Articles by Valiens Nantaris

Another week, another superhero movie. Except, this one is a bit different…sort of…it features a collection of villains from the DC universe. Suicide Squad is a movie which is supposed to be the counter to Deadpool and the opposite of the Avengers and Justice League movies. Whether it...

So as long time readers know, I got into The Old Republic a fair time after it was released and been quite a fan of it. I’ve completed all 8 class stories and was very excited to hear about Knights of the Fallen Empire. In basic, Knights of the Fallen Empire introduces a 3rd group into the...

So, when does one stop being a 'fan'. Is there a point where you wonder if you ever were ever a 'real' fan? Can one be a fan if they are annoyed or unhappy with the majority of a show's episodes? I ask all these questions when it comes to Doctor Who. I was born and grew up too late to ever...

So a completely random topic, borne of a discussion between myself and @Siobhan Kerrigan. If your character suddenly became ruler of a major faction (or is one now), to whom would they best be compared? For consistency and because I view them as a continuation, I will allow 'Byzantine' Emperors...

The Old Republic – A Retrospective Star Wars: The Old Republic (TOR) is a game which has been out since the beginning of 2012. I was not in the beta, and when I picked it up it had been out for several months. I had then (and still do for the most part) have an aversion to MMO games, on the...

So I went to see Captain America: Civil War today. For some reason we in the Commonwealth get Marvel movies before the United States…ironic considering today was a Captain America movie. Regardless, this movie will be rightly contrasted with Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, which came out...

I present most people's care level to the endless stream of bickering, arguments and timetables offered by OS and Republic members Though the melodrama is so entertaining we have bought popcorn. Sincerely, Everyone else on the board.

So, I got the Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition on Friday. I don't often get a choice to play, not living anywhere near other players, but I enjoy reading the material and comparing it. Before I go over my impressions, let me discuss my views of the other 4 editions. 1st...

So, a little late to the party, I’ve been watching the TV show Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. It surprised me that there are only 10 episodes so far, and I have now seen 5 of these. These episodes are almost entirely based on the original Arthur Conan Doyle works. In...

Stellaris is a grand strategy ‘4X’ space game developed by Paradox Interactive. It places you as the leader of a species just entering the greater galaxy and using warfare, diplomacy and empire management to chart their future. I’m going to assume some familiarity with the genre as I will...

Finally. Finally someone has made a DC movie which not only competes with the Marvel competition, it outdoes most of them. Man of Steel was a movie I was more of a fan on than the average, but I did not like Superman in it. Batman v Superman I was both disappointed and irritated by. Suicide...

The Omega Wash-up As the Omega completes its terminal descent to Castameer’s surface it’s time to look back on the last 2.5 weeks and give the members a perspective and a summary on the Event. Omega is the first event on SWRP that I’ve had a major hand running at SWRP or at any web forum...

Since this blog thing has become the thing the cool kids do I might as well do one for myself. Rather than posting threads for all these things I can post entries here. So my first topic of conversation concerns the Force. In the Legends/EU canon and even in the prequel/original trilogy there...

It’s interesting to remember that the name of our fandom is Star Wars. This emphasis on conflict makes for interesting writing and reading, but has been treated unevenly in the past both in canon in RPing. Much like the Force there are two basic ways of approaching war, conflict and battle...

It was without much enthusiasm that I went to the cinemas today to see X-Men Apocalypse. I had loved First Class and somewhat enjoyed Days of Future Past, but the trailers for Apocalypse had not instilled me with a huge amount of confidence. Still, I was willing to give it a shot. I will not go...

It is an interesting feature of most fiction that moving between time periods in a narrative is very hard to do. Usually it falls prey to the dreaded ‘summary of events’ paragraph where all the events that occurred in X time period are briefly skimmed over. This leads to the odd state of...

This entry follows on a bit from yesterday, both expanding and showing a consequence. In Star Wars, and to be fair in any profession, it’s vanishingly rare to find a genius, a prodigy, who masters a difficult skill quickly. One could point to Karl Benz the engineer, or Alexander the Great as...

If you ask ordinary people to name things about Star Wars, one of the top five will likely be lightsabres, after Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Yoda and some other random thing. Lightsabre are one of the things that sets apart Star Wars from any other sci-fi setting. And yet, the notion that a sword...

TOR has 8 classes, four mirrored pairs across the two factions. However, each class has its own unique storyline which weaves in with the faction and generic sidequests. Each one has its own unique flavour. These will be spoiler filled critiques, so don’t read this unless you have played it or...

This entry diverts away a little from the previous pieces, but offers interesting insight into Star Wars and this board too. The Star Wars timeline contains patterns which are repeated over and over. Furthermore the narratives of these times never evolve the technology or understanding of these...