Having a ****buddy isn't the same as having a romance. [Edit] I had to add, Pirece as an alternative romance option would have been stellar... and this is coming from a Quinn enthusiast! I wish all classes and genders had more than one romance option to choose from.

With Malavai Quinn and Elara Dorne, it was a case of, "be careful what you wish for," for me. I was expecting a lot of involvement with the Companions, similar to the previous Main Characters who'd returned, such as Aric and Kaliyo. I mean, why not? The precedence had already been set for returning love interests. Not only they get a whole five minutes of screen time, they contributed absolutely nothing to the plot (Acina and Malcom could have just called...) and they were written as the exact same person, with the same lines, save for some illogical twists. By doing this, the writers managed to siphon the individuality from the characters themselves. Vette returned as Vette, Kaliyo returned as Kaliyo and Gault returned as Gault; however Elara Dorne and Malavai Quinn returned as some type of generic mashup of both, a sloppy shadow of their Vanilla characters. As a Quinn fangurl (much to my husband's chagrin,) the writers actually managed to completely kill my interest in the character and the character's potential future in the story rather than renew it. It feels like they had Iokath and the main story ready to go and decided to add Elara and Malavai as an afterthought to serve purely as tacky fan service - hence all their pomp and pageantry on social media in regards to their return and the focus on "TAKING REVENGE" on Quinn... in the most nonsensical of circumstances.

BW has made it pretty clear that their current plan to improve game play and quality of life for players is to simply modify existing content or outright remove it rather than add to it. For some reason, they think taking things away from players, especially trivial things players have had for years with virtually zero player (and droid) complaints, is going to somehow generate a positive reaction. No one likes things being taken away from them, especially for no logical reason. BW must have a serious problem when it comes to providing options for players. What's the harm in CCing a droid? What's the harm if I want to choose to use my Warrior's old channeled Ravage ability? What's the harm if I want to choose to use to old galaxy map or see the old AoE telegraphs, or hide the DvL war advertising popups? What's the harm in choosing to bypass a gimmicky crate-opening interface and choosing the gear and items I want and the order in which obtain them? Okay, I went off the rails a bit there, but my point is... If BW says choices matter, then I wish they'd give players the ability to choose the most trivial of things.

Yep... which leads me to believe they just don't care about that level of detail in regards to Vanilla characters. A kind of **** it attitude of, "let's just get something out the door to quiet the masses so we can focus more on Lana's next cutscene where she's actually in the Commander's bed lying next to her when she wakes up. Romanced or not, isn't that just hawt??? You know it is..." *high five*

I think it's really just the writing in general, and not just for Companions. The melding of Dorne and Quinn into one persona is just one of the many symptoms of the writer(s) pigeonholing every Class into two personas (Commander or Emperor, which is now Republic or Empire) and railroading all of the Class stories into one main scenario. We saw the signs of this in RotHC and SoR, then blatant application in KOTFE/ET, and now it's to the point where they're merging individual Companions. I mean, how long until every Companion does and says the same thing no matter who you have with you, not just Quinn or Dorne? I can only figure one of three things going on here to cause this: BW is out of ideas, they have minimal resources, or they just don't care about this level of detail. Whichever it is, it's enough for me to notice in game, and so I no longer have a vested interest in the future of the story, including my beloved Companions... even Malavai Quinn. It's very disheartening.

After observing Quinn's illogical actions and realizing this happened because they decided Dorne and Quinn should be saying and doing the exact same things is when I realized the wind was out of my sails. In novels, games, TV series and movies, I get vested in specific characters because they really bring a story to life by adding the flawed element of humanity that everyone can relate to in some way or another. The moment story characters lose their individuality, they cease being a character and become a simple tool, existing only to further the plot. Unfortunately, this is what I feel happened - the vanilla writers created the characters, Malavai Quinn and Elara Dorne, and the current writers fashioned them into a tool named Elara Quinn to which I can't relate. Astoundingly enough, for both me and my husband, BW has actually managed to completely kill my interest in Malavai Quinn as character and now I view him and Elara Dorne on the same level as any Cartel Market Companion.

When I first saw it, it gave me the impression that we'd be able to fight along him (and Dorne) during this content patch like did did the rest of the Main Characters who'd returned. After playing the update, I realized it was nothing but bait.

If the original writers intended Quinn and Dorne to talk and act the exact same way, they would have only written one character. You can't take two different people, with different personalities, backgrounds, nuances, etc. and mash them into one person because what you get is a bunch of garbage that makes no logical sense. My biggest question is, "How did they not see this or did they see it was nonsensical and ran with it anyway?" Once I realized this is the first taste of all returning Companions, I realized I have nothing else to look forward to except nonsensical disappointment. I mean, what's next? Ashara and Kira come back and have the exact same dialogue and actions during three whole minutes of screen time while Lana and Theron save the galaxy? How about Andronikos and Corso? I mean, they make just as much sense as Quinn and Dorne. Personally, I just chalked it up to lazy writing, which is rank and file with the rest of the disconnected laziness the developers have recently projected upon this game and is essentially what I told BW when I unsubscribed a couple of days ago. I can't stomach giving these guys any more money and supporting their product when everything they're doing appears half-assed and sloppy, and totally disconnected from the original spirit of the game. Not just the reunion, but everything from GC, to the spamming and irrelevant DvL war, to fixing "broken" things that didn't need to be fixed, like AoE telegraphs and group minimap icons, to the Ravage ability change, not to mention the creation of new bugs while old bugs that have been around forever remain unaddressed. In 18 years of playing MMOs, this is the first time where I've actually felt like the developers just don't care about their own game to the point where I actually wonder if they work in a toxic work environment.

I resubscribed for Quinn's return to support the direction in which the game was going and with the hope it would be a positive experience that would leave me begging for more. Not just more of Quinn, but also more of the remaining Vanilla Companions who've yet to return - each with their own stories to tell as to where they've been the past several years and each with their own reunion with the character Classes. With the constant nonsensical writing compiled with the rest of the game's ongoing and unaddressed issues... basically, how clunky and outright lazy the game feels, I've realized that I'm finally on the same page as the developers: I just don't care, anymore. o/

I'm under the impression that BW wants to keep Quinn as the character that players both love and love to hate, which is cool - I'm totally down with that, but why on earth would they execute it in such a manner that it makes absolutely no sense? I mean, is there no one at BW's office doing simple logic and reason checks on these stories before implementation? Are there really no QA/QC testers or private testers seeing these issues and petitioning for a change? Nonsensical writing has been an annoyance for me really since the transition from SoR to KOTFE and they just seem to keep doubling down on this insanity. I'd like to cut them some slack, but there are tons of great writers out there who write more sensical fiction for free; however, the behemoth of an IP that is STAR WARS has but one MMO, which they advertise as story-driven, and the team can't just can't seem to crank out stories that don't cause my brain to short circuit as I try to reconcile all of the nonsensical inconsistencies? Don't get me wrong... I'm really happy they decided to return Quinn to the story and his short-lived return works for the most part if the SW sides with the Empire. I'm glad they didn't force another unavoidable betrayal and I'm ecstatic they were able to bring back the original voice actor. Aside from that... all I can say is, "The hell is going on in the logic and reason department, at BW?"

It's not that I hate her, it's just that I'm tired of her. Basically, I'm suffering from Lana and Theron burnout. With all the great Vanilla characters/Companions that have been created, the focus on only two characters for all Classes for so long is tiresome... especially when one character isn't even remotely interesting and acts more like a parent than an ally. However, I do find it creepy whenever my character wakes up to see Lana there hovering six inches away. It pretty much sums up the process of the Vanilla Companions being taken away and Lana being shoved in my face.

So, regarding siding with the Republic in Iokath with romanced SW... Not happy with this writing.

Speaking as an Imperial enthusiast... I approve!

It was actually pretty good and I thought the voice actor did a great job. We all know Quinn regretted his betrayal from years ago, but in that scene, I got the impression he wanted to prove that he'd do anything in order to faithfully serve the Wrath once more. Even if that meant shaming and embarrassing himself by begging for mercy, even if it was just to humor the Wrath.

Oh, I agree on Vowrawn over Acina for Emperor - I just meant, character and story wise, he could be a difficult Sith to deal with when he's not on your side. I also don't know why Acina's the one they chose for Emperor. The cynic in me speculates it's because she's the one with the least amount of back story they'd have to take into account when BW decided it was time to write in a Sith Emperor. There'd have to be a lot of explaining to do if any of the Vanilla council members were named Emperor, as so many of them were integrated into one Class Story or another. I mean, they very well might have picked Acina because she had very little personality and back story - it was just a neutral body to fill the role to go along with the one-size-fits-all story they've wrote for every Class. Also, Jadus was very enigmatic and intriguing to me. Too bad there was no more to be seen from him. So many characters with so much potential just cast aside for... what? Acina? Vaylin? Senya? Veeroa/[insert Star Fortress nobody]? Just ugh... I'm gonna have drink and go make some chicken tacos.

Vowrawn's one of my favorite characters that I feel the writers just ghosted out of existence. I mean, what happened after he was kneeling before Arcann and before Acina named herself the Sith Empress because all of the other Dark Council members were MIA? I found Vowrawn's charismatic, yet scheming personality to be a very agreeable contrast to my snarky, sarcastic, but straight-to-the-point Wrath, and I think he'd make an amazing political advisor for her as she leads the Alliance. However, I'd definitely rather have Vowrawn by my Wrath's side rather than as the Sith Emperor, as he's so clever that I'm not sure she would have the political prowess to counter his scheming - a talent that he's honed over seven decades. Besides, it takes someone as duplicitous as Baras to take Baras down, and Vowrawn was that person with my Wrath as his tool. "Keep your enemies closer," as they say.

Yep, Raptus is who I thought was Baras. I actually would have never thought Vowrawn, as his tone is very sing-songy. Nice diversity.

Oh, I thought he was amazing and the writing was stellar as well. Each time I thought I had an opportunity for my Wrath to pop off at him, Baras had an even snarkier comeback. He's definitely one I would have loved to see stick around after the Class story (had he not tried to assassinate my character on multiple occasions, of course.) Also, I might be mistaken, but I could swear Baras' voice actor also voiced one of the Dread Masters. I can't think of which one off the top of my head and it's been forever since I've run the Ops.

Embarrassingly enough, I went to CZ quite a bit to farm rep for decor of all things.

Not for me. After checking out the rep vendor, I didn't even bother with the first round of daily missions. Even if there was something I wanted, it would have to really blow my skirt up in order to get me to do the gimmick missions (walker, mouse droid.)

While this may be true, I think the Star Wars universe: the overall feeling, the ambiance, the immersion would be absolutely nothing without supporting characters like the ones you mentioned, ones people might consider insignificant to the story. Personally, I think if we were to remove characters like Han, Leia and Lando from the picture, which means we get none of their back stories and stuggles, we'd be seeing the Star Wars universe from a much narrower point of view. Also, I would have never known that the main movies were about "Jedi vs. Sith" until over a decade after I saw the first movie released. First of all, the term, "Sith" wasn't even used in the original films, so I'd have no idea what a Sith was. Secondly, I felt the movies were about a combined conflict between two themes that can be defined several different ways: Good/Light/Freedom vs. Evil/Dark/Oppression with a gray area in between for the rest of us.

No doubt. With how much they were being trumpeted by BW on SWTOR's social media, I thought they'd be the main players. Alas...

Other than the actual betrayal scene at the transponder station, I don't remember Quinn ever saying or doing anything that would indicate that he's betraying the SW, let alone two or three times. Also, nothing I've seen in game indicates to me that he's a "sniveling coward that would sacrifice his own mother to save himself." Also, that's a good point about Elara's loyalty being to her morals rather than the Trooper. If the Warrior wants Quinn back, Quinn will come back no matter what decisions the Warrior made, good or bad. Elara, however, will refuse to join the Trooper if certain decisions were made that she doesn't agree with.

Right on - I didn't think you were; I was really just agreeing with what you were getting at.

Sure, Elara gets forgiven by the Republic, but forgiven by the Empire? Not a chance - being ethical and good in the Empire is typically synonymous with weak. She's using the skills the Empire taught her to now fight against the Empire and I'd wager even a pragmatist such as Marr would treat her for what she is to the Empire: a defector, traitor and betrayer. [Edit] So, what it really boils down to is being a defector, a traitor and a betrayer is okay as long as one agrees with the traitor's reasons for doing so.