Slept on my Thoughts and Big Feelings™ about yesterday's patch, here we go (in true stereotypical fashion, this got a bit longer than I initially thought)
Spoilers for the 7.3 story moments (impside)
So obviously this was a very character-centric patch and its highlights really were the cutscenes. Like many people, I expected slightly more out of the gameplay part of the patch, especially after 7.2 and everything we got on Ruhnuk...
But the team really, really pulled through on what we got out of the cutscenes.
Rivix seems like a slimy bastard and I alternated between cheering him on for decking that other random Sithy guy and praying for his downfall at Tau's hand (you'll get him next time baby girl <3)
pleasantly surprised to see him immediately contact the Commander, and YET, I am and will remain suspicious of his every move and will anticipate the inevitable backstabbing
"what about your fascinating Hutt scientist?", mum come pick me up, i'm scared
Sa'har's interactions with Ri'kan make me want to bawl my eyes out, why can't Bioware ever let siblings be happy, she's so gentle but so blind and he's drowning in resentment and rage and they are so doomed
"I had little choice. Some earn what they have. Some are given everything", "and some lost it all", "you dare speak to me of suffering" I am going Insane™
Heta is so delulu it would be funny if it didn't make the situation go from worse to worser so fast, "it's never safe to change a galaxy, never easy to fight corruption and hypocrisy" be for fucking real
Sa'har, just say the word and we WILL come and pick you up (i have all the adoption papers ready whenever)
"I would be more than happy to go over the details", "... But not right now" PLEASE the Commander is SO TIRED lmaoo
not Oggurobb admiring Darth Nul's work, can you please focus
more on The Discrovery™ later in this post
Mind you, I played this whole patch on my main (Elias my love <3), who is a Saboteur ex-Imperial Agent, but...
my god, the Torian alert talk hit Different™
whoever decided this should be a cutscene and not just a letter... you are everything. It felt raw, it felt reflective, it felt absolutely necessary and i'm really liking the depth it is bringing with it
"I agree with Heta about the banner being used as a symbol of shame and betrayal. And yet... how dare she burn it"
"How you feel about your past is for you to decide"
"I spent so much time trying to be better than my history, I didn't stop to think about where I came from", "Good and bad, this box contains my past. Who my father was. My family. My sense of right and wrong. I can open it and remember when I need to, or I can leave it shut. The choice is mine."
It's the intergenerational trauma, fighting against yet embracing your history to shape your future and find your own purpose in life, I-
This Barbie is an ex-war criminal haunted by the Past!! And so am I!!
The whole Malgus cutscene was incredible and I probably spent at least half an hour (if not more) just going over all the different options.
flirting with Theron at work!! In front of our bestie Lana who is So Done™!! "May I remind you both we still have more to discuss", it never gets old <3
was actually shocked by how involved Theron was in the cutscene? actually had a lot of lines and he felt materially present in a way that i hadn't seen in a loong time (I will never ever kill Theron off [I have morals and I love him, your Honour] but I do wonder how the cutscene looks when you don't have him around?)
Theron calling the Imperial characters the fuck out is a kink I didn't know I had, but I do, so thank you for that
"Some higher-up is all sweaty about my past contracts with Malgus", "One of those contracts was destroying the defense grid on Coruscant during an Imperial invasion", get her ass my love!!
the tensions with Shae are back and, listen, I love our problematic girlie as much as the next person (too much), but I am thriving
"Don't you get it? With the holocron, Heta is part of that plan, willing or not", "You weren't interested in the holocron when you shot a teenager out of nowhere we ran into Sa'har", the girls are FIGHTING
I just can't get over how similar yet different they both are. Probably won't resonate with all Outlanders, but as a former Imperial agent, Elias NEVER thought he would become a Leader of any sort. He was always content to stick to the shadows, do what he does best with few restrictions and little scrutiny. It's so so so interesting to see Shae feeling like she owes so much to her people and yet struggling so much with being Mandalore
"Make him think you understand" and isn't the interesting part that some Outlanders really might understand, at least in part? Unique perspectives indeed.
"You and I are very much alike. I couldn't stand it when my mind was at the mercy of another... I don't fault you for wanting to break free" (patch 7.1)
"... few minds can comprehend my vision", "none who have stood by my side have understood this. The only one who could have... is my enemy" (patch 7.3)
Mirrors and narrative foils and the weight of our choices and I'm going Insane™ once again
we didn't learn much from the interrogation that we didn't really already know or couldn't suspect, it was very much about the Themes™
I know it's controversial, but I actually like the Nul and Mandalorian plots intermingling
"The Mandalorians are fractured... a broken people. They struggle to decide who they are", something that is so so important in basically all of the Mando characters we have here. Torian, Akaavi, even the Ordo brothers, Heta herself of course and the Varad, the Dar'manda and the Ash'ad, SHAE SHAE SHAE
I am going to ignore how this would inevitably resonate in many Outlanders too, the longing for home versus the morality of doing what's right for the galaxy and fighting your home and saving your independance but never knowing if it's going to be enough-
it was a bit weird that there was no way to prevent Shae from listening in on Malgus' interrogation, but then again, the whole scene where he bypasses us to speak to her directly is so powerful that I can't really mind too much
the them of HISTORY strikes again!!
"Can you not see it? The past looms over us all... a shadow of unchanging history. There are fools who believe they can outrun the shadow. Without a flame to chase it away, it will consume them - they are doomed to repeat the same failures"
the SILENCE once you get back from the interrogation is so LOUD and I felt a true sense of heaviness from it
Unfortunately, I feel like the Voss part of the patch was the weakest in many ways. I haven't played Shrine of Silence yet (the Flashpoint), but it is (as was announced) not required for the main story content.
The highlights truly were, again, the characters.
Arcann is back!! and we get to have a very nice talk with him about redemption, acceptance and forgiveness. all things that felt very important for Arcann's journey (and for my MC as well, actually)
"I saw centuries worth of horrors committed by my father. I felt the rage and the cruelty born of my desperation to please him", "I was afraid I saw those ruins because I was doomed to follow in his [my father's] footsteps", navigating intergenerational trauma and trying to trace the lines between what you suffered and what you are responsible of, painfully delicious
"I will never expect forgiveness - or even acceptance - from anyone I have hurt. But I will cherish any that is offered", what, me, crying? no, it's just raining, i would never cry (i am bawling like a little baby and will never stop)
can't say I was that surprised to learn that Darth Nul had been a Jedi before being corrupted over to the dark side, but I'm glad that finally puts to rest the "Lana is Darth Nul" theories
I am very intrigued by that Force power of hers , however : "she could mentally bond with anyone who could feel the Force. In those who did not recognize their own abilities, she awakened that realisation", okay, but what does it mean exactly?
the Voss stuff was otherwise a little bit on the forgettable side, I must admit (but I'm always happy to come back to Voss, so it's okay)
"[the Three] would never share them with an outsider, even one of your status", hmmm, excuse you, Sana-Rae, but I was once married to a Voss lady, doesn't that count for something
And just like that we were back to doing little chores-like quests and rocking it KOTOR-dialogue style. Which was okay, but not groundbreaking by any means.
of course it was Czerka, of course it was
out of all the side quests, I really liked the cantina one, it was so silly
the talk with Sana-Rae before going to see the Three was really touching <3 It really is all about personal choices and finding one's purpose even if it clashes with what you were taught growing up
the... prophecy itself is very vague and doesn't give us much more than what we've learned so far
"Life will be reshaped... scales unbalanced... A wave of change rises and falls... beyond the reach of Darth Malgus... and as he dreams, he awakens a great power... one that will tear the galaxy apart"
"Should Darth Malgus perish, this catastrophe will transpire more quickly"
I can't for the life of me begin to guess at what the devs have in store for us, but you can colour me intrigued for sure (and a bit wary)
the sheer unavoidability of "what is to come" is ???
and yet, somehow, "whatever is to come from this, it is you... who will choose the fate of us all"
"I'm tired of being responsible for the consequences of every decision"
"You can fight against destiny, but it is inescapable"
When I tell you boyo is TIRED
Overall, very strong themes for this patch. The way both the past and the future are inescapable, unavoidable, dooms that we cannot run away from.
The way we have to embrace them, embrace who we are, who we were and who we can become.
The way there is always a choice, there always has to be a choice.
