#kotor truly has it all

[thatwitchrevan]

The star wars dichotomy of 'loving droids to indicate high compassion and empathy' vs 'hating droids to indicate high Trauma'.

[not-that-n]

I think Kotor 2 is a really funny game when it comes to the average analysis of it's themes, because it managed to create such a compelling antagonist that most people just kinda get lost into trying to analyze her words and actions through her apparent philosophical stand when she is just written to be a great hypocrite, something that they almost always fail to mention in the average analysis of Kreya's character.

Like she makes some points, that sometimes helping others without thinking about your actions can hurt them more than you could imagine and says some other things that are almost true but she frames them as a philosophy of might, you shouldn't help others because you are depriving them of their strength, because through suffering there's growth, through struggle you reach enlightenment, through individual freedom you reach apotheosis. She then reaches the conclusion that God, aka the Force, is the biggest chain of all and to be truly free is to kill the force, to reject fate completely.

She acts like she has some sort of moral high ground over the sith and the Jedi when in reality she is not much different. In a way, she does have some beliefs she follows without question, she still uses the force and if you ask her about it she admits the hypocritical nature of her argument, first comparing to a poison and then saying that that's just an argument of an old woman trying to justify it. She always talks about how there are no chains, how you must be completely free of fate because there's no determinate outcome, whatever happens being a result of your strength, yet she still betrays you by the end because there must always be a Darth Treya, there must always be someone that directly betrays the order in it's moment of need. That's fate, that should, and will, always happen.

I always read her admiration for the player originating from our achievement of her goals without becoming hypocrites like she is, something I'm sure she is aware of as hinted by her dialogue in her last fight. The player rejected the force, reject fate, through strenght of will alone, using it more alike a weapon than a dogma, but the player, in a way, still uses the force mostly as a way of unknowingly influence others, their strength is not in self isolation in pursue of the strength of an individual through the death of morals and complete freedom, but instead in connection with others.

In the dark side ending the player becomes Kreya, a hypocrite that acts on their own desires, on their own impulses, because they can, afterall they had the strength to reject the force once so they are strong enough to do whatever. On the light side ending the exile takes the correct path, not following Kreya but transcending her, becoming better than her, understanding that you can overcome the chains of fate not through individual freedom but through connection, in the light side ending you archive what Kreya never could.

I always read Kotor 2 as a story of abuse and trying to grow out of it, in this case Kreya being the abuser, breaking both Scion and Nihilus causing them to become what she hated the most, and the player character being her new target, the exile being able to either follow the narrative's themes and be able to grow despite the abuse or fail and become the abuser themselves, perpetuating the cycle, the chain, that I always read as what the force is supposed to symbolize in this story.

Kreya is a spiteful person that believes that she can not grow, that she can not change and become better, she accepts herself in her own hypocrite nature because of this belief, she understands that through her own argument, one of complete freedom and transcending any chains that bind us, she is a failure like the rest of her students because she follows her own chain, she believes she most perpetuate the cycle of abuse.

That's the reason why I always disagree witht he concept that Kreya steals the show from both Scion and Nihilus because both of them are different outcomes that the exile could have become, both are victims of abuse that thought they couldn't change.

There's this one study I always think about, how kids that came from abusive households were more reluctant to let go of their parents, and Scion reminds me of this, rejecting Kreya at every opportunity but being unable to let go of her, she defined who he became as a person, a failure in both of their eyes. That's why he is so mad when you are going to confront Kreya, he thinks of you as her favorite, as the one that didn't become a failure, as someone who could reject and grow from their abuse when he couldn't. And I always found so interesting that the way you beat him os through words because, well, because you try convincing him that he can change, that he can grow, you beat him not through a fight, through a show of strength, but through showing, arguing, that the abuse he went through is not an unmoving chain, that he has the capabilities of change. And he doesn't believe you, never does, he would rather die than think about that, that admit you are right, he reacts the same way Kreya does, dying rather than admit they were wrong. It feels incredibly tragic that this happens because you know it could end up in another way, you are that other possible outcome.

And Nihilus is a simpler character because most of the content related to him was cut, but I always read him as the complete rejection of Kreya, as doing the exact opposite of whatever she said even when it still ends up hurting him, becoming a shell of what he was once. That said, most of that is just me guessing something that would fit with my reading of the themes and is never actually said in the game, it's kinda hinted but I admit there's not enough information to confidently say that.

Anyways, my point is that I find kotor 2 quite a compelling story and, while I understand why most people only ever discuss Kreya, I feel slightly disappointed that most discussions of the game never really talk about anything else the game presents

[tobyig]

(talking to Kreia after killing all the jedi masters)

Kreia: "What is left of the Jedi has felt what has happened - the death of Master Kavar."

Exile: "You mean Atris?"

Kreia: "No...what is left of the Jedi. You will find what remains in ruins of the Enclave on Dantooine."

what a baller line from Kreia: "No. The Jedi. Idiot."

it is talked abt SO MUCH in KOTOR 2 that Atris fell to the dark side.

For example:

Exile: Did you know Atris at all?

Kreia: Atris herself is not as familiar to me as perhaps she should be. Yet, I feel I know her, yes.

E: What do you mean?

K: Because Atris' path is one I walked long ago, and it is a chapter of my life that has been read and closed. She has taken the first steps, I think - we shall see. Surely you felt the righteous anger, the spoken judgments, the lack of forgiveness.

E: You walked her path?

K: I was a historian once, gathering the relics of the Jedi, learning the ancient mysteries. Always, there were more questions. One quickly learns that the Jedi code does not give all the answers. If you are to truly understand, then you will need the contrast, not adherence to a single idea. [...]"

Not only does this show that Atris is a "Dark Jedi" (or at the very least, not the same as when we were exiled) ("She has taken the first steps [...]. Surely you felt the righteous anger, the spoken judgments, the lack of forgiveness.") but it is also the convo where Kreia's history is first super shown (unless you get to watch her history cutscene).

anyway this game is really cool and every play through i do, i like Kreia like 10,000x more :)

[klazje]

thinking abt the trio (malak, exile, revan) and how they present themselves

malak, i believe, is an awkward and subservient to an almost annoying degree. he follows revan around, does what revan says. he’s not a charismatic leader and he lacks many skills that could turn him into a good leader. he’s quick to anger and lacks emotional discipline, which only worsens as his life entwines with the sith. really the only thing that keeps malak’s emotions in check (and snarky remarks) is revan. malak also has a lot of complicated feelings towards revan. eventually i believe that revan’s dismissal of him and what he believes he can offer in terms of command and leadership is what drives him over the edge (and all that sith stuff). after revan’s supposed death and malak assuming the position of leader in the sith— he becomes a bully. once he was quiet, did revan’s bidding, now he’s angry. i also believe that, quite frankly, he never shuts up. he talks back to people, rudely, and isn’t afraid of what will happen if he demands things. he’s no longer in revan’s shadow and he knows it.

the exile is not a chatty person. she makes polite conversation but she’s not overbearing. the exile is nice, goes out of her way to include people in things. she’s charmingly awkward. she’s fit for leadership, but it’s not a role that comes easily to her. the exile manipulates others to reach this goal, even without her truly realizing it. she’s not a confidant person, which is why she is so drawn to revan. her self confidence is weak, especially after she cut herself off from the force. the exile bases much of her self worth off of what she can do for others— revan before malachor, and later the crew of the ebon hawk. many people describe her as a sort of ghost, she passes through rooms unnoticed, but the impact she makes on those who do notice her is tremendous. by the time kotor ii roles around the exile is tired, it’s apparent in their face and their body language. unlike malak, they did not enjoy the attention brought by the war. there is also something to be said by her presence in the force. it’s a hole that eats away at its surroundings, something you would not expect from such an unassuming person. non force users see her as a quiet, nice but awkward woman, force users see her as a threat lurking beneath the waters of a murky lake.

the exile was a good leader but nothing like revan. revan is a confident and charismatic person who would stop at nothing to get what they deemed was needed. i believe they are a fundamentally good person, who easily gets caught up in the mindset of “means to an end”. they’re if nothing but determined. the exile and malak suffer from their inability to stand their ground, be what they need to be, revan is not that. they take what they need to get what they want. before the war many jedi would describe them as contemplative, always yearning for more knowledge. it’s not until the threat of the mandalorians emerge that they prove their leadership skills…but revan was off putting to an odd degree, and had always been. it’s as if you could see their fate etched onto them, and they knew it. they always knew. revan has an aura of understanding, knowing what is needed at all times. this was only exacerbated as the war was drawn on. their troops would describe them as a wonderful leader, good with their fellow soldiers, always knew what to say. but those in high command, or better yet malak, would not say that. they were short and shut down conversations or suggestions that did not fit with what they thought was right…after the war that same feeling was present. even if revan did not know who or what they were, they still knew they needed to get what was needed done. most likely they were more friendly and charismatic when they were amnesiactic. always knowing what to say or do. they were still an odd fellow, their demeanor switching from excitable and friendly to quiet and contemplative. and when i mean contemplative i don’t mean your average socrates, but in a way that makes a ripple through the force…

food for thought idk

[oblivionbladetd]

Lily and the Wonderful World of False Equivalency!

I've been stewing on this a while, and when focusing specifically on her self-appointed career, it's probably one of the worst things she does. (Because peeping at the larger whole has us gazing down the barrel of sexual abuse, grooming, and several other vile things Lily has perpetuated over the years.) But before this, context.

HBomberguy has two videos, one about Fallout 3, the other about Sherlock, both about how they are garbage. Now, this might come as a shock to some that he doesn't bring up other properties in his take downs. In the Fallout 3 video, he doesn't talk about anything other than Fallouts 1-3. In Sherlock, he does branch out, but only into Moffat's other projects and the original Sherlock Holmes story's. Both videos are very tightly focused and worth the watch for it.

Now, those who have had the major lapse in judgment that I had in 2016 watch the infamous Steven Universe video and probably remember that nearly 30 minute long diatribe about Kotor... The comparison doesn't really work on many levels, but the big one the little problems all lead to is that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a rated T role-playing game that will have infinitely less restrictions compared a primarily children focused show on a major television network. Leave light sith, dark jedi, gems being tools, and anything about the diamonds at the damn door. despite passing similarities, they are vastly different beasts in execution.

Then more recently we had her compare Laios and his quest to save his sister to an episode of Digimon where Tai is upset his sister got sick and there isn't more he can do to help her. Leave alone questions of morale, preparedness, and general dispositions. Lily Orchard compared the entirety of what will be a 30+ episode adult anime that already existed as a near 100 chapter Manga to just 1 episode of Digimon. Are you out of your fucking mind woman??? I hate to break it to you but Tai doesn't explain why he's upset just because he's at wits end! HE DOES IT FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE SINGLE DIGIT AGE CHILDREN THE SHOW IS MADE FOR!!!

It's such a shitty way to bolster weak points because it leaves no room for nuance. Kotor and SU both involve space colonization, but that's about where the comparison ends. Any nuance from there on out can just be explained by how vastly different they are and the vastly different circumstances of their creation. Steven talks the diamonds down for many reasons, but key amongst it all is that it's a children's show. Like how being a light side sith can have nuance for many reasons, but key amongst it all being the expectation that you aren't a child and are fully aware of the consequences of your actions and the actions made around you.

It can't be anything other than shallow mud slinging because the only way it works at all is by that single vague thread. By this logic, I can say, oh let's see... "Anything about creating personas to strike fear into certain people is the same." And it doesn't sound like I don't have a point until you are tasked with acknowledging that the SAW movies, Persona 5, and Scooby-Doo have no meaningful differences. Sure you can pontificate a bit on it, but I'd raise you the fact that the rpg elements of Saw are dogshit. The fact that anybody gives Lily a pass on this let, leave alone her general hostility or the mountains of evidence of just how vile of a person she is, it's as laughable as it is depressing.

She's a terrible critic, a garbage writer, and a truly despicable person. And this has been one of many snippets of exactly why.

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

Felony saying that everyone in the universe can access the force if they tried hard enough makes me want to deck him in his fugly face

He’s ruining all established canon in real time. Speed running the absolute destruction of continuity of the SW universe and people are still rooting for him and his blorbo self inserts like there’s no tomorrow. Literally the whole reason I no longer engage in Ashoka content is because he massacred my girl and made her so one dimensional that my Mary Sue self insert fanfics OCs I wrote when I was 14 looks well developed compared to the absolute bland “girlboss kick ass take names” personality Ashoka has right now.

There were so many opportunities for him to explore the absolute potential of angst and conflict within Ashoka in this new series, to give her character a believable story of grief loss and growth yet he threw it all away because he wanted his OC to be the specialist girl that ever lived. This series could’ve been used to explore Ashokas conflicting feelings regarding the Anakin that taught her and was a mentor to her whilst trying to connect it to the monster that killed her family and hunted her culture into almost extinction and tried to kill her, a person he confessed to love as a sister, on Malachor. It could’ve been a good send off to a great character, to have her face that the Skyguy she put on a pedestal in her mind was in actuality the worst sort of scum and have her try to come to terms that just because she can forgive him for being the genocidal maniac he was and still hold love in her heart for who he used to be and also understand why the Jedi, her family, wasn’t the reason for their own downfall.

But alas. We got another series of “the Jedi caused their own downfall!!! Anakin did nothing wrong ever and him killing all my family and everyone I’ve ever known is so not his fault!!! It’s definitely the fault of the unbending stuck in the past council!!!”. Instead of a series that could’ve made Ashoka’s “departure” (literally never going to happen with felony at the helm, he’s going to find a way to make her immortal and then show up 200 years in the future to be the protagonist of another light v dark fight since she’s his special SI) from the series tie in nicely thematically and canonically with every other Star Wars media we have, he decided that the best way to have this series go down is 1) everyone is force sensitive if they tried hard enough ig and 2) the Jedi were bad!!! Their protocols don’t work! They were mean to my little meow meow Anakin Skywalker the greatest Jedi of all times™️ therefore he got to kill them all!!!!

Got a bit off topic but I’m still so mad that he had this chance to make Ashoka truly experience growth like the first 5 seasons of TCW yet he decided maintaining the badass rebel without a cause aesthetics for her was more important then good story telling.

Honestly though, my main problem with this series is that he decided that apparently everyone in the universe can be force sensitive if they “just tried hard enough”. Like your Midichlorian Count no longer matters since even if you were Force-Null you can still be special!!!!

This takes away any and all urgency in the Jedi Fallen Order games. It makes Cals journey absolutely redundant. It throws away all the tragedy contained in having inquisitors being force sensitive kids kidnapped from their parents and tortured till they give into the dark side. If all beings are able to use the force in his universe then there are no consequences to the inquisitors not finding the Holocron that holds the names to all force sensitive children in the universe. There would be no need to them to chase Cal and the Mantis Crew throughout the universe to obtain what they have. They could’ve just went down to any random level in Coruscant and take homeless Force-Null kids and train them.

Even better! It makes the entirety of the KOTOR games redundant!!!! Oh and I guess the hidden path is also redundant since everyone can be force sensitive and no one truly needs more saving from the empire over others :/ totally not like these kids that were saved by the path would’ve been taken and tortured into inquisitors, definitely not since EVERYONE is force sensitive nowadays or is it just the ones Ashoka trains herself because she’s the “living embodiment of the daughter uwu she’s so special and unique look how well she can train a non force sensitive to be force sensitive!!!”

Everyone in the Star Wars universe has Midichlorian’s in their blood. That is a fact. It is also an established fact that the amount each person has is different and is not determined nor dependent on lineage. Force-Nulls typically range in the 1000-3000 count and you need 7000 to be force sensitive and higher to be accepted into the order. (The order isn’t the end all be all of force cultures, Rouge One shows that Jedha’s force culture isn’t restricted to only force sensitives as the Guardian’s were never specified to be only a religious order of force sensitives. And high canon doesn’t depict many other force cultures but we know that there are many force cultures in the universe that co-exist with the Jedi with which the Jedi weren’t in opposition towards; literally not even the witches of Dathomir were oppositions anywhere outside of the battle fields.) You don’t need to be force sensitive to be part of a force culture (Jedha literally has pilgrims who come far and wide to make a pilgrimage to the holy site and not all of them were force sensitive), Sabine could’ve very easily been taught the tenets of the Jedi without retconning her to be force sensitive or making everyone in the universe force sensitive.

No where in either the EU or High Canon did anyone ever say that you have to be force sensitive to be a badass or to make a difference. Hera did not hold the title of the best pilot in the universe just for some rat of a man to come and say that Anakin was the best because *muh force sensitivity!!!!* Some of the most heroic and most influential (good or bad) people in the franchise are Force-Null! And that’s great! It means that the force doesn’t make anyone better than anyone else! It’s a quirk of the universe! To retcon that everyone can and is force sensitive if they tried hard enough is literally cheapening everything the franchise stands for. Andor did not literally give us an entire story about how Force-Nulls in the Galaxy makes just as much of a difference as force sensitives for felony to come out and say that “you know what??? Midichlorian’s are a scam! You get a force sensitivity! You get a force sensitivity! Everyone gets a force sensitivity!!!!”

Sabine was great as she was in rebels, why cheapen it with “oh she’s actually force sensitive all this time!!!” When we could’ve stuck with badass Force-Null Mandalorian can kick your ass five ways to Sunday with her paint bombs and blasters you force wielding asshole!!! Like why even do that felony. Do you want people to hate her??? Nvm ofc you do, you need Ashoka to be the best in every way possible even if it means ruining every other beloved character in this franchise👍

[gizkalord]

just gonna run thru my highlights and lowlights of the ahsoka eps. overall, thought it was fine - not offensive, but not grabbing me in the way i want it to.

highlights

-sabine punk intro, she's soooooo everything -sabine vs shin, sabine vs droids, aka i liked all her action scenes -EZRA HOLO!!!! WHERE IS MY SON -"we grew up together" HELLO?????? -hera and chopper banter!! made me laugh out loud when chopper was looking thru his little box of random shit -star map looked very cool, reminded me of kotor -i'm a reasonable hater so i will be the first to admit that ahsoka's make-up and prosthetics look much much better here -i already saw the leaks that morgan elsbeth is a nightsister beforehand, but still wanted to comment on it—hope we end up learning more about her past and motivations, as she's the only canon nightsister survivor other than merrin. -ivanna sakhno bringing lots of intensity to shin - rly want to see more of her story! -star wars continuing to torture us kotor fans..... the rakatan name drop in andor, and now it's eye of sion, the star map, hk droids.... WHERE IS THE KOTOR REMAKE LUCASFILM????????

lowlights

-r*sario's serving nothing with a side of bland i'm afraid -kinda has the same problems as some of the other live-action sw shows where we just kinda jump around from scene to scene... i don't feel like the episode structures flow very well -hera's makeup/look is truly terrible -reserving judgement on the character writing overall. everything feels a little stripped down, and we've been thrown into the middle of the plot without much downtime or side quests to just explore the characters' current headspaces (20 episode seasons where did you go!!!) honestly thought sabine's hair cutting and re-motivation came too fast and didn't feel as earned as it could've been. -related to that, i feel everything is so.... subdued. the colors, the acting -continuing to wish that this all could've been animated.

[thehylianbatman]

Some Thoughts on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

This post has nothing to do with Disney or their movies.

This post contains minor spoilers.

Hello. I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic recently. I've picked up it again just after the Leviathan Escape, which is where I left it many years ago. I'm working my way through Korriban now, so I'm interacting a lot with Yuthura Ban.

I've heard rumblings in my readings that Yuthura was originally intended to be a companion character. Although I have no sources at all for this and thusly do not truly know if it is true of false, I find it likely; of the three Jedi companions you pick up, none are aligned with the Dark Side, meaning the only way to potentially explore the Dark Side gameplay is with the player character, which has large ramifications on the story. Bastila and Juhani are aligned to the Light, while Jolee is on the light side of neutral, and doesn't read as any kind of Dark Side user, even though he is best-equipped within the game's mechanics to be so. This means that most players will almost never encounter Dark Side elements during gameplay unless they specifically choose to do so, which changes story beats and the ending.

Yuthura as a companion character changes that. Her alignment is neutral, so she's mechanically fine to use the Dark Side (if not optimized), and her story makes sense for using the Dark Side; while Juhani makes sense story-wise, her alignment makes it uncomfortable.

Yuthura also adds to the team dynamic of the party. As it stands, for the Force representation, you have the player character, Bastila, Juhani, and Jolee. If you add Yuthura to the mix, it adds balance and results in a more fully-rounded view of the Force. A larger view, you might say.

Consider this dynamic: you have Bastila, an instructor for the Light Side. Although she's not a Jedi Master (I think), and you are not her padawan (I think), she is the one best-equipped to take that mentor role in the player's story as the leader of the party. You have Juhani, a student, like the player character, who is tempted by the Dark Side. And you have Jolee, representation of that said larger view of the Force.

Adding Yuthura to this dynamic, you'd have three instructors and two students. For the instructors, you get Bastila, a Light Side instructor who falls to the Dark Side; Yuthura, a Dark Side instructor who finds the Light Side; and Jolee, who simply seems to believe in the Force. For the students, you get the player character and Juhani, and, since Juhani can be romanced, this adds even more to the dynamic; Juhani, as a student, is rooted in the Light Side but tempted by the Dark Side. Spoilerific game events show that the player character is rooted in the Dark Side but tempted by the Light Side. The poetry and the balance of this team is simply sensible.

But how could it happen? Assuming the game's cut content were to be magically restored (Unlike KotOR II, KotOR I's cut content was cut very early in development, as far as I know, and so was never really developed at all, and was simply ideas at the conception stage), I imagine it'd go somewhat as follows:

Sleheyron (the only known visit-able planet cut from KotOR I) is added to the planets as the last planet the player visits. This makes the "canonical" order of planets Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, Korriban, and Sleheyron. In-game, the party is captured by the Leviathan before the last Star Map is retrieved; as it is, the last Star Map is on Korriban, where you meet Yuthura. In this imaginary scenario, the last Star Map is on Sleheyron.

These are all assumptions on my part.

While on Korriban, in-game, you can convince Yuthura to abandon the Sith cause and Return to the Jedi. If you visit the planets out-of-order and convince her to abandon the Sith before the party is captured by the Leviathan, you can find her at the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. However, if you visit Korriban last, after you do this, Yuthura simply vanishes, since you cannot return to Dantooine at this point.

In this magically-restored version of KotOR, you go through Korriban as normal, but, at the end of the planet's storyline, you ask Yuthura to come with you, and , as in the game, she says no, but you offer to at least take her to the Jedi Enclave. She reluctantly agrees and boards the Ebon Hawk, just in time for the ship to be captured by the Leviathan, Bastila to leave the party, and a whole lot of spoilerific story things to happen.

This changes how the Leviathan rescue occurs; in-game, you can choose Mission, T3-M4, Canderous, Juhani, HK-47, or Jolee to do it. They all sneak around and spring the other characters out. Imagine this rescue if Yuthura is an option. As a high-ranking member of the Sith academy, whose finding of the Light Side has not yet spread to the ship, as it only just happened, choosing Yuthura is an easy option, as she can lie and say that she was captured by the party. While this might paint her as weak and cost her some prestige and respect, the Sith troopers handling the capture won't know any better, "free" her, and let her wander free as one of their own, rather than relying on guile, Jedi mind tricks, or stealth.

This can then become Yuthura's great test of loyalty with the party; while she's being controlled by the player, and thusly won't betray the team for gameplay reasons, narratively, the characters don't know that. Some of them will be disinclined to trust her, most likely Carth. She can use her (now former) position with the Sith Academy to get into locations on the ship that would be locked or barred to other characters, making the rescue easy for her if done right, but really hard for her if done wrong, since one wrong move reveals her hand and turns the entire ship against her. I imagine in this scenario that it would go down similarly to a Juhani/Jolee rescue.

However, we'll trust that she plays her cards right, and uses her position in order to quietly and easily free the party. This proves to them that they can trust Yuthura. It can also be a character arc for her; she initially does it for self-serving reasons, since the party could reveal that she had joined up with them and get her in trouble, so if she frees them, she can escape just as she had been planning to do. Just as the party doesn't trust Yuthura, Yuthura probably has trouble trusting the party, and just wants to get to Dantooine. However, the party reveals when they are freed what happened to Dantooine, and let's say this shocks Yuthura, who viewed the Dark Side as ruthless, but nuanced and personal, not flat-out evil (another assumption on my part). With her position at the Sith Academy vacated and no Dantooine to run to, in the party's eyes, she has a choice to make: either betray the party and try and return to the Sith, or join up with the party and continue her climb to the light side. Naturally, she joins up with the party, since there's almost certainly no way the Sith would take her back at this point unless she plays her cards really well, but she still isn't trusted by Carth and other such members.

Everything else on the Leviathan happens as in-game, and then the player goes to Sleheyron, and, just like almost everyone else gets a personal quest, Yuthura gets a personal quest here. She doesn't like being back, but she is, and now she can do what she's always wanted to do: free the slaves and free the planet. This can also tie into the larger story of Czerka Corporation being in the pockets of the Hutts and other such criminals. Sleheyron was intended to be under the control of four Hutt families, and cut content on Tatooine would mean that the player could turn both Tatooine and Kashyyyk against Czerka Corporation, but this aspect of the story lacks a meaningful conclusion. I imagine Sleheyron was intended to be that meaningful conclusion.

So let's say the Hutts are the original financial base of Czerka Corporation; maybe Czerka is a front entirely, or maybe it was founded by the Hutts to legitimize and cover their operations and it got so big that it broke free, or it was still founded by the Hutts but remains under their control while still able to pursue an independent path; they have a business relationship, let's say. Yuthura finds out about this and is particularly outraged, since Czerka has always been painted to her as a flawed but capable and neutral company that can help the Sith Empire, so the player character can go through the gladiator ring and do the combat and best the Hutts and put them in a begging position. This can lead to Yuthura making demands for the "right" option: free the slaves, have them revolt against Czerka Corporation AND the Hutts, reveal the connection between the two to the galaxy at large, and ruin them both (though only for now in the Hutts' case). Yuthura's choice of the "right" option also finally proves her trust and loyalty to the party and completes her character arc, while also adding extra evil to the Sith Empire for working with slavers (I can't remember if the Empire themselves uses slaves in-game, though I would certainly believe it if so). This is also a net positive for Sleheyron, which is changed for the better by the player, just like the other planets. Not only all of that, but it also completes the sub-story of freeing the galaxy from crime, cruelty, and corruption that's not being done by the Sith Empire.

Then you get the last Star Map, as well, fly off to the final location, and the game's story progresses as normal.

Yuthura and the other Force users would also be able to banter in this hypothetical scenario; she can banter with Jolee about using the Dark Side (how he does not feel bound to a Light or Dark Side, but doesn't make people suffer just because he personally views it not only as wrong but also generally inefficient), and speak with Juhani about balancing the temptations of the Dark Side with the faith in the Light Side, as people that both went down the path of the Dark Side but got off it at different times. Although her time with Bastila would likely be short in a canon case, and so they wouldn't have much of a chance for banter, if the player does the planets out of order, they could have an opportunity for banter, and I imagine they'd speak about instructing the Light Side versus instructing the Dark Side, and it's just be kinda funny, as most of Bastila's banters are.

I don't imagine she'd be a romance-able companion, as there is already a lack of such content as-is in the game, but, if she were, she'd be an interesting balance to Bastila, as a Force user not bound to the Light Side. Perhaps she could lead the player down a darker path in an inversion of Bastila's story. I personally feel, however, that she doesn't quite fit for such a role, and besides, Juhani is a better romance option anyways from a narrative standpoint; two Force students pulled in by both the Light and Dark Side, and all they have is each other. Very Star Wars.

Most, if not all of this, is conjecture on my part. I've read that Sleheyron was a cut planet, that it was supposed to be in control of the Hutts, that the planetary gameply would revolve around a gladiatorial combat ring, and that Yuthura, as a companion, would replace a Juhani that is not in the party. I don't have a source for any of that, although the last point I have only seen once, whereas I feel as though I've read multiple sources, some "official" in some way, about the first three points. Of course, I am no expert on the topic, and I suppose the writers at BioWare are the only ones who know for sure.

Please feel free to reach out or add any thoughts or notes. I find this very interesting and would love to talk about it. Primary sources in particular would be excellent, I'd love to read more about the development of this game.

Thanks for reading.

[renlyslittlerose]

So I'm like, 20 hours(?) into BG3 and so far these are my thoughts:

I don't like all the companions, but I'm still reserving judgment until we proceed a little further. Some feel like the writers played DA and ME, liked certain archetypes, and decided to try that with their characters without realizing why these characters worked so well in DA and ME.

In saying that, there are some characters I really like. Karlach is a breath of fresh air in the genre and a major stand-out for me (thus far). It's nice to have a character who has been through a lot of trauma but refuses to let it define them. She's happy to be out of the Blood War, she's happy to be adventuring, she's happy to have friends for the first time. She's just happy. And having her alongside Gale, and listening to them just enjoy the weather and fresh air, is such a pleasant experience.

I've decided to romance Shadowheart because I hear I can do side-romances while still dating her. I really wanna see if I can woo Mizora 👀

While I am playing a 'good' character (not killing the locals, trying not to be mean to people), I am making very practical - some might say slippery, tricky, unreliable - choices in order to further my goals. I won't step on the backs of people to meet my end goals, but if I gotta lie a little, or remove an eyeball out of my skull, or let a bunch of tadpoles wiggle around in my brain... well, who am I to say no to a little advantage?

In saying that, I welcome any and all bad outcomes because of my questionable choices l o l

I think the world is fun to explore, but it's reminding me a little of a watered down version of Witcher 3 in terms of things to explore, monsters to encounter, and the overall vibes. Still having fun, but there are some parts of the map where I think they could have done a little more to truly make it immersive (like the swamp - I mean, the tea house...)

Speaking of the Witcher - I wish they would have an indicator of the level of enemies before you're locked in a fight. I liked how in the Witcher (and Cyberpunk), enemies that were severely over-leveled for you would have indicators that told you not to bother, come back later, don't waste your resources, etc. I've had a bunch of times where I've been locked in a fight and wasted a good chunk of time, only to realize that there is no way I can win this fight and I better just reload and come back later

I am eagerly looking forward to being reunited with my wife, Jaheira. ~I have crossed oceans of time to find you~

The mission to rescue those trapped in the burning building has to be one of the worst fucking designed pieces of modern gameplay I have ever had to sit through. The only reason I didn't lose my mind was because @the-nuup was guiding me through it over discord.

All in all, I am having fun! I've been playing a lot of older RPGs over the last few years (BG1 and 2, Planescape Torment, KotoR I and II), so it's nice to have that same flavour but with modern graphics, voice acting, etc. It's scratching an itch, for sure.

I am currently in the underdark collecting mushrooms and avoiding large open spaces 🍄

[maaaahri]

I think if someone tried to tell me that BG3 is better-written than, say, NWN2:MotB or KotOR II or Planescape: Torment I'd go feral. Like I'm willing to give BG3 some props as game but the primary story is uh. Actually not very good imo, it's kind of propped up by its companion interactions and the sheer amount of "What-ifs" the game has properly scaffolded into its gameplay and narrative. Even then, its narrative reactivity pales in comparison to Disco Elysium in a lot of ways. The thing is, games do not have to have incredibly intricate, well-thought out narratives. BG3 has decent prose and pretty incredible voice acting serving a basic narrative that, at times, would probably benefit from being more simplistic than it is. Character companion stories explore more complex themes than the primary narrative and some do it better than others. All of this is fair and creates a pleasant narrative experience. BG3 would honestly probably be a worse product if it tried to tackle some of the themes NWN2:MotB does. I use that one here because it's the other example set primarily in the Forgotten Realms setting and thus has themes that are more theoretically easily accessible by BG3's narrative. MotB actually deals, hilariously and fun enough, with some of the same principle characters of BG3, but it's uh. It's a high-level adventure that ruminations on the nature of birth, death, and punishment. On divinity's responsibility in a world where the divine is far from abstract to its subjects, yet very few truly see the fruits of prayer in their lifetime. NWN2 does, however, play like garbage. It's based on 3.5 which was MY first DnD experience, but it's also far less accessible to newcomers in 2023. BG3 controls miles better (it's a more recent game that had far more time in the oven, of course it does and it should but it bears saying) and I feel like talking about graphics is actually a moot point in cRPGs. Yes, BG3 is very pretty. I, however, regularly go back and play through cRPGs that came out two decades ago and look like paper dolls on pixely matte paintings. You cannot entice me with graphics in a way that matters. As many individuals have also pointed out, in game so centered on graphics and diversity in 2023, there is no excuse for not providing a fat body type option and putting in the extra effort to be more inclusive instead of pretending fat people don't exist. TL;DR - if you like BG3 play other cRPGs, if you don't want to literally fight tooth-and-nail to just play a video game, Owlcat makes some great ones and I've heard good things about Pillars of Eternity, but I haven't gotten around to playing those. If you're a Star Wars fan you are literally doing yourself most bastardly if you've never played KotOR II, restored content patch or no (the restored planet is not actually very good I would recommend the patch for everything but that)

[goatsorcery]

i played a dark side run for my first kotor playthrough, and at first the fact that you kill most of your companions was really shocking to me, but the more i think about it the more it makes sense in terms of story. the only companions you aren't forced to kill are the droids (one of whom revan built themself or at least had before the memory wipe) and the other is canderous who admires revan and fully accepts that you are revan when it's revealed.

the rest of the companions are all convinced that the player character has changed, that they really are their fake persona. the only way a dark side revan can truly separate themself from the false self the jedi council created for them is to kill everyone who still sees them as the fake persona

i also romanced carth for the playthrough, and his personal story line of betrayal fit in so beautifully and it was genuinely devastating how he could not accept that the person he knew and fell in love with was really revan

game mechanics also adds to the story here; there is something so uniquely emotional whenever a game has you entering combat with people who have been the player character's friends up to that point: juhani and jolee on top of the temple; mission and zaalbar on the beach; and carth on the star forge

ill never stop thinking about this game

[ignitesthestxrs]

fuck yeah I'll come talk to you! my goodness. I've long been hesitant to send asks to blogs I don't know or consider popular.

I followed you for your pjo writing, so I was very surprised to find out that your url is from matthew stover's ROTS novelisation. two-ish years ago I watched star wars for the first time and fell in love with the prequels, it is probably still the fandom I most interact with on here.

I notice most (all?) of your star wars fics on ao3 are sequel things. I haven't seen the sequels yet because of general negative internet sentiment towards them. although this is bad logic because the internet feels negatively about a lot of great things, including ("great" is subjective I suppose) the prequels.

as someone who still mainly associates you with pjo, I guess I'm just curious about you and star wars in general. did you watch the movies when they first came out? or did you, like me, discover them later? and would you care to make a case for watching the sequels?

and as an aside - how do you feel about anon asks. do you prefer when people are non-anon?

truly genuinely i dont think i've ever met a person on this website, Popular Online or not, who has been upset about receiving genuine asks. LIKE as someone who prefers to be approached rather than to approach people i very understand the reticence to make contact, but if you ever have hesitance because your brain is like 'ooooh they aren't gonna want to talk to meeeeeee' i really truly think you can let that one go. esp because anon is an option - the worst thing that happens is that someone doesn't respond, which is also not personal and is usually related to brain death on the part of the person receiving the ask

BASICALLY i really think that most people making themselves available on the social media want to use the media to be social - if they didn't, they'd close their ask box.

MAN okok i love to talk about a personal fandom history LOL star wars is a weird one for me! i came into the fandom extremely sideways - while it turns out i had watched at least one of the prequels in theatres as a child, i had somehow wiped all memory of them from my mind, leaving only a residual obsession with padme amidala's lipstick lingering in my hindbrain

so my first Real Encounter with star wars as a fan concept was via Livejournal Role Play lolol, the premise of which is that you would roleplay as characters either in an AU setting, or an isekai-your-character-was-captured-from-their-home-world-somehow setting. so i was playing sakura from naruto in a harry potter/final fantasy fusion AU (there's a fun sentence) when someone joined the game with Jaina Solo from the star wars extended universe, and i just thought the character and player were the fucking coolest?

so that's how i ended up learning about like, the post-original Star Wars trilogy EU books first LMAO and then eventually i watched the original trilogy and re-watched the prequel trilogy (this was back in 2009/10 so sequel series were not on the horizon at all). i rp'd a bunch of star wars characters in a bunch of games (most notably middle aged Leia from the later EU books and a man called Kyp Durron who i refuse to believe was not the template and inspiration for kylo ren), and also played the Knights of the Old Republic games, and eventually helped create and moderate an rp based on those games. so my first star wars creative endeavors were very rp based, and kotor based, and any fic i was writing at the time was like, kyp durron and alyss from a ya novel adaptation of alice in wonderland are falling in love in the harry potter/final fantasy fusion setting where we also included pokemon so kyp has a shuckle for a pet because jaina gifted it to him as a gag. all that fic is littered around the internet - lj accounts and dreamwidth accounts and defunct aim group chats, where you'd write stuff for like the three people who were into your extremely, impossible to replicate cross canon ship instead of doing your stats homework, it was heady shit.

the username came about after i decided to abandon my old internet handle/identity of 'feilyn' lolol. basically i made up 'feilyn' as a name for myself when i was like 15 and used it everywhere, which resulted in most online friends i made at the time calling me 'fei', which in turn got cuteified into 'feibean', which is what i originally called this blog right up until someone sent me an ask going 'hey feibean' and i went oh NO i HATE that, and decided that i needed a username that was like, Poetic and Pretty

the funniest part to me is that i hadn't actually read the stover novelisation at that time? i just knew about the passage it came from because a friend had quoted it at me before and i was like oh that's Beautiful. so i did probably the most pretentious thing in the process of making a pretentious internet handle, which was to refer to a thing i hadn't actually read (i have since read the novelisation LOL and highly recommend it to anyone into star wars i general, but especially if you feel the prequels had Great Themes and Poor Execution - the book does a much better job at the execution part)

SO by the time the sequel movies were announced i had been into star wars for like, 5, 6 years? and it had been a staple part of not only my creative life but also my social and romantic life, so i was primed to be fucking obsessed. at that point i wasn't journal rping anymore, and most of my creative energy was split between fic (pjo and grisha at the time) and trying to make my original book idea work (it did not), and i had gotten into the groove of Writing Fic For An Audience.

and then the first sequel movie came out and i fucking loved it! like sure it was a little derivative, but it had so much of what i loved about star wars in it, and it especially helped that kylo ren really did seem like a kyp durron expy, and i was right in the middle of my weird heterosexual lesbianism phase where all i wanted to write was Overpowered Man Gets Stepped On By Brunette Teenager He Underestimated so reylo hit me like a fucking freight train.

i think in the first month after that movie came out i wrote like, 21 fics in he space of a month. i went to my first ever music festival and was just lying in the tent writing fic on the budget smart phone i had bought so my actual phone didn't get stolen. it was SUCH a flurry of creative energy for me, because star wars before that point had been not a dead fandom, but certainly not a fandom that had a lot of Fic-Centric Life in the spaces i was in, and the movie brought so much new blood and voices and interest and readers to the canon. so if i told people i felt like writing x thing and asked for prompts, i'd get like 10 or 12 requests at a time - more than i could fulfill, certainly, but also so many that it really fed the fire of my interest and determination to Provide Content

and then, you know, the Drama and the Discourse and the weird creation of shipping as identity where people became A Reylo instead of shipping reylo, and this formation of Antis as a thing, and on and on until fandom in general becomes this place of adversarial combat that is supposed to reflect on your ethics and moral as a person and Oh Man i do remember being exhausted by all of these arguments at the time (and now tbh, but these days i am not actively participating in them). eventually i dropped out of star wars as a fandom from like, creative and discourse burnout i think, and also my relationships with the friends i shared the fandom with were changing, and i was also changing as a person and then TROS came out and was really a death knell to any joy i'd gotten out of the fandom or canon from that point.

as for a case for watching the sequels - i think if you can watch them without needing them to Be Anything In Particular, you can have a good time with them. like, for example, i think TROS was an objectively bad fucking movie, but i had a lot of fun when i watched it because i went it with a baseline of curiosity about how or if abrams could pull this off, and the answer was 'by trying to split every fandom argument of the last 4 years down the exact middle' and 'no, he can't pull it off'. that shit isn't a movie, it's a video response to every star wars trending topic between 2015-2019. and at the time of viewing, this was very fucking funny to me. i had a ball.

SO if you can watch them with the contextual understanding of like, these are massive corporate enterprises created by committee, with different people at the helm of different movies who had very different understandings on what the point of this trilogy was, i genuinely think they can be a good time. there's pew pew lasers, there are some real affecting moments, and there is a lot of bewildered amusement to be had at nature of attempting to create Billion Dollar Art.

if you are looking for a story that is going to leave you feeling fulfilled and as though the creators had consideration and respect for either their viewers, their actors, or the story they were telling, then give them a pass. like i really really think there is a lot of fun and interest to be had in watching the sequels for both 'here is a space fantasy laser fun time' reasons and 'what does art look like when it's primary purpose is to create obscene amounts of wealth based off the nostalgia of nerds but also the concept of modernising a franchise for the 21st century' reasons, and these are both big reasons why i engage in any kind of media LOL

but i also understand the special place star wars holds in a lot of people's hearts, and not wanting to engage in material thatg feels like it has sucked a lot of the joy out of that special place is always legit. so like, if you are intrigued, give them a shot, and if you find yourself hating the experience then stop watching. trust ur heart babe

FINALLY i have no strong opinion on whether people are anon or signed in! it's all about your comfort level truly, i do not put emphasis on one mode or another. sometimes people will send me something signed in and ask me to respond privately, which i am always happy to do, and sometimes people will send messages anon, but identify themselves as like 'oh im the anon who asked about sunflowers, i'm sunflower anon'. SO YEAH whatever combination of identifiers is personally comfortable for the person sending the ask is how i prefer people to communicate.

THANK U for ur ask clearly i love to Talk & Engage and i appreciate u giving me the opportunity <3 <3

[khapaleaf]

Done with my unfair run, finally (well, I was done with it on the 10th, but I wanted to celebrate by gorging myself on extremely sour candy, and afterwards I needed a day to calm down). It took me longer to finish than I had initially anticipated, but it was a grand experience filled with fun times. Anyway, trying to organise my thoughts here, because it will be interesting for me to see whether my opinions will change over time later on, and so into archiving mode I go.

First things first, I think Owlcat did a fantastic job at making this versatile and complex setting accessible to those who are not entirely familiar with it. Prior to playing the game, my own knowledge of this universe was limited to a small number of short stories and a much bigger number of memes without context. Yet going into the game, I never felt overwhelmed with new information, and felt right at home in the Koronus Expanse (or about as much as one can in this grim and unforgiving setting). The in-game glossary and the informative mouseover parts that can appear during dialogues to briefly explain what this or that organisation does, or who that person is and so on helped immensely in helping to ease into it. Bless all developers who do this, honestly. The soundtrack (10/10; not a single bad track, a triumph of a mood-setting music that seamlessly blends with the visual style), art design (pretty fucking metal – love the skulls everywhere; and it is also very interesting to see how Owlcat makes progress with each new game in terms of graphics), and characters all also play a big role in making the game a cohesive and truly engaging whole, and allow to uncover the myriad of complexities native to this setting. I laughed, I wept, I felt a myriad of powerful emotions. This is really it, this is what I want in my rpgs! And I want to play it over and over and over again. Fortunately for me, my brain is wired in a way that allows me to do just that without getting bored.

The main story itself is ultimately not all that complex, but the way it is built up within the game is genuinely interesting and engaging even despite the relative emptiness of the post-Commorragh chapters. I like that the planetary quests are structured a bit like self-contained episodes, while at the same time falling neatly into the puzzle that paints the bigger picture of the state of the Expanse. Still, I wish that there was a kind of overarching red thread present throughout the narrative like in the Pathfinder games (even though, yes, I get that these are vastly different settings and narrative experiences). For example, in Kingmaker, the kingdom has to resolve numerous issues throughout the years, but the threat of Nyrissa destroying it altogether looms over the heroes at all times – that is the kind of red thread I am talking about. It seems to me that there is a distinct lack of such a detail in this game, but if it were actually present in the story, the momentum after the third chapter would not have been lost, and it would have added some gravitas and an emotional punch to the later part of the game. Maybe there should have been more focus on Theodora’s involvement in the grand scheme of things, and how it affected the present timeline, maybe there should have been an overarching antagonist... There should have been more interactions with Nomos, definitely. Still, even with the blemishes, the story managed to draw me into a state of fascination and infatuate me with its vast cast, even though at times it felt as if I am taking part in a quietly moving tragedy, with every small decision slowly leading to a point of no return (but it fits the setting, so no complaints there). And really, this is not my first time loving a game with a less than stellar closing chapter. After all, both Tyranny and Kotor 2 stand among my favourites.

I do wish that it were possible for the player character to be a bit more involved in/written into the setting in terms of reactivity to their background and selected class. The amount of variation in the character creator with all of the different backgrounds, archetypes, skills and triumphs and so on is phenomenal, but the fact that it is all there pretty much only to serve the game mechanics side of things instead of the narrative is honestly a bit of a letdown. I suppose that this could be related back to Theodora’s insistence to forget their previous life in one of the earlier dialogues, but the option to acknowledge the character’s background would have been a fantastic touch nonetheless. I thought it was ridiculous that my first (and main, as is customary for my playthroughs) character, a voidborn, had the option to ask Vigdis to explain just what the hell a voidborn is, and how their lives are structured, but no actual option to relate to her on that level. Of course, it is entirely possible to disregard those questions completely, but then there would not be much to talk about with her, unfortunately. And she explains things so poetically, too. Just... give my character the option to relate to this experience (even though, as far as I understand, the rogue trader cannot be too voidborn-y, otherwise they would not have had the option of becoming a rogue trader in the first place). They did apparently add in some reactivity options along with the big patch back in February, but I do not have a save from that early in the game, so I cannot check whether anything at all was written in for this particular instance, or if this reactivity meant something else entirely.

Also, when it comes to the player character, I am still not entirely sure whether I enjoy the conviction system or not. I like that it restricts certain items, decisions, colony projects and such to specific conviction levels, but I do not like how it ties into the endings in the sense that one with the highest rank overrides everything else without taking into consideration the actual decisions made in the game. Basically, do tell the story of my character’s deeds, but do not presume to know what they were motivated by. My character had the most points in the Iconoclast branch (though it was roughly equal points-wise with the Dogmatic branch prior to the lock-in), and was described as an open-minded, merciful soul because of it. Open-minded, perhaps, certain in-game decisions do point to that being a possibility, and I do not even mind the fact that the Imperium feels the need to go to war with the entire Expanse because of those decisions – this fits, more or less. But was she merciful and compassionate? I do not think that a person who servitorises people left and right, uses them as fertiliser, thinks that cutting out the tongues of servants is a great idea to emulate, executes entire noble families as a precautionary measure, nukes and purges whole ass planets, and pretty much channels her inner Camellia on a regular basis is the space mother Teresa that the game makes her out to be. She is a basic bastard, but she is my basic bastard like all of my characters are, but I enjoyed her journey and I am rather protective of her, for lack of a better word. Perhaps it is a minor thing, but I do not like that the narrative makes assumptions about my character like that. And what of nuance? Sure, she did offer help to certain individuals, but it was done more from the point of view of someone who wants to ensure their loyalty, not someone who is genuinely concerned for said individual. That one dialogue with Cassia in particular was a defining point in her character building.

So here I am, trying to make a cohesive portrait in my mind, taking mental notes on what makes my character tick, and then the ending slides come up, and introduce their own static idea of what my character was like. Oh well, I suppose such are the limitations and restrictions placed on the character due to their native environment being a video game. Perhaps I could simply ignore this part, as I did with the whole kidnapping shenanigans timeline in WotR. Something to think about, I suppose.

Fortunately, the other characters, both the companions and the support characters are all a colourful bunch. And largely consistent in their attitudes and beliefs! Each of them speaks and acts in ways unique to no one but themselves, and I really like when the companion characters specifically chime in with their opinions and even have their own back and forth interactions in conversations. There is a lot of that, more than in any other Owlcat game to date, I would say. Still, when it comes to the companions specifically, I wish there were more deeply developed ways of interaction present. What I mean is that there is no option to really get to know them and become confidants, if not friends. I do feel attached to them as a player, but I would like to see my character actually interact with them more outside of their personal quests. Talking to Pasqal while he is being involved with all of the tech stuff on board? Cool! Cassia visiting the rogue trader to ask for their advice? Excellent, give me more of that, please. Getting drunk with Jae? Absolutely fantastic and hilarious (well, that was actually part of her quest, but it was still pretty unique bit, I think). I wish there were more scenes like that throughout the entirety of the game, but that is honestly my wish for any game that features companions.

On a smaller note, I also think that the book excerpts, letters and notes were wonderfully written, and I could easily imagine the personality of the author behind them, their worries, their beliefs and their desires in life.

I do think that there should have been a bit more voiced dialogue, especially when it comes to non-companions, to get a better feel for their personality as well as their presence in this world, but at the same time I am also not at all upset that a huge bulk of the dialogue happens through nothing but pure text, as I generally prefer to read and skip past the voice acting in video games on subsequent playthroughs, anyway. Unless the lines are really good, of course. And what is actually voiced is fantastic – Owlcat always manages to pick voice actors that are so vibrant and memorable and are a joy to listen to, always. Even now, I can read a line, any line, and imagine that it is spoken by Ekundayo or Jaethal, for example, all with their unique speech patterns and inflections. Here as well, the voice actors did such a remarkable job of bringing life to the characters, that I find it easy to imagine what their unvoiced lines sound like.

That said, I did not particularly enjoy the voice sets for the player character this time around, at least initially. It seems to me like they all have a bit too much personality, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I am used to selecting these voices as a mere formality (so that the character would make noise when they are hurting in combat, or when they find something on the map), not as a pretty damn defining feature for my characters. It definitely took time to adjust. Still, it was an interesting experience, because these voice lines, somewhat surprisingly, helped me develop the character even further because I go into games without having a clear vision of what the character is going to be like, and instead develop them on the go. But! The voices for the dudes are all kind of revolting to listen to. Unfortunate, but not surprising, because I also disliked all but one in the Pathfinder games. They all sound like they have a fish bone stuck in their throat and need someone to german suplex them to get it out, looney tunes style. How will I ever experience the romance with Lady Cassia under these conditions, damn it?

Speaking of romances, I think it is hilarious that the one my character ended the game with (Marazhai) is on the opposite spectrum in terms of pretty much everything to the one I wanted her to end up with (Yrliet) before playing the game. On my first run, I was certain that the latter caught a bug sometime during its course, and thus ended abruptly without even having a proper start, but apparently Yrliet does not like it if one decides to stab a dude in the neck in front of her, as it was later explained to me. Not a fan of such colourful methods of courtship, then. But it is fine, I would rather see the characters fit together rather than force anything by having my character act in ways that do not fit them to keep the romance going. So in comes Marazhai. The dude definitely has some enviable home decor skills, is very useful in combat encounters and deals a ton of damage, sends out a bunch of his kabalites to kill the enemies of the dynasty, gives not one, but two very cool and useful buffs (and they are intangible, which means more place to equip all sorts other beneficial items – and there is such a wide variety of items to choose from, it is incredible), and is pretty hilarious overall. Also! He managed to take out nine fucking participants (five of which were at full health) of the Aeldari ambush all by himself after the rest of the party was taken out of commission. That was the most clutch moment of the game for me. So... A worthwhile investment, I say. And, most importantly, he and my character actually fit. It is stupid and hilarious, perhaps unintentionally, but they fit.

The combat! I approached it cautiously because, while I do enjoy turn-based combat, I did not actually like what I saw of it in WotR, because it seemed a bit too wobbly to me, as if the camera was swimming all over the place whenever I tried moving the party, and that made me nauseous (I never finished the fallout-bunker-type side quest due to this). To my surprise, I ended up enjoying it very much from day one, even with my immensely stupid decision to experience the game on hard difficulty during my first run of the game. I am not going to say that it was an easy task, but it was fairly manageable, and I also think that it actually helped quite a bit with making the story feel more fittingly uninviting and grim, given the amount of obstacles the characters had to overcome. Thus far, I have three full runs in total: my main run, which I did twice now, and a kind-of-sort of gimmick run with three officers in the party (plus three other characters to bash enemy heads in), though playing an officer and controlling a party member that happens to be an officer feels different to me, and I have to admit that I did not actually enjoy having the main character be one.

For my unfair run I decided to take my first character, partly because she is the one I consider to be my main, and I wanted get a more polished version of her journey, partly because I read a brilliant comment of someone saying that the warrior class is shit in this game, and my character is indeed a warrior. Well, a warrior/psyker/assassin, with the psyker disciplines being telepathy and biomancy (some people shit on telepathy, too, but it is my favourite due to offering quite a few ways to debuff and damage enemies). Still, I became curious whether she is fit to handle the unfair difficulty. And she is! My strategies may not be the best, and my builds do not allow for instantaneously killing the big bosses (oneshoting a creature with over 20000 hp? In your dreams, maybe), but they do get me through the entire game without me ever needing to lower the difficulty. And at the end of the day, so long as there is more of the enemy on the floor than there is of my guy and their party, that is the only thing that matters. Here are some of her greatest hits.

Considering that she is a bit of a hybrid build, and thus has to juggle between more ability scores than a pure warrior class, I think the results she can show are pretty good. These are all from the last zone, of course, but she is indeed able to hold her own in a fight and dish out substantial damage, both mental and physical, throughout the entirety of the game.

Overall, I was expecting the unfair difficulty to make me feel like the tussles with the wild hunt in Kingmaker did – as if I am about to experience explosive diarrhoea and vomit at the same time. And while there were numerous times when I felt like a single enemy attack could dismantle my entire party (fortunately, that tension is all part of the fun for me), ultimately as the companions levelled up their archetype abilities, and the number of available actions and manoeuvrers grew bigger, most of the fights stopped presenting a challenge in a way where it felt that the deck is truly stacked against them. I often felt like going into the difficulty settings just to check whether it is still set to unfair. Still, while I do not think Owlcat has plans for such a dlc just yet, I would actually enjoy going through a purely combat-focused one, perhaps with a planetary multi-level dungeon with an extravagant amount of dudes to have mega tussles with. More challenges, please!

But I will also admit that I do not yet understand how to build some of the party members to make them valuable in combat. Idira should be extremely powerful, in theory. And she is, but she is also doing way too much damage to the party and often gets taken out of commission during the first round, and look – now the party has to fight a shit demon on top of these other twenty guys. I am missing something crucial here, a way to prevent that from happening, a way to reduce the perils of the warp phenomena from occurring. Could it be the difference between a sanctioned and unsanctioned psyker? Mine is able to spam both damaging abilities and buff the party when the purple warp bar is at full capacity, and yet no demons will be summoned, what the hell?! Heinrix is another character that I do not know how to build properly just yet in a way that would make him strong on the lower levels. Passing out during his own quest? Pathetic!

I know it is my own fault for failing to build him properly, but come on dude, work with me a little!

I have not yet grown fond of the space battle mini-game within the game. I can see them being thematically necessary an largely unavoidable when taking the setting into account, and yet I appreciate them only slightly more than the puzzles in their previous games. I think I would have liked them more if the battles were presented in storybook format (with skill and equipment checks and so on) in order to make them feel less like padding in the game. Oh look, the green field is now positioned in a way that forces the ship to fly in the opposite direction of its enemies! And now the damaged enemy ship is attempting an escape, and now our guns cannot even reach them, and now they are successfully leaving the battlefield. And I have to reload the entire thing and try to shoot them down immediately because I cannot accept anyone making a successful escape. I understand that one enemy ship escaping still counts towards our party’s victory, but I need to see everyone in pieces.

Well, I am probably forgetting about a number of smaller details I would have liked to talk about, but the main thing is that I loved the game. Top 3, definitely! I will not deny that there are quite a few blemishes that hold it back, and there is still a lingering feeling that it game could have been even bigger and more complex, if only the development time was longer. Hopefully, that potential will be tapped in a sequel, if Owlcat ever decides to make one. And I hope that they will stay true to themselves when they do so.

[ipreferfiction]

20 questions for fic writers

@spyscrapper tagged me (shocking for everyone, i'm sure). thanks beloved

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

337,006 (a chunk of which is cowritten)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

posted, i have star wars (totj, kotor, swtor, prequels, and tcw), lockwood & co., and asoiaf. i've also written hotd-era asoiaf fics, a couple of unfinished mdzs fics, and something for grimm floating around.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Bond Between: fic i wrote for a tcw zine, Ahsoka & Obi-Wan. 137 kudos.

(note: technically the second fic is one that got hit by the kudos bot, so i am taking it out of the ranking because i cannot trust its numbers)

How Far We've Come: Lockwood & Co., written and set right after TCS. Kipps and the crew. 62 kudos.

Wasteland: prequels/tcw/original trilogy, Obi-Wan on Tatooine having a truly questionable time. 60 kudos.

Dragon's Rise: asoiaf, post-series. Dany, Jon, Tyrion, and Arya go to Old Valyria so Dany can break the Doom and rebuild the Valyrian Freehold. i hate several things i did with characters here, truly, and i am never going to finish it; i'm keeping it up so i can see comments and kudos, because it got a lot of engagement (posted right after the show ended), but i would change so many things now. 54 kudos.

tremble for yourself, my man (you know that you have seen this all before): kotor - Cassus Fett dies on Malachor and wakes up six years in the past, with the knowledge that something is manipulating the war. he kidnaps Revan and Alek right off Dantooine at one point to help him. extremely full of torture! also the cousin of found family, sibling acquisition via kidnapping. 50 kudos.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try to, but i haven't been great at it for a while. so occasionally it takes me a few months, lol

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

posted? probably my mando wars novelization. none of the really angsty stuff is finished, and i also tend to shy away from bitter endings because they make me depressed. and i do mean depressed, i have depression and i tend to get a little too into my characters' heads, which is not great when they're having bad times.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

uh. um. the... ahsoka and obi-wan one maybe??

8. Do you get hate on fic?

the only ones that actually hurt me were on a years-old asoiaf fic. i've gotten two or three in recent years when i've been writing star wars stuff, but they're so out of pocket they're absolutely hilarious to me. i make fun of them with my friends. shoutout to the person who told me not to use bitch because it was a slur against women when the context was literally a man calling his long hair a bitch to deal with. i am NEVER getting over that, it's so funny.

9. Do you write smut?

periodically, yeah. it's fun, i just am also horribly embarrassed trying to write it lol. i have very little posted, but i've got a handful of half-finished ones in docs.

10. Do you write crossovers?

nnnnnnot really? i toss them around for some of my OCs and original works (between each other), but i don't really write them or post them. now, fusions? yeah, i write those. the hp au is the only one i've posted, and also is my favorite. read the main fic before you read the oneshot, though, because besides being utterly awful (affectionate) it also makes no sense without context. not that the series has given basically any of that context yet, but, yk. it's coming. eventually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i know. there's less theft in really niche communities like the stuff i tend to write.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yes!! @spyscrapper (i keep typing revanchxst as your url beloved when will you change it back) is my coauthor for the hp au and for our big swtor novelization, plus a couple of totj fics.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

frankly, a couple of my ocs who live rent-free in my head at all times, from one of my original works. 1920s monster hunters, secret government organization, repressed queer people (person. the others are not at all repressed he's just a dumbass about emotions), constant threats of violence, morally grey pov characters, murder. i am literally insane about them. also a different set of ocs from fic that developed their own original work as well: magic university, depressed gay people, Plots, the usual. i am constantly chewing on them. in fandom, knight/scourge and cassus/ultimate, probably.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

most of my asoiaf stuff, tbh

16. What are your writing strengths?

prose. give me a good several paragraphs and i will give you gorgeous prose. flowing, poetic, great imagery, the works. i am not afraid to say that's what i'm good at

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

FUCKING dialogue. i hate dialogue so much. no more talking society has progressed past the need for talking. i can do a sentence or two, but full conversations? evil.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I'll throw in a word or two without translating, because single words are easy to remember and write a glossary for at the end of the chapter. full sentences, though? They're either in italics (if the fic is generally speaking one language and this is another), or unmarked except by dialogue tags (much rarer, generally only do it if the pov character would mostly be speaking another language and so marking it as unusual doesn't make sense. e.g., Cassus talking to other Mandalorians isn't gonna be italicized because it being in Mando'a is expected.)

19. First fandom that you wrote for?

sherlock, i think? i wrote an OC fic that has now evolved into its own original universe because i ended up hating sherlock after season 4, and also the fandom was so fucking annoying. i was writing doctor who and supernatural OC fics around the same time, but i'm pretty sure sherlock was first.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

tremble for yourself, my man (linked above) or start a war, for posted fics. for unposted stuff, a cassus wip i will eventually. eventually finish

tags: @zaolat, @hermitmoss, yeah that's all i've got lee got all the other people i know lol

[cienie-isengardu]

Hi! I noticed that some unfounded criticism was being sent to you... I just want to write to you that your posts are very interesting. Special thanks for the fact that they are traditional. Don't pay attention to the negative! Keep writing in the same style, and write more and more. I wish you tons of inspiration! :) May I ask why you love the topic of clones and Mandalorians so much? It would seem that there was little about both of them in the history of Star Wars. Anyway, I wonder why...

Thank you very much for the kind words! 💜

In general I like cool armors and the military feeling (settling) so the warrior/soldier/assassin type of characters draws my attention immediately but as for my Star Wars interests, the funny thing is that everything always starts and ends with Anakin/Vader and both Mandalorians and clone troopers fall into that monothematic obsession of mine. 

For Mandalorians the passion of course started with Boba Fett, partially due to the cool armor and no-nonsense attitude and partially because he was Vader’s favorite bounty hunter - although I won’t lie, it took some time for my uncle to actually convince the kid!me in that matter because Boba’s performance in RotJ kinda left much to be desired. My uncle literally brought me the first novel (The Mandalorian Armor) from The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy to change my mind and to this day I’m truly grateful for his dedication because it did the job. Of course, twenty years ago there wasn’t that much star wars tie-in materials in my country, even less about Mandalorians so everyone latched at anything that was available and the great work of fans who shared for free all the translated scanlations of comics or articles and so on still warms my heart at the mere thought how awesome fandom can be. Again, thanks to the courtesy of my uncle, I got my hands on Jango Fett: Open Seasons and I absolutely fell in love with Mandalorians, especially with Tor Vizsla - and by extension, with Death Watch even though I know most fans despite this character. It is the black armor (my weakness!) and ruthless cleverness, battle skills but also underrated (or outright ignored?) little aspects of his personality that makes Tor Vizsla a very compelling character for me. That and also the fan translation that presented Death Watch as “Wataha Śmierci” in which Wataha in Polish may means a dangerous group but is also a Polish term for wolf-pack (while Death translated accurately) that I will admit, shaped my image of Mandalorians way more strongly than anything else. Ya’ know, the wild, dangerous predators tightly knit together as the clan and all the wolf symbolic for freedom, hard life, honor, majesty, nightmares and so on. Oops, sorry for the digression. Anyway, I like Mandalorians because they aren’t the holier-than-thou group and they can be - and are - ruthless bastards but also the loyalty to clan, the brotherhood in arms and honor sense is what I’m here for.

(I like Jango and think he was one of the best aspect of AotC and in general True Mandalorians vs Death Watch and the Fenn Shysa’s Protectors fight against Imperial occupation are great stories but thanks to The Sith Wars, I will always favor the original Mandalorians (Taungs) and KotOR era Mandalorians. Mainly because the Mandalore Indomitable is both awesome and hilarious when interacting with Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma.)

As for clones, well, I watched AotC in hope to see young Anakin the great battle (sadly battle of Geonosis didn’t take that much movie time overall) and I was truly touched and impressed with the little scenes they got then. In general I like to watch competent soldiers/specialists at their job - and Revenge of the Sith for sure provided more joy in that regard -  but also I love the complexity of Star Wars that has this whole subplot of exploiting humans literally “breed for war” while Republic (the symbol of democracy) and Jedi Order (the legendary good guys from Original Trilogy) doesn’t blink an eye on slavery that is technically forbidden by their own laws. Of course, the potential was never truly used, even more so with Anakin’s backstory of being born in slavery. Anyway, Clone Wars is one of my absolute favorite star wars eras, exactly for heroic Anakin and his slow, tragic path to Dark Side but also for his relationship with clone troopers (an interesting mirror to Vader’s specific relationship with common troopers in contrast to the “military elites” and oh boy, even with so little focus on clones, there is so many moments to see how Skywalker cares for his men). So the more I explored source material in that regard, the more I came to love Legends!clones, like Alpha-17 and his sarcasm or Nate who took the name of Jangotat for himself or the most awesome Delta Squad or commander Faie who definitely wanted to kill his Jedi General during Order 66 or those few commandos who refused to kill their Jedi comrades. The spectrum of experiences that shaped the supposedly same people is thrilling to watch how those men develop into their own persona, how they break from dehumanization or not, while all are so competent and no-nonsense humans always ready to die for a system that doesn’t care about them in the first place. Clones and their place in the story is really heartbreaking and I do think all the time about this complexity. However I wholeheartedly hate the chip-in-brain nonsense and I’m tired of the weird (TCW?) fandom tendencies to present clones as some kind of dumb idiots who either love their Jedi generals *so much* they can't function like normal human beings or can’t be left without supervision because again, dumb idiots… Uh. Sorry, ranting again. 

In summary, I love Mandalorian and clone troopers because they lack special powers in a universe that is all about special powers (Force) while being still pretty good at their job and generally neutral on the scale of good and evil. They are all a bit of both which gives a great possibilities to explore star wars universe, both from in-universe perspective and our real life. I love them because both groups provide me a lot of interesting stuff in regard to Anakin/Vader. Because yes, I’m that monotonic when it comes to star wars. And well, again, brotherhood in arms and cool armors are my thing.

[bronanlynch]

once again here is my weekly roundup post of what I'm watching/reading/etc. once again none of this is necessarily a recommendation, except the bits where I talk about my own fic. obviously everyone should read my fic

listening (podcast): nothing new here. continuing with the Wing episodes of Great Gundam Project, which continue to make me want to watch Gundam at all times. also keeping up with Palisade (Friends at the Table), my beloved, I love it when an actual play podcast episode is an extended discussion on spycraft and the changing political landscape, and also watching someone else flip a coin

also, I've listened to less A More Civilized Age recently because I'm less interested in KOTOR now that they're covering that, but I did listen to their episode on the imminently-closing Disney World Starcruiser attraction which. oof. great podcast episode, unsurprising that the ~experience was uhhhhh not worth how many thousands of dollars it costs

listening (music): changed the CD in my car to One-X by Three Days Grace. sorry for almost exclusively listening to music that was used for AMVs in the 2000s.

however! for once I listened to new music, the new Troye Sivan single, Got Me Started. nothing particularly smart to say here, it's fun and catchy and makes me wish it was 2018 and I was back in grad school having a single overpriced drink in a gay bar and failing to psych myself up enough to flirt with anyone

reading: still working my way through Rule of Wolves (truly would be more interesting if Leigh Bardugo did not always shy away from the political marriages that she teases at, at least then the political intrigue would have to actually happen on the page) and Water Outlaws (shout out to my new favorite side character, the nonbinary strategist who wants to overthrow the government).

also read the newest KJ Charles novel, A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. I always have a lot of fun with her stuff, she understands that life-threatening stakes and also secrets & betrayal are what I personally want in a romance. this one had some very fun intrigue around inheritance & legal loopholes, and also plot-important discussions of religion in Roman Britain. my main complaint isn't even a critique of the book itself, it's just that I as a person have slightly different priorities and I wish one of the main characters had been allowed to stay angry and maybe be more destructive about it. like I'm glad he's happy now that he's had his character development, and I do think it was well done. however. I would've found it personally cathartic if he got to do a few more crimes first

also also, this incredibly scathing academic book review (Was There an Administrative Revolution?, George Zhijian Qiao). it's a delight. I've seen some harsh rebuttals but nothing nearly as much of a masterpiece as this

watching: continuing to watch Elementary, which has its pros (competently-written mystery stories with fun characters) and its cons (can't tell if the copaganda has gotten more blatant this season or if it's just been building up and I'm getting tired of it)

also continuing my long slow journey of watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes. what a show. love an incredibly homoerotic military sci-fi anime about the narrative construction of history. season 3 has been kind of up and down for me, though, I must say. I love the parts about Reinhard being desperate to die in battle against a "worthy opponent," I love Reuental getting accused of treason presumably to foreshadow him actually doing treason at some point, I love Kircheis haunting the narrative, I love the vastly different tone whenever we see Yang being self-aware about history and his friends getting up to shenanigans. however. whenever the Earth Cult is the central focus I'm reminded how much I don't like that plotline. like. Idk. I'm not an expert but I know more well-informed people than me have talked/written about the prevalence of antisemitic conspiracy theory tropes in anime from this era and uh. that sure is present here and I don't care for it

the other thing I watched this week is 1985 horror film Re-Animator. my first note is "oh he's such a little freak I love him" (about the titular guy who reanimates the dead) and that really sums it up I think. is it a good movie? I mean. probably not. but I could write an entire thesis on the themes of procreation vs necromancy and how that subtextually makes the central conflict of the film a love triangle, and sometimes that's what really matters

playing: ran a session of Blades in the Dark while partially out-of-it from the flu shot/covid booster combo. this was the third session of a single score, and by the end of it everyone only had one (1) remaining stress box but somehow no one trauma-ed out while escaping the ancient winged robot/ghost lady whose gambling hall they were robbing (they stole her reality-bending dice that she made out of her own bones)

I've been enjoying Ace Attorney 5 more this week, the second half of 5-3 and the beginning of 5-4 have been a lot of fun. it really is a shame that Robin's gender is handled Like That because otherwise 5-3 would be such a good case. I'm not far enough into 5-4 to say much about it other than that I like it so far but truly my main observation is, if two astronauts were on the launch pad, and one of them killed the other with a knife, would that be fucked up or what?

making: made butternut squash pasta sauce with the rest of the squash left over from last week's muffins. we used this recipe, largely because it involved roasting the squash in the oven instead of standing over a stove waiting for liquid to reduce (substituted oat milk for the half-and-half, it turned out fine and just didn't needed the added pasta water)

here it's on mushroom ravioli, but we also added it to baked mac & cheese to add some more vegetable to that

drinking: sorry that all of this is so aggressively seasonal, unfortunately I love a lot of ~fall flavors~. anyway. shout out to Citizen Cider's Baker's Dozen (cider donut flavored cider). it's not as sweet as other cider donut ciders I've had, since Citizen's stuff tends to be fairly dry, but it still has the cinnamon flavor and it's very tasty

writing: mostly I've been editing the same t4t yurivain fic I've been working on for months, but I'm running out of shareable snippets of that and really I need to just post the damn thing. and I've also written a little bit more of a self-indulgent vibes- & motif-heavy Great Ace Attorney fic so uh. here's this:

They’d been at sea without stopping for a while now, but land was drawing into view once again, if he looked west where the sky was still dark. Maybe his friends, the friends he must’ve had once, were still out there, beyond the sea. Maybe they were looking for him. Maybe they were waiting for him in London. Maybe that was why he needed to go there so badly. Or maybe they were all gone, and he, left behind alone, had business to finish on their behalf before he could rejoin them. The sea slapped against the hull of the ship, and there was the frayed edge of a memory there too, a familiarity with ships, with the sounds that the sea could make, that went back farther than his few months’ employment as a dock worker and a deckhand.