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"Let's Reform the Empire for the Light"


EAFSAMWISE

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I've been playing a Light-Side Sith Inquisitor and a Light-Side Sith Warrior. In both cases I got Jaesa on my Warrior and Ashara on my Inquisitor to stay Light-side and help me "reform" the Empire from within. But then LS Jaesa is totally fine coming along and helping me kill the Republic's top military leaders with no problem and initiate Plan Zero to start a war for Darth Baras. It's not like we don't know what he's trying to do so how can this add up with being LS? Especially since it doesn't even line up with being a Grey or pragmatic Sith, Baras is frankly a sadist and it's painfully obvious. And then there's the LS Inquisitor which is less confusing but still poses a problem. Ashara has this vague idea of trying to make peace or build a bridge between Jedi and Sith but then she's totally fine standing alongside me and killing Republic troops. What's the best way for this to make sense in terms of the game story?
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Well, it's possible the companions in question, Jaesa and Ashara, believe that the player cannot truly affect change until their nemesis is out of the way ... Baras for the Warrior and Thanaton for the Inquisitor. I guess that's what we are largely meant to believe regardless of alignment. They both recognized the Jedi aren't perfect, and see something of value in what the player is doing.
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They're both damaged characters. Ashara's character pre-kotfe only makes sense if you consider that she's so broken by what happens on Taris that reforming the empire is her core personality trait, and she's willing to do terrible things to achieve that, because if she doesn't then she doesn't have anything to hold on to. The writing is not particularly good for her storyline, however, so it can be hard to figure this out for the first few runs, she's usually depicted as being pretty irritating.

 

And Jaesa, oy. I think the LS version is basically the same as the DS version - in both cases she throws herself into this model perfect LSer/DSer because, like Ashara, if she doesn't she has no core traits to hold on to. I think this is a little more obviously written with Jaesa, especially if you're a DS SW with an LS Jaesa (Yes, you can be DS and still ask Jaesa to stay LS). Then you can have some positively manipulative conversations with her.

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They're both damaged characters. Ashara's character pre-kotfe only makes sense if you consider that she's so broken by what happens on Taris that reforming the empire is her core personality trait, and she's willing to do terrible things to achieve that, because if she doesn't then she doesn't have anything to hold on to. The writing is not particularly good for her storyline, however, so it can be hard to figure this out for the first few runs, she's usually depicted as being pretty irritating.

 

And Jaesa, oy. I think the LS version is basically the same as the DS version - in both cases she throws herself into this model perfect LSer/DSer because, like Ashara, if she doesn't she has no core traits to hold on to. I think this is a little more obviously written with Jaesa, especially if you're a DS SW with an LS Jaesa (Yes, you can be DS and still ask Jaesa to stay LS). Then you can have some positively manipulative conversations with her.

 

Still makes no sense on why LS Jaesa is cool with helping me initiate Plan Zero for Baras to restart the war (not to mention kill Republic troops) or why Ashara is totally okay with my Inquisitor testing the Silencer weapon and massacring an entire Republic fleet, both of which I pretty much have no choice on in terms of having my character back out of. Especially given Ashara and her whole outrage on the Jedi failing to take action while lives are lost, then she is content to just sit back and watch me test deadly weapons that kill tons of people and make the Empire more deadly. It makes absolutely no sense even with her "Grey" understanding of the Force.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ashara agrees that peace is a lie. She understands that the Republic needs to fear the Empire for there to be a true peace. IMO Ashara is more a "lawful Evil" type character. She is willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve her goals. She may not be happy with killing Reps, but she understands it is unavoidable. We do see Ashara using the dark side on at least two occasions.

 

LS Jaesa is a bit harder to explain. I just put it down to her naivety. She trusts the warrior, somewhat blindingly. Although, for example, when you attack the Taris Rep spaceport she does say she isn't happy with attacking the Jedi.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Still makes no sense on why LS Jaesa is cool with helping me initiate Plan Zero for Baras to restart the war (not to mention kill Republic troops) or why Ashara is totally okay with my Inquisitor testing the Silencer weapon and massacring an entire Republic fleet, both of which I pretty much have no choice on in terms of having my character back out of. Especially given Ashara and her whole outrage on the Jedi failing to take action while lives are lost, then she is content to just sit back and watch me test deadly weapons that kill tons of people and make the Empire more deadly. It makes absolutely no sense even with her "Grey" understanding of the Force.

 

An in universe reason is that Jaesa sees the SW as a chance the Empire has at reform, especially LS warriors. If the Empire cannot be defeated by the Jedi/Republic, the next best option is for the Empire to be reformed under the leadership of light, or at the very least pragmatic, Sith. A meta reason is that the companion system was clunkily implemented, that's the reason you have certain LS companions sticking with you even if you're a crazed DS pub character.

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Ashara agrees that peace is a lie. She understands that the Republic needs to fear the Empire for there to be a true peace. IMO Ashara is more a "lawful Evil" type character. She is willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve her goals. She may not be happy with killing Reps, but she understands it is unavoidable. We do see Ashara using the dark side on at least two occasions.

 

LS Jaesa is a bit harder to explain. I just put it down to her naivety. She trusts the warrior, somewhat blindingly. Although, for example, when you attack the Taris Rep spaceport she does say she isn't happy with attacking the Jedi.

 

That is not Lawful Evil. Lawful evil is f.e. Darth Thanaton.

Ashara is Neutral Good. She is pro imperial on one side, but against slaughtering Jedi on other hand. She understands unavoidable sacrifices, but always against pure evil deeds and supports helping others.

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Still makes no sense on why LS Jaesa is cool with helping me initiate Plan Zero for Baras to restart the war (not to mention kill Republic troops) or why Ashara is totally okay with my Inquisitor testing the Silencer weapon and massacring an entire Republic fleet, both of which I pretty much have no choice on in terms of having my character back out of. Especially given Ashara and her whole outrage on the Jedi failing to take action while lives are lost, then she is content to just sit back and watch me test deadly weapons that kill tons of people and make the Empire more deadly. It makes absolutely no sense even with her "Grey" understanding of the Force.

 

Well for one thing if they objected to what you do some people would have a fit and then demand that they could be killed. I.E. Koth for one (expansions) He was one that objected to some things a character does and some demanded that he be killed and low and behold that was allowed and therefore hurt the interactions to those that didn't. So be careful what you wish for.

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The way I justified it, interestingly enough, is that my SW didn't actually become LS until Oasis on Tatooine, and even then, she's still tainted by hate and bitterness, so it's not an immediate "I'm LS now and all rainbows and sunshine!" The reason why my SW didn't corrupt Jaesa was because 1) Oasis took place before you could corrupt her, and 2) because she admired Jaesa's purity and didn't want to taint that pureness, knowing just how much that spiral of hate and dark emotions have messed up her own life.

 

So it made quite a lot of sense for my SW to still kill Pubs because she's still loyal to the Empire, even if she tries to keep Jaesa's heart free from the darker sides of the galaxy.

 

The only point in time that this changed was after the Jedi Under Siege/5.0/Imperial Saboteur storyline, when my SW got fed up with the Empire's ways. She always hated slavery even within the Empire (she simply preferred them over Pubs because she felt Jedi are hypocrite xenophobes who wronged her simply because she's red-skinned), so this was the perfect opportunity to switch sides. Unfortunately, this is war, and switching sides ain't that easy. It makes it worse that she's forced to play double-agent, thereby endangering her life and all whom allies with her, so she has to keep up appearances and makes it look like things are normal in front of the Siths and Empire.

 

That's also why these "saboteur" dialogue options are so fun because you get to practice the least amount of bloodshed possible for the Pubs within the game's capabilities as an mmo. It's a compromise for sure, but an acceptable and a good enough one for me.

Edited by OriusPrime
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