One of the things that SWTOR really does a good job of without meaning to is showing how fucking stupid Bane's Order is.
Yeah, it works when yall wanna be a weird daddy issue abuse cult. But as soon as galactic civilizations come into play, you need to have a Reconstituted Sith Order era structure.
The RSE Sith Order is a serious institution, unlike whatever tf Sidious got going on in the Galactic Empire.
Like Darth Vader wouldve been an incredible Emperor's Wrath. It wouldve made him and Palpatine's dynamic less toxic and abusive if Vader was allowed to be in a role that worked for him.
But befause the Rule of Two has zero nuance and was created to only destroy the Jedi and not run an Empire. You have poor Anakin having to juggle Emperor's Wrath, Sith Apprentice, manage a bunch of Sith Assassins (Inquisitors), and whatever bullshit Sidious needs done.
How the fuck was he supposed to even learn how to take Sidious' place when Vader has zero time to do any learning?
And like Vader realistically cant, so Sidious starts hating his ass and Vader starts getting disillusioned and is miserable. Whole time, this is Sidious' fault.
But Sidious for as shady as he is, is a weak as fuck Sith. It's easy to be the strongest mf in a two person game. His ass dont want to share power or have to protect his spot in any way, and that ends up being his demise. Like I love him to death, but he couldn't have survived the RSE Sith Order.
Mf probably wouldve quit during the Recruit phase when a Sith Master electrocuted tf out him for whatever reason.
Literally, he wouldn't even have to replace Vader, he just needs to be a competent leader and put Vader in the role that he'd work best in.
If Sidious had just used the mfs he already had around him and established a Dark Council, the Rebels wouldnt have won. Like Maul wouldve been a fantastic Dark Councilor of the Sphere of Imperial Intelligence. He already has underworld connections and insight.
Like if some random Sith Lord from the Reconstituted Sith Empire saw Sidious discard Maul, they'd be floored bc why would you reject somebody who can get shit done and has gotten shit done? Maul would have
Literally everybody from Dooku to Ventress who Sidious decides to backstab bc the Rule of Two serves his power addiction wouldve been great to have in his Galactic Empire.
"Oh but infighting" yeah bro you have a lot of intelligent and efficient people in the same organization and theyll butt heads. Mfs forgot that the OG Sith Order was a W2 job and not a daddy issue abuse cult lol
There's a reason why the Reconstituted Sith Empire lasts for millenniums and the Galactic Empire lasts for like 25 years
Rambles in Star Wars History: The extreme shenanigans that changed an Empire
Bioware games can absolutely fascinate me, in part because of their worldbuilding, and in part because of where the worldbuilding ends. I mean, I did a whole long series of posts on the grammar of Qunlat and I have at least a dozen essays worth of material of exegetical analysis of religion in Dragon Age kicking around in my brain, which I keep threatening to actually manifest.
But since I'm here with my worldbuilding hat on, I'm going to ramble about Star Wars: The Old Republic, focusing on some of the sometimes-hilarious drama that's implied by the plot, and the implications for how these shenanigans remade a major galactic society in the process. Involved will be a man who faked his death to get out of going to meetings, a wine uncle who might become emperor, a living scowl with dangerous shoulders, and other assorted animals.
Expect a lot of bonus rambles in the image alt-texts, which is where I store commentary and jokes that I can't fit into the flow of the main post.
———
Before I dig into the topic at hand, I have to set the scene for those who don't know the game, or have forgotten in the fourteen years since the game launched.
Spoilers in the post below for Act 1-3 of the Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior, and Inquisitor storylines, Act 1 of the Jedi Knight storyline, the post-Act 3 Battle of Ilum flashpoint, and for various expansions including Rise of the Emperor, Knights of the Fallen Empire, Onslaught, and Legacy of the Sith. Assume that all reference links to Wookieepedia contain major spoilers.
SWTOR is an MMO set 3600 years before the Skywalkers crashed through the ceiling tiles of the galaxy, though it's not to say anything was less chaotic back then, just different chaos.
(Pictured: Anakin Skywalker, circa 32 BBY-4 ABY)
In this time, the titular Old Republic is opposed by a Sith Empire, which is precisely as functional as one might expect. After a decades-long conflict that ended with a Sith victory but left both sides exhausted, a state of cold war began. The Jedi, their Grand Temple destroyed, left Republic space to settle on an ancestral world. The Republic, battered and reeling, tried to recover its stride through use of its superior size and resources, and producing a truly unhinged number of superweapons.
The Sith Empire, in some ways, tried to pretend everything was fine for quite a while. They had successfully forced the Republic into a favorable treaty to end the war. They'd gained territory, they had a lot of work to do there.
…But as things started to look more and more like war again, they were left with the uncomfortable realization that they had sorta kinda killed most of the Sith in the last war, and Imperial citizens in good standing weren't producing enough Force-sensitive kids fast enough to rebuild the losses. Might've had something to do with most of them being dead.
The Empire, of course, is an absolute clusterfuck of a society. Slaves toil to maintain its power. Children of a slave and a citizen will be citizens themselves—unless they're "aliens", a category that includes everyone that isn't a human or a Sith pureblood, the original Sith species.
Being a citizen isn't great either: The Force-blind face mandatory conscription into the military, and can never rise to the highest echelons of society. Above them, the Sith act as a semi-hereditary aristocracy of evil space-wizards that serve an immortal, eldritch Emperor, their living god who has also kiiiind of gone AWOL for reasons only a few of them understand. He's torn between doing his job or staring at a living paperweight, and the paperweight has been winning. He also recently got trapped by an evil hole in the ground, it's complicated.
With the Emperor incommunicado, the duties of the state fall to the Dark Council, a ruling body of up to twelve Dark Lords of the Sith. Each have their own sphere of governmental influence, which are, one can only assume, very dark as well.
Presumably, the Dark Council had something to do with the inevitable yet still surprising solution to their space wizard deficit: over a thousand years of laws were suddenly overturned. Slaves, aliens, and prisoners were not only permitted to become Sith, it was now mandatory that they report for induction into training programs if they possessed any hint of Force-sensitivity.
This is how one of the eight protagonists of the MMO gets their start: if you play the Sith Inquisitor plotline, you begin as a former slave who has survived basic training and made it to the Sith Academy, where your teacher dearly wants to kill you. Your first mission: survive school.
I'm sure this is very relatable to quite a lot of you.
Now that I've got my PhD with only a few gray hairs, I'm looking back at this premise and thinking: This would completely upend the social framework of the Empire. You'd have every established Sith Lord in the Empire scrambling to kill these threats to their power, or harness them against their enemies, or both.
This is actually canon, but canon never touches on the broader, systemic implications of what the new Sith would do, and who they were before—Sure, the overseers of the training programs seem to be doing their damnedest to kill and undermine the newbies while maintaining plausible deniability, but enough of them survive to reshape the Empire. We know that. You play as one of them.
How in the fuck did the Dark Council ever manage to get this policy implemented in the first place? Obviously they did somehow, but the specifics are never mentioned.
But the specifics have the possibility to be hilarious.
The Dark Council itself is composed of Sith who either killed their way to the top, or inherited their seat from their Sith master—who they probably murdered. Turnover on most Council seats is incredibly high. The Spheres of Ancient Knowledge, Technology, and Military Offense each have three different Councilors within a single year, for example.
This also means that whoever ends up in charge of a Sphere might be entirely unsuited for it. Who heads up the Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy? The least diplomatic guy on the Council, naturally. He goes by Darth Ravage, which fits in well enough with the three different Darths whose names mean 'death' (Thanaton, Mortis, and Rictus). The player can even end up as Darth Nox--'Darth Night'. You get the title by killing one of the Darth Deaths.
So, which of these barely-domesticated evil goths probably voted to allow 'inferior' beings to become Sith, overturning a fundamental tenet of imperial sith philosophy? Probably not the guy in charge of Sith Philosophy! We never see him, but he seems to have been a traditionalist. On the other hand, Darth "Murder has no rules" Ravage might not be huge on tradition, so we can mark him down as a "maybe". But he doesn't seem to be an instigator for something like this.
But on the subject of instigators: Darth Jadus.
Darth Jadus is an experience. While many of the other Council members make it quite clear they're angry enough to chew on the furniture, Jadus unnerves all of them by being utterly calm and composed, as long as you don't count how intensely fervent and irrational he sounds when he starts talking about the Dark Side. He's unhinged in a distressingly hinged-seeming way.
Heading up the Sphere of Intelligence, Jadus is a noted iconoclast on the Dark Council, using his authority to open Imperial Intelligence positions to aliens. He chooses slaves and Force-blind citizens to be his advisors and agents, ignoring the traditional power structures of the Sith. He prefers his literal cult following of fanatical adherents instead, who see him as a visionary savior, a terrifying inevitability, or both.
This means he seems to have basically no interest in elevating other Sith. In fact, he hates the way the rest of them run the Empire. Making more of them might potentially be against his interests.
Or at least it would be, if he didn't have some long-running secret plans that he wants to keep the other Dark Council members from catching wind of. Advocating for slaves, aliens and convicts to become Sith would superficially fall in line with his philosophy, and just raising the idea in public could cause such social chaos that his true plans would benefit from it. Jadus is also the most genre-savvy sith in the entire game: he seems to almost be aware at points that he's neither the protagonist nor main antagonist, and thus his evil plans involve not messing with either of them. When he jostles up against the main plot and realizes he has no plausible means to derail it, he responds by leaving the plot entirely.
Given the tactical chaos and uncomfortably fourth wall-touching strategies Jadus makes use of, let's mark him down as a "yes".
But Jadus is an unpopular one on the Council. He's creepy. Sith HATE feeling creeped out. That's supposed to happen to other people, dammit, not them! And with his disinterest in politics and his deep interest in foisting his manifesto on everyone, he's not the most effective Dark Councilor.
He might be able to pull in a few—Darth Decimus, head of Military Strategy, seems to have been quite willing to exploit any advantage he might be able to squeeze out of a situation. Fun side note, his voice actor also played the First Order officer who was just so done with Hux at the beginning of The Last Jedi.
[Video Description: A compilation of Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Moden Canady from The Last Jedi, with the video quality partially encrunchified by YouTube. This includes all of his shots from the film, from arrival of the Seige Dreadnought Fulminatrix, to the extremely annoyed look he gives the fireball that kills him. Sound supervisor Matt Wood was apparently pretty sure "FIRE ON THE BASE!" was going to be used as an EDM drop, and I can confirm, I've heard it out in the wild.]
Who else have we got rattling around in this Council, who might have extremely ridiculous reasons to vote yes? Well, we have Darth Vengean, head of Military Offense, was all about the Offense. Who needs defense? That nerd Darth Marr? HA! No, Vengean wanted to restart the war with the Republic. More bodies for the war machine would probably be fine with him.
Speaking of that nerd Darth Marr, Darth Marr.
Apparently he designed this armor himself. Solid effort, my man.
Marr is in his sixties by the time the game happens. He's one of the longest-surviving Dark Councilors, and he sounds so tired of his coworkers in every scene he's in. Heading up the Defense of the Empire, Marr also is the de facto leader of the Dark Council, by dint of being the only adult in the room.
Much like Jadus, he distances himself from the backstabbery and rivalries among the Council members. Unlike Jadus, he 100% means it, and has been focused on not making the Empire explode. He eventually ends up as the unofficial leader of the Empire until he gets one-shotted so hard it makes his ghost chill out a bit. He keeps the spikes, though.
So, if there's anyone on the Council who might vote for this on purely practical grounds, and has the power to push others into agreeing with him, because so help him if they don't stop holding duels in the conference room he's going to turn this Empire around—
Nobody listens to him on that, by the way. Both the Sith main plots involve duels in the conference room.
In fact, one of those duels is egged on by our last suspect. Marr might be a contender for longest-running Dark Councilor, but there is another candidate: Darth Vowrawn, who seems to be having a much better time being on the Council than Marr. I suspect the only reason why he doesn't have a bucket of popcorn with him in the Council chambers is because somebody made a rule that he had to stop doing that.
Vowrawn is a surprisingly cheerful old bastard who seems to have turned his hobby into his job. He shows up 'fashionably late' to someone else's attempted coup, after lamenting he can't sell tickets to the clusterfuck that's about to commence. In the expansions to the game, he can outmaneuver and outlive all of the competition and end up becoming the Emperor, at the age of 87.
Vowrawn is also indifferent towards the Empire's blood purity doctrine--he supports the ascension of a Zabrak to the Dark Council, and takes one as an apprentice as well. Beyond that, Vowrawn would have to support this move, because he's instrumental in any large project like this, both politically and practically. While the others I've mentioned all have roles explicitly to do with the aggressive expansion or protection of the Empire, Vowrawn heads the Sphere of Production and Logistics. In essence, he's the one who can decide whether all these other bozos get to eat or not.
If Vowrawn didn't accept this change, then it would have failed. So, he's a definite "yes" by default.
Speaking of bastards who are still active well into their eighties, we have one last major figure who isn't on the Council that likely advocated for this: Darth Malgus.
[Video Description: The "Deceived" trailer, set ten years before the game. God, I love this thing. This was the first trailer I saw for the game, and it got me, it really did. The Sith are just as ridiculous as they should be, combined with choreography that feels a lot more crunchy than lightsaber combat had been before, with distinct combat styles for the two main fighters. It's quick, it's impactful, and it's got a memorable conclusion. Love it.]
Malgus is as anti-racist and anti-classist as Jadus is, but without the insane transcendental Dark Side philosophy. Instead, he has an insane philosophy of bettering the Empire through eternal war, which he believes everyone should have an equal ability to participate in. He is what would happen if a Warhammer 40k character had an inside voice.
[Video Description: The "Disorder" cinematic trailer, set before the Legacy of the Sith expansion. Malgus is 75 here. Man's held together by spite and screws and whatever nutrients you can absorb by being thrown through walls. He's fully given up on the Sith Order at this point and is trying to do his own thing, and he makes it look rad. The choreography has only gotten better, goddamn. Why did it take me three goddamn years to watch this. IT'S REALLY GOOD.]
Malgus is a big deal in the military, with a lot of support from both the Force-blind soldiers and earning the loyalty of a surprising cross-section of Sith. We know this, because he nearly hijacks the Empire at one point in the early expansions. He'd be into this idea, and he probably advocated for it. While he'd have the most direct interaction with the military-related Councilors we already have in the "yes" column, he also has a history of annoying the bejeezus out of other Sith on "his" turf, so who knows! He may have been more persuasive to the others we haven't dug into.
And we can't really dig into all of them at the depth we have with some. Despite how bogglingly huge SWTOR is and the two thousand four hundred and ninety-five named characters and "Additional Voices" credits in IMDb, we never meet some of the Dark Councilors. If you don't play all the eight main storylines, you won't see all of them in the game. I'll admit, I've never seen Darth Hadra, because I've never gotten that far in a Republic-aligned storyline! The Sith you encounter in their stories can often be more one-note, because they're purely there as antagonists rather than people you are legally required to hang out with, and thus have more opportunity to pester mercilessly.
[Video Description: A clip from my own Warrior run-through, featuring my big lad Rejalgar, his coolest friend Vette, and his boss, Darth Baras, who is presently having a screaming tantrum, which Rejalgar makes worse with the most delightfully straight-faced "Is there a problem here?". The Warrior plotline lets you play things sincerely evil, sincerely noble, or sincerely hilarious. Do you want to see Jedi bluescreen when a Sith just straight-up refuses to be violent? Do you want to sidestep a boss fight by offering a family a government pension, something your boss commends as being very devious and evil? Do you want to break up a fight between gangs by threatening to eat them? Come play the Sith Warrior storyline, and be the chaos you want to see in the galaxy!]
[Video Description, from a clip I uploaded to YT specifically for this post after I found out you can only upload one video per tumblr post wtf: A clip from my Inquisitor run-through, featuring my extremely shirtless lad, Sericus, playing coy and a little airheaded when called up by his Sith master, Darth Zash. Back in the day, Purebloods weren't supposed to be played as canon for this storyline, but there were tweaks later made to dialog that provided a canon explanation for how someone with visible Sith ancestry could end up in this situation. The storyline, however, unfortunately does not fully account for a character whose ideal job description is 'villain's beautiful and deceptively intelligent consort, the true power behind the throne'. It assumes you're playing a character who wants to go conquer and/or do mad wizard-science. Bonus points for eventually letting you marry your eight foot tall razor-faced cannibal thrall though, that's very fun.]
Why don't we see all of the Dark Council? Well, because they're ultimately not important to the story as a group. Events keep you locked tightly under the purview of just one or two of them on the Sith side of things, before the post-game and expansion plots launch you into the experience of being a major player in Imperial affairs, and Imperial affairs launch themselves at you in return.
Everyone realizes the Emperor wants to eat them. Then he dies, except he doesn't. Malgus takes over the Empire for a few weeks. Marr takes over, but half the Council is dead and the rest are still in orientation and are probably also dead, because their would-be successors assassinated them. The Emperor, only mildly inconvenienced by also being dead, eats a planet. Then things go completely off the deep end, and the Dark Council is no longer your concern at all.
It's economical storytelling to not belabor the rest of the Councilors, and playing through as an ex-slave Inquisitor, you continue to face enough challenges directly linked to your background that the resistance feels systemic, even if you don't actually see all that many others who are facing the same issues.
But I think there's a lot of potential for some really wild storytelling in there. Your character receives some level of basic training before they reach the Sith Academy, along with a whole batch of ex-slaves. What did that entail? How was it organized? What happens when folks from abolitionist movements start being trained as sith, gaining all the attendant legal authority over the life and death of others?
And what about the prisoners who were released for training? While one canon option is to play a character who was facing immediate execution for participation in violent anti-Imperial resistance, at least a fair chunk of Force-sensitive prisoners were probably serving longer sentences. What happens when prison gangs start gaining a foothold in the Sith Academy, where they're too dysfunctional to even form Mean Girl cliques? What happens when some of their members become full Sith? How many of them might have Hutt backing, or even funding from the Republic Secret Intelligence Service?
These are the sorts of things the Sith themselves are terrified of. This earns a very sarcastic thoughts and prayers to them, of course. Yet it truly is wild to think about the decision-making process that went into this massive societal shift that the game treats as simply a piece of inciting incident for two plotlines out of eight: Twelve unhinged people sat down in some extremely high-backed chairs one day and voted to give everyone equal access to lightning.
I love Star Wars, it's just the funniest shit imaginable sometimes.
The Lana/Theron Delusion: Why Science Proves This Ship is a Psychological Disaster
A large global study suggests that relationship happiness relies on a specific formula: sharing the same political views, but believing your
To be completely honest, I initially never even thought people shipped Lana Beniko and Theron Shan together. As a normal player going through the game, it always seemed completely obvious that they were just a pair of professional colleagues doing their jobs. But then I started noticing this strange subset of fans who aggressively push them as a romantic couple, completely ignoring who they actually are just to feed a self-indulgent fantasy. Seeing that made me want to look deeper into the character logic, which actually led me to a global relationship study published by PsyPost.
Their research completely dismantles the "opposites attract" myth, and applying that science to these two exposes how toxic and cooked their dynamic would be in real life. They don't have a single shared value between them, which is giving extreme friction from day one. Long-term relationship success relies heavily on having the exact same political and social views, but Lana is a pragmatic Sith Lord while Theron is a light-sided SIS spy. Their foundational morals are literally built to destroy each other, meaning every single crisis just turns into a loop of constant moral clashes.
Beyond the massive ideological divide, there is a total lack of mutual admiration, which the study notes is required for high-quality relationships. Instead of idealizing each other, they operate on pure irritation. Lana views Theron’s moral hesitation as a dangerous liability to the Alliance, and Theron is constantly side-eying and questioning Lana’s ruthless solutions. Shippers mistake high-stakes wartime survival for true chemistry, but trauma bonding is not love. The game writers explicitly show that when they are left alone without the player, they only discuss logistics, war metrics, and supply chains. Without a common enemy to fight, they would have absolutely nothing to talk about.
The absolute peak of hypocrisy comes from the fandom itself and their blatant double standards. Forcing Lana into this ship completely erases her independent Sith identity just to treat her like a prize in a fictional fantasy. What's funny is that these same shippers would start crying and screaming if they were paired with a real-life partner who constantly judged their morals, doubted their choices, and tried to change who they were the way Theron does to Lana. So, let's stop mischaracterizing them to cope. They are brilliant, platonic, utterly exhausted coworkers, and they should stay that way.
Note / Disclaimer: This post is just a fun, logic-based analysis of the canon characters using real-world psychology. If you love shipping them, that is totally fine, you do you! However, please respect my space and keep things civil. If you disagree with this perspective, feel free to ignore this post and curate your own dashboard experience. Let's keep the discussion polite.
(will be crossposted to ao3 later! With better formating)
On Darth Vowrawn:
First off:
I am using https://cnv.parsely.io/ (SWTOR Conversation Viewer), various novels, the encyclopedia, comics and my own screenshots as sources. I decided not to include every conversation in full since this would make this a bit too long. Also, everything is my own interpretation. I am generally ignoring the fact that some things have to happen due to this being an game.
Pre-Game Information
Let's start with Vowrawn's introduction - in the official encyclopedia. I am not going to quote the entire text at you but the basic facts offered are:
He has had his seat for decades and is also responsible for the fall and rise of "many" dark council members. Explicitly described is only Darth Decimus.
Other descriptors include: "master gamesman", "indulging in hedonistic pleasures", "enthusiastic passion for power grabs and well played deception".
Nothing in here surprising for anyone who played as Sith Warrior, but there were some important things left out.
Also: Vowrawn gained his Council Seat at the latest before 25 BTC (comics).
Sith Warrior
Quest: Protect Vowrawn
In-game, one of the very first things Vowrawn does, is to ask you to spare his remaining apprentices. Generally, Vowrawn does not want people to die if they don't have to. He tries to convince the Sith Warrior to spare Colonel Senks, too.
Another interesting line is of course: "At least I die at Sith Blood hands. I ask only that I not suffer the indignity of decapitation."
Vowrawn fully believes that the Sith Warrior is working for Baras and does not even try to survive. Also, he requests not to be beheaded – this has made me wonder if he has plans for when he dies. Ghost, resurrection or something entirely new? Is it just an Sith Culture thing? He does have an Sorcerer background, so it is entirely within the realm of possibility.
After you have killed the assassin coming after him, Vowrawn suggests you team up. If you say you'll kill Senks for working for Baras he answers: "Perhaps you will find another solution when you're there."
If you say: "Only a coward plans to flee" about Senks, Vowrawn will answer: "Colonel Senks is a survivor. He's smart, and I respect his work for the Empire."
Vowrawn generally seems to care about non-Sith, as shown by the fact that he even has an alien (most likely former slave) apprentice and he surely could have chosen any other apprentice. He also wants to Empire to function well - he understand that they need non-sith people, too. Not surprising - he does lead Logistics, but considering how ill-fitting some Sith are for their seats (cough Ravage), I wanted to point out that Vowrawn does seem to be good at his job.
This conversation also shows that Vowrawn is well-used to manipulation other Sith. The Warrior has several options to disagree or complain and Vowrawn always stay polite and leads the conversation in a manner that does end up with the Warrior ultimately doing what he wants.
Vette offers an hilarious line of dialogue: "Hey, did somebody order a Darth with a side of Sith Lords? I have Vowrawn here for you…"
Vowrawn's response to "Just don't get in the way": "I'm used to owning the space I occupy. But I will respect your territory."
This sets the tone for what Vowrawn will do when displeased with the Sith Warrior: be polite. The following quest shows this far better.
Quest: Squeeze the Spy
There are two paths here, one in which you call Vowrawn before acting and one in which you do not. Colonel Senks will either die or live by your choice.
→ If choosing to have him serve Vowrawn or have him work for the Empire: "Good work, my new friend. You are proving we can tear Baras down without compromising the Empire." or "A job well-done with Colonel Senks. He contacted me, reporting to service. I will put him to excellent use here. Baras loses a valuable asset, but the Empire doesn't miss a beat. Excellent."
→ if choosing to kill him: "I can't fault your desire to destroy him. We will find other ways to turn the tide of war here." or "I commend your efforts in dealing with Colonel Senks. Unfortunate that he had to die. But the war rages on."
More specifically if the player then responds "Someone like that is a liability. No matter what services he provides." Vowrawn answers with "What's done is done. Leave the war to me."
Point is - he really does not like that you killed Senks. But he can't do anything about it and he needs you.
Quest: Jedi Spy
We start with a call from Vowrawn and your crew. Most of his comments on your crew are just compliments but it gets interesting with Jaesa.
LS J: All is calm here, master. No further attempts on Darth Vowrawn's life. He's been rather--well--forward with me.
DS J: No trouble to report here, master. Although Darth Vowrawn has proposed some once or twice.
If M!SW, V: Just harmless flirtation, my friend.
#1 P: Try to remember what's at stake here.
#2 M!P: It's dangerous to flirt with another man's woman.
(to #1 & #2) V: Why so serious? Playfulness keeps me young.
#3 M!P: Jaesa is her own woman. I trust her to follow her heart. (note: Jaesa approves)
V: Glad you're such a good sport. Her loyalty to you is quite clear.
Vs: Glad you're both such good sports. Her devotion to you is quite clear.
#4 P: Glad you enjoy Jaesa's company.
V: She's a wicked delight.
#5 P: Jaesa's free to do as she pleases. (note: Jaesa approves)
V: She's an innocent thing. Fun to tease.
"Playfulness keeps me young" seems to describe Vowrawn's life philosophy pretty well.
Quest: Baras's Lair
V: There she is--the Entity. Such pure dark side energy. Is she not utterly beautiful?
(Entity speaks)
V: Don't fear, Entity. The trial is over. I know the incantation. Now it is a simple matter.
(battel against Draagh)
V: Such a finish! Never felt so much pain. I fully expected to die. But I am grateful to have witnessed your destruction of that monstrosity.
(Player responds)
V: Entity, is Baras aware of what transpired here? (yes) Wonderful. He must be twisting with fury. Now, we set up the ritual. The final gate between you and the beyond is lifted. My friend, you have been a revelation. It is time for you to confront Darth Baras.
Vowrawn's ability to free the Entity is certainly very interesting, as is the way he does seem to revere her, in some manner. Was this skill learned with the purpose of defeating Baras or has he other reasons to learn rituals, especially those relating to trapping and freeing spirits?
Retribution
V: You're here! The anticipation fills my veins with fire. I feel a hundred years younger. I can't wait to see Darth Baras's face when I introduce you to the Dark Council.
V: Baras has called a special session of the council to make his claim as the Emperor's Voice official. I'm fashionably late.
V: Listen to truth, my fellows. You are the victims of a ruthless and deceitful power grab.
The player fights Baras. If spared, Vowrawn will comment:
V: He won't remain in this weakened state for long. Surely, you don't mean to let him go. His deceptions are high crimes. Death, imprisonment, or at the very least, banishment is in order.
(banishment) V: It will be done. I know a particularly remote and desolate spot. If I ever need a smile, I'll imagine him languishing there.
(imprison) V: We have a prison that can house one as powerful as him. He will be taken there immediately.
(After kill or spare) V: At last, the end of Baras. The air clears, and my lungs breath deeply again. You have proven that you are truly touched by the Emperor. The Dark Council knows that the Emperor's Wrath has free reign. (..)
If the player wants to aid the Dark Council: "Then our power has heightened"
If the player threatens the council: "As you decree, Wrath."
Post-Class
Quest: Vowrawn and the Wrath
Vowrawn calls to tell you he wants to meet with you on Rishi. Important to know is that later on the Hand says: "He has committed crimes against the Hand. (..) He sought to learn our secrets and interrogated a Servant. We believe he is fleeing to the unmapped stars of the Rishi Maze. (..) Our search must continue. He will not elude the Hand forever."
We start out with Vowrawn being concerned about the Wrath, though how true that concern is is up to you and your Wrath.
V: "As I understand, you never chose to become the Wrath--the position was thrust upon you. What is it you truly desire?"
#1 P: I seek the ultimate test. I seek to measure myself through battle, and to become greater.
V: "Through victory, my chains are broken." There is no victory without contest.
#2 P: I wish to rule. I wish to exert my will and my vision upon the Empire and the Sith. That is our order's way.
V: So it is. And though it may one day cause us conflict, I would not see your path inhibited.
#3 P: I am the Emperor's Wrath. I do not seek--I am our master's fury embodied, and to doubt that is to voice treason.
V: Ah, Wrath--forgive the confused words of an old man. I worry for you, and forget the glory of serving our Emperor.
This conversation is perhaps one of the most interesting to me. It actually shows Vowrawn backing down when he realizes that the Sith Warrior is devoted to the Emperor (and as such an danger to him). This fits well with Vowrawn studying Lord Scourge to neutralize him for years. Most likely Vowrawn was disillusioned with the Emperor long before Act 3.
Either way, Vowrawn sends you after the Hand's droids, no matter if you are more aligned with the Emperor or not. He must be hoping that even an fanatical Wrath will be displeased with the Hand spying on them.
Also, the Wrath calls him Lord Vowrawn instead of Darth - maybe just an error, maybe title use is just that inconsistent or the Wrath is being friendly (since it in one of the positive options).
How long had been Vowrawn watching the Hand? Is he just curious and worrying about future threats or did he perhaps intend to remove the Emperor at some point? If yes, it must not have been known to the Hand - or they would have ordered the Wrath to kill him after Baras was dealt with.
hmmm so YES the empire is awful for everyone in it for the most part but in terms of corruption and competence I'd say they're actually both equally dysfunctional. This is actually good for anyone in the class stories, because if the government can't do crud then suddenly you get to do stuff and save the day instead. but it IS interesting, especially because since both are locked in a war with each other I wouldn't be surprised if both went out of their way to blame the OTHER for any kind of domestic issues.
"sure we've been hiking up taxes but surely you understand we need the money for the war" "we wouldn't have to concentrate so much power in the hands of the few if we weren't under attack and in crisis" "all citizens must enlist and fight because otherwise the Republic will win" etc.
so when Zakuul invades, it honestly seems like that's kind of a wakeup call for the Empire. Suddenly they're on the defense, and losing, and sure they could have remained just as dysfunctional but they didn't, they used the change as a catalyst to "man up" and be more responsible under Acina.
The Republic also changed because of the invasion, but not for the better lol. The invasion exposed the corruption and someone DID do something about it, but not in the positive direction like Acina. Saresh used the opportunity to take more power for herself and essentially worsen the corruption. But either way, having the status quo upset caused significant change in both, one way or the other.
Ah yes, the wide-ranging variety of SWTOR worlds. We have classics like Hoth, Yavin IV, and Tatooine, and some long-standing EU favourites like Alderaan, Dromund Kaas, and Korriban. There's a couple brief mentions in previous material that finally get a time to shine, like Rishi and Ilum. Even some that were first truly fleshed out only in the game, like Voss.
Then for variety we have War Torn Urban Mess number 1, War Torn Urban Mess number 2, War Torn Sewage Cesspit number 1, War Torn Urban Mess number 3, War Torn Urban Mess number 4, War Torn Sewage Cesspit number 2, War Torn
Jaric Kaedan is the designated jerk of the cold war era Jedi Council. When there is a mean or aggressive thing the writers want a member of the Council to say, Master Kaedan is nearly always the one to say it. However, I would argue that a lot of the mean things Kaedan says are mean things which needed to be said by someone.
For example, his questioning of Kira Carsen’s loyalty after it is revealed she is a Child of the Emperor is pertinent given the context. That someone who was accepted into the Order as an adult after attempting to steal the hyperdrive of a ship which just happened to belong to a member of the Jedi Council, whose position as that Council Member’s Padawan granted her close access to the Council, has been concealing her origins as a Sith acolyte is suspicious. During Act One the Jedi uncover a Sith sleeper agent, Tarnis, embedded deeply in Republic military research. In Consular Act Three, the potential infiltration of the Jedi Order by the Children of the Emperor is proven to be something Kaedan was absolutely correct to be concerned about. The Council would be remiss in its duty of protection towards the other members of the Order if they didn’t investigate the possibility of Kira being a plant. Arguably, they’d also be failing Kira by not consolidating the evidence proving her innocence because Kira might need that evidence if her status as a Child of the Emperor leaks again in the future.
Kaedan’s cynicism about the prospects of Tol Braga’s plan bring peace with the Empire is entirely reasonable. The risks of undertaking the mission go beyond the risk to the members of the strike team. If the Jedi abduct or assassinate the Sith Emperor it will trigger a second great galactic war – a war the republic military has been preparing for but may not be ready to begin. Even if Tol Braga succeeds in turning the Emperor to the Light, the wider Empire would be unlikely accept the commands of a Jedi Emperor, either dismissing the “redemption” as lies or mind control, or denouncing the ruler they are already becoming disillusioned with as a traitor.
His concerns about Jomar Chul’s vision are also valid. Even if the Hero of Tython is unwaveringly loyal to the Order and would never willingly draw on the Dark-Side of the Force, the Jedi Council should be aware that Jedi can be forced into falling under torture. The vision is an ill omen at the outset of an already poorly considered mission.
This gives me the impression that Jaric Kaedan’s role as the designated jerk is something which exists in-universe – that he has fallen into a dynamic with the rest of the Jedi Council where he feels he must voice the cynical and callous opinions because most of the time nobody else is willing to. If the points aren’t raised the quality of the Council’s discussions will suffer, the quality of the Council’s decisions will suffer. None of them particularly want to tell Bela Kiwiiks she might have welcomed a mole into the Order or tell Tol Braga his pet emperor redemption project is stupid. So long as Jaric Kaedan is always willing to be the bad cop then then the other members of the Council are free to play the good cop, or the mediator, or the supplier of wise proverbs.
Which is, moving further into headcanon, part of the reason why Kaedan is such a grumpy jerk. He knows he’s slipped into this trap and resents it. He shouldn’t have to always be the one bringing these things up. He shouldn’t have to worry that nobody else will if he’s not there. And the habit of imagining and voicing cynical takes, once established, is difficult to break.
ok so. I know everyone has their opinion on how whiny Koth is and that's a beaten dead horse but I think a huge under-looked part of it is how the game engine animates anger. take a look at Koth's face here, the famous frown which regularly puts players off-- including me at one point, because he looked absolutely livid over the news of a breakup, which startled me at the intensity of his expression.
makes you think wow this guy's emotional, doesn't it? and as a reaction to a few small conflicts, it doesn't feel good.
but then take a look at how KOTXX animates a frown on Lana and Theron:
INCREDIBLY ANGRY OVERREACTIONS.
SWTOR tends to make anger appear as a bulging of the eyes, which is a little terrifying, since it signifies extreme rage. Case in point:
I think a huge part of why Koth appears so abrasive to the playerbase is his expressions: he is overanimated and frowns with his entire face in a way that is almost comical in the same way the other companions frown *far* too much to the point of looking like TF2 caricatures, which makes him seem far pettier than he actually is.
I really believe his delivery would be helped if expressions weren't so strong and made subtler in SWTOR's engine, but he already was at a disadvantage with being made to disagree more often and therefore use that frown more than the others, which made his image worsen in player eyes. (Though his popularity shouldn't hinge on whether he agrees or not).
The point is, even as someone who likes the character even I was thrown off by how furious he looked to innocuous lines. His voice delivery was fairly neutral. His face wasn't. Would the same vehement dislike towards him exist if he wasn't animated in the same way?
