Deep Dive - Arn Romance - Part 2
Alrighty we left off at Mek-Sha after Arn had to confront some demons so know that’s just forward to Corellia.
All my deep dives are AI free. ✅
Disappointingly even though we have both Tau and Arn here we don’t get too many interactions with either of them during the flashpoint. We arrive on Corellia and just go straight into the flashpoint to find Malgus.
We save Tharan and engage Malgus. We beat Malgus and he brings the device down appearing to crush himself, Tau and Arn but we escape. We later find out on the fleet that Tau, Arn and Malgus escaped. We do get a line that we all work well together to which Arn agrees, a nice send off before we don’t see him again for a while.
Now I am going to go into the letters Arn sends us but I saved them all a little out of order so I will do my best to try and make sure these are in correct order.
He discusses how he remembers when we first met and how much we have done for him since then and that he feels bad for not checking in on us and that we probably haven’t noticed. I feel this letter clearly shows that whether or not we’re pursing the romance angle Arn at this stage is seeing us as a close friend, someone he can confide in with but due to our ‘status’ as the Commander he feels a little overwhelmed in that we probably don’t even think twice about him (wrong).
He finishes off by letting us know that he and Tau are always there to listen. From a romance point of view he’s starting to slowly, very slowly to open up to the idea of us being something more.
Alright let’s get into Dantoonie one of my favourite FP’s especially as an old school gamer who played KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 back in the day.
When we meet with Gnost-Dural and Arn we can choose what I can only describe as us being excited to see him again, ‘It’s great to see you again’ to which he responds that it’s been a while.
In the previous letter he says he will most likely become a Jedi Knight soon as he’s excited to tell us about how much he’s learning before we must move forward. Gnost-Dural suggests that Arn and Tanner goi together and we check in with Arn he says he doesn’t want us to go in alone.
At the end of the FP we meet over Holo with Gnost-Dural, Tau, Sal-Deron and Vinyor Tesh where Vinyor states that he believes Aryn and Tanner should not be here because one is no longer a Jedi and one isn’t even a force user.
I love Arn’s line of ‘You’re kidding, right?’ feels like such a ad-lib line where there was no thought before he even said anything.
From a romance POV this line of Arn sticking up for us in front of everyone is sweet, it’s clear he see’s us in such high regard that any disrespect from anyone even the Jedi Order he’s ready to stand up for us.
This is it, our very first actual [flirt] lines moving forward, let’s do this!
We start of our next missions on Manaan with Arn who’s in a ship and has been attacked by an ion canon. We fade to Tanner trying to find Arn’s ship amongst the wreckage which we find.
When we find Arn we get our first flirt which comes from us in that we have been scared about losing him.
Arn says that he’s okay and didn’t mean to make us worry. I like how we’ve slowly built up to this scene over the years with Arn, even though we didn’t have any real flirts before this you can ensure through other dialogue that you’re always backing him up, being there for him, supporting him and looking out for him which to me screams, I like you but we’re going to take this slow and steady until you’re ready. Now we’ve reached that stage where he is ready and comfortable.
Tanner being the smuggler he is, is a total flirt but I like how intentional or not I feel as though both he and Arn here are a little awkward with each other as though they both have started caring for each other but still wonder whether the other cares which equals a little cute awkwardness between them especially Tanner being a Zeltron whom this flirting should be second nature.
The two talk and quickly figure out that he and Arn must get down to the planet to sort the cannon out. I like the interaction between the two as we fly down with Arn feeling the weight of being a Jedi Knight and losing people, we’ve seen in our previous deep dive how losing people in the past has given him severe PTSD and that he feels so strongly about wanting to keep everyone safe. I get the feeling his think at least in his mind he doesn't deserve his rank.
I like how Tanner is not a force user class here, although it may seem a little harsh to say that having fancy ‘jedi powers’ doesn’t mean that everything will always work out but sadly it is the truth. I feel as though as much as Tanner or anyone else speaks with Arn he’s never going to fully be able to move on from the idea that he can’t always save everyone. This PTSD flaw will reoccur throughout Arn's cutscenes moving forward.
We soon meet Gallo (whom I love!) and a plan is made, we part ways with Arn here but I love the look of oh my goodness when Gallo’s plan involves shutting down all tech and the first thing Tanner thinks of is Arn who is shielded from that (?), I’ll take it.
Again this concern romancing Arn or not is very telling of just how much the two are growing closer and looking out for each other, I can guarantee if it had, had any affect on Arn what-so-over Tanner at least would have noped out (no matter what Arn said). We part ways with Arn and go with Gallo.
We eventually come across Dosk and Gallo gets injured, her soldiers and Arn come to find us. I like how Arn’s immediate concern is to check us over to make sure we’re ok and we get a very adorable little smile of thank goodness you’re ok.
We’re then given a task and Arn says the best line in ALL of SWTOR (fight me on this lol), ‘’Let’s go fishing.’’
It’s great that we can now deep dive a little into more of Arn’s story here, he gets angry when he realises that if the Imperials can’t get the Kolto they’ll simply destroy it which of course means that others will suffer.
Arn reflects on how he was injured and that they didn’t have Kolto and although grateful they saved his life he had to go through so much pain. I personally can’t imagine having to undergo so much modification and just how painful that would have been when if he had, had Kolto it would have been so different. We jump right back into his PTSD of not only being injured/losing others but his fear of losing others (here being due to no kolto).
I have seen some interesting ideas of DS Arn floating around and honestly the idea intrigues me. We know of his PTSD and if Malgus or another DS user could feed on this deep fear of Arn losing someone he truly cares about I could see it happening. He already gets angry at the idea of Imperials hurting others (look at the Brothers on Mek-Sha) replace that with a love interest and I can see something DS seething underneath. But anyway back to the now!
I don’t think others sometimes give Arn the credit he deserves for being such a layered character. There is so much to unpack with what happened to him and yet he still puts others first because he can’t think of anyone else going through what he did. This is someone who wouldn’t give a second thought of giving his life for someone else, especially someone he cares about despite his underlying PTSD and fears. I believe the drip-fed content over the years really hindered some appreciation for his character as as whole.
At the end of Manaan, we get some nice one-on-one time with Arn, he talks about his trials which is intriguing to Tanner who as a Smuggler who has no idea. But we get to see a breakdown on Arn’s character again that during the training he felt as though everyone was against him ever becoming a Jedi but it had all been in his own head. This is very much in character for Arn, the self doubt I believe is 100% from what happened to him and his master, how can he feel he’ll ever be a Jedi Knight when he let so many people down? Lost so many including some of his own crew on Manaan.
Arn asks us if this chaos is what we go through all time, the answer is pretty much yes but we get another [flirt]!
It’s clear that from a romance POV that Arn has been much more open during Manaan (in own shy, awkward way) and in his own way flirting back allowing himself to feel something. Tanner admits it’s taken awhile to fully admit he enjoys Arn’s company, I take this as we were waiting for Arn to allow himself to open up and now that he is Tanner feels as though it is the right time to let him know how he feels.
We get a very cute exchange where Tanner calls him a Jedi Knight and Arn says that he really likes how that sounds coming from us.
Call me crazy but for the first time during the Manaan mission I think this is the first time Arn accepts his new title and believes that he can live up to it. Hearing someone that he knows who really knows him and what he’s been through it’s a passage of acceptance that if this person says I can, then I can.
Arn talks a little about the Master he came seeking and how they ended up being dead the entire time and not understanding why the Master didn’t want fame or anyone to know.
Eventually Arn’s crew calls and he has to leave as they’re staying on Manaan to help with the clean-up and his leaves. Maybe I was a little disappointed at no kiss but I remembered that with this we’re 100% letting Arn set the pace and for now we’ve had him open up just that tiny bit to know the feeling is mutual which is huge that he is allowing us in, that he is allowing himself to care about someone.
After Manaan we get a letter from Arn. I love how his letter states that he forgot to say he enjoys our company also, I think our boy flusters so easily and that he felt bad afterwards for not saying it back that he had to send is a letter to make sure we knew also. He clearly also asks to make sure we see each other soon, the slow and steady pace is definitely paying off as he slowly opens up more and is now more adamant that he wants to see us again.
If you made it this far well done, that was a long one of our deep dive of Arn's romance which as you can see is quite complex with such a compelling character like Arn. See you next time for part 3!
