This traffic sign on Corellia made me wonder. What would it mean? "Beware the aliens?" You would hope the whole Taris thing was buried well under the ground by now*, but I could imagine my twi'lek Y-u'no being perplexed as she halted her tauntaun to look at the sign.
On second thought, the aliens don't resemble twi'lek at all. They are more of the E.T.-phone-home type, but then the mobile version. They also look more like the archetype of evil aliens (think: Alien vs Predator) that we are to believe want to invade Earth. Or maybe I'm looking at this for too long and it just means: "watch out for people crossing the street" (with some imagination the figures represent a daddy alien with two children).
Either way, Y-u'no moved on, in search of more datacrons.
* Before the devastating bombardment, Taris was racially divided in different levels with humans living in the luxury top apartments and aliens in the cheap lower grounds. Play Knights of the Old Republic to find out more (and if you haven't played it yet, this classic is absolutely worth it!).
Oh how often I have been wondering the same about that very sign. I remember doing what you did: stopping while zooming by, wondering if I had indeed seen it correctly and they bothered to make some sort of pedestrian crossing sign. My guess was actually Droids though, since that's what Corellia is full of mostly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, first time I commented here, nice blog with a nice mix of different games. Played or am playing about half of those you listed top-right, who knows I probably ran into you before without knowing it. :)
Incredible! I really thought I'd be the only one who would stop and think about such silly things, but I'm glad I'm not. Droids are a good suggestion, makes more sense than aliens anyway. "Watch out for crossing droids", more or less comparable to signs for elks in Sweden (or deer here in the Netherlands). You'd think aliens would have the brains to watch out themselves. Silly me!
DeleteAnyway, it's nice to have you around and it's always encouraging to hear someone likes my blog. Now you've made me curious as to what games you are playing out of that list, though!
I have recently gotten in the habit of taking screenshots of the art within SWTOR. There are some really interesting posters and billboards in the lower levels of Coruscant.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the lore surrounding Taris, which I am paying attention to as I level my Republic commando. I am paying a lot more attention to the lore this time, because I managed to miss out on it playing my Sith warrior.
I love the billboards in SWTOR as well! It's interesting how lilac lipstick is still in fashion after two years (I'm sure you remember the one). ^^
DeleteI'm not a huge lore-junky. For instance, I didn't read all the Star Wars books that are written (somehow sci-fi and fantasy doesn't appeal to me as much in the form of literature). I did however play KOTOR 1 and am in process with 2. Having played those games made my experience when I landed on Taris so much richer.
Just to nitpick, while there's an obvious specicism element to Taris in KoToR, the odd thing is you actually see more diverse aliens living, working and being discriminated against in the upper levels than the lower levels. The tribe of people you help (and whose sad end you can iscover on Taris in SW:TOR) is predominantly human. Taris society was harsh on anyone.
ReplyDeleteCorellia's always had a flavour of specicism in its lore as well. One thing I found dissappointing in the SW:TOR installment of the global history is that it feels more like 30 years before the Prequels than 3000. But hey, that's Technology for you, stagnation, right?
Sure, apart from those aliens have a tough time in the upper levels because they are regarded as 'not being supposed to be there', there is the larger situation of Taris' society working as a sort of caste system, in which aliens take a low position, but outcasts have the lowest position of them all, with the least rights (for instance, they are not allowed to move between spheres at all, whereas the aliens are grudgingly tolerated when they move into the upper spheres). You are right in the sense that it is more a case of discrimination than racism. Sorry if that wasn't clear - I didn't mean literally that Taris had signs with "Beware: aliens" or something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteOn Wikipedia, someone choose to define discrimination as: "the prejudicial and/or distinguishing treatment of an individual based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category, in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated." Which I think is pretty accurate for both outcasts and aliens in the Taris case. Racism can be a base for discrimination, which is the case with the aliens, but not with the outcasts.