Inside the Mind of a Minimalist EU Author (Black Fleet FAQ)

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-06 01:26pm

The Black Fleet Crisis FAQ

As we can see, he has a good grip of military affairs and common sense and self-consistency. He's no KJA. However, he is unfortunately a horrible sufferer of EU minimalism. Just read his bit on Coruscant having oceans (which we now know must be very small or mostly covered by city themselves).

Michael P. Kube-McDowell wrote:So consider the image of Coruscant as a planet-sized city a bit of Imperial propaganda. Instead, picture a planet with two continents, a major and a minor; the major continent is dominated by an admittedly grand and impressive Imperial City, but it also has the Manari Mountains, a western coastline that's something like Miami Beach in its prime, and frigid northern latitudes which are largely uninhabited. The minor continent is much more sparsely populated--the largest population centers having perhaps no more than a million inhabitants.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-06 02:49pm

I'm not suprised. He's a decent writer and they were good books. The problem was they weren't good Star Wars books.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-06 04:26pm

mutter. bigger is better people! 20 million battleships is just the beginning!

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-04-06 06:44pm

Michael P. Kube-McDowell wrote:So consider the image of Coruscant as a planet-sized city a bit of Imperial propaganda. Instead, picture a planet with two continents, a major and a minor; the major continent is dominated by an admittedly grand and impressive Imperial City, but it also has the Manari Mountains, a western coastline that's something like Miami Beach in its prime, and frigid northern latitudes which are largely uninhabited. The minor continent is much more sparsely populated--the largest population centers having perhaps no more than a million inhabitants.

So consider that we've actually seen Coruscant in the films, and it really is one, giant city, and that Coruscant's been around for 25 millennia, and that new layers have been added many, many times, thus making the idea of sparsely-populated regions absurd, and we'll see that Kube-McDowell is wrong.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-04-06 06:49pm

This isn't new, Saxton has had a page on it for years, in which he pointed out among other things just how little of the sky would be taken up by the supply shipping needed for the planet.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-06 08:52pm

Durandal wrote:
Michael P. Kube-McDowell wrote:So consider the image of Coruscant as a planet-sized city a bit of Imperial propaganda. Instead, picture a planet with two continents, a major and a minor; the major continent is dominated by an admittedly grand and impressive Imperial City, but it also has the Manari Mountains, a western coastline that's something like Miami Beach in its prime, and frigid northern latitudes which are largely uninhabited. The minor continent is much more sparsely populated--the largest population centers having perhaps no more than a million inhabitants.
So consider that we've actually seen Coruscant in the films, and it really is one, giant city, and that Coruscant's been around for 25 millennia, and that new layers have been added many, many times, thus making the idea of sparsely-populated regions absurd, and we'll see that Kube-McDowell is wrong.

Give him credit. Coruscant had not been explicitly described when he wrote his trilogy, and it was written well before Episode I came out.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-04-06 10:29pm

You guys can't blame him for getting it wrong. He wrote the books long before Ep.1 one came out, and he's a good author.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-06 10:32pm

Captain tycho wrote:You guys can't blame him for getting it wrong. He wrote the books long before Ep.1 one came out, and he's a good author.

But it's a staple from the first mentions that Coruscant is one giant city. He just got it wrong.

Emperor Palpatine · Post by **Emperor Palpatine** » 2003-04-07 05:21am

Was it mentioned before Ep1?

But I'm sure it didn't mention it has to be covered by TALL building. I can have a city with short buildings, and still call it a giant city because the city covers a whole planet.

Emperor D. C Palpatine

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-04-07 06:34am

Captain tycho wrote:You guys can't blame him for getting it wrong. He wrote the books long before Ep.1 one came out, and he's a good author.

Oh yes we can, Coruscant was described before, he changed and gave the reason that he thought it was "too much" or something along those lines.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-07 08:08am

Emperor Palpatine wrote:Was it mentioned before Ep1?

Yes. Every freaking time Coruscant was mentioned. It's a freaking city-planet. He simply hosed it up.

Boba Fett · Post by **Boba Fett** » 2003-04-07 08:33am

It was even pictured in PC games...

I know they're the lowest form of proof but they're still there.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-04-07 12:05pm

I'd debunk his ass on it, but he mentions that the higher ups approved that figuring in that it has to have bodies of water. I know it's mentioned it has polar caps. I'd figure it would have some smaller pools around. We don't see every side in the movie either.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-07 12:08pm

Cal Wright wrote:I'd debunk his ass on it, but he mentions that the higher ups approved that figuring in that it has to have bodies of water. I know it's mentioned it has polar caps. I'd figure it would have some smaller pools around. We don't see every side in the movie either.

It's not just his portrayal of bodies of water or polar caps. It's the fact that he totally disregarded the fact that Coruscant has none of those naturally. If he included them as atrifical, say large resevoirs, then that'd be fine but he treated them as areas of untouched nature.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-04-07 12:41pm

Fuck me, damn comp locked up before I could save the text. grrr

The hardest thing to figure up, is if they're resevoirs then what happened to the original bodies? Did they dry up, or get built over? Could they really build what it takes to survive that far to the planets core? Although I cannot agree at all that there are two continents.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-04-07 12:48pm

Captain tycho wrote:You guys can't blame him for getting it wrong. He wrote the books long before Ep.1 one came out, and he's a good author.

Um, yes I can. The guy is obviously stupid enough to believe that "Imperial propaganda" is enough to overcome direct fucking observation. Coruscant has traffic coming in and out constantly, and lots of people actually see the place. If it wasn't really a city, the galaxy would probably know it. Furthermore, what useful purpose could this propaganda serve? Would the United States government gain anything useful by making the rest of the world believe that there wasn't a single shred of rural land, and that New York City spanned the entire country? Seriously, the guy obviously just wanted a scene with oceans on Coruscant, so he came up with this idiotic rationalization for it being there.

Furthermore, the fact that he thinks that a civilization which can destroy planets and build 900 km battle stations in a matter of months is incapable of actually building a planet that's one, giant city merely compounds my low estimate of his intelligence.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-04-07 06:59pm

Stormbringer wrote:
Cal Wright wrote:I'd debunk his ass on it, but he mentions that the higher ups approved that figuring in that it has to have bodies of water. I know it's mentioned it has polar caps. I'd figure it would have some smaller pools around. We don't see every side in the movie either.
It's not just his portrayal of bodies of water or polar caps. It's the fact that he totally disregarded the fact that Coruscant has none of those naturally. If he included them as atrifical, say large resevoirs, then that'd be fine but he treated them as areas of untouched nature.

All oceans/lakes/whatever and ice caps are still beneath or above cityscape.

There's no need for the natural cycles anyway, Coruscant would be wholely sustained artificially. The quantities of sentients and their technology would cause the planet to super-overheat w/out artificial heat extraction from the biosphere. That is how beyond natural Coruscant's survival is.