FortranDragon

It matters because Boudicca didn't show she was a general. Used popular unrest to her own ends, yes, but a general, no. But, for the sake of argument, let's say she was a general. You have her and Joan of Arc. How many more women throughout history can you name? Count them and then count all the men. If you compare the two then you'll most likely have a statistically insignificant number. Thus, it would require a female Revan to have an extraordinary background to have become a general. [side note: Since PCs are supposed to be extraordinary, building that type of background for female Revans would be a huge bonus. It would make a female Revan that much more potent than a male Revan. ] To wind back around to my initial point, when people tend to view Revan as a man by default or even canonically a man, then they are doing it quite rationally given what humanity actually does in these situations. Bioware did the female Revan a disservice by emphasizing just how much more incredible she would be over a male Revan. (It would also have been fun to see that fact stick in the Mandolorian's craw. ;-) Their arrogance would have gotten an even bigger shock I bet.) As far as overpopulation goes, you have to be kidding me. Hyperdrive makes overpopulation effectively a non-issue. While a planet might be a 'big-city planet' a la Asimov's Trantor, it wouldn't be a common thing. It is just too easy to get up and live somewhere else. I'd also point out that the Celts were groups of tribes, not nations. Vercingtorix (sp) was the first to really try to wield some Celtic tribes into a nation. Unfortunately he had to deal with Caesar...

I think Chris stated that if you take the 'the heck with who Revan was' option in the Atton conversation the game defaults to a LS Male. Since the player chose to opt out of deciding Obsidian had to go with some choice to make the game work.

Yet women place a great deal of emphasis on their own looks. For me, the reason I don't play a woman in the games is that I'm not interested in playing some arbitrary character. I'm playing the game as a bit of escapism _as myself_. A bit of wish fulfillment, as it were. (This is also the reason I don't play Dark Side characters. YMMV.)

Cosmopolitan. ;-) Female-oriented stuff uses sex appeal just as much as male-oriented stuff. Sex/physical attractiveness is effective across the genders.

Thus you reveal how simple it is to conceal information from you in books. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But how many female generals have there been? Boudicca is less a general than a rebellious queen. She lost to the Roman governor of Britain and then committed suicide a la Cleopatra. Now, if she had freed Britain and kept the Romans out by military might then you would have a case for women generals. Also, I would like to point out that talking about 'Celts' isn't quite an easy task. While Celtic is an ethnic group, it covered a wide range of land and several thousand years. Treating 'Celt' as a monolithic whole doesn't work well.

Ah, but the stims and implants also raise up the male abilities so the quantitative different would remain. ) Also, more importantly in combat you run of stuff and/or it breaks down so you're back to needing to be able to rely on your natural physical abilities. I agree with you on the blaster rifle shooting ability. However, when you consider that soldiers are not only carrying that, but around 80+ pounds (36+ kilograms) worth of equipment into combat raw physical ability plays into the equation once again. The Force changes things, definitely, but I'm more considering the average soldier, not Jedi. The Jedi are more like the old Roman Army military tribunes: unelected officers serving their time. If the Force affects men and women equally then men would still come out ahead (assuming the same Jedi class). I have no idea what is canon because if the Force affects people differently based on race and/or sex then all bets are off. An interesting discussion. :-D Thanks for some good comments.

You'll get no argument from me about women leaders. Where I work all of the managers (line and above) are women. There is, however, a difference between leadership and being a general. Generals tend to be male because combat soldiers tend to require abilities (physical strength[1], testosterone drive aggression, endurance, etc.) that are much more common in men than women. I'm not saying women can't, it is just that it takes an exception woman (eg, Joan of Arc) to get there. Note I said "general". Admiral Dodonna was definitely plausible because capital ship-style naval operations wouldn't require the same physical attributes a soldier needs. [1] As an example, basic training requirements for women in the armed forces is easier _physically_ for women than it is for men. When the two had the same requirements women ended up with many more injuries.

My late wife was English and had that headstrong stubborn streak that reminded me of Bastilla, so Bastilla had quite the appeal. I did want to tell Bastilla to act her age ... until I remembered she was. :-D

:chuckle: There are many more men than women at the high-end of the intelligence scale. Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, there are also many more men at the low-end of the intelligence scale. Balance, even. ;-) I also liked how Kotor 1 showed that even for all of Revan's subtly and brilliance, Revan was still taken out by Malak's application of brute force. You can get so lost in your webs of strategy that the _now_ will catch you off guard. You can see the same flaw in Kreia in her actions.

If you're willing to accept that nothing you did actually made a difference, yes. I found the DS version especially strained at times, like Korriban for example. They managed it because they didn't handle the consequences of KotOR1. They just skillfully ignored them. It wasn't a bad job, it's just that it's the wrong job for the situation, and they painted themselves into a corner. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, canonically the movies show that nothing Revan did made any long term difference. ) As far as Korriban goes, Sith self-destruction seemed to be dealing with the issue quite in the character of the Sith promotion path...

But they would have to if they continue in this way. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> TSL's ending wasn't a galaxy-shaking one. It was more of a personal journey for Exile, so the third game doesn't need to invalidate the second one's ending. Remember, destroying the force was Kreia's goal, not Exile's goal (whatever it may be). Amusingly, one of the benefits of the broken end game for TSL is that you can go several directions from it with a little hand-waving. As long as the continuity is plausible -- it doesn't have to be perfect or cover all permutations, just plausible -- given the events of TSL, KOTOR 3's designers have a fairly wide open canvas. If you include Revan and Exile, then the problems are more of handling Revan + Exile (LS/LS, DS/DS) or Revan vs Exile (LS/DS, DS/LS). Which is similar to the situation TSL had to deal with. The third game could even quietly gloss over the stuff TSL dealt with concerning KOTOR 1.

I thought Obsidian handled the consequences of both Kotor 1 endings nicely. In the LS ending Revan remembers something and leaves everyone behind to go deal with it. Because of the Jedi Civil War the Republic is exhausted, fragile, and struggling to rebuild. There are some Sith left, but given their nature they are fractious and divided amongst themselves. No Dark Lord has arisen. In the DS ending Revan remembers something and leaves everyone behind to go deal with it. Being a smarter Dark Lord he makes sure only he knows how to use the Star Forge properly (waiting for his presumed return). Without a Dark Lord force-choking the Sith into line they are fractious and divided amongst themselves. Given an unexpected reprieve the Republic, exhausted and fragile, struggles to rebuild. While the details are somewhat different the end result can be the same. Real world history is like that at times: succeeding events can make earlier events irrelevant. That said, I don't mind them playing this card _once_ in a game series. Using it repeatedly would be a Bad Thing .

Actually, that reminds Most Holy of a fitting parable. Fetch a pen, Boobah! What Most Holy is trying to say is: Giving people a cameo of Revan is a little like throwing him from a rooftop. As for your point about the title, Most Holy will take the liberty to quote himself, because Most Holy is above shame: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It depends on how it is done. If it is a case of where Revan and Exile tried and failed to stop The Big Mysterious Threat then you could get away with cameos. Though I imagine most would be excited to have them join your party. (You really can't start out with either for game mechanics reasons since a big part of the Kotor/D20 games is leveling up your character. That means starting with a fresh face at level 1.) Also, as a franchise Kotor is about a series of three interlinked tales. Just like the two sets of movies. (As an example, breaking direct continuity helped kill the Ultima series.) People _like_ to have more of the same, interesting variations on a theme.

Which part? The 'Most Holy' bit or the rest? 'Most Holy' is a reference to when Cerebus (the comic book character ;-)) was the Pope.

Most Holy ;-) would have a problem with marketing and most of the fans if Most Holy broke direct continuity. This is, after all, Knights of the Old Republic, not Tales of the Knights of the Old Republic.

I'd glad you did have the courage to share your drawings. It's never easy putting your creation out there because someone will be an idiot about it. (Fortran's Internet Law: Someone will be a jerk because you can't reach through the screen and punch them in the nose. ;-)) Keep going and ignore the naysayers. Life's too short to give them any heed. Edit: Fixed a missing quote tag. My oops.

what humorous appropiateness? I know that HK stands for hunter killer, but is the 47 significant or was is just a random number than BioWare came up with? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> AK-47. *The* classic Soviet assault rifle that got shipped through out the world. Whenever you see an insurgent/rebel/revolutionary/freedom fighter in a picture 99% of the time they have an AK-47. It is legendary for its ability to go through hell and still function. Quite appropriate, as I said, for an assassin droid.

To me it was glaringly obvious that Goto was a droid after the first cut scene, given that "goto" is an infamous programming command. ) Sadly, the name just doesn't have the humorous appropriateness behind HK-47's name.

Be wary of that. It can lead one to see problems where there are none. The old saw of 'if all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail'. You have to look at the entire situation. Does the game/story have the characters a certain way because of their sex/race/etc. or does it flow from who the character is supposed to be? Men *and* women can be weak, dependent, and/or submissive. If it comes from their background and isn't just because of their sex, then it isn't discrimination. After all, one of the classic themes of fiction is a person triumphing over their weaknesses (or failing hugely because of their deep flaws). Games have a harder time with this situation simply because you don't have the time to explore the depths of a character as you would in, say, a book. Most people just want to play, so characters tend to be delineated in broad strokes.

I think you are looking for discrimination where there is none. --- Handmaiden fighting naked is silly? Tell that to the ancient Greek athletes. ;-) They generally competed naked. It is simply a _cultural_ thing for the Echani. You need to view what is happening there through Echani eyes, not our culture's eyes. Don't forget, too, when you fight Handmaiden you're naked, too. It isn't she's naked and you aren't. You're the one meeting her on her terms. --- Visas was the last survivor of her world. She was also captured as a young child and raised by Darth Nihilus. Do you really think Darth Nihilus was going to raise her any other way? I kind of doubt a Sith Lord is going to want a spunky, independent-minded underling given the Sith promotion paths. Darth Nihilus took the Jedi custom of removing a child from family influences and twisted it to his own ends. He would want her to be weak and submissive. Until Visas met the Exile I just can't see where she would have been exposed to the type of environment that would help her be a strong willed person. Visas situation is appropriate to the *story*. If you are going to claim discrimination then you are going to have to show us how this is so given the background facts of Visas and Darth Nihilus. --- Kreia looks to be the most atypical Star Wars character. (As far as I know. I'm not a big Star Wars expert so any correction is welcome.) Given Kreia was a Sith Lord and those have been all (?) male previously she's runs very much against the grain. She's strong willed and determined to get her vengeance no matter the cost to anyone. The fact she manipulative fits her character as a Fallen Jedi. She has no compunctions about using all the tools in her arsenal. Darth Sion only beat her once, arguably. In the flashback it took Sion and Nihilus both to stop her. That's pretty powerful of Kreia if neither wanted to face her alone. Arguably, on the ship Sion beat her, though he had a light saber and she did not. Even then she still managed to escape after getting her hand cut off. That looks more a stalemate than a defeat to me. You're also ignoring the fact she toasted three Jedi Masters at the *same time*. If that isn't raw power I don't know what is. Kreia simply wasn't a person to go in saber-swinging. She liked to wait and use her power to nudge things towards her ends. A Jedi/Sith way of apply just enough 'pressure' at the right time/place to achieve her ends.

Mira made me laugh. In real life I'm old enough to be her father so the age comments were amusingly spot on. That made Mira seem more like a friend's kid sister than a possible love interest. (The youthful sense of invincibility when she stated that she would be 'top dog' just added to that.)

Umm, no. Some of us guys lesbian cops like strong and independently minded women. That's why I voted for Handmaiden. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Fixed. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> :chuckle: An area of mutual agreement. )

Umm, no. Some of us guys like strong and independently minded women. That's why I voted for Handmaiden.