Kaertos

That's the "Dark Empire" mini-series from Dark Horse Comics. The Zahn Trilogy is an entirely different storyline. Luke does not fall to the Dark Side. However, as good as it is there are still some craptacular things: Some spoilers follow: - A Mountain full of technlogy that the Empire just didn't want to use I guess. - The ysalamiri, a little lizard thing that pushes away the Force (aka "stupid writer's plot to make Luke less cool 'cause Jedi are too powerful") - One of the big bad guys is a clone of Luke (named, imaginatively, Luuke) that was cloned from the hand Vader chopped off in Cloud City. And, by the way, it was apparently still holding the lightsaber. I like these novels, but there are things that make me cringe just because they seem so contrary to established Star Wars mythology. Then again, it shines likethe diamond of the EU compared to what came after it, particuarly the terrible "Jedi Search" Trilogy by Kevin Anderson. In interviews, he admitted that he had not seen the movies in years before he started writing and got all of his information from the West End Games RPG for Sar Wars.

I didn't, and probably won't get it, but at Best Buy last night they was a big empty space on the shelf.

The funny part is, I had a premium account for quite a while and offered several times for others to use it to gather said information. It never happened. No love for the Stables Belt.

Merry Christmas to all, but especially to my old partner, Mistress Sarah. Good to hear from you again. You know, King and I were just talking about our history in the SWF last night and I mentioned how much I enjoyed my various tag titles.

I did like how at the end of the episode they Ted mentioned that 2006 was a momentous year or something like that. Seems like they're setting us up for a cool last half of the season.

Not sure what is valuable in the market today, but I have... Amazing Spider-Man #299 & 300 - First appearance of Venom Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Amazing Spider-Man #350, 400 & 500 Aliens (First Dark Horse) #1-6 Excalibur #1 G.I. Joe #21 - Silent issue, used to be worth money... Transformers (Marvel) - #1... well, entire series actually. Nick Fury v. S.H.I.E.L.D.

I was giving this some thought, and I remember working in retail some years back and thinking, "It would be polite of me to say "Happy Holidays" just in case my customer is Jewish or Muslim or celebrates Kwanzaa instead of (or in addition to) Christmas." So I did. Nobody complained and a few of the people who were Jewish or Muslim or whatever thanksed me for not making them feel like outsiders in the whole thing. Christmas is a religious holiday that was co-opted from any number of celebrations people had concerning the winter solstace. There are a ton of traditions and ideas that went into the modern celebration, secular or religious, of the holiday. I think people complaining about the "War on Christmas" are missing the entire point. At some point politeness turned into PC turned into an attack on the holiday.

Nice job Chris. I just stopped by to see if this still needed to be done and I find that not only is it done, but done well.

His last two years he hit for less power because of a shoulder injury. Now I'll be the first to admit that it looks like that shoulder might just be a chronic issue, as he has had it off and on for like two years now. I can't explain the double play thing other than agreeing with you that Casey is slow. As for a clog in the lineup? He led the team in doubles (at least for a while) and led the team in BA. I don;t think he was clog in the lineup. How hopefully, they can trade Pena to someone in the AL so he can DH. The kid can hit, but his fielding is frightening. I cringe everytime somene his a fly to him. I don't know. Intellectually, I know it was a good trade for the Reds, but I have to think that they are going to miss his attitude in the clubhouse. Oh well, I am a Reds fan for life, even if my favorite player is in the Pitt.

The Dan Patrick Show was great when he still had Dibble on. But in the few times I've listened to it in the last couple of years, it has been a little lame, although the Friday afternoon slot with Keith Olberman is amusing just because the guys get along so well.

Apparently, the Reds just traded Sean Casey to the Pirates for pitcher Dave Williams. Anybody out there from the Pitt know anything about this guy? Personally, this sucks as the Mayor is my favorite player, but I know why they did it. Good for them if they get a good to great starter out of it. But I have to say that my interest in the Red's 2006 season just dropped and I am a lifelong fan.

My sister-in-law gave me a book last Christmas called "Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" that I just haven;t even picked up yet. That's about it, I go through books pretty fast.

Oddly enough, I seriously considered ripping off King's character way back when and making Sean "The Gambling Man" Finnegan. Basically, take the King character (who I was already a little familiar with even though he was a year or so from being in the fed) and add a dash of the Irish. Yeah... Grand Slam was a much better idea. During my first retirement, I thought about making a new character that was everything Grand Slam was not. Weak, highly agile high flyer, little charisma, very heelish. He would wear a mask and I thought it would be fun to give him an alter-ego, one of the generic "abused camera guys" that were very popular at the time. But lack of time to write killed him before I even started with him.

So has anyone actually seen this bonus disk? It looks like you actually have to pay extra for it, at least on the Wal-Mart web site.

I think the fact that every major studio but Universal is supporting Blu-Ray either exclusively or alongside HD-DVD has far more to do with it than any one movie, even the Star Wars movies. My guess is that Star Wars and Lord of the Rings will be two of the first big time releases on the HD formats, something to make people want to trade in their current players and buy new versions of all their movies. Luckily, both HD-DVD and BluRay are backwards compatible.

It's times like this that I wish the Carnival were still around. If there was ever fodder for an all-out prank attack...

Tim Couch, former QB for the Browns, is my second cousin. According to my mom, her side of the family is related to Robert E. Lee and Pocohantas. Who knows?

I don't think it's a cop out at all. Frankly, as a married man, I can see how hard it would be to make that decision. Do something terrible and your wife lives or don't do it and she dies. I can't imagine being able to think about it rationally. Thus the whole point that Jedi should not have attachments.

After reading all of theseposts, I think I finally have a good handle on what I think was going on. All of this is subject to change, of course, once I listen to the commentary on the DVD. Palpatine plays his next to last card with Anaking, revealing himself as a Sith Lord but also as the "only" person who can save Padme (and in a nice touch, he never mentiones her being pregnant thus he doesn't know until years later that Vader has kids). As soon as Anakin leaves, Palpatine knows the Jedi will be comig for him soon. Anakin tells Mace about Palpatine, totally wanting to do the right thing. And I think Mace wants to believe in Anakin, so he tells him that if this is right, he'll have earned his trust. Anakin waits in the Jedi Temple, but the whole time struggling with the idea that Palpatine could die and he couldn't save Padme. Now, the crux of the matter... Mace and the Jedi Job Team show up and confront Palpatine, intending on arresting him. Palpatine resists, to put it mildly. It finally comes down to Mace and Palpatine. During the fight, Palpatine senses Anakin's arrival and takes his biggest gamble and plays his last card. He throws the Force Lightning and drains himslef, leaving him at Mace's mercy. BUT... he knows Anakin is right there. I see it as being both ways. Palpatine wasn't playing possum so much as he put himself in a situation where Mace would have him at his mercy. His gamble is that Anakin will interfere. Once he does, suprising Mace because he really wanted to believe in the prophecy (besides, Anakin really is that damn good). Anakin attacks Mace and turns mostly to the dark side. Palpatine gains strength from Anakin's dark acts and kills Mace. Finally, Anakin willingly gives himself to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader.

Well, here it is, the schedule for now through CF.... --------------------------- Pay-Per-View Calendar Clusterf*ck - 1-30-2005 From the Fire - 3-6-2005 Battleground - 4-24-2005 13th Hour - 6-12-2005 Ground Zero - 7-31-2005 Genesis VI: The Undiscovered Country - 9-18-2005 Ashes 2 Ashes - 11-6-2005 XMas PPV - 12-18-2005 ---------------------------- 2005 Show Schedule SWF Lockdown 1-5-2005 (card: Thoth post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 1-10-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 1-14-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Thoth) SWF Lockdown 1-19-2005 (card: Thoth post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 1-24-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Clusterf*ck PPV 1-30-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 2-4-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: realitycheck) SWF Lockdown 2-9-2005 (card: realitycheck post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 2-14-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 2-18-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: chirs3) SWF Lockdown 2-23-2005 (card: chirs3 post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 2-28-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF From the Fire PPV 3-6-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 3-11-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: TBA) SWF Lockdown 3-16-2005 (card: TBA post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 3-21-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 3-25-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: TBA) SWF Lockdown 3-30-2005 (card: TBA post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 4-4-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 4-8-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) SWF Lockdown 4-13-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 4-18-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Battleground PPV 4-24-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery) The SWF It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) Tour 2005! South America SWF Storm 4-29-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From Cancun, Mexico! SWF Lockdown 5-4-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From Brazil! SWF Smarkdown 5-9-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Chile! Australia SWF Storm 5-13-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From Australia! Asia SWF Lockdown 5-18-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From Japan! SWF Smarkdown 5-23-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Indonesia! Africa! SWF Storm 5-27-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From Seychelles! SWF Lockdown 6-1-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From South Africa! SWF Smarkdown 6-6-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Egypt! SWF 13th Hour PPV 6-12-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery) - From ST. PETER'S SQUARE IN THE VATICAN CITY! The SWF It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) Tour 2005! European Tour! SWF Storm 6-17-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From the Vatican City! SWF Lockdown 6-22-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From Greece! SWF Smarkdown 6-27-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Bucharest, Romania![ SWF Storm 7-1-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From Kiev, Ukraine! SWF Lockdown 7-6-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From Stockholm, Sweden! SWF Smarkdown 7-11-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Copenhagen, Denmark! SWF Storm 7-15-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) - From Amsterdam, the Netherlands! SWF Lockdown 7-20-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) - From Paris, France! SWF Smarkdown 7-25-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) - From Dublin, Ireland! SWF Ground Zero PPV 7-31-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery) - With a double main event, emanating from London, England and Las Vegas, Nevada! Back in North America, it's the Road to Genesis! SWF Storm 8-5-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) SWF Lockdown 8-10-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 8-15-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 8-19-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) SWF Lockdown 8-24-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 8-29-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Storm 9-2-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chirs3) SWF Lockdown 9-7-2005 (card: Chirs3 post: Ace309) SWF Smarkdown 9-12-2005 (card: Ace309 post: Chuck Woolery) SWF Genesis VI PPV 9-18-2005 (card: Chuck Woolery post: Chuck Woolery)

I'd like to think that Windu had him on the ropes and could have killed him, if only because that really brings the scene into focus as the real turning point of the entire prequel series. If Windu kills Palpatine and Anakin stays on the light side of the Force, Vader doesn't exist, the Empire is never born and things are far, far different.

As far as Mace sliding towards the darkside if he kills Palpatine, it doesn't matter if Palpatine is actually defenseless, as long as Mace thinks he is when he commits the act.

I don't think so. It strikes me I'd read somewhere that Mace is the greatest of all the Jedi when it comes to lightsaber fighting. I think Palpatine was ready for him, but I think that Mace had the upper hand towards the end of the fight. Palpatine needed Anakin to intervene or he would have been killed. He was so overpowering against Yoda later because the Dark Side had gained in power by Anakin's acts. One interesting thought though... what if Mace had won? What if Anakin had let him finish off Palpatine? Anakin had a point that it was a violation of the Jedi Code (strictly speaking). How far towards the Dark Side would Mace Windu have slid?

True, but this isn't really either a vital question or a difficult to solve one. There are a lot of places you can lose a ship that size ina swamp the size of a planet. On the other hand, I remember Luke saying the scanners weren't picking up any sign of technology... maybe Yoda launched the ship back into space and it went... elsewhere.

I read this whole thread trying to understand why anyone would be supporting everything Warrior said. Then I suddenly, finally understood it. Warrior is an Internet Smark. He doesn't like WWE, Vince, the current crop of wrestlers and spends a lot of time dumping on HHH.