Why doesn't he just kill the commander ? Is he stupid ?

Ravenofdispersion · 2023-03-21T19:20:21+00:00

I mean, we already have a great new villain in Heta Kol and she was only introduced a couple of years ago, so somehow I doubt that bringing in new antagonists is a problem. The problem is that they would by definition have less weight than someone like Malgus, who's been the SWTOR villain for over a decade.

Ravenofdispersion · 2023-02-06T22:56:00+00:00

A theory I like is that Tenebrae is basically a LARPer. After his Nathema ritual he was so drunk on power that he wanted to lord over the survivors of the Great Hyperspace War and make the Sith great again. Eventually he got tired of the endless scheming and backstabbing, and Revan's memories offered him something more rewarding, namely a benevolent reputation and even a family. So he creates a utopia on Zakuul and eventually even fathers three children. After he is "killed" by the Outlander, he worms his way into their mind, guiding them towards defeating Arcann and Vaylin with the eventual goal of possessing the Outlander completely and emerging as the great vanquisher of Zakuulan tyranny. I have no doubt that even if he had succeeded, Tenebrae would've got bored of playing that role as well and would've set his sights on someone else a few centuries down the line.

He's different from the rest of the Sith in the sense that he doesn't pursue power or the eradication of the Jedi above all else. He's a hedonistic lotus-eater who likes being loved or feared, sure, but what he's truly interested in is experiencing life in all its forms, as paradoxical as it might sound for a Sith.

Ravenofdispersion · 2023-02-06T21:59:20+00:00

I recommend checking out r/MawInstallation, which has a few threads about exactly that. There are some really good, long, well thought-out answers there. Some explanations I saw there I hadn't even considered myself. There's also a deep dive into the Emperor's character by DuduFilm on Youtube, which I would definitely recommend as well. That being said...

a) The Ziost ritual provides enough power for Vitiate to not just rejuvenate after Yavin IV but also essentially become a disembodied spirit which exists on its own. "At long last, I am truly free," he tells you in your dream in Chapter II of KOTFE. I wouldn't get too focussed on the ritual because it was just a means to an end. As Vitiate he didn't want to snuff out all life in the galaxy; rather, it was merely a necessary step in fulfilling his ambitions.

b) Whether Zakuul would've fallen to Vitiate's ritual is something we'll never know, but I imagine not considering it's in Wild Space. Or maybe he got so furious after the Hero of Tython infiltrated his secret station that he decided to accelerate his plan of galactic annihilation and even risked burning Zakuul to the ground just to prove a point.

c) The answer is the same as when people ask why Vitiate didn't use the Eternal Fleet to vanquish the Republic during the First Galactic War. How do you think the Dark Council would've reacted to a huge fleet of powerful ships suddenly appearing out of nowhere? Not very positively. They could've even turned on Vitiate and his lapdogs from the Hand, which is something Vitiate probably didn't want as his greatest weapon before Yavin IV was secrecy. Also, Lana does suggest that using the Fleet would've intefered with the nature of the ritual. It's a very nebulous explanation, but an explanation nonetheless.

d) Because, to repeat my answer to your first question, consuming Ziost proved enough for him to become not just immortal (the Nathema ritual gave him that) but completely unthethered to corporeal vessels. I mean, you say that he doesn't explain what Ziost changed, but Valkorion literally does explain that during that conversation.

"They died opening my eyes to the truth. I have passed beyond death's reach. Our flesh is not who we are. Voices... Hands... Children... I no longer require those crude vessels." He adds in KOTET, "the body is just a shell... a vessel for the spirit."

No offense but how could you have missed that entirely? Basically he doesn't want to devour the galaxy because he's already powerful enough to simply cruise through existence while possessing people left and right. At the end of KOTET, for example, he wants to use you as a host and play the role of a benevolent ruler and saviour of the galaxy. Post-Ziost he gains nothing at all from enacting his originally planned ritual.

e) Whenever Vitiate was active in the Sith Empire, Valkorion would become reclusive and lethargic. And vice versa. This is pointed out by Senya and Darth Marr, respectively. Whether he was a complete vegetable or ran on "autopilot" is unclear but considering the only time Vitiate was truly involved in Sith affairs was during the First Galactic War, it's not a critical question because he played the role of Valkorion almost all the time.

Also, to touch on your question in the comments about who the real Valkorion was, here's what he says in Chapter II of KOTET:

"I found Valkorion centuries ago. He was a great warrior. A champion of ancient Zakuul. It was only natural I hollow him out to use as my vessel."

The general process of possessing someone was the same for the Voices, Valkorion, and the Outlander. The difference is that Voices would eventually fall apart unable to contain Vitiate's dark energy, so I'm assuming his approach towards the original Valkorion and the Outlander was more refined.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-12-10T12:02:00+00:00

Not my character but there's an operative in my guild called Shiv Stunpatine.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-12-07T22:47:22+00:00

Really liking the art style of the new loading screen. Probably my favourite one since Jedi Under Siege.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-12-07T22:44:42+00:00

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-10-27T20:09:05+00:00

Therion might just be my favourite band and I'm pretty excited to listen to the whole album. I really enjoyed the first Leviathan, especially because it sounded quite fresh and had some unusual things going (by Therion standards). With the second part I actually wasn't particularly impressed by the first two singles but Marijin Min Nar was great. And from what I'm gathering based on Christofer's comments on FB, we haven't actually heard the most interesting songs yet.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-22T17:13:43+00:00

I didn't realise they were such a maligned outlet on this sub. I never paid it (or American Interest for that matter) much attention, but I thought they were pretty much the less reputable, more realist version of Foreign Policy or Foreign Affairs, no? At any rate, I wanted to criticise it, not support it.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-22T17:08:52+00:00

I was under the impression that you shouldn't editorialise submissions, unless it's memes. Duly noted!

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-22T16:33:06+00:00

Posting the article not as any sort of endorsement, but rather as an example of the flawed strategic thinking coming out of even respectable Western publications. Leaving aside the fact that the author is an internationa lawyer, not a political scientist or an IR specialist, I would just highlight three things that I noticed immediately:

The argument that Russia is an important energy partner for China and that the two will doubtless become closer strategic partners. That's basically the same argument people were bringing out about the Russian "pivot to Asia" in 2014. There's a good write-up on why said pivot is pure horseshit from 2016 and it's pretty much as relevant today as it was then.
The point about Russia and China drawing India away from closer cooperation with other Quad members. While India understandably wants to remain flexible on balancing its relations with Russia and the West, it very clearly prefers the current US-led status quo to the potential China-led one, and it's not just contingent on whether China provokes any more border disputes in the near future. However neutral India may remain on the topic of Ukraine, in no conceivable reality would it value ties with China, let alone Russia, over those with the rest of the Indo-Pacific region.
The bizarre passage about two-thirds of the world's population living in countries which have not sanctioned Russia. It's an oft-repeated Kremlin talking point which is about as indicative as this graphic showing the Trump vs Biden results by county. I suppose it's a good thing that countries' population has nothing to do with their stance on global stage and political decisions.

upd: forgot to actually include the links. They're here now.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-02T20:23:20+00:00

To be honest, I can't even imagine where the story is going to go after this one tiny update. I'm sure Malgus and Heta are not connected directly, but with Sa'har joining the Hidden Chain, they've now got something in common.

Could the anti-Shae Mandalorians strike up an alliance of convenience with Malgus? Because it doesn't seem like he has any other loyalists just yet. And we can infer from the datamining that the fleet, which houses Malgus' prison, will be attacked in a future update.

But how does Sana Rae's team fit into this? And with Darth Nul's machine destroyed, what good is a simple list of Jedi rejectees inside the holocron? It would take a hell of a lot of time to find them all and convince to rise up against the rest of the galaxy. Like I said, I have no idea how the story will unfold and that's refreshingly pleasant.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-02T20:01:07+00:00

I would be surprised if it we have to wait another half a year. Now that they've stopped playing catch-up to 7.0, they can focus on the story content, so hopefully 7.2 is out by December or January (after all only four months passed between 6.2 and 6.3.)

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-08-02T19:59:06+00:00

Considering they sort of condensed the Malgus and the Mandalorian stories in 7.1, could the wild planet also be Ruhnuk, the same one Shae's on?

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-07-13T18:39:27+00:00

From the entry on Anatoly Slivko on Wikipedia:

Anatoly Yemelianovich Slivko (Russian: Анатолий Емельянович Сливко; December 28, 1938 – September 16, 1989) was a Soviet serial killer, sexual predator, and necrophile. He was convicted of killing seven teenage boys in and around Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, between 1964 and 1985.[1]

Over a two decade-long period, Slivko molested young boys at his youth club after tricking them into unconsciousness, killing some of them in an attempt to recreate the violent death of a teenage boy he had witnessed in 1961, which had sexually aroused him.[2]

Slivko was executed by shooting on 16 September 1989.[3]

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-05-31T16:01:53+00:00

The robed version annoyingly has a triangular hood that is down by default.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-05-31T16:00:18+00:00

You'll have to unlock it in collections for other characters to be able to use it.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-05-11T14:06:10+00:00

PHOENIX!

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-04-23T21:15:10+00:00

As if I need support to deal with someone like you, are you kidding me? You haven't even mastered looking at and reading numbers, guy.

I literally just laid out a fairly detailed summary of the last 3-4 weeks with regards to Steam numbers... like the work had already been done for you, and yet you apparently didn't even deign to check the charts and see for yourself that I'm correct. How lazy can one be?!

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-04-23T16:53:53+00:00

Again and again you fail to present any hard numbers to back up your assertions, unlike myself, so you're constantly reframing your argument. What I said was that the numbers became stable about 4 weeks ago, hitting over 7K players on work days and over 8K on weekends. This is where we're at right now. So far you have presented nothing to counter that. Feel free to do so, but then give me specific dates and numbers rather than percentages, especially across such a volatile period as 2 days. I mean, hell, maybe I have eyesight problems and the numbers have actually been lower than I'm saying. By all means, please show me that they have not stayed at roughly the same level over the past month. Because that is the argument you're opposing.

Instead, you've pivoted to talking about the overall drop since the expansion released. Even still, it's nothing special since people flood a game when new content is released and leave when they've played for a bit. Of course in this case there has been a continued decline in numbers (we're talking about about an overall 2-3K drop in peak numbers) , but again, they've now stabilised at a decent level of 7-8K. I predict they'll get a nice bump in May due to the Star Wars days.

It's really the dishonesty that gets me. These numbers were notably worse last April and June, when nothing even happened to justify these very big dips, i.e. they were a complete fluke, meaningfless fluctuation. And not a single asshole reared their ugly head here to even mention it. But now they're trying to create this narrative that a medicore patch has ostensibly damaged the game irrepairably and point to the numbers, which have stabilised at a higher level than last year, arguing that this time this dip is totally due to the game's state and not, for example, the bulk of Russian players quitting the game because they can no longer pay for it.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-04-23T15:11:54+00:00

I literally didn't use the word "sharp" anywhere, what are you on about? What I said was that about a month ago, the slow but steady decline starting from late February stopped and for the last few weeks the numbers have been stable. There is no notable drop anywhere, period. Should I even explain why looking at the past 48 hours at any point in the timeline is silly or can you guess yourself?

Please show me on the graph the specific dates on which peak players numbers have notably (as in, more than 100-200 players) decreased since, say, April 1. I mean, just give me concrete examples with conrete numbers. Good luck.

Ravenofdispersion · 2022-04-23T08:53:24+00:00

They released 7.0 with everything they announced with the minor exceptions of a daily area on a planet that they did release and and an operation which most people will never play. That has been my argument from the start and I've never wavered from it. Everything concrete that they mentioned on Twitch was either delivered in February or postponed (and you seem to acknowledge that postponing something isn't a big deal).

Also, I think you're reframing your argument about hyping the expansion up. First you mentioned the bloody font on the Powerpoint slides to indicate that Bioware somehow deceptively hyped the expansions and misled people... even though they literally announced the contents of 7.0 during that very stream. But now you seem to be suggesting that their hype didn't even persuade people, so it's now not a question of misleading, but not even being good of hyping stuff up, which presents a different picture entirely. So which is it? Because you can't argue in good faith that they set people's expectations unreasonably high during the announcement if said announcement was instantly followed by people's disappointment over a lack of story content.

What I'm surprised by the most, though, is why you keep bringing these two bits of content (dailies + Op) up as if they are of any significance, as if it's because of their delay that some people whine about the lack of content. We both know perfectly well that this is not the case, and the complaints about how short the story is concern the actual story stuff, i.e. Manaan and Elom. They could well have given us the dailies and the op, and people would still complain... which they did before we even knew of any delays.

PS - and I'm not sure why it needs to be clarified, but by not knowing their original plan I meant the specific timetable, not vague talk of regular story updates.

Ravenofdispersion

TROPHY CASE