I don't think any class "makes the most sense." It depends on the character you're playing and their motivation. One can make an argument for any class. That said, I think the Sith Inquisitor and Imperial Agent have pretty darn good reason to want to sabotage the Empire, since the SI was enslaved and the IA was betrayed and brainwashed by the Empire. Both have experienced the Empire's worst excesses and can have good reason to want to take them down.

Jedi Knight -- Miraluka female, Sentinel, Light Side. Aspires to live up to Jedi Code and ideals. Jedi Consular -- Miraluka female, Sage, Light Side. Scholarly, humble, socially awkward. Headcanon she's on the spectrum. Proper posture and all that. Trooper - Cathar female, Commando, Light Side. Gets to use all the snarky lines Commander Shepard didn't get. Smuggler - Zabrak female, Gunslinger. Light Side. Hard-core adrenaline junkie, speed demon, and daredevil. Loves close scrapes and daring escapes. Loves to have fun, get paid for it, throw credits at the needy then do it all over again. Confident her luck will see her through everything. Irreverent goofball. Secretly a sucker for a happy ending. Sith Warrior - Human Cyborg female, Marauder. Honorable warrior type. Can't stand Sith posturing. Feels that true power should speak for itself. ("Speak softly and carry a burning lightsaber.") Secretly Light Side. Sith Inquisitor - Twi'lek female, Assassin. Acts crazy, but secretly meek, humble, and rational. Still remembers being a slave and wants to reform the Empire. Loves gaining knowledge, Sith artifacts, and alliances from grateful people she assisted. Light Side. Bounty Hunter - Cathar female, Mercenary. Warm, sultry, clever; compassionate to the downtrodden, sarcastic to authority. Neutral, leaning to Light Side. Imperial Agent - Rattataki female, Sniper. Outwardly calm, intelligent, rational, resourceful. Inwardly a passionate, hotblooded train-wreck hidden by her conditioning. Wants to prove she's the best spy in the galaxy. Loves hamming it up and sleeping around while undercover; Light Side. "Wait, are all your characters female and Light Side?" you might ask. Yes.

To be honest, being a convicted criminal doesn't negate being a slave before you committed a crime. The game makes it pretty clear over and over that you were a slave (it's stated in the opening scrawl, Harkun, Zyn, Ffon and Zash refer to you as a slave in the Academy, I think Skotia and Thanaton reference it later, the Inquisitor can express disgust for the concept of slavery or the word "slave" over and over, etc), but the details are left up in the air. Whether you were from a family of slaves or made a slave when the Empire conquered your world, or whether your were passively discovered or discovered after you were about to be executed for committing a crime (in an Alien Sith Inquisitors' cases, "Some Imperials thought it would be fun to shoot my kind for sport. I shot back. They wanted to kill me, but they made me Sith instead) is up to the player's imagination. You're also just telling Andronikos how you came to be Sith (i.e. when you were discovered to be Force-sensitive) and getting in trouble for breaking Imperial law sounds like a really easy thing for a slave to do.

I always like to play aliens, so Republic.

Yeah, this flashpoint drove me crazy. First time I played was with a Light Side Alien Sith Inquisitor who has made no secret throughout her entire class story that she wanted to do EXACTLY what Malgus is doing: reform the Empire from within, get rid of its anti-alien racism, remove its chronic political backstabbing,, etc. Malgus himself called her out on it, spelling out that as a former enslaved alien she has NO REASON to oppose his reform goals, and I just kept waiting for the dialogue option that says, "You're right. Let's do this." I flat out can't play it anymore.

Love playing Light Side Imperial Aliens who defect to the Republic. Wait, back up: I prefer the Republic as a faction bc I don't support space fascists, but I find the Imperial vanilla stories better written than most Republic stories. I like playing LS Alien Sith Inquisitors, Agents, and Bounty Hunters who don't care much for the Empire but tolerate it for health reasons, who defect or help the Republic every chance they get.

Jedi Knight: T7, Kira Carsen (love taking them everywhere) Jedi Consular: Love everyone, really. I guess Felix and Nadia. Trooper: Elara Dorne. Smuggler: Corso Riggs. Sith Warrior: Vette. Sith Inquisitor: Ashara, Andronikos, Talos. Imperial Agent: Bug Jesus. Bounty Hunter: Everyone but Skadge. (Esp Mako and Blizz.)

I followed step one of your advice and teleported to the Fleet (where I had to get $18k worth of equipment repairs!!), right clicked the character portrait like you said, and found my character is already in Story Mode?? Didn't really want to "reset active phases" (please, Dear God I hate this chapter and don't want to play it again), but when I went back to fight Gemini the 5th time, this time I managed to wheedle down GEMINI's HP to 1/4, before she suddenly threw Senya and my Smuggler back with an energy burst, then instantly GEMINI's HP almost fully healed and bombarded her blue pixels (don't know how else to describe them; will probably take a screenshot later) into Healer Senya and my Smuggler until we were dead. Is this a bug or something? I don't want to have to play this chapter again (I've absolutely hated it from start to finish), but if I'm already in story mode and having this much trouble now, I don't know if reseting will fix it?

I'm playing this chapter for the first time today and I am having these EXACT SAME PROBLEMS. In addition, GEMINI keeps pelting Senya and my Smuggler (lvl 70, top tier purple equipment, etc) with some kind of blue pixels that wears down both our health points faster than Senya can heal us. I've tried fighting her 4 times in a row (5 times if you count the time my toon got crushed by the door), and each time GEMINI kills us before we can wheedle down to 1/2 her hit points. What's going on here? I've been playing SWTOR for three years and have NEVER run into a problem like this (the bane of my existence was the giant sulkaht abomination in Manaan at the bottom of the sea, where if you don't kill it fast enough you drown and have to start over), but this takes the *********** biscuit, y'all.

So I'm doing the AWOL quest on Taris. I encounter the "missing" troops. My Jedi agreed to let the deserting troops go, and even gave them money to get off-world, same as my Smuggler. Time to report to Commander Yajak. However, while my Smuggler had lied that the troops were dead, I thought I'd have my Jedi tell him she helped his troops get away from him (because roleplay reasons). He then started raving about how he'd that them jailed and court-martialed, then before I could press esc the conversation ended. (Hate it when it does that - and no, pressing "reset" no longer works for me.) For the Smuggler, I always got a follow-up letter from the deserting troops saying they got off-world safely, and the leader is home on Coruscant with his girl. For this playthrough, it's been a few real-world days and many in-game hours and I still haven't gotten any follow-up letter. (Despite getting letters from every other quest.) Not from the boys saying they got off-world safely, not saying they got captured and court-martialed because of me, and not from Commander Yajak yelling at me. Nothing. Does anyone know what happens if you blab to Commander Yajak? I've tried looking it up on Google and the SWTOR Wiki, but haven't found anything. Do you know if they escaped even if you tell the Commander, even if you paid for them to get off-world? Was it just a bug or a glitch that I didn't get any follow-up letter from this quest? I'm kind of afraid of the answer, but I had to ask. Not knowing is driving me crazy.

Really? I felt the opposite. The Sith Warrior is the scion of a prominent Sith family who has greatness handed to them on a silver platter (you don't even know the Sith Code when entering the Academy, yet within hours of arriving you're shown favor over a guy who's been working to the bone for the same spot for months) so it'd be very easy to play as arrogant, xenophobic, and/or merciless. The Inquisitor starts off as an Empire slave who was shipped off to Korriban and forced to prove themselves a Sith apprentices or die. I feel it'd be easier to start off humble, merciful, and compassionate since you likely experienced cruelty at the hands of the Sith and/or Empire most of your life (at least since the Treaty of Coruscant), and likely had to rely on and/or help others slaves to survive. It'd be easy to play as someone who doesn't like the wanton cruelty but has to play the part until you gain enough power to help others and/or reform the Empire from inside. Just my impression.

Of those four: Smuggler. I can't lie for beans, so Agent is out. I didn't join the army in real life, so I won't delude myself to think I'd join the military in a fantasy world, so Trooper is out. Bounty Hunter? No. I shrink when I see a big guy walking by me at the bus; I wouldn't pick a fight with an armed and armored one for credits, even with my own armor and weapons.

Cathar. I love cats. I love their history, versatility, and tenacity. Their precarious place in the galaxy makes for a lot of interesting (headcanoned) roleplay opportunities. As a people, I love how fierce, passionate, and dedicated they are, especially to loved ones. Twi'leks: Always been a fan of the underdog, what can I say? Miraluka: I just think it's so cool that there's a race of people who evolved to "see" with the Force, so they don't have eyes. I know it's a silly and specific gimmick, but I think it's awesome. Zabraks: Will always have a soft spot thanks to Darth Mal, one of my favorite Star Wars characters as a kid.

Republic: Jedi Knight: Heroism over villainy. (LS or DS). Jedi Consular: Wisdom and diplomacy over misplaced passion and vengeance. Smuggler: Fun and profit. Trooper: Duty. That is all. Empire: Sith Warrior: Raw strength and power over schemers. Sith Inquisitor: Freedom. "Through victory, my chains are broken." Bounty Hunter: Honor. Specifically, finding or rejecting honor and purpose in an otherwise empty, callous career. Imperial Agent: Deception; Betrayal; Secrets; Intrigue; Mind-screws. Finding the truth wrapped in webs of lies. "You have been deceived." An enigma wrapped in a paradox. Learning who you can trust when you realize you can trust no one. Using others while being used; finding truth and free will through deception and brainwashing on both sides.

Depends on who you ask and what your criteria is. Personally, I think the Imperial Agent storyline is the best-written overall story (with lots of depth, layers, intrigue, genuine mystery, suspense, twists, turns, surprises, etc), the Sith Inquisitor the best character-driven story (with the former slave being thrust into Sith politics, rising to power in the Empire, and having to use their own knowledge and cunning to survive ancient magic and current political powerplays both).... BUT, with that said, my personal preference is toward the Smuggler and Bounty Hunter classes, of all things, because I personally enjoy playing a free agent who is not beholden to the system. I like how the Smuggler is a "lovable rogue" can balance fun and profit with doing the right thing despite not being bound to the Republic like the Jedi or Trooper classes. I like how the Bounty Hunter (particularly an alien) is surrounded by scheming Sith and Imperial Agents, but has the simple and uncomplicated purpose of receiving contracts, killing/returning their targets, getting paid, then moving on to the next contract. While I think Imperial classes are overall better written than the Republic ones, they can be... pretty heady, especially when playing LS. It's kind of refreshing playing a class who's surrounded by people saying, 'I can't fail! If I do, the Empire/Republic, the Sith/Jedi Order / my family / my loved ones / my country / everything as we know it will fall..." and being like, "Dude, I just want to get paid."

Bounty Hunter and Smuggler: The class stories by their very nature aren't too mired in galactic politics. Smuggler and BH are both "for the money" free agents who occasionally take jobs from the Republic/Empire, collect their paycheck, then go spend it on new weaons/armor or the local cantina. I'd be surprised if they did have super story-relevant tasks. Agent: Um... did we play the same storyline? The third chapter has you discover

If you find the Jedi Knight story cliche, predictable, and badly written, I'd highly recommend the Imperial Agent and/or Sith Inquisitor. Heck, any of the Imperial Classes (Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, or Imperial Agent) might be more up your alley, especially if you play a Light Side Sith/BH/Agent. They all subvert and play around with the "standard hero story" that you seem to dislike about the Jedi Knight. And the villains' motivations in these classes are always clear and understandable; they're not all just stupid evil megalomaniacs. If you want better-written dialogue, I think you'll find the Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Sith Inquisitor, and/or Imperial Agents' lines much better-written. The former three all have some of the wittiest and snarkiest lines in the game, and the last one is "a professional liar" who engages in a lot of intrigue, manipulation, deception, and mind games throughout the story. To be fair, different people like different things. It's not a mathematical certainty that people who like the Agent story will automatically hate the Jedi Knight story or vice-versa. We're not all one giant hive mind (ha, Imperial Agent in-joke). What someone loves about the Agent questline will probably be different for the JK storyline and vice-versa. For myself, I do find the Imperial Agent to have the most engaging, deep, complex, suspenseful story with the most layers, mystery, and unpredictable twists, turns, and reveals in the game--and I do find the Jedi Knight story to be the most painfully cliche, predictable, and black-and-white in the game. With that said, I also prefer the Smuggler and Bounty Hunter stories to either, even though the Smuggler is kind of the standard "lovable rogue" and Bounty Hunter the "deep-voiced ******" of the game. That's because I personally find the Smuggler to be a light-hearted romp through the underworld, the BH's companions to be the most lovable crew in the game (except Skadge--**** Skadge), and in general I prefer to play free agents who do the right thing without being beholden by the system (the way Jedi, Sith, Troopers, and Agents are to their respective systems). So, I hope that answered your questions.

Except a rule is not set. It's kept deliberately vague over the game (and the franchise, it seems), with some characters saying this while others say that, with the writers not making it clear who is right. Sure, Vette and Jorgin say adoption is the only way, but you haven't addressed Ashara wanting kids even though she was originally written to be part of a mixed race romance by default. Then there's the Abaron at the Academy (which the Sith Inquisitor encounters), who says how Sith (pureboods, at least) are descended from "a race of crimson conquerors," but "they mingled with slaves" until the bloodline became so diluted "over the eons" that "the red markings of the Sith" are mostly gone even among those (humans) with Sith blood. If that's not hard canon proof of some aliens x humans successfully breeding in this game's interpretation of the Star Wars universe, I don't know what is. Hell, a non-Sith pureblood Inquisitor can tell him, "And what about me? I'm not from a Sith family!" which becomes dramatic irony for the player once we learn that you actually are descended from a powerful Sith family--that of Kallig. And the writers did make a handful of (fairly lore-friendly) alien races available from the start (without Legacy unlocks), which include instances of characters acknowledging your alien status. Heck, a Twi'lek Inquisitor who tries to claim Kallig's mask through right of inheritance gets told by another Sith character, "Ha! A twi'lek slave? The only thing you'll inherit is a slave collar!" The writers wouldn't have bothered to include that line if they thought Twi'lek Inquisitor wasn't "canon." You used hyperbole to misconstrue my meaning. I'm not saying, "It's fiction, so anything goes! We can break the rules of the universe however we want, whenever we want!" Of course one should abide by the hard-set rules (or lack of rules) of fictional reality. To coin a colloquial term of unknown origin, "The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." However, in the case of Star Wars (and this game) there are often many writers with many different ideas of what goes and what doesn't, what's possible and what's not. In the case of humanoid alien x human breeding, it doesn't seem to be a fast and hard rule that all writers agree upon across the board. Within this game, whether it's possible or not doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule that the writers make clear across every aspect of the game. Sometimes they even leave it deliberately vague (like if you play an alien with a human love interest the writers didn't opt to include a line where they suggest adoption instead of having kids the traditional way, or nor if you play an alien Sith Inquisitor did they confirm Kallig's race and whether it's the same as the Sith Inquisitor). If they're going to keep this aspect of the universe somewhat up for player interpretation, then I'll take that writer-given freedom to interpret this aspect of the universe (though with limits--you're not going to hear me say, "Yeah! Wookie x human offspring is TOTALLY possible, because why not!" I'll keep it to extremely humanoid races like human x miraluka, Mirialan x Rattataki, etc.), and not be told that my interpretation is somehow wrong or less canon than another player's interpretation based on arbitrary reasons. So... as I keep saying, I still think the Sith Inquisitor is the one class where any race is feasible. Only extremely humanoid aliens are playable, and Kallig is clearly a humanoid but his race is not strictly confirmed. Whether humanoid alien x human offspring is possible also seems to be vaguely and inconsistently alluded to in the game, so why not? What's more, Kallig died at least a thousand years ago, and a lot can change in that time. His descendents could eventually move to Republic space, "mingle" with other races, get re-captured and enslaved by the Empire, and ended up on Korriban. The opening scrawl even implies that you were one of many slaves who was taken captive during the Sith's invasion of the Republic, so even the "light side" races (Miriluka, Mirialan, etc) would arguably be more feasible for a Sith Inquisitor than a Rattataki or Sith Pureblood on Tython (though I wouldn't argue that's strictly impossible either).

Honestly, I'm surprised the Sith Empire lasted as long as it did, given their extreme pressure for everyone in power to engage in political infighting, scheming, back-stabbing, and power-grabbing. Sith and Imperial commanders spend more time and energy trying to overthrow each other than the enemy, focus on short-term personal gains over long-term thinking, and they keep killing off highly experienced and/or competent spies, commanders, and Sith over petty slights, minor mistakes, or just to advance themselves. Someone who is good at surviving Sith/Imperial politics might not be the best military commander or Sith, yet the system rewards those who simply survive frequent assassination and sabotage from their peers more than those who're genuinely competent. Just look at Malavari Quinn and Moff Brysc in the Sith Warrior storyline; just look at Pirrell in the Bounty Hunter storyline. Even as early as the original trilogy, when Darth Vader would kill off commander over commander right and left every time he was the least bit angry, I thought, "HOW HAVE YOU [THE EMPIRE] LASTED THIS LONG??? If you keep killing off experienced and competent officers over every little mistake or setback that isn't even their fault, eventually you're going to run out of experienced/competent officers and be left with inexperienced/incompetent ones, and their mistakes will lead to military and political downfall." Which is exactly what is happening over TOR: It's a Deconstruction of Sith politics. It shows the long-term consequences of an Empire built on "kill or be killed, get them before they get you," and how that would severely deplete their talent pool, cause the Empire to eventually become so disorganized and inefficient, show how that system can't last. (Meanwhile, the Republic, which doesn't kill each other off over every little mistake, and doesn't severely discriminate against potentially talented aliens and Jedi, is able to hold out and rally against the Empire in the long term whereas the Empire can't rally or hold out against the Republic in the long term because they're too busy fighting and trying to gain more power from each other for themselves.) How, sooner or later, killing off your best warriors and commanders over every perceived "weakness" or mistake is, essentially, throwing the baby out with the bath water, leaving you with an empty tub. It seems the Sith Empire (every incarnation) is great at short term victories and power grabs, but in the long term they can never sustain a system that encourages them to attack each other as much as the enemy. It's the snake that eats its own tail and then wonders why it doesn't have a body beyond the base of its own head.

I'm actually with the Clone Wars on this. "Sure, why not?" To me, fiction means more possibilities for creativity and imagination, not less. By that logic, the opposite could hold true. If a a half-twilek could breed with a full twi'lek, who could breed with another full twi'lek, who could breed with another full-twi'lek, eventually the offspring would look full twi'lek and not a hint of human. (That's what I headcanon for my Twi'lek Sith Inquisitor, anyway.) Isn't it stated that Tulak Hord betrayed Kallig and ensured that his family fell to ruin, which is why your character starts out unaware of their heritage and/or from a family of commoners/slaves? If Kallig isn't human (though that's something I'm willing to dispute since his race is never confirmed and he's always seen with a mask, leaving it possible that he was an alien like the Sith Inquisitor) and his child/ren were half-alien offspring who eventually joined the Empire's alien slave population, odds are they'd have no shortage of alien partners to dilute the human bloodline and until the "flesh of his flesh" looks fully alien and not human. And Kallig died at least a thousand years ago, right? Several characters seem to say the Dark Temple was constructed a thousand years ago, and I think it's implied that Tulak Hord died at least a thousand years ago, if not more--and he was Kallig's close personal friend. A lot can happen in a thousand years.

As far as I know, it's possible for people of different humanoid species to breed. I mean, at the end of many a romance chain the love interest expresses a desire to get married and have children, even if your character is a different species from them. Hell, Ashara from the Sith Inquisitor storyline says she wants to have kids at the end of her romance chain. And she's Togruta, which wasn't available for players until a much later patch, and thus her romance was written to be mixed-race from the start. Kallig says you are "flesh of my flesh," but he doesn't say that he's human or you were born from his same-race human wife. His mask keeps his race deliberately vague, and/or it's possible that he had an alien wife or wives (Darth Malgus was married to a twi'lek woman, for example), and/or it's possible that you are descended from an alien slave or concubine. So... I stand by my opinion that the Sith Inquisitor can be any race.

I agree. Lots of loose threads that would have been so interesting to weave further and tie up. (See above post.) Vector's all right, but I'll admit I rolled the wrong character to appreciate what he has to offer. A physically weak but mentally sharp Rattataki, her mind was her only weapon growing up among war-mongering Rattataki so she takes special umbrage with any kind of brainwashing. She didn't mind Vector being a creepy bug so much as she couldn't get over his and the Killiks' betrayal at the end of Alderaan, the Killiks' habit of mind-****** sapients into Joining against their will, and Vector's complicity in what she sees as the most monstrous thing people can do (stripping people of individuality and free will). Not to mention she was starved for affection, and Vector turning so distant for such a long time after initially flirting with her hurt her pride big time. From that character's perspective, it's kind of frustrating that every guy she meets seems really into her but then they're forced to part ways before anything serious can come of their flirting (or marriage). She would have gladly traded polite-but-distant Vector for Sanju, Chase, Chiss guy, Voss guy, and even *********** Hunter toward the end. I totally get what you mean about the game being nuanced and characters/situations coming across differently to different characters. In my first playthrough my Agent really didn't like Kaliyo or Vector that much because of Kaliyo being a more "successful" Rattataki in every way (better at combat and a better liar) and Vector supporting Killiks mind-****** sapients just got under her skin (since her own mind is the only thing that kept her family from slitting her throat on the alter of their gods for being weak and useless in their blood feuds). My current Chiss Agent doesn't have any such problem with either of them because she doesn't have the same baggage as my Rattataki. (Of course, I headcanon she's a double-agent for the Chiss Ascendancy and can understand the Killiks being close-knit with each other but mysterious to outsiders, so...) I just flat out never play male characters, so you don't have to justify not playing one yet to me. =)

I love Chase. That would have made such an interesting story. (You're a double agent for the Empire, but if you had any thoughts of joining the Republic for real the SIS brainwashes you into complying anyway... Chase is the only one who feels bad about it but then uses it to try to force you into saving him anyway... you save him even though you don't have to... if they'd brought him back from the hospital or but the Agent in a situation where she had to go see him again and they wound up working together again, that would have made such an interesting romance.) I must confess I found pretty much every fling the female Agent had very interesting in its own right. I think any one of them would have made compelling romances, but alas... this game is determined to make sure "Only ONE love interest for women per class." Oh well.

You too, huh?

I'm kind of relieved I wasn't the only one thinking this. I like Andronikos (mostly), and his romance is surprisingly sweet and all that... But I must confess, my main Inquisitor felt more chemistry with Khem than Andronikos.