Also, it's pretty much canon now that Janeway was suffering from some kind of mental disorder the entire time, which would explain a lot. Naturally I prefer Chucks version of events.

Moderator: Steve
Partly its that, partly its just the shear size of the fandom, and the fact that the series' initial readers were a generation who pretty much grew up at the same time as internet fanfiction was becoming a big thing.Elheru Aran wrote: 2018-08-08 01:25pm I wonder if the amount of HP fanon is an attempt to fix issues within the series, logical inconsistencies, etc? Certainly seems like there's a LOT of it even with Pottermore et al. filling in many blanks...
That does make sense, aside from the only reason they moved to Sunnydale as opposed to anywhere else is Joyce's new job after the divorce. An alternate theory is that the Watchers manipulated the bureaucracy to get her to Sunnydale via Joyce's art dealer job in Sunnydale. And then they put Giles there, waiting for her to arrive as he did in the Wishverse. If there's one thing the Watchers seem to do, is manipulate bureaucracy in their favor.The Romulan Republic wrote: 2018-08-08 03:03pm -Buffy being expelled/having to move to Sunnydale was due to Wolfram and Hart meddling. After all, there was no proof that Buffy burned down her school gym- if there had been, she'd have presumably been charged with arson. So why was she expelled, and why would NO school other than Sunnydale take her? The answer: Wolfram and Hart pressured/bribed/enchanted/blackmailed key officials in the LA school system, to ensure that she'd be sent to Sunnydale. That way, she won't be killing clients of theirs' or messing with their headquarters in LA, and she'd be keeping the Hellmouth in check (Wolfram and Hart doesn't like anyone else's apocalypse interfering with their apocalypse).
Potentially supported by Canon, as Wesley and Rutherford Sirk made a sort of allusion to it:The Romulan Republic wrote: 2018-08-08 06:07pm That as well.
You could even combine the two theories. The Watchers' Council and Wolfram and Hart seem like natural enemies, yet there's little to no mention of them directly clashing. One theory is that they're in a sort of Cold War- in which case "The Slayer does not come within x-miles of Wolfram and Hart's headquarters", or something to that effect, might be standard practice. So the Council and Wolfram and Hart would both rather have Buffy in Sunnydale than starting a war in LA.
So, there did seem to be some sort of Cold War-ish line between them. But then we run into the problem of Wesley being generally ignorant of them until personally encountering them. It's quite possible that the Watchers were just out of touch, and didn't recognize the player on the board who was outpacing them in capability until it was too late.WESLEY
Impressive. And does the Watcher's Council know you stole the only known copy of the codex when you left?
SIRK
There is no council.
WESLEY
(flips through the book) Not anymore, no. So you opted to, what, uh, play for the other side? Cross the line?
SIRK
These are complicated times. Lines become blurry. How did you know?
WESLEY
Something about Watchers and—(punches Sirk, knocking him out) libraries.
Reminds me of that LBJ quote: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Just replace white man with Wizard and colored man with Muggle.Gandalf wrote: 2018-08-07 11:25pm Indeed. I wonder if Average Wizard just thinks of themselves in such a position of privilege over the Muggle class that they never think to ask why they're all so keen on a government which holds such power.
I'm now picturing the wizarding world as They Live. Somewhere near Diagon Alley, Rowdy Roddy Potter is fighting Keith David (can't think of a Harry Potter pun for the name, so I'm just declaring that Keith David is a wizard) in an attempt to force him to wear magic sunglasses that expose the corruption of the Ministry.The Romulan Republic wrote: 2018-08-07 11:15pm The weird thing is, you don't see much indication that the average wizard is terrified of the government coming to get them if they criticize Minister Fudge. They probably should be, given the presence of shit like Dementors and the seeming lack of effective checks and balances on the Minister's office, but we don't see it. Sure, you can put it down to shoddy world-building, but that's where I'm getting the "secret despotism via mind-control" idea from, basically.
The most powerful despotism is the one the people don't even know exists.
A lot of it is there's plenty of fascinating world building in there, enough to form a strong skeleton, but with enough gaps that one wants to fill it in.Elheru Aran wrote: 2018-08-08 01:25pm I wonder if the amount of HP fanon is an attempt to fix issues within the series, logical inconsistencies, etc? Certainly seems like there's a LOT of it even with Pottermore et al. filling in many blanks...
Depending on whether you believe Luke or Kylo's version of events, Luke never actually decided to go through with it. Its was an impulse in a moment of fear that he spent the rest of his life regretting. It is out of step with the Luke we see both at Endor and on Craite, and the one you described from Battlefront 2, but its a believably human mistake. Imagine being in Luke's shoes, weighed down with the burden of training a new Jedi Order but at least believing the darkness of the Empire is behind you, then realizing that history is repeating itself and that the students in your care are going to be the first to suffer, and that you could stop it all with just one push of a button. If you went back in time (or lived at the time and could see the future) and could kill baby Hitler, would you?FaxModem1 wrote: 2018-08-11 05:17pm That tracks rather well, as in the Disney Canon, the only scene we see with Luke in Battlefront 2 is to talk to Del Meeko, help him realize that he is a good person, and say that he has a choice. This leads Meeko to convince Iden to leave the Empire, and both become heroes of the New Republic/Rebellion. All because Luke is someone who analyses people, and takes the correct and moral way to get them to do the right thing. Well, unless its his nephew, then he's totally gonna kill the kid in his sleep.
Just gone back over this thread and realized that this doesn't really work. IIRC, didn't the med droids say that she was not seriously injured, as far as they could tell? So there would be no reason for her to die when the link was severed, unless the droids screwed up their diagnosis anyway.Solauren wrote: 2018-08-05 11:51am With Padme....
I'm of mind that Anakin was subconciously using the Force to keep her from dying (thereby having discovered the power he wanted without realizing it).
That weakened him to the point he couldn't clear Obi-wan when he jumped.
When he was on the operating table, Anakin cut the link due to the pain he was in, and then Padme died.
He go the power he wanted by joining the Dark Side, but ultimately sacrificed it, and her, for his own survival.
Okay, what if he reversed the link then? His powers were healing her of the damage she'd taken from the Force Choke (which we've seen kill), fully by the time he was about to jump, but that drained him so he didn't make then jump.The Romulan Republic wrote: 2018-08-25 08:12pmJust gone back over this thread and realized that this doesn't really work. IIRC, didn't the med droids say that she was not seriously injured, as far as they could tell? So there would be no reason for her to die when the link was severed, unless the droids screwed up their diagnosis anyway.Solauren wrote: 2018-08-05 11:51am With Padme....
I'm of mind that Anakin was subconciously using the Force to keep her from dying (thereby having discovered the power he wanted without realizing it).
That weakened him to the point he couldn't clear Obi-wan when he jumped.
When he was on the operating table, Anakin cut the link due to the pain he was in, and then Padme died.
He go the power he wanted by joining the Dark Side, but ultimately sacrificed it, and her, for his own survival.
I think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.Q99 wrote: 2018-08-27 02:56am Q sent the Enterprise into the Borg in Q, Who to prepare them not only for the Borg, but the Dominion.
As a result of Q, Who, the Borg came, and the Federation had a bit of warning, but they'd run into the Borg sooner or later anyway. However, this did cause the Federation to do a crash researcher project resulting in ships like the Defiant and later Sovereign, and perhaps just as importantly refits like the Lakota had. While the Federation had the technology to do ships and refits like that, the fact they had working prototypes and such tested or at least far down the pipeline by the time the war started certainly helped.
My personal theory is that Starfleet was already in a modernization program before "Q, Who" happened.FaxModem1 wrote: 2018-08-27 04:51amI think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.Q99 wrote: 2018-08-27 02:56am Q sent the Enterprise into the Borg in Q, Who to prepare them not only for the Borg, but the Dominion.
As a result of Q, Who, the Borg came, and the Federation had a bit of warning, but they'd run into the Borg sooner or later anyway. However, this did cause the Federation to do a crash researcher project resulting in ships like the Defiant and later Sovereign, and perhaps just as importantly refits like the Lakota had. While the Federation had the technology to do ships and refits like that, the fact they had working prototypes and such tested or at least far down the pipeline by the time the war started certainly helped.
Still sadly wasn't enough for the Federation to be completely ready, as the Dominion still significantly outgunned and outnumbered them, but probably not as bad as it would have been before they geared up for fighting the Borg.
Thankfully, it didn't cost them the Federation's soul, as Admiral Leyton tried to do with his little coup.
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My own theory:
Starfleet's prime directive is in part due to how all the founding members of the Federation destroyed themselves before rebuilding as a newer, more enlightened government. Earth had World War III, the Vulcans had the Time of Awakening, the Tellarites had the Voice Wars, and I'm sure the Andorians had something as well. Due to this, they know how hard such a war is, but know/believe that a society needs to grow beyond such a cultural crisis in order to be able to navigate the path to world peace and eventually becoming an a player on the interstellar stage.
I disagree with that, mainly because the brainbug of a pre-Wolf era of peace isn't supported by the evidence. There were wars with, at least, the Tzenkethi, the Tholians, the Cardassians and the Talarians. YE suggests that there was nearly one with the Klingons. None of those that occurred were on the scale of the Dominion War, or the YE Klingon War, but neither are any depicted as brief or trivial, and the overall picture is of a Federation involved in near-constant skirmishing.FaxModem1 wrote: 2018-08-27 04:51amI think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.
Yes, but their skirmishes seemed to be so small scale that people like Picard viewed that they were ready for anything that might come. They had peace with the Klingons that turned into an alliance, and the Romulans had retreated to their part of the galaxy, only returning in the 2360s because of how the Federation seemed to be dominating the politics of the quadrant at the time.Captain Seafort wrote: 2018-08-27 07:08amI disagree with that, mainly because the brainbug of a pre-Wolf era of peace isn't supported by the evidence. There were wars with, at least, the Tzenkethi, the Tholians, the Cardassians and the Talarians. YE suggests that there was nearly one with the Klingons. None of those that occurred were on the scale of the Dominion War, or the YE Klingon War, but neither are any depicted as brief or trivial, and the overall picture is of a Federation involved in near-constant skirmishing.FaxModem1 wrote: 2018-08-27 04:51amI think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.