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Oct 9, 2009 9:46:38 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Oct 9, 2009 9:46:38 GMT -8
I lump all three of them into that bucket (DS9, BSG and B5) for that same reason. That's why I'm more a Farscape guy
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Oct 9, 2009 9:56:42 GMT -8
Post by jbhelfrich on Oct 9, 2009 9:56:42 GMT -8
SIZE Federation: The Federation, as a region, is approx ~8% of the Milky Way. Empire: The Old Republic/Empire spans at the very least an area equivalent to the ENTIRE Alpha Quadrant. Advantage: Empire, in a big way FTL Empire: Hyperdrives are relatively slow and do not allow for combat at FTL, but have greater overall range (remember what I said about Imperial reach?) Federation: Warp Drive is faster and allows for FTL combat. Advantage: Tactically, it goes to the Federation. Strategically it goes to the Empire. Actually, there is an argument that the Empire is in a much more dense galaxy, stellarly speaking, and that it occupies a correspondingly smaller area. See the Falcon able to make it from the Hoth system to the Bespin system in a reasonable amount of time, despite not having a functional hyperdrive. (Some writers have tried to handwave a "backup" hyperdrive that could only make a limited short distance jump. Basically, between this and the Kessel Run mixup, all we can really assume is that Lucas was sleeping though his astronomy classes.) Shield technology in the Empire is surprisingly limited; even a facility the size of the Death Star needs a planetary based generator facility to project a meaningful shield. Capital ships have very limited shield generation capabilities, basically able to project shields over a limited area of the ship--effective against capital ships that can't change facing quickly, but not effective against more maneuverable ships and fighters. Regular use of variants of the Picard Manuver (short range FTL jumps to change facing) would cut the Imperial Fleet to ribbons, particularly if Imperial Interdictor class vessels are ineffective at locking the Federation fleet into realspace (and Federation FTL has no vulnerability to gravity wells that I recall.)
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Oct 9, 2009 10:01:06 GMT -8
Post by jbhelfrich on Oct 9, 2009 10:01:06 GMT -8
See, I loved Sleeping in Light, because that was John's end, after his work was done, rather than a way to end the story (BSG) or undercutting the entire character and series thematic arc (DS9, Sisko having fought for the entire series to be a man rather than a religious figure, and then at the moment of his triumph running off to be a proxy for a god.)
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Oct 9, 2009 10:01:42 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Oct 9, 2009 10:01:42 GMT -8
Yes, but the fact that there are references to "Outer Rim" and "Core" systems assumes a galactic scale, and I'm actually lowballing the Empire's size to Alpha Quadrant equivalency based more on the fact that there are large chunks of the Galaxy (i.e. anything controlled by the Hutts) that Empire has only limited influences on.
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Oct 9, 2009 10:15:36 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Oct 9, 2009 10:15:36 GMT -8
See, I loved Sleeping in Light, because that was John's end, after his work was done, rather than a way to end the story (BSG) or undercutting the entire character and series thematic arc (DS9, Sisko having fought for the entire series to be a man rather than a religious figure, and then at the moment of his triumph running off to be a proxy for a god.) Oh, well, if that's the way you see that issue, that's fine. However, in terms of the end of the Shadow War vs. the end of the Cylon Human conflict, humanity ends up being a pawn (not of the Shadows or the Vorlon, but ultimately that of the First) and Sheridan ends up a messiah proxy and using it to his advantage at every opportunity.
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Oct 9, 2009 10:18:17 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Oct 9, 2009 10:18:17 GMT -8
And here's a couple of more evenly matched sociopathic societies for you to dwell on.
The Empire (Star Wars) vs. the Peacekeepers (Farscape)
and
The Borg (Star Trek) vs. the Daleks (Dr. Who - cherry pick whatever version you wish).
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Oct 9, 2009 11:15:11 GMT -8
Post by jbhelfrich on Oct 9, 2009 11:15:11 GMT -8
Oh, well, if that's the way you see that issue, that's fine. However, in terms of the end of the Shadow War vs. the end of the Cylon Human conflict, humanity ends up being a pawn (not of the Shadows or the Vorlon, but ultimately that of the First) and Sheridan ends up a messiah proxy and using it to his advantage at every opportunity. 'I see where you're coming from in that view, but I guess I see Lorien as more of a Gandalf figure to Sheridan's Aragorn--yes, he's manipulating things, but more as an adviser, still letting the humans (for certain values of human in Aragorn's case) make the decisions, even if they get nudged. And while Sheridan was uncomfortable with the messiah figure, he eventually *chose* to use it to his advantage (the speech on the bridge, becoming Ranger One) compared to Sisko's personality wipe at the end of DS9. *shrug* BS5 just doesn't cross some critical threshold in my head, for whatever reason. I guess I don't have a problem with the Elder of the galaxy pulling strings because he is still a product of the natural forces in the galaxy, as opposed to an outside "divine" force. That there are people who see Lorien and his ilk (or his tools) as divine is a fault of the people who are all too eager to believe in supernatural forces--I can still see the facts of what they base their faith on.
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Oct 9, 2009 11:16:12 GMT -8
Post by jbhelfrich on Oct 9, 2009 11:16:12 GMT -8
But yes, Farscape rocks. I still have a few holes in my DVD collection that I have to plug--a couple disks that were on loan when I stopped seeing the woman in question, and I haven't bought season 4. Very very annoying.
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Oct 9, 2009 17:53:41 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Oct 9, 2009 17:53:41 GMT -8
Farscape does rock.
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Jan 30, 2010 17:40:21 GMT -8
Post by michaelpaciocco on Jan 30, 2010 17:40:21 GMT -8
And here's one to go on....and it actually works very simply tied in continuity from what I can tell.
Aliens Vs. Avatar.
Alien ship. Pandora. Go.
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