For the first (rather late) lookback at STNL over the last six years, I thought I'd start with everything I've liked about the series, both in the canon and in real life. Without further ado, let's start!
(Bold titles will be for the old series, and normal will be for both series or the reboot).
- eme12: For many years now, eme12 has been my closest SPORE buddy and éminence grise. For those like me who don't know a lot of French, an éminence grise is a highly-powerful decision maker/adviser who operates unofficially yet still contributes much to their ruler's plans. This is a very fitting epithet for someone who has done by creating the Garadreads and Jonterops and today effectively gives me all the ideas for STNL:R. Though we've had a few disagreements, by and large we remain very close.
- Jercy Packson: Despite his lousy name (more on that later) and poor development early on, Jercy was interesting character in my mind. While I'll list some of the more "meh" aspects of his plotline later, I will say that making him into a one-handed, Nemletneg-hating maniac was one of the better things I've done and made him more than just a stereotypical "starship-commanding hero" character.
- T'Rons: One of many ideas for STNL² suggested by eme12, the T'Rons were a far more interesting antagonist species than the bland Gavalantari. They were formidable warriors who had been introduced in the original STNL, when they attempted to ignite a war between the humans and their ancestors, the Toriins. They also had an alliance of several new races, although we only saw the Eldirari and Kaerans if I'm not mistaken. This and their devotion to
war made them un-trite and worthy adversaries of the Kleekoonanonis and their allies. The war arc was also an interesting idea, since it felt more like a prolonged and bloody war rather than skirmishes with antagonist species. My one regret is we never saw it play out until the end.
- Wildlife: In STNL:R, the wildlife of Epindol has been given a lot of thought and deliberation. Integrating real evolutionary concepts and realistic appearances/colors makes the creatures of Zhenauri unique and memorable. My favorites are the Nepoxes, who travel in large herds with their young and are simply amazing and awe-inspiring to watch. I've had several
characters so far comment on how they, too, enjoy the random wanderings of the gentle giants.
- Holly Jenkins: This badass cyborg mercenary girl is easily my favorite character in the entire canon, mostly because she's a badass and a strong female character. She also happens to be a part of the Parent Club along with
Jercy+Zeela, her love interest and fellow badass Xhoth, and generals Lobert and Hatred Ree. You may have noticed the title is not bolded, yet she'd part of the old series. The answer is she's simply too badass to be excluded from the reboot, so expect to see her return sometime!
- Rando'Moss'Itis: As I mentioned in my Good & Bad post, I find the Rando'Moss'Iti species on the whole to be quite successful and entertaining, especially when you find them... randomly. Also notice the lack of bolding for the title...
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. As you can notice, this wasn't exactly a long or exhaustive list, but the other two will probably be; given how low my enthusiam for the original STNL is. Speaking of enthusiasm, I intend to be a bit more on top of things in terms of working on new parts, so hopefully my months-long hiatuses will go away!
(Yes, the next part will be coming very, very soon).
