I fully expect him to be a full companion by the time the Mando arc stuff is done. But yeah they need to let us lock in the romance. I hope he has more stuff in 7.3. Don't just want him to be some random flirts that go nowhere like the other newer characters have been so far.

The pickings are slim for the males. Especially since a lot of the males are either Class locked, or Sexuality locked. Bioware likes to starve us on this side. But of those available. Arcann and Theron, 2 of the most likable and some of the few I can see as canon romances. Not that I don't like other male characters, I like most of them. Andronikos, Scourge, I even like Quinn I just don't see any of them as romances for reasons. I mean I COULD see the PC with Scourge. But you know........Theron and Arcann exist. On the female side I liked Kira.

I have of course many different alts, on both factions, but I usually play imp the most. Current SW main is Valus Khul on Star Forge Sounds awesome, I would love join in Star Forges amd cpmtemt with people i'm atleast a little familiar with. I just recently came back to this game after finishing Endwalker in FF, so as of now i'm in some random guild. After a while I got tired of getting random invitations and just accepted one just to be done with it lol. Hopefully you guys are Imps because while I have many pubs mostly JK's I just love the imp aesthetic/stories too much and play it more. But I am able to join either side That sounds awesome. Yeah the last thing I want Arcann to become is another Theron. Theron already fills that role of constantly getting into trouble and us needing to bail him out, don't need another male companion being that way when we already have the undisputed king of it lol, Arcann needs to remain himself

You can add me anytime, and I love the DS skin so much. I just wish Bioware would release an updated skin for him that makes him look even closer to his cinematic model. Personally i'm not sure if i'm for a "rescue mission". Seems like it depowers Arcann a lot. This guy fought in loads of campaigns, killed so many Sith and Jedi. Withstood the power from even his faher's blast. Being a damsel in distress we must constantly save was Theron's thing, and honestly at times it made his character seem more incompotent than he was supposed to be. No, becoming a damsel for what's supposed to be one of the strongest force users in the galaxy (the commander themselves needed multiple powerups and valkorians help to defeat Arcann) is just not the way I want Arcann to go lol

Many of these VA's appear in other MMO's, Lana's VA is also Lucia, a supporting character throughout Heavensward and Endwalker, and other random civilians in FFXIV

Yeah it's also why the Arcann romance works, and also why it's so good. Arcann was always more emotional than his brother Thexan. Unlike Thexan, Arcann needed the affection of his parents. So it's perfectly logical that Arcann would fall for someone who showed him compassion despite all he did to them. Arcann romance is more recent than some of the older characters, but in the limited content that we've had, his romance feels like one of the strongest. I also love the idea that even when he was Darkside, he admired the outlander but was angered by it. But then his admiration turned to love after Senya was saved. I love his romance. Especially with a force user in his speech and his messages you can just feel that him and a force user have an unbreakable bond to the point in his own words "your setbacks feel like my setbacks". And I can't wait to see how his romance progress further. He's become my canon romance for my force users. I especially love Arcann with a Sith Warrior. The Emperor's former pawn ending up with his son who then helps the PC take out his tyrant father is just too good. It helps that I also love Senya, so the dynamic between this new family is great (I hope they include Senya in some of Arcann's scenes going down the line, I still want to see her reaction to Arcann with the outlander). Also just imagine someone trying to hurt or wrong the commander with a boyfriend as powerful as Arcann, RIP

Hopefully a lot more scenes, and customizations to come for Arcann. But of course I don't expect much big in the way of story. Lets face it, the Eternal Empire family business was basically wrapped up in a nice little bow after Echoes of Oblivion. So I only expect casual stuff, and romance stuff going forward with Arcann Vaylin didn't want redemption it's as simple as that. As Senya said "she is broken". Senya also reached out to Vaylin SEVERAL times, only for Vaylin to continue trying to kill her. Senya reached out to Vaylin even more times than she did Arcann, yet Arcann was the only one to hear her words and even while still darkside, it was strong enough to break through and he protected his mother. Darkside Arcann was a Tyrant, but Vaylin was a maniac who killed people just because "I don't like odd numbers". You have one child who is completely DS and bask in it, and another child that's DS by way of coping with feeling unloved. Which is precisely how love in the end turned him back. Me? I believe Vaylin was always "off". You hear Valkorian speak about her, how she was as a child, and you see it confirmed in how she was even as a child in the trailer. There was always something off about Vaylin and she needed special attention because neither Thexan or Arcann were using darkside powers or practically crippling knights as a child in a practice match. There was always something with Vaylin, notice how when Vaylin nearly killed the Knights she acted as if she had done nothing wrong, like she was surprised she almost killed some people, and when she was sent away her issues just further set in. Arcann on the other hand seemed like a pretty well functional child who fell to the darkside after prolonged neglect. He wasn't lost like Vaylin was, the darkside was his form of cope. This is why Senya could reach him. Some people blame what happened to Vaylin solely on how she turned out, and that's also true, but all evidence points to the fact Vaylin was not right in the head to begin with, and instead of getting help, her issues were allowed to fester through attempts to control her. I mean hell, you have the literal big bad emperor, eater of planets, stealer of bodies having children, passing some of his power to them. One was bound to be born "twisted".

He quite literally is the most popular romanced male in the game, who beats out all others on every poll Hence his continued existence, and hence why he survived better than anyone with the option, he's demanded. How out of touch do you have to be to think a flipping ugly monster substitutes Theron? How even more out of touch are you to think gay males and females only option for mainstay romances should be monsters and characters with no content. Literally, Khem has exactly one scene and his romance is a dev joke, not to be continued. That's excluding the fact, he's hideous. We get it, you find Khem to be cool, that doesn't mean females and males are supposed to be attracted to that. Learn the difference, what a straight dude finds to be cool relates to what gay men and women are attracted to in no way. You don't think of this, because you only think this game is supposed to cater to your wants, sorry sweetie but that's not the way it's going to be, as you can see from this very thread, people will fight the devs on this. So you can take several seats over there in the corner until you understand people with different ideals than you play this game too. Why don't you romance Skadge? that's basically what you're telling us lol. Talking about serving no value. Lana has had no major character development nor a major arc since her inception. She thinks, feels and does whatever the player character wants. That is her entire character, that is her storyline, and has been for every expansion up until now. The most poorly written character in this entire game, who finds a reason to stick around without actually adding anything to the story but being a glorified quest giver, a block of wood has more development. Taking up needless screentime from our more interesting vanilla companions with only filler dialogue that any other companion could handle just as fine, is something she does do quite well though. I give her that atleast.

Anyone else remember the time Troy Baker had THIS haircut? I wonder if that had an influence on the hair they chose for Theron in his arc lol Also Theron Shan is hiding a secret talent from our PC

Honestly I agree with Jax, it's just no defending the writing at that point. Lana was willing to stand up for, and believe in people she knew even less time than Theron, like Koth. It made absolutely no sense for her character at that point to act that way after everything. In actual fact, Lana SHOULD have been the one to figure out everything wasn't as it seemed simply by Theron's initial monologue. She KNOWS it's not true that he tried to "undermine" the alliance, she KNOWS everything he did was to benefit us. Sith or no, the writing made her look one dimensional and quite aloof. These two people spent enough time together to develop a super secret BFF decryption method. But somehow Lana doesn't know Theron long enough to see through the mirage when even the PC had the ability to? The PC was gone for 5 years, and in that 5 years Lana was still working with Theron. Lana effectively has spent more time with Theron than the PC has by KOTFE. Yet defends him less than Koth. And the icing on the cake was the DS option which made Lana's lack of reaction even more out of character and insulting. They were supposed to be good friends and she quite literally just tosses the dude aside with not the least bit of resistance besides a frown, which for me ultimately destroys any development the two of them had since the beginning. Nathema was just all around poorly written and had all the characters acting completely ridiculous. But I guess that's what happens when you rush such a complex story just to pull a mcguffin to depower us.

I will, when I get on later. I always speak up, because it's people like those who barked hard enough at the devs which got such an option implemented in the first place. So I always refuse to not speak up for Theron whenever necessary to show the devs he has many supporters. Say what you will about Lana fans they aren't as hands off, and I suppose that's why she's still permanent.

Imagine the guy having a boot option and still people make threads like this to spite him Most of the stuff pre-kotfe is just casual flirting. You become somewhat of thing during yavin 4, but if you're imp he breaks it off.

I think all sides are just struggling of wanting more of a bygone era, we all just want to continue our adventures with the characters we've done in the past, and that's just not happening as much now for none of the mains simply because the story has moved forward. But therein lies the problem. This game has a much smaller fanbase than other games, so you have a bunch of people who have grown close to these characters and don't really want "new", but more of the same. I will say, Theron and Lana are lucky in that both get to stay near the PC going forward, despite me not agreeing with the direction of the writing always.

Lmao not wrong, because the largest playerbase is usually male their opinion on characters sometimes effect and influence the options for females and the type of males we get. It's like how most of us are not big fans of Doc or Tharan Cedrax, but more of the male players find them cool, defend them or find them not so offensive. So we tend to get: abusers, perverts, betrayers or LI's into weird bdsm stuff like Iron Bull lol. It's a trend Bioware has to change, and they've tried to in this game....in some ways, though many of the males still fall into the same trope.

You won't ever catch me defending his writing. Nathema DS ending destroys both Lana and him as characters and is completely out of character. I could never be mean to him without hitting esc ;-; he's too nice and considerate. I still love how modest he is and how he always defends his friends even when he shouldn't.

There's literally a scene where he talks about picking up on the BH's shooting, he was influenced by the BH overtime

Nah, Senya must live for the GOOD of the story. I'm sorry, but having Lana be the default for everything just because everyone else is dead, is a boring experience, and a boring alliance, very boring.

But do you not see the real issue? That still limits him as a character by comparison, which is honestly sad for a character who had so many connections to other existing swtor characters in the world. Because of him and so many others have a boot option, Lana is now the default, meaning a lot of those characters with the boot options are destined to either play filler roles. Eg: casually mentioning some irrelevant thing, or playing the swapped character version role of a part Lana also plays had they not been present, or being barely acknowledged by NPCS they are supposed to have long histories with. This is why waking up to Lana, will continue to happen. And why Lana may continue to get more intimate scenes in general despite the "sidelining" of her character. Theron appears alongside Koth and the other alliance members when everyone has their big meetings. But he's seemingly not present in the latest scene with Hylo and Lana. Hylo now has more engagement with other present characters than him. Another example, Lana got to have full on conversations with Anri, Arn and Gnost. Theron iirc doesn't meet Arn at all, only sends a short message about gnost, and on impside just shows up randomly from the shuttle on Mek-sha to have a one liner with anri. The new characters can even acknowledge the relationship the PC has with Lana, none do for Theron Granted, Theron is still treated better than other characters, a few pros - He seemingly comes with you on Onderon, and debriefs you alongside Lana, although he seemingly disapears afterwards while Lana shows up later, I think they tried to make it fair though because after you finish things on Onderon, they both show up at the end without much to say other than "lets go, what's our next destination". - He is present on Mek-sha, albeit a very small scene - He is present after Onslaught concludes, but even here it seems like Anri barely acknowledges him - He is present in echoes, and comes with you, though has a very small part overall, and ends up not even getting a conversation with his mother But in short, I could totally see them sidelining both to make it fair, because one can no longer be involved as much as he should have been.

I've thought about what you originally said about the possibility of the nathema option being the reason both are sidelined and it makes even more sense to me now that i've remembered things devs said in the past. Like not wanting to give too much romance stuff to other characters unfairly. It makes sense that both characters would have less than before to keep them equal. Because as you said one demographic having a constant consistent LI throughout the mainstory while the others got left out would not be fair to all players. So both get sidelined now to keep them even. And you're also right about the decision to sideline them happening way before 2021

If the last part of your post was a reason it'd be the ultimate karma for some of the more obsessed lana fans who screeched about him in the past lol. But I agree with your general point. Even being "sidelined", Lana is still quite predominant over other characters so I don't see how a Lana fan could be complaining.

I don't blame Quinn, Agent's story showed just how much non-sith people fear the Sith and feel they must obey them, because if they don't, it's pretty much death. However I still would not compare the Quinncident to Theron and it's stupid when people do. Indeed, Quinn was in possibly one of the worst positions, but his ultimate goal was still to betray you, and he actively tried to kill you. So I atleast understand some of the hostility some has for him. Theron on the other hand. Completely different story. He saved the PC multiple times in the story, sided with the PC on several occasions even when it doesn't make sense for him. Helped build the alliance just as much as Lana did. Out of all the alliance members, the two of them are 2 of the only ones who could be called the PC's closest friends. Satele even reinforces how much Theron adores the PC. Everything he did in the traitor arc was ultimately to save the alliance and the PC. He was never trying to kill the PC, he was never betraying the PC. The only way you can call Theron a traitor, is due to the actual people he DID betray, the Chiss, but not the PC or the alliance. I honestly feel like it's because he's a Pub in addition to not being a waifu, I have noticed that players in general just don't seem to give the same admiration to pubs or males as they do imperials/females, no matter what they do, no matter how much they help or respect the PC. I've even noticed people willing to defend Vaylin more despite all she did lol. Perhaps it's a result of the impside being more popular, more bias. It also explains why Bioware has a habit of making imps look so good in the story while Pubs bad. But I will always be more mad at Bioware and the writers than any of the players. The arc shouldn't have even existed, not if they were going to sabotage the character in the way they did lol. I've even seen some jokingly saying "it was a mercy kill, bioware can't hurt him anymore", that's how much they damaged the character.

To both of you, I always say, yeah it's primarily Bioware's fault, but a lot of the hetero male players cause this to happen too. They will moan on end about any human male character even when they are as inoffensive as possible. And if they feel they don't have good options they complain about Bioware "catering to the minority" and will even harass devs over it. Pretty much you have to be a robot or a monster to get a lot of the hetero males to like you. You don't even need development, just some quirky lines and best companion ever! This is how it's been with every Bioware game, the hetero male players always only tolerate male characters if they are aliens or walking memes. This is why I also think m/m tend to get the short end and get a lot of meme and comedic romances as jaxter suggest because bioware mistakes the characters hetero male players meme as actual romances women or m/m would go for. Look at Khem Val lmao Also god forbid a male character shows even a little emotion, or disagrees with the PC they get called "whiny" lol. Which also contributes to why we tend to get so many dull stoic guys who Bioware is afraid to allow to express themselves.

But yeah, he survived mostly because people started to call out Bioware. As they loved using these characters to talk about "representation" on social media, while also either underusing them or allowing them all to be booted out of the story to a point in which they are no longer actually representing anything. People started to look into Bio's trend with not only the male characters, but the male lgbt characters specifically. And yeah some people take their crappy edgelord RP characters too seriously lol

This is exactly what I said lmao Nathema left such a bad taste in my mouth that I just couldn't even play or love the game as actively as I did before. And not just because of the writing or the situation but the fact that it underlined a problem with Bioware or rather the Swtor writers and Male characters. They failed us for the 148343298th time I am sick and tired of the female players (and gay men, can't forget them too) needing to have to "defend" or justify their LI's because Bioware just can't stop making the male romance characters abusive, traitors (or even fake traitors), homicidal maniacs, or making them repulsive by making them too sexed up like Doc or Cedrax. While all the main female romances get to remain perfect princesses. Bioware keeps giving the male player base reasons to dislike the male characters, so they can kill them off. It's easy for someone to forgive a character they romanced, not so for people who don't. So take the hint Bioware, stop making male main characters do dumb things, it's not cute to anyone. You only sabotage the character. No one likes this trope. Theron was one of the characters who escaped Bioware's terrible writing tropes for male characters for so long, but somewhere down the line someone said "Wait, he's too good, we can't have that! send in the traitor arc". I loved the romance stuff we got, but all of this was just a bandaid for the huge insult that was that arc.

That's what we were supposed to get with his mission in the Zakuul saga when he went with us to the palace. But even THERE Bioware underused the heck out of him, would have been cool to see him actually do stuff or even give us pointers or advice, rather than just follow us silently the whole mission, barely even gave him that much dialogue in one of the only major missions they gave him in that whole expansion. If anything that's what makes me the most angered with Bioware and Nathema, because it seemed like althroughout the kotfe/kotet arc they were sabotaging him, setting him up to have people dismissive of him (the male playerbase atleast) due to not giving him enough for people to look back on and say "OH that was awesome! he's cool" and nathema was just the icing on the cake after a long period of letting all the other characters get to do stuff that would have been most fitting for idunno ....the most highly decorated Spy in the republic? Then Nathema came and it was like a message to all those who were already dimissive "hey you thought you didn't like him already? you're really going to hate him now!". Maybe things would have been better if Kotxx was never cancelled and plans were never changed. We'll never know.