#dg plays kotor

[dgcatanisiri]

Kreia brings up a point that the Star Wars universe - Legends AND Disney - really need to be more observant of: There are things in the galaxy that being a Jedi ill prepares one for. There are talents that the Force-less have that can allow them to out-perform any Jedi, things that a non-Force user can do that make them better capable than the Jedi is.

The Jedi have great abilities, but that doesn’t mean that there is nothing they can learn from the non-Force users in the galaxy. Being a Jedi is not and should not be considered the be-all, end-all of life in the galaxy far, far away.

And you know, I don’t think this message is mangled through the allowance of the Exile’s companions to be made Jedi. All of them lived outside of being Jedi, even the Disciple (who, because of mechanics, my Exile here will only briefly encounter). In many ways, that makes them BETTER at being able to guard and defend the people of the Republic - as opposed to the institution of the Republic, as we often see the Jedi do.

[dgcatanisiri]

Man, I have GOT to start using Kreia’s line here more often.

[dgcatanisiri]

And the thing here is... Lorso ISN’T WRONG. The Ithorians are trying to restore Telos to as close to a natural state as they can, and that’s a good and noble goal. But... Telos is barely hanging on as it is. The planet was devastated and it needs a lot of time and effort and money in order to bring it back to a livable state. And to do that requires something that pencil pushers among the Republic can cite as tangible results. Tangible results don’t come in short order. Fixing Telos’s problems, even before the Peragus fuel crisis starts, is going to NEED grand gestures to justify the Republic spending more money on it.

This actually hits harder for me personally because of my mother’s medical issues - because she hits plateaus in her physical recovery, the government stops covering her expenses with therapy. Because that then becomes our expense, we can’t cover that AND the standard bills. Which means that she doesn’t get the physical therapy with the trained experts she needs, and LOSES physical ability.

It’s the same with Telos - the Ithorians WANT to do a good thing in restoring Telos. But the amount of money that the Republic is spending without a tangible result (or on a scale that is microscopic when discussing an entire planet - I think when we do run around Telos, based on scale, we see maybe the length of MAYBE a couple of city blocks or so, which is not exactly a lot of great progress when your job is to heal an entire planet)... The Ithorians are costing the Republic money on this and it’s not moving at a justifiable speed.

Lorso is the Corrupt Corporate Executive... But honestly? Her arguments probably are for the betterment of the Republic at large.

That’s one of the things I love about KOTOR 2. Even the light/dark side decisions are gray.

[dgcatanisiri]

I know this is a cover story, considering that I have the meta knowledge that it’s Carth on the Sojurn, and he wants to follow any lead on the Ebon Hawk and Revan. Still, it does seem questionable that the Republic would send a ship to Citadel Station in order to further investigate the destruction of the Peragus facility.

Like, sure, the Exile and company are on Citadel, but the passengers can be shipped out there, the ship can be hauled... The Sojurn coming to Citadel does not seem a necessary part of this “investigation.”

Again, I know it’s a cover story, but it’s kind of a flimsy one.

[dgcatanisiri]

Man, that’s actually pretty skillful on Lorso’s part. “The Ithorians surely made these kinds of veiled threats towards you, didn’t they? No? Well, I’m sure that’s utterly unimportant.” It is making the threats a part of the conversation, but even Jedi, and their vaunted “certain point of view,” would acknowledge that, no, she has made no threat to sell the Exile to the Exchange, and is not at all suggesting that this is something the Exile has to worry about.

And she does this before the conversation truly begins, so that the Exile will be aware of that threat, yes, on her end, which allows her to play the victim later on when (she would presume) the Exile calls her on her veiled threats and allusions - “I made no such claims! I assumed the Ithorians had, and spoke of their tactics, why are you blaming ME?” Thereby casting the suspicion, at least on the legal end, to the Ithorians.

Of course, it DOES kinda fall apart when you bring it back down to the interpersonal level - she is making her stance clear to the Exile. But then, that’s the thing for her. She is normally on the corporate playing field, where these maneuvers are entirely sensible, even encouraged. But bring it back down to the one-on-one level, she is basically setting up why the Exile should distrust her and refuse to help her. She is a smart and intelligent pencil pusher. But in order to respond to the Ithorians changing the playing field just by bringing their plight to the attention of a Jedi - known meddlers in things like profit margins - she is playing on a battlefield that isn’t normally her own, leading to this kind of tactical blunder.

[dgcatanisiri]

The big thing about the Ithorians and Czerka is that... Yeah, the Ithorians are probably doing better by Telos as a planet proper. They’re trying to restore the planet and its natural ecology (at least, as much as possible when it comes to transplanting the animal life of another world, and we’ll definitely have much to say about Dxun’s animal life THERE...), and that’s definitely for the best for the planet.

But in terms of financial responsibility, Czerka having control of the restoration project is probably better. They’ll make it cost effective, which, considering the resources that are needed to bring a planet back from the edge of destruction... Like just look at the projected estimates of switching Earth over to cleaner energy.

Obviously, we should see the Ithorians as the good guys, but... When living in a system that demands there be a financial cost/gain to everything, you do need to justify that expense. So what would be better for the Republic would be to either find a cheap way to start getting a return on the investment or cut their losses, meaning Czerka probably IS better for Telos than the Ithorians, in the sense that they would get profit generated from Telos, and make the Republic more willing to put money in to restoring it.

This is grey morality. The Ithorians are unquestionably the long term good for Telos. But in the short term, they’re bad for Telos, and could cause a lot of problems for the Republic at large.

[dgcatanisiri]

No, it’s just some guy with probably the most generic NPC head in the whole game. Understandable how you’d make that mistake, though.

[dgcatanisiri]

It wouldn’t be dark sided to use the Force to toss him around a bit, maybe pull him towards the force field, right? Right?

*sigh* FINE. We’ll do this the Jedi way and talk reasonably...

[dgcatanisiri]

Interesting there. The only option that directly addresses what happened to the Exile’s lightsaber specifically is the one that is... not entirely true. Sure, the Council demanded they surrender it, but as we see later, the Exile didn’t have it taken from them. They actively made it a message to the Council. 

Of course, it’s entirely reasonable that the Exile wouldn’t go into detail of it to Atton here and now. But it’s a rare portrayal of the player character offering something that’s not quite true on a meta level - generally, if a PC is lying, it’s something that the player themselves actively decide on. But here, the Exile is half-truthing both Atton AND the player.

Just a neat little detail that really helps make the Exile feel more like a fully rounded person, in a way that other PCs in games don’t.

[dgcatanisiri]

I mention that I love that the Exile can absolutely be a complete little shit?

[dgcatanisiri]

This really is one of my favorite lines in the whole game. Seriously, Jedi crypticisms have been the source of more frustrations and headaches in this franchise than most anything else.

[dgcatanisiri]

Kreia’s on a roll here. And she’s not really talking to the Exile. No, she’s leaning pretty heavily on the fourth wall, speaking to the player.

If war is not about physical combat - and it rarely is - then it is about belief. And what are beliefs but the teachings we hold dear? Kreia is, above all else, a teacher. And she’s saying right here, the teachings that matter are where the battleground is. The teachings that last, that matter, that end up being what survive, these are what wars are founded on.

Even the Jedi and the Sith come down to different teachings about the Force. Is the Force a servant to all, or the servant of one? And, with the Exile being the central point of all of this attention, that makes what teachings the Exile follows the ones that matter. 

[dgcatanisiri]

Atton gives this up a little quickly, doesn’t he. Like, it’s one thing for him to be afraid of the Sith coming after them, getting thrown into another Force cage, or just getting pinned for the destruction of the Peragus facility, but... I don’t know, something seems odd about how he both brings this up immediately, then almost immediately gives it up, too.

[dgcatanisiri]

Seriously, I love that the Exile gets to be such a snarky shit.

[dgcatanisiri]

*grumbles about the relative drought of M/M content for KOTOR/TOR*

Part of it, I know, stems from the base games not having same-sex romance options (aside from Juhani, but that was hacked to pieces, so...). But STILL.

There are five M!Exile/Atton fics on AO3. I am the writer of three of them. AND, on the basis of word count, I’d probably put my responsibility for that pairing’s representation there at like 90%.

It’s just exhausting.

[dgcatanisiri]

My “canon” name for both my Exile from KOTOR 2 and my Smuggler in TOR is the same, Dak Hain. I kinda look at that as being a convenient alias for the both of them - kinda the Star Wars equivalent of “John Smith.” These are names they adopted to drop off the map, and, over time, came to accept them as their “real” name, because the identity they assumed became the person they were.