Jump to content

Is Taris even worth saving?


natashina

Recommended Posts

I've played both the Imperial side and the Republic side through Taris and the idea of saving Taris seems silly to me.

 

So, the Imp side wants it fully destroyed to "remind the Republic of it's failure." The Republic politicians want to save Taris, thinking they can reclaim it. What's funny about that is, if you talk to most of the Trooper npcs, they wonder what the point is too.

 

Speaking of politicians...

 

 

Ah, Governor Seresh. I always wondered who she crossed to end up there. When I go back and do the Taris storyline, I think she made someone angry and got sent to Taris. I think Taris is her pet project to redeem herself and the rest is just lip service.

 

 

I personally side with the Imps. The planet just needs to be put out of its misery. When the Republic finishes its studies, they should bail out too. The planet seems so damaged it's beyond repair.

 

Thoughts?

Edited by natashina
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 61
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I've played both the Imperial side and the Republic side through Taris and the idea of saving Taris seems silly to me.

 

So, the Imp side wants it fully destroyed to "remind the Republic of it's failure." The Republic politicians want to save Taris, thinking they can reclaim it. What's funny about that is, if you talk to most of the Trooper npcs, they wonder what the point is too.

 

Speaking of politicians...

 

 

Ah, Governor Seresh. I always wondered who she crossed to end up there. When I go back and do the Taris storyline, I think she made someone angry and got sent to Taris. I think Taris is her pet project to redeem herself and the rest is just lip service.

 

 

I personally side with the Imps. The planet just needs to be put out of its misery. When the Republic finishes its studies, they should bail out too. The planet seems so damaged it's beyond repair.

 

Thoughts?

 

Taris has recovered somewhat by the Clone Wars - over 3600 years later! Thing is, I'm being generous with the word recovered, "has some small cities and a high crime rate" might be more apt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never seen Clone Wars, but I would like to ask: How do they even make that planet livable?

 

I'd figure it's society would be rough...and there are some hints of colonists returning. I guess my other question would be why is Taris worth saving? Saving face for the Republic? Resources that I'm not aware of or aren't talked about in game?

 

 

Maybe Loken's research made the rakhghouls less of a problem?

 

 

I can't see what would make Taris important enough to survive to get a form of civilization back, but maybe I'm missing something more?

Edited by natashina
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taris was a symbol. For the Republic, fixing Taris would be a becon in the dark; saying "Hey, if we can fix up a planet this bad then we can do anything".

For the Empire, Taris was a symbol of the Republic's inability to stop the Sith. It was a "Look here, the Republic failed to save Taris the first time and they're failing to save it again."

Symbols have power all of their own, they give hope in the darkness or swallow you in despair and that's what both sides are counting on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well in the books during the Legacy series we see Taris back to the way it was before it was blown up. Aliens in the slums humans in the nicer parts. Boba Fett spends a lot of time there and infact has investments and apartments there.

 

Infact after being driven off the planet Mandalore it's where he goes.

 

So Taris gets rebuilt anyways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Republic seems to spend a lot of time fixing planets that the Sith have Destroyed, remember Telos IV from Kotor2, although Taris isn't that bad. Mind you, the Sith need to learn that you get more out of terrorising a planet than wrecking it, after all they're supposed to run an EMPIRE not a graveyard.

 

PS. why do the planets destroyed all start with T?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Republic seems to spend a lot of time fixing planets that the Sith have Destroyed, remember Telos IV from Kotor2, although Taris isn't that bad. Mind you, the Sith need to learn that you get more out of terrorising a planet than wrecking it, after all they're supposed to run an EMPIRE not a graveyard.

 

PS. why do the planets destroyed all start with T?

 

All i gotta say is Alderaan, Malachor V, Katarr, and Nathema

Edited by Darkondo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never seen Clone Wars, but I would like to ask: How do they even make that planet livable?

 

I'd figure it's society would be rough...and there are some hints of colonists returning. I guess my other question would be why is Taris worth saving? Saving face for the Republic? Resources that I'm not aware of or aren't talked about in game?

 

 

Maybe Loken's research made the rakhghouls less of a problem?

 

 

I can't see what would make Taris important enough to survive to get a form of civilization back, but maybe I'm missing something more?

 

Well, if we consider Telos for a moment, from KoToR 2, the cut content (which was cut due to time restraints) shows that Telos had

military factories capable of pumping out droid armies hidden underneath cities, and other parts of the planet. That was practically the reason Revan destroyed it in the first place.

We can potentially assume that Taris had this as well, but it could also be that Malak just wanted to destroy Revan (and the planet) while he had the chance.

Edited by ALMAINYNY
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The planet is perfectly viable. Animal life is thriving. A planet isn't 'not worth saving' just because it's inhabitable by humans. By that standard, Antarctica isn't worth saving. Penguins would beg to differ. Humans should just leave Taris alone. Edited by errant_knight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All i gotta say is Alderaan, Malachor V, Katarr, and Nathema

 

Well I'll Give you Katarr, since it was destroyed by the Sith to blind the Jedi to them. But Malachor was destroyed by the Republic according to Kotor2, and Alderaan is in the future so doesn't quite count (yet). But I'll admit I can't recall Nathema, is it in the Clone wars Toons.

 

But if I was on a planet beginning with T and the Sith turned up, I'ld worry, Then run before they blew it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

whether a planet is Savable might not be defined by compatable with Humans, But until the Rakghoul plague is dealable Taris isn't suitable to any Sentients.

The planet's Ecosystem is obviously viable, but anybody who hears about Rakghouls and the disease that causes them, and then thinks Taris is nice and colonisable, needs serious psychiatric help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you need to remember is that Taris is an ecumenopolis - an entire planet covered in cityscape. Very few full planets, even in Star Wars, boast the same - Coruscant, Corellia, Alsakan and Anaxes are some of the few. Even Nar Shaddaa is merely a moon, far smaller than Taris.

 

The resources required to recolonize and reconstitute Taris are a microfraction of the resources required to create an entire ecumenopolis even on an already mostly urbanized planet. The original infrastructure is, according to several NPCs, "Surprisingly intact" as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you need to remember is that Taris is an ecumenopolis - an entire planet covered in cityscape. Very few full planets, even in Star Wars, boast the same - Coruscant, Corellia, Alsakan and Anaxes are some of the few. Even Nar Shaddaa is merely a moon, far smaller than Taris.

 

The resources required to recolonize and reconstitute Taris are a microfraction of the resources required to create an entire ecumenopolis even on an already mostly urbanized planet. The original infrastructure is, according to several NPCs, "Surprisingly intact" as well.

 

Actually incorrect about Corellia. It is not a city planet. It simply has some GIGANTIC cities. But much of the planet is open and even has mountains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To answer creator of the thread : No Taris is not worth saving from economic or logistic point of view. As you said it's silly, but both sides battle each other for it in political scene.

 

Taris was a symbol. For the Republic, fixing Taris would be a becon in the dark; saying "Hey, if we can fix up a planet this bad then we can do anything".

For the Empire, Taris was a symbol of the Republic's inability to stop the Sith. It was a "Look here, the Republic failed to save Taris the first time and they're failing to save it again."

Symbols have power all of their own, they give hope in the darkness or swallow you in despair and that's what both sides are counting on.

 

 

QFT. This man gets it. There's nothing more to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main problem seems to be the Rakghouls.

And while I can see how they might be a problem for repaircrews and settlers, I can't se why they are portraied as a viable threat to trained and fully equiped combat troops.

I'm not talking game mechanics, but storywise.

I mean, they're just animals with teeth and claws, mkay?

 

Shouldn't be too hard to prune them back.

Most of them seem to hang out in the open. Why not just hop into a skimmer, hover four meter above ground and 'happy target practice'?

Pay twenty bucks for each Rakghoul and you'll even find volounteers to do the job for you. That way it's cheaper than to send in the republic's troops.

I think we'll find enough examples on earth to show that excessive hunting can drive a species to extinction.

 

Or use droids.

Again, claws and teeth.

Duranium armour and a repulsor in stead of legs. Make weapon arms too bulky for a Rak's jaw to gripp (like a dog who can't pic up a ball bacause of it's diameter), and your droid is all but invulnerable.

Strapp a heavy blaster, a flamethrower and some incindiary/thermobaric granades to it, and send it on it's way to clear out the Rak's hideouts.

 

Or use chemical agents.

Most Rakghouls are mutated humans, right? Well, break out the sarin gas!

If native wildlive's biochemistry differs enough from human's, the local fauna shouldn't even be affected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are forgetting the fact that Rakghouls are also inside facilities and building and swarm rather quickly. The threat is not in the fact they are animals, but that they seem to be limitless and only need to touch you once to make you one of them.

 

I would agree if they were just a really dangerous animal (like a lion) but rakghouls have features that most animals we hunt on Earth do not.

 

You don't see a pack of lions swarming your jeep in Africa from the tall grass and turn you into a lion if it grazes you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are forgetting the fact that Rakghouls are also inside facilities and building and swarm rather quickly. The threat is not in the fact they are animals, but that they seem to be limitless and only need to touch you once to make you one of them.

 

As I said, purpose-built combat droids, incindiarys and neurotoxins.

 

As for the infecting, so far, I have ben under the impression, that the Rakghoul has to actualy bite you or otherwise penetrate your skin to transmit the desease.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are forgetting the fact that Rakghouls are also inside facilities and building and swarm rather quickly. The threat is not in the fact they are animals, but that they seem to be limitless and only need to touch you once to make you one of them.

 

I would agree if they were just a really dangerous animal (like a lion) but rakghouls have features that most animals we hunt on Earth do not.

 

You don't see a pack of lions swarming your jeep in Africa from the tall grass and turn you into a lion if it grazes you.

 

Disease, regardless of type, is only an issue if it's untreatable. The rakghoul plague isn't. Revan and... a doctor whose name escapes me came up with a cure three hundred years ago. The Pub-side Four and another doctor whose name escapes me managed to replicate it within a week of leaving Coruscant. If you go lightside it's even pressed into production almost immediately and through altruistic channels, so it's pretty clear the Republic has the resources to mass-produce and distribute it; by the end of Republic Taris this is a first-world measles epidemic, not a third-world AIDS epidemic.

 

The real problem with the rakghouls is not that they can turn other species into ghouls, it's that they're apparently sentient now, up to and including having protolithic Sith in their ranks. This makes hunting them a far less simple affair than putting up a bounty and sending some droids around. Beating a horde armed with blasters and Force Lightning takes tech, training, and Jedi support.

 

On the other hand, it also offers the potential for a peace treaty, which isn't an option with an animal infestation or viral epidemic. So there's a sliver of hope there too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

by the end of Republic Taris this is a first-world measles epidemic, not a third-world AIDS epidemic.

 

Hell no.

 

The Rakghoul plague is extremely virulent and people who are infected can turn within hours. Even if we assume 100% success rate in the vaccine (which is impossible) there are thousands of people on Taris (including pirates and scavengers who don't exactly have Republic support) and what's worse, because of how virulent the Rakghoul plague is, two rakghouls from the same social group can have sufficiently different strains that the vaccine will only work against one of them - if that!

 

It's certainly not a third-world AIDS epidemic, it's a third-world bubonic plague epidemic. AIDS has the decency of being easy to contain in theory and only spreading through ignorance and carelessness, whereas the Rakghoul plague spreads aggressively through its hosts actively attacking anything in sight.

 

The Rakghouls can even breed amongst themselves in the modern era (which is how they've thrived despite having no victims to infect for centuries) so exterminating them conventionally is as feeble a gesture as exterminating rat or rabbit populations... except if you screw up here, you'll become part of the problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hell no.

 

The Rakghoul plague is extremely virulent and people who are infected can turn within hours. Even if we assume 100% success rate in the vaccine (which is impossible) there are thousands of people on Taris (including pirates and scavengers who don't exactly have Republic support) and what's worse, because of how virulent the Rakghoul plague is, two rakghouls from the same social group can have sufficiently different strains that the vaccine will only work against one of them - if that!

 

It's certainly not a third-world AIDS epidemic, it's a third-world bubonic plague epidemic. AIDS has the decency of being easy to contain in theory and only spreading through ignorance and carelessness, whereas the Rakghoul plague spreads aggressively through its hosts actively attacking anything in sight.

 

The Rakghouls can even breed amongst themselves in the modern era (which is how they've thrived despite having no victims to infect for centuries) so exterminating them conventionally is as feeble a gesture as exterminating rat or rabbit populations... except if you screw up here, you'll become part of the problem.

 

The rat analogy doesn't realy fit.

Most atempts to erradicate rats or rabits (or other varmin) fail, bacause we do not dare to use the most effective weapons at our diposal for fear of unwanted effect on the rest of the ecosystem.

On Taris those constraints do not necessarily exist.

We cannot use acetylcholinestrase inhibitors on rats, beacuse it would allso kill other fauna (and any human who would stray into the aera).

On Taris, the native critters may use a different neurotransmiter than the human descendent Rakghouls, so use of acetylcholinesterase inhibition based neurotoxins may be faisible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given the environment that Rakghouls' thrive in (toxic waste pits, radiation-leaking reactors), it's pretty safe to assume that any kind of airborne toxin that could kill Rakghouls would be extremely fatal to any other species trying to colonize Taris.

 

Not necessarily.

Consider, the Rakghouls are based on humans who are not native to Taris.

Something that is highly toxic to humans may be completely harmles to, say, Duros. And vice versa.

Different biochemistry means vulnerability to different toxins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Consider, the Rakghouls are based on humans who are not native to Taris.

 

No. Rakghouls come from sentient humanoids, not humans. In fact the Rakghoul plague can even infect non-sentient species like Reeks, Tarisian devourers and Mantellian Savrips. It's not endemic to humans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. Rakghouls come from sentient humanoids, not humans. In fact the Rakghoul plague can even infect non-sentient species like Reeks, Tarisian devourers and Mantellian Savrips. It's not endemic to humans.

 

Hmm... if memory serves me right, then the original plague, transmitted trough the Force by the Muur Talisman, only affected humans and a select few other species. That's why Zane's sidekick Gryph didn't turn, despite not being force sensitive.

But, if he would have been bitten, he would have turned, right?

 

Ok, looking at it from the other end:

If we permit other c-canon sources, then Taris eventualy got resettled at some point during the next 4 millenia. So either the republic got on top of the Rakghouls eventualy, or the problem somehow went away by itself.

Any ideas?

Since you are so adamant to rule out conventional methods ;), what unconventional methods come to mind?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...