Okay, before I go into characters and plot points, I want to talk about the series as a whole. NOP1 had a problem with having too many characters. Now, I didn’t feel this way, but I noticed that it was common in the comments for people to beg for information about other characters and occasionally complain when a POV went on too long. In total, NOP1 had 8 POV characters: Tarva, Meier, Slanek, Sovlin, Kalsim, Isif, Onso, and Glim. NOP2 solved this problem by reducing the number of POV characters to 4: Taylor, Tassi, Meier, and Quana. I honestly think that this was a good decision. My only qualms are that I think it would have been a bit better with 5, not 4, and there’s a distinct lack of alien POVs. At its core, NOP1 (I’m EXCLUDING the miniseries and side stories from this) was given from alien points of view, with only 1 of 8 POVs being from a humans, and that human died early on. NOP2 has a 50/50 split, and one of those POVs (Quana) ended right at the end (and I believe she had the fewest number of chapters on TOP of that). A fifth POV from an alien might have made this feel more in line with NOP1.
Of course, the real question is if this series should even BE like the original? Think about it; to perfectly capture the feel of the original, either the Remnants would have to be the main focus, or the Consortium would have had to fear humanity, both of which would have felt like a copy-paste of NOP1. NOP2 takes place in a different era than NOP1, so why SHOULDN’T it be different. Overall, I’d say that different is good, but perhaps straying a little more towards NOP1 would help make people feel the same way they did with NOP1.
Now for, what I consider, the big problem that this series had. I think the problem was introducing too many plot points and characters. Now, I’m not saying that you can’t make a story with tons of plot points and have it work out, but it’s a very difficult thing to do. In this case, tons of plot points were started, but ended unceremoniously. The Anti-Bissem speciesism? They fight it for a while, and then it sort of fades away after Meier makes his speech, and gets brought up less and less until the story says that the Bissem are generally accepted. The Yotul rivalry with humanity? Never really goes anywhere past the start of the series. Jones offering to work unofficially? Never brought up again. The Ghost Farsul appear more than halfway into the story, continuing the almost forgotten plot point about the starlight incident and tying into he Remnant plot-line. Then they get raided and beaten offscreen. The Consortium’s robot army? Beaten in the first major confrontation.
That’s not saying that EVERY plot-line is bad or unsatisfying: Space Paladin has a love for writing intrigue plots, and it shows. The slow, subtle burn of everyone realizing just how bad the Consortium is was done incredibly well! The idea of the Ghost Farsul tying together the Consortium, Sivkit, Starlight, and Remnant plots was GREAT, it just needed to be fleshed out more. A more substantial backbone to support the weight of so much of the plot. Adam Meier’s plot-line of guiding the SC away from the complacency it’s fallen into was also well done. The SC plot-line was intriguing, and a GREAT example of some of the pitfalls that can occur after you topple a millennia old civilization and then build a new institution. And the Sivkit plot-line was something I doubted would interest me, but ended up being a great addition to the story after all!
In terms of characters, a lot of them were either left un-fleshed out, or dropped without much content. Arjun and Cala were introduced at the same time, but only Cala is still hanging around Taylor by the end, and her role has been mostly reduced to making expositionary comments. Compare them to Carlos and Samantha from NOP1, who had similar roles, and you’ll get what I mean; Sovlin’s guards had distinct personalities and worldviews that played off of Sovlin to provoke his growth. Cala does that at first, but then Taylor accepts her and that interplay kind of stops. Syba also is MIA, after helping Meier with talking to the Shield, she soon vanishes from the story. Hathaway also disappeared. After the terrorist attack, he gives a speech to convince the a Tellarians to stay on Tellus, and then disappears until Taylor’s finale where it’s mentioned he got jailed. Hathaway stopped acting as an antagonist (well, to be fair, he wasn’t the most consistent antagonist before that). Dustin, Nulia, and Haliska were super important to the story at the start, but the Jones comes along and uses them to manipulate Tassi, and then they disappear. We don’t see Nulia and Haliska once (although they are mentioned a few times) after they turn in Tassi, and Dustin appears less and less until he vanishes and is only indirectly involved with the plot. This is neither a satisfying send off, nor a good utilization of these characters’ potential. There could have been a heated confrontation, or one or more of those three could have had a change of heart or apologized to Tassi. But there’s not, which makes Jones’ manipulation feel more like an excuse to get those three out of the story than anything else. Overall, I think that more effort should have been put into the characters that we DID have, rather than adding more and saturating the cast, only to need to prune it later. If cameos are to be included, I think it would be better if they were more like William Kane and Rauln. They appear for one scene, and then bow out, without giving any inclination that they’re going to be sticking around.
Okay, now that the overview is done, let’s talk about the major plot-lines.
The Consortium Conspiracy, although it ended a little too easily for all the buildup, was pretty good! I think it was obvious that something was up, but that’s not the point. The enjoyment I got from the slow reveal of just how bad the Consortium was made for a VERY engaging and satisfying story. I like how the abuses used by the Consortium are similar (if not the same) to the ones voiced by the Bissem and Meier early in the story, making it clear that this is a path the SC could have gone down as well. The fact that they knew everything from the start was good too. However, that realization ALSO makes some of their early actions… a little shakey. Just what their plan is/was is unclear? They don’t really seem to have an end goal. They sort of just become a cybernetic galactic threat at the last moment, but if that was always their goal, why not expand after they realize that the Federation is gone? I mean, sure you can probably hand-wave it away, but it’s kind of hard to figure out what they were really planning. That’s okay for the Federation, who were stuck in the past, but NOP2 posits that the Consortium was trying to embrace and abuse the future too fast. Not thinking things through to that extent doesn’t seem like them.
The synthetic plot-line. Ah! Everyone’s FaVoRiTe topic. Okay, honestly, I think it’s GOOD that this plot-line got so many people talking and discussing it. For writers and artists, getting people to talk and debate is a crowning achievement! For that ALONE, I think this was a good plot-point. But aside from that, I think it was legitimately well thought out and structured. Especially the attention to detail of everyday things a synthetic human wouldn’t experience. I feel like the ramifications of a near synthetic galactic apocalypse needed to be expanded upon, though. Once again, this plot-line ended too soon.
The Remnant plot-line. I feel like this was a missed opportunity. With the Ghost, there was a potential for the Remnants to become an actual threat, manipulating the SC, to try to tear it apart. But their manipulation was cut WAY short, their fleets get swept aside, they and the Ghosts are beaten offscreen, we don’t really get a look into their society, the way we did with Aafa or the rest of the Federation, and the members of the Remnants don’t do much to differentiate themselves from one another (aside from the Yulpa and Malti). The Ghosts are also underused. They mostly seem to exist to turn the conflict back onto the Consortium and to give exposition. Despite their threatening introduction, we don’t see anything of them, not get to understand much of who they are and how they’re coping with the state of the galaxy.
The SC plot. Actually decently done and fleshed out. It introduces the problem, there’re twists and turns, strife, and moments where people have to put aside their differences to come together. My biggest gripe is that it gets mostly completed with Meier’s speech in the middle of the plot. It would have been better if it had added nuance (because no one wants just more of humanity bending the knee and predator suspicion) and been stretched out to conclude alongside the battles against the Consortium and Remnants. While the SC struggles to get along, we’re loosing the war, and us reconciling our differences coincides with us winning. Cliche, I know, but cliches exist for a reason; they work.
Okay, now for characters.
Taylor and Gress were the two I was most skeptical of. I was worried that Taylor had been through too much and would need more time to heal before entering into a relationship, and I felt that Gress’ treatment of Taylor was off putting. I thought that even if the story SAID they made it work, it would be unconvincing. I am happy to say that I was proven dead wrong! Taylor’s recovery and growth felt surprisingly natural for its rapid pace, and having Gress go through his own mental crisis which forces Taylor to grow up more and become GRESS’ rock was a FANTASTIC narrative decision that actually got me really invested.
Tassi. I liked getting the Bissem point of view as a group of (mostly) untainted aliens at the start, and wish that it was more heavily relied upon. However, Tassi’s own mental health breakdown overshadows most of the potential for that. I enjoyed her POV, but eventually found her perspective on things became a bit predictable. The loss of the First Contact Team from her POV also hurt this, as she lost 3 people to bounce her point of view off of. Loxsel wasn’t exactly a person she could bounce her thoughts off of, and Meier wasn’t always there for her to bounce her thoughts off of. Overall, a good character, but needed aliens to be around her. Most of the most interesting NOP1 characters had humans around them all the time (Tarva, Slanek, and Sovlin).
Adam Meier. Honestly, this was a REALLY good concept for a character, and this series knocked it out of the park with this one! A combination of discovering one’s own identity, a man out of time, and people only seeing you by your legacy. A very interesting set of traits and character plot-lines, and I’m satisfied with how they came out. I don’t really care what people argue about in the comments, if Meier is actually a person or not; the story says and treats him like he’s real and sapient, so I’ll go off of the story. Not like we have ACTUAL synthetics of this type IRL we can point to as reference for inaccuracies. Also, the best part, HE CHANGED HIS NAME SO I CAN STOP GETTING WHIPLASH READING THESE STORIES AND THE COMMENTS!!! (Joking)
Quana. I’m going to be honest, I don’t really like Quana’s POV, and it’s not just because her decent makes me uncomfortable. As I said early on, NOP1 was primarily told through the eyes of aliens. So, for one of our TWO alien POVs to be so heavily overshadowed by baseless hatred… I feel it just strips the narrative of even more of its already sparse use of alien viewpoints, when it’s already not using its full potential.
Cherise. Not a POV character, but I think she deserves this mention. I liked seeing her go from a downward spiral to regaining her lost innocence. I wish we got to see more of that recovery I feel like most of her tine was spent before her descent.
Conclusion: I won’t say that NOP2 is perfect, nor that it doesn’t have major problems, but overall I still think it was good and worth reading. The characters, ideas, and plot were good, they just ended too soon, and needed a bit more time to cook. I’m thankful for what we got.
