What bothers me about the "Never Invite a Novakid to Tea" codex

I do understand that the contest winner books found within the Grand Pagoda Library are a tribute to the community. While they might not necessarily live up to the same standard as official Chucklefish lore, it still serves to expand our repertoire.

Yet, there is one codex the existence of which bothers me in particular. That would be the one that's unfortunately the most iconic, "Never Invite a Novakid to Tea."

To explain what I mean, let me explain how Starbound lore evolved. I already touched on some of that in a previous thread of mine. Back in beta, the Hylotl had been portrayed as utterly unlikeable. All except one named character acting exactly the same, clueless butt monkeys with no self-awareness, no self-preservation instinct. They would do nothing but patronize other beings while being to dumb to react properly to being assaulted or killed by them. Their attacker was usually portrayed as the more relatable one.

As a result, using violence against their kind had been the punchline of most jokes, the pinnacle of the game's humor. Deliberate genocide of their race was shown as hilarious, warranted even. They were playing their part as unlikeable joke characters, so how could there possibly be an issue?

Codex Examples:

• Charcoal drawing
• Guard Log
• Greenfinger's Notes: Receiving Guests
• The Art of Stabbing
• The Trial of Saplings

Not to mention dozens upon dozens examples of other races making such comments in their inspection lines, which was somewhat left over in some unused assets such as Hylotl Spawner.

Then, a lore overhaul came and the Hylotl started acting more like... more like actual people I would say. It introduced a nuance in individual members of their race - they started expressing curiosity, they started making sense. Dr. K. Sakana has dedicated herself to studying the workings of the Glitch, numerous Hylotl have started to appreciate humans for their literature and their dedication to peace, and endeared by grounded Avians' colorful banners.

While Hylotl still think highly of themselves and their culture, they have actual reasoning behind that mentality, besides a shallow "we're just better, let's constantly repeat 'we're just better' to prove that". They value wisdom, but they don't take it for granted while having none, as they had used to. They had also shown themselves to value safeguarding their peace, training their warriors - taking actual action against those who would threaten their kind.

NPC Examples:

• "I've seen nothing of human culture, it saddens me that I might now never have the chance."
• "Humans are so proactive. The Hylotl should set up something like the Protectorate too."
• "I tried the human delicacy "burgers" once. Delightful."
• "Like humans, we Hylotl seek peace and balance."
• "I've read several books by human authors, all very impressive. You are an eloquent race."
• "I'm trying to remember a poem - it's about a hill, and wild flowers..."
• "Perhaps you could bring me some human poetry one day? I would be delighted to read it.
• "I've heard there were many wise humans, and many fools too. It is the same amongst the Hylotl."

Codex Examples:

• A Culture of Beauty
• A Treatise on the Floran
• In Defence of Our Race
• We Who Survive

Then all that progress is suddenly erased with a single contest winner, written and approved before the lore overhaul. That would be Never Invite a Novakid to Tea, which is currently present in the game.

All of a sudden, all of the efforts that went into making Hylotl remotely relatable are completely gone, and the letter's sender is back at old, beta-style nonsense. There's none of that sanity - just random insults and talk of vague "civilizing", "enlightening" and "peace spreading" inserted everywhere. It does not read like a letter written by a Hylotl - it reads like a caricature written by someone who despises the Hylotl, and thought it amusing to mock them.

• "an uncivilized planet like this"
• "spread Hylotl peace to the less fortunate"
• "Novakid, a primitive gaseous species"
• "What better specimens to enlighten than these creatures?"
• "The savage shook my hand"
• "Determined to civilize these ruffians"
• "Their filthy hands"
• "I knew I could enlighten them."

You may suggest that it's an individual Hylotl's quirk... and yet he has somehow been accepted and trained as a "missionary", clearly showing that it had been written with the intention of being completely representative of the Hylotl species.

• "It appears that missionary work is more difficult than I anticipated."
• "Despite the training we received, I was woefully underprepared for creatures such as these."

So, all at once, anyone who thought it's entertaining to abuse Hylotl for being Hylotl is immediately vindicated - because the image they had of their entire race found a fitting reflection, in the form of the perfect unlikeable joke that they're accustomed to.

Ultimately I do not feel that this is the kind of mentality that Starbound should encourage, it seems to very much sabotage the game's core message.

 

I believe starbound is PC enough, in fact, it could be less PC, i find this codex hilarious in my personal opinion, while i agree with you that the lore overhaul did the weebs a favor by making them more likeable, and not entirely likeable, i mean come on, every single race has a drawback and the hylotl one is being so full of themselves.

 

Well, there's still that drawback to the Hylotl, part of which would be Hylotl-run Letheia Corporation being amoral, greedy and exploitative as heck.

I simply believe that it's better when they're shown to act like actual people, capable of rational thought... which I think the codex in questions fails at somewhat.

 

If florans can be shown as people, capable of rational thought, everything can be, even if space books say otherwise.
I suppose this codex is just a reminiscent jewel of the older game, but it's nice to see that there is still people kicking about this game, and finding bits and everything. Back in the the day you had to wither be a vig otaku or really sarcastic and ironic to defend the hylotls, i had fun with both of those.

 

wow, you really put a lot of thought into this

 

To be fair, it would have worked better if there had been another Codex that was basically the "reply" to the letter, and basically implied that the missionary who wrote the first letter got there due to means that are... less related with the writer and more with their connections.

 

*Ahem* 1. https://starbounder.org/A_Departed_Floran . 2. you do realise I'm Floran, albeit raised in a much more human manner as I don't belong to any tribe (unless the terrane protectorate counts, but its gone now ;_; )

 

A wild PyreStarite appeared!

I understand what you mean, but I always consider the old beta lore to be something relatable to the literal past. An examples being before the Floran used to be much more aggressive, but now they are much more welcoming while not being fully welcoming and some others still being aggressive. Another example being with the Apex and how before you would only hear whispers of rebellion but never witness it but now you are tripping on rebel camps and it is like a full out war now between the Rebels and the Miniknog.

I remember the old Hylotl, and I share your opinions because they were always rood. One tried to literally show me the door once and one said that my dearest sweet Hope looked like a pig, which she promptly countered by saying the Hylotl looked like a frog. After the Beta, all of a sudden the Hylotl got off their high horse and took an interest in xeno culture and they weren't so snobby anymore. As the codex "Never invite a Novakid to Tea" did bring back sour memories, I feel that it was the past of Hylotl, written during a time when the Hylotl would only consume Hylotl culture and the before-mentioned continuing to ride their high horse. Of course I take the past lore with a grain of salt when it comes to implementation, as some stuff would not make that much sense, but its a base.

 

There may be some similarities, but that's not exactly the case.

As I had covered in another thread, beta lore is quite different from current canon in many ways, and that includes the past. Floran history's in the current canon, for example, was that of being hostile to anything that moved due to the lack of understanding of other sentient life. Meanwhile, in beta lore they exhibited deliberate malice towards the Hylotl specifically.

There are nods here and there, and those nods are alright. They pay homage to the old work without repeating its awful mistakes, much like Star Wars canon does with its Legends content. That being said, my problem here is that this codex does cross that line - it copy-pastes the exact same gross caricature that had otherwise been left behind, which is where it begins to undermine the effort that went into presenting a more nuanced, well-balanced universe.

So, I hope you understand where I'm coming from here.

 

I can't see the intention to insult someone "who exists in real life" from what you mentioned-Never Invite a Novakid to Tea.
Should we now protect the right of fictional being?

 

back to better days. The steamlined way too "everyone is a good guy except the oens we definately made evil" setup is plain boring. This black or white setup made the lore kinda uninteresting.

 

This Codex entry isn't an attempt at greying the setting. It's just a crappy renmant of an earlier phase that, if anything, was even worse at it, as it was back then mostly "Everyone is flat, all the evils in the setting are caused by 3 characters everyone seems to have met, and the universe is full of jerks".

As already mentioned, this Codex entry doesn't do any of what you're saying. All it does is portray the Hylotl as the idiots they used to be, which is inconsistent with current lore (In which portraying Hylotl as evil would have involved Letheia, not a random missionary).