Pardon me, Force, your morality is leaning Orange and Blue
There really needs to be a trope for morality that thinks it's Black and White, but ended up somewhere else instead. Though the Force of Star Wars: The Old Republic might be the only example. The Jedi of the movies, particularly the prequel trilogy have their odd moments, but it's difficult to tell whether those odd moments were intended, whether they're plot errors, or whether Lucas and I have some pretty big divergences on the concept of "Good." (Mine doesn't involve leaving people in slavery, for example. Not when you've clearly got the power and the resources to rescue them.)
The movies still only give us characters having opinions on the Force and what is Good and Evil - Light Side or Dark Side. When you make a game with a morality meter based on these opinions, whether your morality meter ends up seeming spot on or tilted slight off toward Parsnip depends a lot on whether it's consistent. I can't find the consistency. Maybe I haven't played enough classes high enough. Maybe I've got morality that's tilted toward Parsnip. Or maybe the Force is supposed to be slightly Orange and Blue. (Red and Blue? Is that a hint? Or merely a lovely coincidence?)
The first Light Side/Dark Side choices that made me go "Wait, what?" (and at least some of which I've mentioned before, I believe) all could simply be me looking at things from a different point of view than the writer came at it from. But it adds up over time, and running a Sith Warrior through the first planet left me thinking maybe the Force really is a bit Orange and Blue. Or just inscrutable.
To run through the inconsistencies and just plain Bzuh moral moments:
The Force Believes in LIfe, Except When It Doesn't.
Your Smuggler finds him/herself faced with a choice of A) Killing a person who has killed another person (who, I might add, just wanted to live through the mess) to protect her self from her con being exposed or B) Letting that person go (bribe optional). Apparently, letting a lying murderer go free is Good. (I wanted an option of C) March her over to the nearest authorities as a, you know, murderer. Oh, and possibly traitor as well, since she was sort of helping the separatists.) But maybe the writer was thinking of A as being too much acting from anger. Or that the Force is always pro-life. (We'll skip the mass slaughter that is game play, shall we.)
Except later, your Republic character (I don't think this was a class quest), gets to mercy kill someone dying a horrible death and it's a neutral option. Right after potentially getting Dark Side points for killing the mad scientist who's responsible for the person's suffering. Though, at least that time, your Light Side alternative was to turn the guy over to the authorities. (Empire characters also get a mercy kill option on some people who've been horribly mad scienced. It's the Light Side choice.)
But! The first Empire side flashpoint suggests that the Force really is always pro-life, since killing the General is Dark Side and turning him over to be tortured and executed is Light Side. (I so wanted an option to commit treason and let him get away to the Republic there. I mean, come on, you just know that about half the people playing Light Side Imperials do it because being a traitor in an Evil Empire is hilariously awesome. Hilarisome? Completely unrealistic, but hilarisome.)
Do these choices not agree with each other because they were written by people who had different ideas of why they were Dark or Light choices? Perhaps killing the General is Dark Side because killing prisoners is wrong. (Which, yes, it is. But how is turning them over to be tortured right??? I could accept a Dark Side choice/neutral choice, but Light Side points? O_o) Perhaps mercy kills are okay because they're at the request of the person being killed. (Except in the Empire example the one still...capable of making the choice, I guess...makes the choice for all of the experimentees.)
Or is there some underlying morality that makes sense to the Force, but not to me?
Then there's Love is Wrong, or maybe Lying is Wrong, or maybe Breaking the Rules of Your Organization is Wrong, except, wait, Ow My Brain.
Jedi characters as Padawans (trainees) are asked to spy on two other Padawans because their masters believe they are having an affair. I guess asking students to spy on other students is A-Okay. You find out that, yep, they're totally getting jiggy. Turning them in is Light Side, not turning them in is Dark Side. Okay, for Jedi, Love is Wrong. (But over on the Empire side, your Agent can sleep with people for information and get Light Side points for it? Whut? Granted you're not a Jedi, but Light Side points? For trading sex for information? O_o Though, I suppose the consistency there is that it's not love. And not that I think it should be a Dark Side option, just, you know, neutral.) Or maybe the real problem is that the Padawans are lying about it. But you don't get a "tell your masters about your relationship and make your argument about love being something we should allow to the Council" option. Worse, a Light Side Imperial character is going to spend a lot of time lying about stuff. Also, my Smuggler has gotten Light Side points for lying at times. (Granted, not to good people.) Lying is bad if you do it to good people?
And it can't be about following the rules of your organization because, again, Light Side Imperial characters are so not doing that. No, Light Side Imperial characters commit treasonous acts.* Unless this is dependent on whether the organization is good or bad. Except, wait, I can play a Smuggler Republic side. Who is, yes, wanted by Customs. Clearly, she's doing an awesome job of following all the rules.
Different writers? Something I'm missing?
Cheating: Good if You're a Sith/Bad if You're a Jedi
So, your Jedi Padawan runs into another student, who's been tasked by his master to reach the important stuff behind a giant boulder. But he can't move the boulder. You give it a shot and move the boulder. His master, who intended the task to be impossible (So that he'd learn that his sense of self-worth can't depend on success (No, I don't get it either.)), is upset. The student claims that you suggested it. You can either sound like a total shit and get Light Side points for telling the master it was the students idea (Seriously, I don't know if it's the line or the voice acting, but you sound exactly like the sort of kid who went around just waiting for fellow students to make one tiny mistake and then shouted for the teacher.) or get Dark Side points for claiming you offered out of hand. Again, is this Lying is Wrong? Cheating is Wrong? It wasn't exactly cheating, the other Padawan just wanted someone else to give it a shot to find out if it was him or the task. (The task itself broke my brain. Here, kid, do this impossible thing that I'm not going to tell you is impossible then come back when you're done. WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO!?)
Then comes the Sith side. You're supposed to get these shards from a tomb full of nasty beasties. You get your shards and come traipsing back to give them to your master and are stopped by a fellow Initiate (or whatever it is you're called over there) who failed to get his. He asks if you'll give him yours to spare him your master's wrath. Light Side option: Here you go. Dark Side option: No. So... Cheating, and this really is cheating, is good? Or is it because the consequences here would be fatal to the fellow student if you don't help him?
Seriously, those two choice sets felt like parallel story bits. Only they don't seem consistent as far as Light/Dark. In both cases, you're being kind to a fellow trainee who really isn't up to snuff. But, as a Jedi, you get Dark Side points if you're not promptly a jerk to the guy.
For icing on the Jedi/Sith WTF? Why Isn't This Consistent!?, there are other times when you're just flat out unkind to people as a Jedi, at least if you're Light Side. Example: preaching at a guy who's father was killed who asks if you made the people who killed him pay. (Light Side: Let me ignore your pain and preach at you. Dark Side: Yep, I made them pay. What, you can't lie to make him feel better? Or at least not fricking preach at him. WHY NOT?) But as a Light Side Sith, you can lie to people to make them feel better. Force, I do not get you. At all.
*And get away with it. To what is reaching has reached suspension of disbelief breaking lengths on my Agent. Which I will have to address in my, er, alternate timeline** SWTOR fan fics. Because it is utterly absurd in game. I don't care how big the galaxy is, you cannot work for an Evil Empire and go around not killing people, not turning in criminals, lying to your superiors (among others), disobeying orders, and telling evil religious leaders/government officials to take long walks off short piers without getting yourself in serious trouble. (Realistically, you'd get yourself dead. But I write fluff. And, yes, the game is fluff. But come on. There should be some consequences! (Okay, telling off Sith has cost me a force lightninging and once getting no quest reward.) All I'm asking for is a little suspicion at least. I disobeyed orders and let someone live on my first assignment as an Imperial Agent. Someone who promptly did something that suggests he's alive. Imperial Intelligence should be perpetually suspicious from that point forward. I know the game can't have me arrested for treason (well, it could and then I prove I'm not/am too useful/something), but, yee gad. My own stories, of course...)
**What do you call fan fic stories that could happen in a setting, but not in the canon story? (And, yes, I'd consider the game to have canon stories.) "If person A had made choice C instead..." or "Met such and so..." or things like that. That'd be an alternate timeline, right? Or? I iz fan fic noob.
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/111242.html.
The movies still only give us characters having opinions on the Force and what is Good and Evil - Light Side or Dark Side. When you make a game with a morality meter based on these opinions, whether your morality meter ends up seeming spot on or tilted slight off toward Parsnip depends a lot on whether it's consistent. I can't find the consistency. Maybe I haven't played enough classes high enough. Maybe I've got morality that's tilted toward Parsnip. Or maybe the Force is supposed to be slightly Orange and Blue. (Red and Blue? Is that a hint? Or merely a lovely coincidence?)
The first Light Side/Dark Side choices that made me go "Wait, what?" (and at least some of which I've mentioned before, I believe) all could simply be me looking at things from a different point of view than the writer came at it from. But it adds up over time, and running a Sith Warrior through the first planet left me thinking maybe the Force really is a bit Orange and Blue. Or just inscrutable.
To run through the inconsistencies and just plain Bzuh moral moments:
The Force Believes in LIfe, Except When It Doesn't.
Your Smuggler finds him/herself faced with a choice of A) Killing a person who has killed another person (who, I might add, just wanted to live through the mess) to protect her self from her con being exposed or B) Letting that person go (bribe optional). Apparently, letting a lying murderer go free is Good. (I wanted an option of C) March her over to the nearest authorities as a, you know, murderer. Oh, and possibly traitor as well, since she was sort of helping the separatists.) But maybe the writer was thinking of A as being too much acting from anger. Or that the Force is always pro-life. (We'll skip the mass slaughter that is game play, shall we.)
Except later, your Republic character (I don't think this was a class quest), gets to mercy kill someone dying a horrible death and it's a neutral option. Right after potentially getting Dark Side points for killing the mad scientist who's responsible for the person's suffering. Though, at least that time, your Light Side alternative was to turn the guy over to the authorities. (Empire characters also get a mercy kill option on some people who've been horribly mad scienced. It's the Light Side choice.)
But! The first Empire side flashpoint suggests that the Force really is always pro-life, since killing the General is Dark Side and turning him over to be tortured and executed is Light Side. (I so wanted an option to commit treason and let him get away to the Republic there. I mean, come on, you just know that about half the people playing Light Side Imperials do it because being a traitor in an Evil Empire is hilariously awesome. Hilarisome? Completely unrealistic, but hilarisome.)
Do these choices not agree with each other because they were written by people who had different ideas of why they were Dark or Light choices? Perhaps killing the General is Dark Side because killing prisoners is wrong. (Which, yes, it is. But how is turning them over to be tortured right??? I could accept a Dark Side choice/neutral choice, but Light Side points? O_o) Perhaps mercy kills are okay because they're at the request of the person being killed. (Except in the Empire example the one still...capable of making the choice, I guess...makes the choice for all of the experimentees.)
Or is there some underlying morality that makes sense to the Force, but not to me?
Then there's Love is Wrong, or maybe Lying is Wrong, or maybe Breaking the Rules of Your Organization is Wrong, except, wait, Ow My Brain.
Jedi characters as Padawans (trainees) are asked to spy on two other Padawans because their masters believe they are having an affair. I guess asking students to spy on other students is A-Okay. You find out that, yep, they're totally getting jiggy. Turning them in is Light Side, not turning them in is Dark Side. Okay, for Jedi, Love is Wrong. (But over on the Empire side, your Agent can sleep with people for information and get Light Side points for it? Whut? Granted you're not a Jedi, but Light Side points? For trading sex for information? O_o Though, I suppose the consistency there is that it's not love. And not that I think it should be a Dark Side option, just, you know, neutral.) Or maybe the real problem is that the Padawans are lying about it. But you don't get a "tell your masters about your relationship and make your argument about love being something we should allow to the Council" option. Worse, a Light Side Imperial character is going to spend a lot of time lying about stuff. Also, my Smuggler has gotten Light Side points for lying at times. (Granted, not to good people.) Lying is bad if you do it to good people?
And it can't be about following the rules of your organization because, again, Light Side Imperial characters are so not doing that. No, Light Side Imperial characters commit treasonous acts.* Unless this is dependent on whether the organization is good or bad. Except, wait, I can play a Smuggler Republic side. Who is, yes, wanted by Customs. Clearly, she's doing an awesome job of following all the rules.
Different writers? Something I'm missing?
Cheating: Good if You're a Sith/Bad if You're a Jedi
So, your Jedi Padawan runs into another student, who's been tasked by his master to reach the important stuff behind a giant boulder. But he can't move the boulder. You give it a shot and move the boulder. His master, who intended the task to be impossible (So that he'd learn that his sense of self-worth can't depend on success (No, I don't get it either.)), is upset. The student claims that you suggested it. You can either sound like a total shit and get Light Side points for telling the master it was the students idea (Seriously, I don't know if it's the line or the voice acting, but you sound exactly like the sort of kid who went around just waiting for fellow students to make one tiny mistake and then shouted for the teacher.) or get Dark Side points for claiming you offered out of hand. Again, is this Lying is Wrong? Cheating is Wrong? It wasn't exactly cheating, the other Padawan just wanted someone else to give it a shot to find out if it was him or the task. (The task itself broke my brain. Here, kid, do this impossible thing that I'm not going to tell you is impossible then come back when you're done. WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO!?)
Then comes the Sith side. You're supposed to get these shards from a tomb full of nasty beasties. You get your shards and come traipsing back to give them to your master and are stopped by a fellow Initiate (or whatever it is you're called over there) who failed to get his. He asks if you'll give him yours to spare him your master's wrath. Light Side option: Here you go. Dark Side option: No. So... Cheating, and this really is cheating, is good? Or is it because the consequences here would be fatal to the fellow student if you don't help him?
Seriously, those two choice sets felt like parallel story bits. Only they don't seem consistent as far as Light/Dark. In both cases, you're being kind to a fellow trainee who really isn't up to snuff. But, as a Jedi, you get Dark Side points if you're not promptly a jerk to the guy.
For icing on the Jedi/Sith WTF? Why Isn't This Consistent!?, there are other times when you're just flat out unkind to people as a Jedi, at least if you're Light Side. Example: preaching at a guy who's father was killed who asks if you made the people who killed him pay. (Light Side: Let me ignore your pain and preach at you. Dark Side: Yep, I made them pay. What, you can't lie to make him feel better? Or at least not fricking preach at him. WHY NOT?) But as a Light Side Sith, you can lie to people to make them feel better. Force, I do not get you. At all.
*And get away with it. To what is reaching has reached suspension of disbelief breaking lengths on my Agent. Which I will have to address in my, er, alternate timeline** SWTOR fan fics. Because it is utterly absurd in game. I don't care how big the galaxy is, you cannot work for an Evil Empire and go around not killing people, not turning in criminals, lying to your superiors (among others), disobeying orders, and telling evil religious leaders/government officials to take long walks off short piers without getting yourself in serious trouble. (Realistically, you'd get yourself dead. But I write fluff. And, yes, the game is fluff. But come on. There should be some consequences! (Okay, telling off Sith has cost me a force lightninging and once getting no quest reward.) All I'm asking for is a little suspicion at least. I disobeyed orders and let someone live on my first assignment as an Imperial Agent. Someone who promptly did something that suggests he's alive. Imperial Intelligence should be perpetually suspicious from that point forward. I know the game can't have me arrested for treason (well, it could and then I prove I'm not/am too useful/something), but, yee gad. My own stories, of course...)
**What do you call fan fic stories that could happen in a setting, but not in the canon story? (And, yes, I'd consider the game to have canon stories.) "If person A had made choice C instead..." or "Met such and so..." or things like that. That'd be an alternate timeline, right? Or? I iz fan fic noob.
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/111242.html.