#this anon is powerful! they were able to figure out an ability stat i was hesitant on adding!

[taintedsoul-if]

It’s me again and I still don’t know how we if it’s possible to end Yesenia life.

The only way I would assume we could hurt her would be to make her seem mad or crazy but since she can rewind time if I remember correctly then she will be the most difficult opponent. I will come up with a solution that I promise.

The only I got was if she used her power make it were she goes to pocket realm or dimension. And she would be stock in a time loop but the man question is how far back can she go because if she really sees the Mc as a threat then Yesenia can go back to the beginning and frame you for stuff you didn’t do.

This right here is difficult but my brain my come with a solution. This has in a way given me something to do when I just need a break from the real world

Oh also

Bear hug 🤗

Hi anon I do hope all is well with you! 🤗 hug!

I was hesitant about whether or not I should add that OP power to the pc character stats page but just for you I've decided that I would add this ability. I'll allow the character to have the ability to create their own dimension. Then again 😏 god I want to spill all the juicy details but I can't.

And you do have a point! This is why she's an undying cockroach. In the past when Lady Anaya saved the crown, Yesenia deliberately went back in time, schemed against the OH just to switch places with her that faithful day. Just so she could get all the fame and merit that came with that tragedy. The poor OH has been living in her shadows for years. An excellent child turned into a waste under her own sisters hand.

The worst thing is that, if it weren't for the OH mother, Yesenia's mother would still be a whore in a brothel. But ones ungratefulness knows no bounds!

Don't feel discouraged anon! I believe that you'll most certainly think of a way to defeat this undying cockroach! Whenever you have another brilliant idea, please do share it with me!

Also anon I do hope you have a wonderful day! Stay safe! 😁

[daughter-of-water]

Why Rey is a Mary Sue and Luke Skywalker is Not

Sorry it took so long to respond to this Anon. I really wanted to take my time to unpack all this. First of all, I will concede that it is possible that Rey might meet Literature Devil’s criteria of a Mary Sue –a character to which the universe and plot bends in TROS as in that movie we apparently have such scenes as Kylo Ren against his established characterization attempting to run Rey over with his TIE fighter for no real reason other  than to show how awesome she is when she flips over it. This is indicative of a Mary Sue moment according to his definition of it. However, the incidents he uses to make his argument do not come from TROS. The examples he cites comes mainly from TFA and are grounded in a flawed supposition that the plot is meant to adhere to Campbell’s Hero’s Journey cycle as Luke’s did and his own faulty observations.

He expands upon his definition of Mary Sue by describing it as a situation when a rookie is able to defeat a veteran for no discernible reason then “he’s just awesome” then refuses to acknowledge the premise that Rey defeated Kylo Ren because Kylo was at his lowest point at the time– he was emotional compromised after killing his father and running out of steam after suffering two injuries, one of which was pretty major. In Literature Devil’s mind this should be impossible for Rey to accomplish and proof of her Mary Sue universe bending powers™ . He doesn’t take into account that stories reflect life rather than adhere to a strict skill stat score. A veteran can lose to someone less experienced if they underestimate their opponent or something emerges that interferes with their ability to perform. 

But the real reason that Rey shouldn’t be allowed to defeat Kylo Ren so early in the game in Literature Devil’s mind is because it goes against the Hero’s Journey cycle. The sole basis he has for the supposition that the sequel trilogy will following this formula in it’s storytelling is the similarities that can be found between ‘The Force Awakens’ and a ‘A New Hope’. He doesn’t once consider that this is intentionally put there to set up what will be a subversion of the Hero’s Journey in many ways and instead, anticipates a repeat of Luke’s story only this time Luke’s a girl. If he had actually been paying attention to Reylo meta rather than just condemning it as “whataboutism” or obfuscation, he’d learn that Rey’s journey isn’t following the Hero’s Journey cycle in the first place and is actually following the Heroine Journey cycle, a formula designed by a student of Campbell’s. In the Heroine’s Journey cycle the heroine does achieve early material success than the hero because it’s illusionary. Her journey is psychologically driven and about reconciling two ways of looking at the world rather than the surmounting of challenges posed by a rival. It’s not about the student becoming the master. It’s about figuring out what success means and what someone really wants in life. If one has watched Avatar the Last Airbender as Literature Devil has, this cycle should already be familiar to them. The heroine’s journey formula is used to formulate Zuko’s character arc.

Literature Devil begins his argument by first going over the skills that both Luke and Rey are supposed to have garnered as part of their upbringing and profession and while he exposes what is the fatal flaw of this trilogy, he also exposes the quality of his own observational skills. The greatest flaw of this trilogy is the fact that Disney withheld crucial information that was key to understanding the characters and their backstories from being developed onscreen and left it for visual dictionaries, comics, and novelizations to tell. Only the most diehard of fans read these which leads to many erroneous assumptions such as the one Literature Devil makes that Rey survived on Jakku entirely on her own and had zero mentors. In actuality, the novelizations inform us that she was sold to Unkar Plutt as a child and shadowed other scavengers employed by him to learn the trade and how to defend herself. She was driven to learn how to read the schematics of ships because Unkar doles out more portions for parts that were still working as opposed to merely on the basis of the value of the material they were made from. The reason she knows about the compressor that Unkar Plutt put on the Millennium Falcon is because she worked as a mechanic for him. Unfortunately the Force Awakens doesn’t give us enough dialogue between them to establish that relationship on screen. His hand holding onto her arm and admonishing her to be quiet in her flashback is the only indication he owns her as a slave.

It isn’t just Rey that suffers from this problem but really all the new characters in the trilogy but Literature Devil shows the quality of his observation skills and/or biases when he criticizes the basic setup of her character–the emphasis on how alone she is and how much she wants to be reunited with her parents. For some reason, he really dislikes this element of her backstory and feels the narrative needs to tell him what Rey’s parents did to deserve her devotion as if wanting someone to rescue you from the hell that is Jakku and give you the home and a sense of belonging isn’t enough. Because of this, he completely misses key moments that would tell him why Rey is moved to join the Resistance and help BB-8. He fails to note that yes, while she doesn’t interact with the wilted flower or the Resistance Doll seen in her AT-AT, she does put on a Rebel Alliance helmet as she eats her dinner. The combination of the helmet and the doll suggests a childlike adoration for the Rebels and the heroes of the last war and we do see this play out with how excited she is to hear the stories of the Jedi being real. Literature Devil also asserts the narrative suffers from a lack of any moment that would endear BB-8 to Rey and cause her to shift from reluctant helper to stalwart attack dog when in fact there was such a moment when they arrive at Niima Outpost. BB-8 reveals to Rey that he is waiting for someone to return to him. BB-8 is just like her and by helping to reunite him with his family, she is helping someone achieve something she cannot. She attacks Finn under the belief that Finn stole Poe’s jacket and may have done something to him that led to BB-8′s abandonment. Her actions are projection of her own issues.

Rey’s motivation isn’t just that she is kind as Literature Devil supposes. The strongest connections she makes are with characters who can act as parental substitutes such as Han and Leia or characters who have been abandoned and left behind like her such as BB-8 and Ben Solo. It plays an integral part of the story and Literature Devil’s proposed changes to her story of having her wait for a Jedi master as much as it would assuage the criticism of her abilities in the Force would at the same time undermine the entire conceit of her character and what is really the only consistently decent thing in this trilogy-her relationship with Kylo Ren. Literature Devil assumes Kylo Ren’s role in the story is the same as Vader’s to Luke–a rival that Rey must hone her combat skills against but he complete ignores how different Kylo Ren’s narrative is from Vader’s. Kylo Ren from the onset is presented to us not as a fearsome machine man but as the lost prodigal son hiding behind a mask whose salvation is made an objective of the story in a major way. The challenge Kylo presents for Rey isn’t physical so much as emotional and yes, romantic even. Their relationship is more akin to Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy than it is Luke’s and Vader’s. Rey’s siphoning of Kylo’s abilities or his defeat at her hands does not come as a result of her just being so awesome. They serve to highlight the conflicted nature of Kylo’s character and his longing for the same sense of belonging and end to isolation that Rey seeks. 

I could go on more about the flaws in Literature Devil’s argument but this is already long enough. In short, I do not think Rey is a Mary Sue as far as TFA and TLJ are concerned. The fact that her journey doesn’t conform to Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and that you’re not getting your combat training montage with a wizened mentor is because her journey isn’t following that formula in the first place. Nevertheless, I do agree with Literature Devil in the sense that I do think Rey is a victim of bad writing just like all the new characters are. The things included in the outside materials should have been in the damn movies. 

[starwarslegacies]

Survey Says, Part IV, Finale

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to get people to fill out a survey which I do 1-3 times a year, these often do have impact in choosing how the sim moves forward.  Bit behind on these results like many other things!

Believe we’re on question #10

10 asked, Events: What do you prefer? (Can choose more than one)

78% PVE, blend of combat and story

63.4% PVP

63.4% PVE, primarily story

58.8% Social, Pazaak, Racing,etc

31.7% PVE, combat focused.

Can see above we have a fairly diverse player base in what they like to do.  We’re a bit short on storytellers right now so if you or someone you know may fit that role, do let me know.

Then #11 asked “ What social event would you like to see more of?”

By far the favorites here were Swoop Racing and Fights.  The downside to swoop racing is that everytime someone loads into sim it causes a few second delay for everyone, but if people are willing to deal with that we can definitely hold more races.   As for the fights we have a “Pit Fighting League” under construction in which people will be able to earn credits by having sanctioned matches which they can do at any time and submit logs (though limited in how many they can do). It will also have tournaments and champions.  Every fight done can potentially increase someones placing within the league to lead to bigger prizes at the end of the season.  Still seeking some help managing this.  Pazaak didn’t get as much love but we do like doing those as they are an easy social thing to throw together.  Some of the other answers included a desire to see more tech rolls in the events, then someone mentioned more like Sume’s Valentine day event, then someone even mentioned music.   We’re open to ideas and do support players who want to run something.

Last thing we asked was #12: Any other general thoughts you'd like to share? Please keep brief/to the point. 

Lot of responses so I’ll select a few without getting redundant.

“Ensure that the system you have in place does not need certain players online. I.E, Ive been trying to get my Imperial I.D, and cannot. “ - Anon#1

I think this was fixed so that there is an automated version?

“ I’d love to see the trash piles spawn more often and/or give out more resources. This is invaluable to new players, as gaining credits was quite tough for me and many others at first. The trash is a good way to start up from nothing, but I feel it should spawn slightly more than 1-10 Credits or 1 crafting resource; especially with how rare they are right now. “ - Anon#2

I agree, been asking Renward about this type of thing but he’s been very busy.

“ when chars are arrested very little if any rp is done after the initial arrest. No interrogation. No release. This needs to change. “ - Anon#3

I find captures are often very hit or miss.

“ I have never RP'd anywhere else before and this is the most fun I have had on Secondlife so far in 11 years. The main draw of this sim to me is the amount of people who actively use it. I could not see myself RPing in a sim with a low amount of active players. Getting new players and retaining old players is the most important thing to me. I have no real ideas on how to do this though. Good luck!” - Anon#4

Thank you, we do our best with that, sometimes more difficult than others but we’ve been able to maintain for around half a decade, let’s go for a whole one :d

“ I loveloveLOVE the build but I noticed it's very graphics laggy. I also noticed that while you use teleporters to essentially skyboxes with the building interiors, those interiors are still directly behind the building facades. If you moved them out of draw distance and spaced them out, the sim would be a lot easier to render for everyone. Less lag, higher framerates, more fun! “ - Anon#5

The reason I do tend to do this is I find if something is out of cam range, people are less likely to enter, you do give a valid argument though and will consider further.

“ Having mentors/mediators would be really helpful to take a lot of the load off the staff on sim. So then they can focus on the cool stuff, like building the lore, and actual problems. “ - #Anon#6

Yeah, would like to find a few more.

“ I'm concerned about the system being an element that pulls players from the immersion of their RP. As medical personnel i'm also still concerned with the 'reset' feature on health causing individuals to not be prompted to seek medical attention for their injuries. It is a handy system for varying stats, offering abilities and providing a more structured combat basis but it would be helpful if there was an easier application for it than typing in commands. If there were an attachable HUD for the Chimera available upon entry to the sim which offered either buttons for Chimera options or a drop-down menu to choose from it might help expedite system use in combat, speed up combat, and make the experience more enjoyable overall. Spending hours in combat can sometimes be exhausting and take away from time desired for other aspects of RP. “ - #Anon7

Post this, we did take action about the reset button and have taken a few other steps as well to increase realistic recovery from injury and people using medical services.  May still see more in this area.

“ With regards to conscent, reasonable right to life and consequence. Dont do something that would get you arrested, and deny consent. “ - #Anon8

Yeah, would agree on that, you may see changes in that area very soon.  We’re behind on many things we’d like to do.

“ I feel like I’d personally be more invested if there was more for the Jedi to do. So far all we have to do is be captured or whatnot. It was fun for a bit but I think a lack of leadership for a while has made it hard. I hope this changes soon. “ - #Anon9

It is a difficult era for Jedi players, we knew that going in but we wanted to try something different. We are always shaking things up though so you could see things evolve in the future.

“ Lot of trolls get into the sim/rp. Gets a bit annoying. Might just be an issue all over SL, though. “ #Anon10

It is, but I find “trolls” are fairly easy to tune out/ignore/etc. The only time trolls have power is when people take the bait and react. They usually knock it off once they know it doesn’t get to you.  To use my own example a few used to give me a hard time for engaging in sexual roleplay, they would take pictures and IM me these pictures. I laughed, and just got more lewd, like who cares? and they stopped making a thing of it.. so I just find trolls pretty easy to ward off or ignore. Always more concerned with those who create and stir drama than I am with trolls.  Drama kills sim dead, trolling is just irritating.

“ Well , if you ask to me , there should be much more various social events .. Also before the events such as pazaak there should be courses before he game night so people could have an idea about what they are doing . About the groups , you shouldnt bring some strangers as directors , you should pick them from the group according to their activeness. Also you should appreciate or make a system to appreciate employees such as [redacted] employees .. I have been in group for two months i think and i am still security guard. No rank-ups .. And i have been coming online and standing as a guard almost everyday . Thanks for your patience and reading this. Good luck about the sim.. “ - #Anon11

If there are those who have been active and also have leadership ability then they will be.  Having the skills needed for leadership is not something every active player has.  This could be because their temper is too short, or maybe they do not work well with other group leads to be able to create interactive roleplay, or maybe they just are lazy or a variety of other reasons.  If we have someone who handles lead roles well, yes, at times they will leap frog if there isn’t a suitable candidate within X group.

“ If there is a time jump done, people need a way to get the most out of the 5+ year missing time. Something to encourage them to write up story for their characters for that time. After they've done so and handed it in, could lead towards special rewards for their character or the player. Something to think over. “ - #Anon12

I very much like this idea if we ever have one of those.  There currently is not one planned but like I’ve said, we’re always willing to change and adapt to do what’s best for activity.

----

DONE. Thank you to everyone who filled it out, really enjoy the feedback as it helps us figure how we can improve things for you all.