Galactic Battle Grounds Mission 1 allows gamers to replay
the battle for Alaris Prime.
Historically, the battle for Alaris Prime was a small
skirmish between the Trade Federation and “The Wookiees” (what do we call their
civilization btw? Are they the “Wookiee
Consortium”, “The Wookiee Empire”, “The Wookiee Defence League”? – It doesn’t
matter I guess). As it is, the Wookiees
end up defeating the Trade Federation and expelling the Nemodians from the
planet.
After I completed the mission I headed over to wookieepedia
to read up on what I had just accomplished.
You can find the write-up here, and its summation of events makes more
sense than anything I could ever write. After
reading wookieepedia’s excerpt on the battle there was an “Ah Ha” moment for me. The whole scenario seemed to make a little
more sense. I guess I wasn’t really
paying attention when I was playing.
My first comment with regards to this bit of history is that
I regret not reading the Chewbacca TBP from 55 BBY which features Attichitcuk. I think if I had read this it would have
given me a little more depth and appreciation for the major players in this
battle.My second comment is a bold assertion: Galactic Battle Grounds Mission 1 in a modern day epic. Yes, that’s right! A MODERN DAY EPIC!
Although it garnered very little attention, in my post on
3032 BBY (The one with the Gungans) I argued that the events in Galactic Battle
Grounds Missions 3.1-3.3 can be defined as an epic. I think my argument holds up (as long as it’s
not scrutinized). Likewise, I think
Galactic Battle Grounds Mission 1, with Chewbacca as the hero, is also a modern
day epic. I’ll not list my reasons here,
just head on over to the post on 3032 BBY to get a sense of what I’m talking
about.
Galactic Battle Grounds is a great game, and I love engaging
with it as an historical source to examine because it’s nice to play a video
game that doesn’t consume me.
For my next post I’ll be looking at Darth Maul issues 1-4
from the Rise of the Sith Omnibus. Until
then my friends, may the Force be with you.
I've never played this game, but it seems really interesting, especially since it seems to have gone under many fans' radar.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to your thoughts on the Darth Maul comic series. That was my first exposure to Jan Duursema's artwork, and it cemented her status as one of my favorite SW artists.
I only watched the gameplay from Youtube. Don't remember much of what the battles were about, but they don't seem to get referenced much in other works. Luceno of course throws a reference to everything, including this game, but even he doesn't give any details. It was a surprise to read that Qui-Gon fought against Trade Federation before TPM, and that a secondary Jedi Temple was established on a Wookiee world. Well, the last one must have been only a game mechanic.
ReplyDeleteDarth Maul's issue two was the first Star Wars comic I ever read. I didn't even know there were Star Wars comics before I found it in school's magazine shelf (it was the only comic I ever saw there, and still wonder where did it come from). The images of the smoking monocle got stuck in my head, but the best part was to see Hath Monchar in comic form (I had met him in novels previously) and realize that all these stories are interconnected.
That's neat. I just looked up the gameplay video on youtube. I'm always blown away at how fast people can play these RTS games. I'm so slow at it; it takes me forever to get a sense of what the heck is going on.
ReplyDeleteI suppose we can reconcile Qui-Gon fighting the Trade Federation if we take into account his words to Obi-Wan at the beginning of TMP. He says to his Padawan "These Federation types are Cowards. The negotiations will be short". We could argue that he's speaking from experience here, and one could retcon it to mean he was subtly referring to the battle of Alaris Prime.
As for the Jedi Temple there *shrug*. I dunno - let's chalk that one up to game mechanic like you said.
The temple doesn't have to just be a gameplay mechanic. There's a Jedi temple that plays a big role in the Living Force, and one of the S-canon rpg mags had a Jedi temple on Alderaan.
ReplyDeleteI read the Wookieepedia page for the Alaris Prime Temple itself, and it sounds a lot better. The impression I got from the Battle page was that Qui-Gon just created a secondary Temple right there, when actually they just found ancient ruins of a temple.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with multiple smaller temples, Dantooine had one and Temple of Eedit on Devaron (used as a Republic Outpost during the Clone Wars) could be reconstructed on Jedi Temple ruins. During the Tales of the Jedi era, when the Jedi were in small groups all over the galaxy, these small temples made sense.
After I read Plaristes' comment I started to reconcile in my mind the "Jedi Temple on Alaris Prime" as something more like what you've mentioned here Lugija: a small outpost or Jedi Sanctuary. A home away from home for the Jedi.
ReplyDeleteI think if we're going to marry game mechanics with genuine lore this is a good way to think of them.
Plus, this is why I started this blog - to have awesome conversations like this. I now know about Temple of Eedit on Devaron and the Jedi Temple on Alderaan.
You guys rock.