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Topic ID: 54
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#0, (S54) In for a Penny...
Posted by Gryphon on Jan-12-07 at 01:09 AM
LAST EDITED ON Apr-02-10 AT 02:00 PM (EDT)
 
9 As the ellipsis in the title suggested, there was going to be a second entr'acte after this one entitled ... In for a Pound, but events overtook us and it was never produced. It would have focused primarily on Kaitlyn's doings on Ishiyama, with the occasional look at what Utena, Challenger's crew, the Repo Men and McCandless's people were up to between the end of this piece and when we pick them up again in The Revolution Will Be Televised.

30 Prof. Schepartz is named for Yale University's Milton Harris '29 Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry (now there's a title), Dr. Alanna Schepartz, who runs the Schepartz Laboratory of Chemical Biology there. No particular reason; I went poking around the Web looking for the names of prominent living chemists and liked the sound of hers. Nothing in Alan Schepartz's demeanor or appearance is intended to imply anything about the real Dr. Schepartz.

177 Naturally, Steve Rogers has one because he's, well, Captain America.

181 May 20, 1943: Captain America receives a commendation from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd President of the United States, for his participation in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.

184 June 19, 1944: Captain America with Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army, in Normandy.

191 August 12, 2388: Captain America with members of Company E, 506th Jump Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, UEDF, immediately following the Battle of Central Park in New York City.

243 Despite the mascot's rather silly public image, it is considered a great honor among White Legionnaires to be chosen to wear the red-striped armor of Chet the Safety Trooper. Having spent a year-long hitch as a Chet looks very good on a trooper's résumé, as it implies that he's considered competent and personable enough to represent the Legion in the full glare of the public eye.

263 Poor the Chief. Not only does his reputation precede him, it's not even very accurate. He's not a womanizer; very rarely is he the one doing the pursuing at all. He just minds his own business and sees what develops.

366 This presentation style is known in IPSF, WDF, and Starfleet circles as "the Scotty Pass", after its pioneer, Montgomery Scott, who first used it to show off the completely-revamped USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) to her commander, Captain James T. Kirk. (As seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

428 Burke also said, "There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue," which Anthy would translate to Latin and put on her coat of arms if she had one.

449 Your average sci-fi robot aspires to be more human. The UF version of Lore aspires to be more Klingon, or so he sometimes claims.

554 I made the UF version of Bastila a Bajoran because her default costume in Knights of the Old Republic quite resembles a Bajoran Militia uniform, as seen regularly on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Obviously Bastila is not a member of the Bajoran Militia; we can assume that her outfit here is roughly the Bajoran equivalent, style-wise, of wearing a dark suit that resembles a military uniform.

557 Bastila doesn't wear a Bajoran earring because, as a Jedi trained in the most conservative surviving tradition, she believes that she has eschewed her cultural background, including what she intellectually views as the quaint and superstitious belief in the Prophets.

560 Bastila's father was the famous explorer Shan Mahar, whose travels in search of ancient mysteries and treasure took him far afield from any formal school. Before she was taken by the Jedi at the age of seven, Bastila received her early education from a 3P-series protocol droid, and even as an adult her speech patterns reflect her first tutor's clipped British dialect.

608 One of my favorite character animations in Knights of the Old Republic, used where male characters would bow.

654 Indeed, since the major civilizations of the Second Epoch were centered around what are today the Outer Rim Territories, a world as far coreward as Bajor must have been considered the back of beyond.

669 Well, technically Prylar Otano's monks found it, but.

716 Bastila's assessment of the Order of the Rose is not unique among Jedi, but she's much blunter about it than most more mature members of that order would be - which is, in a way, one of her virtues, though it's certainly not fulfilling any virtuous function here.

754 Not technically true - Utena was defeated twice in the Lost Tournament, and Kate has beaten her several times - but most of the Midgardian members of the Order don't know much about the Lost Tournament, and her duels with Kate tend to be private.

807 A weapon from Knights of the Old Republic. In UF as in that game, the Echani are a humanoid people who prize martial skill above all other virtues.

815 Byakuro.

836 Bastila's greatest strength in combat - her aggression - is also her greatest weakness as a Jedi.

861 Partly because Utena herself is Force-sensitive, though she isn't consciously aware of that yet; and partly because Bastila is too annoyed to concentrate properly.

909 For all her arrogance and lack of emotional balance, Bastila's still an essentially good person; though she wants to humble Utena, she absolutely doesn't want to maim or kill her.

918 It was true, albeit not quite in the terms Bastila's thinking here. The ancient Mandalorians could make melee weapons capable of withstanding lightsabers, and in the modern galaxy there are some exotic alloys that are, if not lightsaber-proof, at least lightsaber-resistant. They tend to be very expensive, though, and the number of weaponsmiths who can work them with sufficient skill to make useful weapons or armor is very limited (doubly so since very few people in the modern galaxy even bother with melee weapons any more). Of course, the Thorn is a magic weapon, and Bastila's limited experience of the world beyond the Jedi Order does not extend to genuine magic - she would sniff at the very idea.

954 Technically, the "rope-a-dope" isn't a single move, but a style of fighting (named by Muhammad Ali) that involves remaining on the defensive and letting one's opponent exhaust himself, then moving in for the kill - not something Utena is known for. In more general terms, it can be applied to any situation in which one feigns an inferior position, then exploits the enemy's overeagerness to seize the illusory opportunity - better known in fencing and military circles as a feint.

978 Had this not worked, the Thorn would have returned to Utena's hand, but as she found a suitable weapon before her peril was sufficient to trigger that enchantment, it remained where it was.

985 Another move from the Knights of the Old Republic animation set; in the PC version, it's invoked by pressing X with a single sword or lightsaber equipped.

1052 I wouldn't be so quick to say that there's anything Yoda can't do, but then, being underestimated is one of his stocks-in-trade.

1130 As Anne Springsteen will note later, there is very little lost between Mace Windu and Bastila's master, Jason Lock.

1226 The Cygnus Spaceworks D77-TC Pelican aerodyne dropship, manufactured (in UF) by the same company that makes the Lambda-class executive shuttle and the Delta-class gunboat. Pelicans, which can carry a dozen troops and a light vehicle such as a Warthog or Napoleon-class mini-tank, are the standard infantry/light armor transport of both White Legion Special Forces and the IPO Tactical Division. They're originally from Halo, in which they serve the same purpose for the UESC Marines.

1301 In Knights of the Old Republic, Bastila's character class is "Jedi Sentinel", a class which splits the difference between the Jedi Guardian's feat-heavy, D&D-fighter-ish makeup and the Jedi Consular's lots-of-Force-Powers, D&D-wizard-ish setup. Sentinels get middling feats and powers, but lots of skill points, making them sort of the equivalent of D&D rogues. They're not an organized subset of the Jedi Order in the game, though Bastila's own approach to Jedi Knighthood has many elements of the rather self-righteous spin Anne puts on the UF Sentinels' mission.

1307 A Latin proverb, usually translated Who watches the watchmen?

1314 "That guy is so one of the asshole Jedi in UF." I forget who said it when The Matrix Reloaded came out - Ardie or Truss, probably - but whoever it was was so right.

1420 Tuncer is named after former Bungie Studios guy Tuncer Deniz. I think he had left Bungie by the time Halo came out, but he worked on the Marathon games.

1431 I love Tuncer's dialogue. I know the Elites speak English in Halo 2, and I don't even care.

1441 Sgt. Stacker, one of the recurring Marines in Halo, is not to be confused with Sgt. Avery Johnson, the character actually called "Sarge". Stacker is voiced by the real Pete Stacker, a Vietnam vet and voice actor who, among much else, also voiced Captain Keyes in the original Halo and is the guy who says "From Comedy Central's world news headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!"

1560 Valeria comes from E.E. Smith's Lensman books. One of Lensman Kimball Kinnison's closest allies is a Dutch Valerian space marine named vanBuskirk.

1633 A quote from the 1984 cult film Repo Man.

1657 Most of the Repo Men are drawn from the Marines who appear in the background in Halo, but Tucker, Church, and Caboose come from Red vs. Blue. Well, UF-Caboose is actually a composite of Caboose from Red vs. Blue and Father Dougal O'Malley from Father Ted. No, really.

1732 The IPO's regulations - and the Republic of Zeta Cygni's civil laws - regarding the undead were originally formulated to account for vampires, not spectral space marines, but hey, undeath is undeath in the eyes of the law.