[SWTOR] KotFE/KotET thoughts
Dec. 18th, 2018 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wallwalker posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
personalapocalypseI hadn't played all the way through the expansions until today.
Granted, I already knew most of the spoilers because I suck at avoiding them, and I don't really mind anyway. But I tend to get stuck after finishing Chapter 9 of KotFE because I start wanting to do all of the side missions (Alliance alerts, Star Fortresses, etc....) This is the first time I've pushed any one of my toons through to the end of KotFE, let alone the rest.
As an original story, I think I'd enjoy this more. It doesn't really feel like a Star Wars story to me. In some ways I'm okay with that - the entire "beyond two sides" thing in KotFE is okay by me to be honest. I wouldn't agree with it on most of my characters, but I don't like the whole "Light is good and Dark is evil and that's all it'll ever be" dichotomy that most of the canon goes by, because things are never that black and white, not in my experience.
But no, the story itself really feels like... something else. I can't place it. Still. If it had been an original novel or something... it has a lot of tropes that I enjoy. Mindscape exploration. Ridiculous palace infiltration. Brainwashing and counter-brainwashing in general.
Anyway. I'm playing through it on a Sith Warrior, and I was very happy to see Vette back. (He was happier.) On a related subject, this man does NOT know how to smile, I swear. He can't seem to manage more than a smirk.
There are definitely more references to his backstory in this storyline than I've seen in any of the other classes I've started KotFE with (Inquisitor, Agent, Consular.) I'll probably run through this at least one more time when I can, on my Jedi Knight, before taking a break from the content for some time.
Having to choose between Vette and Torian was heartbreaking. I chose Vette in this playthrough, but if it had been on a character that had just met them both, I honestly would have had to pick randomly.
One thing I strongly disliked about the story - or rather about the writing of the story - is how hard, how ridiculously hard the writers worked to make Vaylin irredeemable. Especially in KotET. Everything they did hammered home the point that she was beyond any hope of redemption, and expected the players to just go along with it. I get that we can't save everyone, as much as I'd like to be able to in my power fantasies. But the writing was utterly brutal about how broken this abused and mentally ill girl is and how no one believes she should be saved. And it hurt.
The traitor storyline... meh. Bioware has thus far completely failed to convince me of a traitor's motivations in this storyline. First Quinn, and then Theron. Part of it was just the lack of force behind their betrayal - Theron could have done much more to hurt the Commander if he'd really been trying to bring down the Alliance. It was impossible for me to believe that he really wanted to cause them harm. And the storyline itself... let's just say that after watching a few seasons of a certain show where "I have to handle this myself to protect my friends!!!" was used as a motivation well after the characters should've learned that was a terrible idea, I'm thoroughly sick of that as a plot device. I get why a spy would choose to go solo and be a double-agent, but I still am tired of it.
Anyway, that's all I got for now.. maybe when I have time to think. I'll try to start Ossus soon. Hopefully I'll at least be able to play through the story as Preferred; I lose my sub today, and I can't get another resub until I have money.
Granted, I already knew most of the spoilers because I suck at avoiding them, and I don't really mind anyway. But I tend to get stuck after finishing Chapter 9 of KotFE because I start wanting to do all of the side missions (Alliance alerts, Star Fortresses, etc....) This is the first time I've pushed any one of my toons through to the end of KotFE, let alone the rest.
As an original story, I think I'd enjoy this more. It doesn't really feel like a Star Wars story to me. In some ways I'm okay with that - the entire "beyond two sides" thing in KotFE is okay by me to be honest. I wouldn't agree with it on most of my characters, but I don't like the whole "Light is good and Dark is evil and that's all it'll ever be" dichotomy that most of the canon goes by, because things are never that black and white, not in my experience.
But no, the story itself really feels like... something else. I can't place it. Still. If it had been an original novel or something... it has a lot of tropes that I enjoy. Mindscape exploration. Ridiculous palace infiltration. Brainwashing and counter-brainwashing in general.
Anyway. I'm playing through it on a Sith Warrior, and I was very happy to see Vette back. (He was happier.) On a related subject, this man does NOT know how to smile, I swear. He can't seem to manage more than a smirk.
There are definitely more references to his backstory in this storyline than I've seen in any of the other classes I've started KotFE with (Inquisitor, Agent, Consular.) I'll probably run through this at least one more time when I can, on my Jedi Knight, before taking a break from the content for some time.
Having to choose between Vette and Torian was heartbreaking. I chose Vette in this playthrough, but if it had been on a character that had just met them both, I honestly would have had to pick randomly.
One thing I strongly disliked about the story - or rather about the writing of the story - is how hard, how ridiculously hard the writers worked to make Vaylin irredeemable. Especially in KotET. Everything they did hammered home the point that she was beyond any hope of redemption, and expected the players to just go along with it. I get that we can't save everyone, as much as I'd like to be able to in my power fantasies. But the writing was utterly brutal about how broken this abused and mentally ill girl is and how no one believes she should be saved. And it hurt.
The traitor storyline... meh. Bioware has thus far completely failed to convince me of a traitor's motivations in this storyline. First Quinn, and then Theron. Part of it was just the lack of force behind their betrayal - Theron could have done much more to hurt the Commander if he'd really been trying to bring down the Alliance. It was impossible for me to believe that he really wanted to cause them harm. And the storyline itself... let's just say that after watching a few seasons of a certain show where "I have to handle this myself to protect my friends!!!" was used as a motivation well after the characters should've learned that was a terrible idea, I'm thoroughly sick of that as a plot device. I get why a spy would choose to go solo and be a double-agent, but I still am tired of it.
Anyway, that's all I got for now.. maybe when I have time to think. I'll try to start Ossus soon. Hopefully I'll at least be able to play through the story as Preferred; I lose my sub today, and I can't get another resub until I have money.
