#I know we have swtor and the Kotor games

[hawkeinthecitadel]

I would sell my left kidney for a modern Star Wars RPG

[reigraceee]

WIP Whenever

(I was going to do wip Wednesday, but then I think it would imply that you should do it on that specific day, and I really don't care about that lol. If you want to join in, you can do so at any point!)

I thought it would be cool to see what everyone has going on in their hyper fixation worlds, so consider this an opportunity to share anything you've been working on! You can reblog this post or tag me in your own post (maybe tag others and we can turn this into a tag game?) and talk about any headcanons, wip writing, wip sketches, or just use this as an opportunity to ramble about your hyper fixations!

...I also just wanted to share the fics I've been writing/planning because I wanted to get it all out haha. I'm the kind of person who spontaneously starts a bunch of different projects and bounces between them- I get burnt out if I only focus on one thing!

Here are the different series I'm planning/have been writing:

-Ancient Call (post kotor 2; Freyja x Atton)

Named after the EP by SYML, Ancient Call reflects on Atton's relationship with the Exile as they rebuild what they can in the galaxy after the events of kotor 2. It's definitely more somber, but it revolves around themes of grief, loss, and finding stability through love. I've already started writing the first work, and I'm so sorry but it's going to be depressing lol. It will get more hopeful eventually, though!

-Time After Time (Aresyl x Theron)

Named after the couple's theme song by Cyndi Lauper, Time After Time explores snapshots across Aresyl and Theron's relationship and how the stars crossed to bring them together. I've already written a few fics, but I want to draw something to go along with the first part before I post it.

I thought Time After Time was the perfect song for them because the first verse reminds me of the dream Theron describes having, and because they showed up for each other time after time.

-Alykaa x Hrafen (I'm still working on the title lol)

I've written the first work, but I haven't posted because I want to draw something to pair with it- I feel like otherwise no one will really be able to connect to it. I mean, it's a fic between OCs, it doesn't really have the pull a fic with already established and loved canon character would.

Anyways, I want to explore their relationship from with an interest in what gives someone morality and the nature vs nurture of what makes a person. I don't know if that makes it sound too deep, but I'm always really interested in how people develop their different beliefs and morality and how other people and situations affect it all. That interest is a big part of why I prefer Imperial characters in swtor, why Andor is my favorite Star Wars show, why kotor 2 is my favorite Star Wars video game, and why Better Call Saul (not related to Star Wars, but still) is my favorite show of all time.

-Valerie Shepard x Kaidan

I've been pondering on (not a lot of writing so far) a series about the events after ME3 and how Valerie and Kaidan find each other again. I also want to write a lot of little one-shot/slice of life fics to give their relationship more context.

-Cassia Dragonborn

I haven't posted anything Skyrim yet, but I have a vision. I want to write about my Dragonborn oc and her journey from being a petty thief to being a noble defender of the people. It would also explore faith and how that shaped her.

[winntir]

The "The Jedi were wrong to go to war" narrative appears in Star Wars a lot. A lot of fans probably know this best from Rebels as it pertains to the Clone Wars, but it’s appeared in the Knights of the Old Republic series as well. It seems that Jedi can’t go to war without it being criticize by their own Jedi Masters, but why? Why is it wrong for the Jedi to go to war?

In the case of the Clone Wars, it’s for reasons that go beyond the rhetoric of protect the Republic or defeating the Separatists; it was because the whole thing was a trap. When Yoda looks back, it’s easy to see that the whole thing was to bring the Empire into existence and to destroy the Jedi. It was to draw out their ranks from the temple, separate them from each other while surrounding them with cloned soldiers that will betray them when ordered to, and scapegoat them so that the galaxy see them as the enemy.

Would that have changed if they chose not to fight, to stay in the temple? Perhaps it would’ve been easier to defend the temple, and there wouldn’t be thousands of knights alone when their men betrayed them, but Palpatine would've had a different script in mind. Instead of calling it a war perpetuated by the Jedi, it’s a war the Jedi refuse to end. We may have seen different knights turning against the order than Barriss or Pong Krell in that case.

And we may have seen many disobey the council and go to war anyways, like in the case of the Mandalorian Wars mentioned in Knights of the Old Republic. To any who played the games or read the comics, you know that the council opposed joining the war because they didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of a previous war with the fallen Jedi Exar Kun, and that they sensed something wrong about the war. Young knights and padawans didn’t see the same thing, so disobeyed them and joined the war.

Turns out, the reason they had a bad feeling about it was because the Sith Empire from SWTOR was behind it. For whatever reason, they wanted the Republic and Jedi tested or weakened. I'm embarrassingly not as familiar with the lore as I should be, but I believe the Emperor sent out Revan and Malak to find the Star Forge and bulk up his own military for a swift invasion. Then they just decided to do it themselves, so that was thrown out.

And this isn’t some retcon from SWTOR; the implications of this are present in Kotor II. It’s likely that Kotor III would've followed up on these implications had it been made, but that’s neither here nor there. The whole point of the Mandalorian Wars was a scheme that played into the Sith's hands. Must be part of the Sith playbook, and you don’t get a religious order last ten thousand years or more without knowing what your self proclaimed sworn enemies tend to do.

But at the same time, there’s a reason it’s hard to sympathize with the council in this case. The Mandalorians weren’t just fighting for resources; they committed genocide when they didn’t get the fight they wanted. The Separatists attracted a lot of people who opposed the Republic, and for every Mina Bontari or similar idealist, you get one or two Nute Gunrays. One opposes the corruption, the other is the corruption. To anyone who didn’t know the Sith were involved in either conflict, it would’ve been simple, but with the Sith in mind, you have no idea which victories are yours alone and not the Sith's.

It’s that thing about Star Wars where it seems uncomplicated and without nuance to its ideas at any expense, but once you dive into it, it really is more complex than you give it credit for. There’s a lot more to Jedi being wrong to fight than a vague anti-war notion.

[sith-shenanigans]

Introduction and Masterpost

Hello! I’m Io (with an i, not an L), they/them, enthusiast of evil space wizards and other assorted terrible people everywhere. This is primarily a SWTOR blog, but I post about other fandoms occasionally, and have recently fallen down a terrible hyperfixation hole about Fallen London. I write longfic, on a somewhat inconsistent schedule; chronic illness makes it difficult to put out chapters consistently.

I don’t have a DNI, but I block bigots and anyone whose posts I’d prefer not to see. I don’t do shipping discourse, and I don’t necessarily care what you ship, but see the previous sentence; if it makes me uncomfortable, and there are definitely things that make me profoundly uncomfortable out there, I’ll probably block you. (This has much more to do with tone than content—I have triggers, I’m all for people experiencing unpleasant things in safe ways, but the moment it feels like they’re being written as good and sweet and normal I’m going to nope on out of there as fast as I can. For my own mental health, and because the alternative is me biting someone’s head off.)

For my own part, I often write about dark subjects (especially in regards to my SWTOR OCs), and this blog may contain untagged discussion of fictional slavery, speciesism, systemic child abuse, state violence, toxic and abusive relationships, and similar topics. Mentions of sexual assault are generally tagged as “sexual assault cw.” I try to tag discussion of parental or school-based child abuse as “child abuse cw,” as well as in-depth descriptions of it in general, but I can’t 100% guarantee it. I try to remember to tag what friends ask me to tag, but if we don’t know each other well, I may not be able to manage it.

For neurodivergence reasons, I find it extremely difficult to describe images most of the time, but I’m trying to include alt text on screenshots of tags more consistently, and I’m attempting to tag my own posts with undescribed images as “undescribed.” (This includes most of my Fallen London posting, because there’s just enough formatting to poke me in the “cannot easily transcribe visuals to text” issue.)

Liminality/Discontent (SWTOR):

Liminality Main Cast:

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Discontent Main Cast:

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Sunlight (SWTOR):

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Other/Miscellaneous (SWTOR):

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Fallen London:

Amias Arling, the Calescent Inquisitive. Heart’s Desire. A former freelance detective with a few unfortunate soft spots, who came to the Neath for a case and ended up framed for something their target did. Extremely clever and extremely driven, but embodies the maxim that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Practically allergic to the direct route, unless it seems like no one would ever expect it. And even then, they’d rather take a convoluted way around.

SWTOR:

Liminality/Discontent, a sometimes-AU SWTOR novelization in multiple parts. Has a heavy focus on the implications that the game didn’t go into, the politics of the galaxy, and the pressure the protagonists go through.

like a moth to you, sunlight, a collaboration with my sibling @azems-familiar. Not very much is written on it, because collaboration is hard even when both people involved aren’t chronically ill (and our hyperfixations are largely elsewhere right now), but we love our terrible children anyway.

Liminality/Discontent:

The Dead Star; The Ruin, a prologue of a sort. As yet unpublished. Also works as a standalone work.

Anamnesis, a KOTOR novelization with a certain amount of playing with the format. A tragedy, if a bittersweet one, and a case study in why villains with good motivations are still villains. On hiatus.

Liminality, my pride and joy and occasional mortal enemy. The first and primary of two SWTOR base game novelizations, covering the Sith Inquisitor, Smuggler, Sith Warrior, and Jedi Consular storylines. It deals heavily with loss and family—the latter both by blood and by choice, and sometimes unexpectedly uncovered. It’s also about history, about the boundaries between past and future and life and death—and the things that survive when someone is gone. The galaxy is full of dangerous secrets, and cycles that seem inexorable; in the end, though, what matters most are the choices you make and why.

Discontent, the fic I will someday definitely write. Covers the Jedi Knight, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter, and Republic Trooper. It’s about war, mostly, and cleaning up other people’s messes. Nobody gets to step off a battlefield as the same person who walked onto it, if they make it off at all, but there are reasons to keep trying—even if only some of them are good ones. And somebody has to be the one to chase down the conspiracies in the dark.

Sacrifice, as yet not even started, which will cover the portion of the game running from the end of the class stories to Ziost. There’s a fourth fic for the Alliance era, tentatively titled Conviction, but there’s less in my head about how that one’s going to go.

Sunlight:

still my heart is heavy (with the hate of some other man’s beliefs), about spies and loyalty and people making slightly better decisions than they could have. Written primarily by @azems-familiar, who Illami belongs to. (I helped write Ardun.)

Other/Miscellaneous (SWTOR):

your last serving daughter, a collaboration with @reconstructionlegacy. Our silly little AU about Empire and the people who wish they didn’t live in it. Also infrequently updated due to the trials of life and coauthorship.

Fallen London:

None, yet, but it will happen. I can feel it.

The organizational banners used can be found here.

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[casino-lights]

Hi everyone! I've gone back and forth on this for years now, but now I've finally decided to open some writing commissions! Here's a proper commission info sheet for anyone interested!

I WILL WRITE

ocs (including my own, if you have requests!)

oc x oc pairings

oc x canon pairings

canon x canon pairings

canon divergence and aus

ships with age gaps and/or power imbalances, such as professor/student, noble/servant, etc.

sentient nonhuman entities (spirits, demons, monsters, druid wild shapes, etc.)

smut, including kinks, bdsm, cnc, free use, etc.

Dubcon is negotiable, but I reserve the right to turn down any kinks or smut concepts if I feel uncomfortable writing them.

I WILL NOT WRITE

smut involving characters under the age of 18 or appearing to be under the age of 18

noncon

If you don't see something on either of these lists, please DM me with your ideas and I can confirm whether or not I will write them! I do not judge and I will not bash anyone for a kink or a ship dynamic they ask me about, even if I don't end up accepting the commission. I am also happy to talk out ideas in DMs.

FANDOMS I WRITE FOR

Dragon Age (all mainline games, the Wigmaker Job short story, and the Asunder novel - I have not read all the external material)

Mass Effect (trilogy and Andromeda, I have not read the comics or novels)

KOTOR (1 and 2)

Baldur's Gate 3

The Elder Scrolls (Oblivion and Skyrim, including their DLC, have the NPCs I know best, but I am familiar with the lore)

Fallout (3, New Vegas, 4, 76, and all their DLC)

Fable (1/TLC/Anniversary, 2, 3)

Again, even if you don't see something on this list, please don't hesitate to ask if I know it, especially if I've reblogged or engaged with content about it previously. I'm currently playing SWTOR and Elder Scrolls Online so hopefully those will be on my list someday as well!

Red Dead Redemption 2

Cyberpunk 2077

PRICING

Gale Dekarios x oc smut oneshot, 4,754 words

I will ask for payment upon delivery of the completed commission. I'll be working on a scale of approximately 500 words for $5 USD, so pricing will look like this:

~ 500 words - $5

~ 1,000 words - $10

~ 1,500 words - $15

~ 2,000 words - $20

~ 2,500 words - $25

~ 3,000 words - $30

~ 3,500 words - $35

~ 4,000 words - $40

~ 4,500 words - $45

I will write up to a maximum of approximately 4500 words for a oneshot. I will not charge extra if I go a little over or if I feel the piece would be incomplete without a few more lines. Examples of my work with their word counts:

Illario Dellamorte x oc hurt with some comfort oneshot, 3,670 words

Illario Dellamorte character study oneshot, 1,607 words

More examples of my writing can be found on my AO3 and under #gracewrites on my blog, but these three are the best examples of my current writing style!

HOW TO COMMISSION ME

I'm going to open two slots for now. The slots I have available will be in my bio, but please don't hesitate to reach out with your ideas and/or any questions you may have even if they're both full! I'll add your name to a waiting list and DM you as soon as I have a free space for you. If interested, please DM me here on tumblr with some basic info:

how long would you like this piece to be and/or what is your budget?

which fandom is the piece for?

is it a piece that involves one or more ships? if so, which ship(s)?

is this NSFW or SFW?

does this piece involve one or more ocs? if so, what are their names and pronouns, what do they look like, and - if NSFW - what is their anatomy?

if NSFW, how much plot would you like me to add?

if NSFW, are there any kinks or positions you'd like me to highlight? if nothing immediately comes to mind, no worries - we can discuss that later!

a brief description of the plot you have in mind, like a list of the scene(s) you'd like depicted or the concept you came up with. example: "character A and character B go to a masquerade ball and they discover a body hidden in the bathroom. they have to unmask the killer, who turns out to be character C."

is the piece going to be part of an AU or is it canon divergent in some way? if so, please describe the AU - i.e. modern AU, soulmate AU.

After some discussion with you, I'll begin working on your commission! I will provide updates and snippets and I will most likely be asking some follow-up questions during the writing process, but don't feel obligated to answer them immediately - I know timezones exist and everyone has lives to live! If you ever have any new ideas to add, please let me know as soon as you can, and we can discuss adding them. If it's an entirely new scene that will extend the length quite a bit, we can renegotiate the price. I don't usually outline my writing, but upon request, I can work up an outline for the piece and discuss it with you.

Once I finish the piece and am personally satisfied with it, I will send it to you for a final overview! If you encounter any spelling errors/typos/other mistakes, please let me know and I'll fix them immediately! I will be proofreading it myself, of course, but I'm human. If the piece includes OCs, and you feel I've mischaracterized them at any point or they would not say or do something I wrote, I will happily rewrite the offending lines, free of charge.

Payment is due once the piece is fully complete! I will offer my PayPal address; please send the payment via the friends and family option. I'm working on the honor system here.

All finished pieces will be delivered via Google Docs, and I will then ask if you want your piece published here to tumblr. If you say yes, I'll publish the piece to my blog here, DM you the post, and tag you! I WILL NOT publish finished commissions on AO3 out of respect for their rules regarding paid fanworks. I personally consider writing commissions a fair practice, and the fact that I accept commissions now will never stop me from writing for free. I will absolutely be putting as much passion and effort into my commissions as my free work.

Finally, I have never and will never use AI at any point in my writing process. Keep AI out of fanworks. I hate that this even has to be said nowadays. Thank you for reading this far, and thank you for signal boosting this!

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

i wonder how often you get confessions that aren't about bioware's main two game series. i know ppl sent in swtor stuff sometimes and even kotor but do you get bg1&2 stuff. jade empire. nwn. did anyone get horny for anthem?? probably not but idk

i doubt the mods keep track in any way but if you have any vague idea about non DA/ME related confessions frequency i wanna knowww

Not often at all. The chief games are DA and ME and people have been obsessed over those games for well over 10 years (yours truly included.) Even if we *did* get confessions for BG and NeverWinter Nights, it's damn near impossible to get screenshots for those games.

Anthem's pretty much dead so it's normal to not get confession for it. But we do have a tag for it, just look it up!

-R

[mandalorianhistorian]

I know that Mandalorians and Jedi don't exactly get along, but are there any EU Mandos that were sympathetic to the Jedi Order, or at least potentially saw them as allies rather than enemies?

We have a few examples from kotor all the way up to legacy of the force

( a lot of the Jedi they do befriend don’t really follow the code fully so it makes sense they do get along)

Wellll the first most obvious one is revan of course ( I still think revan is Mando but that’s a whole other can of worms) revan and canderous working together from the beginning of kotor and the mentions of it in kotor 2 is brilliant ( I will not mention the dam novel it’s insulting to the game) (kotor 1+2)

In the mandalorian wars we also have zayne carrick he got taken into the mandalorian ranks which wasn’t the best situation but he did befriend a mandalorian family (mandalorian wars comic series)

In swtor we have shae vizla and torian if you play republic side (being a Mando though is the best in swtor)

Well obviously we can count etain and bardan aswell and all the surviving Jedi that joined clan skirata (republic commando)

You can also count fenn shysa with leia Han and Luke and the rebel alliance

And durning the vong war boba and his mandalorians fought beside a Jedi in secret

Well obviously Jaina solo with boba fett mirta gev and bevin and Medrit and their daughter and her children so Jaina kinda wins lol she got a whole load of mandos she worked and talked with lol (sintas kinda counts) (legacy of the force)

I may have missed a few pls correct me if I have

(Sorry this took a while was trying to remember who worked with the mandos)

[robinyourcreator]

2, 9, 30, 32, 33 fic asks!

aaaa thank you rowan beloved friend and mutual <3333333

this got kinda long bc you landed on my trap card: giving me a space to ramble. under the cut we go!

-2- Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

oh god so. I haven't updated it in two years because I got really burnt out by going on an updating spree while I was out of my mind fever dreaming with covid, and it's for an extremely tiny fandom for a manhwa which is really just an excuse for angsty lesbian omegaverse matriarchy in pretty traditional korean clothing. it's. i cannot recommend it without listing a bunch of trigger tags but the characters really fucking got me. im a sucker for a good plucky protagonist. anyways i set about to fix the love triangle with polyamory, as i am wont to do. now that i have given my here be dragons spiel, here it is: like a shadow loves the light

I was in no way prepared for the outpouring of love that fic has received, but that's what happens when you write something for a fandom that (at the time) had only one (1) page on ao3. it's terribly self-indulgent and I have a fantastic time every time I work on it, and I think it shows.

shit. wait. was i contractually obligated to say the fic i wrote at 18 that i met my spouse because of? no. fuck. dont read that i wrote that as a TEENAGER--

-9- How did you get into writing fanfiction?

there was a brief stint in middle school where i would toy with writing fanfiction for things like hp or the various magical girl anime i was obsessed with, and, despite knowing the existence of ffn, believed i was doing something terribly new and cool. none of those things were ever actually written, much less posted. i just doodled for them.

ANYWAYS, the real answer here is i, at 16, got sixteen year old lesbian socked SO HARD in the gut by Star Wars: The Old Republic's Light Side Jaesa Willsaam storyline that I went looking for fanfiction for her and found explicit femslash (big no no for innocent mormon teenager!) for her written by my now-internet-auntie/mum/mentor wrote and realized i was gay. I started engaging with the swtor and kotor fandoms and making my own shit for my ocs for funsies. this got me two significant others and one spouse as well as most of my mutuals here on tumblr.hell.

-30- Have you noticed your style change over time?

god, i hope so. teenage me's things have therapy speak. but those things also got me a spouse soooooooooo. I like to think I've gotten a little better over ten years. One hopes. matured a little.

-32- A character you enjoy making suffer.

any character i am remotely attached to? which means, currently, my bg3 polycule girlies. sorry girlies.

-33- A character you want to protect.

IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS ANSWERS I WOULD KILL AND DIE FOR SHADOWHEART i was chewing through drywall for MONTHS before i got the game bc i knew i was going to get got SO BAD and i was right and 0% disappointed and my girl deserves all the peace and happiness in the world--

-sweeps current Bad End WIP under the rug- nevermind that,

[iconac]

so i know i have this blog listed as canon-divergent, but i don't think i ever stated why. mostly because i think the majority of you all have it figured out, but over the course of writing revan on here i've had a few encounters where someone didn't really get what was going on with my blog in terms of canon. so, to prevent further confusion;

revan started out as a blank-slate customizable player character in the 2003 knights of the old republic rpg [which is just dnd with a star wars skin, complete with modifiers and skill checks], much like commander shepard in mass effect, where you can pretty much make them into whoever you want. the knights of the old republic comic run continued with this concept by giving revan only three appearances in the whole series and making their face/identity a complete mystery. then in 2011, a revan novel was released that 'canonized' revan's appearance, gender, personality, choices, etc. [douglas adams voice] this has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. this new 'canon' revan [a forty-year-old white guy that for some reason a bunch of people want to have keanu reeves cast as] then went on to appear in the star wars: the old republic mmo, further cementing this new 'canon' revan in the expanded universe. 'canon' revan is where the grey jedi/using the dark side and the light side at the same time comes into play, and it contributes greatly to his popularity in some circles of the star wars fandom. he also married bastila shan and had a kid [named... vaner... anagram of revan...] and his eventual descendants in swtor are satele and theron shan, two npcs that have major roles in the game. i write revan like they're still a customizable rpg protagonist. partially because i am old and i played the games back in the early 00's and my revan originates from that, partially because i think the revan novel [and revan in swtor by extension] is kinda shit. this is why i disregard almost all canon about revan that came out after kotor 2. if we get other revans in the rpc, you'll likely see similar decisions made and some considerable variation in depictions, especially along the axis of how much of the novel/swtor canon they want to include in their portrayals.

so what does this mean? i'm less canon-divergent and more non-canon, if you want to be technical about it. disregard 70% of wookiepedia's revan article. in general conversation, i refer to 'canon' revan as swtor revan.

[sleepymarmot]

NPC: Three centuries... Jedi Master... Discovered an ancient space station of untold power... Built by a species that once ruled the galaxy... Me: I Have A Bad Feeling About This

[Major spoilers for KOTOR, major spoilers for this accursed pair of flashpoints in SWTOR, and a lot of vitriol]

One point for authenticity, I guess: the Foundry is just as awful of an experience in SWTOR as the Star Forge was in KOTOR. No, that's not fair: it's worse.

I thought I had a bad time during Boarding Party, crawling through an endless dungeon full of dull trash packs, all the while dreading what the not-so-subtle hints are supposed to mean. I'd let my guard down after the surprisingly respectful Revanite cult quest; I didn't expect to meet the imposwtor (bless whoever coined that name) until the expansion titled with "his" name.

You know what's an even worse experience? Spending an hour and a half in a dull ugly dungeon that exists only to shit on everything about an iconic, beloved character from a different game.

Revan in KOTOR (light side): On second thought, perhaps using weapons of mass destruction isn't the best way forward. "Revan" in The Foundry: Nevermind.

Revan in KOTOR (dark side): Fuck this, I'm not a Jedi. "Revan" in The Foundry: Nevermind.

A Revan who is proudly a Jedi and also proudly into genocide now is the opposite of where my own character was going, and incompatible with either of the paths the original game offers. It's the opposite of fanservice. I have no idea who this mission was for. Was it for ten year old boys who haven't actually played KOTOR but are excited to earn bragging rights of knowing who Revan was so that they could earn clout on message boards?

Not only is "Revan"'s personality an insulting caricature of the character we knew and loved, not only his appearance has nothing in common with what the majority of players must have picked during character creation back in KOTOR (how many different presets are for the male PC alone?) — we also have to kill him.

And to add insult to injury, we have to kill HK-47, too. My heart sank when I heard the word "meatbags" over the intercom. Well, at least he killed me twice in a row, and forced me to look up the mechanics of the fight, like it's a real dungeon or something. That's my boy! Very proud of him.

I went through all of this shitshow with my "Revanite" title equipped, by the way. And took it off after the end. I don't want to be associated with this. Don't remind me.

Well. To look on the bright side — I got like three level ups out of this. The one and only benefit.

Anyway, I have no idea whether to integrate this into my personal canon or not. As a KOTOR player, I want to forget about this like a bad dream. On the other hand, if taken seriously, the psychological impact on the player character should be immense.

The last thing that happened before this story was a Jedi padawan telling my PC that she wants to kill every single Sith. Now she meets someone claiming to be a Jedi who intended to kill every single citizen of the Empire. Was her opinion on the Jedi very abruptly and violently turned from "pretentious, hypocritical windbags with bad metaphysical opinions" to "immediate existential threat to everything and everyone she's ever known"? Are these just a stupid kid and a madman — or is this something to be expected from any and every Jedi? From the Republic? Did Revan keep his plans of genocide a secret, or did the Republic know and still allow it?

Additionally, what happens to her opinions on the Force that have been influenced by the Revanites? Does she feel disillusioned, even personally betrayed? Does this wound her confidence in her beliefs about the Force?

Actually, this is bigger than the player character's feelings. Why is the Empire not publicising this?! Doesn't even matter whether the Republic and the Jedi knew of Revan's plan or not. Can you imagine the impact on the public, in both factions? "Revan" just gave the Empire the biggest propaganda piece in galactic history on a silver platter. They want to escalate, and this is a perfect inciting incident. In the story order guides, this flashpoint is placed immediately before Quesh; on the Foundry you encounter an open act of extreme violence by the Republic against the Empire, then half an hour later you land on Quesh and immediately get tasked with provoking the Republic into violence as an excuse to start the war. I can't believe this stupid flashpoint breaks the story not only of KOTOR, but of SWTOR itself.

[sheyshen]

7.3 thoughts under the cut, pubside theronmancer through first.:

-some animation glitches on the first big cutscene, glowing where there shouldn’t be and clipping issues but honestly nothing too unusual for this game at this point. -Tau flirts!! i wonder if we’re going to get a full romance for her or if it’s just going to be a friend you flirt with kinda thing. -RIP to Bask. wonder if you take the dark side option during the duel does he live here? -flirting with theron in front lana continues to be funny. -i do find it funny that shae’s just allowed to wander the fleet. i mean good i just find it entertaining cause it always seemed like mandos weren’t allowed since they weren’t republic aligned. -malgus continues to be cryptic as always. -kara’s headband went away so we might have a smoochy with arcann?? -”in the years since vaylin’s attack”... man. how long has it been since kotet?? like what? 5 years? wiki says ossus took place 2 years after kotet so maybe 3? -my regret at not taking my arcannmancer version of kara through first is being overridden by the fact i’m taking screenshots of the convo to compare. it’s just day 1 of the patch i don’t need to rush it. -unvoiced kotor-style cutscene >:( -how maton-ja says “do not worry” makes me worry more sir -seems a little awkward having to do the side quest to progress the main quest but i get why they did it. just. probably would’ve made more sense to just make it a main quest?? -”they say the shrine of silence is cursed” and then the whole screen started shaking and i feel that wasn’t actually related but the timing was great. -i don’t know if i need to do the flashpoint to progress just yet but if i do that’ll happen after i eat dinner. -I honestly forgot how much i love the companion system in swtor. wow and xiv need this imo. the outfit tool too (but with wow collection system) -i know it’s a distant hope but man i still hope we see some of the voss from the class stories whenever we have to come out here. lokir!! i miss you!! -took a dinner break and back to checking out the story. first things first. i feel i shouldn’t be surprised czerka’s still being a pain -the scaning the water lines for clogs sucks man. -i don’t think we get the date nights in this patch do we?? -looks like the FP is not required to do the campaign! i am not complaining -”this honor is rare for my kind” weren’t these the same guys that gave me a hard time for ‘corrupting’ lokir? man it’s been so long since i played the smuggler chain. actually since i did any of the class stories. -all that and they gave me.... a table. thaaanks. -i think that’s it? i’m sure there’ll be mail so maybe i’ll pop on my arcannmancer and then do the fp. cause i’m kinda itching to see that cutscene on a romanced version  >:3

[teeseven-fanclub]

disappointed but not surprised if the broadsword move does mean the game drifts into maintenance mode, it's felt like recent news has been chipping away more and more at that high level endgame content (ranked, poor efforts fixing bugged out r4, no r4 nim) - and though these are things that people stay subbed for, they're also the things that mean a lot more work for devs...versus something like seasons which was built as a player retention scheme. when my main experience these days come as a raider, I have close friends I have met through raiding and guild activities and the like, news like this makes me worry about the longevity of the kind of player base I'm surrounded with and the things I want to achieve in the game...and in terms of story, we're already getting less and less, will that continue to be the case? will it be more of the 'kotor style' dialogues and less VAs? I know swtor is unique in terms of the amount of voice acting in an mmo but still, one of the joys is that there is such a big solo story experience, especially entering at vanilla.

I know the move isn't imminent and we still have 7.3 and 7.4 to get through first, and the end isn't nigh when there's still content I have to complete, but also. this game is the source of a lot of joy and love for me but also a huge amount of anxiety, I managed to fight through 7.0 and the damage that did to the player base (and probably also the game as a whole) but I have that same brand of anxiety again now...like, what does this mean for the future?

I could be jumping to massive conclusions when there's no actual news about What This Means and just lots of fearmongering, but I'm an anxious lil bean and um yeah

[tiredassmage]

Ouuuggh. I feel like if I dig too much into this one, I might get myself tripped up somewhere, but... it Is kind of interesting to see this be a debate when... even single player games still have some back and forth on whether or not a protagonist should be voiced. And by 'interesting,' I... generally find this kind of tail chasing exhausting which is... why I love to avoid the actual forums, lol.

I feel less that I have specific feedback on the matter rather than... maybe I'd just like to chip something a little more positive into the endless void, so this is... probably mostly opinion and can just be treated as such. Just your tired mut wanting to have a little faith in devstreams and posts from the team, I guess. xD

I sorta already pitched my thoughts about 7.5, but since that's relevant again here, I'm just gonna throw gumballs at the wall about it, I guess.

Most of the ~feedback of it being "why is this encroaching more and more on msq" feels... maybe bad faith to me, I guess. SWTOR's dev communication could possibly benefit from being a bit more proactive and in-depth with the community; FFXIV's already name-dropped in here and the live letters and whatnot are kind of my primary yardstick for judging the few ongoing live-service games I do play. Then clarification and follow-up still happens when necessary, but maybe it clips a bit of speculation in the bud. I really wouldn't mind them including more technical stuff even if it's not language that's readily understood at a glance (ie, what are they up to with the graphical work) because I enjoy knowing what the team's working on, and I think that level of communication benefits FFXIV, and I think it might do SWTOR some good, too. Of course story details and all still wouldn't be a 'before their time' kind of thing, but more of this about what the team's working on I think would help ease a little bit of some of I guess the other thing that tends to get wrapped up in this discussion that wears me out fast - whether the game's going into maintenance or downhill or whatever else the doomsday assessment of the time might be. You'd think I'd be better acquainted with navigating this given most of my online game experience are all games around 10 years old and older, yet here I am anyway akdnfl;sadf.

But. Anyway. I saw enough of their vision with their inclusion of the KOTOR-style cinematics in 7.5. The spirit of including a broader berth of options than being limited to the infamous three I think was beneficial to the story they were trying to tell in this update. Widening the focus area by reducing some of those black bars I think would be helpful, especially as they focus on upgrading the graphical appearance of the game. It's refreshing to hear a suggestion on the matter that I can actually get behind. Those scenes might include less of an animation and scene load for the devs as described in their post, but I'd still love to be able to admire as much of their work as possible, lol. Especially when it does involve any kind of action. (A side scene from the... Voss update? Old Wounds, was it? Comes to mind - the confrontation with Czerka, I believe. And I think a scene from GS 5. Sometimes those black bars cut off a little bit of the action they do show and that's not always as fun as it could be with a wider frame.)

Which really I guess... what compelled me to add thoughts to this post is really just the sentiment that I don't mind. I like the idea of the devs being able to add more variance to the story. Up to 8 dialogue options giving more room for class-references and other minor decision alterations we can make along the way is good flavor. Voiced to un-voiced isn't... really that jarring to me when it does good for the story. BG3 sports a protagonist whose only voice clips are for some interactions and movement around the map and it's been a thoroughly enjoyed game by myself and plenty others, clearly enough. I understand it breaks the mold of what SWTOR did in vanilla, but it was also hugely fucking ambitious of the game to be like that, especially as an ongoing game, I think.

So the 'argument,' if you will, presented by the devs checks out to me. If it's more sustainable for their workload and allows them more nuance in the story, I'm all for it. And I think the graphical updates and recasting a player character voice actor (even if the handling, I will give, was a little... interesting of them to not announce sooner than they did or in a clearer fashion, but that's not this post) tells me, at least, that the team's still dedicated to working on what's here. They want to continue and I don't think any of that is a sign of the game going anywhere away any faster from a dev standpoint.

But that's why we're all hidey-holed on here in a tumblr corner than out in big swathes of fandom life, after all.

I'm mixed on the KOTOR cutscenes myself, and a lot of what people are saying in the forums is reasonable (reduce black bars, make it more visually appealing and less stiff) but I'd rather, for lack of elegant metaphors, navigate Makeb without a map than go back to dull voiced cutscenes of 30 second PR meetings where Lana reads your itinerary for you. I don't really understand the sentiment that you want less story when other MMO's get to have tons of content unvoiced (see FFXIV, etc.) and people praise it up and down-- if voice work is holding it back, then I'm for less rather than more. We've been getting better story steadily, and I'd hate to see that change back to what we were given at the beginning of LotS, which people seem to forget quite easily.

I think what it could use as a compromise rather than alignment dialogue is class specific dialogue, if they're able to implement that many choices from 3 to 8. Then it'd be less of a yes - neutral - no situation, and players might feel satisfied that it's not just the same responses dressed up. But that's my opinion on it, and it's a small niche issue at that.

Also, unintentional comedy at being able to rate a team response like UberEats???

[rainofaugustsith]

On SWTOR and canon

So the Star Wars Celebration was this past weekend. SWTOR was there, sort of. They sent in a few of the writers and devs - conspicuously, the devs who were NOT responsible for the horrifying overhaul to the game and the discord drama - but they didn't have a table or cantina. They had to hang out at the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes table and had no fanfare, no signs, nothing. 

It's sad. It's really, really sad that for the tenth anniversary, this is where it is. But I think EA and Disney have given up on this game entirely. I think they knew that if they had a cantina they'd likely be fielding a lot of comments from angry fans. But I also think they didn't get the funding to do a cantina, and I don't think they had exciting plans for the future they could share. 

One thing that was brought up on the official forum is that SWTOR is the last bastion of Legends, and that Disney likely would like to make that go away. We know they are willing to discard literal decades worth of comics and novels - they did that with the EU established with Mara Jade, the Solo kids and the New Jedi Order. They just threw every bit of it away. Given that, I think they'd have little trouble throwing away SWTOR, even though it's ten years old. 

I think Disney is focusing on things like the Mandalorian, Doctor Aphra in the post-A New Hope era and Kenobi before the Battle of Yavin for a really good reason: they know the post-RoTJ stuff they've done has not been well received. They wasted the EU and its rich characters; they wasted the talented actors who appeared in the sequels; they wasted characters who frankly could have been amazing, like Finn, Rey, Rose and Poe; they wasted cute characters like BB-8 and the porgs; and they wasted the potential for great new relationships, like Finn/Poe/ They threw every bit of it away. 

But they are still fucking with old properties, and KOTOR is supposedly getting a remake that will likely be Disney canon. From there...will SWTOR be up next? I hope not with every fiber of my being. +

I don't accept the Disney canon post RotJ. 

In this house, crystals are not bled. There's no such fucking thing. They're attuned, and the red ones are synthetic and a little more unstable. 

In this house grey areas of the Force are entirely possible and exist. 

In this house, Luke married Mara Jade and had a son and a New Jedi Order that worked. 

In this house, Han and Leia had three kids and a granddaughter and a hell of a different life from the sequels. 

In this house, I don't want Disney's Star Wars to touch the SWTOR universe. Even if they taint KOTOR, please, for God's sake, stay away from SWTOR. Please. I'm begging you, Disney. Frankly I hope they will do what they did to the extensive, awesome extended universe: ignore it and walk the other way, because if they touch it it will not be good. 

Given the multiple different pathways characters in SWTOR can take, it would be plausible not to touch it. For real. They could be smart enough to crib from Final Fantasy XIV's reboot: "oh, the Sith Warriors and Jedi Consulars were there, so many warriors, but the records were all destroyed and their faces and names aren't known now!" ;) Say it was a fever dream. Say it happened in an alternate universe. Anything but making Lana, Darth Marr, Satele and the other beloved characters into...whatever they did in the sequels. 

[sullustangin]

Forged Alliances Part 3:  Check In and Rakata Prime

Eva (internally):  I have made bad, bad choices in regard to this guy, and will probably continue to do so. 

Theron summons the player to Carrick Station for a brief update after he and Lana apparently meet up with Jakarro’s smuggler hook-ups. Since I play a Voidhound smuggler, I squirmed around this one by having Jakarro not be in Voidfleet (and unaware as to who Eva is when she’s ‘on the job’).  

It’s at this point Theron explicitly reveals in game that he’s Revan’s 10x over great-grandson or something like that.  Now, this is interesting from a SWTOR canon standpoint.  The novel Revan came out in 2012, a couple of months before Annihilation, Theron’s solo novel.  Vaner Shan, Revan’s son from whom Theron, Satele, and all Shans descend, is only made canon in Revan in 2012.  Satele entered canon in 2009 in a SWTOR teaser webcomic, and Theron became canon in 2011 in Lost Suns.  Both times, it’s only teased at that these Shans are related to Bastila and possibly Revan (because, in KOTOR, you can make Revan who you want them to be).  Vaner enters canon after Satele and Theron, and it’s only then that it is clear that SWTOR-verse Revan is a dude (Keanu Reeves) and did hook-up with Bastila... 9 years after KOTOR came out and over 3 years after establishing Satele.  A little weird, but this is Star Wars; it’s all in the family...

...and that doesn’t just end with the Shan family set-up. As Pubs, you might have rescued Revan from prison and sent him off to Tython, so good for you....but the Imps do get him. As Jedi Consular, you actually talk to Bastila (or her noetikon) several times.  For the Jedi, depending on how you respond to Theron, he’ll comment that Master Zho had said something similar about the Force guiding them -- no further explanation, but a nice throwback to the Lost Suns.   (I decided to make this nice and awkward for my smuggler by selling the info about Revan and his planned travels to the highest bidder, after the Pub didn’t pony up for busting him out of Maelstrom Prison.)

One of the interesting differences between Theron and Lana here is that Theron only makes one off-hand comment about you being interested in Lana, if you flirt with him again after flirting with her... but it’s a whole to-do with Lana. Meanwhile, even if you pick every flirt option with Theron, the best he offers is “I might like teams.”   The Pubs get family history with Theron and the general idea of “let’s spread the risk around so someone will survive to fix this problem.”  The Imps get “do you likey-like him or do you likey-like-like me?” and “in theory, the Revanites are interesting as a third way between Jedi and Sith, but they’re doing it wrong.”  As I mentioned in my Lana post, Lana is driven by her passion for the Empire (and if romanced, the player) -- as well as a rather robust pragmatism that doesn’t jive with some Sith tendencies.  She gets into philosophical discussions with Gnost-Dural later in Onslaught.  This is a trait carried over from her earliest appearances.

The Rakata Prime briefing on both ends is pretty direct.  Interestingly, Lana acknowledges that she asked Theron for help in order to decode transmissions.  There is an ongoing theme here of Lana being the less experienced spy, although she’s the more serious person in terms of temperament.  Granted, the Imperial responses to Arkous’ betrayal tend to be more furious and bloodthirsty compared to... well... this:

Eva:  On a scale of one to ten, how suicidal is this one going to be?

Theron:  No worse than usual.  So maybe a twelve?

There’s also a nice reference back to the Rakata tech the Pub player fooled around with on Tatooine.

Theron:  I’ve seen Agent Fauler’s reports on that one.  It’s good to know we’re bringing along an expert.

On Rakata Prime, we get to have one of the two LS/DS decisions to engage in spy games with Theron or Lana.  Impside, Lana wants that cyborg tech for the Empire.  The LS decision is to fight them for the data for the Empire.  The DS decision is to fry them as suggested by Theron. This comes off to me as “DS stupid,” since one would rather spite Lana than do something useful.

And the choices are the same for the Pub:  LS fight, DS fry.  What’s the justification?  The difference is, the Pub fights them because they’re ‘being killed in their sleep’ otherwise, while the DS decision is done to screw over any ambition Lana has for collecting them.  Never mind the fact they’ve already been altered and become zombies, sort of like what we saw on Tatooine.  Apparently, Zombies are People Too.  Lana plays off her attempt at subterfuge much better than Theron, who is so damn smug if you fry the borgs.  

And then Revan reveals himself as ... somewhat alive-- and our heroes are put to flight, splitting up to meet at Carrick/Vaiken....

EDIT:  Part 1 and Part 2