"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength."

 

We all know this right? Of course we do, but let me ask you this....where is the passion?

 

I've finished the Inquisitor storyline and am about half way through the Warrior storyline and I have yet to encounter any passion at all. What on earth is going on with these deadpan and bland Sith?

Not once have I even heard my characters raise their voices...not ONCE. The closest thing I've seen to anger is a bit of a frown and a monotone "It will be a pleasure killing you". Will it be a pleasure? Because from the tone of their voice they could be talking about doing the washing up.

I've seen more excitement out of Spock then any of the Sith. I mean the Sith are all about raw unbridled emotion so why does none of this come through in any of the dialogue and cut scenes?

 

This was really hammered home to me during the Warrior quest where you fight Jaesa's master and get her as a companion. This was the first time I've seen any emotion in the game and it was from a freaking Jedi! And even then it was weak. Cast your mind back and compare it to Anakin's "fall" scenes......the guy was an emotional mess.

 

Then there is Jaesa's herself. You've been tormenting her throughout the game, have murdered her friends and parents and the best she can come up with is a bit of a nag.......

As for her fall to the dark side (if you went that way); she goes from paragon of virtue to "Do you know what, I quite fancy a bit of cold blooded murder" in about 30 seconds, but again in a totally stoic way with no emotion. It was easier to tempt her into murdering her master and mentor then it would be tempting a fat boy with a free burger.

 

All I can say is; terrible terrible voice acting...shame on you Bioware. I'm angry that you have squandered the opportunity for a powerful and engaging scene (or better yet series of scenes) of Jaesa's fall to the dark side and I know you will not be changing it, but in the future could we get some voice actors that can actually act rather then drone off lines from a script....

 

I know it can be challenging to portray emotion with fairly simplistic cartoon faces, but I'm not asking for oscar winning performances, just something better then monotone and deadpan delivery.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength."

 

We all know this right? Of course we do, but let me ask you this....where is the passion?

 

I've finished the Inquisitor storyline and am about half way through the Warrior storyline and I have yet to encounter any passion at all. What on earth is going on with these deadpan and bland Sith?

Not once have I even heard my characters raise their voices...not ONCE. The closest thing I've seen to anger is a bit of a frown and a monotone "It will be a pleasure killing you". Will it be a pleasure? Because from the tone of their voice they could be talking about doing the washing up.

I've seen more excitement out of Spock then any of the Sith. I mean the Sith are all about raw unbridled emotion so why does none of this come through in any of the dialogue and cut scenes?

 

This was really hammered home to me during the Warrior quest where you fight Jaesa's master and get her as a companion. This was the first time I've seen any emotion in the game and it was from a freaking Jedi! And even then it was weak. Cast your mind back and compare it to Anakin's "fall" scenes......the guy was an emotional mess.

 

Then there is Jaesa's herself. You've been tormenting her throughout the game, have murdered her friends and parents and the best she can come up with is a bit of a nag.......

As for her fall to the dark side (if you went that way); she goes from paragon of virtue to "Do you know what, I quite fancy a bit of cold blooded murder" in about 30 seconds, but again in a totally stoic way with no emotion. It was easier to tempt her into murdering her master and mentor then it would be tempting a fat boy with a free burger.

 

All I can say is; terrible terrible voice acting...shame on you Bioware. I'm angry that you have squandered the opportunity for a powerful and engaging scene (or better yet series of scenes) of Jaesa's fall to the dark side and I know you will not be changing it, but in the future could we get some voice actors that can actually act rather then drone off lines from a script....

 

I know it can be challenging to portray emotion with fairly simplistic cartoon faces, but I'm not asking for oscar winning performances, just something better then monotone and deadpan delivery.

Have you done the lovers quest on Typhon?

Have you done the lovers quest on Typhon?

 

Whats that got to do with sith?

Yeah...not exactly Romeo and Juliet was it. I vaguely recall the girl being a bit surely and the guy a bit whinny, but neither of them really behaving like their love and relationship were being threatened.

Ugh Thana Vesh would like a word with you, as with many others. The sith who go around wailing and screaming do not live long. Yes we engage in our passions but we dont have to be freakin Tarzan

 

 

"You betrayed me" Ughagahahahagahahagaha"

 

A nice little something like " i will enjoy breaking you" does the job

Look at Palpatine, for example. The moment he does go emotional and crazy, he ends up getting thrown down a shaft in the Death Star. Vader, when he shows emotion, ends up getting fried by Force Lightning.

 

To put it simply, while Sith know that it is emotion that gives them power... it doesn't mean they're going to be recreating Dragonball Z with lightsabers.

Darth Baras has a lot of passion. Passion for force lighteninging prisoners.

Remember Passion is fuel, but showing your enemy how impassioned you are is like showing him your poker hand. People who are impassioned do not make the smartest choices and can be manipulated. In game passion is displayed by tonal inflection.

 

Take the line "I will enjoy breaking you"

An angry Sith might say it like this "I will enjoy breaking you."

A hateful Sith could say it as: "I will enjoy breaking you"

You can be passionate without herp derp.

 

Also good call on Thana Vesh above, I killed her because she was an annoying slag.

A quiet voice and well spoken threat is infinitely more frightening than all the screaming and war cries you can muster.

 

I usually give the example of Jubal Early in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space". He is clearly in control of his circumstances, he lets you know that you don't have a chance against him, and he never once raises his voice. The scene in the engine room with Kaylee actually makes my wife very uncomfortable.

Notice this a lot. While yes, the Sith should generally keep controlled, there are times when I'd really like to hear the character actually express some kind of emotion. We have multiple dialogue choices, so when we take the ones that look like they would be expressing emotion, and then listen to our characters give yet another emotionless response, it gets very boring. My SI never yelled, even when I took dialogue options that should have been yelled. My character never expresses surprise, when I took dialogue options that should have expressed surprise.

 

Honestly, the most emotion my character expresses is when she's taking damage in combat. Some of those screams are very good. It'd just be nice to have that level of emotion in some dialogue, too.

 

Really, it's one thing to deliberately take the cool, controlled choices. But when you take the choices that look like they'd express emotion, and then express none, it gets dull. Some emotion, some of the time, is a good thing.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Rhifox

A quiet voice and well spoken threat is infinitely more frightening than all the screaming and war cries you can muster.

 

I usually give the example of Jubal Early in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space". He is clearly in control of his circumstances, he lets you know that you don't have a chance against him, and he never once raises his voice. The scene in the engine room with Kaylee actually makes my wife very uncomfortable.

 

This.

 

If a Sith was a berserking barbaric warrior, then it would be something different.

 

But Sith are supposed to be more refined enemies... even if they use their emotions it would be more frightening to behold a Sith who, when a normal person might be expressing outrage and hatred... you have a character being quite calm and in control. Where unbridled rage can be imposing... there is something about subdued malevolence which can cause a person to be somewhat more afraid.

I usually give the example of Jubal Early in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space". He is clearly in control of his circumstances, he lets you know that you don't have a chance against him, and he never once raises his voice. The scene in the engine room with Kaylee actually makes my wife very uncomfortable.

 

+10000 for a firefly reference

 

I don't know anything about the sith storyline but i agree with you. I really liked the way Early was played, a lot like the operative out of the movie Serenity. Very calm but intense. A calm threat is infinitely more terrifying/badas*

I disagree.. there is alot of emotion on my Sith Warrior.. The bad side, there is alot of repeating in the dialog too..

You can be passionate without herp derp.

 

Also good call on Thana Vesh above, I killed her because she was an annoying slag.

 

Yep

Darth Baras himself in the Sith Warrior prologue notes that masking your emotions is good so long as you don't actually suppress them. Be passionate, but don't be obvious about it or you'll be easily manipulated.

I think a lot of the problem with the Sith is that they tried to keep things rated T for teens. So you can't show a lot. This game would have been much better, but sold less, if they had just had it rated adult and then really told the story without being ******* about it.

Darth Baras himself in the Sith Warrior prologue notes that masking your emotions is good so long as you don't actually suppress them. Be passionate, but don't be obvious about it or you'll be easily manipulated.

 

Interestingly, Darth Baras is the only sith I can think of that I've seen lose his cool. Despite this, my character says at the end of the story, that he's a master of controlling his emotions

 

Darth Baras has a lot of passion. Passion for force lighteninging prisoners.

 

Yeah that, haha~

Edited February 3, 2012 by grania

He does have a point though, Jaesa's VA is awful.