08/08/2016

Burden of Accompaniment: The Companions I'm not Eager to Reunite With

The first season of the Knights of the Fallen Empire story ends tomorrow for Early Access players, but we all of course know that this is not going to be the end of the overall story. There's more to be told, and there are still many more Companions to be reunited with in the process.

I've been fairly fortunate this time around, as of the twenty-one Companions who have returned, are confirmed to return, and are rumoured for return (Rusk, Skadge, and Zenith) from this season, only five of which are those which I have irrevocably disliked. Of the ones we've gotten back, these are Broonmark, Kaliyo, and SCORPIO, and of the rumoured ones these are Skadge and Zenith.

Otherwise, I have positive things to say about virtually every other remaining Companion we've seen so far, and if I don't actually like them, I can at least tolerate them. Notably, whilst I wouldn't say I liked Torian or Yuun, I can still name several more Companions whom I dislike more than them.

So of course, it's time to talk about those Companions who I'm not looking forward to reuniting with in the next season(s).

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At this point, people familiar with the blogging world of SWtOR should start to see where this is going. Didn't Shintar already do something sort-of similar on this "yet-to-return Companions" theme on Going Commando? Yes, she did, and it is just another case of coincidental timing on my part that I happened to have a similar (if somewhat more pessimistic) idea earlier on the exact same day, so now it looks like I'm shamelessly stealing her idea.

I'll play safe and say that it's fair play for my inspiring her original post on the Companions that she'd like to keep with my own take on the matter and say that she inspired this one in-turn with her newest post.

"Turnabout is fair play" applies in the blogosphere, right?

~~~

Empire

I'll start with the Empire because, hey, there are slightly more Companions to talk about here!

The Hunter and Agent both get a free pass on this one. Mako, Temple, and Vector all share the same position of my neither liking nor disliking them, something which I'm quite satisfied to say to be honest. I am interested in seeing how Vector and Temple's careers in the Imperial hemisphere have evolved, and having an Imperial Diplomat and fully-fledged (Sith) Intelligence Operative on our side could be very useful in gaining a new perspective on the intricacies of both systems.

That's actually a good side point; since Imperial Intelligence was dissolved and Sith Intelligence took its place, we have no idea how it operates outside of the code-names apparently having been abolished. Agent Rane Kovach from Ziost was a special case in more ways that one, of course, but he could also have been indicative of how the system now runs more leniently than before.

Moving on.

Inquisitor

Ashara Zavros

Okay, I'll say it now. Ashara, Jaesa, and Nadia are all going to be on this list, and largely for the same reasons barring some individual circumstances which I'll go into more detail with them both later.

All three of them in some way feel very much like basic alterations of the naive female apprentice and love interest tropes. Ashara, in fact, is very much the most bold and outspoken of these three, but she loses points because even her (annoyingly inconsistent) perspective can be fooled by simple wordplay by the Inquisitor.

I must admit that I do feel a little guilty putting Ashara on this list because of the three, her story is the one that I am most interested in seeing play out in the later expansions. Similarly to Light Jaesa, Ashara can be made to believe that she is helping to reconstruct the Sith Empire from within, but she is actually critical of Jedi who - for whatever reason - cannot see the reasoning behind her "just behaviour".

Whilst Light Jaesa can be potentially recalled more easily to the side of the Jedi given that her powers can unearth the evil of the Sith as a whole, Ashara is going to be a bit more of a slippery fish. Heck, she could become a Gray Jedi of sorts, unwilling to commit to either side unless she can see good reason for it. Even if she is convinced of her righteous path and how the Jedi are holding truths from her, she still bashes the Inquisitor when a group of Sith slaughter a group of Jedi, so she's not likely to commit fully to that side either.

Of course, we've already had a Togruta Gray Jedi dual-wielder become very popular recently, so there is a very good chance of this happening, although I would have very much preferred it if Ashara did all this on her own merits and not because that blasted nuisance Ahsoka got there first.

Warrior

Jaesa Willsaam

In many ways, Light Jaesa is doomed from the start. With Ashara being the most likely candidate for Gray Jedi status and both Nadia and Kira being actual Jedi, having a Light Jaesa would make the faction 'split' very one-sided, with the only absentee "Sith Representative" Companion being Lord Scourge, and he isn't exactly going to be in the best books among the Sith...

It would be a shame if this means that Light Jaesa is all but eliminated, since including no less than four Jedi Companions was a choice which was made right at the outset. However, if Light Jaesa is to be discounted, then this leaves us with Dark Jaesa.

By Dark, this of course means over-acting, being childish, and the sort of villainess you'd see in a really bad amateur production. Because who'd want a clever and self-aware Dark character when you can have one who's just really over-the-top crazy?

Because some people like to challenge the "never do the nasty with crazy" warning, Dark Jaesa is often chosen because this is the only way to romance her, which of course means that she is often likened to a psychotic, jealous, and possibly-ex, girlfriend as a simple way of describing her personality. Not exactly a glowing endorsement!

Additionally, if she is relegated to being the Sith Representative - again, depending on Scourge's standing - then her story can have little to no variation. Regardless of whether you left her as Light or Dark, she'll still be serving the Sith in this scenario. I'd love to say that she's freed from this, but I also can't see how else we're going to get an "impartial" Sith Companion given Scourge's precarious circumstances.

Whilst I do admit that it would be interesting to know how she uses her special "sensing of the truth of a person's character" power to survive and especially what she'll see if she uses it on the Outlander if Valkorion is still with us, even so much as thinking this makes you realise that outside of the build-up and the conclusion to Chapter I of the Warrior story, this special character-defining power has never resurfaced in any significant way since then, if at all.

Malavai Quinn - Warriors Only

Quinn is often lumped together with Skadge as the Companion most people would like to throw out of an airlock, and this is perfectly understandable from a Warrior's point-of-view.

This is as far as my own dislike of him ends. No other character knows of his betrayal of the Wrath, so to say that "x character will kill him because of what he did to the Wrath!" is a very meta statement indeed.

I can see the advantage of him joining with an Agent in particular, as his various connections to the Army and Navy make him a valuable asset for them (indeed, I'd be willing to wager that the Agent has the strongest team which can be constructed from other Class Companions), and his all-round experience should make him a worthy ally.

I must state again that Quinn is definitely not getting off the hook for Warriors, as he still deserves a lightsaber blade through any and every orifice.

~~~

Republic

Much like the Hunter and Agent, the Knight and Trooper receive a free pass. Doc and Rusk are both tolerable Companions, Scourge is still one of the most interesting Companions they've included, and Elara and Kira were both on my "must-keep" list from way back when. Indeed, Kira is the only Companion one of my characters has ever retrieved from the Terminal.

I am of course assuming that Tanno Vik has been given a final farewell as of Chapter VI even for those who didn't kill him, since that would at least have given that character a decent semblance of closure.

Anyway, moving on.

Consular

Nadia Grell

Oh, Nadia. It had to come to this eventually.

Compared to Ashara, who does gain a fair bit of her own personality in the process, Nadia is just basically a copy-and-paste of the naive apprentice trope with very few variations. Most of this naivety can, admittedly, be attributed to her not being well-versed with the workings of the galaxy at large, but this still manages to bleed through in other contexts as well.

Notably, and thankfully subverted instantaneously, there's a conversation option where the Consular can attempt to persuade her that a good Padawan cleans her master's quarters. Unfortunately, the manner in which she shuts this down is not based on her own understanding or backbone, but is instead due to Master Satele previously telling her not to listen to such 'advice' and to throw it back in the Consular's face.

I'm all for subverting ways to exploit naivety, as it can effectively show a character's wit and backbone, but it should not be done whilst using yet another character's words as the driving force. The very fact that Satele actually had to explain this to this girl is indicative of her personality and the sort of 'things' which could otherwise be exploited by the Consular as a result. You can almost guarantee that if Nadia were male, this wouldn't even have been an option.

Thankfully, the Rishi snippets for the Consular suggest that Nadia does begin to show improvements in this regard as the in-game events have gone on, but it's a development which we rarely ever see in-full until then, which I feel is a real shame. Maybe the disappearance of the Consular will have triggered a significant maturation in her, and I might actually be singing her praises in the future.

I do hope so.

Smuggler

Corso Riggs

In true list-fashion, I've saved the worst for last!

Corso starts off as being a bit of a charming doofus; the kid who says things he shouldn't but awww he's just so sweet and chivalrous it hurts!

Unfortunately he shows little to no improvement from this as time goes on, and his chivalry actually makes him something of a hypocrite and a liability several times. He'd happily pull a gun on Syreena and an injured unarmed Separatist, but he'd disapprove of insulting Skavak's "honeybunch" who lures his friend into a trap, not to mention hating them for having a go at that one character on Corellia?

Make up your mind, man!

This attitude becomes even more apparent if you're unfortunate enough to enter into a romance with him. Indeed, he actually seems to be the most sexist of all the Companions, which really doesn't make this farmhand endearing at all.

It comes to something when I've made Calph enter into a romance with the professional whiner-for-hire Koth and I honestly believe that I've got a better deal with that chump than the actual Class Romance. Eurgh.

Oh, and Corso's also an unbearingly naive character at times as well. We've got only one noticeably-naive male, and he's just as bad, if not worse, than the other naive characters on the list. We definitely need more aggravatingly-naive males to throw onto the bonfire, though, BioWare!

~~~

It was nice to do a reversal of my previous post on this matter, which focused very positively on the missing Companions, even if certain Companions managed to prevent me scoring 100% on correctly predicting Companions who actually returned in the first season.

Grrr...

I'm pleased to say that only five of the yet-to-return Companions have made it into the dislike list. Unfortunately, they're all Romance Companions, which means that they'll be unavoidably recruited in the main story. Those like Broonmark, Skadge, and Zenith are easier to deal with since these are simply Alliance Alerts and could actually not be recruited, whilst story Companions are much harder, if not impossible, to avoid recruiting.

Suffice to say that so far every single Character who has progressed past Chapter XIII has banished Kaliyo, with two even killing her, and I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

Yes, this does include the Sniper. That blasted Rattataki's betrayed her several times over, so it's about time to enact that "turnabout is fair play" policy I mentioned previously, right?

2 comments:

  1. That was the most awkward paragraph about taking inspiraton from someone else's post ever. :P

    I'm glad to see someone else expressing that there are too many young and naive female companions though. Mako falls into this category as well, even though I do like her otherwise.

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    1. I specialise in the long-winded. :P

      As for Mako, I guess the fact that she has the entire holonet in her head helps levy this a teeny amount as far as my own perception of her goes, although even I agree that she can come dangerously close to unbearably naive at times.

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