SoNE Freebuild - Pshrinking

[VK-318]

After the grueling action of the last several weeks, the long stint over Endor was a blessing to the crew of the Avenger. Finally there was time for a little R&R. And finally HR had time to look after shellshocked troopers.

Only trouble was, they were a little low on men. So, guess who get picked to lend a hand.

Me, of course. VK-318, enlisted psychiatric specialist. Whatever.

I'm not entirely sure how much help I was, but this duty stint did do to great things for me. First, it gave me the opportunity to sit down in a comfortable chair. And second, it gave me a lot of time to think about the war.

But not as much time as my last patient seems to have had. Officer VeR had plenty to talk about, and thankfully HR doesn't like to bug psychiatric sessions, since doing so tends to be counterproductive.

And me? What do I think?

Good question. VeR and I, I discovered, have more in common than one might at first suspect. Like him, I detest the cost of this war, both in lives and property lost and suffering caused to all whom it touches.

But there, I think, the resemblance ends. While VeR seems to seek escape from the war, I long ago realized that the war would not end unless someone made it end. To make it end would require fighting.

I am not a raving fan of the Empire. There can be little doubt that it is heavy-handed, intolerant, and indiscriminate. But it is also efficient, durable, and consistent, and for the galaxy to recover from this war it will need that kind of leadership. While I can respect the democratic ideals espoused by the Rebel Alliance, the Republic they seek to restore was bureaucratic, sluggish, internally divided, and short-sighted. Those traits will never lead to a quick recovery. So I fight for the Empire. And I do, indeed, fight. VeR's inaction, while understandable, in the end will do his cause no good. He must choose a side.

And I hope, for the sake of the galaxy, that this talented and, if he so chooses, dangerous man chooses to fight for the Empire.

OoC: After wading through several of BEAVeR's philosophical musings, I felt the need to give an answer. I have great respect for BEAVeR's building ability, and while I feel my character would not agree with BEAVeR's approach to the problem of war, this post should in no way be taken as an attack or condemnation. This is intended to be an idle dispute akin to BEAVeR and Goatman461's semi-collaborative build ideas.

[Aland1916]

Nice build, I like the sofa!

[VK-318]

Sorry about the broken images. I got up this morning and Brickshelf is down again! I'll try to find a way to get them up, but I'm going to be out of the house until 10 p.m. CST or later.

Edit: The images are back up. Judges, MKJoshA, sorry for the inconvenience.

Edited September 26, 2014 by VK-318

[MontyPython]

A bit deeper freebuild this time, VK? Altought it's simple, it's nice and I really like helmet stand!

[Lord Tyrus]

Simple, yet effective. Great story.

[BEAVeR]

I'm beginning to think that all of this thinking isn't doing me any good.It seems that, by thinking about the reality all of the time, it's slowly slipping away. It's good this mission is over, so I finally had time to relax. But it was itching, and I couldn't keep my thought to myself. So I decided to go to the psychiatrist. In fact, I recognized him as one of our troopers. But that made the fact that he listened to me just more amazing. It was good to talk. And although he didn't say much himself, I really got the impression he listened... and thought. I felt relieved that I'm not the only one with questions. And although he may have had different answers to them, I felt some understanding. And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that, by hearing encouraging me to say it all out loud, I realized that there isn't a lot that really matters in my thoughts, and is more than open to debate. But it made it clear to me that there are some more profound things in them as well, things that are so clear, that it amazes me people don't just do them. But what those exact 'things' are, isn't clear to me yet. That might just take another trip to the psychiatrist...

____

OoC: So you finally did it! I never suspected I'd play such a role in it too, but I'm glad you appreciate that I'm somewhat of a 'special case'. I don't take your different view as an offence. On the contrary, I take it as a compliment and an invitation. An incentive to keep up the debate, keep asking the questions everyone forgets, and hopefully discussing those matters with all of you.

I understand your point of view perfectly, so I'm not hopelessly going to try to point out 'mistakes' in them, as there can't be mistakes in such matters. Your way of thinking simply is different. It's something of your character, but not of mine. But that diversity is only nourishing to understand the real problems.

All philosophical debate aside, let's talk about the build, as this is a LEGO forum after all (of course, it can be more than that!). The build is quite simple and sterile, and that is just good for the situation you're sketching. The black/white contrast really works, although it could have been used a bit more symbolically to tell your story (e.g. one of us white, the other black, possibly with the one inside the other, like yin and yang, to symbolize that we have different views with common roots, and maybe a grey chamber, to symbolize how those two can merge through conversation. Just an idea). While keeping it clean, you could still have made it a little bit more interesting to look at. There could be an angle in the back wall for instance, so that the angled chairs (nice touch!) fit better in the room. And there could be some unobtrusive pieces of equipment (a small writing table, for instance), just to give the scene more depth. This might also have been a good opportunity to go for an in-universe style, where you take the picture just like in real life, without any borders showing another background. That could have sucked us a bit more into your world of thoughts.

Anyway, nice build (awesome hat rack!), and thank you once again for sharing your thoughts. I'm really glad that, while having fun with LEGO, SoNE enables us to learn from each other as well, as humans. Good luck breaking your head!

PS: Without trying to start the discussion all over again, I'm very surprised to see you in flesh! Is it only to match my character, or are there deeper thoughts?

Edited October 8, 2014 by BEAVeR

[VK-318]

PS: Without trying to start the discussion all over again, I'm very surprised to see you in flesh! Is it only to match my character, or are there deeper thoughts?

Nope, no symbolism there. I own the head in both flesh and yellow, but I prefer the yellow because the flesh has a chipped mouth - I think you can see it on one of my pictures. I like to use yellow because I've got a far more diverse array of yellow heads, but I used flesh here because the face I could use for you was flesh, and mixed yellow and flesh heads in a build doesn't loot very good to me. The choice of colors from one build to the next is purely an issue of practicality, which perhaps is appropriate given Volker's personality.

To your remarks about the ... blandness of the build, you are quite correct. I should have hunted down enough parts to make another part of the wall, given it more texture, and added some more furniture or other details. I really wish I had made more time available than one afternoon to rework two episode builds, design a third one, and design this freebuild. And, I probably shouldn't have tried to keep so many builds all intact at the same time. Lack of time + lack of parts = lacking build. Oh, well.

[markus1984]

Simple, yet effective. Great story.

Absolut, could sayd it not better .

markus

[MKJoshA]

I'm sorry for the delay in judging. The scores are coming. If this were based on word content along I'd rank you the highest possible. The build is simple, but the dialogue is extremely well thought out and well put, great job!

[VK-318]

I'm sorry for the delay in judging. The scores are coming. If this were based on word content along I'd rank you the highest possible. The build is simple, but the dialogue is extremely well thought out and well put, great job!

Thank you. After my first freebuild waited almost two months, I figured out how overworked the judging system is, and I'm comfortable with waiting as long as is necessary to get a high score for my freebuild.

The high word count was sort of the point of the build. I wanted to say something to explain how troopers like myself and many of the other Imperials are not bloody-minded savages, but people making a difficult choice, as a response to arguments advanced by BEAVeR. And I didn't want to dilute a freebuild or episode build with unrelated commentary. And besides all that, I'd threatened to do this one since my first episode, and I had to do it while BEAVeR's character was still at an appropriate moment in his character progression for it to be plausible. This build was all about the words, which I'm afraid shows in the quality of the build itself. Oh, well. It accomplished its purpose.

[Shadows of Nar Eurbrikka]

Judges have awarded you 2 XP!