RE: Chanelling Jedi

From: Mike Holmes <homeydont_at_...>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:05:14 -0600


>From: "Silburn, Luke" <luke.silburn_at_...>
>Empowered by the Dark Side Luke drives Vader back and defeats him, taking
>Vader's hand off in the process. On the verge of killing his father and
>falling to the Dark Side its *Vader's* missing hand that pulls him back
>from
>the brink (a crit/fumble roll-off if ever there was one) tipping the
>Emperor
>into negative APs and winning the contest for Luke ("I will NEVER turn to
>the Dark Side").

Good interperetation, I remember it now, however, and stick by my overall interrperetation. Remember that as I have it Luke's goal is to redeem his father, not to kill anyone.

As we pick up the acction, Luke has burnt through all the APs that Vader has lent the Emperor. This fact is important later. He's had to use some hate to do it, however, and is running low on AP himself. The Emperor tries to put him away with the big "kill your father" bid.

We see Luke obserrve Vader's hand there sparking. But then Luke looks at HIS OWN HAND, clenching it slightly, IIRC, probably feeling nothing there, it reminding him that at that moment he's becoming like the part of his father that's dead and hateful. If he'd not had that hand, would the result have been the same? Nope. It is the augment from his own hand, a gift from his father who inadvertently taught him a lesson that day in cloud city instead of killing him when he could, it's this gift that saves Luke! He wins that round, and now he's deep into the Emperor's APs, the loyalty he shows to his father brining him closer to redemption. They work it out, and narrate this as Luke tossing his lightsabre aside.

The Emperor changes his tactics, and decides to kill Skywalker. Luke's Jedi Will augmented with the hand, and other stuff has just gotten to be too large for him to overcome in terms of converting him, and the Emperor figures that he can just win out on the brute force of the dark side. And he can now take advantage of the fact that Luke is no longer armed, figuring that Luke will fight back.The bids of teh following rounds turn out to be a combination of successes and failures, as Luke continues to resist with his Will, narrating that he just takes the shots from the Emperor. Some of these nudge him closer the the edge eating Luke's APs, some of these shots, Luke wins edging Vader closer to redemption.

Then Luke makes a last piteous cry for help from his father, desperation bid, which he wins bringing the Emperor to -32. GM narrates Vader getting up and chucking Emperor over the side.

Goal of contest: to redeem father - Success. Side effect: opponent dying due to result of -32. Ancillary result, Vader is dying because the Emperor took all his early AP losses on Vader, of course. Vader's chucking the Emperor over the edge was not a separate contest; he's not allowed to start any at Dying. It's the narrative side effect of Luke's success at redeeming him. Note that we cheer when Vader picks the Emperor up, a visible sign of his redemption. The over the edge result has lesser impact, dramatically. We don't care so much that the Emperor has been defeated, but that Luke has won, and his father has come back to him, even if it's only to die after a soliloquy.

That's my read. :-)

Mike



Enjoy the holiday season with great tips from MSN. http://special.msn.com/network/happyholidays.armx

Powered by hypermail