Choice and Destiny
So, finished the final stretch of Fallen Empire on my Knight and Agent. With the ramp up to the finale, even the recruitment chapter (14) was part of the overarcing plot, with the Outlander enlisting the help of the Mandalorians to capture GEMINI Prime, key to understanding the GEMINI ship captains of the Eternal Fleet. The next chapter was an attempt to seize control of the Fleet itself, using SCORPIO's similarity to the GEMINI captains to infiltrate the network and take over. Not too surprisingly, SCORPIO betrays the Outlander, taking over the Fleet and throne for her own purposes.
And then the final showdown. SCORPIO has told Arcann of the location of the Alliance base on Odessen, and also informed the Outlander of Arcann's arrival. Her stated purpose was to determine which was more important to Arcann, recovering his Fleet or killing the Outlander. Possibly, she's also hoping that they would both annihilate each other, elminating the danger that they would go after her for what she's done.
I won't elaborate on the final fight on Arcann's flagship, but I do want to talk a bit about what happens after. Defeating Arcann gives the player the choice to kill him. Both my Knight and Agent made that decision, but Arcann escapes before the killing blow lands. And then Senya arrives and takes off with Arcann in a transport. Pursuing in a fighter craft, the player is again presented with an option to destroy their transport and kill both Senya and Arcann. My Agent goes for the kill, and again Arcann escapes. And this throws into harsh light the question of player agency, especially for my Agent, whose class story deftly played with choice and the illusion of choice. Negate a player's decision once, and it might be put down to story purposes. But to present the choice twice, and negate it both times is something else altogether.
At one point, Heskel, the leader of the Scions, states that choice is an illusion. The Scions believe in destiny, fate set in stone, but to use this to allow Arcann to escape twice is a very ham-fisted way of going about it. I was also disappointed that there was nothing further about Valkorion and his motives, except for a very cryptic "You are ready."
Still, there were some neat things I noticed, some just easter eggs, but some probably courtesy of Star Wars' now shared universe. For the Star Fortress missions, destroying the shield bunker of course harks back to the Endor shield bunker in Return of the Jedi. And the sun generator at the heart of the Star Fortess is probably a reference to (the interior of) Starkiller base as it powers up for firing. And then the Mandalore's Revenge chapter has the Outlander entering a Mandalorian base to convince the leader to join the alliance against the Eternal Empire. It's an interesting parallel with a Star Wars Rebels season 2 episode at the beginning of the year, where Kanan sneaks into a Mandalorian base to negotiate with the leader for safe passage for the Rebel fleet. Even the layout of the bases are similar, a central landing area surrounded by tent-like buildings, set in a rocky landscape.
Another potentially interesting parallel is for an upcoming season 3 Rebels episode, where Kanan and Ezra undertake a ritual to break Maul's link to Ezra. Although there's no confirmation that something similar will happen in the upcoming Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion, I suspect there might at least be an attempt to get Valkorion out of the Outlander's head. I'm actually hoping that Lord Scourge will be involved if that happens, but it seems that we might not be seeing any companions returning for Eternal Throne. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
And then the final showdown. SCORPIO has told Arcann of the location of the Alliance base on Odessen, and also informed the Outlander of Arcann's arrival. Her stated purpose was to determine which was more important to Arcann, recovering his Fleet or killing the Outlander. Possibly, she's also hoping that they would both annihilate each other, elminating the danger that they would go after her for what she's done.
I won't elaborate on the final fight on Arcann's flagship, but I do want to talk a bit about what happens after. Defeating Arcann gives the player the choice to kill him. Both my Knight and Agent made that decision, but Arcann escapes before the killing blow lands. And then Senya arrives and takes off with Arcann in a transport. Pursuing in a fighter craft, the player is again presented with an option to destroy their transport and kill both Senya and Arcann. My Agent goes for the kill, and again Arcann escapes. And this throws into harsh light the question of player agency, especially for my Agent, whose class story deftly played with choice and the illusion of choice. Negate a player's decision once, and it might be put down to story purposes. But to present the choice twice, and negate it both times is something else altogether.
At one point, Heskel, the leader of the Scions, states that choice is an illusion. The Scions believe in destiny, fate set in stone, but to use this to allow Arcann to escape twice is a very ham-fisted way of going about it. I was also disappointed that there was nothing further about Valkorion and his motives, except for a very cryptic "You are ready."
Still, there were some neat things I noticed, some just easter eggs, but some probably courtesy of Star Wars' now shared universe. For the Star Fortress missions, destroying the shield bunker of course harks back to the Endor shield bunker in Return of the Jedi. And the sun generator at the heart of the Star Fortess is probably a reference to (the interior of) Starkiller base as it powers up for firing. And then the Mandalore's Revenge chapter has the Outlander entering a Mandalorian base to convince the leader to join the alliance against the Eternal Empire. It's an interesting parallel with a Star Wars Rebels season 2 episode at the beginning of the year, where Kanan sneaks into a Mandalorian base to negotiate with the leader for safe passage for the Rebel fleet. Even the layout of the bases are similar, a central landing area surrounded by tent-like buildings, set in a rocky landscape.
Another potentially interesting parallel is for an upcoming season 3 Rebels episode, where Kanan and Ezra undertake a ritual to break Maul's link to Ezra. Although there's no confirmation that something similar will happen in the upcoming Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion, I suspect there might at least be an attempt to get Valkorion out of the Outlander's head. I'm actually hoping that Lord Scourge will be involved if that happens, but it seems that we might not be seeing any companions returning for Eternal Throne. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.