Yes they should do something more with Vaylin

As long as she's happy to commit genocide on everyone else ... I'm good.

You're a bad influence.

I shall guide to towards the fun that is mass murder upon the galaxy ...

Genocide for Lightsiders

Written by Darth Imperious

Yes. That's my issue with it. You either kill him (which I have no issue with; and it's what I do) or you basically give him a hug and let him into the Alliance with no punishment, and he and his Mommy then take over the end of KOTET. There's no justice at all.

Meanwhile the horribly tortured girl is the one "beyond all help" because she doesn't want to kiss and make up with the mother and brother who hurt her.

I will admit. I hate Senya. She let her boys be raised in what was essentially Sparta and stood there and watched her daughter be put in a torture facility. She pretty casually admits she was part of the Eternal Empire's invasions, carried out Arcann's orders for a while and went after Koth for refusing to massacre civilians. And in KOTFE she's bossy and rude and the thing about asking to talk to Valkorion creeps me out.

I actually always pick the "don't worry, screamed endlessly" choice in that scene in the last chapter because I feel it's the only one of the choices that comes close to telling Vaylin "you know what, your mom was awful and gave you a raw deal. You couldn't punish her, but I did. We cool?"

(missed this)

Yeah, letting Arcann walk freely around the Alliance base isn't a good idea, nor was broadcasting his allegiance to you, now the galaxy knows we have him.

Yeah, whatever my feelings, she is still the parent that stood aside while her children were abused. She tried to make it better, ultimately, but she still did that. And I see people talking about how Vaylin shouldn't hate her for that. Of course she should. A sane woman, put through a fraction of what Senya allowed, might hate her, and Vaylin, whatever my feelings of how her story should have been allowed to go, is not. Trying to explain to that little girl why she was left to that would be impossible enough, trying to explain it to the broken woman is more so. But people use that as a reason why Vaylin is unsympathetic rather than as one more tragedy about her, hate her for it rather than hating that she was abandoned.

Plus, whatever sympathy I might have for Senya, who I view as abused, afraid, and manipulated, really take a nosedive when we get to, "She's broken, I see that now." It would have cost the devs nothing to allow a grieving mother to try one last time, only to have Vaylin try to cut that offered hand off, but well before the confrontation, she gives up, and actually threatens her daughter over the radio. That chapter is just nasty, and it's all we get of her in the expansion. And her daughter's death being used, to my eyes, as proof that she and Arcann are somehow "good" I will never not be grumpy about. Their "redemption" was just so badly done.

I could see her not knowing why Koth deserted, specifically. In that case, a brief scene where she finds out and apologizes would be nice. But, no, instead they seemed to contrive to make Koth the unreasonable one. I just don't get that.

And that's all from someone that, in a broad sense, liked her. The Senya in my head is similar to, but very different from, the one they give us. I pretend that's the real one. I really wish she were, but I know she's not. But considering how strongly I react to being forced to do the "Kneel" thing, I certainly understand why a character that walked away and allowed her children to stay with that monster has earned hate.

And a man that sent her out on missions that surely made her worse, who killed her only solace then talked to her as though it was just some tragedy he had no hand in, but he gets to live, which I'm almost fine with, but completely accepted and even romanced? He gets that while she doesn't even get a kind word for what was done to her? Yeah, I get hating him, too.

I get it. The devs were trying to do the "they were broken too" thing, and they were rushed. I think they almost entirely fail, because they also presented them as somehow courageous for giving up on her. I say "almost entirely" only because I can recognize it at all, but it's just so warped. If we'd gotten, "I'm sorry, Sister, this is my fault, and my father's." Senya: "And mine." But, instead we get, "We... aren't afraid." It's not good.

Yeah, I have a lot of issues with this story, other than the one in the initial post. That's just the one that was the redwood that broke my back.

And, thanks, this discussion will make it much easier to play through the "Kill Everyone" plot when I get to it.

Yeah, it's bizarre. Everything else they allow for him I can see if I look at it with a Vaylin head tilt, even the romance, but acceptance? By the people whose homes he destroyed? That's what the Alliance is. I'm pretty much a sap, wanted this broken family to live, even recognizing how awful they are as presented, and with some small modifications I could see the rest of his "gets to live" arc as acceptable, but that? Completely destroys my suspension of disbelief.

I mean, "Every world that Vaylin terrorized." Really, Theron? Even you? Come on.

Theron says that?

I really should put spoilers in for anything after KotET. I doubt that it's a major issue, but just in case.