__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
I understand that. But you have to understand things from the point-of-view of a writer to his audeince.
Star Wars is a space opera. Billions, millions, quadrillions, they die all the time in such settings.
Yo can't mourn every death. Nor are you expected to. These are non-existent people who you have non-existent feelings for.
If a character you've come to appreciate dies, if someoen you've come to emotionally invest yourself in is slaughtered or hurt, that's going to effect you more than a bunch of nameless, faceless people kicking the bucket.
That's what I'm saying. What Cade did effected me on a far more visceral level than what Anakin did.
__________________ Earth is a beautiful addition to the Galaxy...but an even finer accessory on the hand of a God.
Understood, but what you're relating here is your subjective reaction. Within the universe, what Anakin did was far more horrific as to be on an entirely different plateau of villainy.
Noedig. Use of the strike feature. Mentioning Dark Empire sourcebook. In italics.
G-Man alright. Plus his name...
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
That's boring as hell. The only use for my party of three is killing as fast as possible. Thus, HK (who does all of the damage) and glitch!Hanharr (who has all of the strength). The others are taken with if and only if they have an influence point or interesting quip.
Not really. Initially her only defining character traits are "bossy" and "cryptic." That's even lampshaded a few times, most notably during the very first conversation in the game. Getting deeper than that requires the PC to ignore the various Sith connections (which could have been interesting if we didn't get an explicit cutscene while still on TarisTelos) and bring her everywhere. There's no motivation to bring her except to keep her away from the ship.
Nope. Being preachy or not is an empirically testable trait. Does Kreia spend more than nine tenths of her screen time in a monologue? Is her soliloquy designed to assert her world view? Is she utterly apathetic about events around her, favoring chastisement about utterly irrelevant decisions or problems that could not be avoided? Is the answer to any of these questions yes? Then she is preachy. Whether or not that is a detriment to her character is up to you to decide, but the trait itself is not in question. I did not like her because of the trait, but it obviously doesn't bother you. I'm not trying to convince you, but to explain my position. We're having a conversation, not an argument, fuckwit!
You didn't find the 5 credit scene to be annoying? When your every choice leads to the guy getting stabbed AND a lecture, there is a problem that really becomes apparent after your seventh or eighth playthrough.
Yes. This is an interesting concept for a character. There is no awareness of this shown in the game that I recall, however. Even in the final scene, she talks only about her own hopes for you, her own intentions. For a game about the power of a single choice, you aren't given one for the entire plot! There are obviously limitations of the hardware, but the story itself (limited in large part by a mostly passive protagonist) is both reactionary and limited. The player chooses to be a saint or a demon, and that's it. There is no chance to turn away from the path, nor (explicitly) a motivation for that choice in-universe. As Kreia notes at the end, "there is only you."
Basically, the writer just gives a big middle finger to anyone interested in the plot; it's just a collection of things that happen to a nameless, ultimately unknown Jedi.
I want it to be less meta. It's great to point out the limitations of the genera (the "hardware" I talk about above) but then you have to do something about them. There is no such innovation, just the apathetic, dispassionate surrender to that obstacle. "Well, we're stuck outlining your path, and even in universe it's obvious that you have no choices, but we're not going to let the player jump the rails or even let the player attack the railroad plot vicariously through the railroad plot." The most fun that I had during the KotOR series was on Korriban while navigating the Sith Academy. Uthar and his apprentice were dead set on betraying one another, and you can use like three different debuffs on them at once. The writers know that you can't do anything about the fight in advance, not even preparing yourself for a fight against two Sith masters. So, it gives you an out. Even though the player is committed to the fight, the character has an out. In KotOR 2, the player is going to have to meet every single Jedi Master; that's just what the game is about. What is so disappointing is that there is no agency given to the Exile whatsoever. There are just these things that happen, many of which are directly caused by Kreia. It's like dueling Mary Sue for the writer's affections.
Whenever I focus my disappointment and anger of the game, this scene is always what comes to mind first.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
The SW Mythos has a defined and known afterlife. Killing people just sends them to an eternal session playing tanglebuddies with every other life form ever to exist. Nothing wrong with that.
Keeping someone from that is literally the most vile thing imaginable. If [value (life)] is some decreasing value like 1/x^2 (where x is any positive value) then lim as x goes to infinity converges to some finite value. That value may even be negative, if the immortal being would prefer to die. However, the value of infinite oneness with Bliss itself for eternity is something like infinity to the infinitieth power infinity times.
Immortality as a flawed creature when the afterlife is infinitely more desirable is the most damning action imaginable. There were like seven pods holding Jedi back from becoming one with the Force on the Star Forge, and that was enough Dark Side Energy to consign an entire galaxy-spanning civilization to the abyss. This is srs bsns.
Mar 21st, 2011 02:55 AM
