I think Kosiah hits my big one with Boring, Predictable Stories.
I want plot. I want dramatic tension. Some kind of indication that I'm not reading the Adventures of Super Revan and her Amazing Friends as they cheerfully flit about the galaxy setting everything right, while sorting out that stuffy old Jedi Council and pausing occasionally for a bout of picturesque angsting.
It doesn't have to be action. Romance done well can work brilliantly and be far more dramatic than any dozen lightsaber duels or confrontations with Sith, or starship battles. But I need some kind of plausible doubt that everything's going to work out perfectly in the end bar a few minor mishaps along the way. I need the sense I'm not reading an interminable soap opera in which nothing much is ever going to happen or change, and I could skip ten chapters ahead without missing anything significant.
Some way back from that:
General blandification of the cast
What do I like about the Kotor crew? It's not the fact they're perfect people and shining beacons of virtue. I like them because of their flaws and imperfections and personal inner darknesses and failings. These rough edges are a very large part of what makes them so interesting to me, but a lot of this seems to get constantly pruned away, and they all get made too perfect and nice.
A lot of this has already been said far better than I could, particularly on the subjects of Bastila (I think she gets it worse than any other character generally), Canderous and Dustil, but:
Bastila and Juhani both fell to the dark side. These were genuine falls, with genuine consequences, and they aren't just momentary aberations that can be conveniently ignored and swept away. Both characters have that dark side to them, and its something they're always going to have to face up to.
Carth isn't perfect. He's probably the most truly good and heroic character in either of the two games, but he's made mistakes, some of them serious, and he does have flaws. The game strongly indicates that his relationships with Morgana and Dustil weren't perfect, and personally I find it makes him that much more interesting if he's allowed to have screwed up here through his own genuine failings as a husband and father. That Dustil isn't being a whiny teenage brat with unreasonable expectations.
Jolee may be a wise old man, but he isn't always going to be right or know best in every situation, and he doesn't necessarily know better than the whole rest of the Jedi Order on every single available subject. And his self-imposed exile in the Shadowlands when the Jedi refused to punish him over his wife's death - I think there's a genuine argument here that the Jedi Council were much more in the right here than he was, and he was in fact behaving like a petulant, self-indulgent ass.
True love doesn't conquer all, nor is it the most impotant thing in the galaxy
Honestly.
Whether the relationship between Revan and Carth/Bastila works out is likely to of prime concern to precisely two people in the galaxy. Themselves. Some of the rest of the crew are likely to care about the happiness of their friends, but not to to a degree that it completely overrides their own concerns and issues.
In fact, whether their relationship works may well not be the most important concern to Carth, Bastila or Revan either. Carth's relationship with his only child is likely to be much more important to him than any relationship with Revan. Put in the position where he has to make a choice here, he is going to chose Dustil. Bastila and Carth, by the nature of their characters, are likely to place a whole number of priorities higher than their love lives. Revan also has his/her own list of problems that may very well take precedence over any romantic interests.
I suppose this next comes more under things I'd like to see rather than what I wouldn't, and should be on an entirely different topic, but just occasionally I'd like to see more stories where the relationship between Carth/Revan or Bastila/Revan genuinely does fail irretrievably. Where they don't resolve their problems or overcome their differences and become perfect soulmates.
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Date: 2005-07-06 12:11 pm (UTC)I think Kosiah hits my big one with Boring, Predictable Stories.
I want plot. I want dramatic tension. Some kind of indication that I'm not reading the Adventures of Super Revan and her Amazing Friends as they cheerfully flit about the galaxy setting everything right, while sorting out that stuffy old Jedi Council and pausing occasionally for a bout of picturesque angsting.
It doesn't have to be action. Romance done well can work brilliantly and be far more dramatic than any dozen lightsaber duels or confrontations with Sith, or starship battles. But I need some kind of plausible doubt that everything's going to work out perfectly in the end bar a few minor mishaps along the way. I need the sense I'm not reading an interminable soap opera in which nothing much is ever going to happen or change, and I could skip ten chapters ahead without missing anything significant.
Some way back from that:
General blandification of the cast
What do I like about the Kotor crew? It's not the fact they're perfect people and shining beacons of virtue. I like them because of their flaws and imperfections and personal inner darknesses and failings. These rough edges are a very large part of what makes them so interesting to me, but a lot of this seems to get constantly pruned away, and they all get made too perfect and nice.
A lot of this has already been said far better than I could, particularly on the subjects of Bastila (I think she gets it worse than any other character generally), Canderous and Dustil, but:
Bastila and Juhani both fell to the dark side. These were genuine falls, with genuine consequences, and they aren't just momentary aberations that can be conveniently ignored and swept away. Both characters have that dark side to them, and its something they're always going to have to face up to.
Carth isn't perfect. He's probably the most truly good and heroic character in either of the two games, but he's made mistakes, some of them serious, and he does have flaws. The game strongly indicates that his relationships with Morgana and Dustil weren't perfect, and personally I find it makes him that much more interesting if he's allowed to have screwed up here through his own genuine failings as a husband and father. That Dustil isn't being a whiny teenage brat with unreasonable expectations.
Jolee may be a wise old man, but he isn't always going to be right or know best in every situation, and he doesn't necessarily know better than the whole rest of the Jedi Order on every single available subject. And his self-imposed exile in the Shadowlands when the Jedi refused to punish him over his wife's death - I think there's a genuine argument here that the Jedi Council were much more in the right here than he was, and he was in fact behaving like a petulant, self-indulgent ass.
True love doesn't conquer all, nor is it the most impotant thing in the galaxy
Honestly.
Whether the relationship between Revan and Carth/Bastila works out is likely to of prime concern to precisely two people in the galaxy. Themselves. Some of the rest of the crew are likely to care about the happiness of their friends, but not to to a degree that it completely overrides their own concerns and issues.
In fact, whether their relationship works may well not be the most important concern to Carth, Bastila or Revan either. Carth's relationship with his only child is likely to be much more important to him than any relationship with Revan. Put in the position where he has to make a choice here, he is going to chose Dustil. Bastila and Carth, by the nature of their characters, are likely to place a whole number of priorities higher than their love lives. Revan also has his/her own list of problems that may very well take precedence over any romantic interests.
I suppose this next comes more under things I'd like to see rather than what I wouldn't, and should be on an entirely different topic, but just occasionally I'd like to see more stories where the relationship between Carth/Revan or Bastila/Revan genuinely does fail irretrievably. Where they don't resolve their problems or overcome their differences and become perfect soulmates.