#from that order 66 scene in jfo

[telamons]

it’s just me rambling because i can’t stop thinking about what could happen to cal in the third (and possibly last game, knowing that respawn originally wanted to make the jfo series a trilogy?) but anyway here it goes. spoilers below of course, feel free to interact with this post, i really want to have other people’s theories on that matter.

a few days ago, i was still in the mindset that cal could potentially die at the end of his story. why? well, primarily because as jedi survivor proved it to us, no one within the mantis’ crew is safe from being harmed and/or killed and cal showed us that he seemed to have a death wish more times than i would like to admit. BUT. call it wishful thinking but actually i don’t think he’s gonna die.

you see, whether we’re talking about jedi fallen order or jedi survivor, both games are actually journeys where cal learns. it’s a journey of discovery. in jfo, he learns how to properly use the force (his connection to it being “broken” at the beginning of the game), he learns how to trust people (him being a jedi makes him a target to pretty much everyone he meets), he learns how to accept his former master’s death (amazing cutscene by the way). In jedi survivor, he learns what obsession could lead to (bode and garan being two good examples), he learns how to be in control of the dark side at the end of the game (there’s a big difference with how he fought on nova garon and how he fought bode on tanalorr even though it’s still not perfect).

there’s a scene at the beginning of the game between greez and cal that i feel is extremely important, and people are sleeping on it. cal sleeps at pyloon’s saloon and they have this big conversation where greez tells him to just rest, stop fighting and settle to find a home because if he goes on like this, he’ll end up losing something important. to which cal replies that if he stops fighting then it will be like he gives up on all the people that have died so he could live. greez drops the subject, knowing he won’t make him change his mind even though cal told him he’ll think about what he said.

at no one’s surprise, cal keeps fighting all the way through even though he’s starting to realize that his obsession with the empire is anything but safe for him. as greez predicted earlier, he does end up losing someone very dear to him (aka cere) near the end of the game and for a short period of time, cal ends up almost losing himself in hate and anger and almost lets the dark side take over. good thing for him though, merrin’s here to support him and talk him out of it and he finally realizes that the way he lives is no way to live. during the ending, cal promises cere he still won’t give up the fight (for now) but he’s more in peace with himself than he used to be. killing him would basically do more damage to his character/persona than just kill the character “physically” because it would mean that all the knowledge he gained throughout jfo/js would have been for nothing.

remember when i said that that particular conversation in pyloon’s saloon between cal and greez was very important? because i actually think that greez represents what cal is meant to become while the cal we see at this moment is the present cal, who’s mentally broken. they’re just two sides of his personality that clash during this cutscene, i’m 99% sure that cal actually doesn’t want to fight, but he feels like he has to, for all the people that he lost over the years and i hope that the third game would help him realize that okay, it’s a good reason to fight but him being dead won’t settle anything. we talk a lot about his ptsd after surviving order 66 and more specifically his survivor’s guilt that makes him restless (he won’t stop running because he doesn’t want to think, he’s scared to be alone with his thoughts, we even have proof that he has nightmares when sleeping, so you won’t change my mind about that), but i think we’re all missing the point here: i do honestly think he hates himself and for as long as he doesn’t overcome this hate (mostly through fighting the darkness/dark side) and just accept his past, he won’t be able to move on to the person he’s supposed to become and get the happy ending he deserves.

[shefellofftheworld]

Please lose the last shreds of your self control and yell about bd-1's arc and its place thematically in fallen order

Ahh I was not expecting anyone to want the rant but SINCE YOU ASKED

So I absolutely love JFO and everything about it, because at its core it’s a story about hope and healing when everything has fallen to pieces. I can’t get enough of that. I’m going to do my best to keep this post to a reasonable length, but I am going to be honest: brevity is not my strong suit when it comes to stuff I like. You have been warned. 

Here’s the thing about BD-1: he didn’t need an arc. They didn’t need to thread him through the thematic and emotional heart of this game as much as they did!! That’s part of why his arc took me so much by surprise. He basically has a stealth arc, and it works so well because he’s already serving the game really well before I even got an inkling of it. So first I’m gonna go through BD-1 as I experienced him in my first playthrough, and then look at the ways that JFO retroactively adds a TON of meaning to his interactions with Cal. 

Long post and many spoilers for Jedi: Fallen Order under the cut:

Bogano: First Impressions

BD-1 is a cute lil droid companion, and frankly Respawn could have stopped there and I would have been entirely on board. I mean, look at him.

He’s adorable. 

Respawn didn’t stop there though! BD also serves to make several game mechanics diegetic in a really cool way. He provides the map, he does the healing, and he analyses stuff for the codex. Again: Respawn did not need to go as hard as they did. Cute Droid That Serves Gameplay Purpose would have been more than enough to sell me on BD-1. But! They not only used BD-1 to make those mechanics fit inside the narrative of the game, they used the gameplay mechanics to inform BD’s character!!!!

Excuse me while I take a moment to be incredibly excited about good game design. 

So we first meet BD-1 on Bogano, just after the prologue/tutorial level for the game. We met Cal on Bracca, got introduced to our initial exploration and fighting mechanics, and played through JFO’s inciting incident. Cere and Greez drop Cal off on Bogano and give him two goals: meet someone important, and find the key to rebuilding the Jedi order. 

We’re now introduced to the Meditation mechanic (Star Wars Brand Bonfires). It’s yet another example of how Respawn took a mechanic specific to the genre of game they were making and then turned it into a core part of the narrative. 

I love this game so much.

It’s already been established that Cal’s trauma is hindering his ability to connect to the force—whenever he tries, he relives his memories of Order 66. After we finish the Meditation Tutorial, we exit to a cutscene that reinforces that character beat:

And introduces someone new. 

I know I talked a lot about Cal here, but that’s because BD-1’s characterisation is intrinsically linked to his interactions with Cal—he’s a Companion Character. It’s important that we first meet BD here. The first time we meet BD, Cal is in pain and BD-1 wants to help. 

(I love him) 

Throughout the game, we understand BD’s dialogue through other character’s responses—mostly Cal’s. In this scene, BD introduces himself and then asks Cal if he’s OK. Awww. Cal says he’s looking for someone, and BD-1 perks up and responds. “No, not you,” says Cal immediately. He’s looking for a Jedi! We’ve definitely never seen this play out before. BD-1 is not discouraged. He knows about a Jedi! He is Very Excited to lead Cal where he needs to go. 

We learn a lot about BD from this scene! First: he’s adorable. I know I’ve said that a lot, but it bears repeating. 

look at him

In terms of characterisation, we learn that BD-1 is helpful, important to Cal’s quest somehow, and apparently full of love and enthusiasm. He wants to know if Cal is ok!!! And he wants to help!!! BD stands both for Buddy Droid and for Best Droid. This scene has done its job well: the story has progressed, and presumably there remains not a single member of the audience who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with the Loveable Droid Character. This is good, because he’s going to be with us for the rest of the game. 

Now we get to mechanics. First, we’re introduced to the map. Cal sees the Vault in the distance, and says that whoever he’s looking for must be waiting there. BD-1 stops frolicking to show Cal his map of the area, and the game takes a moment to do a tutorial. BD has helpfully put an objective marker over the vault! Thanks, lil guy. The holomap also highlights unexplored areas—more standard game fare, but because the map is diegetic, it’s also technically information about BD-1. He wants to help us explore! 

The next thing we learn about BD-1 is that apparently he, uh. Likes to improvise. “Any ideas?” asks Cal. “We’ve got to get across this gap somehow.” BD-1 proposes that he serves as a tool to help Cal zipline across gaps. Both of them seem to have fun ziplining. 

“How’d you know that would work?” 

“Bee bo-boop!” 

“Wait, you didn’t?” 

Don’t sound so concerned, Cal. Nobody fell into any bottomless chasms. You don’t have any room to talk, anyway. I saw you on Bracca. 

We run around a little more, and then the unthinkable happens. BD-1 rushes to the defense of a lil critter that’s about to get eaten by a predator, and gets his leg chomped for his troubles. He does a heartbreaking little limp away from danger while Cal practices his lightsaber skills 

poor baby

Words cannot do this scene justice so I'll just give you a video:

This scene reinforces how adorable BD-1 is (very adorable, in case anybody wasn’t sure) and continues to set up his friendship with Cal. It also serves to set up an in-game way for the devs to control access to certain areas of the map—BD’s busted scomp link is going to stop us from opening a few doors until we’ve hit a few more story beats. 

This scene is also one of the most important in BD-1’s arc, but that doesn’t become apparent until later. 

Shortly after this, Cal happens to receive some injuries that nobody could have possibly forseen or prevented by not swinging lightsabers at live wires. We get one of the most adorable cutscenes in the game:

And then BD-1 presents Cal with the Star Wars Brand Estus Flask and joins Cal as a permanent companion.

(he's so cute)

Cal asks BD-1 how he got to Bogano, and BD-1 says he doesn’t remember. Weird for a droid to be forgetful, but oh well. To the Vault!

Ok but first we need to get some cosmetic loot, because the real goal of Jedi: Fallen Order is to collect ponchos.

BD-1 goes rifling through chests for us, because the devs at Respawn saw an opportunity for adorable character moments and grabbed it with both hands. Over the course of the game, BD-1 continues to fling himself at the nearest poncho receptacle. Cal in response takes a journey from confused through resigned and lands on indulgent. I love this game so much. 

Ok, now to the Vault!

Wait wait wait BD-1 has found something cool and he really really wants to show it to you. 

Now for real to the Vault.

There’s some more story stuff that happens before we get there, but that’s the bulk of our initial introduction to BD-1. We make a friend and learn a bunch of new mechanics, which themselves teach us about our friend. BD-1 is a friendly little droid who wants to help and likes to explore and learn things. He’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie and gets excited when there’s something to scan. He doesn’t like it when Cal gets hurt, and for some reason wants to go to the same Plot Location that Cal does.

He’s probably not the person Cere wants us to meet, though. That’s a Jedi! A great warrior. For sure. 

(I think I’m funny)

At the vault, we learn that BD-1 is, in fact, the person Cere wants us to meet. In fairness to Cal, though, there is also technically a Jedi. Technically. 

BD-1 contains encrypted messages from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who has hidden the holocron we’re looking for. In order to find it, he wants us to follow in his footsteps. Thus follows one of my favourite scenes for Cal, but this post is already going to be too long so I’ll spare anyone who’s made it this far that particular ramble. Cal and BD-1 officially team up, find some more clues, access a couple of Master Cordova’s video diaries, and head back to the ship. 

I will now proceed to exercise incredible restraint and move on to the next section rather than giving you a play-by-play of BD-1’s every move for the rest of the game. I would say 'you’re welcome', but you’re missing out on BD-1, so. 

The Burgeoning Friendship

I want to emphasise how constantly present BD-1 is in JFO’s story. Not only is he literally present on Cal’s back for the vast majority of the game, but he’s also constantly interacting with both Cal and the player. 

For one, there’s all those mechanics I mentioned earlier. Every time we look at the map, heal damage, or find something new, JFO is drawing our attention to BD-1. Granted, some actions are less obvious than others—we don’t pause in the middle of any given battle to show a long ‘BD-1 gives Cal a healing stim’ animation, and rightfully so—but when we’re just running around the map, BD-1 manages to feel like a character in his own right. He gets excited when Cal finds more healing stims (or literally any box for him to jump into), he runs around to show us things, he’s got his own adorable little idle fidget animations, the whole shebang. Mechanically he pretty much ends up functioning as a secondary player character. 

Teamwork!

There’s also a bunch of incidental dialogue between Cal and BD as we run around. Cal likes to comment on what’s going on—be it a new force echo, a distant objective, or even just his thoughts and feelings about whatever is happening at the time. It’s a good way to keep an audience in touch with a character, but it can feel a bit weird to have a character start talking to the air about whatever it is the devs/writers want the player to know right now. Enter BD-1! Now Cal is talking to the cute robot buddy, which is incredibly relatable. 

I, too, would tell this little guy all of my deepest darkest secrets. 

BD-1’s trustworthy face aside, it’s also a good design choice! Now not only do we have a way to naturally insert whatever information Cal needs to deliver at any given time, we can turn that information into character beats for both parties. Cal and BD respond to each other, and so both of them feel more like independent characters who are present in and reacting to their circumstances. It helps keep us immersed in the narrative even when we’ve temporarily left the narrative behind to attempt the same jumping puzzle 15 times in our endless quest for ponchos.

My compulsion to give Cal as many ponchos as his little heart desires aside, Cal and BD’s conversations are really effective at keeping the player involved in what Cal is feeling. Some of my favourite moments are when BD-1 checks in with Cal while they explore the crashed Venator (ow), or when the two of them find Cordova’s old workshop. There’s definitely more, but I’ll be honest I have neither the time nor the energy to play or watch through the entire game to find it. If you’re reading this, though: you absolutely should. It’s such a good game. 

Where was I? 

Right! Narrative! 

I’ve spoken about gameplay, but we really see BD-1’s narrative presence in cutscenes. He’s constantly involved in every story beat, even if sometimes he gets a little distracted. 

He's very worried about your salt intake, Greez

BD-1 cares about our quest and about our characters. He has fun hijacking an AT-AT, and intervenes to help Cal when a fight is getting a bit dicey 

To outline the full extent of BD-1’s involvement in the narrative would be to outline the whole narrative, and I swear I am trying to keep this post to a somewhat readable length, so I won’t do that. But I want to highlight these moments. They’re moments that get us attached to our characters, and moments that build the story. They draw us in to the relationship between Cal and BD-1, and also in a sense build a relationship between BD-1 and the player. I know that when I play JFO, I’ll often talk to BD-1 myself. If he hops off of Cal’s shoulder to look at something, I get excited too. NG+ removing all of the chests may make completing every corner of the game more convenient, but sometimes I’ll start again from scratch just to let BD have his fun. One of the benefits of games as a narrative medium is how involved the player is in the story—even at its most linear, the player is still an active participant. Another benefit to a game like JFO is the length. More is not always better, but in this case Respawn uses the player’s time well. No matter what we’re doing, we’re interacting with the world and the characters—and time spent interacting is time spent building a connection. 

All this is to say that by the time we take our little detour via bounty hunter coliseum, I am right there with Cal panicking about our little friend 

Those monsters

Dathomir and Ilum: The Payoff

This section is going to be hard for me to write coherently, mainly because whenever I think about this part of the game my brain stops forming words and instead descends into incoherent screeching interspersed with playbacks of various moments. I have to take a minute before I even go to Dathomir because I know what’s coming. I love this game so much and this sequence wrecks me every time. 

I’ll do my best though! 

Cal and BD have been through a lot together by this point. They’ve joined a rebellion, fought Inquisitors and delved into ancient ruins. They’ve been hunted by the Empire and by bounty hunters. We’ve done all that with them, too. As we go to Dathomir, Cal is wrestling with a lot of things. He’s back to the level he was at before the Purge, but he’s still hurting and traumatised. 

I could talk at length about Dathomir, but this is a post about BD-1 and I am ostensibly trying to keep this somewhat concise. 

(laughs in over 2500 words so far)

It is on Dathomir that things come to a head. Cal has a flashback of the events of the Purge, then faces a vision of his dead Master Tapal. When he comes to, his lightsaber—the one passed on to him by Jaro Tapal as he died—is broken. He is forced to flee Dathomir, and returns to Cere and Greez on the Mantis. 

It’s a heartbreaking sequence. The player is right there with him throughout—we are high-fiving the trooper who teases Cal. We are navigating the vents of the Venator as clone troopers hunt us down. We are watching Jaro Tapal die defending Cal, and then we are fighting a vision who verbalises what Cal has been feeling this whole time—he has failed. His master died because he was weak and slow and useless. He can’t save the Jedi Order. He isn’t fit to wield his Master’s saber, and he isn’t fit to be a Jedi. 

BD-1 is not there for any of it. 

BD-1 has been with us for practically the entire game. In every cutscene I can remember, he’s been involved. He’s been running around doing his thing, or peeking over Cal’s shoulder. In this sequence, he is not present. He’s not there in the flashback, and he’s not there when we fight Jaro Tapal. He is present when the vision ends—but not really. He’s positioned so that we can barely see him behind Cal’s head. 

Cal goes through all this alone. 

(I will note that having now watched the scene a few times with special focus on BD-1, it does look as if he’s watching the rest of the room? Which gives me the impression that he’s tried to get through to Cal, realised he’s not responsive, and decided to watch his back while he deals with his Trauma-Based Force Stuff. Which. Ow. That’s so cute but he must have been so worried.)

It’s not until after Cal starts to leave that we check back in with BD-1. He sounds wrecked. And BD-1 can’t help. 

The saddest wooo

We now proceed through a conversation with Cere and also, incidentally, several tissues. 

Ow.

But! There’s hope! New goal: Get Cal a new kyber crystal to replace the broken one, then everything will be fixed and we’ll be ok. 

:(

After some more troubles, because poor Cal can’t catch a break, we finally get to the crystal. Cal seems upsettingly close to freezing to death, but we’ve made it! 

And then the crystal breaks. 

Cal gives up. 

Like, it’s-open-for-interpretation-but-I’m-pretty-sure-he’s-just-decided-to-lie-there-until-he-dies gives up. 

not pictured: my distressed yelling

And then: Eno Cordova speaks, and BD-1 enters the frame. “Failure is not the end, my friend.” It’s Cordova’s words, but BD-1 is playing the recording. BD-1 is encouraging Cal. Cal doesn’t really believe him. 

So BD-1 shows Cal Master Eno Cordova’s final recording:

Look, I am trying my best to be something resembling coherent here but. SCREAMS. 

S C R E A M S

I could talk at length about how much I love this whole scene but I have been basically just recounting for a while now so I will be brief. 

This scene completely reframes BD-1 as a character. He was already more than just a cute mechanics delivery system, but in this scene we learn that he chose to have his memories erased, and also that he chooses to believe in Cal. His faith in Cal gives Cal faith in himself, so he gets up and keeps fighting. 

Now please excuse me while I cry a little more. 

The First Meeting Again: What Makes Us Who We Are

One thing I really want to highlight from the above scene is that line from Eno Cordova: 

“Only with a trusted connection will your memories be restored.” 

I know it’s already pretty thoroughly emphasised by the game itself, but I didn’t quite understand its full impact on Cal’s journey and the themes of JFO until I replayed the game. 

Remember that scene way back on Bogano where BD-1 injured his leg and Cal fixed it? 

When I first played, I found it a little odd that BD-1 scanned Cal here. Why not earlier? Why now? I also thought it was a bit of a clunky story moment—Cal has already indicated that he’s going to the vault. Why are they repeating that goal here?

Because Cal fixed his leg. 

BD-1 was hurting, and Cal helped, and so the first memory was unlocked—a drive to get to the vault and show him the way forward. 

It’s a sweet little moment, and it’s cool to understand it better on a replay, but I think it’s also a moment that’s core to the themes of the game. On Dathomir, Cal’s fears are revealed: he is no Jedi. On Ilum, he gives up. 

And then BD-1 says: you were a Jedi all along. 

It’s been a repeated refrain throughout JFO: we are who we are because we choose to keep going. Jaro Tapal tells Cal that failing and getting up is the only way to succeed. Cere says “it’s the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are.” Cordova says “Hope will always survive in those who continue to fight.” 

Cal has been doubting himself ever since his Master died. He’s been hiding, cut off from the force and from his people. But over and over we see him choosing to help. He helps Prauf on Bracca, knowing it could cost him his life. He helps BD-1 on Bogano, just because he can. He helps Saw Gererra’s fighters and the Wookies on Kashyyk, because they need it. He struggles and he messes up, but over and over he chooses to help. To quote another piece of Star Wars media: His compassion leaves a trail. BD-1 shines a light on that trail. 

Respawn did not have to go as hard as they did with BD-1. He’s a cute little droid who delivers some mechanics in a cool diegetic way. They could have stopped there. Instead, they use BD-1 to enrich the story and the characters, and to drive home one of the the major themes of the game: how we work out who we are when everything has fallen apart. 

In the end, our gang won’t rebuild the Jedi Order. In that sense, they’ve failed. But each and every one of them is fighting. They’re holding on to hope, and sharing it with one another. It’s what makes them who they are. And by being who they are—in Cal’s case, choosing to be a Jedi, they have won a victory, even if they fail. 

Man I love this game.

[bittertarinetea]

“ready for a rematch later?” “yeah, anytime!”

[feelinkeeli]

Cal Kestis and why people say he's a "flat" character

Alright so.... months? ago I mentioned to @ironhoshi I had thoughts on Cal's character development in Fallen Order and I meant to share then in an original post instead of response.

So a lot of people, gamers in particular, tend to comment that they did not care for Cal as a protagonist because he came across as "flat" to them. A sentiment I don't agree with but I can kind of see how other people got there being a long time gamer myself.

I think this "Flat Cal" feeling is a result of expectations vs. reality people had for Jedi Fallen Order. Particularly when it comes to Power Fantasies and Survivor Fantasies.

Videogames often play into the Power Fantasy trope, especially Dark Souls- like games as JFO was marketed. The appeal of starting off weak and vulnerable and through time, effort, and skill turning into a powerful badass. Cal certainly does start off weak and grows into more power but the game's narrative as well as Cal's character development only briefly play into it.

When you consider it, Cal beats very few of the narrative Big Bads by himself. Merrin helps him with Malicos, the Shyyyo Bird with Ninth Sister, Cere initially rescues him Second Sister | Trilla, Vader kills Trilla, and Cere and Cal work together in the end to escape Vader. Aside from Ninth Sister, there aren't many narrative beats highlighting Cal's rising power in a way that leans into the Power Fantasy trope.

Notably, even the Ninth Sister scene gets dismantled from the Power Fantasy trope. Cal brags about how he defeated the Ninth Sister. Yet instead of praise for taking down a difficult opponent, Cere cautions Cal. She's happy he is growing stronger and more confident in himself but she cautions him against arrogance. A warning Cal later acknowledges as right of Cere to make. Cal learns to embrace humility instead of arrogance or overconfidence. His swagger is tempered. He defeats the illusion of Master Tapal not by fighting but by accepting the past.

Honestly, JFO pretty much dismantles the Power Fantasy trope.

Another trope people expected of JFO was a Survivor Fantasy (which I find very ironic now that the JFO sequel has been titled Survivor). In particular, a Lone Survivor Power Fantasy. The type of trope you see in the Lara Croft reboot and the zombie post apocalyspe horror genre (such as Last of Us and The Walking Dead). The idea of a character starting off weak and isolated and is forced to grow stronger and "harden" themselves so that rise above all the adversity trying to kill them (nature or man or even society).

Again, there's definitely a similar basis for this trope in JFO. Cal is one of a few survivors from Order 66, a survivor that is targeted and hunted. A perfect set up for the trope. Except JFO chooses to explore Trauma Recovery instead. JFO is a story of healing both the self and community. It's why Cal starts off brash and threantening to cut down Merrin to handing over his lightsaber to her and Merrin choosing to aide Cal as a result. It's why seeing all the damage on Kashyyyk pains Cal and how the planet hasn't been completely ravaged gives Cal hope. It's why Cal's flashback to his master result in him moving forward instead of letting the past define him. It's why Cere and Cal go through a bumpy mentor-and-mentee relationship resulting in both of them finding the willpower to stand up and fight for what's right. Why the fight against Vader ends with Cere on the brink of giving into the dark side of the Force again and Cal reminding her she has a choice. JFO is about trauma recovery and the importance of community in that recovery process. That one does not need to and should not do things alone.

In a sense JFO is also dismantling the the Lone Survivor Trope the same way it dismantles the Power Fantasy. Of course this dismantling of tropes instead of playing into them, as many videogames do, results in people feeling disatisfied. Gameplay and premise wise, the basis is there but it isn't explored narratively. So Cal comes across as flat because his character didn't develop the way people expected him to.

In reality, Cal's character development and growth is explored through acts of kindness, empathy, and forgiveness. It's about ending self-isolation, running and hiding from your problems, in order to heal and move forward. Cal's story in JFO is about picking himself up and then offering a hand to the next downed person he sees because it's easier to get up with help.

Cal isn't flat. He simply isn't a typical videogame protagonist.

[tsscat]

Okay my thoughts on jfo

Disclaimer that my analysis on game design is from a limited perspective as I really don’t play many open-world, role-playing, kind of games and this is really the first “Dark Souls-esque” game I’ve played. What I loved (other than most of it):

I know this has been said before but truly a spectacularly beautiful game. Like good graphics but also the art/design itself was gorgeous. The cinematography and lighting was incredible and it really added so much depth to the storyline and to the enjoyment in exploring. I hate the planet Zeffo for personal reasons (specifically those burrowing hog-things I’m forgetting what they’re called) but Zeffo to me was the most beautiful planet. Something so idyllic and serene about greenery in combination with the shiny blue-grey ice and stark rocky cliffs. Everyone who worked on the art and lighting and cinematography, and everyone who found ways to render and code this!!! In such detail without breaking the game or having any glitches!!! Truly everyone who worked on this deserve so much respect and admiration

My boy Cal! Love it when a jedi character is unequivocally kind and compassionate. Love it when they strive to be good and do good. Love it when their strength is in caring about other people and drawing people together because of that. Ezra and Cal my beloved <3.

Trilla and Cere and Merrin!!! Love the grief and complexity and heart in their stories! Trilla as the child betrayed and who grew up to become destroyer of everything she once loved. Cere who suffered a horror and failed her Padawan, growing with Cal to forgive herself and move forward. Merrin, the sole survivor of a massacre, stewing in her grief and rage for decades until an unlikely ally reached out and offered to be her friend and she chose that path to heal and grow instead of continuing to live in her past. God, the women in this game really did steal the show.

BD-1 <3 ofc. His mannerisms remind me of my kitten, difference being he is actually helps you, healing you and hacking into things for you while she bites. Love BD’s friendship with Cal too.

I like Greez too lol he’s nice he’s just. Tho feel like there’s not much to say compared to the others lol.

The themes of grief and of moving on. Star Wars at its worst struggles with how incredibly scarring the events of the prequels and Order 66 were. But when Star Wars gets it right god does it get it right. Love the hopeful theme of that, while you cannot ignore what you’ve lost, as it’ll always be a part of you, you must learn to stop living in the past. You must start moving forward, rebuild in any way you can. And also! To not fear failure, as it is essential part of life and is a necessary step in success.

Speaking of Order 66 I loved the Order 66 part in this game it was so heartbreaking!! I feel like in this day and age bringing up Order 66 in Star Wars media can sometimes feel like. Sadness bait if that makes sense. Like they know SW fans are gonna cry over order 66 scenes. But this did not feel like that at all. It was such a meaningful part (level???) and it was so scary playing as little underpowered Cal while the entire clone army was trying to kill you and your master. There was no health bar during this part but I feel like there should have been just to add to the feeling of vulnerability. Also love how it integrated all of the different skills you had learned through the game. When Jaro Tapal died and Anakin’s Betrayal played I cried. And THEN when you go back to the title screen after that and understand what it means aaaaah

LOVED how the gameplay played into these themes! Playing jfo was definitely frustrating to me, especially as I am not very familiar with this kind of game, but I came to realize that the struggle was *meant* to be part of the game experience. It’s okay to not get something on your first time! The point is to keep trying again and learn from your mistakes. I think many people had issues with the parkour in this game and how challenging it was at times but I think that was also a necessary part of the theme of struggle (tho I have one issue with it that I will get into later). Also love Cal’s power to read the past from objects and how you can essentially follow small stories from the past as you’re exploring with this power. It really does add into the weight of the past and also I think adds to the caring nature of Cal’s character.

I love the part when Cal breaks his lightsaber and he has to figure how to make do without it. First of all love when he has to run away from all the undead night sisters with basically no protection other than the force. I was stressed the whole way through but it was really so chaotic (affectionate). Ofc the storyline part of it was also amazing and made me cry again but also I think players up to this point have the tendency to rely too much on lightsaber mechanics and on Dathomir and Illum you were forced to use and get accommodated with other mechanics more especially using the force. Illum also was a nice moment of calm after the high stress Dathomir escape. And then ofc Cal’s moment of glory (really it’s *your* moment of glory) afterwards when he fixes his lightsaber and defeats all those storm troopers.

What I didn’t like/thought could be improved:

I don’t understand why the fighting tutorial in the train cart wasn’t…more tutorial-y? Like they kinda threw a bunch of stormtroopers at you and were like 'quick do all these things before the stormtroopers kill you' and you just had to figure it out. Like maybe I'm biased bc Ive never played combat of this style before but… Idk why they couldn't just remove the health bar for a bit until players figured out the mechanics. I think it would have been good also to have players fight one stormtrooper (maybe a more powerful one so it lasts longer) before they move onto multiple. What would have been helpful to me is if they had a one on one fight where you could try blocking a bunch of times, try parrying a bunch of times, trying evading a bunch of times until you figured it out, similar to the style of the later Jaro Tapal visions

I may be directionally challenged but I feel like navigating was often kind of frustrating and not in the good way. I would constantly take wrong turns and end up making 30 min detours. I sometimes navigating felt tedious and unnecessary and the map often felt difficult to read or make out.

The camera angle when you’re fighting is sometimes very weird. I’ve looked into this a bit and apparently it’s a bit of an issue with many Dark Souls-esque games but every once in a while if you were fighting someone in a more closed-space the camera would randomly veer off into some corner and you wouldn’t be able to see anything.

The puzzles are….ugh. In theory I would have loved the puzzles, as I would have loved something that was a break from the parkour and combat that was less about quick reaction times and more about taking a bit of time and thinking about a solution. However frankly the puzzle designs were awful. The degrees of freedom/what you could do or manipulate within a puzzle space were never clearly defined which makes puzzles more weird and confusing (in a bad way) than challenging and enjoyable. So many difficult puzzles were only difficult bc of how it required noticing some insignificant detail rather than intelligent design. And force pushing those damn spheres to their sockets was soooo tedious

While I liked the parkour, I do feel like the fact you couldn’t adjust the difficulty of the parkour made the game more inaccessible. The parkour relied on very very quick reaction times which could prove too difficult to someone with say, mobility issues.

Okay also I think the fixed save points were a necessary part of the gameplay but I hate how when you could stop playing were sooo dependent on them like. If I ever needed to stop the game suddenly my choices were to try to find another save point or lose all my progress. Felt like they could have had a word around for that.

Whyyyyy did they appropriate Amazigh attire for Merrin's clothing and then have her take off! the specifically Amazigh head piece!!! When she was no longer a villain!!! UGH orientalism is a stain on Star Wars and you can never seem to escape it

Anyways this is all of the big things I can remember for now but here are some details of the top of my head I thought were cool/ some other notes:

The fact that in the Dathomirian ruins when Cal was facing against force-vision Jaro Tapal, Cal turned off his lightsaber and Tapal’s saber stopped at the top of his head and how that mirrored Cere knighting Cal. Cere only knighted Cal later but that moment on Dathomir was when Cal became a knight in spirit. Dathomir was essentially his Jedi trials

When you were in that force vision to get the Holocron and you were in the dark so you had to illuminate the place with a lightsaber but when you did it was a red lightsaber and Cal had become an inquisitor. GOD that was good that was such a clever use of a pre-established mechanic for the purpose of story.

Cere using Trilla’s lightsaber in the final battle. It’s a metaphor for her accepting her past, it’s a metaphor for her regaining her confidence in herself as a Jedi (bc she trusts herself to stay in the light despite her use of a dark-side lightsaber). Cal earlier had felt Cere and Trilla’s overwhelming trauma surrounding this object and now here she is, bearing this same object as she fights for the future.

I like the fact that you gain the ability to force pull an enemy towards you and stab them that’s such a power trip

I like it. When Cal ride the dinosaur <3

The ninth sister is kinda hot even though she killed me a couple of times

Love how blunt Merrin is lol. She really is just figuring out how interact with people after she turns to your side like go queen explore the world around you

I could definitely see hints of kotor in this game which was interesting

I don’t think this would have improved the gameplay at all in fact it could have hindered it a bit but I think they should have given Cal a gun. I just think he should have one. Also some bombs. Give this man some explosives

Anyways my ranting is slowly turning incoherent and this is all I can remember. There’s definitely way more to talk about tho. All in all a lovely game that I really enjoyed despite being super stressed about combat (in storymode no less 😩).

[cosmik-homo]

Oh also. We've been playing a LOT of JFO- got from dathomir and order 66 to Ilum and then today to dathomir again, we're stuck on the boss fight but did the "don't have to be enemies" scene, and. I am sooo emotional over cal kestis and the entire, writing of this narrative and this boy and. So good he's trying so hard I love it when star wars is good

[inquisitorius-sin-bin]

How powerful do you think Inquisitors are? Going back to Star Wars JFO, the scene with Vader tearing the room apart and throwing it at Cal is intense. Do you think any of the Inquisitors can do something like that?

Probably only if they are like, really fuckin pissed

I mean it's sooooo hard to tell because they are constantly up against enemies with plot armor so they absolutely have to fail. But in Kenobi we saw the Grand Inquisitor stop Reva's lightsaber with the force and that was pretty badass.

From a logistical standpoint, they are not as powerful as a Sith Lord but more powerful than 99.9% of Jedi/Force Users that survived Order 66.

Video games are honestly the PERFECT medium for showcasing Inquisitors, because boy that game put the fear of god in me. I am not good at video games so I watched Marshall play and when even the K2 droids can push your shit in, an Inquisitor is a real, honest-to-god threat that had us on the couch like "ohh shit ohh shit I'm gonna die". And hey, we did. A lot.

[bedlamsbard]

you've probably been asked this before, but-- thoughts on jedi fallen order? your star wars meta/fic/etc is always my favorite and i'm very interested to hear what you think of the new game!

I liked it a lot!

So, as I’ve said before, I haven’t played it; I watched a playthrough on YouTube about a week or so after it came out, so I’d gotten spoiled for it despite trying to avoid spoilers, and the particular playthrough I watched actually had the sound cut out on two of the big scenes, so that was a disappointment.  Watching it rather than playing it means that I definitely missed some things that I’ve seen people mention about it, and I’d like to play it at some point if I can get the tech to cooperate, though that likely won’t be for a while.

I was a little wary about Cal Kestis going in because of the comments that the creators of the game had made about not wanting to have a female/POC/alien main character, but for me Cal was good enough, sweet enough, and interesting enough to overcome that.  I really liked how much weight JFO gave to trauma, living with it, and overcoming it, with Cal, Cere, Merrin, Trilla, and the other characters.  Obviously the poncho is Peak Star Wars, and BD-1 is very sweet.  And I love Inquisitors.

I know JFO has gotten some criticism for being ~yet another padawan survivor story, but Cal is so distinct from either Kanan or Ahsoka that that’s not really how it feels to me, and I think his interaction with Cere, Trilla/Second, and the Ninth Sister really make his story unique compared to the other two.  I love the beginning of the game; it’s such strong world- and environment- building, and the strong sense of Cal’s personality really comes through in his introduction (headphones, blasting music, “I’m trash, I’m just not approved trash” -- he’s peak 2019 gen Z, in my millennial POV).

As far as the actual plot goes, it’s *flips hand* pretty much eh.  It’s a MacGuffin and there’s no way around that; it’s also revisiting plot points from TCW and the Charles Soule Darth Vader comics.  I can understand why Lucasfilm would want to continue to revisit that particular plot point but also, I’m tired of it.  As far as JFO goes, the MacGuffin is mostly an excuse for the journey, which was...interesting.  There are parts of it I really liked; sorry, my dumb brain loves gladiatorial fights even if that probably wasn’t, like, necessary.  Kashyyyk was fun; it’s fun to see Saw Gerrera again even if I’m also kind of like “dude, you haven’t changed your armor in fifteen years?”  I enjoyed seeing Dathomir again even if I have mixed feelings about the choices made insofar as the worldbuilding, but Merrin was really wonderful.  The Zeffo...I still feel that the Zeffo, aesthetically, belong in Stargate rather than Star Wars; their actual use in the game also felt a bit more Stargate rather than SW, for me?  I mean, they’re also a MacGuffin, but I suppose insofar as SW go they’re on the same order as Loo Re Anno’s species from the Han Solo comic or the Rakata from the EU, so not really something that doesn’t have a place in Star Wars.

The Inquisitors. I love Inquisitors.  I don’t necessarily love these Inquisitors. I unfortunately got spoiled for the Second Sister’s reveal as Trilla/Cere’s former padawan, which kind of affected how I felt about her, and I’m also in the FB cosplay build group for Second and it’s a little cutthroat, so that affected it too.  She’s...fine?  Something about her just doesn’t hang together for me, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is at the moment.  The Ninth Sister has such a strong personality from the Darth Vader comics, and while she’s in character between the comics and the game, it also means I was a little taken aback by her abrupt ending.  (And I note that it feels a little weird that Trilla gets the name and the tragic backstory and the personal attachment and the not-actually-redemption, but Ninth doesn’t get any of those.)  It was also weirdly surreal for me to see the Fortress Inquisitorius, a.k.a. the canon version of the Crucible from Backbone, but tbh I think the decision to put it on another planet/moon(?) in the Mustafar system actually weakened it.

I got spoiled for Darth Vader’s appearance and that was one of the places where the sound cut out on the playthrough I watched, so it didn’t quite have the effect that it probably would have done had I gone into it cold.  That said, Cal and Cere should probably be dead; as I’ve seen pointed out, Vader hasn’t been allowed to kill anyone of significance in the new canon, which kind of undercuts him.  (The closest he’s come has been Jocasta Nu in the comics.)

All right. The ending. I don’t like the ending. Not because I really thought that Cal and Cere should have refounded the Jedi Order, but because I feel like they put the destruction of the holocron in the wrong place; I think they should have destroyed it to keep it away from Vader.  The conscious decision made not to re-found the Order is really uncomfortable for me, especially in light of the way that the new canon has treated the subject over the past couple years.  I was talking about this with @reena-jenkins a while back, so I’ll just copy and paste what I said there.  (Note that this was back in November, before TROS came out.)

(I’ve cut most of Reena’s responses and a little bit of other conversation we were having.)

So yeah, I have some problems with the ultimate ending decision, but as usual a lot of it comes down to how that intersects with other plot lines that Lucasfilm has done over the past five/six years.

Another thing I kept thinking of throughout the game was something one of the creators said -- either in an interview or at SWCC earlier this year, I can’t remember which, that there was a lot of debate on where to put the hyphen in Jedi: Fallen Order, i.e. that it could have been Jedi Fallen: Order (though title-wise that doesn’t stand up as much).  I do like how much emphasis there is on “fallen order” -- the Jedi Order, of course, but also the Nightsisters, the Zeffo, the Inquisitors and Purge troopers as a kind of twisted version of the Jedi and clone troopers, even the structure of the Republic being corrupted into the Empire.

One thing that took me by surprise with JFO was also how much intersection it had with Galaxy’s Edge!  Not to the extent that I would have noticed it if I hadn’t already been to Galaxy’s Edge, but having gone and also having the kind of brain that literally just absorbs stuff and then retains it.  Like, for example, the Galaxy’s Edge sporks that are now no longer used because people kept stealing them; they’re used in one of the meals on the Mantis.  Cal remaking his lightsaber and using the parts you can get at Savi’s got picked up by a couple of news outlets; I think this is actually a bit unfortunate, because they went for the Galaxy’s Edge lightsaber proportions for many of his lightsaber options and in my opinion, those are less elegant proportions than usually seen in Star Wars, so it ends up looking clumsy to me.  Another proportion thing that follows Galaxy’s Edge -- the holocron, both Cere’s and the MacGuffin holocron; the Galaxy’s Edge ones seem to be proportionally a bit bigger than the holocrons seen in Rebels and TCW, and the ones in the game follows Galaxy’s Edge rather than TCW/Rebels sizing. The Nightsister zombie crate in Galaxy’s Edge may also be a JFO reference rather than a TCW one, though obviously it could also apply to both.

I really enjoyed the Clone Wars/Order 66 flashbacks, though actually Order 66 was ANOTHER place the sound cut out!  I told you that it was the most dramatic reveals where I lost sound!  I loved that Jaro Tapal was a Lasat; I also like that, as far as I can tell, some of Cal’s specific movement types (wall-running and his tendency to be like “cool, gonna climb that”) seem to be more Lasat-inspired than other types of Jedi movement we’ve seen before.  I really like the design of Jaro’s lightsaber; I remember in the promo I was confused about the fact that it didn’t seem to be proportional to Cal, but of course it’s not!  It was made by a Lasat for a Lasat!  Order 66 is always such a mess -- and actually, I’m struck by how different Cal’s and Caleb’s experiences of it were?  I think one thing that the game made clear to me is how lucky Kanan got, in all ways.

The ending is obviously setting up for a sequel; I don’t really think Cal and Cere should have survived, but it we get a decent sequel out of it I guess I’m okay with it.  I know I’m missing details in this review, but I really did enjoy watching it; I liked the characters, I liked the worldbuilding, I think it did some really intriguing things even if I don’t agree with every decision made. (And, selfishly, I like my Inquisition better than the canon one.)