BlackOsprey

It's probably more the fear about reception of such politics showcase from the prequels rather than actual runtime concerns. If they have time in the movie to show Rey, Finn & co. being chased by some weird crab-like monsters Han had stored in his freighter which in the overall picture is rather unimportant, they could have elaborated more on the relationship between Leia's Resistance and the New Republic.
Just because the prequels messed up in showing all these politics in an engaging manner doesn't mean they are unimportant or uninteresting for the overaching story. Despite it being named Star Wars, there always lays quite a bit of politics and diplomacy at the ground level of any of those wars. War is, after all, ultimatively just another facet of politics.
More or less, lol, this trap could only be put to work so splendidly because the Sith were laying the groundwork of it for several decades going even back to the days of Darth Bane. The Republic became an old, toothless behemoth where the left hand didn't knew what the right hand was doing due to the long lasting peace time (more than 1.000 years!) inviting feelings of complacence within its ruling circles and the Jedi. Yoda even laments this state during one conversation with Obi-Wan and Mace Windu in Episode II. Things were taken for granted and not enough people of integrity put forth enough effort anymore to keep the Republic running smoothly, thus leaving holes in which the corrupt and greedy agents of the Sith manipulated from the shadows could seep into and hijack the system for their own benefits.
Slimy megacorporations who exploited weaker and poorer planets like the Trade Federation, Techno Union or Corporate Alliance could not only gain this much power over the system (they even had their own Senators!) due to the Sith manipulations, but also because those who could have prevented it were to complacent to notice that there was a problem brewing.
The core errors were made in the 30 to 20 years before Episode I as by that time the Republic is already rotten and would have required huge reforms (and no behind-the-scenes Sith conspiracy) to survive.

Of course it's dumb as bricks, it is the same as people constantly complaining about Rey in Ep. VII. She's actually very similar to Ep. IV Luke and yet she gets way more shit thrown her way than he ever did. It makes one really wonder if her sex isn't at least one of the reasons why.
Heh, I'm much of the same cloth as I am more intrigued by the vast opportunities the Star Wars galaxy offers outside of the whole "Skywalker drama" as well.
It's the usual split between Star Wars fandom in regards to the old EU as those who were happy that Disney trashed the old thing are now miffled that parts of it come obviously back. Ep VII also apparently didn't help in reuniting the various different purist factions of the fandom despite its financial success, some even rating it worse than the prequels not in writing quality or characterization but in terms of originality as it not only has it yet another "Jedi Purge" in its backstory and the New Republic apparently already being as corrupt as the Old one despite only existing for mere 30 years (unlike the Old Republic's 1000+ years before shit hit the fan) it also largely rehashed the plot of Ep. IV with Harrison Ford's Han Solo taking Alec Guinness' "Obi-Wan"-role.

Ah, ok, well, I have Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well but I think I remember while having Maul as a character the game's story only covers Seasons 1 to 3 of the TV series.
I won't reveal too much details about his tenure on The Clone Wars to avoid further spoilers, but I'll point out to anticipate Season 5 which in one Episode has probably one of the most terrifying Lightsaber duels so far.
Yup, Dooku can clearly be described as somewhat of a snob. He was like that even when he was still a Jedi and his lightsaber skills are one of his primary sources of pride as he absolutely mastered the in the present rarely used Form II: Makashi saber style which is exceptionally effective against other Lightsaber wielders (but only mediocre in deflecting blaster fire).
The Clone Wars gives him much, much more needed screentime to turn him into a decent villain of his own caliber, definitely distinct from both Maul and Vader. One of the very few redeeming traits of Dooku is for example that both his disgust at how corrupt and ineffective the Republic has become and his sadness about this fact are completely genuine and he lobbied for years for the Jedi to take on a more active role and act to bring the Republic back on track even if that meant going against the "serve not rule"-principle and would have lead to a confrontation with the (corrupt) elements of the Senate. The Jedi Council, including Yoda, repeatedly dismissed him and saw his views as "too extreme" and when Qui-Gon Jinn, Dooku's best former Padawan was killed in Episode I it was the last straw that lead Dooku to leave the Jedi Order altogether. In his view, the Jedi were complicit in the decay and failure of the Republic due to inaction and ignorance. With a mindset like that and resentment brewing it took not very long for Sidious to convince Dooku that his vision for an orderly galaxy would be a better solution and lead to him falling to the Dark Side and becoming Darth Tyranus.

Now that you say that, lol, I haven't even yet paid attention to that possible explanation. *ggg*
Agreed, they all have something special about them in one way or another.
Err well, Ephemera is stated to be the leader of the Dandelions in Ava's absence and since they're scheduled to avoid/survive the great war I could see Luxu and/or the MoM gaining some interest in them, with Flowerboy as the leader then having probably painted "Primary Target" on his forehead.
Then there's the fact about Flowerboy apparently being the first to reach "unchained state" (whatever that is) and knowing stuff like all worlds outside Daybreak being illusions, knowledge not meant for normal keyblade kiddies which may also result in heightened interest towards him.
And last but not least, the last time we saw our cute flowery cinnamon roll outside of a dream he encountered a Coaty inside the Foreteller castle...
Who knows, maybe through some convoluted Nomura mumbo-jumbo the Player character actually becomes the Kingdom Key or whatever. I'm still hesitant on believing in any lasting importance of the player avatar because ultimatively he/she isn't a defined character at all, just a projection.

I guess I can concede on that one, lol. It makes sense.
Sora's hair is a science on itself as while it indeed went somewhat "damp" when landing in the water, the spikes still stood somewhat firm despite that when any realistic hair should have been completely down. He must have a very special hair gel/spray. Roxas' and Ventus' spikes are also relatively tame compared to Sora's even in their old forms.
The new, less spiky form seen first on Ven on that art piece however looks like something you could actually see on a real-life boy without much extra stuff needed.
That Days art was really so far an one-time piece that went this far out of the usual style for that particular character.
Now on Shiro Amano's manga art though the direction seems to go opposite as both Roxas in the Days manga as well as Ven in the illustrations for the BBS novels look, well, much more delicate compared to both Nomura art and their actual in-game models (and for Ven that does say somewhat since he's already a skinny twig as is).

Eh, so that's the main reason since in the US everyone can sue for the most stupid things. Here in Germany someone suing a restaurant or something over a spilled hot coffee would not even be allowed and the authorities would ask that person if he/she has a nut loose. That a cup full of coffee is in 9 of 10 cases hot and should not be carelessly spilled over one's body is considered common sense and starting a court case over such a triviality is considered a waste of resources. Note though that someone aggressively burning someone else by deliberately spilling hot coffee over them is of course still a crime that will have a court case, the courts here just don't see themselves responsible for people who get hurt out of their own inability to use their brain.

Yup, and how easily some minds can be deceived, lol.
Haha, splendid. I just hope for your country's and the world's sake that enough people go voting in November and the next president is not Trump. Hillary Clinton is certainly also not the most ideal candidate but she still beats Trump by quite a margin.

Your page?
Well you did get the inspiration from HiU so...
I'm right in the process preparing the newest chapter in terms of formatting although I might not manage to finish that still today, it will definitely be ready this week.

Heh, you do know much more about this particular topic than me in any case, so thumbs up. ^__^
I've never even tried much to draw actual persons or characters, the most I did was drawing some 2D art of different types of ships.

So the difficulties about drawing hands across the net certainly are not exaggerated at all.

Yep! I miss this forum so much <3 glad to hear from you!

Well, I certainly did learn all that from combining lore snippets and facts from the wiki, books/novels and the actual Star Wars: TV Series like "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels". The movies alone certainly do not cover such stuff and also do not allow to learn it by themselves, they're really only mainly for the flashy stuff and when they attempt to include such more intricate knowledge (like the prequels partly did) it is done so badly and rotten in quality that it hinders more than it helps.
Or another example: Did you know that at the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) aka the Separatists had control of more than 12.000 Star Systems which may sound much on paper but the Republic had four to five times more systems loyal to them?
So by owned territory alone combined with economic potential the Republic vastly outperformed the CIS, but on a closer look since the Republic had no standing military for the last three centuries or more, the CIS had a huge military advantage because their Space Navy and Ground troops outnumbered the Republic forces at least 4 to 1 in space and nearly 20 to 1 on the ground. The CIS economy was also already geared for war and prepared while the Republic was not.
The old Legends-EU even had a galaxy map showing the initial influence parts in blue (Republic), red (CIS) and green (Hutts):
Clone Wars: Map Legends EU

This is also the reason why the whole war was dragged out for three years and why the Confederacy scored quite some victories in the first half of it. The Republic lost quite some territory but due to them having so much more they could "afford" it without getting dealt a crippling blow. Without the Clone Army and the Jedi slowing down the Separatist onslaught though, the Republic would have been overrun eventually. The Jedi and available clones did buy precious time needed to get the Republic's economy on wartime funding and running as well as producing more ships and army equipment so that by the time of Episode III as stated by Obi-Wan the Republic is capable of launching the "Outer Rim Sieges".
Due to the vastly superior economical base and the higher quality of Republic equipment the Republic Navy and army was capable to fighting the CIS on even ground by the second half of the war even if they were still outnumbered to a lesser degree.

In the background of course this was also all part of the conspiracy of the Sith as they wanted the Jedi to bleed out somewhat through the war already and have them separated from each other on thousands of different battlefronts so that it is easier when Order 66 comes. With more than 90% of the fighting elite of the Jedi Order being out fighting on the front lines the main Jedi Temple on Coruscant was only manned with a token defense force of a few knights, masters and instuctors. The rest were all younglings/kids and some teenaged Padawan learners which could then be easily slaughtered by the Elite 501st Legion and Darth Vader as seen in Episode III.
The novel of Episode III even spells it out word for word that the whole Clone Wars were nothing but an elaborate trap:


Heh, you're not alone with that sentiment as there are still many around who dismiss them as "stupid kiddy shows". I literally cringe at many of the comments on Youtube-videos especially when it comes to Rebels as there's the usual annoying whining about it not being "gritty and dark enough", the main characters not being "likeable" enough, the Empire and (the few times he shows up) Darth Vader not being "badass enough" and not "winning enough". And don't get me started on all those pussies (who are to 99% actually cockswingers) complaining about "Rogue One", the new film, having a female lead character and whining about wanting a male main lead character (like if more than 90% of any movie genre does not already cater to that clich? anyways). Things like these make me feel actually a little second-hand embarassment being a lightskinned male myself. If the movie industry would really want to even out the range of male and female primary lead characters in movies all movies for the next twenty or more years would need nothing but female leads to even the odds.
The old EU was quite a mess of contradicting stuff anyways and had many questionable things among the admittedly true gems that were among it.
Disney also didn't throw it out completely (what many people misinterpret) but merely degraded it to possibly story material that can be re-introduced into actual canon when an author takes it up. Only this time around there will be the need for approval from the "Lucasfilm Story Group", a group of people including Keeper of the Holocron Leeland Chee who oversee the new canon and try to make sure that there are no more contradictions. If a character, event, location or ship can be fit into the already existing frame of the new canon (read: Everything published after April 25, 2014 alongside the six films, The Clone Wars and Rebels) the Storygroup will most likely approve and allow it.
Some of the earliest examples are within the novel Tarkin by James Luceno which re-introduces the characters Armand Isard of Imperial Intelligence and Sate Pestage of the Imperial Ruling Council as well as the starships Victory I-class Star Destroyer and Secutor-class Star Destroyer back into official canon.

Indeed, the introduction of him as one of the first noticable characters back in 1977 may be actually one of the primary reasons why it became such a phenomena. That scene of him strolling through the fog in the Rebel Corvette only looking somewhat desinterested at the fallen left and right is very memorable to this day.
Maul was totally wasted potential, something George Lucas himself admitted and regretted, and while I don't want to spoil anything too much for you, I can safely say that George managed to do something about that problem in The Clone Wars. ;P
Count Dooku on the other hand is a very different type of villain than Vader. He's sophisticated, a sort of elderly evil gentleman and his main fighting style consists of elegant fencing and concise movement. His lightsaber duels with both Obi-Wan & Anakin as well as Yoda in Episode II is actually one of the few things I know about that movie which is nearly unanimously praised and his unorthodox lightsaber with a curved hilt has become somewhat famous.
Much like Maul however, Dooku had way less presence in the prequel trilogy than Vader had in the original trilogy (he's killed in the opening part of Revenge of the Sith, which many fans me included feels like a waste of such a talented actor as Christopher Lee). In the Clone Wars Dooku is also much more present and given some good attention, another reason why some say that series is what the prequels should have been.
Palpatine on the other hand is always present, but played much more subtle until the last third of Episode III, so the observation that a more direct and simple approach is needed may not be so far off the mark, although all three (Palpy, Maul and Dooku) not being introduced with a single wham-like scene like Vader originally was might also play a part in this.

Yep, like spinach-green hair or god-beware multiple colors-hair.
Good, special and mysterious hence why many people go hey, that lad/gal has silvery hair, so there most likely is something special about him/her.
(I won't bet too many pennys on that, lol, considering what X[chi]'s whole premise is about).

That may indeed be, lol, but for someone like myself who's totally uninterested in fashion sense and most likely knowing these designs won't be 100% like in the art in the actual game it is still weird to observe.
The thing with the general reduced spikiness of hairstyles in Nomura's art is making me think though if this is really an intended change for the characters or if it is just an expression of Nomura's own changed drawing style. A change in drawing style does not necessarily have to be reflected in the actual in-game models, the best example probably being this one piece of Nomura art I think was made for Days where Roxas actually looks like he's 17/18 instead of 14/15.
I'm also convinced that Ven's appearance there means something significant, possibly for KH III only despite the character placement like in i.e. that he's one of the "key" characters in III just like Nomura coined Lea and Young Xehanort as "key" characters for DDD.

It is somewhat scary though to see how many people apparently lack common sense. I mean, I've already heard about i.e. microwaves in the US having actually a warning inside their guide books to "not put pets like Hamsters into it"!? I mean WTF? That one should not do such a thing is so obvious an extra written warning should not be necessary at all. Are people really this stupid?
It's like with so many of humanitys "inventions", someone always finds a way to go overboard with them and do stupid things with it.

True dat, and the cherry on top is if your totally made up bogus conspiracy theory gets actually some followers who believe in that shit.
Like i.e. the theory I've read somewhere on the net that Donald Trump is actually the reincarnation of Hitler, lol, and then there were comments about how that can't be because Putin is the reincarnated Hitler and so on with some more rather "questionable" political leaders of today's world.

Sounds like quite a good deal, ^__^.
I'll look into possibly getting the next chapter up on Sunday or Monday.

Motion I imagine as being difficult as hell, lol.
I also heard from some of my other online friends that many have problems drawing realistic hands for some reason.

Uh-huh, there are indeed some weirdo-things happening when you try some text formatting on only single words or parts of sentences.
I've also had it that when I wanted to start a new line (and the cursor actually did jump into the next line) the new text started to appear still in the previous line regardless.

Lol, if the Republic was this bogged down in bureaucracy and so utterly corrupt like shown in the prequel movies it would certainly not have lasted this long even with the Jedi, neither the 1.000+ years in official canon nor the 25.000+ years in the old Legends EU.
The prequel movies deliberately show the twilight years of the Republic where the constant scheming and corrosive influence of the Sith conspiracy from behind the scenes already had poisoned the political landscape for more than 20 years and amplified the bureaucractic procedures and corruption.
Like i.e. the Supreme Chancellor in Episode I, Valorum, was only Chancellor because Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious/Palpatine secretly allowed it from the shadows. Valorum was a well-meaning man who truly believed in the Republic and its ideals, but he was surrounded by a web of already corrupt and self-serving bureaucrats so that he had little to no actual power. People like Valorum, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa or Padm? Amidala all had the right ideas and also acknowledged that the Republic was badly in need of reforms and in a normal political environment they might have gathered enough support eventually to start purging the corrupt elements and together with the Jedi stabilize the Republic, but with the Sith Conspiracy in the background it was impossible as long as it existed.
Yea, in the old days the Senate, Chancellor and Jedi served as three pillars of the Republic who would also be checks to each others power at the same time. The decline began when too much power was invested directly into the Senate alone with both the Chancellor and the Jedi giving away too much of their own power, destroying this system of checks and pillars. The Jedi eventually retreating completely from the political stage (because of the Jedi philosophy that the Order should serve, not rule) left a sort of vacuum that would result in the paralyzing of the political process of the Republic once the Senate was no longer capable of exercising its own power due to corruption and continued infighting incited by the Sith from behind the scenes. The Chancellor had so little direct power and influence left that he/she could not break this deadlock nor could the Jedi because they were "only" peacekeepers and not partaking in political business anymore. It is somewhat ironic (and somewhat typical for the black humor of the Sith) that exactly the Office of the Chancellor which was made nearly toothless in order to foster the inefficiency and corruption in the whole Republic was eventually used as the stepping stone to become Emperor by Sidious.
Incidentally in order to save the Republic the Office of the Chancellor would indeed have needed to get some more direct powers back in order to break the deadlock in the Senate and introduce meaningful reforms, just not as much as Sidious actually accumulated during his tenure.
Breaking the deadlock and introducing reforms for more effectiveness as well as fighting corruption was even Palpatine's promise he made should he become Chancellor and was also why during the time between Episode I and II (which is at least 10 years) he had also much support from the actual democratic and loyal minded Senators like Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Padm?.
So had he been a genuine and honest Chancellor he actually could have saved the Republic with the help of the loyal, non-corrupt Senators and the Jedi. Knowing Palpatine I'd bet that he secretly was laughing his ass off at the irony that he had basically both ways at his discretion, even the one to undo and repair the whole corruption mess his Master and he himself mostly caused in the first place with completely legal actions.
Then there is of course also the issue with the "Separatist Crisis" which actually allowed Palpatine to remain Chancellor longer than usually allowed (like in the USA, one Supreme Chancellor in the Galactic Republic could serve only two four-year terms in office). The "Separatist Crisis" first spoken of in Episode II however allowed Palpatine to remain in office until the crisis is resolved as elections were postphoned due to the danger of more than thousand member star systems leaving.
Then the war broke out "as planned" with Palpatine secretly controlling both sides. War time measures got him those "emergency powers" which was only the beginning of a massive powergrab, and there lies a huge error in the constitution of the Republic as these "emergency powers" seem to remain in effect until the person that got them granted him-/herself gives them back, Abraham Lincoln DID do that at the end of the American Civil War and Palpatine theatrically promises to give them back once the war is over at the end of Ep II but duh, he's the goddamn Sith-Lord.
To prevent such a thing as it is a huge temptation even for someone who isn't a power hungry Sith-Lord (these powers do give nearly dictatorical powers in some areas for the duration of an emergency after all), it should have been placed in the constitution that the emergency powers are void automatically when the emergency is over.

And oops I did it again, lol, ramble time this week with Star Wars politics...

Clone Wars is a really good show, especially since it also sets focus on several of the support characters, portrays Anakin much better than all three prequel movies combined and Obi-Wan is a totally entertaining deadpan snarker and sometimes outright troll in some episodes. The focus on some of the other prominent Jedi though may make the Order 66 montage in Revenge of the Sith much harder to watch.
Rebels has mainly the advantage that it goes more into the art style of the original trilogy and bridges the prequel- and original era with surviving characters from the former sometimes appearing alongside characters from the latter as well as numerous references and easter eggs to "Clone Wars".

Due to his whole design Vader is also certainly one of the most iconic characters of the franchise, still beating the likes of Maul (despite the double-bladed lightsaber) or Dooku (despite being portrayed by Christopher Lee and a fencing expert with a curve-hilted Lightsaber) in terms of popularity.
It IS part of the intended bitter irony though that behind all the outer badassery and ruthless apparent evil of Vader lies ultimatively a very tragic figure. Watching the Anakin of "The Clone Wars" makes that much more apparent than the actual prequel movies, hence why many fans who know the whole Clone Wars series claim that this TV series is what the prequel movies should have been.
In the end, the actual evil and "big bad" of Star Wars is Sidious/Palpatine, not Vader. Even Palpatine's own actor, Ian McDiarmid, stated in an interview once that he believes Palpatine to be so evil that he's even worse than Lucifer/the Devil.


Haha, indeed, silver haired characters seem to be in 90% of cases either badass fighters (both good and evil) or precious cute cinnamon rolls who suffer a lot (and might die just as often).
I'd assume that the silver hair thingy may be mainly done for the "exotic" factor as it really helps to make a character stand out from the usual cast and which is likely also why a work seldomly has more than two or at max. three silver-haired characters (and nope, Xehanort doesn't count).
The biggest example for "outstanding exotic" is I would say Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not only has he silver hair, he's also very long and thin, has red eyes and his skin is as white as chalk.

Err...ookaay? I admit that similarity in Kairi's case is pretty hilarious and might even be an intended shout-out and the brofit-design in Sora's and Riku's collars was one of the first things I noticed, but otherwise I think people overreact a little.
Ahaha, well, if people would not give much about Ven missing his armor pauldron it would at least indicate they acknowledge that he is even present on this piece of art. From what I've seen around the net in terms of fanart and coverage of the art (and things like buttons made out of it) many seem to completely ignore that Ventus is even there, instead swooning over something as insignificant as hoodies which most likely won't even be up in the actual game most of the time. <__<

Lol, this whole Pok?mon fever especially with this "Go" variant is causing more and more trouble around several countries as I've read as many people playing it not only endanger themselves but also get on everyone's nerves who doesn't play it. This morning a radio moderator complained about being nearly run over twice on his way to work by "idiots staring only on their damn smartphone looking to catch some weird virtual critters" while there was apparently also an incident of Pok?mon Go players entering a training shooting range of the German army, the responsible officer was very unamused, ranting about "irresponsible millennials and their virtual timewasting". ;P
Oh dear, conspiracy theorists, most of them are really funny to read about.

True, although one must always be wary to not give those any actual power...that would probably be even worse than Trump.

Whoaa, that looks so pretty.
Maybe you should post that one in the creative media section (possibly with a little covert advertising to the inspiration *ggg*).
Speaking of it, I noticed HiU falling down to the second page, I really need to get that next chapter together, damn it!

The next ambitious step should maybe some more challenging character "types" or groups maybe?

(I do exactly that since last year lol cause I don't trust the forum software. xD)

Yep, in the old Legends EU the Republic stood as one entity for more than 25.000 years and it used to be quite more militaristic and decisive (an armed democracy). It wasn't until the end of the New Sith Wars around 1.000 years before the Battle of Yavin (Episode IV) that the so-called "Ruusan Reformation" (named after the last battle of the New Sith Wars, the 7th Battle of Ruusan which resulted in the complete annihilation of the Sith by the Jedi-led "Army of Light" supported by the Republic, leaving only Darth Bane as the founder of the new Sith alive) resulted in a large scale demilitarisation and transfer of even more power to the Senate alone while the Jedi retreated completely from politics to create the form of the Republic we get to see in the prequels.
Before the Ruusan Reformation, the Senate, Supreme Chancellor and Jedi Council held all three almost equal power in the Republic politics.
But even that reformed Republic held peace and largely prosperity for a millennium before the machinations of the Sith started to exploit and increase the flaws of the system in order to collapse the Republic from within.
There isn't any definitive timeline yet for the new Disney canon, but it seems that there is a bigger distinction made now between the Galactic Republic which stood for a little more than 1.000 years which is seen in the prequels (practically the old post-Ruusan-Reformation Republic of the old EU) and the so-called Old Republic (essentially the pre-Ruusan-Reformation Republic of the old EU) which is first mentioned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
So while in the old Legends EU canon, the Galactic Republic is treated as one continuous entity that just had some major reforms happen to it around 1.000 years before Episode IV in the new canon it is apparently treated as two different "Republics" with the old one "collapsing" somehow around 1.000 years before Episode IV and then being "restored" as a "second" Republic that was then the one seen in the prequels.

You are right on both counts there. If the politics would have to be included the whole genre of the movies would shift from "space opera" into "Thriller"-like proportions and would certainly require more talking action. The prequel movies were indeed plagued with bad execution and yet when I hear people complain generally about the "boring politics" in the prequel era I often feel compelled to educate them on the fact that yes, the fall of the Republic and emergence of the Empire largely is a topic of politics with manoeuvring and scheming. Of course there is a big conspiracy of the Sith that sets the stage and everything in motion, but the biggest chunk of it is still politics even during the Clone Wars themselves. The TV Series "The Clone Wars" actually does show also the political stuff much better than the prequel movies, especially the slow but steadily increasing transfer of power to the "Office of the Supreme Chancellor" which is nothing more than an euphemism for Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious.
In one of the last episodes of Season 6 the Jedi and the Republic unravel that the Intergalactic Banking Clan was actually corrupt, secretly making profit from the war by supplying both parties but covertly favoring the Separatists. The decision is made to nationalize the banks and arrest all the corrupt bankers. Normally control of the banks should go to the Senate, but nope, the direct control of all the banks (and thus heaps of money in the entire galaxy) is again given to the "Office of the Supreme Chancellor".
By the time of Revenge of the Sith, after three years of constant war, "Surpeme Chancellor" Palpatine is already a dictator in all but name and the democracy of the "Republic" exists only on paper. In a deleted scene of the film where Padm? Amidala meets with Bail Organa (Leia's later adoptive father) and Mon Mothma, the future leaders of the Rebel Alliance, Mon Mothma already points this out word for word:

There are several deleted scenes of the film that featured Padm? engaging in political conversation with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma that can be seen on the DVDs and are considered canon. George Lucas decided to cut these scenes from the film because he felt they would distract from Anakin's story and fall.

Well lol, there's no doubt that the Empire looks cool with the powerful Star Destroyers and whatnot and also has fancy music, so that certainly has a sort of captivating feel to it.
True that, and there is certainly also always the difference between a largely benevolent, progressive monarchy who treats its citizens well while still being decisive in military matters (the form of "dominant voice that nonetheless listens to its subjects" Grand Admiral Thrawn favors) and an oppressive, conservative tyrannic autocracy which the Empire under Palpatine largely was in reality.
It's somewhat ironic that Sidious is complaining about incompetent minions when he is at least partly responsible for that himself as people like those are easier to manipulate and control and less likely to turn against you once they see what an asshole you truly are. Then again, many of the actual "competent" officers and mooks in the Empire are also ruthless egoists and power hungry nuts who are only kept in check by Sidious' and Vader's own presence and once they're gone, all those turn into self-serving warlords and power grabbers fracturing what was once the "Empire" as just like Sidious/Palpatine himself, they do not truly care about a united, orderly and peaceful galaxy but only about their personal power. People like Grand Admiral Thrawn who truly want to improve the galaxy for its own sake even when it is through autocratic means are a rarity in the ranks of the Empire, not the majority.

Speaking of it, I wonder what the deal is with japanese media so often giving out silver hair, lol.
The usually most common hair colors black and brown are more or less underrepresented in nearly all forms of media, but the preference for silver hair I know mostly from the japanese market.
To be completely honest I do not understand all the fuss made over some mere hoodies. Kairi already had a hoodie in her KH 2-outfit as well and Sora so far always had a hoodie. The only one to which it is completely new is Riku and I highly doubt that the hoodies will be up on actual in-game models at all.

That reminds me of a photo-joke I recently saw where a Pikachu is nagging a Police officer in a Police Station with the officer asking what the Pikachu wants to report. Due a teen coming around the corner with a smartphone (obviously playing Pok?mon Go) and the Pikachu stating "Stalking!" while trembling. xD

Correctamundo in all points. And yet there are elements even in our supposedly "enlightened" western world who lobby for more influence of Religion on actual law-making, completely shitting on the "separation of church and state", most notably quite a bunch of the so-called "conservative Republicans" in the USA.

Huh? I wasn't even aware I "destroyed" anything there in that Ven-theory thread although I did notice that there was no more response from Tinny.

That's Uncle Scrooge with his blunderbuss, lol, it looks really accurate and well done. You certainly have talent! ^__^

(And auto-restore didn't work either? Lol, no biggie, once convos get too wordy it becomes rather timeconsuming to answer anyways. ^__^)

Like said, with HxH you can take your time as new chapters come out rather irregularily. Togashi really has a knack for good character- and world-building and I dare say that this series' writing is as KHs writing should be.

I'll tell you a secret: I'm also a firm Galactic Republic fan as it was really a beacon of civilization in both the old Legends EU where the Republic existed for more than 25.000 years before Sidious'/Palpatine's scheming combined with its own bloated inefficiency finally brought it down and the new Disney-canon where it also stands for more than 1.000 years.
Fuck the Empire and all those Empire fanboys/-girls who actually cheer for an oppressive, tyrannic and fascistic regime (and also fuck the New Republic, who already is as corrupt and inefficient as the Old Republic was in its twilight years merely 30 years after its founding).
The main thing with the Old/Galactic Republic is that it had to be efficient and powerful once or else it wouldn't have lasted this long, since as you say they had more than a million member planets (not nations) and managed to persevere for more than 1.000 years even in the new canon.
The Empire only managed mere 25 years or even less for comparison.
Bureaucracy and corruption was and is always a thing, but it was not so bad during most of the Republic's reign that it would actually cripple the government and create the huge inefficiencies we see in the prequel era. The Galactic Republic stood firm for a long time, but eventually corporate interests and wealthy lobby groups from some very powerful Core worlds gained too much influence on the actual political decision making in the Republic. The expansion of the Republic stagnated because these interest groups wanted to admit new member worlds only for the sake of exploiting them and not to actually have them as equal members of the main state body, and as such worlds applying for Republic membership would be kept on hold until they signed contracts that would be one-sidedly favoring some of those prestigious core worlds.
On top of that, military spending was cut more and more cause some Senators really wanted to only fill their own pockets, leaving the central government exceedingly weak with only glorified Police forces (the so-called Judicial Forces, you can see two members of these in Episode I with the blue uniforms in the ship in which Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan travelled) at hand for order keeping alongside the Jedi and those where primarily used for keeping order and fight pirates and smugglers in the Core Worlds, Colonies and Inner Rim (aka the three most prestigious and innermost regions of the galaxy) while most Republic member worlds in the Expansion Region, Mid Rim (where Naboo is located) and parts of the Outer Rim (the Republic didn't have many worlds there, most was either Hutt or outlaw territory, the Empire later started to aggressively expand into this region, as shown in Star Wars Rebels) were mostly ignored and had no actual Republic protection despite being member worlds. The Jedi, while putting in effort and work to act as the Peacekeepers they already were for centuries, simply became overstretched after the Republic lost much of its central peacekeeping forces and too many selfish figures in important political positions.
By the time of Episode I, the private armies of corporate titans like the Trade Federation are bigger than the forces of the central government, leaving the Jedi as the only option for the Republic to enact some form of pressure which increasingly doesn't work anymore due to the overstretching of resources of the Jedi Order.
These developments of course created tension within the outlying star systems and member worlds who felt betrayed and used by what was supposed to be the beacon of Galactic civilization. The failure of both the Senate and the Jedi to reign in these grievances and abuses eventually results in a loss of trust into the Republic (which is also NOT helped by many arrogant politicians simply holing themselves up on the capital world of Coruscant and looking away pretending the problems don't even exist) which a little later then results in a demagogue like Dooku enticing those disgruntled words to secede and form the Confederacy/Separatists.
This as well as much of the bureaucracy and corruption going out of hand though was actually facilitated and helped along underhandedly by the Sith working in the shadows by them just taking what was already there and escalating it until a breaking point was eventually reached. This started already some decades before Episode I though and was masterminded by Sidious'/Palpatine's own master, Darth Plagueis. As the Sith had learned in their previous defeats it was close to impossible to defeat the Jedi and create a Sith Empire by conquering the Republic as long as the Jedi and Republic fought together.
Therefore the Sith resolved to break the unity between the Jedi and the Republic by undermining the Republic and exploiting its flaws in order to topple it from within, which the prequels show more or less efficiently.

So yea, Star Wars politics, when actually looked into deeper can actually be quite fanciful and deep.

I've also facepalmed more than once on this weird behaviour. Not releasing a title every year would also help in getting the writing better and not overload the narrative with countless unneeded more "surprise" twists.
Sometimes I want to smack Nomura over the head and tell him that sometimes simple is better than complex and twisty just for surprise's sake.
No matter how favorably you look on all the extra stuff introduced by X[chi] & co., BBS, Re: Coded and Days alone had already established a possible plot for KH III and all this new stuff is arguably adding yet another unneccessary layer.
Considering how big in possibilities science is today it is probably no wonder that possible negative consequences of it get increasingly used in a broader scale in stories.

Yep, I think that hairstyles like Ephemera's and Skuld's could even be feasible to wear for real boys and girls while all that spiky stuff is clearly not outside of cosplay.
As for the hoodies, we also had Sora with hoodie on in art beforehand but in the game proper it was down most of the time, so I'm expecting it to be the same for Riku's and Kairi's new duds.

As long as they don't overdo it like KH it should be ok, lol.

Heh, do not get me wrong. I certainly do believe that each living thing has an "immortal" part that goes on somewhere (possibly an afterlife but maybe also somewhere else) and I am also not completely dismissing the possibility of there being a higher power around that many describe as "God", but I do not believe that I need a certain "fairy tale book" written by humans and follow some outdated precepts that were set also by humans in order to control people's lives and behaviour.
Things like "you shall not kill/steal etc." are things that should be obvious and self-evident for any enlightened and understanding intelligent lifeform.

These things you mention certainly help people on a smaller, more grounded scale in the immediate environment, and that is where Religion actually does have its deserved place and acknowledgement. When it infringes on actual lawmaking though and some people try to enforce certain things on the whole populace that is when things start to go out of hand.

HxH is moderately known but most often rather praised. Togashi is very good in both story telling and characterisation (and the husband of the creator of Sailor Moon by the way), but sadly has to fight with some chronic health problems. These are also the primary reason for the one catch this series is notorious for: Going into frequent hiatuses (it has the nickname Hiatus X Hiatus in the fandom already), but so far there exist 360 chapters and I'd recommend reading it in a not too-fast pace.

Ah yes, the Star Forge from Knights of the Old Republic, taking place more than 4500 years before Episode IV.
Ugh, don't remind me of the Vong, these damn fanatical space orcs, they're one of the few elements of the Star Wars mythos I dislike with a passion and I certainly hope those won't be introduced into the new canon.
Wookieepedia is indeed huge and a whole fountain of knowledge not only about the characters, movies and history but also about all the planets including the cities of some (i.e. the capital of Alderaan is named Aldera, Mon Mothma's home planet of Chandrila has Hanna City etc.), space ship classes with category lists of known named ships or even specific food or fashion stuff.

Yep, especially since some parts of the fandom seem to deliberately misinterpret Nomura's words and suddenly there are "promises" he never even made. Like that "one KH game a year"-practice being actually a stated aim and what Nomura would like to have, not an actual promise to the fanbase.
Hence why I would've preferred for the whole series to have foregone the whole "Doom prophecy" thing altogether. The earliest mentionings about the Keyblade War, while alluding to it having been apocalyptic, do not actually indicate it having broken out because of some prophecy but because of people's greed escalating.
Indeed, Coaty is already a breakout character despite having only two or three lines in that one trailer.

Well, there do exist some forms of actual "horned lions" in mythology, mainly in indian, assyrian and sumerian folklore, but they would obviously not fit the "seven deadly sins" theme going on between the major X[chi] characters.
Thus it indeed being a hybrid/chimera of a lion and goat makes the most sense theme-wise and as Luxu himself more or less stated he is the closest to the MoM and arguably either his primary enforcer or even more.
The Chimera-business can be meant literally as in i.e. Luxu and the MoM sharing the same body (either via heart-entering like Sora-Ven and Terra-Eraqus or via possession ala Xehanort) or one of their hearts being transferred into what is now the "Goatblade", the two theme animals merging together.
It can however also be invoked indirectly as i.e. fusing the Goat-themed and Lion-themed Keyblade together, which could explain why it has two of the "eyes" while the other Foreteller blades have only one, or something along the lines of Luxu simply just inheriting the MoMs powers changing his theme animal to a chimera-like beast to symbolize a mixed set of powers and abilities.
Tbh I'm hoping al little for Luxu to have not golden eyes simply for the sake of ruling out another "man-behind-the-man" scenario. If Luxu has to play a major villainous part even in the present (KH III etc.) I cross fingers for him and Xehanort then being equal partners in crime and not him being the big bad and Xehanort only being a servant.
Lol, probably, although Nomura does also design characters with somewhat more "normal" hair as i.e. hairstyles like Aqua's, Riku's DDD one, Demyx', Luxord's, Skuld's or Ephemera's are examples I can imagine also being possible in real life persons (the form of the hairstyle, not the colors obviously, no human being on earth has natural blue or silver hair).

If one gets sleepy over reading something it cannot be a very captivating one, lol.
Some people just have a knack for being night owls, preferring to sleep between 4am and 11am. ;P

Since I haven't played a single Pok?mon game and have seen only some glimpses of the first or second season of the Anime I'm certainly not qualified to judge anything about them, but holding popularity on a steady level like this certainly speaks for some quality decisions made by the creators.
On this I'd assume that unlike KH, Pok?mon does not have such an intricate, overaching story with much lore that relies on knowledge of earlier entries in order to fully enjoy it. FF is also similar in that regard in that most FF games introduce a completely new setting and cast of characters like i.e. players do not need to know what Lightning and her companions did and had to endure in order to enjoy and explore what Noctis & co. are experiencing in FF XV. FF does have crossover titles like Dissidia or World of Final Fantasy who have elements of crossover but no underlying ongoing overall lore.
Having this overaching big narrative is also why the dreaded console spread is such a huge issue for KH.

Well, make no mistake, Latin is a very beautiful language and I personally just love to use latin words as names for locations, characters or space ships, like i.e. new names for the Republic Venator-class Star Destroyer seen first in Episode III which is already Latin (Venator means "Hunter", but you probably know that already as a Latin student) like Excubitor, Patrona or Corrector.
I also know that Latin is still widely used in medicine and judicial matters, so if you're aiming for a job in those branches it certainly is still useful for one's professional knowledge, yet helping with inter-human relations and communication it is rather not due to lack of mainstream use.
I see, lol, how exactly things as these are intended to help one's later life though I am still scratching my head about. As you might've noticed I've pretty sceptical about Religion in general especially when it tries to get too much public power. I'm certainly not against Religion as a whole, but I do think that it should be a largely private matter that keeps out of lawmaking and public life trying to dictate how people have to live and discriminating against certain lifestyles because some old men interpreting some ancient fairytale books can't handle it.
Aside from greed for money or power Religion used as an ideology is one of the three primary causes on this planet for wars, massacres and strife between humanity.

I don't follow Bleach, but in PMs with Gram I learned enough about that particular guy that I can confirm that this Aizen guy is Xehanort XXL in terms of villain sueness. Xehanort isn't this bad yet but the possibility of him turning into an Aizen-like character is still in the realm of possibility,
Idk, maybe looking at the Bleach thread here will help a little with decision-making, lol.
If I'd had to propose an interesting manga to read though I'd recommend Hunter X Hunter from Yoshihiro Togashi. It has a well-developed, diverse cast of characters around four (some say five) core characters who take turns in having the spotlight set in a truly fantastic world with an actually well-thought out battle system (which is very complex but good explained within the story) and deconstructing many of the classic Shounen manga tropes.
Originally from 1998, this work also has practically the prototype of Organisation XIII (much less funny, more gory evil and nasty though) in the form of the Genei Ryodan (Phantom/Illusion Brigade/Troupe depending on translation),a group of 13 superpowered thieves and mass murderers.


Yea, he's probably one of the three best strategists in the entire Star Wars galaxy.
Thrawn originally hails from one of the very first EU materials ever created which were often treated as the "informal" Episodes VII to IX by the fandom. Taking place nine years after the Battle of Endor, the so-called "Thrawn-Trilogy" consisting of the novels "Heir to the Empire", "Dark Force Rising" and "The last Command" introduced many of the staple characters, vehicles and locations used by the wider old EU later for the first time.
Besides Thrawn himself, well-known EU characters like Mara Jade, Gilad Pellaeon, Garm Bel Iblis, Borsk Fey'lya or Talon Karrde appeared in these stories for the first time as did the name "Coruscant" for the planet that serves as the galactic capital. George Lucas later adapted "Coruscant" as the name for the capital planet in the prequel movies from this work, making it one of the few EU-things made explicitly canon by Lucas himself.
Several spaceships like i.e. the Strike-class Medium Cruiser, the Skipray Blastboat or the legendary Katana fleet (an Old Republic task force of 200 Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruisers called "The Dark Force") were introduced first there as well.
As for Grand Admiral Thrawn himself, I could write a whole essay about him but that would most likely blast the scope here apart. I'd point out especially though that Thrawn always is honest and blunt even with the Emperor, pointing out if he thinks a plan of Palpatine is bullshit and while Palpy might demote him and reassign him to lesser posts in the end most of these plans actually do fail and eventually Palpatine learns to heed Thrawn's advice.
Note though that while Thrawn is not an outright evil douchebag, he IS ruthless and views the Empire as the best possible form of government. He's not for tyranny, but certainly for autocracy, viewing "democracy" as a government form unsuited and chaos-inviting for anything bigger than a single planet.
To give a slight overview on what kind of character he is I'll give you some quotes of him though:


If you want to fully dive into the character's story in the old EU with much reading, you should read the "Legends"-variant of Thrawn's article on Wookieepedia.

A bit of each probably while certain parts of the fandom will throw "Nomura lied, Nomura broke promises" rants around, lol.
Not to mention it would be such a total weird contrast to all the impending apocalypse and prophecy stuff, having the MoM just casually walk around trolling everyone he sees and interacts with.

It is a possibility, yes. ;P

At least in KH that is apparently true.
Well, the animal on the Goatblade certainly IS a hybrid of a lion and a goat, that much can be said so there is at least possibly a certain Chimera-factor involved although it is too early to say in which form.
How much want ya bet that Luxu has either golden eyes or antennae-like hair (like Seymor Guado from FFX) similar to the Guardian (or both traits)?

Yep, the possibilities are endless and all result in probably hilarious scenarios.

Lucky one you are, lol.
Indeed these are also important factors as well.
I know that one as when really invested in something I also tend to forget time. Sometimes I wonder then why I am so hungry until I notice that it is already several hours after dinner time.

Yep.

Versatility like that certainly helps a work staying relevant for a longer period of time. Purists and first-entry-always-wins subjects with tightly shut nostalgia goggles are something any relevant fandom has I think, so if that is the only problem the Pok?mon fandom has it is one of the more positive fandoms out there.

I see nothing has changed in that particular field as language teachers (in my case both German and English, for a while even French) tend to apparently all tick the same and that for decades.
Communication skills and such would be primary candidates of subjects like Politics, History or Economy though. Heck, I'd even say make "communication and rhetorics" a subject by itself and get rid of useless and/or antiquated stuff like i.e. Latin or Religion.

True dat, and I've also noticed that his rather hot temper got him in trouble already more than once. Heheh, Bleach apparently IS a bigger mess than KH when I look at some comments made by others around this forum towards this topic.
Oh how I wish many more people would view it that way...<__<

Those are among the most interesting characters you can have and my second most favorite character "type" after cute and nice cinnamon roll type characters.
Hence why I am also extremely satisfied and "hyped" about Dave Filoni and Disney re-introducing the one and only Grand Admiral Thrawn to the official Star Wars canon starting with Star Wars Rebels, Season 3. Timothy Zahn will also write a completely new novel "Thrawn" which is completely centered on the character and will also be 100% canon to the actual Star Wars universe. Forget Vader, the Emperor or Tarkin, they're just evil douchebags. Thrawn may be a villain, but he has style, is effective and not just a gloating evil tyrant.

Ah yes, I can even imagine that also since Nomura is a huge Star Wars nerd.
Nomura: "Well, what I told you back in that interview was the truth...from a certain point of view!" (laughs)
Interviewer: "Did you just..."
Nomura: (more laughs)

I can just imagine the Foretellers going burning red with embarassment under their masks when the MoM proceeds to call them "baby talk" cutesy nicknames in the presence of others.
Aced: "Someday...I'm going to smash him in the head once for each time he does that."
Invi: "*sigh*...not again."
Ira: "Master, stop that and be serious please, this is an important matter!"
Gula: "Master no...plz stop with that, it's soo embarassing."
Ava: "Master! Please stop treating us like little kids!"
MoM: "Nah, not possible!" *trollface*
Foretellers: *collective facepalm*
Meanwhile, hidden somewhere else, Luxu is laughing his ass off.

Yep, that last scene with Luxu summoning the Goatblade was certainly a wham moment, but subtle it was not at all.

Probably because it isn't that well known in Germany nor is it often used as background music or something in internet works.
You can carry this over to many different situations and works actually:
Cpt. Piett: "Uh, Lord Vader, our recording of the "Imperial March" is broken, getting a new one would take some time."
Darth Vader: "I can't postphone my super-duper threatening entry, so think of something fast, Captain Piett!"
Vader marches out, "It's a small world" plays. Vader stops in his tracks, disbelieving.
Vader *fuming*: "I said from the beginning going to Disney is bullshit, but now THIS? You have failed me for the last time, Captain!" *chokes Piett with the Force*

Another thing with drawing is that it costs quite some time too, lol.

Me neither, it's just something I observed in the past five or six years.
I'm not even sure if I can name actual definite preferences that would aid if I get interested in a thing or not, as it varies from work to work.

It speaks for the quality of the work if both casual and hardcore experience are easily attainable from it.

That's of course also an effective method, lol. Some geniuses actually got most of their immense knowledge just from reading.
Considering just how much suffering, misunderstandings and problems possibly could be avoided when properly honed communication skills are used I certainly wonder why such things aren't put on a much higher priority in the general school education in the whole world.

come to the chat ossosososos

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay

Screenshot by Lightshot

So, who's your number 1?

That's of course also a totally valid viewpoint to take at it and certainly in any case mentally healthier than any constant grumpy complaining and picking things apart.
Sometimes I really think that associating so long with Gram/Incognito really rubbed off on me in some parts...<__<
To fulfill the food analogy then it is certainly a sour cherry, lol.

That's what would bring Xehanort more to an acceptable level indeed and actually make him more of a genius as people who can think very fast on their heads and improvise when unexpected things happen to readjust their schemes are much more interesting and "awesome" than those who are so powerful that they can predict nearly everything and having all contingency plans already in place beforehand.

The Coaty in the trailer is supposed to be the MoM, isn't it? And Nomura has revealed that he has cutesy nicknames for the Foretellers, all that doesn't sound very "doomy doomish".
The Foretellers already have rather short names in itself so making nicknames of them is something rather uncommon I'd say.
For Luxu and Gula I could imagine the MoM calls them simply Lu and Gu, which when spoken out aloud sounds very cutesy, but I have no idea for i.e. Ava.
Now on the other hand Luxu's encounter with Ava certainly had this "doomy doom"-thingy going on as he was certainly not sassy and/or cracking jokes at her.
(and by the way, Ava can now join Sora & Roxas in the hall of fame of the "Huh?"-files since she says it so often in that one scene).

I can't help it, rofl, they just materialize in my thoughts like that...^___^

Now that you mention it I remember that one as well. It's somewhat funny as I never heard or knew of that song before BBS's ice cream beat and didn't understand why it is so hated.
Then my cousin told me to forego the instrumental version and listen to it with lyrics and everything became clear...
When you speak about "war flashbacks" I suddenly imagine the Keyblade Graveyard with hundreds of avatars stabbing each other to death and distraught Chirities flying around with not "Fate of the Unknown" playing in the background but "It's a small world".
The few survivors will then gladly off themselves...<__<

Heh, I'd actually like to see that. Comedy is always gold.
Then again though, I'd also like to see some scenes from HiU illustrated somehow. *dreams*

Most people I know learned of FF through KH. I'm one of the few rare cases who was into FF way before KH even became a thing.
In terms of interest range I am certainly somewhat of an oddity as I can find very much entertainment and joy with highly idealistic, cheesy stuff like KH, Sailor Moon or the new "World of Final Fantasy" (the latter being an acute diabetes candidate) over more moderate stuff like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or regular Final Fantasy right up to truly dark, cynic and grim settings like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Owari no Seraph, the Diablo games or A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

You even know the exact number of available monsters, aha, impressive.
I can surely fathom that it becomes easier if one is into it right from the start, not to mention that there is surely also a sort of difference between people who actually play the Pok?mon games and those who only watch the anime, just like it was with Yu-Gi-Oh! as well.
Having such an intricate system of different moves, combos et cetera makes it somewhat hard to believe that it is considered a "kiddy" game. Teaching the different mons the correct moves and properly equip them to be effective competitors requires quite some organizing and planning skills as well as tactical and strategic thinking.

It depends much on the people you're dealing with as well as some are very skilled in hiding their actual mood and intentions so reading them is highly difficult even for people who are good at it. Yea, how something is said is more often than not as important as what is said, this "finesse" being something that (usually) gets slowly better the more life experience and interactions one has.
Having a fun and interesting debate remaining civil in tone despite apparently totally opposite viewpoints without it degenerating into an argument also takes some skill with wording.

CHOOSE THE DOG
HE'S FURRY AND WET

Oh and Zwei is kind of dog-like, too.

Beaconship

AHHHH!!!! RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU RIKU!!!!!!

Good point. What's more jarring about the Xehanort thing is definitely that the three games spent to "clarify" the mess did so only on a few fronts. In terms of Xehanort himself however the mess just kept getting more messy apparently on purpose.
At first Xehanort was Ansem's wayward foremost apprentice with a mysterious past hinted to have superhuman abiilities (that much was how far KH 2 itself brought it including the Secret Ansem Reports).
After that, with BBS, we got clarified (more or less, considering it was still kept open who exactly was in control and how genuine the amnesia was) that "Xehanort" was in fact an elderly Keyblade Master piggybacking on the body of a younger guy which he stole/possessed.
Had it stopped at that point, I'd say it could still count as clarifying somewhat.
Then came DDD and the new secret movie of Re: Coded in 2.5 however which introduced the whole Xehanorganisation stuff and the importance of Xehanort's Keyblade (a topic never even scratched in BBS itself, unlike the seeds/many roads to take issue) as well as ancient Apocalyspe prophecy garbage (what I call AAPG in shorthand) and now the 6th Apprentice having that Keyblade messing up things further.
Other parts of the mess KH 2 made have indeed been addressed to clarify, but Xehanort in particular just keeps escalating on a scale not even the initial twist in KH 2 hinted at.
On one hand this IS jarring especially since it is not exactly easy to keep track of this whole web and yet on the other it keeps totally in line with the "another"-anagram that Xehanort's name is made of and thus follows a theme.

Heheh, good observation on that one. You can probably imagine that I had a sort of jawdrop after playing through DDD for the first time when I realized how close my actual predictions and plot points in HiU are to what the actual canon does right then.
Not having it as a elaborate scheme by Xehanort in my story is actually on purpose because in HiU I do not want to portray Xehanort as an nearly all-knowing supervillain who's behind nearly every evil thing that happens. I still incorporate the Seed/many roads-thing from Blank Points and have Xehanort an excellent planner and schemer, but he's certainly not behind everything.

It was intended as a mostly ridiculous thing anyways, lol.

Said girl in question could have been easily Namin? or, to keep the "I wanted to meet you at least once"-aspect of KH 2 intact, even Kairi.
I've entertained this what-if scenario before and it would have certainly benefitted both Roxas and Kairi themselves as characters as well as still building up neat connections to KH 2, to quote myself from a PM:


Roxas does visit DI in Days and a scenario such as this would have been a total win-win situation for both characters. They could even have spun the whole idea further when Kairi then in KH 2 learns that the new friend she made during Sora's and Riku's absence actually is Sora's Nobody and thus was created by him.

Oh my, I certainly know about the cringy reputation of that song when the lyrics are part of it. The "small world" thing being a connection to Xehanort is hilarious and soo fitting at the same time.

I can imagine such little gems on the spot, lol, but I too absolutely suck at drawing. <__<

You're lucky in this regard then. I'm already quite some time out of school (not counting my higher education, I left regular school with 16 in 2002) but during my time at school there were some nasty subjects around. But whatever, in the end I came out on top somewhat.
On the other hand some of my classmates were also some nerds who I got along very well with. Back then Final Fantasy VIII and IX were the latest rad games around the nerd corner and it were actually two of my classmates/friends back then who got me interested in FF in the first place.

That's also pretty impressive I'd say since there are by now certainly hundreds if not thousands of them around, so your capability for having so much information in the head seems to be there as well just like I have. Pok?mon is certainly the "king" of all those monster-collecting franchises around.
Eheheh, math, I remember being pretty good at it during classes 1 to 10 (normal school educating) and later at higher places getting pretty average grades in it when we came to things like curve sketching or differential calculus *blegh*.
Ah, so "Togepi" it was, alright. I wonder if I can memorize that...

It's something I've noticed in human behaviour in general that "basic communication" and honesty is something many seem to have a huge problem with, not even to talk about the ability to confess when it is obvious you yourself made an error in a topic.
With brutal honesty it also depends on how exactly it comes over, as you can be blunt to the point without actually making it sound like a personal attack on the offending party. Of course, in a medium that is text-based only this is harder to achieve as I've already experienced more than once where a post/statement I made came over to some as condescending/overly harsh when it wasn't intended to be.

The new chapter Ossy, it wrecked me emotionally! So many interesting things.

I'd even dare to propose that the original vanilla KH 2 being a rushed mess and trying to ride on the "shonen"-popularity wave is what made the whole plot "kudzu" to begin with and had this been handled with more care (and probably another whole team of writers) it would not have become such a mess to begin with.

Which is ironic somewhat because my fanfic does not disregard all development and story of DDD (and newer stuff like X[chi]) because I overly dislike it, but because I planned the whole thing before DDD was out and we only had glimpses and theories about the possible storyline.
Most of the fics, especially the bigger ones, would have to be somewhat trimmed and stuff taken out or to be split in several games as translating the stories into a visual medium as they are would result more in something like a visual novel style game rather than an action RPG like the KH series usually is.
Some of the battles depicted like could be translated into fixed encounters and/or boss battles if they include possible intended playable characters (like Riku's and Sora's fight against the Heartless at the stone quarry on Destiny Islands, Roxas vs Ven, Mickey vs the Mysterious Figure or Terra vs Vanitas) but encounters like Lightning & Hope vs Xemnas & Ienzo or Leon, Yuffie, Fang and Zidane against Ansem SoD & Guardian would probably have to be shortened cutscene fights while long conversations would also have to be somewhat condensed in many cases.
Text-based mediums often allow for the most detailed and immersive layout of a story, yet require the reading audience to have a good imagination to get all those situations pictured while visually-based mediums provide a more obvious layout of the universe and the appearance of the characters on the cost of some detail to the story.

In one thread I actually already coined an equally ridiulous name for the Xehanort/Luxu/MoM villain trio: The trio of doomy dooms and sassy coats!
To be honest I already thought turning the Roxas & Axel duo into a trio was ridiculous and strictly spoken not really needed.

Exactly that's the main crux of it, yep.
I've also realized when playing BBS in 2.5 on the PS3 that scrolling through the commands with the shoulder buttons is much more user friendly than how it was with the d-pad on the PSP.

"It's a small world" actually isn't even such of an abomination piece of music if it is only instrumental like in BBS' ice cream beat. It didn't take long for me to actually "get the beat for it" and score a fantastic on both Beginner and Master mode.
For some reason I am much better with the medium fast beats and some quick ones it seems as I had the most problems with very fast ones (Hand in Hand, but I eventually managed to barely master it) and slow ones (Destiny Islands, which I still can't beat satisfyingly).
Heh, I'm pretty much "walled" right now with Destiny Islands Ice-cream beat like that as well as I choose to get all the annoying trophies directly with Terra so that with Aqua and Ven I've only to do all of them once to fill the journal entries.
Speaking of annoying, the "Unversed Missions"-candidate in Disney Town is also such a phenomen as I've all missions cleared with three stars except the last one on Keyblade Graveyard (isn't even there, I guess I need to beat Terra's final bosses at least once for it to show up) and the one in Disney Town (Prize Pod recolor) because I simply can't get enough points before time runs out.

Pfft, lol, that would certainly have been something:
Master Xehanort: "And now, the final vessel shall bear my heart like the rest."
Kairi *stepping on Xigbar's head before jumping up to to MX's throne*: "As if, gramps! And now, you shall bear my fist!"
*punches MX square in the face like Demyx in the KH 2 manga*
Riku, Mickey, Ansem SoD and Xemnas: 0_o "Wat?"
Young Xehanort: "I like her, she has fire..."

That was just one of several examples, as such things as why do you still follow/watch/read X were certainly among them as well. The ended mostly in the same vein as yours as well, lol.
That is indeed true, as I can report from my own experience that beyond 16/17 years of age people tend to become more chilled and tolerant. Going to higher education with people 18 and older was significantly less stressing.
Strangely I never really got into Pok?mon at all and the only actual Pok?mon I know by name are Pikachu, Meowth (mainly the Team Rocket one), Wobbuffet (again Team Rocket's example) and Psyduck. I also remember the totally useless little egg Pok?mon Ash's first female teammate was always carrying around but the name eludes me right now, lol.

We're apparently even more alike, lol, as I'm also totally not interested in trivialities and often made up superficial drama and I absolutely can't stand it when people can't spill out clearly what they want or what their problem is.
The reason why I activated invisible mode is pretty simple actually. I often am "online" at KHInsider in the vein that I have the forum open on some tab but more often than not I am either browsing on a different tab or have the browser itself minimized on the taskbar, so when my name would pop up on "Currently active users" people might get the mistaken impression that I am actually active when in reality my attention is actually elsewhere at the moment. ;P

*ggg* is akin to affirmative grinning or a mischievous, nudging grin towards someone, depending on the context.

Yup, loved them all! Blake looked boss, tho. She probably killed Adam after that lol.

Wait... what? Lucas sounds like a weird dude xD.