Romance Review: Base Game Guys for Gals

A couple of months ago (wow, this has been sitting in my drafts for a while!), Intisar wrote a blog post in defence of the romances with Doc and Corso, after they'd been panned pretty hard in one of Swtorista's livestreams. I had thoughts on this that I wanted to share in reply, but I figured that I might as well do so in a blog post of my own. It just took longer than expected to get it out...

I'll open by saying that I'm far from the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the in-game romances. Unlike many players, I'm not tempted to hit absolutely every flirt option I see, and in general the concept of romancing an NPC in a video game has less appeal to me nowadays than it might have had maybe fifteen years ago. I've also just been really inept at virtual romance in the past. My first post about companion romances on this blog talked about this at some length, including mention of my akward attempts at romance in Dragon Age. However, that doesn't mean that I don't have opinions on the stuff I have seen, and I thought I might as well compile them all in a single post.

This will only talk about romanceable companions by the way - flirting with random NPCs you encounter along the way can still be fun and memorable, but it just doesn't quite have the same weight in my opinion. I'll also limit myself to the base game companions, and more specifically to those available to female player characters, because almost all my characters are female. It's only more recently that I've dabbled a bit in also trying to level a couple of male characters, but none of them have made it far enough in the story to see their major romances. Something to explore over the next decade I guess. Anyway, here's what I've got to say now:

Republic

Trooper - Aric Jorgan

My main is a trooper and she's never kissed anyone. As I mentioned in the post linked two paragraphs ago, I wasn't instantly sold on Jorgan, and by the time he kind of started to grow on me and I might've considered a romance, I had missed my chance. So all she's done is flirt relentlessly with Jonas Balkar, and I could see something developing with Rass Ordo depending on how things go with him in the future... we'll see.

Anyway, on the subject of Aric: I obviously made alts later and have romanced him since then, though it's been a while since I played through those conversations, and I've got to admit they haven't been particularly memorable. In this post from 2016 I wrote that Jorgan kind of acts like a clichéd action hero in the sense that he likes to let the tough guy hang out most of the time, only confessing his feelings under certain amounts of pressure. It's hard to picture him in a proper committed relationship where he'd actually have to act like a normal person most of the time. And yeah, I don't really have much more to add to that. I kind of want to get my Vanguard through Fallen Empire at some point, to see whether the reunion with Aric in chapter eleven adds any more depth to the relationship.

Smuggler - Corso Riggs

Ah, the frequently maligned Corso. I'll come out right away and say that I like him. Honestly, even if you don't want to romance him, taking him along everywhere and watching him squirm by intentionally pushing all his buttons is hilarious. However, even as a romance he's got some things going for him. Like Intisar says, he's the kind of guy who'll always have your back no matter what's going on. He's kind of old-fashioned in his protectiveness and ideas about loyalty... and yes, this is where the problem with the sexism comes in.

I can't really blame anyone for being put off by this, but to me it ultimately wasn't that big a deal because unlike many sexist ideas in real life, Corso's sexism is utterly toothless. He'll always pipe up about how he thinks that a lady shouldn't do this or that... but ultimately he never tries to stop you, ignoring his objections doesn't diminish his affection for you, and if you push back on any of his silly complaints, he never has a good comeback. His ideas about ladies don't come from some deep conviction, but rather from a place of being a young bumpkin growing up on a backwater planet who just repeats what he's been told growing up, which ultimately just means that he's kind of naive, which I don't find that big of a deal personally. Plus he does show some growth over time.

Jedi Knight - Doc

Next we have Doc, the other guy Intisar went to bat for, and I agree with him, though for different reasons. I get why people might find him unappealing if they're looking for a character who'll be their one true love - but I always loved Doc for offering a more casual romance option. Doc flirts with every woman he meets from the moment you first encounter him, so you know exactly what kind of guy he is. And that can still be fun! There's something attractive about a man who finds something nice to say about absolutely every woman he meets, as long as you don't let yourself get dragged in too deep.

Ultimately, Doc's brave, easygoing and optimistic, and some days that's just the kind of pick-me-up you need after a hard day of saving the galaxy. I think he might also be the only companion who's actually happy if you turn down his marriage proposal. I just think he's a fantastic buddy with benefits.

Jedi Consular - Lieutenant Iresso

My first impressions of the consular romance were not very positive (again I refer you to the old blog post linked at the beginning), as I apparently flirted with both Tharan and Felix without meaning to and it all got very weird. I still don't really care for flirting with Tharan, but Lieutenant Iresso was really charming when I entered a relationship with him intentionally on an alt consular. He's probably got the most mature of all companion romances, with no major tension or drama, just two adults that really like each other and slide into being more than friends really easily.

Empire

Sith Warrior - Malavai Quinn

Quinn is another companion that is hated by many, though he didn't do badly on Swtorista's romance tier list. His betrayal in the main class story makes many people's dislike understandable I think, though if you can look past that, he's got another pretty unique experience to offer. I actually never forgave him on my own Sith warrior - she didn't hold a grudge on Iokath but also came to realise that she was kind of over him and that she preferred casually shacking up with Lieutenant Pierce.

Either way, in the earlier part of the class story, Quinn is pretty delightful to romance as he's basically the male equivalent of a blushing schoolgirl. He's super turned on by the Sith warrior's power and confidence but doesn't quite know how to deal with it at first, which makes for many a fun opportunity to make him squirm. It's an entertaining dynamic that you don't see this way round in media very often - more commonly it's the strong man whose appealing qualities make the woman blush.

Sith Inquisitor - Andronikos Revel

Andronikos is the classic "bad boy". He even gifts you a knife at one point! I remember the thing I enjoyed the most about romancing him was that he starts out very chill and views the relationship as pretty casual. I'll never forget how much I cracked up when I flirted with a guy on Alderaan and Andronikos' reaction was to approve and tell me that he was gonna go off to entertain himself with some girl from house staff in the meantime. He does get more possessive later on from what I remember, but it's still an interesting dynamic. He's easily the fiercest of the male love interests.

Imperial Agent - Vector Hyllus

Vector is the one romance that worked for me from the beginning and that I've never changed my mind about. I find it hard to make a female agent without romancing him. I just love how he's this calm, dedicated geek, and how the early flirtations with him are very low-key and playful. His love is deep but he doesn't want to make any drama about it. What's not to love?

Bounty Hunter - Torian Cadera

Torian is superficially attractive, but I've got to admit I never found his romance terribly compelling. I'll always remember the various conversations where he just says something to you in Mando'a with no subtitles and I was simply like: "Huh?" How am I supposed to judge whether that's romantic or not? His voice actor also uses a pretty flat affect most of the time, which to me comes across as Torian being "too cool to care", which I in turn don't care for myself.

On replaying his romace more recently I found it a bit more appealing, as I think it actually works better if your own bounty hunter isn't too weighed down by morals and approaches things with a colder "just in it for the thrill/money" kind of attitude. (My first hunter who romanced Torian was very light side and e.g. letting a potential target go for "moral" reasons didn't generally sit well with him.)

Overall Verdict

All in all, I've got to say I rank the base game romances for female characters pretty highly - even if they don't all appeal to me personally, I think it's really impressive what a wide range of love interests the writers managed to come up with for these: from shy to boisterous, from loyal to promiscuous, from goodie-two-shoes to bad boy, they offer quite a wide variety of experiences.

In fact, just writing this has made me want to do some romancing on alts just to see the ones again that I haven't played through in a while...

Day 2: Class Stories #IntPiPoMo

I'm taking part in IntPiPoMo, and this is the second of ten screenshot posts I'm making this month, each one themed around a certain topic. Today's topic is... class stories!

The last time I made a post on this theme three years ago I noted that I have a very haphazard way of playing through the original stories nowadays. Many still consider them SWTOR's most compelling content ten years later, and while I don't exactly disagree, I'm clearly not as compelled to stick with them as most! Where others might start a new character and play through their story from beginning to end, I regularly hop between different characters while only progressing them by one or two missions at a time, meaning that without my spreadsheet I'd be hopelessly lost when it comes to remembering where each of my alts sits in terms of story.

Accordingly, when I gathered screenshots for this post, I ended up with an eclectic mix of images from different classes at very random points in their personal narrative.

This may well be the earliest moment I screenshotted in any class story ever, as this happens when your bounty hunter is like... level two? Historically I don't tend to take a lot of pictures on the starter planets except maybe on Tython due to how pretty it is.

This is Zilek, my Jedi Shadow on the Satele Shan server, solving his primary task on Taris the violent way. He's actually an absolutely ancient character - I think I first created him around the time free-to-play came out, but I don't actually tend to spend much time on servers other than Darth Malgus. One thing that makes him interesting though is that he's the only male character in my giant stable of alts - for some reason I've always struggled to bond with characters of the opposite sex in MMOs. I still dream of actually making some progress with him one day though.

Here we have another one of my consulars, my dps Sage, meeting with a child of the Emperor called Stark, like the ill-fated family from Game of Thrones. I always kind of liked this guy in the sense that despite of his very brief appearance, the voice actor manages to imbue him with a lot of character and he comes across as quite a tortured soul.

And one more shot of yet another consular, this one my DvL Shadow. It's a bit hard to make out in this static image, but the giant statue on the right was being smashed dramatically at the moment I took this. I've always liked these rare, more wide-angled scenes from the early game, considering that a lot of the earliest cut scenes were just basic shot/reverse shots.

Another nice wide-angled shot, this time from the Sith inquisitor's class story, when Darth Andru's Force ghost tries to kill you on Dromund Kaas, just before old Lord Kallig steps in to intervene. Who says Sith can't make great parents? Having a ghostly ancestor come in to save your hide on more than one occasion is definitely a perk.

Another shot of another inquisitor of mine, this time taking part in the iconic activity of shooting lightning! On second thought, I'm not 100% sure this was actually from a class story mission and not just a planetary quest, but there are enough similar moments of this type either way.

What else is iconic for Force users? Flinging/smashing things with the Force! Modelled here by my DvL Juggernaut.

And finally, here's the same character striking another one of my favourite iconic poses, lightsaber raised with determined expression on her face.

IntPiPoMo count: 15

I Finally Watched The Mandalorian

I'd kind of tried to avoid spoilers for it until now, but you try not being spoiled about the existence of Baby Yoda in the age of the internet... still, I managed to not learn too much about the actual plot until I was ready to see it for myself. Note that there will be lots of spoilers in this post as well!

Season 1

So initially, I was really impressed, by everything. I liked that new little "Star Wars" intro with the helmets - quite a departure from the classic Star Wars title sequence while still hitting all the right notes. I liked the end credits with the concept art. I adored the music - again, quite different from "typical" Star Wars, but appropriate and extremely catchy. The stunts were great; the CGI was great. The first few episodes were also kind of... "artsy" I thought, due to the way Mando spent a lot of time on his own and the show had to work hard to pull you in and hold your attention during a lot of quiet moments where he was just doing his thing, and you could barely even read any of his body language due to the armour.

As the season progressed and he started interacting with more people, it got more... "normal" though, which was a bit of a step down in this case but still far from bad. I just thought episode four was a bit of a low point, what with the lone ranger coming to save a village of peasants from the Uruk-hai. After that, it got a bit better again but also... a little odd. I was very invested in the action, but at the same time also found myself yelling "oh, come on" or similar phrases at my screen. Like the gunslinger just leaving Fennec's body behind for seemingly no reason. Or my favourite secondary character getting killed off off-screen. In the grand finale, they seemed to throw all logic to the wind and just had characters do stuff that looked cool. And that's coming from someone who's not usually particularly nitpicky when it comes to fictional characters making bad decisions... I mean, ultimately I was able to forgive it because I still enjoyed myself, but it also seemed like a bit of a shame when the writing had started off way better than that, so the writers were clearly competent.

Season 2

Interestingly, the second season almost immediately felt quite different from the first. While the first one also had an arc, the individual episodes still all had their own, distinctive tone. At least to me, the second season felt a lot more tied together. The writing seemed to have improved a bit overall, which was nice, but on the other hand the fan service suddenly went through the roof, something I'm a bit ambivalent about.

Doing things that fans like is obviously not a bad thing in principle, but I've long grown tired of how official creators keep reducing this wonderful sprawling universe to the same few people, concepts and planets. Yeah, the first season also had jawas and Tatooine, but not too much else. In this one though, we go from Krayt Dragons to Bo-Katan to Ahsoka Tano to Boba Fett. The latter was kind of funny to me actually because in hindsight his involvement was clearly telegraphed for several episodes, but I was completely blind to it - I didn't even realise the armour was his until he showed up to reclaim it; I'd just perceived it as generic Mandalorian armour the entire time.

And then you have the grand finale of course, which was the ultimate fan service. That one was kind of the opposite of the Boba Fett situation for me, as I found myself thinking ahead of time: Hm, I wonder who this mysterious Jedi is going to be that comes to pick up Baby Yoda. Can I think of any Jedi characters from the EU that might still be alive? Ahsoka is obviously busy elsewhere... Maybe it could be someone entirely new! No, it couldn't, because people would just be annoyed that Mando has to give up Baby Yoda to some complete no-name. So it would have to be someone important... it's gonna be Luke, isn't it? Yeah, it'll have to be Luke.

And I guess it turning out to be Luke wasn't bad... but the way it was done just felt gratuitous, with those endless shots of him cutting down droids to show how cool he is, and then everyone just staring at him and not even asking as much as who he is (cause we, the viewers, obviously already knew, so who cares).

Overall Thoughts

Apparently there's a season 3 in the works, though I'm not sure what that's going to be about. Sure, there's still the hook with the Darksaber, but at this point it's hard to imagine Mando without Grogu anymore! I guess we'll see.

Overall I really enjoyed the first two seasons of the Mandalorian, but I have to admit that I also have somewhat mixed feelings about it when I hear comments like how this show "made Star Wars great again" and stuff like that. I do think it's good, and I do think it's better than a lot of the major franchise releases that Disney has produced recently, but there's also a part of me that worries that both Disney and portions of the fandom could come away from its success with the (in my opinion) wrong lessons, e.g. that Star Wars is only good if the main protagonist is an emotionally repressed guy whose face is hidden under a helmet all the time, and that it can only be successful if it keeps recycling the same locations and characters that fans know and already love. Because while those are things that just about work in the Mandalorian, I feel it almost works despite of those things instead of because of them.

The SWTOR Connection

Finally, some SWTOR specific comments: While nobody but Bioware and EA know the numbers, it seemed to be commonly agreed that the release of this show helped SWTOR's popularity, because if it leaves you with an urge to take on the role of a cool bounty hunter in a video game, there aren't that many options out there.

I was kind of surprised just how well it mapped to the game though, as the bounty hunter class story actually touches on some similar themes in regards to Mandalorian culture, or the problems of your bounty hunting job potentially conflicting with your morals. I was also incredibly amused by how much Mando's quest on the show frankly resembles that of an MMO player at times, with every person he meets wanting him to run some personal errand first before they'll help him. Episode two of season two could even be interpreted as an escort quest, including the urge to move agonisingly slowly! I just thought those parallels were very funny. I hope anyone who started playing a bounty hunter in SWTOR because of this show got exactly the experience they hoped for.

The Best Classes to Take into Onslaught

With the recent Steam launch having brought many new and returning players (back) to SWTOR, there's been a resurgence of curiosity about many basic aspects of the game. One question that returning players with a stable of multiple characters might have is which class they should pick up first to get the most out of the new story additions since they last played.

My post about the best classes to take into the "Knights of..." expansions is one of the most popular posts on this blog, but we've had a fair amount of new story since then, with the arc about Valkorion and his family more or less wrapped up and abandoned. I think it's fair to wonder whether the storylines that have come after are better suited for a different set of classes, or if there is one class that's just best for everything, meaning KotFE/KotET and everything that comes after. My answer to the latter is "yes, and it's the Sith inquisitor", but I'd really like to go into a bit more detail than that. So get ready for some minor content spoilers and mention of companion returns post-KotET, but I'm not giving away any major plot points or anything.

First off I think that on the whole, the post-KotET content has been much more neutral in terms of which classes it's suitable for. Your character is now the commander of the Eternal Alliance (whatever you may think of how they ended up there) and they are back to dealing with the two big factions, which is easily justifiable in my opinion, whether you originally started out as a Sith or a Republic trooper.

When Bioware first eased their way back into this style of writing they seemed to struggle a bit, and the Iokath storyline that followed KotET was pretty bland and awkward as a result. This was followed by what has been dubbed the "traitor arc" since then, which again started poorly but got better as it went along. It's also probably the single most class-neutral storyline we've had since KotET, simply because it focuses very much on your personal relationship with the traitor, which depends more on how you feel about that particular character than your class choice. That said, the last flashpoint in the series, The Nathema Conspiracy, features a nice callback to your class story with a lot of different permutations based on your choices there.

From there it's off to Jedi Under Siege, which takes place on the planet Ossus, and where the current ongoing storyline kicks off. While this is still fairly class-neutral content as a whole, Bioware started to include a lot more references to the original class stories from this point onwards, which is what I will use to justify most of my rankings. Also noteworthy is that from Iokath onwards you're given the option to start sabotaging your old faction, which is something that might be greatly suited for characters that were played as never having been that attached to their original faction to begin with.

With all that out of the way, I would recommend prioritising the classes as follows if you're uncertain:

1. Sith Inquisitor

The Sith inquisitor is in the lucky position that they were a great fit for KotET/KotFE but the new content fits them like a glove as well. They basically enjoy ruling their own little faction, and whether you decide to go back and help the old Sith Empire or would rather scheme against them because it's the Sithy thing to do, opportunities for intrigue abound.

Jedi Under Siege starts with a call from your old friend Moff Pyron (who remembers you of course), and if you sided with Khem Val over Darth Zash at the end of his companion arc in the base game, you'll get to reunite with Khem on Ossus. Even better, you get to romance him too if you're into that kind of thing!

In Onslaught you're also given the opportunity to reclaim your old seat on the Dark Council if you wish (and in an appropriately Sithy manner as well).

Oh, and Andronikos and Ashara also come back in post-KotET Alliance alerts but that's really just the icing on the cake.

2. Jedi Knight

The Jedi Knight is another character that gets along well with the KotFE/KotET storyline and manages to continue into the new content quite seamlessly. You'll get recognised both as an important Jedi and a military commander, and no fewer than three of the original knight companions make their return as part of the storyline from Ossus onwards: Doc, Kira and Scourge. The latter two haven't had that much to do yet (that'll be in the content drop we're anticipating towards the end of the year), but all three are fully integrated into the storyline and reuniting with them is quite interesting. Kira can now also be romanced by female knights and Scourge is open to either gender. I haven't been able to find confirmation whether Doc swings both ways as well now...

3. Imperial Agent

The reason I rank the Imperial agent highly is mostly because of the saboteur option. You don't have to take it if you don't want to, but of all classes the agent was the one for whom it could (potentially) make the most sense to want to betray the Empire by the end of their class story. This was the sort of story thread that I think most of us didn't expect to ever get picked up again once Bioware said that there weren't going to be any more class stories, but the saboteur option has effectively revived it and even made it more "mainstream" so to speak.

Vector returns in a post-KotET Alliance alert, which is nice enough if you like him or even romanced him, and agents also get an exclusive little chat with him after the Task at Hand interlude that serves to remind you that he's still there and involved in the agent's life and decisions.

4. Jedi Consular

Similar to the knight, the consular is recognised for previous achievements on Ossus, and there are opportunities to both fight and be diplomatic.

In terms of companion returns, the consular was a bit of a black sheep during the KotFE/KotET era as no consular companions were involved in the main storyline and Qyzen was the only one that could be re-acquired via an Alliance alert. Post-KotET however, Lieutenant Iresso returns in an alert, you reunite with Nadia as part of the Ossus storyline, and Tharan comes back during Onslaught. Good times!

5. Sith Warrior

I ranked the Sith warrior as fairly high in terms of its suitability for KotFE/KotET, but to be honest I never pictured the warrior as someone who wants to sit on a throne and rule - better to leave that to someone with an interest in politics while they go out and smash faces. Ossus and Onslaught offer some nice opportunities here as you get back onto the front lines of the war and get the option to leave all that pesky planning to other people if that's more up your alley.

Quinn returns on Iokath and you get the option to finally get closure in regards to "that thing" he did during your class story. Jaesa returns in an Alliance alert after Ossus too, both her light and dark side versions. The former can now also be romanced, and the latter can also be killed if, like me, you always found her pretty annoying.

6. Bounty Hunter

You finally get Mako back in post-KotET Alliance alert, but it's a bit lacklustre to be honest. There is an interesting moment in Onslaught where bounty hunters get a slightly different reaction from an NPC than other classes, but other than that it doesn't offer anything particularly exciting for the class. The main reason I still rank it above trooper and smuggler is that bounty hunter is another class for whom the option of wanting to change sides in the war makes more sense than for most others.

7. Smuggler

Corso, Risha and Akaavi come back in two post-KotET Alliance alerts but they are short and not that great in my opinion. And while part of Onslaught takes place on a planetoid where a smuggler could feel right at home, nothing much is made of how this might make for a different experience for this class.

8. Trooper

Elara Dorne makes her comeback during Iokath but it's not very exciting. In the aftermath of Onslaught you get another little scene with her though (like the agent does with Vector), which is nice. Other than that there isn't anything going on that feels particularly tailored towards troopers.

Looking back at the final ranking, I'm kind of surprised by how similar it is to my KotFE/KotET ranking, with knight and inquisitor coming out on top once again, and smuggler trailing behind yet again. That said, I think it's important to repeat that overall, the newer content doesn't feel nearly as badly suited for some classes as KotFE/KotET did, and that there's much less of a difference between how much you'll enjoy playing through it as an inquisitor vs. a smuggler.

Got a different take on how different classes experience the current expansion and the content leading up to it? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

A Series of Unexpected Events

When I wrote about skipping story content last year and why I'm conflicted about it, one of the arguments I gave against it was that at least for me, there can be quite a difference between imagining how a character would react to certain story beats in the abstract, purely based on their personality and alignment, and actually playing through that same content, because small details such as certain pieces of dialogue can end up making quite a difference to the way things feel in the moment.

I've had a great example of this recently in the form of my bounty hunter - or should I say "one of my bounty hunters"? I'm up to three of them at max level for some reason and have been splitting my play time between them in the most awkward of ways. Anyway, this story is about my dps Powertech T'ir (don't ask me how to pronounce that, I just added the apostrophe somewhat randomly when she lost her original name during the first round of server merges), who is the bounty hunter with the most story progression and on whom I've been making a concerted effort to get caught up with current events. In case it's not obvious, this means that this post will contain spoilers about story content from KotET onwards.

T'ir's a Chiss and tends to lean towards dark side decisions, so I thought everything would be pretty cut and dry for her. She's not exactly an Imperial loyalist, but she's been getting along with the Empire well enough, so I couldn't really picture any set of circumstances in which she would defect to the Republic when given the choice.

So the other week I finally finished the last chapter of KotET on her. Declaring herself an Empress at the end seemed like quite a high point for a bounty hunter fond of personal power. I don't think she has any real desire to rule nor interest in politics, mind you... she just likes being the strongest and punching people. Calling herself an Empress must have felt like a bit of a joke to her, to be honest.

Then it was time to go to Iokath, to find the Republic and Empire squabbling there. T'ir didn't really want to support either of them - they both seemed kind of beneath her at that moment. Acina had previously been an ally, but here she was trying to snatch some superweapon for herself behind everyone else's back - typical Sith scheming, bah!

And who was representing the Republic? Jace Malcom, a hardened war veteran with whom a bounty hunter could actually see eye to eye, and who also happened to be her boyfriend's dad. (In hindsight I honestly I have no idea how or why I ended up in a relationship with Theron on this character... they are/were a terrible match. However, the point is they were a couple at the time, so the familial relationships were a consideration.) With all that in mind: Why not side with the Republic on this occasion and bash some Imperial heads in? To a bounty hunter like her it's all the same anyway. (Fun fact: If you pause this story arc after "defecting" and then click the launch button to resume, it will put you in the wrong base and you'll get murdered by guards as soon as you arrive. Huzzah!)

Anyway, if you're all caught up with the story, you know what comes after that - the traitor story arc. Oddly, the bit I enjoyed most about that was the interaction with Aristocra Saganu. In particular, there was one line of dialogue where you get to say something along the lines of: "Really, you'd sell out one of your own just like that?" and his response is: "You're one of our own too." I actually had to pause and blink there for a moment to realise that he was talking about the fact that T'ir is a Chiss just like him. I hadn't even considered that! At the end he also sent her a letter about how she was a role model for all young Chiss, which I thought was great.

The issue of the traitor himself largely played out as I expected. While there were a couple of heart-wrenching lines about love, T'ir wouldn't have become a bounty hunter if her heart was that easily wrenched. I'm not sure she would have been able to pull the trigger herself, but simply turning her back on him when he had already been injured by someone else's hand was surprisingly easy.

Where do you go from there though? Surely not back to working with the father of the man you just left to die? Handily though, Emperor Vowrawn also wrote her a letter asking to let bygones be bygones and saying that he'd quite appreciate her working with the Empire again. He might not be so bad; he reminds her a bit of Darth Tormen... I also think she'll get along just swell with Malgus, though I don't know how well he will like someone who already switched sides twice. I guess the best way to find out is to play! I'm very curious to see how things will play out for her from here, as I never expected to have an Imperial loyalist that would be dealing with Vowrawn instead of Acina...

Companion Returns: Vector, Iresso, Akaavi & Mako

More than two years ago I wrote about the first four Alliance alert missions that Bioware released to return more of the then still-missing class companions post-KotET. I found their shortness a bit disappointing, but was nonetheless excited for the first bits of class-specific content in years and looked forward to seeing the other four that were scheduled to come out soon after.

Would you believe that it actually took me until recently to see the last of those, as I only completed KotET on my bounty hunter the other week? At this point, talking about these companion returns isn't news anymore and I doubt anyone else really cares what I thought about them, but I've had this post sitting in my draft folder for almost two years so I'm going to finish and publish it, damn it!

Vector

This was probably the one I was looking forward to the most, considering that Vector is my favourite romance from the original class stories. He's also someone who actually manages to deliver the pathos of how heartbroken he was without his partner convincingly (in my opinion), unlike some other companions.

The only thing that made me raise an eyebrow a little was his story of how the Empire apparently "conscripted" the killiks to use as cannon fodder? That sounded odd to me, considering that I always got the impression that they were a pretty powerful faction, so I'm not sure how an already extremely weakened Empire would have been able to get them under its thumb just like that, but whatever I guess.

Lieutenant Iresso

Basically, Felix had a horrible time, the Republic abandoned him in his time of greatest need, and he'd like to just stick with you again if that's alright, kplzthx? I felt pretty neutral about this one, probably because I've always felt kinda lukewarm about Felix Iresso as a companion. I don't dislike him, but he's not one of my favourites either... I just didn't find him all that memorable.

The only thing that I was curious about was whether I'd be able to romance him if I hadn't romanced him before - my Sage actually kissed him once back in the day since I'd somehow manoeuvred myself into a companion conversation where my only options were 1) kiss him, 2) kiss him, or 3) say something mean, so I went for the kiss just to have her back out immediately afterwards because "oh noes, the Jedi code". This was apparently not sufficiently relevant to bring up again though, and having turned him down back then, there was no option to flirt with him this time around.

Akaavi & Mako

Now this is the one that held this post back, because while I did the smuggler version quite some time ago, I also wanted to see the quest from a bounty hunter's point of view and well... refer to what I said in the intro paragraph. It was also the most disappointing mission out of this lot of companion returns.

There wasn't actually that much difference between how the two classes experience it either: You get an alert that one of your missing companions has been spotted doing some bounty hunting on Tatooine, so you go there and find them in the company of the other companion. They quickly go from "hey, it's you" to "I met this other gal and she helped me out" to "let's hang out again just like old times" and it all goes by so fast it feels a bit like you could blink and miss it. I hope/assume it's a bit more interesting if you were in a romance...

I didn't mind the brevity so much on my smuggler since she honestly wasn't that close to Akaavi to begin with, but my bounty hunter had always been close to Mako, treating her like a little sister and encouraging her to hook up with Torian, and there was no reference to any of that. You also aren't really told anything about the other class companion other than that they are a friend and will want to come along. It was just a remarkably unmemorable affair.

I'm glad that from Ossus onwards Bioware went back to incorporating the returning companions into the main storyline again, even if it was in minor ways sometimes, as I feel that those returns have all been a lot more satisfying than these super short and rather disconnected Alliance alerts.

My Top 5 Companions We Should Have Been Able To Kill in the Original Class Stories

This is probably my longest post title ever.

The return of Malavai Quinn in patch 5.2 has once again reinvigorated the discussion about what companions we'd like to get rid of or even kill. I think Bioware has handled this well enough in the content they've added since 4.0, but the original class stories still feature many moments where it feels outright wrong that you're not able to do anything but smile and nod in the face of your companions' actions. I understand that it's not feasible to go back and change that at this point, but it is nonetheless somewhat galling when you consider that the original reason for making companions unkillable (people killed their only healer and later regretted it) has completely gone out of the window thanks to the ability to switch their role on the fly.

In the spirit of angrily shaking your fist at the screen to no avail, I shall therefore present you... with what it says in the post title. This post contains spoilers for the class stories of all the Imperial classes. Somehow it's only Imperial companions that inspire this kind of rage in me... probably because the worst any Republic companions can do is be boring or mildly annoying. You might wish for an option to reject some of them, but it's generally not in character to want to outright murder them. Not so for the Imps though.

#5: Ashara Zavros

Ashara is only fifth on this list because she's a comparatively inoffensive companion. However, she is a Jedi padawan, and for some reason the Sith inquisitor decides to adopt her as his or her apprentice. Why? Who knows!

The warrior has a similar thing going on with Jaesa Willsaam, but at least she has a unique talent that makes her desirable to have around, and the Sith warrior in turn gets an opportunity to impress her big time and give her a reason to want to stick around. It's still a flawed scenario, but at least it's got something going for it.

The only thing that makes Ashara relevant to the Sith inquisitor is that she's related to a certain Force ghost, and once that's dealt with there isn't really any reason to keep her around. In fact, she comes across as incredibly naive and gullible, which are hardly good qualities in the eyes of a Sith. From her point of view it's not clear why she wants to stick with the inquisitor either; more than anything she just seems confused and embarrassed by what she's done, probably thinking that she has nowhere else to go.

If you're dark side, the logical thing really would have been to simply off her once you were done with your business on Taris. Light siders maybe could have been given the option to simply let her go and tell her to go back to the Jedi. Suddenly being stuck with her sure came out of nowhere though.

#4: Skadge

Skadge is simply the blandest and dumbest companion in the whole game as far as I'm concerned. Other companions may inspire more hatred from the player base, but in turn they also tend to have some ardent fans that balance things out. But Skadge... I think the most flattering thing I've ever seen anyone say about him was that they didn't mind him that much. What a ringing endorsement.

In more than five years, I never felt the need to take a screenshot of him either (which is why there isn't one in this post). Why would I want to? He's just a dumb, ugly thug. I think the idea behind him was that he could take the role of "muscle" for your character, but he was given to the bounty hunter... and the bounty hunter is already the muscle themselves! He is the one bounty hunter companion that nobody likes and where nobody understands why the story makes you take him along. It's as if you suddenly decided to adopt a random trash mob. And we all know what we really want to do with trash mobs.

#3: Kaliyo Djannis

I hated Kaliyo so much on my first agent. My agent was a well-meaning Imperial loyalist, which meant that Kaliyo disapproved of everything I did and I could not see why Imperial Intelligence considered her a useful asset. When she tries to sell you out at the end, it's hardly a surprise, but that only makes it all the more annoying. I couldn't believe that not only was I forced to forgive her, this was then immediately followed up with a conversation on my ship about what great buds we were. What the eff.

After re-playing the Imperial agent story with a more chaotic, dark-side lean, I've come to appreciate that Kaliyo can be fun to have around if you're playing the right type of character. But there are too many other versions of the agent with whom she just outright clashes, and those should have been able to punish her final betrayal accordingly.

#2: Gault Rennow

Putting Gault on this list actually makes me feel a little guilty because I think he's a great character and I do like having him around. But his acquisition story is awful. At least its ending.

Gault is the bounty aspiring hunters have to hunt down on Tatooine as part of the Great Hunt. And the writers did a great job at having him slip through your fingers over and over again, to the point where you can't wait to shoot this guy when you finally corner him in a narrow canyon. Except then... you're suddenly not allowed to. He offers you a way of claiming the bounty without killing him, and you have to take it. It's incredibly annoying.

I remember shortly after SWTOR's launch (when I was still playing WoW too), a fellow WoW blogger gave the game a try. This turn of events was enough to completely turn him off the game.

#1: Malavai Quinn

Who else could be number one but everyone's favourite treacherous Imperial officer? I just replayed this part of the Sith warrior story recently and it feels so wrong to be unable to exact vengeance on him. Kaliyo's betrayal ticked me off, but she had always been a nuisance. Quinn on the other hand had always been useful, and I actually liked him. To have him turn against me really hurt. And the way he does it is so over the top too! He monologues about how it's a shame that you have to die, but in such an incredibly patronising way that you can pretty much hear the hashtag #sorrynotsorry. No, of course you don't stand a chance because he's observed you and these droids are totally going to counter your every move. Even when you defeat them with ease, he still sounds more surprised than anything else. Painful betrayal delivered in an extremely smug manner? What more reason do you need to want to kill someone? Yet all you can do is forgive him and move on. Sigh.

And I have to say, I'm actually not sure the option to kill him in 5.2 is a good substitute. It comes at an awkward moment when he's just spent several minutes grovelling to you and telling you about all the hardships he endured in your absence while looking for you. Not to mention that it's been five years. I'm sure there are players who hold a grudge and who want their character to hold a grudge too, and they will have happily taken the option to kill Quinn even then. But for me, that's not what I wanted (and my own warrior basically said "I don't think I can fully trust you ever again, but it's time to move on.") Quinn is not someone I would want dead for the sake of having him dead. He's a great and fun character overall. But after a story setup that's pretty much guaranteed to make you see red and lure you into committing a "crime of passion", not being able to go through with it feels highly constricting to this day.

The Best Classes to Take into KotFE / KotET

If you're someone who has returned to SWTOR for one of the "Knights of" expansions and already had more than one old character in the wings to take into the new content, you may have been wondering which class is the most suited for this purpose, based on how the new story plays out, as well as taking into account practical considerations such as what happens to your character's companions.

Well, I am here to give you the answer to this question! Or my own interpretation of it, anyway. Please note: I haven't actually completed the entire story on all of the eight base classes yet, but I think I've seen enough to be able to make an educated judgement. If you disagree with my choices, feel free to let me know in the comments! Also, be warned: Each class's analysis may contain spoilers for their origin (class) story. There will also be vague references to some things that happen in KotFE / KotET, but nothing I would consider a spoiler. Beware of actual spoilers in the comments though!

1. Jedi Knight

I think it's hard to deny that the knight was the class that KotFE and KotET were pretty much written for. KotFE and KotET largely focus on the Force ghost formerly known as the Sith Emperor, who was nothing but a mysterious background character for most of the story content of the base game... unless you were a knight. The knight is the only one who gets up close and personal with the Emperor in the 1-50 story, in a tale of epic struggle and revenge with culminates in you penetrating the very heart of the Sith Empire and striking down your foe on Dromund Kaas itself... or at least the body he was inhabiting at the time, as we find out later. Who else would be better suited to take him on after he returns? There's just no question about it. Sadly, no knight companions play a major role in the story (only T7 makes an appearance at all), but that doesn't outweigh just how tailor-made the storyline is for this class.

2. Sith Inquisitor

While the Emperor doesn't feature in the Sith inquisitor's class story, this class's origin tale is one of constant struggle. You want to make your mark upon the Empire and gain power, but you keep coming up against people more entrenched in the system than you, who try to manipulate and kill you. Also, there are those pesky Force ghosts. Guess what happens in KotFE / KotET? After having attained the lofty rank of Dark Council member by the end of your class story, being frozen in a block of Carbonite for five years is merely another setback of the type you're used to encountering, and after that, it's back to business as usual! Annoying ghost in your head threatening your life? Check! Proving your strength in the Force against mightier and mightier opponents? Check! Building a power base with the goal of rising to the highest possible rank? Check! I haven't seen this particular outcome myself yet, but I imagine that the ending of KotET must feel pretty damn satisfying as a Sith inquisitor, even if none of your old companions are officially by your side. (Two come back as Alliance alerts.)

3. Sith Warrior

Next to the knight, the warrior is the one other class who has a background with the Emperor in the base game... though unlike the knight, the warrior never actually meets him. (EDIT: I've been reminded that you do talk to his "Voice" once, but the point remains that he's quite distant compared to how personal things get with the knight.) You mostly serve as the Emperor's loyal enforcer via proxy, which puts you in an... interesting position in KotFE / KotET. As a bonus, one of the male warrior's potential love interests, Vette, returns as part of the main storyline, and by 5.2, only one warrior companion will remain missing. Good times! The reason I rate this below the Sith inquisitor despite of the personal connection to the Emperor is that things can actually get a bit awkward depending on your roleplaying angle. On my own warrior I was happy to offer my services to the Emperor's new incarnation, and at first there were some dialogue options that reflected this too... but gradually, they just disappeared, so that my character started being snarky and dismissive of her "boss" for no apparent reason. If you don't want to be friends with the Emperor however, jump right in and have fun!

  
4. Trooper

Much has been said about how the "Knights of" stories feel a lot more tailored towards Force users than your regular old heroes, and I strongly agree. Still, thinking about the non-Force users, the one that deals with the events of KotFE / KotET the best in my opinion is the trooper. Maybe I'm biased, but regardless of how you played your trooper while levelling up, they are used to waging war and taking charge to make things go their way while leading others into battle, and all the Force stuff aside, this is a lot of what KotFE / KotET is about. You may not necessarily want to rule the galaxy, but whether you've previously played the selfless hero of the people or the ruthless enforcer, you're used to fighting for a cause.

Also, with Elara Dorne being slated to make a return in 5.2, the trooper will be the first class to get all their old companions back. Okay, strictly speaking we can't re-recruit Tanno Vik, but who misses him anyway? At least we know what he's been up to.

5. Jedi Consular

I imagine that many would contest my decision to place a Force-using class below a non-Force user, but I do think it's justified at this point in time. Of all the Force users, the consular is definitely the least well-suited to the role of being the Outlander. Sure, you're a special snowflake in the Force all right, but from 1-50 you've mostly been a peace-keeper, diplomat and uncoverer of secret plots. Your enemies in the two "Knights of" expansions are remarkably resistant to negotiation, there's no real surprise in them wanting to kill you, and most of the time things come down to brute force. It's not that you can't do it, but it's not really your style.

Anyway, the main reason I've ranked the consular below the trooper right now is that not a single consular companion returns during the KotFE / KotET storyline, and even through the optional Alliance alerts you only get one of your original five companions back. Being a consular in a post-KotFE world is a lonely life. If they ever get all their companions back too, I would rank them above the trooper.

6. Imperial Agent

As we're getting closer to the bottom of the list, things start to become increasingly awkward. The agent is used to operating in the shadows, what's this about being thrown into the spotlight as some sort of "chosen one" and military leader?! I suppose the upside is that the agent is used to politics and to powerful Force users trying to make his or her life a misery, so that part fits. Also, two returning agent companions play significant roles in KotFE / KotET, which makes for some nice opportunities for some class specific dialogue.

7. Bounty Hunter

The bounty hunter loves to amass power and glory, but only for themselves, and they have little interest in fighting for a cause. In fact, the bounty hunter's story is one of someone who doesn't like to be tied down. Why they would actually want to lead the Alliance instead of setting off to do some actual bounty hunting or pretty much do anything else to further their own personal agenda instead of championing someone else's cause is a bit of a mystery. At least two bounty hunter companions also return during the story and get some good lines.

8. Smuggler

Last and definitely least in this case, we have the smuggler. I suppose if you took your smuggler fully dark side, aiming to become an underworld boss, there is an argument to be made for you being a powerful figure and having some interest in taking charge, but like the bounty hunter you're more out for yourself than for any grand cause, so why a smuggler of all people would lead the Alliance is a bit... eh. There's also hardly anything more pathetically out of place than a blaster-whipping scoundrel repeatedly going up against extremely powerful Force users in supposedly epic one-on-one duels. To top it off, no smuggler companions feature in the KotFE / KotET storyline, and only two out of five return as Alliance alerts. As much as I hate to say it (as the basic smuggler story is one of my favourites): taking them into the current content is just not very rewarding at all.

It's worth noting that the above ranking is based on taking an existing character into KotFE / KotET. If you use a token from the Cartel Market to start at a higher level, many of the concerns listed here won't really apply, since you don't have a detailed backstory and can't really miss companions you never interacted with. In that case I would simply say: Force using classes > non-Force users.

Agree/disagree? Share your opinion in the comments!

Day 2: Class Stories #IntPiPoMo

Wondering what the hashtag in the title is all about? Click here. Want to know all the themes that I have used and will be using for my 10 Days of SWTOR Screenshots? You can find the full list here.

Let's start with a picture of my Cathar agent getting zapped by what I consider to be the most annoying Sith in the game - and that's saying something, considering how many of them there are: Darth Zhorrid. It's no coincidence that this lady has "horrid" in her name because every single thing she says or does is super annoying. The best thing about going dark side at the end of chapter one is that you then get to kill her at the start of chapter two. Oh yeah, really need to go back and finish this character's class story soon...

I couldn't find any sort of official lore statement about it, but apparently the Voss are meant to be freakishly tall. I can't say I ever noticed while out and about on Voss (maybe because I'm used to NPC sizes being a bit incongruous sometimes, see raid bosses) but apparently people have brought it up on Reddit and on the official forums many times. It certainly struck me during this trooper mission though, where it's strongly emphasised by the camera angle. WTF, when did this Commando grow to be three metres tall? Apparently I just never noticed.

I've written about the class stories on Rishi before, and the bounty hunter one was definitely my favourite of the Imperial ones. I absolutely didn't like what happened in it, but it was told well and actually managed to make me feel upset about the death of an NPC.

When it comes to getting your first lightsaber, the Jedi definitely have the lead in terms of epic moments, because crafting it yourself while using the Force is immeasurably more satisfying than fetching someone else's from an old tomb. Still, that doesn't mean that getting your first lightsaber as a Sith warrior isn't a cool moment. I like how your character inspects and weighs it in her hands.

Speaking of cool moments with lightsabers, the Sith warrior's chapter one end fight is pretty neat as well. Unfortunately it has suffered a bit from the introduction of level scaling, as it takes place on Hutta, meaning the boss is like... level eight or something now and a massive pushover.

Do you know where these two lovely Sith ladies feature? It's the smuggler story! I had completely forgotten about them until I played through it again with my Dark vs. Light smuggler. This is why content is definitely worth repeating after a while.

I just love this shot from the early bounty hunter story. I can almost hear my character sigh in exasperation at being thrown into a beast pit.

IntPiPoMo count: 13

Dark vs. Light: Update After Eight Weeks

As another month has passed, I thought it might be time to take stock of my progress towards the DvL achievements once again. At least one commenter was already completely done with the event when I last posted, and at least two guildies have finished legendary tier as well since then. My pet tank is quite close too; he only needs to finish the crew skill achievements and wait for the Gree to come around again to kill some of their droids. For some reason he was terrified of facing the GSF achievement required for legendary tier and asked me to complete that one for him. I did, but I'm still baffled that this out of all things was such a big deal to him, especially after he power-levelled multiple alts to fifty in about eight hours per character.

My own progress hasn't been too great, but then I was away on holiday for a week and another weekend was more or less taken up completely by attending a wedding. Let's look at my progress one character at a time again:

Shilu, the Scoundrel

Nope, still haven't even started KotFE and am therefore officially still working on tier three. But at least I finished Shadow of Revan and did Ziost. I also ran some more hardmode flashpoints, though I still have plenty to go.

Shinister, the Assassin

I said last time that I was probably going to "retire" her for now, but as it turns out I still needed to spend a lot of time at least logged in on this character to max out her artifice (done) and grind diplomacy to get towards Dark V (still ongoing). This is taking foreverrr!

Zeresa, the Commando

Hit fifty, largely stopped playing her as nothing more was required for the event. Still logged her a couple of times to max out her armstech, but that's done as well now.

Corfette, the Sniper

Sniper is another advanced class that I actually never played before, simply because I love the stealth gameplay of Scoundrel/Operative way too much and didn't find Gunslinger particularly enjoyable when I tried it. Upon reading Vrykerion's detailed reviews of Imperial agent chapters two and three recently, I was overcome by an urge to replay the agent story. Despite of the many interesting choices you can make in that one, I've still only completed it once! My Cathar on the Progenitor was an attempt to give it another go but got stranded on Hoth when KotFE came out and my focus shifted back to my home on The Red Eclipse. I might still finish her story some day, but probably not any time soon.

So, despite of how (comparatively) slow I've found it to level through the class story on Shilu, I decided to go down that route again with this character - and I planned specifically to aim for the path that has you defecting to the Republic in chapter two, which is why her name is (almost) an anagram of "defector". I haven't yet made it far enough to do so though and have only just completed chapter one (they really condensed that bonus mission with the holograms on the chapter end boss's ship...).

As an interesting side effect, this character has also turned into a bit of an experiment in just how far you can get by just sticking to the class story - no side missions, no flashpoints or PvP, no nothing. Funnily enough, I'm still just about on track at the end of chapter one, even though things were supposed to be tuned in such a way that you had to do something extra. I guess exploration XP counts for more than I expected, as I do enjoy opening up the entire map of each planet and gathering mats for my crew skills in the process.

Also, being only just about the right level for my missions has reintroduced a surprising amount of challenge to the game. Without being level synced or wearing level-appropriate gear, my sniper's rifle hits like a nerf gun and it's mostly Kaliyo who kills things (I have her set to dps instead of healing). While exploring Alderaan, I also died repeatedly from mobs up to five levels higher than me dismounting me and mauling me to death. Who'd have thought that the game could still be this deadly if you only try hard enough to make it so?

Shin-dow, the Shadow

Yes, at this point I'm struggling for names too. I opted to make my event consular a Shadow, since I "only" have one of those as opposed to multiple Sages (and Sorcs). At first I was going to make her the same back-stabby spec as Shinister but then decided that for variety I should probably go Serenity instead. While this spec is supposed to be very powerful, I can't say that it seems to suit me very well. In a world in which most things die very quickly, relying on dots just isn't that much fun in my opinion. It reminds me of when I tried to level a lowbie warlock through dungeon finding back in WoW. And in PvP I just seem to suck at not dying.

As an aside, for some reason I felt really inspired by this character's looks and bought her a whole oufit from the Cartel market as well as a matching green mount and pet from the GTN. I'm not much of a fashionista, but sometimes a look just "clicks".

Shi-rah, the Mercenary

I haven't done much with this one yet, but I wanted to create another Imperial character with whom to run random flashpoints while Corfette sticks to her "class story only" levelling experiment. I got her up to level ten to be able to pick an advanced class, but otherwise she's still slumming it on Hutta. Bounty hunter is one of those classes of which I have too many alts for odd reasons, so this is actually my fourth. Like Zeresa, I specced her dps as I don't really need yet another healer. I also made her a togruta since I've barely used that unlock since purchasing it and I felt that I should probably cut down on creating even more twi'leks. (I can stop any time I want to, honest...)

Getting good-looking armour for togruta is a pain in the neck though, much more so than with twi'leks. That clipping! I eventually settled on the Mandalorian Clansman set, which I thought looked good and didn't seem to suffer any clipping issues. The whole thing cost about ten million on the GTN, so it wasn't exactly cheap. Then I put it on... and in the first cut scene I could see that a tiny bit of armour does clip through the top of the front montrals, just small enough that I didn't notice it on the preview. Sigh. I'm going to keep it anyway.

I also put a black/black dye into it since I happened to get one from Shi-rah's cantina crates. And for some reason it refused to take! It would look fine in most cut scenes but as soon as I was back in the regular game the chest piece was back to its basic gold/grey. I googled it and found people reporting issues with this armour not taking dyes properly as far as two years back - of course, what else did I expect? I was about to write off the dye too, but then I added some gloves to the outfit, which I hadn't done before, and suddenly the colour changed to what it was supposed to be. Who knows how these things work?