them! They were the beginning because they were just so incredibly cool. And I love Kelborn. :D)

I was randomly browsing through the Mando'a word list today - I need to get myself to learn some new vocab somehow - and I came across the word cyare (pronounced SHAH-ray), which means "beloved, loved, popular". And it occurred to me - that would be the Mandalorian version of my name. "Amy" means "beloved" or "loved one", so were I a Mandalorian, I could be called Cyare. Cool!

For those of you who like Mando'a, you might be interested in my adventure to translate some of my main Livejournal's layout text. :D It was surprisingly difficult, as we only have a thousand words to work with. But I think I did pretty well.

I've been thinking a lot about the first time I saw AotC, and trying to remember my first impressions of the clones. I hardly noticed the clones at all before I read Hard Contact (that was in March 2005 - hard to believe it's been a whole year now!) but I do recall one thing. The scene near the end when Padme and the one clone fall from the gunship (and Anakin has his semi-tantrum about going back for her)... I remember thinking that we'd seen the last of the clone, as the picture centered on Padme. But then he came over to see how she was and I thought, aww, he's ok, and he's so nice to make sure she's ok too! :) I think that was really the first time I saw a clone as an individual soldier - I didn't see them as people right away, but they weren't just faceless, nameless, and uncaring droids. (A droid never would have gone to see if Padme was ok.) They could think and react to their situation in ways that, well, real soldiers do. :) Just a little thing, and it's probably slightly clouded by hindsight (though I really try to be aware of that nowadays... you'll never catch me saying "I loved the clones at first sight!" because it's just not true), but I thought it was interesting.

I can't wait for the next Star Wars Insider. I want to read Odds, like, now.

I've been replaying Kotor recently. I need to replay Kotor II as well, but I wanted to be uber-darkside just once in Kotor because despite playing it three times prior to this, there were some plot lines that I just couldn't make myself do the darkside option. Like killing the big fishy on Manaan. It was too cool to kill. But I did kill it today. I must say though, there is something very amusing about always choosing the option of "I'll do whatever I want... and I'll kill you too!" when talking to people. It's so incredibly unnecessary that it makes me giggle. Darksiders are funny. But yeah, my dude (male soldier), Vito Giavani (long story), is super-evil and makes the other darkside characters look light. :) I've mostly been using Canderous and HK-47 in this game, because I haven't used them much before. HK is awesomely hilarious, but he's not so good in a fight and thus I haven't used him much before this game. But since Vito can own just about everything singlehandedly (I love soldiers... I normally play as scouts because I like the skills, but soldiers can own a lot easier!), that isn't really a factor. :) And when it is, I just swap him out for Bastila. Vito's old-school though - he uses two swords. Their stats were higher than his lightsabers! Anyways, just one more planet to go (my favourite, Korriban... though it might not be quite as fun when I'm darkside) and then the boring Unknown Planet, and then I can own tons of stuff in the Star Forge. Woot!

Well, I should go do some actual productive stuff now, so re'turcye mhi!

(This entry at my SW.com Blog contained a bit of whining about how I'm too lazy to comment on other people's blog entries today, and a short summary of what I would have said. That's not really relevant on this journal so I snipped it here, but I'll point you there if you're interested.)

I've been re-reading Hard Contact lately and though it's my 4th time through the book, I still keep finding cool things and more quotes I need to add to clonecommandos.net. I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts... though some of them are kind of strange and geeky.

Firstly, near the start when Niner's talking about how Geonosis was a waste and it was an infantry job, not special ops... well, since I've started playing Battlefield 2, I can sorta relate to that feeling. That's the feeling I get when I spawn as sniper and then find out out that we're supposed to be assaulting a flag. It's like... man, I'm not equipped for this. I'm equipped to go off by myself, hide, and kill people when they least expect it, but I don't have the right guns or armour to run straight into a firefight. Or when I spawn as spec ops (my fave class now - I love C4, though I always blow myself up...) and want to get to the top of a building, but then realise I'm not assault and thus don't have a grappling hook. :/ So yeah, kinda a weird thought, but it was what happened. (I actually said to Niner "you should have thought of that before you spawned spec ops!" out loud when I read that! *geek*)

In the middle of the book, when Darman and Etain are eating at the farmers' house and the farmer's wife asks if the Republic is going to help them. And Darman's like "I can't answer that", as his automatic response under interrogation is to never answer yes or no and give no info but his ID number. Well, after reading Triple Zero and knowing a bit more about how he was trained to sustain interrogation, it seems like more than just an offhand comment now. Very cool. I love pieces being put together.

I love when Darman's asking Etain if she can detect droids in the Force, and she start to answer... only to be shot at. And then she goes "obviously not"! Hehe. :)

I still love this quote:
Etain: I find this growth acceleration difficult to understand.
Darman: It's a Kaminoan industrial secret.
:) I love the way all the clones take things at face value in this book - it's refreshing. Especially the way they speak to others, not always sure what they should say and not understanding the motives of those asking. They aren't so naive in Triple Zero... though they really shouldn't be so it's ok. But it's still cool.

Well, that's as far into the book as I am currently, so I'll stop there. In a few days I'll be getting back my copy of Triple Zero, so I intend to re-read it in the near future as well. :) A few of its plot points are a bit of a blur to me, as taking in that many words in less than two days is kinda hardcore. ;)

Ok, so many people who're involved in the online Star Wars fandom have probably heard of the whole 3 million clones debate. This started back when the 'Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic' was released in October 2005. It (supposedly) pinned down the number of clones in the army and a certain part of fandom was like "huh, only 3 million regular infantry clones? how can they defend a whole galaxy?" and other people were like "oh, maybe this happened and they meant this" and others were like "you suck" and then it exploded rather violently. And a few people started flaming the authors of the article (Karen Traviss and Ryan Kaufman) and it really wasn't pretty. Way too much emotion involved. I almost left the TFN forums for good then, but then the war spread to everywhere, including at sw.com, and I was like, "ugh, this sucks so much, can I go kill people?" ... heh. ;) Thankfully it all died down, though there's still a lot of snark coming from certain people, so I have to be careful not to take the bait. I've been involved in drama in other online fandoms countless times, and sometimes it can be interesting - and while never nice, no lasting harm comes from it. This, on the other hand, was different. I'd never experienced this type of thing before. It was vicious.

So recently, Karen's been saying that there's an explanation that ties all this together and makes sense. A solution that no one has guessed yet. (Doesn't really surprise me, as there hasn't been an abundance of thought on this topic, just flared emotions on both sides.) Today on the sw.com forums, she was dropping hints about it. So I applied some brain power...and I think I may just have it. :D I'm not going to say what it is though. ;) Yet. After Odds is out (short story in the next Insider that apparently will explain things), maybe I will, even if I'm wrong. But I wanted to come up with at least something before the answer is handed to us. :) And I like my idea, even if it's not fully right.

I tried writing it out, and it doesn't make as much sense as it did in its pre-language state in my brain... but oh well, that's kinda how it is with everything with me. I still think at least parts of my idea are right though. :) We'll have to see!

Ok, that's all about that for now. Just wanted to say that I'm pleased with myself that I was able to see something I couldn't before! :) It just randomly hit me when I was walking down the stairs this morning. Palpatine is one clever little evil dude - that's all I'm gonna say.

On a more amusing note, rootytheroot and I have been discussing Triple Zero, and specifically, its lack-of Fixer. Fixer is my favourite Delta by far, so I really wanted to see more of him in the book. :( But I don't know many people online who like Fixer at all (everything thinks he's boring... what the heck, dudes, he PWNS), thus Rooty is my main ally in the "Fixer is awesome" camp. Anyways, so we decided that he was off doing his own thing during the book as well. ... Heck, why am I bothering to explain when I can just link the thread (TZ spoilers). :D Let me just say: that picture totally made my day! Go Fixer, pwn that sucker! :D LOL! Amusement factor 10.

Well, there's your fill of fandom for the day! :) I must say, despite the downsides of fandom, I really am very happy to be a Star Wars fan and to share my thoughts and ideas and ramblings online with other people who love it as much as I do. :)

So, what did you all do today? I fought a war on Wookieepedia. I so won though. :P And that guy... it must suck to be filled with so much hate. If I'm ever like that, shoot me.

Uh, don't shoot me if my hate is directed towards haters though, because that happens far too often. ]:)

Let me tell you though, I am starting to get disillusioned with the whole Wiki concept. We'll have to see how it goes.

Anyways... I got new SW comics today! Star Wars Tales Volume 6, which contains the Republic Commando story 'Honor Bound'. (It's very very wrong to write "honor" and not "honour", but it is a title...) It's a much bigger TPB than I was expecting, so that's nice. :) I look forward to reading it. I also got 'The Rite of Passage', and that rounds out all the Clone Wars era comics I was intending to get. (That are out in TPB so far, at least.) Now I need to decide if it's worth getting the super-old Knights of the Old Republic era ones. (Not the new Kotor comic series, the old "Tales of the Jedi" ones. I already know all the stories from the Essential Chronologies, but still.) Any opinions? What other non-Clone Wars comics are worth reading?

I should probably report on my latest gaming endeavours. I played Battlefront II again a couple days ago... the first time in months. (I stopped playing because the plot was pissing me off from a continuity standpoint. Then I decided that the plot isn't gonna be part of my personal canon, so that makes it better. :)) I'm on the 'Attack the Jedi Temple' level, still. I tried in 4 times, and, despite being MUCH better at FPS games than I was (I've been playing so much Battlefield 2 lately, it's awesome), I could not win. The stupid Jedi Masters would just run up to me and slice me into pieces. No way around it. And when I was Anakin, the controls were so flakey that I couldn't be good at owning people with the saber. Why couldn't the controls be like Jedi Knight II? I was at least ok at that. But in Battlefront II, everything seems so random; the feel is so different. Sigh. So yeah, I don't know when I'll try playing that again. Maybe I'll try out multiplayer, but when I'm frustrated by a games controls I don't think it'd make a difference. Oh well, First Strike will be out eventually. And I really need to play Empire At War again. So many games, so little time.

In other news... well, there is no other news, really. Other than the fact that I want to read Triple Zero again. But I lent it out. Woe. Ah well. I've been following the inventory at the nearest Chapters (online), and they've sold 6 copies (of originally 29) since the book came out. I guess that's good! I want a sequel, darnit.

S'pose that's it, out.

So yesterday afternoon I got my copy of Republic Commando: Triple Zero and up until 1800 today, I spent the majority of my spare time reading. Overall, I read 260 pages yesterday (between 1330 and 0300) and the remaining 130 today (between 1400 and 1757). That's a lot of reading for two days (and I don't skim at all!), but it was worth it. So good!

And now comes the time to discuss! Except I haven't collected my thoughts together completely, so I highly expect I'll have more to say later. But as I read, I kept track of some impressions, thoughts, and quotes that jumped out at me, and made note of them. So I thought I'd just post those!

First I'd just like to say one thing: after looking at a book's cover only on a computer screen for many months (and on my countdown timer on my computer desktop), it is extremely weird to hold said book in one's hands. Every time I glance over to see the book, I'm like "dude, it's a real physical object!" ... very strange.

( SPOILER WARNING... proceed no further if you haven't read the book and don't want it to be ruined for you! )

( it's here! )

MIA for the next couple days. I'll come back when it's all over. Re'turcye mhi!

Thought I'd give a little update.

So Triple Zero has started to hit the stores, and unfortunately, I don't have it yet. It's been very hard to avoid spoilers, so I'm basically staying away from everything Star Wars-related online for the next few days... though I've already heard a few opinions about the book on Livejournal so word has started to seep out beyond Star Wars communities. I only hope I can get a copy soon. I went out looking for it today in stores, but couldn't find it yet. I've pre-ordered it from Amazon, but it hasn't shipped yet (and probably won't until its official release date, Feb. 28) so I could still cancel it if I find in the next day or so. I might look again tomorrow! :)

I want it! :D Though I suppose it's a good thing, because I have a lot of things I'm supposed to be doing the next few days, and frankly... they would not be getting done if I had the book. ;)

There has been some discussion on various starwars.com blogs recently about the clones and their humanity (or lack thereof). One of the original discussions was here, and Moose summed up exactly what I wanted to say so nicely over here. So I don't really have a whole lot to add, but a while ago I started compiling a list of things I believe about the clones. (This was as a counter to my entry on Battlefront II where I ranted about how the clones were portrayed. As a follow-up to that: I have decided that I will continue playing Battlefront II as if its plot is NOT canon, because I found it was annoying me a LOT and was making me not want to play. So now it's just a happy alternate-universe game to me, and maybe I'll play it again.) Since it's on-topic nowadays, I thought I'd post the list!

This is what I believe about the clones:
- They are fully human. "Clone" is a subset of humanity, not a separate category.
- They are self-aware. They are individuals with their own thoughts. There is no "hive mind".
- They have freewill. They can make their own choices.
- They can feel pain.
- They can feel emotions, such as fear, elation, and guilt. They aren't as experienced at identifying emotion as many other people are (and remember, they're only 10 years old in AotC... non-clone 10-year-olds aren't usually fully in-tune with themselves and the word around them either), but they have the ability to feel the same range of emotions as non-clones.
- They are not "brainwashed". Unless you'd consider military training brainwashing.
- They are capable of disobeying an order, it's just very difficult for them to do so because of their training. Obeying orders is like a reflex to them - in the same way that we all will remove our hand from a hot stove before we even realise what's happening, they will carry out most orders immediately and without question. That's their job, it's not a bad thing.

Ultimately, the clones are like identical twins. That is the real-life analog. While many twins look, sound, and act similarly, they are separate people with separate experiences. Genes do not tell all - the act of living is primarily what makes a person an individual, not what they inherit from their parents at birth.

Note that I make no distinctions between regular clone troopers, Republic Commandos, and ARC Troopers. Some clones were brought up to think in a more independent fashion, and such behaviour was encouraged, but I do think that at a base level, all clones are human and capable of higher-level reasoning. There are no universal differences programmed in at a genetic level, because genes just cannot determine behaviour that precisely. I'm sure there are some regular clone troopers who demonstrated more creative thought than some ARC troopers. Every individual is unique.

And as a final topic, I'd like to share a bit about my experiences playing Republic Commando today. I've haven't played this game in months, really, but today I was a little upset about stuff and wanted just to escape into a game where I can blow crap up without having to think a lot. ;) Anyways, it was interesting because recently I've been playing a lot of Battlefield 2, which is another (non-Star Wars) first-person-shooter game. Thus my gaming abilities seem to have been re-wired for BF2 and I had a few difficulties playing RepCom. Here's what I noticed:
- I kept right-clicking to zoom in. In RepCom, right-clicking throws a grenade, so I wasted a lot of nades doing this.
- I kept using my mouse wheel to select weapons. This does swap weapons in RepCom, but it doesn't change attachments on your primary weapon, which is what I was really trying to do.
- The main gun is SO weak and takes so many shots to kill anything, even the weenie battledroids.
- Oddly enough, I'm better at throwing nades now. (This is odd because I suck at throwing nades in BF2, and therefore rarely do.)
- I'm much better at moving around, shooting when firing, and using natural cover. I don't just run straight at the bad guys anymore!
- I kept trying to sprint by pressing shift. It feels wrong to go out in the open without sprinting for cover, even though you can take many shots without dying (unlike in BF2).
- When I saw a bad guy, I kept trying to crouch (which works, but has no effect) or go prone (which doesn't work) and zoom in (which throws a nade). These are necessary in BF2 to get good accuracy, but make no difference in RepCom. I guess commandos can shoot just as accurately when they're jumping and running as they can when they're still and lying down. :)
- I've completely lost all my vibroblade reflexes. Enemies rarely get that close in BF2. But I haven't needed them so far in RepCom, because I don't let anyone get close! Though without sprinting, I suppose I'll need these skills back eventually.
- You can't jump as high as in BF2, so some of my ideas of what obstacles one can jump over are wrong.
- I keep forgetting that the clips in RepCom are 'magic' - ie. you can reload anytime and not waste ammo. Unlike in BF2, where you normally don't want to reload if you still have half a clip.

So yeah, I thought that was interesting. I didn't know I could be completely "reprogrammed" in such a short time period! I remember a few months ago, when I was playing Mysteries of the Sith, I was still programmed for RepCom and kept trying to vibroblade stuff. All different now. :) If you can't tell, controls are one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, hurdle I have to jump in playing FPS games. It's never completely natural for me, though I think I do a fairly good job with what I have. I suck, but I do improve over time. :)

Aside note: Can't wait for this! What Battlefront II should have been. :D Battlefield 2 is an amazing game, so a Star Wars mod for it has so much potential. :)

Well, I suppose that's it for now! I probably won't be hanging around here much until after I get and read TZ (the two events will be quite close together, believe me), so until then... MTFBWY. :) See ya.

So the first Mando'a reference guide has been released! Here are the fruits of almost an hour's work...

Ni copaanir kar'taylir Mando'a darasuum

I will provide a translation soon enough, I don't expect everyone to be as crazy as me. :P Though I say maybe 2 sentences of consequence. Ah well. Guess I have my work cut out for me! *more geektastic than most geeks*

Ok, this entry will probably be more philosophical than most, and you may wonder what it has to do with Star Wars at all. I was contemplating whether I should even post it here, but I decided to go ahead. I wanted to touch on this a bit because it's not too often that I'm able to write about serious stuff in a semi-coherent way. And all this is very interesting! Well, I find it interesting, you may disagree. :)

I like thinking about stuff. Not necessarily philosophical questions like "what is life's purpose?" and the like, because it bothers me that so much of traditional philosophy can't be proved one way or the other... and when it can, half the time I disagree with the starting premise so the results don't mean anything anyways. But no, I like thinking about issues I can see both sides of, and sort of letting them bounce around in my brain until they balance out and I can make sense of them. This is not a short-term thing, nor something where I lie around on my bed for hours just thinking. No, it's just a context I try to view the rest of life in. If I'm currently contemplating something, I will be on the lookout for events, opinions, and interactions that go along with the way I'm leaning on an issue, or be the total opposite. Each issue I'm thinking about at a particular time (there's normally 2 or 3) is like a lens that I can view life through. To use a computer analogy, these issues are things I keep in RAM all the time. As I interact with other people and experience life, I can gain new insights into these problems by looking at the current situation from as many perspectives as I have stored away. In the past, this has helped me figure out exactly what I think and believe about certain things, and overall has helped me to know myself better.

For example, many of my issues lately have been military-related, and this causes me to pay special attention to situations I come across in fiction or real life that might be relevant (for example, soldier characters in Star Wars, and how they make their decisions, and how they're portrayed by the authors).

(One quick example of something I have pretty much resolved now? My issues with first-person-shooters. I've never really liked "violent" games, and I'm also someone who likes to take games seriously. It makes it more fun. But playing games where you go around killing people... it just made me uncomfortable. I avoided those games for years, playing them only at LAN parties and even then, only Star Wars ones where the focus was actually lightsaber combat - which didn't seem as bad, because lightsabers are another step away from reality and thus it was more detaching. But after a lot of thinking, reading, and talking to others about it, I know myself better now, and I know more about how these kinds of games affect me. I don't see them as dangerous anymore, because I'm more aware of myself. So now I play Star Wars FPS games on my own (RepCom, Battlefront II) and at our last LAN party, I played Battlefield 2... and it was very fun. That would have been unheard of 3-4 years ago. I don't like the FPS genre enough to play a lot of its games, but I don't think I have issues with it anymore - which is a very good thing because it was very... distracting before.)

So anyways, there are two of these issues I've been thinking a lot about over the past months. One of them is how much intent should be taken into consideration when someone causes an undesirable event. (If you don't mean to do something, should you be off the hook? Or should it only be what you do that matters? And to what degree either way?) I don't want to discuss that one too much here because it's not related directly to Star Wars (yet), but I find it very interesting... especially since most of our legal system is based around intent.

The second issue is one involving orders; I guess mostly in a military situation, but I suppose it could be generalised beyond that as well. And more specifically, how can responsibility be assigned in these cases? Knowing that humans are social animals practically programmed for compliance, how much blame can be assigned to someone for carrying out orders deemed 'wrong' by others? Where and how does a single soldier draw the line on what orders to follow and what orders to disobey? And how much blame should be assigned to the authority giving the orders - even though they're often detached from the situation and don't have to do the 'dirty work' or witness the direct fallout of their orders? The diffusion of responsibility in situations like these can be astounding. It's a very interesting thought-puzzle and I definitely have a lot more thinking and reading to do before I can come up with any sort of answer.

Anyways, yesterday we were watching an episode of Stargate SG-1 that dealt with these issues a bit, and that's what reminded me about this. See, when I read Republic Commando: Hard Contact the first time, there was one part that really took me aback, moreso than in any other Star Wars book. (Though, oddly enough, I then forgot about this particular scene until yesterday, probably because I couldn't really come up with an answer so I stored it away for later contemplation... I do that a lot.) So I thought I'd share it here.

Scene: The clone commando Darman had just captured the Separatist scientist Uthan in the enemy facility, which was rigged to explode. He finds out that she had four scientists working for her, and inquires to his superiors whether they were to be apprehended as well. The answer comes back: no, not required.
Uthan: They were just following orders.
Darman: So am I.

My first thought upon reading that was to say "that's a good point" to Darman. Because I'd never thought of it that way before. It seems very distasteful to me that they'd leave the other scientists there to die. (Yeah, they were the enemy and working on an anti-clone nanovirus... and I know that "not all soldiers wear uniforms" and all that... but still.) Especially since they were just following orders. So some of the responsibility should diffuse to their superiors. Yet it wasn't Darman's place to make that call - he had his orders too. There's a weird looping thing happening here, with the two sides almost being mirrored. It never really hit me until that moment that there can never really be "good guys" (using the traditional definition) in war. It's the little things that differ between the sides, not the big things. Fascinating.

The people who say Star Wars is mindless light entertainment that can never make one question the important things in life? They have no idea what they're talking about. :)

( just finished swarm war... spoilers, duh :) )

I don't think this entry is organized enough to crosspost to my Hyperspace blog... haha. The problem with that blog is a ton of people who aren't used to reading my entries will come and read just one. And to read this entry - they'd probably just be like "WTH, she's nuts" and move on. They wouldn't be wrong in their assessment, but yeah. Sometimes it's better to just type as it's in my brain, and you really have to be used to the way I think and type - and willing to actually converse with me about it - for it to make any sense. :)