Accusing others? Who exactly? I clearly said the thread was cancer/useless, I would never call an individual or group of people that (yet).
You say I am "out of arguments"? I have written mountains of text ffs and will continue that so how on earth did you come up with that bizarre conclusion!? ......I even specifically said I will be back later (aka I need to sleep/relax). Obviously not something I would say if I was "out of arguments"?
Maybe go back to facepalming yourself, seems more productive.
Maybe try this. If someone offends you, don't be toxic. Even if you feel that they are toxic try to be nice. Otherwise all you are doing is stroking your ego, as it won't convince anyone.
And with that settled, back to what I promised. I didn't know beamdog made a promise to flesh out Mizhena very early on, seems they took the criticism on board fast. I Found this in an article on Niche Gamer: "One interesting thing to note concerning Siege of Dragonspear and its story is that Beamdog stated that the transgendered character Mizhena was to receive an expanding of her background which would help her better fit into the game world’s lore, yet no such change has been made as of yet. Scott’s departure may make that promised change even less likely."
I am not sure how much Mizhena is planned to be fleshed (I won't hold my breath though my guess is beamdog is intent on keeping all trans "minor"). Regardless for all of Amber's flaws I think fleshing/explaining a T-girl in lore would be something suitable for her style/talent. Too bad her agenda cared more about female "empowerment" than a good trans character.
Speaking of which the good news with Amber gone is hopefully Mizhena won't be yet another "empowered" woman. I think the opposite (a low-self esteem, weak, anxious, Aerie-like-fragile woman) would be a refreshing change in SoD imo.
Pretty surprised no one has even mentioned the shamaness troll as some consider trolls asexual depending what rules edition your playing or some consider trolls to be ruled by 1 superior female.
Can't remember what edition changes the trolls. The general rule applies. Kill it, kill it with fire!
"But the first part of SOD ( the one in those catacoms to defeat the last of Sarevok lietenants) happens just after Sarevok defeat. Then some time passes, quite some time actually, before the refugees and CA become a really problem for CHARNAME.
So time-wise makes sense, imo"
You are right about the first dungeon timing. But Imoen/Charname have a conversation that specifically says (paraphrased) in the palace. "I am so tired I could sleep for a week" Indicating that it is immediately afterwards.
And all that about your stuff being in a chest? And your money being lost? What, you left the dungeon some time ago, didn't ask about your money (to live on) for a few weeks/months or sort out your belongings? Does that indicate a length of time between events in the first dungeon and the actual start of SOD?
You walk outside the palace and BG is full to bursting with refugees which you have had no sign or indication of existing before.
When you skip from the catacoms to the ducal palace, the narrative voice says that a tenday has passed.
@Wesboi: I remember the troll shaman now, though I don't know its relevance. It plays a small part in SoD; all I remember is a short dialogue and then killing it. Just like that troll shaman in Spellhold. And the numerous troll shamans in Icewind Dale 2.
Through restartitis I've now started my third run through SoD without ever completing it. I still haven't continued much further after breaking the siege of Boryskyr bridge (sp?). Here's my short review of these re-runs of the early part of SoD:
The starting dungeon is by far the best start of any IE game. It's the perfect length, it has amazing ambience and just enough sidequests to now take to long or need too much fed-ex running to and fro. Even though I don't particularly like the way there's so few NPC's from BG1 in SoD, I like the way my NPC's start complaining about staying and indicating they will leave soon. I nice touch, under the circumstances.
The BG part is fun enough the first time but skippable the second and third. The sidequests adds flavour but very little EXP, dunno why. I think the sidequests are unbecoming for the CHARNAME, to the point of killing the imersion a bit. I mean, would the hero of BG really carrying the gold for some local vendor to her investor for a measly gain of 50 gold? Or run back and forth to request assistance from the Fist HQ and relaying the info to the guys on the street? I don't like those quests that much, so I like that I can just skip them if I want to. I haven't though, the three times I've played, I always do them anywyas, heh..
The next couple of areas are really good, I think. The first area has one of the best dungeons ever, the lich dungeon. It's reasonable long, with a decent story and good level of enemies. And some decent loot to boot. I really like this dungeon. The inablitity to kill the lich's phylactery other than through the firepit was a nice touch. The first time I faced off against him, I had to use the special gem's charges and he still came back once more before I found out how to beat him. In my newest run, Baeloth with breach took him out twice so I didn't even need the gem. So, even on the third run this area was a decent challenge and a good experience.
I love the "ambush" in-between areas. They are really interresting and adds a lot of flavour. After a couple of runs though, you know the will come so they're not really ambushes anymore.
Overall I think they made the areas almost to good looking. The drawing is exquisite and make BG1 look very unpolished in comparison. Haven't played BG2 in a year or so now, so I wonder how the feeling will be when I take the charname from SoD into SoA.
I think (hope may be a better word) this run will be the one I take all the way. Really looking forward to see what will happen past the bridge, hehe.. Fingers crossed! I hope restartitits doesn't strike again in a while!
Edit: Finally got the spoiler to work. Odd that it didn't yesterday.
Interesting, the starting SoD dungeon for me was just tedious. The Irenicus dungeon felt slightly more rewarding (but still no less annoying).
I actually have a friend completely new to the BG world, bought it brand new in shop, then quit several minutes into the game before even finishing Irenicus dungeon he was just so annoyed lol. I am sure he would have felt the same if he was doing SoD dungeon instead it has the same tedious pointless feel to it. I wouldn't another dungeon-be-gone mod to remove the starting dungeon.
However after the starting dungeon is were the game kicks off and becomes VERY immersive. It truly starts feeling "canon-like" as if you have just become the hero of Baldurs gate. I loved the way SoD upped Skie's character also it was very creative.
Why is the Irenicus dungeon more rewarding for you? I'm curious. I don't particulary hate Irenicus Chateau, but it's a tad bit too long for my taste and the whole "steampunk" thing going on there is a pretty major turn-off for me personally. The thing I dislike with it too much is that no matter which character your bring, the dungeon plays out the same. So when I have created a new char, I want to get out there adventuring so that this unique character's traits can be put too good use, but in the dungeon it's just a few enemies and a couple of annoying running back and forth-quests (ctrl-J is king here).
True, you do get that feeling, that's why I feel some of the side quests are a bit too lowly. I also like how they made it so that some ppl start to see the taint in you and fear you more than they love you. The heckling noble in the streets that you can choose to adress or not is one such great scene. I've understood this may have effects in the ending, but I've tried to refrain from reading any spoilers so far so don't know for sure.
Hehe, yeah every scene with Skie in it just cracks me up, they are hilarious. She's such a snotty lil'brat and i love to hate her. Really well made that, really well made.
I actually liked Irenicus's dungeon... it wasn't that long.
Trying to think back to when I first played BG2.
I remember thinking/worrying that BG2 was going to be completely different from BG, that everything I loved about BG was lost. That sense of loss, although it's for different reasons, (mainly worrying that the sequel was going to disappoint as so many sequels do), adds to the atmosphere.
I hated it, but I think people forget that you are meant to hate it, so it works very well on that level. The sense of urgency to get out is created very well, you are running rather than exploring somewhere you chose to explore.
It's a clever bit of game design for those who progressed from BG. It completely throws you off if you progressed from BG, from powerful to powerless, from a setting/game you were comfortable in, knew very well, to something very different (though that doesn't excuse the "steam punk").
For new starters, it introduces combat ect. efficiently and quickly I would have thought and provides a hell of an incentive to keep going.
But that does mean many playthroughs later it's impossible for it to work in those ways so it's just a bit miserable/boring. But I would never skip it, it's a part of the story.
I would have actually paid a bit more for a slightly longer endgame sequence after Avernus. Maybe it was just me, but the darker circumstances that was mentioned in the BG2 intro was all over a bit too quickly for me.
Well, I'm a native Russian speaker too, so I don't agree with your comment.
More importantly, now when you're a part of this community, please, read the Site rules and 1) be respectful to others 2) try to stay constructive in your comments 3) don't use profanity when posting.
I have read some various reviews about this game. Is it a fun play or is it a let down? Next, I read that some writer is a "SJW" and there is some liberal notions that were put into the game, such as, gay and/or transgender characters? If that is true, is it annoyingly obvious or easily dismissed and not a hinder to enjoyment?
It is fun to play. The graphics look great.
Any liberal notions included in this game are not any more distracting the motivations and opinions presented by other NPCs.
Many of them are 'on a mission' to set certain social injustices right in the name of their god.
Even I play a Paladin or a good Cleric once in a while.
I think when the creator of the entire Forgotten Realms setting gives Mizhena his explicit blessing, the first enchanted item you find in the original Baldur's Gate changes your gender, Edwina happened, and Elminster chose to live as a woman for a while because he wanted to know what it was like, Mizhena fits right in with the setting.
If anything, it is the people complaining about her who insert "liberal notions" and impose modern political ideology on a setting where transgender-like phenomena happen all the time. You know, kind of like the people who talk about "censorship" and "political correctness" are always the sort of sensitive snowflakes who try to shut down even the mildest criticism of their behavior. "Makes u think", as the saying goes...
Anyway, I personally really liked SoD. It didn't really feel like a seamless inclusion into the original series, but it couldn't--the devs are different, the writers are different, the voice actors are older and their voices have changed, and if you make a 1998-style game in 2016, game design ideas from 2016 will influence you whether you want them to or not. On the other hand, the battles are excellent, the final boss had me pumped in a way Jon "Dies in Two Turns" Irenicus or Amelyssan "I Should Have Been Replaced with Bhaal" never did (Sarevok is still the best final boss though), Caelar Argent is the best antagonist the series has ever had and I really did sympathize with her, the setpieces are gorgeous, and the new UI skin is a tremendous improvement over the BG1 and 2 UIs with its clean design and large, readable fonts.
Hephernaan kind of counterbalances Caelar Argent though, as while Caelar is a complicated and interesting character for a '90s style AD&D RPG, Hephernaan is transparently a cackling amoral psychopath from his first scene and the revelation of his Evil Plan™ comes as no surprise at all.
I found that the increased EXP cap made the beginning of BG2 ridiculously easy, though. The opening dungeon and early quests need a major difficulty increase to be even remotely challenging coming out of SoD. Also I want Caelar's sword in BG2 so bad. It's got blue flames. Blue. Flames.
@Woolie_Wool You are assuming transgenderism is the only liberal notion forced into SoD. I found the blatant feminist agenda to be the worst of the Liberal notions. A trans minor npc is trivial and can be ignored, while altering known and loved female persona's to be more "empowered" really stood out like a sore thumb for me.
The only character I agree with a strong liberal notion being forced upon is Viconia. Empowerment (and/or outright misandry) makes her character uniquely appealing and fits the lore of matriarchal dark elves.
Back on topic do people here find the evil/jerk route to be better or worse than the goody-two-shoes route? I am about to have an "evil" play through of SoD, I am curious to see how it compares to my "good" play through.
Hahaha, "feminist agenda"? The Forgotten Realms barely even have a patriarchy to fight against, but people like you assume it must, and that furthermore wanting to get rid of patriarchy is somehow wrong. No. Who's been so "altered"? Jaheira? She's never been particularly "feminine" according to the expectations of modern society--in her relationship with Khalid in BG1, she is clearly the one with the power. If anything, these "liberal" ideas actually are a fulfillment of what Ed Greenwood and the original BG writers originally intended but didn't always accomplish due to their inherent biases as a bunch of middle-class white male geeks (this is that "male privilege" everyone talks about).
(I suppose it could be Dynaheir but I wouldn't know could never stand her gimmick for more than five minutes. If thou canst not even use thou correctly, thou shouldst not use it at all.)
Also IMO being evil in almost all RPGs is completely unsatisfying, BG included. It's less about doing evil than doing good (because that's what almost all BG quests require) and occasionally killing a few peasants to replenish your evil meter. Lawful Good is not a lonely straight and narrow road full of temptations but the path of least resistance. To try to do evil PCs some justice, Obsidian had to write an entirely new game specifically designed to accommodate evil PCs (Tyranny).
I think when the creator of the entire Forgotten Realms setting gives Mizhena his explicit blessing, the first enchanted item you find in the original Baldur's Gate changes your gender, Edwina happened, and Elminster chose to live as a woman for a while because he wanted to know what it was like, Mizhena fits right in with the setting
It's less the fact that Mizhena exists, and more how horribly hamfisted the dialogue is. First things first, to even GET the dialogue in question, you have to respond "your name is weird." Really? Forget that telling someone their name is weird is flat out rude, this is in game where EVERYONE has a weird name. Mizhena doesn't stand out at out all as all that weird. To follow that up, Mizhena goes in to the fact that she's transgendered to a complete stranger and goes off on her life story about how everyone realized she was a woman. The thing reads like a bad tumblr blog. She doesn't go in to why she became a cleric of tempus, or why she joined the flaming fist, but we got a wonderful exposition on deciding one is actually a woman.
The thing is Mizhena is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as the writing quality taking a noticeable dive. There are issues like Rasaad's romance ending with entirely different tones that having nothing to do with what the player actually responded or how much Caelar wants to parley and negotiate but any attempt to work toward that end by the player just ends with everyone changing their mind and backing out because the game HAS to play out a certain way.
I dunno, I found the dialogue a bit stilted but I don't see how that's such a big problem in a game where there is a character who tries to speak Early Modern English but can't even get the cases of "thou" correct, "THIS BIRD IS FOWL!", Imoen's BG1 idiot dialect, etc. It's not like we're talking about a Planescape: Torment or even a BG2 expansion here. A lot of BG1's writing is really, really bad, worse than anything in SoD.
A lot of BG1's writing is really, really bad, worse than anything in SoD.
It really isn't. About the only thing in BG1 that is particularly inexcusable is the letter in Gorion's room that everyone acts like you read whether you found it or not. NPC's being quirky and throw away lines are part of the charm of the whole simulated table top feel the game has. Xzar making a bunch of pop culture references doesn't feel too out of place, because that's the type of crap you get with some people playing D&D.
SoD on the other hand has some great individual scenario design, but the fact the overarching story just drags you along really detracts from the whole experience. From the second the bridge gets blown up and Caelar monologues about her plan, you know at some point that hell gate's going to open and you're going to fight a demon. Sarevok's plot works because while he has bounty hunters dogging you all across the realms, the player is proactive in ending his schemes. Irenicus' plot works because while he has set a trap for you, the player has to choose to walk in to it. Caelar's plot doesn't because the second you say "hey, if you stop pillaging the countryside for supplies, I'll give myself up", everyone turns an immediate 180 and refuses your surrender, decides they're not going to turn you over, or says nevermind, they'll just kill you. The crowning achievement is the final half hour of your fall from grace, which is ridiculously frustrating as a matter of the player having no control over their reaction to events beyond some throw away lines.
Hahaha, "feminist agenda"? The Forgotten Realms barely even have a patriarchy to fight against, but people like you assume it must, and that furthermore wanting to get rid of patriarchy is somehow wrong. No.
Viconia disagrees, she clearly states the aboveworld is male dominated. Regardless you seem a little confused about "people like me". I have no problem with patriarchal/matriarchal society. However I do have a problem with real-world hamfisted political shoehorning.
Who's been so "altered"? Jaheira? She's never been particularly "feminine" according to the expectations of modern society
Amber Scott has already answered your first who has been altered question. As for the second part, yet again I have no problem with a female that isn't naturally feminine (heck canon gave us Sharteel). However I will scrutinized a character that gets altered purely for ideological purposes.
SIf anything, these "liberal" ideas actually are a fulfillment of what Ed Greenwood and the original BG writers originally intended but didn't always accomplish due to their inherent biases as a bunch of middle-class white male geeks (this is that "male privilege" everyone talks about).
FTR "everyone" definitely doesn't talk about (or believe in) leftist catch phrases such as "male privilege" Also do you have any proof of your bold claim that the original BG writers were biased due to their white skin, or is this just more racist caucasian-hating progressive think tanking?
No, because I have no interest in debating Feminism 101 with people. If you don't believe in male privilege at this point, we are enemies and have nothing more to discuss.
Comments
"One interesting thing to note concerning Siege of Dragonspear and its story is that Beamdog stated that the transgendered character Mizhena was to receive an expanding of her background which would help her better fit into the game world’s lore, yet no such change has been made as of yet. Scott’s departure may make that promised change even less likely."
I am not sure how much Mizhena is planned to be fleshed (I won't hold my breath though my guess is beamdog is intent on keeping all trans "minor"). Regardless for all of Amber's flaws I think fleshing/explaining a T-girl in lore would be something suitable for her style/talent. Too bad her agenda cared more about female "empowerment" than a good trans character.
Speaking of which the good news with Amber gone is hopefully Mizhena won't be yet another "empowered" woman. I think the opposite (a low-self esteem, weak, anxious, Aerie-like-fragile woman) would be a refreshing change in SoD imo.
We don't want to close the thread as the OP asks a legitimate question: "Is SoD a fun play or is it a let down?"
You all have already said all that has been possible to say about Mizhena. SoD is much more than that one NPC.
Can't remember what edition changes the trolls. The general rule applies. Kill it, kill it with fire!
When you skip from the catacoms to the ducal palace, the narrative voice says that a tenday has passed.
The starting dungeon is by far the best start of any IE game. It's the perfect length, it has amazing ambience and just enough sidequests to now take to long or need too much fed-ex running to and fro. Even though I don't particularly like the way there's so few NPC's from BG1 in SoD, I like the way my NPC's start complaining about staying and indicating they will leave soon. I nice touch, under the circumstances.
The BG part is fun enough the first time but skippable the second and third. The sidequests adds flavour but very little EXP, dunno why. I think the sidequests are unbecoming for the CHARNAME, to the point of killing the imersion a bit. I mean, would the hero of BG really carrying the gold for some local vendor to her investor for a measly gain of 50 gold? Or run back and forth to request assistance from the Fist HQ and relaying the info to the guys on the street? I don't like those quests that much, so I like that I can just skip them if I want to. I haven't though, the three times I've played, I always do them anywyas, heh..
The next couple of areas are really good, I think. The first area has one of the best dungeons ever, the lich dungeon. It's reasonable long, with a decent story and good level of enemies. And some decent loot to boot. I really like this dungeon. The inablitity to kill the lich's phylactery other than through the firepit was a nice touch. The first time I faced off against him, I had to use the special gem's charges and he still came back once more before I found out how to beat him. In my newest run, Baeloth with breach took him out twice so I didn't even need the gem. So, even on the third run this area was a decent challenge and a good experience.
I love the "ambush" in-between areas. They are really interresting and adds a lot of flavour. After a couple of runs though, you know the will come so they're not really ambushes anymore.
Overall I think they made the areas almost to good looking. The drawing is exquisite and make BG1 look very unpolished in comparison. Haven't played BG2 in a year or so now, so I wonder how the feeling will be when I take the charname from SoD into SoA.
I think (hope may be a better word) this run will be the one I take all the way. Really looking forward to see what will happen past the bridge, hehe.. Fingers crossed! I hope restartitits doesn't strike again in a while!
Edit: Finally got the spoiler to work. Odd that it didn't yesterday.
I actually have a friend completely new to the BG world, bought it brand new in shop, then quit several minutes into the game before even finishing Irenicus dungeon he was just so annoyed lol. I am sure he would have felt the same if he was doing SoD dungeon instead it has the same tedious pointless feel to it. I wouldn't another dungeon-be-gone mod to remove the starting dungeon.
However after the starting dungeon is were the game kicks off and becomes VERY immersive. It truly starts feeling "canon-like" as if you have just become the hero of Baldurs gate. I loved the way SoD upped Skie's character also it was very creative.
True, you do get that feeling, that's why I feel some of the side quests are a bit too lowly. I also like how they made it so that some ppl start to see the taint in you and fear you more than they love you. The heckling noble in the streets that you can choose to adress or not is one such great scene. I've understood this may have effects in the ending, but I've tried to refrain from reading any spoilers so far so don't know for sure.
Hehe, yeah every scene with Skie in it just cracks me up, they are hilarious. She's such a snotty lil'brat and i love to hate her. Really well made that, really well made.
I remember thinking/worrying that BG2 was going to be completely different from BG, that everything I loved about BG was lost. That sense of loss, although it's for different reasons, (mainly worrying that the sequel was going to disappoint as so many sequels do), adds to the atmosphere.
I hated it, but I think people forget that you are meant to hate it, so it works very well on that level. The sense of urgency to get out is created very well, you are running rather than exploring somewhere you chose to explore.
It's a clever bit of game design for those who progressed from BG. It completely throws you off if you progressed from BG, from powerful to powerless, from a setting/game you were comfortable in, knew very well, to something very different (though that doesn't excuse the "steam punk").
For new starters, it introduces combat ect. efficiently and quickly I would have thought and provides a hell of an incentive to keep going.
But that does mean many playthroughs later it's impossible for it to work in those ways so it's just a bit miserable/boring.
But I would never skip it, it's a part of the story.
//Native Russian speaker
Well, I'm a native Russian speaker too, so I don't agree with your comment.
More importantly, now when you're a part of this community, please, read the Site rules and 1) be respectful to others 2) try to stay constructive in your comments 3) don't use profanity when posting.
Any liberal notions included in this game are not any more distracting the motivations and opinions presented by other NPCs.
Many of them are 'on a mission' to set certain social injustices right in the name of their god.
Even I play a Paladin or a good Cleric once in a while.
If anything, it is the people complaining about her who insert "liberal notions" and impose modern political ideology on a setting where transgender-like phenomena happen all the time. You know, kind of like the people who talk about "censorship" and "political correctness" are always the sort of sensitive snowflakes who try to shut down even the mildest criticism of their behavior. "Makes u think", as the saying goes...
Anyway, I personally really liked SoD. It didn't really feel like a seamless inclusion into the original series, but it couldn't--the devs are different, the writers are different, the voice actors are older and their voices have changed, and if you make a 1998-style game in 2016, game design ideas from 2016 will influence you whether you want them to or not. On the other hand, the battles are excellent, the final boss had me pumped in a way Jon "Dies in Two Turns" Irenicus or Amelyssan "I Should Have Been Replaced with Bhaal" never did (Sarevok is still the best final boss though), Caelar Argent is the best antagonist the series has ever had and I really did sympathize with her, the setpieces are gorgeous, and the new UI skin is a tremendous improvement over the BG1 and 2 UIs with its clean design and large, readable fonts.
Hephernaan kind of counterbalances Caelar Argent though, as while Caelar is a complicated and interesting character for a '90s style AD&D RPG, Hephernaan is transparently a cackling amoral psychopath from his first scene and the revelation of his Evil Plan™ comes as no surprise at all.
I found that the increased EXP cap made the beginning of BG2 ridiculously easy, though. The opening dungeon and early quests need a major difficulty increase to be even remotely challenging coming out of SoD. Also I want Caelar's sword in BG2 so bad. It's got blue flames. Blue. Flames.
The only character I agree with a strong liberal notion being forced upon is Viconia. Empowerment (and/or outright misandry) makes her character uniquely appealing and fits the lore of matriarchal dark elves.
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Back on topic do people here find the evil/jerk route to be better or worse than the goody-two-shoes route? I am about to have an "evil" play through of SoD, I am curious to see how it compares to my "good" play through.
(I suppose it could be Dynaheir but I wouldn't know could never stand her gimmick for more than five minutes. If thou canst not even use thou correctly, thou shouldst not use it at all.)
Also IMO being evil in almost all RPGs is completely unsatisfying, BG included. It's less about doing evil than doing good (because that's what almost all BG quests require) and occasionally killing a few peasants to replenish your evil meter. Lawful Good is not a lonely straight and narrow road full of temptations but the path of least resistance. To try to do evil PCs some justice, Obsidian had to write an entirely new game specifically designed to accommodate evil PCs (Tyranny).
The thing is Mizhena is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as the writing quality taking a noticeable dive. There are issues like Rasaad's romance ending with entirely different tones that having nothing to do with what the player actually responded or how much Caelar wants to parley and negotiate but any attempt to work toward that end by the player just ends with everyone changing their mind and backing out because the game HAS to play out a certain way.
SoD on the other hand has some great individual scenario design, but the fact the overarching story just drags you along really detracts from the whole experience. From the second the bridge gets blown up and Caelar monologues about her plan, you know at some point that hell gate's going to open and you're going to fight a demon. Sarevok's plot works because while he has bounty hunters dogging you all across the realms, the player is proactive in ending his schemes. Irenicus' plot works because while he has set a trap for you, the player has to choose to walk in to it. Caelar's plot doesn't because the second you say "hey, if you stop pillaging the countryside for supplies, I'll give myself up", everyone turns an immediate 180 and refuses your surrender, decides they're not going to turn you over, or says nevermind, they'll just kill you. The crowning achievement is the final half hour of your fall from grace, which is ridiculously frustrating as a matter of the player having no control over their reaction to events beyond some throw away lines.
Also do you have any proof of your bold claim that the original BG writers were biased due to their white skin, or is this just more racist caucasian-hating progressive think tanking?