Democrat Rep. Massa to resign; "An investigation into my use of foul language, which we've been talking about all week and I readily admit to having used for decades, and everyone else knows about and isn't bothered by, just that one staffer, might tear my family apart." Right. We believe you.

Another out-of-context funny, this time from Naruto Shippuden...

Click the image for a larger version.

UPDATE 3:

Ok, starting with episode 25 things get quite a bit better. Seems like the studio decided they needed to stretch the story out a bit, and so 15 - 20 move really slowly and are very repetitive. Sakura finally get's her very own crowning moment of awesome. The writers tried, and I think are still trying, to take it away from her (can't have a woman beat the bad guys, can we?); but anything they do at this point is going to seem like complete bullshit if they try to back out.

Actually wanted to finish the storyline last night, but quantserve stopped working around 11:45. Again.


UPDATE 2:

Not sure how long I"m going to be able to stick with Naruto Shippuden. I'm on episode 24 now; there have been TWO good episodes so far in the new series. Each episode is getting slower and more repetitive. The story is pure deus ex machina, with no regard for internal consistency. Looking ahead, this story arch apparently ends around episode 33; it needed to run maybe 13 or so AT MOST. The Chuunin Exams and Sasuke Retrieval archs were faster paced and better timed. Hell, the Zabusa arch was faster and made more sense.

I'm going to try to finish this first story, but if Shippuden doesn't get any better, I won't be able to keep watching. I'm already spending two thirds of each episode saying "What the hell," "that doesn't make sense," and "yes! We know! You've already said that TEN TIMES!!!"

Talk about stumbling out of the starting block...

jeez.

I had to vent to my wife (who thinks I'm nuts for watching Naruto in the first place) for 45 minutes before I could go back to watching.

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UPDATE:

Pete at Ani-Nouto comments on my Naruto viewing. Thanks for your comments! I hadn't dug through the archives and noticed all of his posts on the subject.

To update: I finished the original Naruto series last night and started the second series, Naruto Shippuden. The original series ran for 220 episodes, from October 2002 through February 2007. The second series began airing the same month and is still in production; episode 150 is scheduled to air this week. The Naruto manga storyline runs through episode 135 of the original series, which is where the original manga storyline ends; episodes 136 through 220 are "filler" episodes, and the original storyline for second part of the manga series is followed in Naruto Shippuden.

You see quite a few recommendations to skip episodes 136 - 220, but there are a few good storylines in that section. Unfortunately, the worst storylines are also present in the final 85 episodes.

Pete mentioned Sakura's improvement in Shippuden. The results of her training with Tsunade start showing up in the filler episodes and movies, but the Sakura of Shippuden is a good leap beyond. It's especially nice seeing the confidence and attitude she has...she's finally a character equal to Naruto and the more interesting second-tier personalities.

And regarding Temari's legs; I don't love the Sand Village stories because of Kankuro's winning personality.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty close to buying either a PS3 or a 360. I had been leaning towards a PS3 for about a year, but in the end bought a 360 Arcade from Gamestop. Don't have it hooked up yet; needed a component cable and I wasn't about to spring for what they cost retail. Got one off of eBay, and while I was at it picked up a 60GB hard drive, too. Probably should have bought the Elite when Gamestop was offering a $50 Gift Card with purchase; that would have been a better system with more games for only a bit more money than I ended up spending...but I hadn't made up my mind at the time.

The other recent oddity is that, completely out of the blue, I decided to watch Naruto on Crunchyroll. I never, ever thought I would do this. I've never had anything against Naruto, per se...just against the people kids that watched it on Cartoon Network. I had to give it some respect, of course...Naruto brought a whole new generation of Americans to anime; but I watched a couple of episodes and it just seemed; well, silly and more than a little stupid.

That may have something to do with the dub or editing, I don't know for sure. I've heard of many complaints about Naruto's English voice acting, but only marginal gripes concerning editing or censorship. The version available on Crunchyroll appears to be either a Japanese TV or DVD rip; the Japanese sponsorship splash is still present after the OP but there's no text or logos. I'm assuming that means these rips are probably from the DVD. The subtitles are mostly pretty good, but prepositions seems to disappear in waves; usually one or two episodes at a time every ten episodes will have poor sentence structure and obviously missing words. Whoever did the subtitles also selectively used the "Believe it!" catchphrase for dattebayo, which I've always had a problem with. It seems possible that only certain translators used this convention, as the phrase appears heavily in some episodes but is left entirely out of most.

Anyway, I started watching two weeks ago and I'm just about 100 episodes in, now. I was surprised early on, after a few episodes, to discover that I was enjoying myself and wanted to know what happened next. Sixty or seventy episodes in I was completely floored to discover that I hadn't had as much fun watching an anime series in *years*. Yes, this series has it's problems; especially in pacing. Early on there is a story arch that's at least twice as long as it needed to be; almost half of one episode is literally a repeat of the last half of the previous episode. Naruto doesn't really do "filler", at least until, I'm told, the last part of the original series. Instead, the action is slowed down and you get lot's of repetition. The segment I mentioned is the only one that's really bad, but these techniques show up every now and then just to stretch an episode or two out.

Beyond how ridiculous the premise of the show is, the story maintains consistency and characterization. Unlike most recent shonen protagonists, Naruto is actually someone I like and want to root for. He's a bit of a spaz, but he's not a jerk or an asshole. He's not too bright or quick, but he's not stupid, either; and he has pretty good insight. The series does a good job of establishing and maintaining his character and making his actions believable and consistent. The two main supporting characters don't get quite as good treatment; genius student Sasuke is whipped around like a rag doll by the plot...early in the series you get the feeling Sasuke is actually the protagonist; later on he's a massive deus ex machina. The female lead Sakura is present, so far, just for Naruto to have a crush on. She doesn't do anything. Even when she does something, she doesn't do anything. She's likable enough, but she really needs some more depth to her character if we're EVER going to start caring about her. I've read that she get's better later on in the first series...here's hoping.

But, yeah...I really like Naruto, and I never thought I would say that.

Hat tip to The Unwanted Blog

From Sasameki Koto:

Click for full-size image.

Very shortly, I will have $100 in Gamestop credit. I'm not the biggest fan of Gamestop in the world, as I mentioned in a Twitter post not too long ago. But, I get credit there easily.

I've got a huge list of games for last gen systems that I need (want) to get, but I'm way behind on games anyway. As $100 is not a small amount, I started thinking once again about picking up a 360 or a PS3. I had been planning to get a PS3 if I ever got anything, but some recent research, and events in general, have complicated the decision again. Here are the relevant facts, my handful of readers may chip in with their thoughts (I would appreciate it, in fact.)

1) I have a pretty good computer (rather, a really awesome computer). The only game, oddly enough, that I have been unable to run at maximum settings recently is the Champions Online Demo. Had to set everything just about to minimum. I think that might be a bandwidth thing, though. If a game is available on PC, I have no doubt that I would be able to play it, and play it better than either the 360 or the PS3. BUT, not everything is available for PC. It would be nice if I could find a list of which 360 and PS3 games are published for PC.

2) I will not pay for Xbox Live Gold. Period. There are rumors that the Playstation Network is going to start charging, but at the moment, it's free.

3) I don't care about the BD drive in the PS3. I have a great HTPC, and GPL BD drivers and software are finally showing up for media programs to use. I figure I'll add a BD drive to my HTPC before the end of the year.

4) Unless the title is programmed well, the 360 usually provides a better game experience with it's more capable graphics chip. What mainly impresses me is that the 360 seldom falls below 30 frames per second on any game, while the PS3 seems to run around 20-25 fps in the same games. To be clear: neither system's visuals look "better" to me, but the 360 does seem to run more smoothly most of the time...

5) when it's running, anyway. I can't find firm numbers, but the newest 360s are supposed to be much more reliable than older models, but that's a hell of a record to overcome. I never bought the anecdotal stories that the 360 had a first-year failure rate of 50%, but the more-likely rate of 15% is beyond bad enough.

6) Do I need both? I don't want to spend that much money, even with $100 in gift cards.

Maybe I should just ignore it all for another six months. Again.

From Sankaku Complex (site is NSFW, link is ok):

You know how when you start typing in a search term in Google, the search engine will pop up suggestions? Generally along the line of, for example:

I type "hobbit" Google will suggest such phrases as "hobbit house", "hobbit name generator", "hobbit travel" and so on. If I type in "how can I" I get suggestions such as "how can I keep from singing lyrics", "how can I lose 10 pounds in a week", "how can I tell if i am pregnant" and such like.

If I type in "Christianity is" Google suggests some fairly insulting search phrases, although to be fair most of those suggestions are repeated for Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and so on.

But not for Islam. If you type in "Islam is"...you will get nothing.

Apparently Google has been made aware of the problem, and they deny any type of "favoritism". The suggestion feature has a bug that for some reason the Google programmers can not discover, won't make suggestions on the phrase "Islam is". Weird, but possible. In fact, If you search on "Islam" plus any other preposition, you get suggestions. You even get some negative suggestions...but not many. E.g. search for "Islam should" will prompt you with "Islam should be banned."

If there is any story here, I think it's much more telling that suggestions for all other major and minor religions include predominantly negative phrases, while Islam includes mostly positive statements.

Just finished reading The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski. Fairly well-written and exhaustively researched, the book does a good job of addressing a few issues relating to the history of the writing of the Star Wars Saga; or as George Lucas now calls it, The Tragedy of Darth Vader.

The intent of the book is to address the claims by George Lucas that he had both trilogies written out before-hand in some form or another, and that what transpires in the films is pretty much what he intended from the very beginning. While most long-time fans can (and have) stood up to refute these mostly ridiculous claims, Kaminski's book collects, for the first time, all available info addressing the argument. Most specifically, Kaminski targets the specific claim that Darth Vader was always written as Anakin Skywalker, the father of Luke and Leia. Second to that issue, the book also directly addresses the claim that Leia was always written as Luke's twin sister. The final, compelling conclusion is that until Lucas took on the re-writes of the script for The Empire Strikes Back (following Leigh Brackett's death from cancer), Vader was always written and thought of as a separate character from "Father Skywalker." Likewise, the reveal of Leia as Luke's sister was used to close a thread tossed out in Empire that was added when Lucas was still planning a sequel trilogy as well as a prequel trilogy.

Beyond including references to actual rough drafts, scripts and notes, Kaminski quotes Lucas himself on dozens of occasions contradicting his current claims. Thankfully, the author also includes a ton of insight into George Lucas himself, and does an admirable job of answering, if indirectly, the third-most famous question regarding the origins of the Star Wars tales: What happened?

What most people mean by that question is, "What happened to George between Empire and Jedi? What happened in the interval between Jedi and Menace? Why is the new trilogy so bad?

First, a couple of house-cleaning issues. I present the following as, hopefully, objective statements that all fans can at least attempt to agree with:

1) Star Wars was intended as a light action-adventure in space.

2) It's phenomenal success was derived partly from how new and different the movie was from recent theater fare.

3) There was no way Empire and Jedi could have lived up to fan expectations.

4) Like many sequels, these two movies appeal more strongly to Star Wars fans than casual viewers.

5) The prequel trilogy probably could not have lived up to fan expectations under any circumstances.

6) The prequel trilogy was very successful financially. Critically it was reviewed similarly to the original trilogy at the time.


With that out of the way, the rest of my comments will primarily be addressed to those fans of the original trilogy who feel as if Lucas has given them a wedgie.

The first bit of fundamental knowledge that one needs to know is that George Lucas, by his own admission, is a poor writer. In addition, he doesn't really care about characters and dialogue; he feels they are largely unimportant to the stories he is telling. Or at least less important. Most readers are probably saying, "No duh!" right about now, but these things are important to remember.

Something that may make a lot of long-time fans feel a bit better is that George Lucas really is the foundation of the Star Wars story. No, he didn't write the whole thing back in 1973 and then just film it, but he did write all of it; the good and the bad. I think he does deserve a lot of credit for his story-creating ability, if not his story-telling ability.

One of the most important things to know about the writing of the Star Wars movies is how much of the final product of each Lucas wrote himself. For Star Wars, Lucas wrote each draft, but each copy was extensively reviewed and criticized by Lucas' circle of friends at the time, including Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, John Milius, and others. George's wife Marcia also provided significant input on characterization and dialogue, and before shooting George had his friends Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck specifically work over the dialogue in the shooting script. The final script was therefore the product of a collaborative effort involving some of the best filmmakers of the era.

The writing of Star Wars 2 is quite notorious and interesting. While Star Wars was still being made, after he had negotiated rights involving potential sequels with Twentieth Century Fox, Lucas met with noted author of fantasy and sci-fi Alan Dean Foster to write two sequels. Fox was willing to commit to two low-budget sequels for Star Wars, and Lucas wanted the novels ready to go. Lucas and Foster worked out the story for the first sequel, which was eventually published as Splinter of the Mind's Eye. The book was well-received, but discarded as the basis for a sequel when Star Wars broke box-office records.

As best as can be verified, Lucas began writing what would become The Empire Strikes Back with Leigh Brackett during a story conference. Lucas wasn't satisfied with her rough draft, but learned of her death when he tried to contact her to discuss revisions. Lucas decided to undertake the writing of the subsequent draft himself; it was at this point that he (as he himself said at the time) hit on the idea of combining Luke's father with Darth Vader. Following the completion of the first draft, Lucas, producer Gary Kurtz, screenwriter Lawrence Kasden and director Irvin Kershner collaborated on subsequent drafts all the way to the shooting script. The actual shoot of Empire is legendary among Star Wars fans: Kershner slowly and methodically created a slower, deeper, more character driven movie than Lucas had in mind. Gary Kurtz is seen by some as enabling this creation by running interference between Lucas and Kershner, almost always siding with director Kershner over executive producer Lucas. The result is one of the few motion picture sequels frequently cited as better than it's progenitor; a movie that, like Star Trek's The Wrath of Kahn, is even considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever created. Even today, Lucas claims Empire is his least favorite Star Wars film, and has commented to many over the years that the Star Wars sequel was "better than it needed to be"; it would have made just as much money with less effort and a smaller budget (budgeted for $15 million, Kurtz and Kershner eventually spent $33 million...all of which was borrowed personally by Lucas. You can understand his consternation, if not his story telling vision.) In fact, Lucas hated the final product so much that he frantically tried to re-edit the movie into a faster-paced, less-talky film. In the end, Kurtz talked him down and persuaded Lucas to let Kershner to another cut. The rest is history. Kurtz and Lucas parted ways, Empire eventually became the most beloved of the original trilogy (not initially, though) and George Lucas apparently still dislikes this movie. On a side note, contrary to popular belief, Irvin Kershner was actually invited back for Jedi...most likely before Lucas saw the finished movie. Kershner turned the offer down, though.

After the blowout success of Star Wars, Lucas had conceptualized doing either twelve episodes of serialized Star Wars as a New Wave project for directors; or more commonly a nine movie series consisting of the current trilogy (which did not yet have an ending), a prequel trilogy based on young Obi-wan Kenobi, and a sequel trilogy that would conclude the Rebellion versus Empire story. A line was even added to Empire to possibly point to the sequel trilogy. Following his ordeal with Empire, Lucas resolved to finish the current trilogy, then quit. He also resolved to work with a producer and director who would follow his wishes. Again, Lucas wrote the rough draft then collaborated with producer Howard Kazanjian, director Richard Marquand and Lawrence Kasdan for the Jedi scripts. An interesting observation is that while Empire's shooting script was changed during filming by director Irvin Kershner; the last notes and edits of Jedi's script were made by Lucas. Although the rough draft was written after Lucas had decided to end the series, during the writing process Lucas and the others found many storylines that needed to be closed, mostly because of the changes made in Empire. After reading the rough drafts, my advice to Star Wars fans is to be thankful for what you got in Return of the Jedi...the original plans were much, much worse. Kasdan seems to be most directly responsible for the final story, although as usual Lucas provided many of the more loved and loathed details.

When Lucas decided to make the prequel trilogy following the Star Wars renaissance of the early-nineties, he made two important decisions: he would direct the movies himself and he would write the movies himself. Of the original movies, Lucas directed the first only; and all of the screenplays were collaborative. Although Lucas would plan to have another screenwriter do a "polish" of his final drafts, he eventually only does this for the second movie. Ironically, Lucas' rough, revised rough and first drafts are, more or less, the story that many Star Wars fans had been expecting. However, the second draft would introduce the film as it was eventually filmed. The first draft is very similar to the filmed plot, actually...just replace Qui-gon Jin with Obi-wan; Obi-wan with nothing; characterize Obi-wan somewhere between the final Qui-gon and Obi-wan; elevate Anakin's age a few years; don't include midichlorians...see where I'm going here? Qui-gon does appear in this draft as Jedi Knight Kenobi's friend and mentor (not master) who accompanies the return trip to Naboo. He is killed by Darth Maul as usual, which is one of the two reasons Lucas went back and added him to the rest of the movie: to build some sympathy for the character. Unfortunately, Obi-wan is clumsily pushed aside by this addition, leaving no screentime for he and Anakin to bond. The midichlorians are added because Lucas felt that the Jedi Council would not agree to allow Anakin to be trained based on the recommendations of Qui-gon and Obi-wan; they needed a more compelling reason. However, I felt the rough-draft version of this scene played perfectly with the council washing their hands of the boy, Yoda specifically recommending against training, but leaving the final decision up to Obi-wan.

Lucas handed off his first draft for Episode 2 to Jonathan Hales, who would create the second, third and fourth drafts. Lucas would edit the fourth draft, and then change and add several scenes during and after filming. While the editing and SFX of the second movie does make it fun to watch (some of it, anyway); I think the dialogue and story speak for themselves.

Lucas completed the first draft of Sith after pre-production for the movie was complete. Lucas would complete several more drafts before filming, but would significantly alter the script several times during filming. After the film was completed, Lucas re-wrote the script, filmed additional scenes, re-looped several audio tracks, and re-edited the film into something almost completely different. I would love to see what it looked like before. The pivotal change was Lucas' decision to soften Anakin's fall in order to make him more likable and tragic.

What's pretty clear is that, especially with the prequels, what you see on screen is what Lucas wanted you to see. His dialogue is almost universally terrible, and without any form of peer review or collaboration he tends to override his own best ideas. His visual sense is quite keen, and he is a good editor, but Lucas just doesn't have the story-telling ability that he thinks he does. Or that a lot of fans thought he did. In making the prequels, Lucas became more and more focused on the visuals above all else. The flow from movie to movie was hampered by story decisions he made in the first movie not being compatible with the original trilogy. The post-production rewrite of the third movie made Attack of the Clones even more nonsensical than it already was.

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It should be noted that people frequently complain about George Lucas "juvenilizing" Jedi and the prequels, but I personally don't see any compelling evidence. Lucas has been consistent in stating that the movies were targeted at kids, and beyond the Ewoks and Jar-jar, there's a lot of violence and adult content in the new movies. I won't spend time defending either, I'm just saying that nothing I've read so far indicates that anything in particular was added to the movies that Lucas was most responsible for because that addition would appeal to kids or sell more toys.

As far as the "dumbing down" of the movies that some people complain about, I think it's perfectly clear that when left to his own devices, that's just how George Lucas writes.

I strongly recommend picking up The Secret History of Star Wars and Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. Between those two books (and The Jedi Masters' Quiz Book), just about any question you might have about Star Wars can be answered.

I don't really watch TV, and haven't for quite a while, but somewhere towards the end of my TV watching existence I remember there was going to be a new Dragnet series with Ed O'Neil. Now that internet TV, cheap slimpacks and BR is making TV a little cheaper and more convenient, I was wondering if any of my TV-watching friends and acquaintances had any thoughts on this series.

Thanks in advance!

I was working on a document to help me decide what order I wanted to do the planets in (in Knights of the Old Republic 2), but AbiWord crashed. The reason this is a significant choice is because which order you visit/complete the planets in determines which party members you gain earlier and later.

Well, that's in theory. In actuality, you collect all of your party (except for one mandatory and one conditional character), typically after the intro section and one other planet. While the choice of planets should be important, I've always felt that it's pretty clear what Obsidian intended:

1) You start out on the Peragus Mining Station
2) You travel to Telos Citadel Station; no choice. You now have Atton, Kreia, and T3-M4 available.
3) Surface of Telos; no choice. Bao-Dur is a mandatory addition to the party, plus you have to take him along for this section.
4) North Pole of Telos; no choice. If you are male, you will add Handmaiden after leaving Telos.

Those four stops are all linear and mandatory.

You may now travel to Nar Shadaa, Dantooine, Dxun/Onderon, or Korriban.

Which NPC's can you add at/from each planet?

5) Dantooine - Disciple can be added to your party if you are Female; instead of Handmaiden. I don't believe he is mandatory in any way, nor must you complete the planet story to get him.

6) Nar Shadaa - During the course of the "final act" of Nar Shadaa, you will add Mira (Light Side/Neutral) or Hanhaar (Dark Side) to your party. Upon completion of the final act, you will add G0-T0. You can also complete HK-47 after finishing Nar Shadaa.

7) Dxun/Onderon - Mandalore is a mandatory addition to your party before entering the plot door from Dxun to Onderon.

Korriban - Nothing.

Onderon 2 - Nothing.

Dantooine 2 - Nothing.

End Game - Nothing.

Plot character - Visas Marr will arrive on your ship after you become clearly Light Side/Dark Side AFTER you travel to another OPEN PORT, leave your ship and re-enter it. For most players this will occur on the second free planet they visit. (unless you're strictly playing neutral)

So assuming you want to get each character ASAP, you can do the planets in the order listed above. You don't have to finish Dantooine if you're female, and if you're male, you can skip it entirely in favor of a direct trip to Nar Shadaa.

The conflicting issue: Influence.

KotOR 2 added the game mechanic of influence. You can gain influence with your party members in order to learn more of the back story, learn about each character's personal story, gain skill and ability increases for yourself and the NPC party members, and turn several of them into Jedi. I don't want to get into an influence guide, but there are a couple of salient points that affect who you take to which planet.

Mira, Handmaiden, Disciple, Hanhaar and Visas can nearly or completely max out on influence through conversations and actions on the ship. If you need extra influence, they are all most influenced on Dxun/Onderon.

Mandalore gains most of his influence on Onderon, where he is a mandatory party member. Like all of the dark side NPC's, there are also several people in the game that you can murder for influence. However, Mandalore is broken and you CANNOT max influence with him. What you get from Mandalore is a significant piece of the back story and stat bonuses.

Bao-Dur has no conversation influence options, he must witness you performing good deeds. He is most influenced on Dxun/Onderon, but also shares several influence points with the others on Nar Shadaa, and has a unique influence point on Dantooine. It is possible for Bao-Dur to "break" and become unavailable.

Atton has a couple of influence points while he is forced into the party, plus you have to take him off the the ship on Nar Shadaa at least once. You then have to navigate a conversation map with him to finish out his influence and story. I think you have to complete Nar Shadaa first, but I'm not sure.

Atton, Bao-Dur, Handmaiden and Visas share several influence points on Nar Shadaa and Dantooine. You must have ONE of these NPC's plus Kreia in your party.

HK gains the most influence by witnessing you threaten and murder innocents.

GoTo as well, to some extent; but more importantly he has several plot related doors.

T3-M4 has a few influence points in the early game and on the ship, but is most influenced by your ability to upgrade him. You need a computer skill of 15 and a repair of 20, if I remember.

GoTo, HK, Hanhaar and Mandalore are all evil. You must do things that will result in Dark Side Points in order to gain influence with them. Very easy if you're evil, go find a list of killable NPC's and go to town.

Handmaiden, Visas and Mira can all be maxed out through conversation (I think...or close to it) but (I think) all of them have "level gates". I know you can't finish out your story with Handmaiden until you reach level 18, regardless of how much influence you have with her. I think the same is true of Visas and Mira.

You must seek out some influence points for Bao-Dur, as you can't influence him via conversation. He has either a location gate or a level gate himself, although I'm not sure what it is.

Kreia - I think you can get all of the influence you need through conversations. Just always agree with her. If you have her in your party, there are several places that will gain you influence with Kreia while losing influence with the other party member, and vice versa.

So, the influence guide would seem to indicate the order listed above.


So what's the problem?

Nar Shadaa is almost half of the game. Doing it second, after the railroad of the the introductory sequences, is a major drag. To be sure, I went to Nar Shadaa after Telos the first time I played the game, but this time I got so bored by the time I was halfway through NS that I reloaded from an earlier save and went to Dxun instead. The problem now is actually an obvious one: I'm now getting 3 characters one planet later than I would otherwise. Since I'm playing light side, and two of them will be evil, only Mira is a possible loss. But we'll see. Getting Mandalore early isn't really much of an advantage. Taking Bao-Dur and Handmaiden along on Dxun/Onderon, however has definitely maxed Handmaiden's influence and I think has maxed Bao-Dur's as well.


So, basically, unless you do the game in one particular order, you only make things harder for yourself.

I'd be glad to hear from others who have played the game regarding what order they did the planets in and what they think about it.