Jaxo and Objective: A-77 *spoiler*

[Niggle]

On topic story related rant with non-story related rant

 

My trooper is human and susceptible to errors and mistakes. After ~40 levels(35-40? cant recall), my dude broke down and erred on his actions in hindsight.

 

Havoc squad never leaves a man behind and jaxo was pretty much honorary HS... It was a dark time and looking back, Im not sure it was the right decision.

 

Everyone has intentions and goals setting out, but these things show us that there are intangible obstacles blocking our path to maintaining those intentions. These obstacles can shake our beings to the core and really bring out our true colors....

 

It was (better) said in one of the dialogues that we [republic troopers/soldiers/etc] volunteer to have to make these terrible decisions so that the people of the Republic don't have to. That's when I paused and went, 'damn... that is some pretty deep stuff..' and realized my character is pretty much a a big damn hero.

 

LONG LIVE THE GUT WRENCHING DECISIONS, BASTARDS!

 

Edited January 23, 2012 by Niggle

[Ryready]

I was unwilling to accept only two choices. Where was the option of saving the people and then dying while trying to save Jaxo? I picked dark and am glad I did, although Jaxo's letter I got later didn't make me feel any better. As for Elara? The poor girl didn't quite see it my way and I lost almost 1000 affection with her. Oh well.

[Esikiel]

Most amazing quest ive done so far +1

[Iret]

 

letting Jaxxo die was a VERY HARD choice!

 

Normally in circumstances like that, the person who is destined to die says something on the lines of ''forget me, save the 300 prisoners!''

 

however if i can remember Jaxxo said something on the lines of ''PLEASE dont let me die!''

 

ugh....

 

[-sasori]

That choice was just forced over me and badly thought through. Having said that,

 

 

 

I did choose Jaxo. Not because i like her, (I'm female Trooper) not because they game even would let me like her.

 

I choose her because she was capable enough to walk into a trap and getting rescued by me instead of 300 prisoners.

 

I'm set with that burden up her throat she will be the perfect cold ruthless Agent the Republic needs!

 

She learned her hard lession.

 

Now i just need a way to get her back into the field, maybe a few dead innocents will show her, retiring isn't good when the imps are out.

 

In the End, who knows billions could be saved by her in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest that choice was like choosing between a ****sandwich or a **Coke

Me: It's a Trap!

General Obvious: Oh no no no, it's okay you are havoc!

(Later on station)

Me: Oh noes, it's a trap!

 

 

Yes (kill agent), Yes (Kill prisoners)

 

Get Blame anyway.

Duurrrrrr....

 

 

So BW where is all that *special* Havoc?!

 

Where is my Rescue Prisoners, hug Jaxo while slapping the captured Moff with a beautiful explosion of the Imperial Cruiser blowing up in the background?

 

 

Edited January 27, 2012 by -sasori

[Buckit]

This part of the Trooper story was the ONLY interesting twist i've seen so far. Shame it comes near the very end of the Trooper story.

 

The writers for Trooper really did a shoddy job IMHO. There were so many interesting plot devices they could have used for a special forces squad. Instead it's all a bunch of vanilla, unimaginative "For the Republic!!!!" junk.

[sassoonss]

 

What if it was Elara instead on the line

 

How many would you be ready to sacrifice if the cost would have been to loose your companion. 300 ,3000 ,30000 ........

 

 

I choose not to save Jaxo and now I am repenting that choice.

Tavis had rebelled against the Republic becoz his team was left abandoned to die by the republic.

 

I feel i made the same mistake .

What if Jaxo did survive the incident. Wouldnt that justify her rebelling against me

 

After those dumb 300 prisoners did nothing .she was special ops and she single handedly managed to alert Republic of A-77 location.

 

 

As Spock said " the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Kirk: Or the One"

 

[ounkeo]

I went Light Side when I came across this quest. The reason that choosing Jaxo over the 300 is kind of a simple thing when you break it down.

 

Ask yourself, will you allow 300 people to die for someone you know or save those innocent 300 for someone that knew what their job entailed.

 

If your angry that you had to make such a touching chose I suggest you never play Fable III because right at the start you'll be posed with such a question.

 

In the end though, if you did get the Dark Side points and your just angry that you have taint on your toon then I'm sorry, but that just means you'll need to do an extra flashpoint or something to gain that lost points due to your choice.

 

In my personal option, the devs and story writes did a great job with the Trooper story line. I didn't like the ending, but I'm not saying anymore to that effect as you will all have to experience that yourselves! All-in-all, enjoy the game!

 

I think they did a good job here but the weight of light/dark points here is very personal.

 

 

both decisions produce a good result and a bad result. You can't win and choosing to give light side points means that BW believes in their own heads/hearts, that choosing 300 ppl is the good choice.

 

The actual decision though, is a lot more grey than that. It should have been dark side points either decision.

 

Think of it in terms of savign someone you know and saving 300 randoms who, for all you know, are a bunch of evils anyway. You're rolling the dice against a sure thing; saving Jaxo is definitely saving someone who is useful and a good person and contributes to the republic. And presumably means something to you either as a friend or love interest.

 

Frankly, I was pissed I got light side points for saving the people. Really pissed. I still let my friend die. Why in the world would they award light points for that.

 

 

[ounkeo]

 

I really liked this quest. Not doing it, certainly, and it was seriously infuriating- but there are extenuating circumstances.

 

I let Jaxo die, with the second of the two lightside options(The first being the cold "The Mission Comes First" and the second being the actual Good Person "Many>Few" sort.), and I felt really bad about having to do it.

 

There's just one major issue that this represents for me- I'm gay. My Trooper, as someone I try to relate to, is also gay. So far, I've played through three different storylines to their completion(or near completion) and not a single one offers a romance option(or even a flirt that I've found) for a homosexual woman.

 

I'm pretty sure there are flirt options for the same-sex-opposite-sex, but none for me. In fact, there are only two female characters which are persistent through the Trooper storyline and under, what, sixty years old? Elara is entirely professional, but quite friendly in that regard. She even asked about my possible-kids, which was kind of cool. I liked seeing that emotion.

 

Jaxo was a character who -almost- reached flirting point, but never got there.

 

I don't even know if there are ANY homosexual female romances in the game, and I was terrified to hit the light side option and kill off the only unconfirmed(at the time) romance option my Trooper would have had.

 

Though, of course, I'm not sure if I would have been happy with the alternative- considering it's very likely she'd be the only option, I don't know if I'd be okay with the condition for a gay romance with her to be killing 300+ people.

 

 

I'm not gay (i'm a guy) but most of my toons (in all games) are female and in SWTOR, I really feel left out and really, seriously dissappointed that there aren't any same sex romance options yet. I really liked Jxo and Dorne and they BOTH have gotten to the point where it's all but outright flirt but I never get the option to take it any further.

 

It's very frustrating in a very real way. Possibly because I'm still male and I view the female romance options as a real option that I don't get. In my head, I'm saying, well... my toon is just a female toon why can't I otherwise?

 

it's a bit of an artificial lock out no matter how we look at it isn't it?

 

And frankly, getting hit on by the cat man was just creepy. He kept tryign to show off and talk all big manly macho to me when on the ship. Real creepy. on the field he's all pro though.

Edited March 21, 2012 by ounkeo

[VincentWolf]

I just hope when they finally succumb to all this "GIVE US JAXXO!!!" whine and add her a companion to us in some future patch, they'll give her to all of us, not only those who saved her. Because... I seriously don't want to have this ugly womanizer from SIS in my team, no sir. Also I want Jaxo to be romancable by fem trooper; that'd make for helluva hot couple with my character.

 

P.S offtopic: make Kira Carsen a lesbian too plz, thanks. No seriously, this love/hate relationship I have with her can lead to some fantastic romance.

 

Edit: if it was Elara, I'd pick save Elara without even thinking for a second. Why? No I don't particulary like Elara, I mean I'm fine with her and during leveling she was always with me and I find her obsession with all these regulations to be kinda cute, I don't like flirty *****, I like serious women. And Elara is a part of my team, she's my combat medic and just same as in case with Mass Effect 2 I had to build my team for a very important mission and I had to watch over my people. They are NOT expandable, they go top prio for me, wether I like them or not, I am their commander and they expect the best treatment from me. I dislike tanno vik and his attitude alot, still as long as he gets his job done, I can allow him to do anything he wants in his spare time and I WILL come back to save his *** if I have to, because he'll expect me to do it, because he's a part of my team.

Havoc squad practically turns the whole war around by putting imps in a pretty weak position after destroying their plans on many planets and killing their most powerful and talented general. Without this team Republic would still be stuck as a weaker side in a war. Jaxo was not a part of this team. She's expendable. Elara is not.

Still I like Jaxo too and I'd rather see her live, but in her case I just simply have no enough motivations to pick her over 300 people.

Edited March 21, 2012 by VincentWolf

[StrykerOne]

both decisions produce a good result and a bad result. You can't win and choosing to give light side points means that BW believes in their own heads/hearts, that choosing 300 ppl is the good choice.

 

The actual decision though, is a lot more grey than that. It should have been dark side points either decision.

 

Think of it in terms of savign someone you know and saving 300 randoms who, for all you know, are a bunch of evils anyway. You're rolling the dice against a sure thing; saving Jaxo is definitely saving someone who is useful and a good person and contributes to the republic. And presumably means something to you either as a friend or love interest.

 

Frankly, I was pissed I got light side points for saving the people. Really pissed. I still let my friend die. Why in the world would they award light points for that.

 

 

 

Well, if you go by the Jedi interpretation then the light side path is to save the most people. That's why they don't like strong emotional attachments to people... they get in the way of doing the "right" thing in tough situations.

 

I did choose to save the prisoners (it was a hard call) but you can bet that if there's a "kill him very painfully" option when I finally catch up to that Imp general then I'll be picking up a few dark side points in a heartbeat.

 

[Gjorind]

I liked this one, one of the best military tough decision type quests in the game.

 

 

If you hadn't porked the girl, you'd have a simple choice of one soldier vs. three hundred innocents(I'm overly generalizing here, I realize). Instead, the game gives you one of the coolest lower level encounters and forces you to scrutinize it later on, which I find fantastic. No soldier willing to let three hundred innocents die so that they could be saved is worth saving, light side/dark side points be damned.

 

That said, if I'd have been given an ultra fast timed mission to extricate her instead of an arbitrary decision, I'd have been hauling tail down that hallway to try to get everyone out alive.

 

Heck, a person could argue that killing her was a dark side decision, even. How many guys decided to free the prisoners instead just so as to not risk an uncomfortable Dorne vs. Jaxo dialog at the end of the mission?

 

[Wonkamania]

I was a bit irked by the light side and dark side choices that Bioware presented in this quest as well; The philosophy surrounding this choice is misunderstood and I'll explain why in this spoiler... (don't look if you don't want your life snape dumbledore'd.

 

 

It is apparent that Bioware wanted to address the issue of utilitarianism (the welfare of the many outweigh the welfare of the few) in this situation. The quest sets you up with the choice to either save Jaxo, or the three hundred Republic soldiers and their families enslaved on the station.

 

Now what many people err on, and unfortunately Bioware indeed makes this mistake, is that the devastating criticism leveled against utilitarianism is that it is impossible to judge what ultimately brings about the greater good for the most people. There is no way to foresee such occurrences that by saving either one or the other, that throughout the time spanning years, decades, even centuries into the future would bring about a more positive result from either group.

 

For example, if one was to save the three hundred individuals, and if we were to take it to the extremes, it is equally probable that an individual born in the future from this group is just as likely to save billions of lives as they are to condemn them (Ex. Space Hitler vs Winston Churchill). Even in the near future and during the lives of these individuals, it is impossible to say if they'll either do great harm, great good, or nothing at all.

 

In contrast, the same case can also be applied to Jaxo; we have no idea what contributions, good or bad, she may provide. In another example, she could be the pivotal person upon which the war itself is either won or lost for the Republic, or she may also contribute absolutely nothing, and a history changing element may or may not come down to one of her heirs.

 

A lot of people automatically think "Well, I'm saving the most people, there is a higher chance they'll contribute something for the greater good than the bad", but again, as stated before, they also have the same probability to contribute to an act, event, or individual which could cause irreparable evil or harm to the future galaxy. *Also, just because one option may appear to do more good in the near future, does not mean it will not cause greater harm later on.*

 

In conclusion, the choice should be not be a light or dark side option, but unaligned.

 

The same with Cademimu. The Republic is in a time of war or cold war, firing on the imperial fleet should not be a dark side option.

 

Philosophy plays a surprisingly large role in our lives, both in the real world, or in mock situations such as these in video games. As the quote similarly goes, those most ignorant to philosophy are bound to be fooled by it.

 

Edited March 23, 2012 by Wonkamania

[teambff]

 

wasn't a difficult decision for me at all.

in that situation i would always save a friend over a bunch of strangers, wrong or right.

 

especially since my character and jaxo just had a girls night out at her place lol... i guess it popped up aftter 1.2 allowing me to do the quest so i just did it before i did a-77.

 

i wouldn't have a hard time living with myself. to me friendship (in the way that i perceive it) is one of the most important things in life. true friendship, that is. not the generic way people call each other friends.

 

i refused to sacrifice jaxo, elara wasn't happy about it but it was my choice to make. and i don't regret it

 

if i had to choose between 2 friends, now that would be a haunting/tormenting decision that i wouldn't want to make

 

Edited April 14, 2012 by teambff

[Mezla]

Don't worry, fellas, she is still alive. I saw her at level 50 in her apartment on Coruscant.

[FriarNuts]

1.1 events

I saved Sgt Jaxo (before 1.2) and was majorly disappointed. SWTOR storywriting fell so flat: she disappeared so suddenly during the escape I even went back in the asteroid looking where she went. Then the melted psych letter, and then silence... Was (mistakenly) willing to permanently give up light V for that decision, and she turned out to be disposable cardboard.

 

 

1.2 events

Was happy to see 1.2 give a return to Coruscant mission, but was again disappointed with the less than stellar SWTOR storywriting. One of the best NPCs in the whole game, and even in 1.2 she's just a level 49 alcoholic. That's it? Still disposable cardboard. The basic Imperial Agent story on Hutta is lightyears ahead.

 

 

C'mon guys, give us a story, not lemmings.

[Melnir]

My Trooper fantasy was dark side. I chose at the beginning of my storyline to take every dark side choice available. Frankly it was not easy to click that red button sometimes.

 

But the toughest dark side decisions were only two:

 

 

To save Jaxo and to kill a senator during hearings in senate (I chose a neutral option here, because the dark side was just plain stupid imho).

 

I took a robot at the Jaxo mission not to ruin my reputation with Dorne Interestingly the robot approves a choice of saving jaxo over 300 people. And he even made some funny comment over it.

 

Then a letter about her mental condition and all. I was very surprised getting a new mission to talk to her after 1.2 I even thought it is a bug or smth... happy to see that It is not a bug actually =)

 

 

 

[King-Joey]

You people are absolutely nuts. This was incredibly horrible storytelling in every conceivable way.

 

 

At no point -- NO POINT -- were you given a choice of a) Jaxo dies or b) everyone else dies. All you are given is the same crap you have been told in every single mission leading up to that point, which is, "No, we can't risk everything to save one/two/five/whatever people!" And in EVERY SINGLE MISSION until now, we are punished for refusing to risk everything to save the one person. And now, all of a sudden, they pull out an idiotic deus ex machina where you find out after the fact that, for the first time EVER, there really is no chance for everyone else to survive. That is absolutely stupid and horrible, HORRIBLE storytelling. Havoc Squad just finished defeating a living planet killer. And we're somehow supposed to assume that just because some random imperial technician says so that there's NO CHANCE of saving Jaxo and the other prisoners? And then, to top it all off, in the conversation with Garze we are not even given the option of explaining that we were trying to save everyone and simply failed. We have to lie and say we CHOSE to kill all the other prisoners. I never chose that, any more than I chose to let the entire Republic be destroyed in the war by saving those prisoners rather than stealing the Barrager on Balmorra (I think). I tried to save everyone, and if Bioware had a shred of decent storytelling ability I would at least get the chance to explain that.

 

This entire episode has utterly ruined a great character and pretty good class storyline. With zero reason to expect any of the other class storylines to be any better (especially since the people claiming they are good somehow thought this piece of crap had merit), I can't really see any reason to play anymore. The storylines are the only thing about this game that doesn't suck worse than most other MMORPGs. And now they suck, too. Way to go, writers. Glad you got the chance to be "edgy" with the "tough decisions" in your plotlines.

 

Little hint, though: for a decision to be a "tough" one, it actually has to be a decision; not a retcon after the fact.

 

[Prisoner]

It's probably because I played a female trooper and therefore didn't get the chance to know her well enough to get attached to her, but this decision didn't have nearly the weight that it seemed it should. I mean, my trooper would have actually thought twice if the choice had been about Jonas Balkar instead of Jaxo. So for me, it was a bit disappointing.

[JusticeCommando]

This is coming from a level 17 Vanguard who is not even working on the trooper at the moment.

 

Throughout this thread, I have come to learn that

Jaxo begs you to save her and damn the prisoners. I don't know if she knew about the prisoners at the time, but if not, then I can refer to Virmire in Mass Effect. You had to choose to save either Ashley Williams or Kaidan Alenko. They know that only one of them will live, but both insist that Shepard save the other. They were true soldiers, doing what had to be done, even to the point of sacrificing themselves to save another. Jaxo did not care for the welfare of innocents, who she was fighting for in the first place. And even after she's saved, she apparently goes crazy. If it was Elara, as other people have said, she'd probably want you to save the prisoners, which at least proves she's dedicated to the cause. When I get to this point, Jaxo will die, not out of spite, but out of duty, doing what a soldier is meant to do: Bravely defending those who can't defend themselves.

 

If anyone disagrees, feel encouraged to voice your unique opinion.

[Chaoskyx]

 

 

I kind of liked her very human reaction when faced with death, honestly. Since she didn't seem too terribly noble, a willing sacrifice wouldn't have fit her character.

 

Edited June 22, 2012 by Chaoskyx

[_gideon]

Probably the best part of the entire trooper storyline.

[Kaerra]

Ahhh...the Kobayashi Maru scenario. I'm staring at the 3 options right now and still unsure which way to go. The worst part is I know it's just a game, but it still rips at my soul.

[flyersfan]

 

I really liked this quest. Not doing it, certainly, and it was seriously infuriating- but there are extenuating circumstances.

 

I let Jaxo die, with the second of the two lightside options(The first being the cold "The Mission Comes First" and the second being the actual Good Person "Many>Few" sort.), and I felt really bad about having to do it.

 

There's just one major issue that this represents for me- I'm gay. My Trooper, as someone I try to relate to, is also gay. So far, I've played through three different storylines to their completion(or near completion) and not a single one offers a romance option(or even a flirt that I've found) for a homosexual woman.

 

I'm pretty sure there are flirt options for the same-sex-opposite-sex, but none for me. In fact, there are only two female characters which are persistent through the Trooper storyline and under, what, sixty years old? Elara is entirely professional, but quite friendly in that regard. She even asked about my possible-kids, which was kind of cool. I liked seeing that emotion.

 

Jaxo was a character who -almost- reached flirting point, but never got there.

 

I don't even know if there are ANY homosexual female romances in the game, and I was terrified to hit the light side option and kill off the only unconfirmed(at the time) romance option my Trooper would have had.

 

Though, of course, I'm not sure if I would have been happy with the alternative- considering it's very likely she'd be the only option, I don't know if I'd be okay with the condition for a gay romance with her to be killing 300+ people.

 

 

I feel for you, but there are no same-sex relationships, male or female, in the game at all. However, BioWare has stated that this is being fixed and will be added in the future. I can't wait for this to happen and hope that I can romance Elara in the future. Jaxo is also one of the few characters in the game that I thought would be legitimately homosexual. She's pretty flirty with my Trooper and having drinks with her and her all-female squad on Coruscant seemed to be a pretty big hint that she was into me.

 

As for my choice,

 

 

I have done it twice at this point. The first time, I chose to save the prisoners because Amely, my Commando, is a "greater good" type of person. I went with the second option. She saw that Jaxo needed her help, but 300 innocent prisoners needed her help more. Jaxo signed up for the Republic forces knowing that this could happen, and Amely made sure that she was remembered as a hero.

 

The second time, I saved the prisoners again for similar reasons. My Vanguard, Valensa, is a by-the-book soldier that did what the mission required. I picked the first option. She came to save those prisoners and that's what she intended to do. In an RP sense, Valensa had developed feelings for Jaxo, but she did what she had to do regardless of her personal feelings (and because I knew that they could never be together).

 

I'm working on my third Trooper and intend to pick nearly all the Dark Side options just to see the other side. Jaxo can count on Sarsia for help! lol

 

Edited June 25, 2012 by flyersfan

[Kaerra]

I'm not a straight woman, either, so I'm purposely keeping Elara's affection low in the hopes of romancing her in the future. =)