#this is completely separate from her ME Trilogy since it basically operates under her being an earthborn BUT

[cryochronism]

STATS:

NAME: Quinn Diaz Espinosa; formerly Quinn Durant AGE:  35+ HEIGHT: 5′11 WEIGHT: 160 CLASS: Engineer ABILITIES: Invasion, Combat Drone, Energy Drain, Overload

ROLE & TITLE:

Officially, Quinn is a “Welcome Ambassador.” Her responsibilities include welcoming new species or individuals of note to the Nexus, acclimating new candidates within Nexus housing, and coordinating with other government or political entities. Primarily, she is known for overseeing the Cultural Exchange Center, and making sure the tours and VI’s run smoothly. Her handiwork is also evidenced in the Nexus Avina, another important aspect to helping Nexus citizens and visitors aboard the Nexus.

BACKGROUND:

Born in 2150, Quinn comes from old blood; a family with a long history of military and civil service. Her father served in the First Contact War, and her mother was one of the original staff to help start the Human embassy aboard the Citadel. With their insistence, she followed their steps, working towards her JD at Boston University before transferring to Citadel University in a human pilot exchange program. From there, she began the obstinate challenge of double majoring; earning a BS in Robotics Engineering before completing her Juris Doctor.

Her parents were not pleased by the small rebellion (and not-so-small tuition), but they could not deny her drive or ambition, either.

From there, Quinn managed to land a spot as a diplomat within the Human Embassy. She helped to introduce and reinvigorate a more human and galactic approach in sharing cultures, communications, and knowledge between races--primarily in the design and implementation of VI projects that later translate to the Citadel’s Avina model in dispersing information. During her time, she meets Nhat, an Alliance soldier, and eventually settles down with them.

In 2180, she gives birth to her first child, naming him Shaun.

In 2183, the Citadel is attacked. Nhat is killed in action.

THE INITIATIVE:

Suffering from the trauma of the attack coupled with the death of Nate, Quinn faces a crisis of faith. She recedes from the expectations of her more diplomatic work, throwing herself instead into hard data and VI programs to help the Citadel function and recover from the attack; primarily in restoring Avina. From there, she created a duplicate copy of Avina from scratch to better compare and troubleshoot her malfunctions. Her superiors are not entirely pleased with the change in job responsibilities, but the situation is still too chaotic to oppose the necessary help.

Regardless, she eventually resigns a year later in 2184, but not without catching attention of the Initiative for her repair of Avina. Wanting to escape the association of trauma and start fresh, she and her son, now four years old, sign on for the Andromeda Initiative, and are assigned to the Hyperion.

Though not a soldier, Quinn had previously received necessary training at her father’s behest growing up, as well as undergoing a refresher course program upon enlisting for the Initiative. She slots herself for the Engineer class program, employing a variety of tools and tricks learned and picked up over the years. Despite being only a diplomat, she shows a vast understanding of VI and AI familiarity in combat--something that even the Initiative’s leadership do not miss. Quinn and Shaun are reassigned to the Nexus’ cryo blocks as a result.

In 2185, Quinn and Shaun are placed in stasis, and depart for their new home.

DEFROSTED:

Her revival from stasis is not according to plan. Initially slated to thaw once the Arks connect and Pathfinders establish more networks and colonies across Heleus, Quinn’s instead violently revived during the mutiny. Damage to the pod in the reawakening cycle results in significant nerve damage. Oddly enough, it was not fatal, and though she was in critical care for a week and a half, she makes a miraculous full recovery; surprising even the most seasoned doctors who had expected her to remain in a vegetative state for the remainder of her days.

Her son, and many of the other children cryo blocks, are undamaged and remain in stasis. The estimated time for their revival is unknown.

MEETING:

After first contact with the Angaran, Ryder meets Quinn for the first time as she’s working on the baseline coding for the Nexus informational VI. Idle dialogue between her and the Cultural Exchange representative may occur, in which she discusses the ongoing issue in rewritten coding for Jien Garson, and that it is pass-locked.

A brief conversation between Ryder and Quinn may follow, in which she deflects any mention of Jien’s VI. When prompted, she explains her ambassadorial capacity, and makes an effort to minimize her responsibilities from a tech perspective. If Ryder pushes, however, Quinn will excuse herself, and mention that she has a meeting with Tann.

SAM will comment privately to Ryder at this point, that there are locked memory arrays regarding Quinn. Memory triggers may be met in Cryo, Science Labs, and Operations, before unlocking the location to a previously undiscovered portion of the Nexus. From there, Ryder will uncover a secret behind Quinn’s true function aboard the Nexus. This could lead to either a confrontation, or her possible....

RECRUITMENT:

Quinn is available for recruitment aboard the Tempest, and would assist in the capacity of studying Kett tech in the realm of sabotaging or retooling it to counter the threat to Heleus, as well as trying to better understand the unknown threat that is the Scourge. She would not be a regular companion, and would prefer to AVOID combative situations, but will regularly provide assistance from The Tempest. However, there may be certain situations in which she will hit groundside with Ryder and their squad for particular missions.

LOYALTY QUEST:

As Ryder learns and bonds with Quinn more and more, they begin to pick apart the stories and pieces to her life and purpose. At times standoffish and mercurial, with patience she eventually warms up enough to Ryder to ask for a favor--one involving the retrieval of a cache of equipment, taken during the mutiny aboard the Nexus.

From there, more is unraveled behind Quinn’s story. If successful, and willing to place trust in Quinn, Ryder will finally learn the secret behind her survival--as well as Quinn’s need to return a favor.

ENDING:

After humanity settles on Hyperion, the Second Wave cryo pods are thawed out. With it, a block of the children’s stasis pods are as well.  Quinn will finally get the opportunity to reunite with her son Shaun, of whom Ryder will be able to meet and speak with. Quinn’s complete trust and loyalty to the Pathfinder will be cemented at this point.

[makerof150papermasks]

The Three Governments of Spyro the Dragon

 Today, I have something really interesting that I feel would be worth talking about. Now I remember recently reading a post titled “’Kirby Super Star’ is a Marxist critique of the Soviet Union,�� which delves into the titular 1996 SNES video game so deeply and somehow matches it up with certain pieces of USSR history (Reddit). After viewing this, I began to think, “I know a few other games that I could analyze like this guy did with Kirby.” Yes, I was motivated so much by this blog that I had a hunch to work on my own research chat.

Now the games I am about to talk about are the first three games in the Spyro the Dragon series first released for the PlayStation from 1998 to 2000, titled Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, and Spyro: Year of The Dragon (Additionally, all three titles recently received a remake collectively titled “Spyro Reignited Trilogy,” which makes this document relevant as of 2019). With a little research, I was able to pair those games with a government that best defined them in a nutshell. Of course, not all real-life elements of these governments may actually match up with how any of the fictional societies depicted operate, but I’ve tried my hardest to make sure the details match up strongly enough that they can be talked about.

 *If you haven’t played the games yet and don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t bother reading!

  Spyro the Dragon: Confederation (Left)

 I want to start this discussion by saying something unique about this first third of the review: unlike the latter two titles, Spyro the Dragon seems to promote the idea of its featured form of government rather than point out the significant flaws and ensure the audience doesn’t sympathize with the concept at hand. First off, I want to give you folks a good look at how the populace of the Dragon Worlds goes about their lives and organizes themselves socially speaking. For those of you don’t already know enough about the game’s context, there are five socially-unique sectors that each owe something important to the well-being of the larger society. The Artisans represent the working class, the Peace Keepers are equivalent to a military system, the Magic Crafters are most likely representative of the business owners and upper class (As noted by the sheer presence of overly-elegant architecture in their specific area), the Beast Makers represent those who work in health, medical, biological, and other science-related fields, while the Dream Weavers can be considered a spiritually-grounded group of dragons who are experts in the field of meditation. Then there’s the extra sixth sector known as Gnasty’s World (Residence of main antagonist Gnasty Gnorc, who holds no true political power under any circumstance; therefore, I will leave him out of the equation), which I’ll just shoehorn into the sanitation sector, even though it would still easily be associated with the working class (Artisans). 

With the exception of Gnasty’s World, these groups all serve an equally vital role in establishing the economic stability and societal foundation of the Dragon Worlds, in the form of a confederation. Now if you folks are wondering what that’s supposed to mean, here’s the definition; “an organization which consists of a number of parties or groups united in an alliance or league.” For a historical example, the United States operated in this manner under the Articles of Confederation of 1777, which was ratified in 1781 and formed a society whose power lay mostly in the hands of the member states. Up until 1789, these states could establish laws without having to worry about a federal government trampling over those laws since the existing equivalent had far less political power than the one present (Reference.com).

Revisiting my view from the previous paragraph, it can be noted that each of the first five sectors can be viewed as separate, autonomous states that, in spite of their different approaches to solving daily situations, hold a common view of some sort that unites them into a larger entity. While it’s not known in canon if the sectors that dragons live in have ever come into conflict with each other at any point, I will bring up some backstory later on that may be worth identifying.

  Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage: Empire (Middle)

 Now looking at the titular villain and his path to wretchedness, picture him as this small, colonial society. From what we’re aware of based on the context provided in-game, Ripto and his cronies have no idea that Avalar (The main setting of this sophomore title) even exists at first. Now keep in mind that since Ripto despises dragons, he’s picky about where he wants to expand his influence. But anyway, once he finds himself in this dragon-free dimension, it becomes the perfect opportunity for Ripto to slowly nibble away at the land until there is no more for him to take over, aka, colonize. Of course, once Spyro shows up, the horned, red midget becomes rather peeved, prompting him and his goons to actually begin setting up the framework for his proposed kingdom. 

Throughout the events of the game, Ripto not only uses his magic to spread his negative influence across the dimension (AKA: Cause various beasts and baddies to run amok and result in calamity), but we are also shown the blue banners of Avalar being rolled back in favor of emblems donning the antagonist’s mug, THRICE. According to my searches, an empire is defined as, “an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress.” In this case, Ripto can easily be seen as emperor because at his highest position, he holds control over not just his two reptilian brutes (Who serve as a metaphor for his “kingdom” at its most basic), but also numerous realms scattered throughout Avalar, each serving as their own formerly independent municipalities until he enters the picture. 

Now here’s another point: even with Spyro around, Ripto still feels the need to settle in Avalar because there are no dragons around other than Spyro himself currently present to scare him away, which thereby gives him access to a shipload of land and resources. When it came to real-life empires, they were strategic regarding which areas to conquer. For example, the Roman Empire wouldn’t go east into modern-day Germany because the cost of conquest in that area was far above the monetary worth earned from the extractable resources available in that region (The Daily Reckoning). 

Moving on, the western half eventually collapsed primarily due to internal conflicts over power that left them exposed to outsiders (The eastern half, dubbed “The Byzantine Empire,” managed to survive until 1453, when it fell to Turkish invaders as a result of their victory in the Byzantine-Ottoman wars). In-game, the biggest reason Ripto is defeated is because he overlooks the possibility of Spyro collecting Avalar’s sacred talismans and orbs, which collectively allow the young dragon to pass through the barriers that separate both parties.

  Spyro: Year of The Dragon: Totalitarian State (Right)

 Jumping ship to the final third of the original Spyro trilogy, we now examine the Forgotten Realms and its central government in the form of the despotic, blue crocodilian-esque Sorceress. Now the previous two games sugarcoated their subject matter immensely (Though the second game still views the concept of an empire as a detrimental idea), but this time the game doesn’t make things look as rosy. First and foremost, The Sorceress displays a position of superiority around anyone in her vicinity, and in an overly aggressive manner most of the time. Already, we’re seeing her being established as a straw tyrant; alas, there is still so much more to discuss regarding the Forgotten Realms operating as a political body that blatantly abides by the guidelines of totalitarianism. Now where do we begin on this topic?

My first point of conversation in this segment is that unlike Gnasty Gnorc or Ripto in the previous two games (Now although the latter does become “ruler” near the end of his respective game, he doesn’t spend nearly enough time to be officially considered a grand-high patriarch by any of the residents of Avalar), The Sorceress is a formally-recognized monarch, is referred to as such by the inhabitants of the Forgotten Realms, and to make matters much worse, has been ruling this same exact dimension, in the same throne for AT LEAST 1000 YEARS. Not only that, but at one point, the dragons currently living dwelling in the Dragon Realms once lived in the Forgotten Realms. But when they left, they took their magic with them and as the centuries passed, magic began to drain and caused their fancy-schmancy portals to stop working. We’re convinced to think that the reason The Sorceress has become so wary of Spyro’s presence is because he will disrupt her plans to gather the eggs they had stolen from the dragons; she is supposedly gathering them in order allow this upcoming generation of winged reptiles to bring magic back to the dimension she rules over.

I will bring up that part about the dragons and the eggs again, but there is an important detail that points further to establishing The Sorceress as an antagonist known for taking full advantage of her position over everyone around her and therefore preventing anyone from reasoning with her other than Spyro and a slew of animal friends she had recently imprisoned. A little more than a quarter way into the game, Spyro finds himself in a realm known as Enchanted Towers; it is here that he discovers that a slew of lavender-skinned counterculture humanoids had been tasked with erecting a statue built in their highness’ likeness.

There’s just so much to talk about regarding what the statue situation represents, but first let me define what this government is. Totalitarianism is described as being, “a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.” The aforementioned statue in Enchanted Towers is probably one of the biggest pieces of evidence pointing to the Forgotten Realms operating under that kind of system. To start, the Sorceress displays unrivaled power in the world she inhabits and no one dare beg to differ with her on that matter. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that the citizens of Enchanted Towers mention that they certainly did not enjoy creating this tremendous work of art (Though they agree that it looks prettier than the actual character herself, further driving the sense of rebellion in), but they completely understand that going against what The Sorceress is telling them to do is like flirting with death.

You, the reader, have to realize that this is a form of government where there isn’t a legislative or judicial system to limit executive power. Heck, that’s not even getting into the fact that the denizens of the Forgotten Realms have neither a right to free speech nor the freedom to vote in elections, as far I’m aware. It’s certainly no fun living in a society where one person holds all the social and political power and you’re not that one person, nothing delightful about that (And there’s nothing anyone can do to change the fact unless someone successfully uses force to overthrow the one in power so they wouldn’t be able to enforce their laws any longer).

Before getting to the climax of this essay, it’s that time I bring up a real example. Although I’d be talking about a dictatorship along the lines of Nazi Germany, I’ve decided to take a more interesting example from further back in history. The Qin Dynasty, an empire to which China borrows its name from, relied on an authoritarian set of regulations that would become hugely influential to every Chinese-based dynasty that followed. Although it only lasted from 221 to 207 BC, there’s still some valuable information to extract from this chapter of human history. It also makes sense for me to select this example because the game’s title, Year of The Dragon, references a specific birth year on the Chinese Zodiac (Speaking of which, the year the game itself originally released just happened to land on a dragon year, which only happens once every twelve years).

Now allow me to continue with the example. Under the commissioning of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the very first leader of a unified China, came a standardized system of writing and a strictly-guided formula for measuring the width, weight, and length of highways. Huang also oversaw construction of what would become the first section of The Great Wall of China and eventually went on to abolish the feudal system that flourished during the Zhou Dynasty decades earlier (In which landowners owed allegiance to the emperor as a result of kinship rather than fulfilling legal obligations). In addition, he commissioned the burning of almost all of the books currently available in that region at the time, only sparing those that provided information on topics like medicine and issued gigantic tax levies in an effort to pay for his military and construction expenses. This matrix of catastrophes led to a rebellion following Qin Shi Huang’s death in 210 BC, which went on to ultimately knock the Qin Dynasty out of power and make room for the Han Dynasty roughly 3-4 years later (Britannica).

Now what I’ll be explaining next is going to be extremely horrifying in hindsight, so grab your popcorn and hold your breath. While exploring Evening Lake, the third home world of the game, Spyro’s close friend Hunter winds up in a subterranean trap set up by The Sorceress that was meant for Spyro himself to prevent him from collecting any more of the dragon eggs that she desperately wanted to remain untouched. He is then approached by her servant, a magician-in-training named Bianca (To whom he has a developed a liking for over the course of the synopsis), who comes to tell the caged cheetah that the reason the dragons left so many years ago was because it had to do with their wonderful wings. As they began to realize that the obese blue saurian autocrat wanted to clip them off to give her immortality, they had no choice but to find solace in another reality. Linking this information to Spyro 1, we can now go back to viewing the example of confederation as the United States during the era of the Articles of Confederation, trying to recuperate from their religious tension with the monarchy of England and emigrating from there before ultimately deciding to settle in North America and establish a self-governed nation over the course of several decades. In the Spyro continuity, the dragons succeeded in building an autonomous series of societies in the then-vacant Dragon Realms following their disastrous affair with The Sorceress, where they then proceeded to push aside Gnasty Gnorc to the wastelands at some point later in time so they would have enough room to properly establish their footing in this uncharted land.

But sadly, that is not the end of the suspense; when Bianca returns to her master’s throne room, she discovers a dreadful truth she hadn’t been aware of until now. Ever since her henchmen brought the yet-to-hatch eggs back from the Dragon Worlds, The Sorceress hoarded them not because she wanted them to return their magic to the Forgotten Realms once they did hatch, but because she wanted to KILL THEM FOR THEIR WINGS LIKE SHE ATTEMPTED TO DO WITH THE ADULT DRAGONS BEFORE THEY LEFT. What she’s basically telling us is that she plans on committing an act of GENOCIDE ON AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF NEWBORNS in a similar manner to how Hitler promoted the large-scale massacre on an enormous number of Jews during the Holocaust.

With not a pinch of sympathy for anyone but herself by this point, the malevolent indigo monarch has become nothing short of a filthy caricature for the horrors of tyranny and dictatorship. By the way, she didn’t have to kill the newborns at all for that to happen, she just felt the need to do so JUST BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T WANT TO SEE THEM SQUIRMING AROUND IN HER QUARTERS. Prompting a drastic change of heart, Bianca decides to cease working for her master, opting to rescue Hunter from the trap her former supervisor had set up in Evening Lake. Fed up with the treason her lackey recently committed, The Sorceress decides to create an absurdly powerful, bat-winged monster intended to annihilate practically everyone in her opposition (Simply put, that means almost the entire population of the world she governs, plus Spyro and some of the friends he bought along).

Even though Spyro manages to eradicate The Sorceress for good, (Much to the satisfaction of the Forgotten Realms inhabitants) the atrocious myriad of actions she takes during that one game position her as an antagonist who is regarded as a dark villain for a normally light-hearted sugar bowl series like Spyro, thereby leaving an indelible mark on the narrative of that franchise’s continuity. Serving as a harsh critique for the concept of autocracy and its consequences on the people, Spyro: Year of The Dragon uses a surprisingly pathos-inducing series of events that favors a call to action for executive reform, appealing to the wants and needs of the governed rather than the desires and aspirations of the government itself.

  Sources:

 Kirby Super Star: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/39dbqi/kirby_super_star_is_a_marxist_critique_of_the/

 Confederacy: https://www.reference.com/government-politics/examples-confederate-government-230a5f967d7f24fa

 Empire: https://dailyreckoning.com/how-empires-really-work/

 Totalitarian State: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Qin-dynasty

https://www.reference.com/history/feudalism-ancient-china-8ddd0bf737a29fc5

[thedrown]

Star Wars!

Heya everyone I have a quick inquiry for ya. My Star Wars comic of course focuses on a trio of separatist characters as they deal with war, espionage, and personal conflict during the Clone Wars with a heavy focus on the CIS, aliens, and Mandalorians. That said, the force takes a backseat to the plot and isn't explored much beyond different perspectives on the force through the different viewpoints of the Jedi characters, Dark Acolyte characters, Noma, and a handful of outliers like Takhi who's an unaffiliated force user or Karam a Mandalorian Jedi. Paired with all the characters in GOTS and how many of them will be recurring there really is a focus on the grander conflict within the story. While all the main characters be they sep or republic have important personal development, the broader plot of GOTS is focused on the Clone Wars from a separatist perspective.

So basically I've wondered a bit about making a separate Star Wars comic idea to focus on a smaller more individualized story. I have three ideas in my head as to this second story but only really one of them has a fair amount of development towards a larger plot. Anywho, I'd really appreciate if you gave em a read and let me know which one you find most interesting and lend any input or suggestions. Ideas below! Thanks!

The first idea is a story set in the sequel trilogy era that would follow a trio of pilots in the First Order as they enter a new world by being selected for special forces following gallant action in a disastrous battle. The trio would be a young Ubese pilot who's essentially mute albeit charasmatic and has a deep connection to his fighter modifying it to push himself to extreme limits, an older brother type character who's more by the books but starts to question protocol as he and his compatriots see more and more extreme aspects to the First Order, and lastly a sly and cunning young man who's both a skilled pilot and soldier with a strong sense of loyalty to his comrades. This idea mostly has to do with my love for aircraft and dogfights and an interest to explore the First Order but the fact it's centered on starfighters as well as the limited info on the sequel era galaxy has left me with really only to beginning and nothing else.

The second idea is similar to first also being from an Imperial perspective albeit from the Galactic Civil War. This one would follow a stormtrooper who would present noteworthy survival skills after being cut off from the main force as the Rebels closed in. Surviving and going on to sabotage the rebel's forward base following their victory, she'd manage to escape back to friendly space and following her report would enter the deathtrooper program on recommendation form a curious officer. The story would follow her initial grueling training to make the cut to become a deathtrooper and then lead into her special operations missions to counter the growing number of threats to the Empire while under the guidance of a scheming and mysterious commander. It wouldn't be a spy story rather something more like urban warfare or counter terrorist type stuff with antagonists belonging to extremists of the rebellion like the Partisans, crime syndicates, separatist holdouts, and traitors to the Empire. Main problem with this one is a lack of characterization to the main heroine and lack of a noteworthy cast, especially in regards to the villains whom I haven't thought of a single one. Last idea is the one I've thought the most on. It would also be set in the Empire but the Sith Empire of the Old Republic days around the time of the Cold War (around swtor's time). The protagonist would either be a Rodian or Kubaz girl taken by the empire as a prisoner turned slave until she demonstrated force abilities bringing her to the near certain death of the Sith academy on Korriban. She'd be having to compete for her place with several other acolytes, slaves, and vagabonds all vying for the position of apprentice to an ominous Inquisitor. Enduring the ruthless Sith lifestyle and being completely alone, she'd struggle to survive and walk the fine line of showing her worth to her master while avoiding any unwanted attention from rivals whilst trying her best to carry out her master's calculated schemes for power and influence. This story would be very character heavy focusing on the main set of acolytes as well as the relationship between the heroine and her Sith master with the conflict focusing on a rival Sith lord whose own ambition intersects with the heroine's. I don't really have any issues with this one's plot or characters or setting since swtor provides a lot of exposition that makes building this story much easier.