I think Lana and/or Theron being a traitor would get a pretty big reaction even from people who don't romance or like them simply because they're so visible/important to the plot (well, Lana is. Theron, less so). They might be the only characters that would realistically have a meaningful impact, actually. But they haven't really set it up well (I think they could both be traitors to an Outlander they have disagreements with but that hasn't really been shown in-game) and I still don't think it'll be anything more than the Scions (or other secondary characters) working for someone else.

Elara, Andronikos and Kira for me.

She has a conversation and mission after the final (well, "final") confrontation with Vitiate where she mentions till hearing him and then you encounter those other Children that still hear him too. So there was still that story hook. I suspect we won't see her for some time, though, since I think the Force-sensitive love interest companions will get lumped into a story arc together. I do agree that Scourge is the far bigger omission, to the point of me wondering where they might take him now that his reason for even being a companion in the first place is gone, especially since they dropped the ball with him in SoR too (using the excuse of "well if we had Scourge react to Revan then people would complain about the JK getting extra attention).. Given the way some other companions have been written/treated, I definitely have concerns about how well Scourge's eventual reappearance will be handled (as well as how his current absence will be explained).

Satele shows up in the post-KOTET cutscene helping to rebuild Coruscant alongside Malcom. That doesn't disprove the idea she's a traitor, but I don't really think they'd have included her in that scene if she was.

Balmorra. Definitely feels like a warzone, and both factions have interesting and unique takes on that type of story given the different roles they play.

I gave up waiting for my favorite companions, so I started bringing them all back with the terminal, story be damned. If I'm going to run around grinding heroics on my agent (or whatever character), I'd rather do it with the companions I like.

And even if they do appear in the game they don't always get much attention, like many of the characters from the trailers. Or they end up like Jace Malcom who gets his first major appearance only for it to be...well what we got on Iokath. The failure to include Kira or (especially) Scourge in Vitiate/Valkorion's story still baffles me. Maybe Bioware really did think they could extend the story long enough to introduce one or both of them, but still...

Did any heralds ever promise to support you? That would be why the Scions would be traitors, even if most people probably wouldn't care about their treason.

They haven't said anything about Khem Val and the inclusion of the discount/replacement version of him has me worried we may not see him for a long time (if at all). I wish they would bring him back in an inquisitor-only mission if they don't want to deal with figuring out how to include him otherwise. I can live without having every possible companion on every character.

I'm at the stage that several other people have mentioned - I'll recommend people try out the class stories, at least, but I'm careful about anything beyond that.

Oh I agree. But there aren't many characters that are guaranteed to be around at this point (i.e. can't be dead/gone/not recruited) and would have any kind of impact. I don't think it's Lana or Theron (too important to Bioware/the writers), Gault would have no impact and has no real motive and T7 doesn't make sense. You could go with an alliance advisor but they have no real story involvement and nobody would really care. I've seen Satele mentioned and while it's possible I guess I don't see a good angle for it, especially since (1) she's never really been a part of or involved in the Alliance and (2) she's one of the few recognizable figures in the Republic left, especially if Malcom is dead. Although that may also be partly due to me hoping she gets better writing/a better role than that. So I'm going with the Scions - they (sorta) pledge themselves to you in KOTFE and predicted you'd take the throne and now show up out of the blue on Iokath. Given how little story content there is on Iokath, I think it's pretty interesting Bioware chose to include them.

Yes, I meant the more established Jedi and Sith orders. They've been basically MIA other than Satele, Acina (who may now be dead) and a mention of Vowrawn in a mail if you sided with the Empire and decided to start surveillance. I'm guessing we'll see Force-sensitive companions return when they become more prominent. They've mentioned future returning companions will react to your choice on Iokath - mentioning Iresso by name - so I'm thinking the next pairing will be Iresso and someone like Temple or maybe Vector and then we might see things open up a bit more and maybe involve the Force users...although I wouldn't be surprised to see them give us "two for one" and cram like Ashara and Nadia or Kira or something into one update. They may get some lines (although probably more so only if you've romanced them) but their story is done at this point...even Elara's situation isn't necessarily simple as a trooper that sides with the Republic but made certain DS choices will have her refuse to join them (romanced or not). Given all that, their stories are almost certainly done, but I do hope Bioware makes up for the fact they were given almost no screen time (almost literally no screen time if you aren't a trooper/sith warrior!) and you weren't allowed to use them during the actual story.

I bet it'll be the Scions (or at least a faction within them)

I'm guessing we'll see the Force sensitive companions coming back around the same time (when the Sith/Jedi have more of a role in the story)

His letter only changes depending on whether Vette is alive or not - whether you romanced her or not doesn't matter. "Speaking of which, I was sorry to hear of Vette's untimely passing. The two of us rarely saw eye to eye, but I always respected her role in your rise to prominence. She will be missed." vs. "Speaking of which, I ran into Vette while making my rounds. She's her usual colorful self. As much as I love her friendly ribbing, I think I'll station myself far from her quarters."

They want people to level quickly to get to the new content/CXP stuff, so I imagine we'll keep getting them. As someone who vastly prefers the class stories to most of the expansion stuff, the one nice thing is I can get a few CXP levels just from going through the older content

She's also a possible companion now as part of their subscriber bonuses, so I don't think she'd be given a major story role like that. No they aren't - post-KOTET mail from Malcom clarifies that. They'd need a counterpart for a LS/Republic-siding Outlander, though, or it wouldn't make sense and there really isn't anyone like that (other than Lana, I guess) I think Hylo could get angry enough to leave - she's clearly really mad about being watched - but yeah, I don't see her as being one to get involved in a "let's start a galactic war" conspiracy. I do agree with your general premise - that only Lana and Theron are both close to the Outlander, guaranteed to be playing a role in the story and would have a real impact on the player. But I feel pretty cynical about the whole thing and suspect Bioware won't go there - I'd be really really surprised unless there was some sort of major twist to the betrayal (i.e. where it would make sense to keep them around and/or you're forced to keep them around for some reason).

Elara's romanced letter post Iokath: Quinn's: They have unromanced versions too - the one you saw where Vette dies with a slight variation if she's alive. And Elara sends a similar one about settling in.

Elara and Quinn only have a conversation with you (or send you a mail) if you're a trooper or sith warrior respectively. Otherwise they just automatically join you if you side with their faction as you've discovered or simply rejoin their faction if you didn't. It wasn't made clear and it's immensely disappointing in terms of how limited their content is (like, they didn't think Elara might want to talk to an Imperial character that defects, for example?). But you didn't miss anything there - no conversation, no mail, nothing once you've made your choice and leave them behind to defend your base. If you're one of those two classes, it's during those conversations is where some of your choices will matter - more so in the actual conversation with Quinn, while it's your faction choice and a couple of specific KOTFE choices that matter for Elara (note: if you take a level 70 trooper directly to Iokath and skip the expansions, only the faction choice matters for Elara, as the game will assume you made the "right/good" choices in KOTFE). And if they do join you, it's after that you get the mail from them where your romance status depends on the type (and whether Vette is alive or not if you're a Sith Warrior). Basically neither one really has much of a part to play unless you're a trooper or sith warrior, making it feel like they were just included to try to get people excited for a story that...well let's just say the story has issues.

The fix for Elara/Quinn is only for people that complete Iokath with open chapters going forward. They mentioned in the bug thread they needed to figure out a separate fix for people that already completed it. see: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=9292722&postcount=37 They should have made that more clear.

This is pretty much where I'm at. I feel like my characters' stories ended on Ziost (at the latest, for some it'd be before that), and now I'm playing some weird alternate-universe version of the story where they're all the same, their previous friendships/relationships don't matter and every single one of my characters is forced into a single role (and forced to be close to two companions). Going from a game "universe" where it felt like each of my characters were playing their own part in a larger/more complicated story with tons of moving parts to one where they're front and center playing the role of yet another generic Bioware power-trip/overpowered player characters has been one of my biggest disappointments during my years playing this game. It's amazing how much smaller and more boring the game's universe feels now.

When the psych droid greets you on entering the psychiatric ward on Belsavis, Iresso says "Somehow I always knew this day would come." Khem Val's sabbac face joke.

It's a combination of minimal resources and probably also a bit of "let's save ourselves some work". With Lana/Theron serving as mandatory companions regardless of your choices (on Iokath or otherwise), they can rotate in voice actors/characters for their brief appearance, maybe record/write occasional lines of dialogue later on, but pretty much forget about them. The best I think you can hope for is something like Senya or Koth where they get a few chapters to say things in/be a part of, but even then they're essentially written out of the story now since they can both be dead (or at least gone, in Koth's case). The same is true for every other "main character", and even the ones you can't kill/have sent away like Gault/T7 are not getting any content, either. They've mentioned Felix Iresso as someone that will react to your choice on Iokath so I figure the next update with companions will have him and his Imperial counterpart (Vector? Temple?) with similar storylines where you again have to choose and then rinse repeat. Maybe we'll see something like that with the Jedi/Sith apprentice, so wemcan keep being told we're getting two companions back when we're really only getting one and with a fraction of the content they should get.

She mentions him a couple times in the post-story conversation but it depends on...either romancing or gender or something, not sure. She'll either mention how Jorgan broke some rules trying to find the trooper but that they got in trouble for it. Or she'll say she assumes Jorgan filled you in on how she got kicked out of Havoc Squad. I was hoping for a bit more since they actually put some work into the story of them working together to first stop you from being declared dead and then searching for you. I thought that might carry over to a full reunion (especially if you've got Yuun and Forex around) but nope. And then Lana/Theron interrupt your conversation anyway...

No, there's only one version if you side with the Empire (the Jace/Theron Drama Hour). I think they included that line with Quinn to try to set up the reasoning behind him swapping sides again, but didn't really work for me since it felt out of the blue and had no real set up to it (part of the problem of not having meaningful conversations/content for the returning companions until after the story is over) and it muddles what his motivations are really. Especially since the line refers to his loyalty to the Empire, not to the Wrath. Personally, I'm fine with Quinn choosing the Empire over the Wrath (and not offering to join a Republic-siding SW) if it came down to it. The way it's written on Iokath is like the writers had no clear goal/intentions in mind with how he should be handled, and having him side with Acina/the Empire (which I think is fine, since a Warrior siding with the Republic is turning their back on both and Quinn) and then suddenly change his motivations feels too whiplashy. I guess they needed an excuse for him to show up so Republic-siding Warriors could kill him or something (although I guess it also lets Quinn fans who want to side with the Republic still get him so I dunno).