Blackgaard or Novacom?

[Conniepaw]

i liked them both, what did you think?

[Danielle Abigail Maxwell]

I like Blackguard better. It seems funner. Novacom, well, that is my sister's favorite, but she likes the Darkness Before Dawn album, so she may like both. I am just the one with all the albums. She doesn't buy them. I get them so that I can hear them, and she lsitenes to them form time to time. I just love the Blackguard saga! SO much fun!

[Rachael Blackgaard]

I don't think you can choose, not with them being so intertwined in each other. I mean, EVERYONE knows that Mr. Charles stole that technology from Regis.

[Jonathan]

*is pleased with the results so far*

[Shad Lexer]

It's really hard to decide... I can't vote...

[Thursday Next]

I think they're different so I can't really say I like one over the other. Blackgaard has always seemed to me a bit cartoonish. But it was the first time Odyssey had done something like this. Novacom had a subtler nastyness to it.

[COWBOY OF TEXAS]

Darkness Before Dawn all the way!



-Cowboy

[Kris Doyle]

I don't think you can choose, not with them being so intertwined in each other. I mean, EVERYONE knows that Mr. Charles stole that technology from Regis.

And from whom did Regis steal it?

[Jennifer Doyle]

I totally agree with Dawning . . . the Blackgaards are small fry compared to the world-wide domination plans of Novacom. Brainwashing? Come on now, Regis was just obsessed with clay under Whit's End. . . he can't really compare to the master minds @ Novacom.

I loved how the Novacom saga was spread over more parts of the world, into Alaska and such. Invovled a lot more people as well! With The Battle and The Nemesis, we see Richard M, Reggy B, Lucy, Connie, Whit, Eugene . . . and that's about it isn't it? Oh, we see Tom too. But Novacom was much larger scale and had more characters within it.

[Kris Doyle]

I totally agree with Dawning . . . the Blackgaards are small fry compared to the world-wide domination plans of Novacom. Brainwashing? Come on now, Regis was just obsessed with clay under Whit's End. . . he can't really compare to the master minds @ Novacom.

I loved how the Novacom saga was spread over more parts of the world, into Alaska and such. Invovled a lot more people as well! With The Battle and The Nemesis, we see Richard M, Reggy B, Lucy, Connie, Whit, Eugene . . . and that's about it isn't it? Oh, we see Tom too. But Novacom was much larger scale and had more characters within it.

But Darkness Before Dawn was part of the Blackgaard saga, as well, and it included Philip Glossman, Professor Bovril, Bart and Rodney Rathbone, Jellyfish, and the Bones of Rath. Besides, Regis was obsessed with that mineral in the Whit's End tunnel because he wanted to produce TA-418 and make the ruku virus unstoppable. That could have involved the whole world if he would have succeeded, just as Novacom's plans would have had global effects.

[Joni_Slade]

The Blackgaards are small fry compared to the world-wide domination plans of Novacom.

You may be right, there . . . which may just be why Novacom didn't work for me. I've tried to like it, but alas, I still don't. Once I managed to suspend my disbelief in the entire premise, I still didn't care what was happening.

The problem for me can be summed up in two main points:

1) It wasn't personal enough.

and

2) The stakes were unclear.

I don't even think throwing Richard into the mix could make me like Novacom. And that's saying something. I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the Novacom episodes--a lot of people like them, so they must have gotten something very right. They just didn't contain the things that matter to me in a story.

The Blackgaard saga, on the other hand, is genius.

EDIT: Oh! I forgot to mention my least favorite thing about Novacom, and the reason I pretend it didn't happen. Because it cheapens the very significant end of "The Battle" and turns Whit into a liar. I was horrified to hear that Applesauce was still around. I suppose they might have been trying to tie the one saga to the other (?), but it ended up diminishing the previous (and stronger) of the two.

[Rachael Blackgaard]

For the last time, people-- the two sagas are connected! You can't choose one or the other.

[Jonathan]

I totally agree with Dawning . . . the Blackgaards are small fry compared to the world-wide domination plans of Novacom. Brainwashing? Come on now, Regis was just obsessed with clay under Whit's End. . . he can't really compare to the master minds @ Novacom.

I loved how the Novacom saga was spread over more parts of the world, into Alaska and such. Invovled a lot more people as well! With The Battle and The Nemesis, we see Richard M, Reggy B, Lucy, Connie, Whit, Eugene . . . and that's about it isn't it? Oh, we see Tom too. But Novacom was much larger scale and had more characters within it.

But Darkness Before Dawn was part of the Blackgaard saga, as well, and it included Philip Glossman, Professor Bovril, Bart and Rodney Rathbone, Jellyfish, and the Bones of Rath. Besides, Regis was obsessed with that mineral in the Whit's End tunnel because he wanted to produce TA-418 and make the ruku virus unstoppable. That could have involved the whole world if he would have succeeded, just as Novacom's plans would have had global effects.

I was going to say something like that, but was lazy. Point is, I agree

EDIT: Oh! I forgot to mention my least favorite thing about Novacom, and the reason I pretend it didn't happen. Because it cheapens the very significant end of "The Battle" and turns Whit into a liar. I was horrified to hear that Applesauce was still around. I suppose they might have been trying to tie the one saga to the other (?), but it ended up diminishing the previous (and stronger) of the two.

I've been waiting for years for someone to make that complaint! It's something I've tossed around in my brain for a long time, and was one of the things about Exit that bothered me to no end (the other being the horribly corny dialogue between Mitch and Connie, and how she acted when he rescued her). Applesauce was destroyed; we even hear characters in episodes long after the Battle convey that fact. Imo, it shouldn't have made an appearence in Exit.

[MDB17]

Blackgaard

[Thursday Next]

The Blackgaards are small fry compared to the world-wide domination plans of Novacom.

Oh! I forgot to mention my least favorite thing about Novacom, and the reason I pretend it didn't happen. Because it cheapens the very significant end of "The Battle" and turns Whit into a liar. I was horrified to hear that Applesauce was still around. I suppose they might have been trying to tie the one saga to the other (?), but it ended up diminishing the previous (and stronger) of the two.

I don't think it does turn whit into a liar. 1) the name of the program is Applesauce and Whit destroys the program. This program was connected to the shop because when Connie opens the program things go crazy. In the Novacom saga Applesauce is a command/password and is only connected to the Imagination Station. So yes Whit did destroy the program, but he may have created an over ride program that had Applesause as the command prompt because that's something no one would have thought of as a passward or command.

[AIO Psyche]

*is pleased with the results so far*

Johnny, don't even get me going.



Since we ALL know how I feel about this topic, I shall not say anything. However, for the newer members, I shall state that I prefer the Novacom saga MUCH more than the Blackgaard saga.

[Joni_Slade]

Imo, it shouldn't have made an appearence in Exit.

Agreed! I'm glad I'm not the only one bothered by it.

In the Novacom saga Applesauce is a command/password and is only connected to the Imagination Station.

That very well may be the case . . . I'd be happy if it was. It didn't sound that way to me; but then, I was so annoyed that I never re-listened to the episode. Why would Whit use that as a password? I think it would be too risky--if Blackgaard knew about Applesauce, how many others might have? Using it as a password doesn't make any sense. And because whatever-program-he-used-in-Exit acted like Applesauce, I figured he'd just disconnected it from the rest of the shop. It sounded very much to me as if he'd had a backup of Applesauce all along. But I'll have to listen again now.

I hope we get a new saga someday so we can stop arguing about which of these two was better.

[underdogfan710]

Brainwashing? Come on now, Regis was just obsessed with clay under Whit's End. . . he can't really compare to the master minds @ Novacom.

Uh-oh.... *waits for Rachel to chew out PD*

[Sonuna]

I do believe that, considering he was presumably planning on using said "clay" to activate an extremely dangerous viral compound...
No wait, Rukuta only had the ability to, um, destroy life as we know it. never mind.

Blackgaard was the original megaplot in AIO; I personally swing either way. Novacom's scifi elements seemed to offput some, but they were at least enjoyable to me... Beyond that, I'm probably among the... 10 people here who kind of liked Mitch's character... :P

... Regardless, it is very confusing having Plan B and Moving Targets playing into one's right and left ears, respectively.

[Bella Swan]

I like the Blackguard saga better because I have never heard the novacom saga before(It is because I am new to Odyssey and the toiwn here.)