The story after Iokath. (spoilers)

[Erudius]

So I just got to Iokath after a marathon of Kotfe and Kotet to get another character access to Umbara.   (YES.... I KNOW that I could bypass all of it... but I would have to give up my right to choose a storyline.)
 

Honestly... it felt like being thrown off the top of a skyscraper and landing face forward on an Iron floor.

Like one reddit user posted. "One thirty second conversation and suddenly you are forced to choose? That completely ignores the fact that your entire alliance is made up of people FROM those factions."

 

Not to mention those people were trying to find a home where Imperial and Republic could work together without the spite and malice.

 

Now, to be clear, I understand the writer's desire to eliminate a 3rd faction and the general populous' desire to get back to X vs Y story.  The problem is implementation.

 

We have over 24 hours of content devoted to building a 3rd faction that could be neutral and a balance between X and Y, which could have provided a great story-telling bed for both sides in a single-player styled environment (which is what the push has been for mechanically in the game).

 

That kind of investment REQUIRES that at *least* 12 hours of story be invested to bring it all to a halt. (Hmm.... the missing 3rd set of story that was promised that hasn't materialized?)  As the saying goes... you don't bring a freight train to rest quickly or else you will derail it.  If the story needed to change course, sufficient time should have been given before the track switch was thrown to allow the train to move in the next direction.

 

 

-- The current plot device --

Anyway... put simply... You are forced to choose X or Y and end up killing the opposing faction leader. all in the space of an hour.

 

Later on you get to find out that Iokath was set up by Theron. He accuses you of getting weak and letting war start... when he is the one who ignited the start of new war in the first place.
Whether you set your fleet for peacekeeping or not, it still happens.

 

Deus Ex Machina.

The Gods are awakened because Theron was approached by the scions and was won over to their ideology.  He says everyone else failed him (so he thinks) and now he's turning to the scion's gods to see if they can make peace reign.

 

Deus Ex Machina.
--

 

So, a 3rd faction was built and could have been an amazing plot element to add to the series, then torn apart in 30 seconds to initiate a hair-brained plot that by any standard is so left-field foul that anyone even paying attention to minuscule details would still get smacked in the head with the plot ball the size of a small moon.

 

This is not the well-thought out story that I have known and now expect from BioWare. This is something conceived from the dross of something greater and deemed worthy of spit and polish.

 

--
The alternative:

Alarms sound in the ready room as you are talking with an Advisor.

Lana and Senya run up to you indicating the system is being hacked. Theron is manically working to contain the hack, eventually tracing it to a component in the Gravestone with strange symbols.

Arcann walks up and notices the symbols. "I've seen those before... on the eternal throne, when I was a child."

Senya looks concerned. Theron suggests this was just a routing point for the hacker, they were looking for weaknesses in the eternal fleet and indicates that soon after they were hacked, the empire and republic began to be hacked as well... tracing their hacks to the eternal peace/war ships.

You make the decision to visit the throne room on Zakuul.

= On zakuul
You and Arcann walk into the throne room and arcann has flashbacks to when he was a child playing with his brother at hide and seek. He is hiding behind the throne. Arcann walks behind the throne and motions you to look.  You both peel back a panel purposefully concealing the letters.

"Well now we know what it is... but where can we find the answers."

"On Iokath" Theron breaks in over the com. "The hack was initiated from Iokath."

From there the battling of droids would continue until reaching the staging point with plot moving forward along the conversation of who could it be?

Heskal comes up in the conversation.

 

Several quests to different sections of Iokath to find keystones to translate the glyphs later and we discover the markings are related to the gravestone. The Gravestone's original name was the Keystone.

When the gravestone made it's way to Iokath a sequence was begun that began awakening the Machine Gods but more information was needed.
--

 

 

You get the picture, but ultimately, we end up with the scions being the conspirators (which they are) and their excuse is that total war needs to ensue in order for perfect peace to be enacted.
Both Empire and Republic ally to fight you (ironic right?) because of the hacking attack and the supposed/outright abuse of power.

Scorpio finds a way to re-issue the free-will programming to the Gemini fleet and the alliance begins in-fighting.

It's all tearing itself apart by the end, but you still have a core following you.  In the end, you are left with a choice for survival. Defect or Re-join your home-faction.

woulda-shoulda-coulda...


I'm just getting tired of the lazy, take-the-easy-way-out writing that seems to have become the norm there at Bioware.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Erudius

[October]

I enjoyed being part of a third faction separate from both the Republic and Empire. It makes sense canonically, if my character is meant to leave some form of a legacy that isn't abandoned by the defeat of the Sith Empire and the destruction of the Old Republic. I don't like being forced back to one faction or another, especially since it is almost always catered to Republic anyway.

[Rashin]

I agree that the main story should not hinge on a 30 second intro and a flashpoint. All of the other flashpoints were supplemental plots to the main story so it wasn't a major choice altering the arc. The way it was done now seems rushed and could have used any secondary or unknown character and got the same effect.

 

That being said, I would like to at some point, punch Theron in the face for being a putz.

 

I also like the notion that dra said. He is a triple agent to crush the other faction within.

[October]

I hope Theron is a triple agent, otherwise his rogue actions make zero sense whatsoever, especially if we decided to be a herald of peace.

 

Theron's OOC lines in this update was the same as Captain America saying Hail Hydra.

[Erudius]

Meh his actions made 0 sense to begin with.  Z and I were talking... If the alliance was falling apart from the inside, it's because He and Lana were not bringing me the intelligence I needed to make sure the Alliance was operating as a cohesive group.
... making it HIS fault the Alliance was not working as he was hoping it would.

 

Making EVERYTHING ... Theron's fault - according to the arguments made by him.

 

Z also mentioned ... Maybe the Gravestone was the original ship that carried Scorpio out of Iokath... and I thought... Perhaps Iokath was the planet that originated the Starforge used by Revan.  Could the Rakatans have found Iokath and based their technology on it?

 

So much could have been built upon what they have already put into the SWTOR lore... but we got... this.

As an aside, it looks like the dialogue shifted a tad for the ending from what was released by the dataminers.  He doesn't seem to be remorseful in the least to me... but hey... chin up?

Bioware's storytelling from Iokath forward could take a brilliant turn... but omg... it's so friggin painful to play right now.  They can do better than this. I've seen it.

 

It's all speculative at this point anyway... I hope they do start telling a better story.

 

 

 

Also @ October... I would so have enjoyed a 3rd faction.
Z and I bantered about it being a way for players to actually have a faction they can lead as true Dark or True Light (or true gray?) instead of having certain elements of each faction a mix of dark and light.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Erudius