HWalsh wrote:First of all... The book contained a non-canon plot device as it was, it was non-canon until they wrote it anyway, that helped the CS. Namely going through the hivelands unscathed.
Well, they were hardly unscathed.
But there were multiple instances of that sort of unprecedented event, yes.
It's generally a means to an end, not a reason to an end, hence my question.
But your next part answers my question quite well.
Second of all... The reason the CS should have lost is due to the beast that is narrative storytelling. So the CS is this invincible super power that nobody can stop. They attack Tolkeen unprovoked as the aggressor. The CS wins.
That is the story that the SoT series told. That is a terrible narrative tale. It has no twist. At the start we know the CS is going to win. The CS is never in any real danger of losing. The CS wins. It is like if Rocky (the first one) was the tale of Apollo Creed, world champion, who challenges the Italian Stallion, the underdog, and... And... Beats the ever loving tar out of him and knocks him out int he first round...
Is that how it went? No. Rocky trains, Rocky works hard, and though Rocky doesn't win, Rocky goes the distance and is still standing at the end.
Was Star Wars the story of the Empire, as massive well... Empire... Showing up at Alderaan and blowing up the weak Rebel Alliance that was there? No it was about the underdog exploiting a weakness in the enemy's plan and overcoming it.
We see something like the Death Star and are supposed to think, "Oh man! How are they going to beat something like that?" Then we see them triumph. In SoT we saw this massive CS force and went, "Oh man! How are they going to beat something like that?" The answer was, "LOL they totally don't! They lose and they lose bad! Dude at the end of it the CS isn't even scratched! Yo, check it out, in the next book? Dude! Their army is TWICE AS BIG as it was before!"
Tolkeen had all the proper things needed to defeat the CS.
1. They had magic, which can do things that are unpredictable.
2. They had a magic device that was giving them completely accurate information about the CS's plans!
3. They had magical defenses that nobody knew were even possible that stopped the CS's primary battle strategy.
4. They had nearly limitless resources as the fights took place on Ley Lines and near a Ley Line Nexus.
5. They had literally years to prepare for the CS with 100% accurate information on their enemy, information that the CS did not have to counter.
A narrative story should have a flow. The evil empire attacks the peaceful magical city. The magical city uses intelligence, planning, and creativity to overcome the brute force of the CS. The scrappy underdogs manage to win the day through luck, guile, and perseverance. Good conquers evil.
Yet, no. The CS wins.
It actually has soured me on the entire metaplot since then. I buy Rifts books and feel like I am torturing myself because of how slow it advances and how the CS just keeps getting stronger and stronger and stronger. If I want to see evil fascists constantly defeat good rebels then all I need to do is look at the real world.
First of all, good post!
You explain your position well, and I have a much better idea where you're coming from now.
Thank you.
Now I'll explain why I think you're wrong.
(please read and consider the entire post before responding!)
The story that the SoT series told exists within a greater context, the story of Rifts Earth.
In the story of Rifts Earth, Tolkeen is not, was not, and has never been a main character.
The Coalition IS a main character in that context. It has been since day one, and it will be for the foreseeable future, because they're one of the main bad-guys of the setting.
The SoT series is just a chapter in the story of Rifts overall, and it's an early chapter at that.
In the story of Rifts, we're told from the outset that Tolkeen doesn't have a chance.
We're told (RMB 139) that Tolkeen is the Coalition's
immediate opposition, because Tolkeen is just going to be the first fight of a series.
We're told by Erin Tarn, one of Rifts' main characters, "I fear that tolkeen has no hope for survival against an all-out siege by the CS."
We're told that "the
real opposition that awaits the Coalition is the alien insect race known as the Xiticix."
This is the story of Rifts: Tolkeen is a minor character, a warm-up fight for the CS before they face real opposition.
We were told this since day 1 of Rifts.
That's the context in which SoT takes place.
Within the SoT series itself, you make a comparison to Rocky. You say that Tolkeen losing is like Rocky getting KOed in the first round.
But Rocky
lost his fight to Apollo Creed. If you're looking for a Rocky-esque story, then you're looking for a story where the underdog loses, but makes his point by going the full 15 rounds.
Tolkeen accomplished that.
They took on one of the deadliest powers on the continent, an army that has roughly 3x more cannon fodder than Tolkeen has in its entire population, including civilians, volunteer defenders pulled in from other places, and so forth. (IIRC Tolkeen had a bit over a million all told. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
Tolkeen should have been a speedbump, but instead they were a wall that took the CS an incredible amount of time to break through.
They went all 15 rounds, just like Rocky. That's your underdog story within the SoT series: Like Rocky, like The Alamo, like 300, like many other stories, the underdog loses... but they don't go down without a fight, and
that is the story.
And that story is within the greater context of Rifts, where (like Star Wars), the story is NOT about the evil empire attempting to smash its first target. It's about the heroes that
eventually stop the evil empire, down the road.
Long after Alderaan/Tolkeen has been destroyed, a plot device to show how evil and how powerful the evil empire actually is.
Not a main character, but rather a means to give the real main characters a motivation to battle the evil empire.
If George Lucas thought he could have made a buck by writing a 6-book series about Alderaan getting blown up, he would have.
But it would have been an aside to the main overall (and
epic) plot of the series.
It wouldn't have turned Alderaan into the
real opposition of the empire, just like the SoT series didn't turn Tolkeen into the CS'
real opposition.
Even in the context of the SoT series, look at things analytically.
Book 1 of the series is titled
Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen Chapter 1: Sedition.
Looking at the Palladium online store, it's just:
Coalition Wars 1: Sedition.
It is
not Tolkeen Wars 1: Under Siege, presumably because the series deals with the secession of Quebec as well as the siege on Tolkeen. It's a series not just about the CS's battle with one city-state, but with two different wars at once.
Or, for short, it's a series about the Coalition's Wars.
On page 7 of this book, Kevin explains that he's been planning the series for a long time, and what he wants to do with the books, how the series is going to go.
Taken at face value, the Kingdom of Tolkeen is painted in a sympathetic light. They weren't looking for trouble and they are the ones being invaded by a ruthless foe. Only things are not so black and white. As our story progresses, the leaders of Tolkeen and the Coalition States will be shown to be more alike than different. Both are so blinded by hate and a lust for revenge that they are willing to sacrifice their own people to win at "all costs." Tolkeen's leaders betray the trust of their people by creating false hopes, manipulating the truth, and placing their own goals for revenge before the welfare of their people.Here is perhaps the single most important part of this section:
by creating false hopes.
We're told on p. 7 of the first book in the series, in the forward, the very first actual text of the book, that Tolkeen's hopes are
false.
On p. 8, Erin Tarn (who IS a main character in the overall story of Rifts) has written a lengthy warning to Tolkeen.
Her first line is "Hundreds of thousands of people are about to die, and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
Her final line is "And I pray for the multitudes who will soon perish."
In the middle, there's a lot of Erin Tarn saying things like "I blame the destruction to come on the leaders of Tolkeen, Beings who are showing themselves to be every bit as self-serving and ruthless as the Coalition States."
And "I beg of you, people of Tolkeen, do not get caught in the melee."
And "One day it dawned on me; the powers at Tolkeen are nothing more than the other edge of the same blade that is Emperor Prosek and the Coalition States."
Read that letter from Tarn, her warning.
She makes it clear that a) She (again, a main character in the story of Rifts overall) and Lazlo (another main character in the story of Rifts) have separated themselves from Tolkeen, b) She (and Lazlo) think that Tolkeen's entering into the war is folly, and c) Tolkeen is just as bad as the Coalition.
If Tolkeen is a plucky underdog, it's made clear in the first pages of Coalition Wars Book 1 that the underdog is just as rabid as the overdog.
After Tarn's letter of warning, the next section starts with a Coalition battle report.
Then there's a video-letter from a CS corporal.
Tolkeen itself isn't shown yet, which is a bit odd if they're supposed to be the main character.
Overall, the book seems to spend as much time on the CS as on Tolkeen.
It discusses the fringes of Tolkeen, the land where battles are going to take place, but Tolkeen itself isn't described (IIRC, not until the final book, when it is also destroyed).
I've never really considered before if there was a "main character" in the Coalition Wars series, but if there is, I'm not sure that it's Tolkeen. It might well be the Coalition.
Don't think that I'm saying that the Coalition isn't the Bad Guy; bad guys can be main characters.
And even if Tolkeen
is the main character in this series about the Coalition fighting two different wars, one of which is with Tolkeen, that doesn't make them a good guy.
You say that a narrative story should have a flow, and I agree.
But the Coalition Wars series, as a story individually, even without regard to its role in the greater story of Rifts Earth, is
not a story of Good versus Evil.
It's a story about the corrupt fighting the corrupt, and we're told that repeatedly and overwhelmingly in the first pages of
Coalition Wars 1.
When the Coalition is taken down, it probably will be by a scrappy underdog (or a band of underdogs), but from a storytelling narrative perspective, how is it a really good story to have the Evil Empire defeated by a plucky Evil City-State?
Is that
really more satisfying than having the Evil City-State go down fighting, arguably both misguided and heroically, to serve as a warning to the truly Good characters about both the dangers of the Coalition and the perils of becoming the kind of monster that you seek to destroy?
In order for the destruction of the Deathstar to be impressive, the Deathstar had to be impressive.
And it wouldn't have been all that impressive if Alderaan wasn't destroyed.