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Atton? I wanted to use that thing from Spaceballs where the Dark Side user essentially used Force Choke on the groin area. It's like "Eyes up here, asshole. You're in that cage for a reason. Play nice." I tend to play male Exiles mostly because Atton is far more tolerable when playing as a dude.

But Carth's establishing character moment is saving your ass. And playing a squishy build like mine that's fucking useless on Taris, I have to depend on the fellow. So, nothing but respect. What won me over was when he was man enough to apologize to Mission and say "You're not just along for the ride - we need you." That takes quite a bit for a veteran soldier to swallow his pride like that. Also liked that he kept prodding my...ahem morally compromised Player Character into Light actions.

As I'm a deeply anxious person who questions anything and everything, there was a part of me who thought "What if I actually only like Carth more as a love interest cause I'm into men and he was the only one??? And the one the story pushed me to like playing as female Revan???" (I realize typing this now that it still would have been a fair reason. Like, who cares??? It's my business after all)

I was also seeing a good number of people who hated his guts and I was kinda confused asking myself if I had missed something (pointless I know, but again, I question EVERYTHING).

Anyway, I download kotor 2. I start playing. I meet Atton. And now I'm sure that no, I just like Carth <3

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Three of them. But...a little clunky as we are talking 2003.

Males can romance Bastila. That's considered canon.

Females? Well, you have the het option (Carth - and it's very well written), and the lesbian option (Juhani). Juhani's is very primitive, as it was a beta test of same-gender romance for Bioware AND had to be sneaked past the censors. But going off into the sunset with your nice Cathar girlfriend is totally playable.

And then you have the wide world of fanfic and mods....

Wait.... there's romance options in KOTOR 1??

[allronix]

I can see it to an extent. Judging from Dustil's age (assuming a window of 16-20), it means he was married YOUNG. Eighteen to twenty years old. Not a long time of being single. Given the man's hardcore value of loyalty, cheating is highly unlikely.

And even with the game being set four years after he's been widowed, he's still very much in love with and missing his wife, and JUST starting to move on from it all.

I like to headcanon Carth as demi. The main reason is surely cause I identify with him to some degree so I'm projecting. He definitely was not intended that way. But I also think it could mostly work with the way his romance is structured. It doesn't really matter anyway, I just wanted to throw this thought in the air or something.

Most of all it becomes extremely funny considering Seela's (my Revan) flirty personality. Either way she spent months pining probably lol.

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It's also my guilty pleasure. I'm no fan of Jedi, but if I had seen this before the PT, then it might have changed my view of their policies.

The show being aimed at preschoolers means that they can't resort to chopping off limbs and heads and have to be a little kinder and softer to solve whatever issue is showing up.

Because of it, it's getting me started on the High Republic, which is very different from the cynical eternal war arc of the Old Republic (Legends).

While I was mixed on The Acolyte, the recent news is disappointing because it was the first live action show that wasn’t dependent on OT nostalgia pandering.

Right now the only SW show I care about is Young Jedi Adventures, I’m dead serious. It might be for preschoolers but at least it features multiple Jedi that are nowhere near a predetermined massacre; something I’ve been wanting out of Star Wars for nearly a decade.

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Well, that last one is at least gender neutral, so saves some hassle.

On the subject of kids named by nerdy parents:

The school I work at has two sisters named Sansa and Arya, which is no surprise. The one that really got me is the kid named Revan.

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Oh there are a few other reasons. I point out to the fanboys on Reddit that Disney is under zero obligation to use the alleged "canon" AND that you could yoink a copy off the shelf in 2003 and play as male or female (though nonbinary Revan is certainly a thing on Ao3, and if nonbinary was on the culture radar in 2003, Bioware probably would have gone there), White/Black/Asian face options, and female runs got a heterosexual or homosexual romance option. (Albeit, because 2003, they had to be kinda sneaky on the latter)

Same "Hero Villain Savior Conqueror" - but a Black lady who walks off with her lovely girlfriend at the end is totally a playable thing in the vanilla game. And Disney has really been open to race/gender/sexuality bends in their live action properties. This being in the game itself? Free real estate! And it could keep that spoiler nuke fresh because everyone's looking for Keanu Reeves and not Lupita Nyong'o (that's not under a ton of CGI for a change).

Now, if Disney went that way, how much freaking out would happen? Because it's gonna be "do I get the medium popcorn or the BIG honking bucket?"

My hot take of the evening is that a Knights of the Old Republic movie cannot be made properly in this day and age until something changes because not a single Hollywood director is going to go into that adaptation understanding that Bastila’s arrogance is a flaw, not an exclusive right of being a “girlboss”

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Let's got for the trifecta. There was some telling dialogue in the Secrets from the Enclave flashpoint from SWTOR where you and your party are mucking about what's left of the Dantooine Enclave.

Arn Peralun: The Jedi here could alter a person’s memories if they thought someone was susceptible to dark side corruption. They could wipe minds altogether… maybe worse. No one knows what these Jedi were fully capable of. Not even Master Gnost-Dural...I don’t think anyone’s proud of it.

Player Character: Aryn, why do you know so much about the Enclave ruins?

Aryn Leneer: What? It's not like they wipe your mind when you leave the Jedi Order.

Arn Peralun: Not anymore

Um...is it just my cynical ass, or did they just imply that peaceful training enclave was hiding a full on blacksite?!

I think that KOTOR, with the Brainwashing-for-the-greater-good plot, gets tantalizingly close to painting a picture of what "Evil Jedi" might look like in a way that isn't just "falling to the dark side" and mutating into a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Give me Jedi who are champing at the bit to give the Revan treatment to every two-bit miscreant in their line of sight, wrapping the poison-pill in sickly-sweet, smothering for-your-own-good rhetoric. Give me Jedi who stop short of trying to brainwash the entire galaxy into a frictionless clockwork paradise not because of any trivial concerns regarding "Free Will" but because they've correctly calculated that they don't have the manpower to pull it off. And if you cop out and turn their eyes yellow at any point in this process I will kill you

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"Children are more competent in Star Wars. It's just an universal rule."

Nah, what is different is that the SW universe is a violent, crime and war plagued trash fire where kids grow up fast if they hope to grow up AT ALL.

Naboo wanted a beautiful doll they could drown in fancy clothing to show off how much better they were than everyone. Jedi have stuffed sabers into the hands of kids to send them into war due to sheer desperation (Zannah, Ahsoka). Revan's party had a fourteen year old Twi'lek (Mission) who was already an accomplished thief and scout contracting with a street gang because Taris was one of the most crime ridden dumps in the galaxy and if she wasn't a good thief and fighter, she likely would have been in forced prostitution. You go Dark Side and she dies.

Before anti-jedi scream at them for "putting children in danger", remember that Padmé was FOURTHEEN (14) when she was a QUEEN leading a whole planet and dealing with invasion.

Children are more competent in Star Wars. It's just an universal rule.

At least, Jedi have Masters with the kiddos to protect and teach them

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@invincibleinck - Yeah. About those last couple chapters...

And let's face it, there is no fucking way that the Revanasi ship and Carth's sidequest DOESN'T read like something you'd put on the SW answer to Jerry Springer

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Given you played KOTOR 2 first? Well...there's a theory (not confirmed, but suspected) that he's got the same problem a lot of Exile's crew did. Notice how some of the crew, especially Atton and Mira, act with the same combination of reluctance to talk, oversharing, realizing they said too much, arguing, and then clamming up? Or how they feel this compelled need to protect and fight for Exile, even against their own judgement?

Yeah.

I love Carth bro why are you such a hater from the jump. I will destroy you within a years’ time but I respect your dedication to being a pain in my ass

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Whenever you say anything remotely critical of Jedi, countless mfs be like “oh so you hate Buddhists” but dawg ima say that if you hate the Sith Order you hate Ancient Egypt bc that’s what mfs is based off of

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The alleged canon says same age (38).

However, the age of majority for human(oid)s in Star Wars seems to be lower then our own, pretty much the onset of puberty. I mean, life is cheap, brutal, violent and short in that setting, so...

That how you can kinda sorta deal with things like fourteen year olds like Mission and Ahsoka in a combat setting or Padme being buried in heavy dresses so Naboo can show off how much better they re than everyone else or the Jedi deciding the age of "Meh. You don't make the cut. Here's a one way ticket to Telos AgriCorps."

So, running the numbers...I actually picture Revan running off to the Mandalorian Wars at 19, which is one of those important ages in the SW setting. (That's how old Luke and Rey were in their debut stories). We're talking a prodigy, so...well, Vernestra (that Atris knockoff in Acolyte) made the rank of Knight at fifteen, so not a stretch to put Revan as making that rank so young. After all, the Old Republic era was chaotic and war torn even by Star Wars standards.

So Knight around fifteen, Mandalorian Wars at nineteen, four years of war with those bums (So 24/25 at Malachor), a year to two years gone missing between the Wars (25-27), and then four or five years since they return with the whole Sith Lord thing which ends with a shot in the back and waking up on Taris.

Puts them roughly in the 29-33 range when the game opens going by those numbers. So, anywhere from 29-38 is a likely number you can go for when writing your version

i was so shocked when carth revealed he had to be way older than i thought but then i realised the game had also not given me much idea how old i was either

(commission info // tip jar!)

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🎉Happy birthday!!🎉

Thank you so much. I hope you are safe. I have been worried about you and thinking of you. Greetings, Program.

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I have spent the last few days reading Destiny's Pawn, and it's been an absolute delight to read through! I love how you portray the Ebon Hawk crew, especially Carth! As a diehard Carth fangirl, it makes me ecstatic to see a fic written by someone who actually understands his character, I rarely see anyone do the anguished flyboy the justice he deserves. The story overall kicks ass, and I'm excited to see what comes next!

I am so glad you like it and so glad I can do our Flyboy justice. I've currently got the next chapter of Korriban outlined after YEARS of poor writer's block.

Thank you for reading and feel free to make any concrit or comments about it. I've been writing fanfic for (no bull) over 30 years, so it at least should be the best I can deliver.

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Yeah. It's voluntary...but only to an extent.

I've posted about this before

do pro jedi people not understand systemic injustice or institutional power imbalance or -

like.

the power imbalance between the state-samctioned religious order and random parents is quite big I fear

even if the jedi in question have no malicious intentions, that power imbalance inherently exists

anyway

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Sure you can leave…if you enjoy a short life with a target on your back, no financial or social support, no transition assistance. Just the clothing and big target on your back. Dooku had a trust fund and Anakin had a potential sugar mama. If you had neither, Force be with you because no one else will.

Go back to your family? Sure…if you know who they are, where they are. All you have is the knowledge they gave you up to the space wizards and went no contact. IRL, this kinda screws up a lot of adoptees because of the question “Did my birth parents love me and gave me up because it’s best or did they just not want me?” (Which is one of the better arguments for open adoption, so that the kid never has to ask that question.)

Plus, y'know, trained only for one job which…skills may or may not be applicable elsewhere. Acolyte bluntly addresses this. And every ex-Jedi we see that didn't have a Dooku trust fund is working some marginal, hand to mouth job. Ahsoka had to lie to get a mechanic job. Osha was working as an illegal day laborer. And that's the happier, fluffier Disney canon.

Plus the target on your back. Employers may like some of the skillset, but they won’t want to risk some pissed off crime boss bashing down their door to take shots at the new hire. Better to hire a muggle with less risk and the ex-Jedi goes back to sleeping under a bridge.

People will stay in bad situations for far less. Better the Devil you know and all that.

there's something so disingenuous about the 'but you could leave the jedi at any time' take that I can't quite put my finger on

'you can leave the jedi at any time, but you've been conditioned your whole life to see that as a failure, and we give you shit all when you leave'

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I wish you would write a fic where...

Send me an anymous (or not) summary of the fic you wish I would write. (maybe I will write a tidbit)