Fun with Yoda quotes! I'm not done reading yet, but I like the playful mischief you've been putting into Yoda in this series quite a bit.

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Chris can't handle chemicals

Danish? How about a large Mountain Dew and big-ass tub of popcorn instead?

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

Ben,
This serial has been nothing but pure enjoyment for me. Many thanks to the team.

Brian
While Eris is competent, for real Chaos seek Arioch.

Blood and Souls!!

Well, originally Alaia was going to actually run into someone, but I decided that wasn't terribly Jedi-like. Then I decided that whoever was going to avoid her should do it in as cinematic a manner as possible, just to further counterpoint the fact that she's so intent on her errand that she doesn't notice. It was a short jump, no pun intended, from there to Pete Spideying up onto the ceiling.

As for why he's a Jedi Master, well, this is an older, wiser Peter Parker. He's had his emo phase, and now he's settled into his role and is doing the best he can to help as many people as possible - because, as every Jedi Master knows, with great power comes great responsibility.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Interesting thing, perhaps, is that I didn't click that for a moment.
After all, we'd just a few moments earlier seen Yoda run across a
ceiling. Now, admittedly, this was YODA...but if he could do that,
why wouldn't an 'ordinary' master(after all, there is nothing ordinary
about ordinary Jedi masters) jump up and stay on the ceiling?

/MoonEyes

Jumping to a ceiling is a trivial chore for a Jedi Master, true. Running across one can be achieved with great focus and/or low body mass (and because it tickled my fancy to have Yoda, of all characters, rockin' the wuxia stylee a little). Hanging from one with no visible means of support while stationary for several seconds? Not a stunt you'll see many Jedi performing, or even attempting. It's not a "natural" use of Force levitation; much more intuitive would be to jump out of the way to a safer normal location, or possibly levitate in mid-air, rather than clinging to the ceiling.

Master Parker possesses abilities beyond those conveyed by the Force, but this is hardly unusual in the greater scope of things. Any Rodian Jedi, for example, has the ability to sense magnetic fields, and any Vulcan Jedi has enhanced telepathic abilities and superhuman strength. Parker merely came by his extranormal-but-non-Force-derived abilities through accident (he was bitten by an accidentally irradiated spider while on a tour of a Photon lab during a school trip to Ragol) rather than species heritage.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

*Bows to the Almighty Master*

That... Is awesome. Any chance that, if we see him again, that we'll see any Getter Radiation related abilities (as opposed to the usual Spiderman abilities)?

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

There appears to be no direct link in this case. It seems likely that the Getter rays, which tend to exaggerate natural characteristics of the items and lifeforms they come into contact with*, are responsible for the spider-like traits passed on to Mr. Parker in the first place and little else. After all, Parker himself was not exposed to abnormal levels of radiation.

Interestingly, though, he does seem to have inherited a quality similar to the often-observed tendency of Getter rays to react to emotional stimuli: if he lacks confidence in his powers, their effectiveness seems to fade somewhat.

--G.
* An obvious example of this phenomenon is IPO scientist R. Bruce Banner, in whom massive irradiation with Getter rays produced a sort of wildly exaggerated overt physical expression of certain deep-seated psychological issues Dr. Banner possessed before the accident.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Hey, my hat's off to the man. ^_^

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

Hulk hate Laws of Robotics! Smash puny Asimov!

-z

This cliffhanger REALLY leaves me wanting to know how Vader will regard his new, restored self in Part IV. And it's very interesting indeed to know that Queen Padme is so confident of him that she has already made him a member of her court. (Which makes me wonder how he is going to introduce Rei to Naboo society post-Blades...)

-Joe-

-Joe-

Oh god... I can't resist...

"Is it live, or is it Eyrie?"

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

I'm seriously considering adding a "12" to my excellence meter.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."

Heh. Amusingly, bits of it - like the earliest, much less fleshed-out draft of Vader's duel with Obi-Wan in the ruins of the Atlantean palace - were written long before Episode III - or, heck, even Episode I - came out, when all anyone had to go on when contemplating Vader's "origin story" was the sketchy fan legend about volcanic pits of fire and whatnot. In fact, I believe the earliest rough of that scene pre-dates Road Movie to Naboo entirely - goes back to the sort of paleozoic time when the first Jedi Len story was still set in about 2420, still called Road Movie to Berlin, and there was no Emmy.

>Now if you can only decide if Padme is going
>to go for Len (my money) and thus cause one A.S. to got absolutely
>insane (well, more insane) then he currently is.

Well, two things here:

1) At the moment (the fall of 2412), Padmé is about 14½ years old - about the age she (if not Natalie Portman) was in Episode I - while Len is 21 and Anakin-from-Tatooine is 19; and

2) Anakin-from-Tatooine has never met Padmé, so he wouldn't be all that likely to care either way. :)

>Also, props for revealing finally, that Anne Springsteen is Atin-Vae.

Well, I mentioned it in a "memo from the Jedi Council" that got posted up in UF General a while back (announcing her nomination to the Council), but yeah. I wasn't really hiding it, per se, but there wasn't a graceful way to make it clear up until that point.

As to where she got her "Jedi Master name", well, that's a story for another time, but it's worth noting that "atin" is Mandalorian for "stubborn". :)

>If she's a master does this mean she's not dating White
>Legion boy?

Not necessarily; Jedi Masters in the modern era aren't prohibited from having personal lives (though their very busy lives often make it difficult in the extreme). Then again, we've seen no direct evidence that they were dating, as such, before. He took her to lunch on Qo'noS, and in both their appearances together they obviously enjoy each other's company, but that doesn't automatically mean anything serious. Besides, I mean, it's not like Jay doesn't have a job that keeps him pretty busy too.

>I am aghast. I missed Master Parker's entry into the UF universe.
>Many thanks to the other posters who pointed it out. And of course,
>to the authors for letting one of the coolest, underappreciated, and
>overabused characters in the Stan Lee Canon show up, if even in cameo.

Heh. The whys and wherefores of Pete's cameo have already been covered elsewhere, so I won't repeat it here, but you're welcome. :)

--G.
"I used to be you, Harry. And lately I've been missing me, so I asked Yoda if I could room with me again and he said sure."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

(walks away whistling nonchalantly)

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

Given this... I wonder if Master Parker has a wife (and if she's a blond or a redhead :) ). And, if so... does he have a daughter named May?

God, I hope not.

To paraphrase, I think it was Harlan Ellison:

When Tom DeFalco dies, and goes to the place in Hell reserved for people who destroy great comics, his head will be above the surface of the lake of fire... because he will be standing on Fredric Wertham's shoulders.

(I'm a Simonson fan. But you could guess that, couldn't you?)

--The Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"

I think it was everybody I watched Babylon 5 with in GweepCo groups back in the day who said, every time his name appeared in the credits:

"Shut up, Harlan!"

Seriously, dude. It's a nicely turned phrase, but if you look in the dictionary under "pompous windbag", you'll see Harlan Ellison's picture in the margin.

* True story: Back in its early days, the Sci-Fi Channel used to have little bumpers, spoken essays by sci-fi authors and futurists and the like, to fill in time between programs. One day my friend Andrew and I were watching something, or maybe we just had the TV on and tuned to Sci-Fi in the background, and Harlan Ellison came on and ranted for about a minute and a half, without seeming to pause for breath, about how the Internet was irrelevant and computers were useless and he still did all his great writing about the bold future of humanity on a typewriter, and that's the way it worked in his day and they liked it.

At the end, Andrew turned to me and deadpanned, "Translation: 'Wah. I can't write good cyberpunk.'"

Besides, I like Spider-Girl. I hardly see how an alternate future continuity can be seen as "destroying good comics". It's not like what goes on there has anything to do with the mainstream Spider-Man comics being crap.

I'm not saying I've necessarily thought Master Parker's development out that far - after all, he was a 30-frame cameo - but I have enjoyed that title in the past, DeFalco or no DeFalco. Hell, the first story arc had a cameo by the Phil Urich Green Goblin. How can you not love that? How can anyone who loves puppies and little children not like the heroic Green Goblin and mourn his disappearance?

But don't go by me. I like Araña: Heart of the Spider too, and not only am I way outside the target demographic for that action, her development story is marked by an example of the most blatant sort of 1950s-style tokenism. I have this strange habit sometimes of not letting regrettable real-world baggage drag down my enjoyment of a creative work.

Yeah, weird, I know, but there you go. I still think We Were Soldiers is the best Vietnam War movie ever made, too, and the apparent fact that Mel Gibson has a few screws loose and is generally a guy I wouldn't want to hang out with is irrelevant to my enjoyment of his performance in the film.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Oh, I pretty much agree with you as far as Harlan goes. I just liked that one phrase so much I stole it off him. (Or not, I can't remember for certain.)

>At the end, Andrew turned to me and deadpanned, "Translation: 'Wah. I
>can't write good cyberpunk.'"

Owned.

>Besides, I like Spider-Girl. I hardly see how an alternate
>future continuity can be seen as "destroying good comics". It's not
>like what goes on there has anything to do with the mainstream
>Spider-Man comics being crap.

Well... it's like this. Spider-Girl, per se, is I must admit the best thing DeFalco's written that I was ever able to bring myself to read.

But my view of everything he's done has been irredeemably tainted by the absolute reeking hosejobs he pulled coming in after Walt Simonson on both Thor and Fantastic Four. He didn't just do the usual new-author thing of clearing himself enough room to tell his own stories -- he systematically and with malice aforethought tore everything Walt had done to shreds, stomped on the shreds, and set them on fire. (Going well past Simonson's tenure in both cases, nearly all the way back to "pure" Lee and Kirby, but Walt was freshest in my mind.) And went on to produce drek where once had been glory.

If I could move past that, I might even be able to enjoy the tales of Mayday Parker. But... I can't. I'm not proud of that, but there it is. The mere mention of any DeFalco original characters causes me to cringe in fear and loathing.

(Then there was his bizarre and unholy statement that "Sleepwalker is Sandman done right." WTF?)

That said, if anyone stands a chance of getting me to like some version of the character, it's you guys. :)

>I'm not saying I've necessarily thought Master Parker's development
>out that far - after all, he was a 30-frame cameo - but I have
>enjoyed that title in the past, DeFalco or no DeFalco. Hell, the
>first story arc had a cameo by the Phil Urich Green Goblin. How can
>you not love that? How can anyone who loves puppies and little
>children not like the heroic Green Goblin and mourn his
>disappearance?

Word.

>But don't go by me. I like Araña: Heart of the Spider
>too, and not only am I way outside the target demographic for
>that action, her development story is marked by an example of the most
>blatant sort of 1950s-style tokenism. I have this strange habit
>sometimes of not letting regrettable real-world baggage drag down my
>enjoyment of a creative work.

Happens every time I read a John Ringo novel. :)

>Yeah, weird, I know, but there you go. I still think We Were
>Soldiers is the best Vietnam War movie ever made, too, and the
>apparent fact that Mel Gibson has a few screws loose and is generally
>a guy I wouldn't want to hang out with is irrelevant to my enjoyment
>of his performance in the film.

Likewise for the Mad Max films, here.

ETA: Let me mutate a classic LSH line to sum up my opinion of Mr. DeFalco's body of work:

Hate Lyja. Hate Eric Masterson. Hate, hate, hate.

--The Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"

Heee! I could totally see Chris Knight as a Jedi. And the consternation he'd cause.

Chris is...busy. But, as Alton Brown might say, that's another show. :)

	Chad Collier Smirking Kilrathi The Captain of the Gravy Train

Hmm ...

_He's_ a weird-science rockstar in a world of magnets and miracles.

_She's_ a scrappy little android Valkyrie with a full tank of whoop-ass.

Together, they fight crime!

I don't think I have a valid email address for you these days. Mine haven't changed -- ping me with it sometime.

"They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say, 'nice try'." --Lezard

Those are the new JF-2 Actis fighters, fresh off the lines over at GENOM's famous top-end light spacecraft subsidiary, Cygnus Spaceworks (makers of, among other things, the Lambda-class executive shuttle and the AF-19 Delta attack fighter, peculiarly known in GENOM Military Arm parlance as an "assault gunboat"). They're the result of a several-year engineering effort at Cygnus, using technologies perfected at the same time in fellow GENOM subsidiary SFS's TIE Advanced A5 "Super Avenger" project and drawing much inspiration from extensive design and performance studies made of Master Springsteen's Delta-7.

The JF-2 is an exclusive product - the Formula One racer of starfighters, if you will. They're hand-built in small numbers from the finest materials by skilled craftsbeings, absurdly expensive, manufactured only for and sold only to the Order of Jedi Knights. At the time of Fulcrum 3 they've been in production for just a few months. The ones Obi-Wan and Alaia are walking past in that scene were delivered a couple of weeks earlier.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Well, yes. Fulcrum of Fate is obviously covering the transition from the kludged cyborg of Road Movie to the armored Sith Knight of Blades. (Among other things.)

On the other hand, I didn't have much emotional involvement in Episodes I - III, because I knew he was going to go Darkside, and become Darth Vader.

The difference is Fulcrum rocks my socks off as George Lucas's "fill in the past" piece never did.

Peter Eng
--
Note to self: Due to high probability of having socks rocked off, remove shoes before reading EPU stories. Replacing shoes is expensive.

I can see it, but i'd like to point out that the breaking schtick has also
been done by everyone's favourite teep lord Roger Tremayne(sp?).

I'm not saying it IS him.. i'm just saying he is a probable suspect as well :D

although in my mind the pieces click correctly about a Sith lord going around killing Jedi and selling off their stuff as a bizarre calling card to the remaining Jedi.

Why he'd do that, well I got nothing :D

_________________________________
We few. We happy few. We band of buggered.

That's easy. If it is him, then he's out proving his worth to Big Fire, or something like that. Remember that by the end of Blades we find out that he was made into a member of the Magnificent Ten.

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

I'm leaning against Roger if only because of the red outfit. Even if he was "trying out" for Big Fire, I don't think they'd bother putting him at Q-boss level (red hoods if I remember correctly).

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Chris can't handle chemicals

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."

Eh, if it wasn't him, it was someone associated with him relatively closely, I'd wager. The whole thing maps too closely to what went down with Bastilla earlier on in continuity. Take a Jedi, break her with soul searing mental anguish, watch the dark side claim her, add some psionic 'push' and send her off to fight other Jedi. About the only thing that makes it questionable if it was the man himself rather than some apprentice is that Juhani seemed to recover a bit more quickly after being shaken from the grip of the dark side, but that may just be a personality issue (Bastilla was much more of tight ass to start with, after all.)

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Darkness beyond Twilight"

Norgarth