u/BackgroundRich7614

A pushback against criticisms of controversial media that I hear a lot is some variation of "(x) controversial plot point fits the themes of the story" and while I respect the attention to the themes of a given work, most of the times this defense is tried it doesn't really hold up.

See while having themes are important to story's, they aren't the only thing a story requires. A story needs consistent and enjoyable characterization, it needs good pacing, it needs some tension, and it needs a basic respect for the audience's time and investment. Sacrificing everything else for poorly executed themes is like burning a forest to save a tree.

Now since I hate Vague posting here are some examples...

While there are many essays going over how CSM's ending lines up with its themes, I will just go ahead and say no matter what thematic point was trying to be achieve, it will never be satisfying to have your MC's entire story (the one readers spent years and hours of their life invested in) basically get erased from existence and rendered moot. To add salt on the wounds, this wasn't even Denji's choice, he just gets forced this ending without any in-put.

For the Last Skywalker, I get they wanted to hammer home the idea of failure being the greatest teacher, but they did it in the worst way possible. The Last Jedi took a beloved hero who was known to never give up when his friends lives were in danger and the symbol of what it means to be a Jedi and turned him into a failure that runs away from his mistakes. A story more befitting the theme was not worth destroying your 2nd most iconic character.

For Steven Univiverse, I get the main theme was redemption and Steven wasn't going to turn into the punisher, I get that and I actually love many kindhearted characters that want to see the good in others like Superman and Luz Noceda. The problem is that they had the 3 big bad main antagonists, that ruled over an authoritarian nightmare state that attempts mass genocide on the regular, and who created a superweapon out of the shattered souls fused together, completely switch their entire worldview in the span of like 3 conversations with minimal pushback. Imagine if Ozai, Bill Cipher, Belos, Voldemort, or Darkseid became good guys after a quick chat. Petty antagonists and bullies often need seasons of development to have them turning over a new leaf make sense and feel earned.

So while Themes are very important to writing, they are just a part of the building, and a plot point fitting thematically doesn't make it automatically good. When making a puzzle, a piece has to fit into the entire hole, not just part of it. Or for a cooking explanation, having the correct ingredients on paper doesn't mean anything if you burn it to a crisp while cooking it.

I am playing a Sith Warrior who goes around looking to win glory for the empire and win the war for them. I have done pretty much every single Planet Story and Bonus Series, but I don't really see much point in doing the Hoth story, not because it's bad (it's not) but because its stakes feel small scale and not very relevant, especially for such a late planet.

In Dromund Kaas you help infiltrate and cripple a dangerous Cult forming in the Empire Heart (before Reven came back).

In Balmora you help to crush a rebellion in a crucial arms producing word and yours gains at least ensured the Empire still has a foothold on it even after losing most of it later.

On Nar Shadar you maintain and Expand the Empires grip on the underworld and gain the alliance of a key information broker.

On Tatooine you find a powerful Rakatan artifact that you can make ally with the Empire after avoiding near disaster with a nanomachine zombie plague.

On Alderaan you ensure the Imperial ally of House Thuul is poised to take the throne of a majorly influential core world.

On Taris you pretty much destroy the planet and deal the Republic a massive symbolic and military loss.

Even Quesh is pretty important due to it being where you can bait the Republic into breaking the Treaty of Coruscant and being a major adrenal producer.

By contrast Hoth just has you save the Imperial presence on a planet whose main job is just to bleed out the Republic a bit, important sure, but that's not really something that will go down as a pivotal event in the history books, made worse by it being one of the latest planet story's and in-between the massively important planet story arcs of Taris and Belsavis.

Compared to what came after (Taris, Alderaan, Nar Shaddar, Quesh, Dromund Kas, and even Tatooine) and what comes after (Belsavis, Voss, and Corellia) Hoth seems like a bit of a "filler" story arc.

In the Voss Imperial storyline you have the choice to either tell the Mystics of Voss that the Jedi poisoned their planet or that they and the Gormak are one in the same (why we can't say both I don't know)

On the one hand, telling the Voss the Jedi are responsible for their woes is great for the Sith Empire, on the other hand a Light side Sith probably doesn't want the Voss's war with the Gormak to continue and destroy their planet.

What makes the most sense for a Sith with a love for the Empire and a sense of honor and compassion.

For those that don't know Nekghouls are a mutant strain of Rakghouls found on Taris during the SWTOR era that are fully sentient and can use the Force.

After the defeat of Jedi Master Sulan the Lightside Sith Warrior (in my run at least) convinces the Nekghouls to embrace the Darkside and kill Sulan, causing them to retreat from their alliance with the republic and take a more neutral stance.

I LOVE the Nekghouls as a concept and think that they would make for great Sith Juggernauts during the Old and New Sith Wars or just as their own Darkside faction afterwards.

Do we have any information about what happened to these fascinating creatures by the time of the Prequels and Original Trilogy, and does Lukes NJO ever interact with one?

Now, I do want Angel Dust to eventually get to heaven, but I just have an issue with Angel Dust getting to heaven without fully coming back to Hotel and spending some more time with the main cast.

Despite what fan fics might say Angle Dust doesn't have THAT close of a relationship with people like Charlie, Vaggi, and the rest of the Hotel not named Husk. So, in my opinion it would just be a bit of a waste to shunt him to heaven before he could develop a closer friendship and understanding with Charlie.

Plus if any character should get to heaven in season 3, it would say Cherri Bomb fits best given she would want to get redeemed to be with Pentious, and assuming her sin is minor, it would be a good beginners test for Charlie to see if she can redeem slightly more complicated cases before she circles back to Angle Dust after helping free him from Val.

Hello friends, I recently realized that Bevp pay would be shutting down a few days ago, so I sent a Bevo refund request.

Now I don't think I have a bank account tied to the school, so I should get the money back via mail at my addresses.

So, my question is, since I sent the refund request a few days ago, how long should I expect it to take for the money to be sent to me, and who should I go to if I don't get the refunded cash.

In Masters Enigma, the developers have created a major rift between the factions heads of the Empire and Republic, and the Pub/Imp Alliance Commander. The Empire/Republic pretty much invade the Commanders home base, put the commander under house arrest, and steal a powerful artifact from them. This is not some petty disagreement but a major breach of perceived trust that hasn't really been seen since Iokath.

Now there are 3 main ways for this to end, more are less.

1. Status Quo Antebellum: The Empire/Republic sees that they were foolish to doubt you after you bring them the body of Malgus; they remove they fleet from Odessen, give their apologizes for doubting you, and maybe even give you a new title to bribe you off. This is the safest option and won't change things up too much.
2. Jadus just kills everyone: In this scenario, the conflict between the Alliance and the players home factions won't matter as Jadus will simply kill the heads of the Empire and Republic, thus negating any potential conflict they would have. This could lead into a prolonged power vacuum and force the players to ensure a puppet of Jadus doesn't end up leading the Republic or Empire.
3. War with the Empire and Republic: This is the most drastic option and would see the player character attack the Empire and Republic and force them off Odessen by force, probably by capturing the Chancellor or Emperor/Empresses and forcing them to come to favorable terms. This is the most drastic option and would see the Alliance resolidify itself as a major faction in its own right.

So, which of these 3 options do you want to see happen, or do you think there is another 4th or 5th options I forgot to mention

Now one of the things that people loved about post KOTET content was how many choices you hand to affect the state of the galaxy, most notably by killing high ranking individuals like Darth Acina, Darth Vownrawn, Darth Shaar, Darth Savik, and Darth Anathel

The issues with those choices, however, is that now the game can't really DO anything with all those "fate uncertain" characters since now it's unclear if they are even alive in a specific playthrough.

This means you can't really have MOST of the Dark Council be in the spotlight and have interesting character development based on their personality since the exact configuration of the Dark Council wildly differs.

Now here is a simple way to solve that issue; have the Dark Council get wiped out and replaced by new Sith that the developers have complete freedom to develop as major players.

The way they can do this for Imperial Players is simple; the Empire is acting increasingly suspicious of Imperius/Wrath, and there is still the lingering saboteur plot thread that needs to be tied up.

It could simply be written that the saboteurs are found out, and the loyalists are framed (not difficult given how wary the Dark Council seems to be of Wrath/Imperius).

This could lead to a massive "War with the Dark Council" Flashpoint where the Outlander could clear house with the Dark Council and replace them with more "respectful" Sith.

If Jadus is going to win in 7.9 (which is likely) then Darth Nuls holocron is going to create many new Sith that would be able to rise through the ranks over the course of the 8.0 Expansion, and you can even bring back whatever old Sith haven't been killed off (Please stop killing off our quest givers)

Now I know that the Imperial player will never be able to become Empress/Emperor themselves, but a nice middle ground would be allowing them to put a puppet on the Imperial Throne to do all the busy work of managing the Sith Empire while the Imperial character crushes the enemies of the Sith in person.

You could also pull a WOW, and remove the position of Emperor entirely, with it being replaced by a small Dark Council consisting of the Imperial player and various Sith that sided with them in their coup.

I think these routes would go along way into streamlining the story for developments sake and giving Imperial players a bit more of that power fantasy that they have been craving after the disrespect they suffered in Masters Enigma.