The contraction thing is one of those many quirks to understand you must understand their roots. The clans are also full of symbolisms which make these quirks even stranger without understanding allot of the in-depth BattleTech fluff. The people of the clans are built from the people of the Star League Defense Force who were loyal to General Aleksander Kerensky. And they respect and honor the Star League with great reverence and it was who they were and what they came from. The common language of the Star League was known as “Star League Standard English”. Unfortunately I do not remember the source, but I will try to remember how the story goes with contractions; An InnerSphere bondsman was asking his bondholder why everyone cringed and glared at him with looks of disgusts when he would talk, and his bondholder explained to him that it was his use of contractions that was causing these responses. He went on to explain that in the clans they greatly revere the Star League and everything about it, including the language (Star League Standard English). And that they look upon contractions as “butchering up the language as the houses did to the remnants of the Star League and Inner Sphere”.
So it is a respect to their heritage at the same time a representation of how they detest the way the house lords went to war destroying the Inner Sphere. It is best to think of it like this: In clan society it is not so much as that you can not say contractions as you should not say them, it is similar to the Christion taboo of “taking the lords name in vain”, while forbidden it still slips out now and then during times of distress.
Now at the time of the Refusal War there were many buzzwords that could easily resemble contractions but these words were created to convey the most meaning with little effort, which can be very effective in times of battle. Plus there is the fact that society always strays from its original values and goals, and clan society was about 250 years old at the time of the refusal war.
So is it a goof? Honestly I lean towards Activision making a goof with the intro, as Activision did pay attention to allot of the other little details here and there to the game and seemed to do their best to strive for canonicity the best they could. But it is still very controversial given the circumstances as the pilot was in a state of panic. And there is allot of BattleTech material demonstrating a clan warrior doing something they and their society find unethical or taboo ranging from the use of contractions to the use of alcohol and narcotics all the way to battlefield ethics.
I am sure sarna.net has a clan terminology section by now, but I have a nice list of just about every known clan term used at
http://www.starleagu...terminology.php. And for allot of you new comers, or those who are interested for more information upon the clans you may want to look at
http://www.starleagu...outtheclans.php, all but the bottom sections like Zellbrigen, Grand Melee, ToP, and Enhancing the Clan experience pertain to cannon information upon the clans. And for you new guys: NO! “Har Jel” is not some fancy 31’s century hair styling gel in which clanners achieve their stylish good looks with. HarJel is found on one of Clan Diamond Shark’s worlds, it is in a gel-like state until it is electrified then it hardens. It is used, control an Elemental’s bleeding wound, and even sealing back up gaping holes in their armor suits. It is also used on other units such as space vessels and underwater vessels to quickly seal up hull breaches.
The Insignias on the TimberWolves have alwayse puzzled me from the beginning, I also thought there were some sub-faction logo (Galaxy, Trinary, Star, ect). As the Timberwolf on the box-art of MW2:31CC had the 4’th Sriker Cluster insignia on the missile rack, which was a cluster in Clan Wolf, so they got it spot-on there.
Even more puzzling, the pilot of the first TW you see in the intro was referred to as “trainee” and “cadet” by the pilot of the other TW that was dropping all the C-bombs. As a cadet you are allowed to wear a uniform with the clan’s colors on it but not the clans insignia, as the same with the battlemechs the trainees and cadets use. After learning more of the official BattleTech storyline, Clan Jade Falcon had an accelerated training program during the Trial of Refusal in which they plopped cadets into a BattleMech and had them fighting in battles against Clan Wolf for their initial Trial of Position achieving their entry rank based upon their performance in battle. So it is very likely that the pilots of these two TimberWolves could have been members of Clan Jade Falcon and not some merc group.
But all in all I still remember when I was a kid spending what seemed to be hours starting at the box art to MW2:31CC in the store, not knowing much about MechWarrior, let alone BattleTech. I had it on my christmas list that year and I remember getting it and installing it and being blown away by the intro video, and it just wouldn’t stop blowing me away I made my first drop and the first thing I hear is the Mechs computer start talking to me giving me stats “Planet Colmar. Ambient temperature 34.65 degrees. Local time is 01-34-16 GST. All systems nominal”, and it continued talking giving damage info and mission status updates throughout the drop. And then there was the factor of controlling a giant robot blowing the {Scrap} out of things, which is on an coolness factor of all its own measuring somewhere in the 60 to 50 Mega Fonzies range.
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WithSilentWings, on 02 October 2012 - 07:55 AM, said:
. Nary an "aff" in sight there.
)
