I'm confused by the end of the story after Umbra - specifically:

This is the first time in the game where the story and character actions do not make sense to me - BW is awesome at character motivation. Help me understand this one

Best guess ... he's discovered who and what the 'Order' are, he believes they're a big enough threat he's willing to go rogue over it.

Or maybe they were listening and what Theron said is the opinions of someone else in the group?

Also

YMMV, as usual.

Yeah, we don't know anything for sure, but it's pretty clear that not all is as it seems. Theories include -

1 - Theron is being Theron and jumped in head-first without thinking and has gone deep undercover and everything he said was a show for whoever was listening (because yeah, like 97% of it was way out of character for him)

b - Theron really isn't Theron and it's a disguised infiltrator (like with the IA storyline)

3 - Mind-control shenanigans

d - Theron is being coerced into it

Either way, it was sort of obvious that he wasn't out to kill the Commander (at all) and he deliberately left the crystals behind even though he was supposedly there to steal them, so he wanted the Alliance to have them.

Personally, I'm sitting on option 1. If you haven't read the companion media that stars Theron, I highly recommend it to get great insight into his character, more than you'll get from the game alone. Check out 'The Lost Suns' comic series and the novel 'Annihilation.' I'm actually reading 'Annihilation' again for the second time to see if there was anything I missed.

Nah he is just doing what he and Lana failed to do in the Alliance and found all our remaining old companions locked away by the Order. He is going to single-handedly free them so we can have our old LI's back, then he is free to go on his own. If we didn't romance anyone in the past, then he will dump our characters like he did at the end of SOR....

(I am just being sarcastic about this. I really don't believe that is the case. )

I really am not sure what he is doing or why he had to betray and hurt my characters so much so he could go undercover (if that is what is happening).

As others said, the story doesn't explain it yet, so we are left to speculate.

I *THINK* that Theron discovered yet another outside threat and is working with the "order" to learn more about it. Or, perhaps that "order" is the outside threat and he wants to infiltrate it or something like that.

It wouldn't surprise me if Theron's story parallels Revan's story in this respect.

After the Mandalorian Wars, Revan learned of the threat (Sith Empire) behind the immediate threat (Mandalorians), seemingly got corrupted but regained his right mind somewhat, and started a war not for the sake of conquest but to unite and strengthen the galaxy against the Sith Empire.

However, from the viewpoint of the Jedi and Republic, Revan had fallen.

Much like Theron's story, from our viewpoint, Theron has betrayed us or fallen. But, he is probably doing it "for the greater good" and said all this stuff about the alliance now being corrupt or something like that was just to "sell" his fall or betrayal to the PC. Because, for plot contrived reasons, he couldn't just take us aside in private and say "Hey, I need to go check this super secret thing out before it gets out of hand. I won't be back in time for dinner, and don't wait up for me."

As others said, the story doesn't explain it yet, so we are left to speculate.

 

I *THINK* that Theron discovered yet another outside threat and is working with the "order" to learn more about it. Or, perhaps that "order" is the outside threat and he wants to infiltrate it or something like that.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Theron's story parallels Revan's story in this respect.

 

After the Mandalorian Wars, Revan learned of the threat (Sith Empire) behind the immediate threat (Mandalorians), seemingly got corrupted but regained his right mind somewhat, and started a war not for the sake of conquest but to unite and strengthen the galaxy against the Sith Empire.

However, from the viewpoint of the Jedi and Republic, Revan had fallen.

 

Much like Theron's story, from our viewpoint, Theron has betrayed us or fallen. But, he is probably doing it "for the greater good" and said all this stuff about the alliance now being corrupt or something like that was just to "sell" his fall or betrayal to the PC. Because, for plot contrived reasons, he couldn't just take us aside in private and say "Hey, I need to go check this super secret thing out before it gets out of hand. I won't be back in time for dinner, and don't wait up for me."

This is what irks me about how this whole story was written. It felt rushed and put together for shock value. There is no valid reason as to why he couldn't explain in private what was happening, involve the person he cares abouts, instead of going rogue. Yea sure we see that he feels bad or whatever, but it also depends on how you end it and the message he sends after. The more I try and think on it the more I think he is betraying our characters. I sure hope that is not the case. Plus if it's true about people saying the alliance falls and it goes back to imp vs repub then that is going to stink. I wasted time getting both sides influence up. Theron was a level 50 for example. So what will happen then? So many unanswered questions and I hate having to wait.

The writers should put together several story endings for us to choose from. One reason why I always loved the imperial agent story was because of the multiple ways you could take your character through the story. It would be nice if they could be creative like that again.

 

The writers should put together several story endings for us to choose from. One reason why I always loved the imperial agent story was because of the multiple ways you could take your character through the story. It would be nice if they could be creative like that again.

Sorry. BW/Ea is fresh out creativity at this point. They are well stocked on "thrill of the hunt" though ...

The writers should put together several story endings for us to choose from. One reason why I always loved the imperial agent story was because of the multiple ways you could take your character through the story. It would be nice if they could be creative like that again.

Not a bad idea. But that can't happen. Not yet, at least.

To have a divergent ending like you say would mean the end of the SWTOR story, and thus the end of SWTOR. The game is (planned) to have at least a few years more of life, so the "endings" to each expansion or story update can't be radically different. or it will be too difficult to move forward with future story updates. The eight class stories, as well as Republic/Imperial stories, have all merged into one "epic single story", and everyone's opinion on this is different, but the Devs have made claim that the last two expansions were their best, so we can guess they will stick to the "epic single story" concept. Though I can still appreciate what the devs have done in giving us choices to make our characters a little more unique (dictator v peacekeeper, Imperial supporter v Republic Supporter, Romances). But every story will have to follow the same guidelines to make it possible for future content.