Jump to content

the_raven

Members
  • Posts

    1,436
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by the_raven

  1. I never really understood why everyone hates the guy so much. Yeah, he was somewhat annyoing with this overzealousness and sometimes acting superior, but people give him way too much hate for a character that's only been seen in the game briefly. Then again, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan/ Ben Kenobi too appeared only briefly in the ANH but instantly became fan favourites. Still, we're talking about Rosh. Let's analyze:

    We first meet him on the transport to the Academy. He seems cool at first, but then, he suddenly bursts into a fit of excitement, forgetting about personal space and ignoring that he doesn't even know the person whose face he gets into. Ok, personal space is important, and Jaden looks like he's got stuff on his mind anyway (What kind of stuff? We'll never know, I guess), but how would any of us have reacted knowing that we're going to a real Jedi Academy, and not a mock-religion or Summer-camp type of real, but Star Wars real? I'd sure as hack be excited! Anyway, Jaden's somewhat cold response brings Rosh back on the ground, and he admits that he's nervous and wants to make a good impression. This latter point is also hinted at by Rosh's remark on getting 'one of those stupid training sabers' as he notices Jaden's. He even asks Jaden why he isn't nervous and excited (see above). So, finally, once conversation gets going, Rosh, albeit briefly, seems like a normal, even likeable, chap. But then the transport crashes, and somehow the duo is separated from everyone else (I'm not going to discuss how this happens, because as per level (and ship) design, that shouldn't be possible). What does Rosh do? He advices Jaden to cut the tree down, to help him get off the cliff, where he's stuck. Some might say that it was an obvious course of action, but was it really? When I first played the game, it really didn't occur to me. Maybe the language barrier (I couldn't understand English back then) had something to do with it, and maybe I'm just stupid that way, but it just shows (also, in reality, getting down from that cliff without any bridge would have been possible, and quite easy, but a game is a game, I suppose).

    Next, the duo strolls through the jungle. When Rosh opens the door using the Force, he does so with the showy 'No problem!', which kinda makes sense, considering that he views Jaden as 'way more ahead' than him - Jaden does have a lightsaber, and even if a lightsaber doesn't make a Jedi, having a working lightsaber is a good hint the person might be learning to become one, and that they did some progress, after all, building a lightsaber is one of the traditional Jedi trials. So Rosh just wants to show that while Jaden is more ahead than him in his training (as Rosh believes), he's still not a loser and does have something to show for.

    When they encounter the Howlers, Rosh says 'These Howlers make good target practice, eh, Jaden?' this 'eh, Jaden?' remark shows that Rosh actually looks up to Jaden, whom he, again, views as being farther with his training. That, or he - being the coward that he is - just wants to be on the lightsaber-wielding guy's good side.

    But the previous point is somewhat untrue, considering that once they come across the two Stormtroopers, Rosh instantly hides behind a rock, leaving Jaden in the open. You might ask 'But how is it untrue, if he just did what a coward does, and selfishly hides while his friend remains in plain sight?'. A reasonable question, but if we look at Jaden's reaction, we notice that he himself didn't notice the Stormtroopers and was surprised by Rosh's behaviour. Rosh even had to tell him to get behind cover, as there' stormtroopers in the clearing, which Jaden then proceeds to do. Here, the fault isn't Rosh's, but actually Jaden's, because he was blind to the obvious threat - the Stormtroopers were regarded as elite soldiers of the Empire, surely this view remained even after the Empire fell apart. If not, then they were still two armed, military-trained guys in full body-armor, which is still not something you'd want to encounter in a dark alley, or a jungle clearing.

    Rosh suggests that Jaden checked it out because he's the one with the lightsaber, after all. Again you'll say 'Rosh is a coward!', and again I'll disagree. You see, as we've already established, Rosh thinks Jaden is already close to becoming a Jedi, having completed one of the classic trials (building a lightsaber), which implies that he'll have a higher chance of surviving an encounter with hostile armed characters. At the same time, there are two practical reasons why it was indeed best for Jaden to deal with the Stormtroopers: 1) he held a highly destructive weapon, one that even when inactive, could defuse a potentially violatile situation (though if you remember the events of JO, Kyle was actually lying on this one, but that's just a side-note), so even without being a Jedi, it already counted for something; 2) Rosh wielded a blaster, a ranged weapon, so it'd make more sense for him to stay back and cover the melee-weapon wielding Jaden, as the latter goes to get 'close and personal' with hostiles (he didn't do that, but tactically, it'd make more sense).

    From there, Jaden suddenly decides to scout the temple by himself, leaving Rosh behind for whatever reason (again, level design makes it impossible), and gets pwnd by Tavion's energy blast from the scepter (how does the scepter know when to blast someone with a debilitating blast, and when to infuse them with Force energy anyway?). Not that Rosh'd have been of any use in that situation, but it still doesn't mean Jaden had to run off like that. Once Jaden wakes up, he finds Kyle and Rosh standing above him. Rosh explains that he saw a huge flash of light, and came to find him lying unconscious - meaning that Rosh was either genuinely worried about Jaden, or that he was just curious, or hoped that it was some kind of evac signal.

    Once Luke shows up, Rosh goes all fanboy, which is, again, understandable - Luke is a Jedi, he's THE Jedi, and he's a hero of the New Republic. Who wouldn't have gone fanboy upon meeting him? Most people go full fanboy when they meet Mark Hamill, despite Hamill always being cool and acting like a regular person, and not like the big celebrity that he is. And Hamill is neither a Jedi, nor a hero of the New Republic, at least, not in real life. So imagine what it'd be like to meet Luke Skywalker in person!

    At the academy, Rosh is teeming with excitement to begin his training, obviously understandable, considering the above points. Once he and Jaden are assigned to Kyle, he plays a bit of a kiss-up. Not very noble, but understandable, I suppose - good impression, and Kyle's a hero too. They go to 'one of the many training grounds', and Rosh starts racing Jaden to the end of the course, by quickly dispatching the remotes, and even sicking a potentially lethal lighsaber training droid on Jaden. The latter indeed showed his connivingness, if not stupidity (since he didn't figure the droid could actually be dangerous) - as shown at the end of the course, when Kyle shames him for doing so. But it was an honest mistake to think that it was race, nobody said that it wasn't, and when you have two or more people doing the same thing separately, and at the same time, there's bound to be competition - I sure thought it was a race, in no small part due to Rosh's attitude though. Still, after the 'race', although at first he is defensive and even looks like he's getting ready for a fight when Jaden approaches him (this much is understandable, as he recognizes that his unsporty behaviour might have negative consequences for him), he does acknowledge his fault, and honestly apologizes to Jaden. You would say that it was because of Kyle, but that's why Kyle's a Master, he's supposed to teach students to overcome their differences and to be honest, especially if they're supposed to become Jedi. Once the incident is settled, Rosh again plays a bit of a kiss-up, but since he feels ashamed of his previous action, he wants to regain Kyle's trust, even though there's no reason to. This either shows that Rosh is a manipulator, or just immature. If it's the former, that's not good for him; if the latter, then it's perfectly forgivable, even though it's annoying. Why I don't think he's much of a manipulator is because later in the game, he proves to be a decent person. Manipulators hardly ever redeem themselves as decent people. But more on this later. As to his leaning on Kyle's shoulder, that too is understandable, since Kyle wants to play it casual, and Rosh wants to show his friendliness; although its still a bit excessive.

    Skipping a couple first tier missions, we get a cutscene where the frustrated and somewhat disappointed Rosh complains and muses as to why Kyle doesn't let him do any of the real important stuff. It's understandable that he wants to prove his worth, but here we again see that he's either immature or stupid, because he fails to understand that: a) there's no need to prove anything, he's a trainee, and training goes as it goes (this is even called by Jedi2); b) those are just the first tier missions, so it's expected that Kyle's gonna be holding his hand; and c) being a Jedi isn't just about exciting fights and saving the Galaxy, it's also about boring investigations, and doing "chores" (the actual things that save the Galaxy, but seem insignificant). You might say that Jaden didn't have his hand held by Kyle, but if we look at Jaden's first tier missions, most of them were either supposed to be simple errands - pick up merchants who crashed on a desert planet (nobody knew of the sand burrowers), or find Jawas and buy a droid (nobody expected the Tusken Raiders); or Kyle simply failed to show up, for whatever reason. On the other hand, since Jaden seemed (and proved to be) more mature, and arguably more responsible than Rosh, Kyle most likely gave him more freedom of action, which is actually a normal for a teacher.

    During the scepter briefing at the Academy, Rosh makes a somewhat out of turn comment, but based on everyone's reaction, it seems that comments are a normal things, Rosh or no Rosh - Kyle, Jedi2, and even Jaden also make comments. Luke seems to be a lot more democratic as the Archmage Grand Master than Windu or Yoda, no? Either way, we again see Rosh being excited - he wants to be a hero, and he's sure he can deal with anything thrown his way, remarks such as 'I bet those Cult guys can't take on a Jedi' and 'No problem' when warned of the Imperial Remnant possibly lurking around Byss prove this. This is, yet again, understandable, he's immature, exciteable, he most likely grew up watching too many (Jedi) holovids; but at the same time, Kyle claims that both he and Jaden are well on their way to becoming Jedi, which implies that whatever Rosh was doing must have been good enough for Kyle to encourage them both (or he just wanted to enourage Jaden without insulting Rosh). Either way, I think we can assume that Rosh actually did get ahead of Jaden with his training, because Jaden only got to go to Byss on his second or third tier, either that, or Byss wasn't considered such a big deal before Rosh disappeared.

    Later we find out that Rosh never returned from Byss, and that nobody knew anything about him except that he was still alive, as per Luke's sensing. We finally meet him on Vjun, working with the Disciples of Ragnos, trying to syphon residual Force energy from Vader's meditation chamber. We don't know exactly if his time with the Disciples improved his Force and saber mastery, or if they just taught him some Dark Side tricks, but I assume it was the latter (as per previous point). He argues that his suspicions on Kyle were true, and offers Jaden to join him in the Disciples, but Jaden refuses, and tries to bring Rosh back to the Academy. While Jaden's initially somewhat successful - Rosh actually acts like he's being mind controlled rather than is actually evil - Rosh is swayed back by the Kothos twins, and as per their order, attacks Jaden. Here, Rosh's decision to attack Jaden is understandable for two reasons: 1) as already mentioned, he acted like he was mind-controlled, so the simple answer is that the Twins regained control over him; 2) he was worried about betraying the Disciples, considering that two of the most powerful ones stood right next to him, whereas Jaden was still just a student - here, Rosh's reasoning might have been that if he, the talented and 'great Jedi' was outmatched by the Disciples, then surely Jaden, whom he now saw as inferior (remember the final words before they departed to Hoth and Byss accordingly: 'Good luck! Call me if you need any help!'), would be easily dispatched by them. Once Jaden defeats the trio, Rosh gets ready to get killed too, but then Kyle shows up and Rosh tries to explain himself, and possibly apologize, only to be interrupted by Tavion. Tavion is the Disciples' leader, she's arguably the only person in the organization who has a natural Force sensitivity and proper darksider training, so her showing up, shoving Kyle into a wall and Force Lightning-ing Jaden was impressive in itself. As we've already discussed in a different thread, she's supposed to be this seductress type of character, so that's another reason why Rosh would want to side with her - hey, we never did find out what he did during his time with the Disciples! And while we don't know for sure if Rosh had any second thoughts when Jaden said 'Rosh, no!' only to be mocked by Tavion, we do know that he ran off with Tavion as the ceiling started to collapse (thank you, Jaden!).

    Finally, we meet him after ending the third training tier, on Taspir 3, because he sent a distress call. As Jaden noted, he didn't look like much a captive. But Rosh indeed wanted to be rescued. It seems that he was only allowed to send out the distress call because Tavion wanted to test Jaden's loyalty - the latter was revealed by Alora, who was there for the whole affair. It also seems that when Rosh finally 'saw the light', Tavion also gave him the chance to call for help because she wanted to replace him - remember, the plan was to make Jaden strike Rosh down, and turn to the dark side, and by extension, to the Disciples' cause. In spite of the plan, which Rosh might have known - since he was trying to warn Jaden about something - he also tried to calm Jaden down, to prevent his fall to the dark side. If he knew the plan, he may have acted cowardly, knowing he'd be killed (or at least, badly injured). But what if he didn't know the plan and decide to abandon the Disciples in the first place? Hence Tavion deciding that Jaden'd be a better choice. From his own words, and from Kyle's telepathy, we know that Rosh only fell to the dark side because he was scared, afraid of dying - this, and his behaviour on Vjun show that he wasn't trully evil. In the non-canon dark side choice, we see that Rosh's desire to return to the Jedi was honest, because in his dying breath, he had no arrogance, he didn't whine, he didn't blame Jaden, he just accepted his death as punishment for his stupidity and cowardice, only apologizing for failing Kyle as a student, and making Jaden fail too. As to the light side choice, he loses his arm to Alora, but survives and gets a cybernetic replacement. Finally, back with the Jedi, Luke tells him about the virtues of patience and humility, and Rosh willingly accepts the lesson.

    Also, when Jaden is about to fight Tavion, she refers to him as 'Katarn's good student'. In the light side choice, this has a double meaning - a) Jaden is more capable than Rosh, and b) Jaden didn't turn to the dark side. In the dark side choice, this just means that Jaden didn't turn to the dark side, although this is instantly proven wrong.

     

    In conclusion: Rosh started out as a character that was overly exciteable, somewhat ambitious, and insecure of his own skill, who was yet a helpful friend if needed. Later, as he became stronger, he became arrogant, and this proved to be his undoing, because he ended up face-to-face with his demons, who materialized in the form the Disciples of Ragnos - alongside his arrogance, his insecurities came out, and he was easily swayed to the dark side. Finally, for all his arrogance, he understood that fears are to be met head-on, and redeemed himself as the good character that he was at heart.

    Rosh is a good character, who gets actual development. He is annyoing in the beginning, but even in spite of this, he proves to be a capable fighter and a good friend, who is simply maximalistic and somewhat misguided. He grows, he learns to cope with his insecurities, he heeds the advice of his superiors, and he understands that all things come at their own time.

    All this said, he doesn't deserve all the hate that he gets. Thank you.

    1477164233881.png

  2. Not to be a grammar nazi but...

     

     

    OK. So first off.....

    Who Am I?

    I'm Cyb3rst0rm, 7 year veteran of the Jedi Knight Community. IRL I am William Stewart, a 19 year old Computer Science major with a secondary focus on small business from Anna, IL (whoo, go small town USA!). I've been interacting with this community to one degree or another for so long now that it seems appropriate for me to try to launch a sort of event to try and bring the community together for something. Also, I need something on my resume for organizing events (in this case very similar to a video conference). This leads us to the next question:

    Gee Cyb3r, what brilliant idea do you have in mind?

    How great of you to ask, potential joiner of this fantastic event. My idea is...... *drum roll*

    Basically I know of this great website called Rabbit that allows people to group stream stuff on the internet. It's sort of like a great internet theater. Everyone is inside a chatroom, watching the same video stream. At the same time most of us could also be playing JKA on our second monitors (which most of us have). The rest of us might have to either choose between one or the other, or use windowed mode) thus creating an enhanced interest in the community. Ideally, the server (in-game location TBD, ideally if this goes well, one of the remaining JKA clans will officially sanction the event and become the OFFICIAL hub) will experience an influx of people while the rest of us all get to watch a movie while playing our favorite game. What could be better than that? Basically there will be a focus on old (IE: 1960s) SciFi movies since most of those are public domain (so no legal issues) and should have a high level of interest in the community.

    THE DETAILS

    *please note that the platform may change if Rabbit doesn't work*

    The Rabbit Room Link that you will use to connect is: http://rabb.it/SWJKA

    There will be a test run on April 2nd, at 9PM CST. Actual streaming will begin 15 minutes in to allow for any technical issues that might arise (from me, or from users) to be fixed. I will begin accepting joins 15 minutes earlier from anyone who would like to join earlier. The test run movie will be the 1964 classic.....

    The Last Man on Earth. This 1964 Sci-Fi horror classic is an early film adaptation of the famous novel I Am Legend where actor Vincent Prince fights as the last living man in a world full of undead Zombie Vampires. It is considered to be one of the greatest movies of the 1960s.

    The results of the test run will determine if this project goes any further. I'm aiming for at least 5 viewers this time around. If there is enough interest there will be a double feature (films TBD) on the 7th of April, at 8PM CST. If that too goes well, it will continue every week there after with us cycling back and forth between UK and US timezone schedules. So basically 2 UK oriented streams, and 2 US oriented streams each month.

    Who's Allowed to Come Watch

    Basically these are the people who will be allowed in, to watch:

    * JKA Players
    * Friends and Family of JKA Players, invited by them (please inform me if you invite anyone)

    Obviously I can't restrict who joins the in game server wherever that might end up being.


    That about wraps it up. I'm just trying to spread the word and hopefully rally some support. Please note that while I will not enforce any age restrictions chats on Rabbit will not be censored and adult oriented conversations will be permitted. If you become disruptive however, you will be removed.


    I'd love to hear the community's opinions leading up to the stream. Please let me hear your thoughts.

     

    TL:DR
    WHO: JKA Players, their friends, their family
    WHERE: http://rabb.it/SWJKA
    WHEN: 9PM CST, APRIL 2ND, 2018
    WHAT: Streaming of the 1964 Sci-Fi Classic The Last Man on Earth
    WHY: To have fun with JKA Community members and their friends and family

     

     

    If a JKHub mod could make this a newspost, that would be awesome and would help the cause out a lot.

     

     

    ...please correct. Good grammar makes you, as an organizer, look more professional ;)

     

    Also, a fine selection, been itching to watch the older 'I am legend' adaptations for some time. I'm actually reading the original story right now.

    As to the event, if you will still allow it, if my local time allows it (and if I don't forget - I'm quite absent-minded), I will participate.

     

    @@Circa, shouldn't this topic be in a different section? Any way to make it more visible?

    Smoo and TheWhitePhoenix like this
  3.  

    It'd be cool if someone did, it would actually make for some wicked TFFA. The existing Coruscant temple maps just don't cut it: they're too clean, too big (too many unnecessary rooms) and too bright.

    This is not a request to make the map, but rather a request to find/ share the map, if one exists. If no such map exists, and if people would be interested to make one, they are free to make one, of course, of course :D

     

    On a side note, I always wondered how the soldiers in the cinematic immediately recognized a hooded guy coming to the Jedi Temple as a 'bad guy'. I mean, it's not like they know every Jedi in the face, and the Jedi (in armored suits, or without them) are pretty much the only robed hooded guys that ever come to the temple, at least, normally. Do they stop every Jedi on their way to the temple then?

  4. Please note, that I cheated a bit with this (or else I would have released it) you will still see a hand on the saber. I know a way to fix it, and am currently working on this :P

    Cheated how exactly? :huh:

    Also, adding a transparent shader (forcefield, shield, force effect, hologram) to the hand would actually make it look like Traya's ghostly hand ;)

    Thanks for the tip :) But what does 'surf' mean?

    bigphil2695 likes this
  5. I'm at a bit of a loss. I always thought Kyle's first lightsaber was an 'Arbiter' based on some low-poly version (presumably from Dark Forces 2) that I once saw screenshots of. Now, I read on wookieepedia that his first saber was Qu Rahn's, then Yun's, and finally 'Katarn'. So, what was it then? :huh:

    Or was it just a bad quality image of Yun's saber? :huh:

  6. As far as I remember, the only costumes that come with light sabers are:

     

    - The Ceremonial Outfit that comes with the Jedi light sabers found here https://jkhub.org/files/file/253-jedi-galens-saber-kotas-saber/

    - The Sith/Hith/Lord Stalker that has the sabers around the belt, which includes the original Starkiller saber (there are a few around), Kota's saber (also found on the link above, Vader's (there are a few around) Saber and Maul's  broken saber found here https://jkhub.org/files/file/1125-final-duel-maulsabers/

    Doesn't Lord Starkiller/ Sith Stalker come with its own hilt too? Useable hilt, I mean.

  7. Use this Stalker Hilt: https://jkhub.org/files/file/624-sith-stalkers-hilt/

     

    Houhou's clone Starkiller hilt is the one from the announcement Trailer

    Rooxons clone starkiller hilt is from a piece of concept art done for the aberrant clones you get to fight in the game

    Mine is based on the one he actually uses in the game, for reference: cutscene, ingame, concept art

     

    Oh man, looking at those old sabers I did is kinda funny now. I could improve them so much if I were to redo them now.

     

    Anyway I think those are all the sabers he ever used in the games.

    Thanks for clearing that up :)

    But what about the bonus hilts that came with the costumes/ skins? :huh:

  8. I have bot-routes made for a lot of the SW themed maps let me know what you need and I'll post them.

    Speaking of which, could you please fix the Vjun Sentinel map's botroutes? There' a few places where the bots seem to become stuck. One such place is at the 'ground' floor, near the platform. The other is in one of the big elevators - the bot just keeps standing in the corner, riding the lift up and down, doesn't even fight half the time :(

  9. As far as I remember, TFU offered custom lightsaber hilts with some of the outfits. For example, Galen had his standard Sith lightsaber, but there was also one for Sith Stalker and one of the Jedi outfits. Additionally, the outfit featured on the cover of Ultimate Sith Edition had several lightsabers attached on the belt (if I remember correctly, they were: Kota's, Shaak Ti's, Maul's broken, and the Sith Staker's saber, or Galen's "regular" saber). Additionally, TFU2 gave Galen (or rather, his clone) new lightsabers.

     

    On the hub here, and at MrWonko's, we have:

    So, does anyone know every lightsaber model available to Galen Marek/ Starkiller/ Clone Galen in TFU and TFU2 ? I'm kinda doing a collection, and would like to know which ones were made for the games, and which ones we have for JKA.

    Thanks!

×
×
  • Create New...