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Jedi Padawan Quest (Star Wars)

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[X] Sappy Bell and Academic Controversy
-[X] Practice at throwing her Shuhudaku dagger. It's a deadly option, in a way that even a lightsaber thrust doesn't have to be… but she faces foes where this might, as a last resort, be justified.
-[X] Ahsoka happens to be there during one of the more minor diplomatic missions she was dragged off to. Nima wonders whether it really can be a coincidence.
-[X] Hannah and Katarina together send Nima a message. It's still oddly weird, considering her crushes, to see how well they get along with each other. Weird… and unnerving.
-[X] Nima advances her attempts to understand Old Coruscanti and the Rakatan heritage, and in doing so winds up the center of a very minor academic controversy.
-[X] In the middle of her work, she happens upon her mother. It's really kinda awkward when you think about it, because she's trying to be serious and earnest and talk about diplomatic projections, and there's her mother.
-[X] A crash course in common conflicts that lead to Jedi diplomatic intervention and how to break them down: a Jedi will not be an expert in tariff policy, but might be called on to adjudicate the matter anyways. Similarly, Jedi have tricks for these sorts of situations.
-[X] Training in how to better read emotions and interpret them when it comes to negotiations, and how to use one's Empathy to your diplomatic advantage.
-[X] Bell's message is sappy and more reflective than 'practical' but that only makes Nima want to write back to him with equally personal details about her life, rather than any of the struggles going on as well.

I didn't see any plans with Sappy Bell, so I went for that. And I wanted the academic controversy. Everything else wasn't as important to me so I just looked at what other plans were picking as a quick census.
 
Vokivas said:
It was referring to the quote below it, about the dagger crafting.

I don't think, in straight combat, that she's likely to surpass what constitutes average. At least any time soon. The weight lifting might mean she's a bit stronger than normal but Nima is already split between Diplomacy and Mind Healing. I just think dedicated saber training is a distant thing quest-wise, and something that Nima herself would focus on as much as those other things.

That said, I am open to voting for Bell's training advice. I'm just waiting to see what other people have to say, and get a read of where people's priorities lie.
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If she didn't incorporate her rider skills, I would agree with you 100%. But with even just getting past the novice stage of lightsaber training, her her rider skills can carry her the rest of the way.

Because I strongly feel that we have ended up in a situation where we are now in a corner. Like Nima could be the greatest mind healer and diplomat, but by the simple fact of the era she lives in and that Anakin and Palpatine have an interest in her, plus that her master is Bell. Well she doesn't live in a bubble where her lack of combat training will be in any way viable going forward.

And the very apparent(to me) hints in the quest about her major deficiencies needing to be corrected, like just for example
though Seluku and Baqqanid try to remind her that Riders are defined by practice as well.
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Now don't get me wrong, I love the conversation and mind healing parts a lot. The last arks beginning half was amazingly interesting and entertaining, the latter half just soured it all. And judging by the other votes, I'm not the only one aware of this deficiency Nima has. I just hope we can all agree to try and fix it by taking lightsaber and other training when ever it pops up going forward. Nima doesn't have to be the best, just competent enough to not be a hindrance to everybody around her.

Also I augmented my vote to include Ashoka.
 
Zealous Specter said:
If she didn't incorporate her rider skills, I would agree with you 100%. But with even just getting past the novice stage of lightsaber training, her her rider skills can carry her the rest of the way.

Because I strongly feel that we have ended up in a situation where we are now in a corner. Like Nima could be the greatest mind healer and diplomat, but by the simple fact of the era she lives in and that Anakin and Palpatine have an interest in her, plus that her master is Bell. Well she doesn't live in a bubble where her lack of combat training will be in any way viable going forward.

And the very apparent(to me) hints in the quest about her major deficiencies needing to be corrected, like just for example

Now don't get me wrong, I love the conversation and mind healing parts a lot. The last arks beginning half was amazingly interesting and entertaining, the latter half just soured it all. And judging by the other votes, I'm not the only one aware of this deficiency Nima has. I just hope we can all agree to try and fix it by taking lightsaber and other training when ever it pops up going forward. Nima doesn't have to be the best, just competent enough to not be a hindrance to everybody around her.

Also I augmented my vote to include Ashoka.
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I'm a bit confused there. Not to put you on the spot, but what would you define as the first half of the last arc?
 
[X]Plan: Forging Your Path
-[X] Nima could perhaps learn how to make her own Shuhudaku dagger. It'd be difficult, but knowing how to make one's weapons opens up a lot of possibilities.
-[X] Ayguin gets in contact with her, wanting to talk about… what happened with Barriss, though she doesn't see things Nima's way.
-[X] Hannah and Katarina together send Nima a message. It's still oddly weird, considering her crushes, to see how well they get along with each other. Weird… and unnerving.
-[X] Nima winds up accidentally involved in some sort of extreme sport contest. The galaxy really is a strange place, isn't it?
-[X] In the middle of her work, she happens upon her mother. It's really kinda awkward when you think about it, because she's trying to be serious and earnest and talk about diplomatic projections, and there's her mother.
-[X] Training in how to better read emotions and interpret them when it comes to negotiations, and how to use one's Empathy to your diplomatic advantage.
-[X] Awareness and alertness training: while most diplomatic missions remain peaceful, a Jedi needs to be ready in case it all turns into a disaster.
-[X] Bell sends a message that provides hints of what he's up to that helps Nima understand the state of the war slightly better.
 
[X] Plan Nima Tyruti, Force Anthropologist
-[x] Nima could perhaps learn how to make her own Shuhudaku dagger. It'd be difficult, but knowing how to make one's weapons opens
-[x] Ahsoka happens to be there during one of the more minor diplomatic missions she was dragged off to. Nima wonders whether it really can be a coincidence.
-[x] Hannah and Katarina together send Nima a message. It's still oddly weird, considering her crushes, to see how well they get along with each other. Weird… and unnerving.
-[x] Nima Tyruti learns the joys of trying different planet's cultural foodways across the known galaxy, though she of course has to exercise all the harder for it.
-[x] She gets a surprise appearance from one of the people she'd helped before, on one of the previous missions… in a completely different context.
-[x] Her teachers decide to help her understand the art of the non-answer and the deflection, and the value of withholding judgement.
-[x] Training in how to better read emotions and interpret them when it comes to negotiations, and how to use one's Empathy to your diplomatic advantage.
-[x] Bell's message is sappy and more reflective than 'practical' but that only makes Nima want to write back to him with equally personal details about her life, rather than any of the struggles going on as well.

So, to explain why I picked what I picked:
- learning to make your own dagger is an important part of Rider training, much like a jedi's lightsaber. I could be convinced to switch to philosophy, though;
- Ahsoka because it's been a while since we've checked in on her, and the only people more shaken than Nima by Anakin's defection should be her and Obi-Wan (who we've already talked to);
- Katarina and Hanna because they're Katarina and Hanna;
- Food is actually one of my main sticking points, not because it's advantageous or anything, but because I feel that Nima's appreciation for good food (quite apart from being a very hungry teenager) has been a part of her characterization for a long time now. As a Jedi, it's one of the few luxuries she gets to enjoy, and I'm tempted to let her have this. What's more, even though all the other options on the list look amazing, they seem to be one-time deals, while I could definitely see culinary tourism becoming one of Nima's hobbies as she travels the galaxy. It even neatly ties into her love of exercise !;
- At a wild guess, this is Bobba Fett;
- While Nima being adorkable is hilarious and wholesome, if she's to be a diplomat she needs at least a little shrewdness;
- This just synergizes really neatly with her kit so far;
- Bell sapiness because screw it, Bell sapiness. Both of them are working hard and deserve a moment of familial warmth (not to mention Nima tends to self-neglect if nobody checks in on her). Also, Bell is surprisingly philosophical when he wants to be. I could (very reluctantly) be convinced to switch to lighsaber training, though.
 
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Zealous Specter said:
Landing on Kamino is the start and then half way is when the invasion begins. Is that incorrect?
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Oh, just to clarify, I viewed everything from leaving for Ryloth to leaving Ryloth again as a single arc.

It's kinda tied together by a very central theme that might be defined by this phrase: How to Live Here.

How do you make your way in a planet you do not love, or which doesn't love you? Which, like Ryloth is bigoted, or like Tatooine is a hive of scum and villainy, or like Nal Hutta (where the Hutt Secretary fled) is corrupt, or like Kamino is oppressive? How, in other words, do you survive in such places? Different sentients throughout the arc provided different answers, and Nima for all that Ryloth was her species' home planet, did not find it home, and liked that she could simply visit and... then leave.

A secondary theme of course was how to change that, if you could. Master Tamarik with her cultural evolution, Bell's revolutionary fervor, Kala Su's manipulative revolutionary games, the way the different Rider candidates made their way in Ryloth society, etc, etc.

Heck, even Thrawn faced a similar struggle, because he's not a native of this part of the galaxy, and he truly was out of his depths for much of the arc, hating have to make his home in a place so alien (hah) to his sensibilities.

Even the villain isn't immune from my deep and sweeping question about how people react to difficult situations or societies they're part of.

E: I am aware this might sound a bit pretentious, but ah well...
 
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[X] Plan I did a plan
-[X] Studying the philosophy of Riders yet further. There has to be some way to synthesize the Jedi and the Rider, though Seluku and Baqqanid try to remind her that Riders are defined by practice as well.
-[X] Hannah and Katarina together send Nima a message. It's still oddly weird, considering her crushes, to see how well they get along with each other. Weird… and unnerving.
-[X] Ayguin gets in contact with her, wanting to talk about… what happened with Barriss, though she doesn't see things Nima's way.
-[X] Nima advances her attempts to understand Old Coruscanti and the Rakatan heritage, and in doing so winds up the center of a very minor academic controversy.
-[X] She gets a surprise appearance from one of the people she'd helped before, on one of the previous missions… in a completely different context.
-[X] Her teachers decide to help her understand the art of the non-answer and the deflection, and the value of withholding judgement.
-[X] Training in how to better read emotions and interpret them when it comes to negotiations, and how to use one's Empathy to your diplomatic advantage.
-[X] He gives her advice on training regimes and making sure not to let her physical fitness and lightsaber skill wane all that much.
 
The Laurent said:
Oh, just to clarify, I viewed everything from leaving for Ryloth to leaving Ryloth again as a single arc.

It's kinda tied together by a very central theme that might be defined by this phrase: How to Live Here.

How do you make your way in a planet you do not love, or which doesn't love you? Which, like Ryloth is bigoted, or like Tatooine is a hive of scum and villainy, or like Nal Hutta (where the Hutt Secretary fled) is corrupt, or like Kamino is oppressive. How, in other words, do you survive in such places. Different sentients throughout the arc provided different answers, and Nima for all that Ryloth was her species' home planet, did not find it home, and liked that she could simply visit and... then leave.

A secondary theme of course was how to change that, if you could. Master Tamarik with her cultural evolution, Bell's revolutionary fervor, Kala Su's manipulative revolutionary games, the way the different Rider candidates made their way in Ryloth society, etc, etc.

Heck, even Thrawn faced a similar struggle, because he's not a native of this part of the galaxy, and he truly was out of his depths for much of the arc, hating have to make his home in a place so alien (hah) to his sensibilities.

Even the villain isn't immune from my deep and sweeping question about how people react to difficult situations or societies they're part of.
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Oh I was viewing it as every planet has a story, and that all the planets have the same type of rhyming theme of bigotry and corruption while Nima tries to make some form of difference. But now that you mention it, is that like an overarching theme. Or is Nima just insanely unluckily that essentially every plant (besides the one the Jedi temple currently resides (I hope)) she has traveled to is Just filled with either bigotry, corruption or both in some form?
 
Zealous Specter said:
Oh I was viewing it as every planet has a story, and that all the planets have the same type of rhyming theme of bigotry and corruption while Nima tries to make some form of difference. But now that you mention it, is that like an overarching theme. Or is Nima just insanely unluckily that essentially every plant (besides the one the Jedi temple currently resides (I hope)) she has traveled to is Just filled with either bigotry, corruption or both in some form?
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It's a common problem of the Jedi, in a way. If a planet has no problems and everything is good, then why's a Jedi there?

But I tried to emphasize it especially for this arc, because it was the arc where Nima went to her ancestral home. If the Haruun Kal arc is meant to be post-Apocalypse Now, or post-colonial, and Correlia was an examination of the ties between government and crime, and the way that governmental incompetence can make crises worse--whose choice to use a plague would have seemed a lot worse if it did not in fact entirely wrap up before COVID-19 was even in the news--then this is of something else? I feel like, in that way, and this is very much authorial pretension, this particular arc is the most I've managed to hold to my themes and tell them without getting tangled up on the outcomes of the Quest votes.

By that I mean that I had themes with crime and governmental power I wanted to do with the villain of the Corellia arc, but voters voted to avoid meeting him, and rather than finding ways to address the themes and story without him, I kinda just went, "Oh well" and I feel like the story suffered for it.

Stuff to think about, I suppose.
 
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The Laurent said:
It's a common problem of the Jedi, in a way. If a planet has no problems and everything is good, then why's a Jedi there?

But I tried to emphasize it especially for this arc, because it was the arc where Nima went to her ancestral home. If the Haruun Kal arc is meant to be post-Apocalypse Now, or post-colonial, and Correlia was an examination of the ties between government and crime, and the way that governmental incompetence can make crises worse--whose choice to use a plague would have seemed a lot worse if it did not in fact entirely wrap up before COVID-19 was even in the news--then this is of something else? I feel like, in that way, and this is very much authorial pretension, this particular arc is the most I've managed to hold to my themes and tell them without getting tangled up on the outcomes of the Quest votes.

By that I mean that I had themes with crime and governmental power I wanted to do with the villain of the Corellia arc, but voters voted to avoid meeting him, and rather than finding ways to address the themes and story without him, I kinda just went, "Oh well" and I feel like the story suffered for it.

Stuff to think about, I suppose.
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And I do like that. The most interesting parts to me is Nima interacting with the Kaminoans (and I suppose the Twi'leks now that I'm aware it's part of the ark aswell) and their culture. Though once the combat started, it was hard to keep reading. Because Nima as demonstrated in the past can do better. Mind you none of this is your fault, you can only do so much with a character that is all talk and PTSD.
But to see how she acted at the end of the last ark was quite frankly difficult and frustrating to read through. It got to the point that you even had to use all our FP just so she wouldn't die. Which you know thanks for that, it would honestly suck if the quest ended.

I'm honestly shocked that after all that Bell hasn't forced her to confront the issue of her lack of training yet. Especially knowing that Nima is in more danger than regular Jedi due to Anakin and Papa Palp being interested in her.
 
The Laurent said:
By that I mean that I had themes with crime and governmental power I wanted to do with the villain of the Corellia arc, but voters voted to avoid meeting him, and rather than finding ways to address the themes and story without him, I kinda just went, "Oh well" and I feel like the story suffered for it.
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I want to say, at no point in that arc did it feel necessary to meet with him. In fact, I voted against meeting him at every opportunity because it always seemed like a trap. Like, not an instant death option, but I always felt the description was suspicious, or that it seemed suboptimal, in the sense that meeting with him seemed like it was always going to be something bitter and sacrificial in a grudgingly lesser evil sort of way.

And that can work if it feels like we have too... but at no point did I feel like I had to. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did, and before I knew we had moved on.

Edit: Also, he was supposed to be the villain of the Corellia Arc? I wouldn't have realized that if you hadn't just told us. There was a lot going on, I thought it was more like. "You are small and insignificant, and the Galaxy, the war, Corellia; they are vast and beyond you." And the lesson was that you have to you have to trust the people around you and do your small part, don't get lost in it.
 
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Zealous Specter said:
I'm honestly shocked that after all that Bell hasn't forced her to confront the issue of her lack of training yet. Especially knowing that Nima is in more danger than regular Jedi due to Anakin and Papa Palp being interested in her
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I don't think like Nima is lacking in skill, per se. While she's no lightsaber genius, she could, as you pointed out, do better. She has done better in the past. It's more of a temperament issue (coupled with PTSD) that led to her poor performance, but I feel like more training, while allowing Nima more space to comfortably hold back in combat, doesn't really fix the crux of the issue: that Nima isn't a fighter by nature.
 
[X]Plan: Hopefully physically less incompetent.

Hopefully this sets Nima on a path to sorting out her poor fighting performance before I blow a gasket.
 
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