British accents = Empire

[JawaJedi]

I don't find it racist or speechist...or I guess whatever 'ist' you want to call this.

 

Its just using accents to distinguish between cultures. Lucas choose to have the higher ranking officers speak American British. Lucas was involved in making this game so its not much a mystery. It can easily be hand waved by saying that they got the accent over time after being isolated for a thousand years. Same in how all the different languages got their accents.

 

Guess I have to have an Australian accent to be a bounty hunter next right?

 

Speciest, I suppose. But xenophobic may also be preferable. But they're not talking about the accents.

Read it again. Preference towards your own species is not racist, it's just nature. The Empire would be racist if it discriminated against pink Sith or black humans, which it does not.

 

It's not a "Twi'liks are nice and all, but I'd never date them" preference. Its "Here, lick my boot. Why? Because you're an alien."

Racist may an inappropiate word, but its not far off.

[Thisisxonaz]

You've not played enough Imperial side then.

 

I've played through all of it.

 

 

To the guy about the scottish dude, ye I remember now, still no Welsh or Irish though.

[NasherUK]

From what I remember theres a quest where someone says they don't sound like an Imperial because of their accent O_o

 

Anyway, I think the sith empire is loosly based on the old British empire around the 15-1700s. The sith playing the part of the "nobles".

[Sanguinal]

It's not a "Twi'liks are nice and all, but I'd never date them" preference. Its "Here, lick my boot. Why? Because you're an alien."

Racist may an inappropiate word, but its not far off.

 

I wasn't even thinking about that sort of preference. Sith are very much a Darwinian, survival of the fittest society. They don't have any concept of the value of sentience or any other intangible idea, they work with power, passion and the law of the jungle.

 

Aliens are therefore competitors for space, resources and dominance and without any regard for some ephemeral concept of the value of sentience they're worth nothing. They've not got a vested interest in the well-being of Sith culture, they can't pass on the Sith-Human hybrid species or anything.

 

It's not "that guy looks different, I hate him", it's "That's a competitor, we must destroy it". If it was the former then alien Sith or Agents wouldn't be possible, once their value and adherence to Sith ideals is established they become accepted regardless of their species. If it were a case of "funny lookin' aliens" they'd never be allowed into any high positions.

[firequill]

Lol @ applying PC to a star wars game.

Star wars is a 101 in preschooler morality.

 

It's all coming from the brain of george lucas anyway, and the contrasts of what he deemed to be good vs evil aren't exactly hard to follow.

 

You'll be hard pressed to find any such simplistic good vs evil contrast in the real world.

always two sides to everything, evil is a point of view.. yadayaddayadda..

 

That's why we have fiction, easy to identify which is which and few moral qualms about blasting that stormtrooper to dust...

 

just roll with it.

[JawaJedi]

I wasn't even thinking about that sort of preference. Sith are very much a Darwinian, survival of the fittest society. They don't have any concept of the value of sentience or any other intangible idea, they work with power, passion and the law of the jungle.

 

Aliens are therefore competitors for space, resources and dominance and without any regard for some ephemeral concept of the value of sentience they're worth nothing. They've not got a vested interest in the well-being of Sith culture, they can't pass on the Sith-Human hybrid species or anything.

 

It's not "that guy looks different, I hate him", it's "That's a competitor, we must destroy it". If it was the former then alien Sith or Agents wouldn't be possible, once their value and adherence to Sith ideals is established they become accepted regardless of their species. If it were a case of "funny lookin' aliens" they'd never be allowed into any high positions.

 

That's really not it at all. The game goes into great detail. On Korriban, there's a quest to check the purity of the Overseers. The dialouge changes if you play an alien, and the game makes it clear that they hate you soley because your an alien. You are ineferior BECAUSE you are alien. The game makes it clear Pureblood Sith<Human<Alien. Even if your the same rank as someone else, your lower if your an alien.

Also, the "Pass on the Sith-human hybrid" is inherently speciest.

[Manufacture]

I have to admit, I wish they left out the whole racial superiority tidbit out of the Empire mentality. For one, it didn't seem quite as clearly defined as it could have been (Hell, take it all the way if you're going that route). It honestly felt like something that was thrown in last minute to club people over the head with the idea that Empire is Evil!

 

In my story, as a bounty hunter (non-human), they never made any implications that I was inferior or had shown any particular disdain for me. Exception being Drommund Kaas, where one of the officers made some offhand remark, "You look like someone who belongs in a jungle, go kill these animals that's been terrorizing our planet!"

 

Honestly, I couldn't tell whether that was a crack about my race, or the fact that I was a bounty hunter (Non-Imperial).

[JawaJedi]

I have to admit, I wish they left out the whole racial superiority tidbit out of the Empire mentality. For one, it didn't seem quite as clearly defined as it could have been (Hell, take it all the way if you're going that route). It honestly felt like something that was thrown in last minute to club people over the head with the idea that Empire is Evil!

 

In my story, as a bounty hunter (non-human), they never made any implications that I was inferior or had shown any particular disdain for me. Exception being Drommund Kaas, where one of the officers made some offhand remark, "You look like someone who belongs in a jungle, go kill these animals that's been terrorizing our planet!"

 

Honestly, I couldn't tell whether that was a crack about my race, or the fact that I was a bounty hunter (Non-Imperial).

 

Got it every 5 seconds when I went to Drommund Kaas as an IA as a Chiss in the beta.

"Bloodly aliens..oh uh hello."

"Listen you stinkin' alien"

"Don't worry I'm an alien too. Lets be friends."

"Aliens just don't think the same, you know? Rather slow"

That sorta stuff.

But, I'll admit I didn't get that far during the beta, and it was better done than that =P

[Darth_Cliche]

How the hell did you make the link between needing an accent to be Imperial and then suddenly jumping to they must all be British?!

 

You realize Britain includes Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland?

 

Because I'm yet to see an accent that could be any of them but English.

 

There is an engineer on Balmorra that has a very clear Scottish accent.

[JohraTon]

There's a Welsh guy on Dromund Kaas near Gratham's estate if you want to hear an awesome British accent lol.

 

Then again im from near Newcastle so I can't say much about accents

[Manufacture]

Got it every 5 seconds when I went to Drommund Kaas as an IA as a Chiss in the beta.

"Bloodly aliens..oh uh hello."

"Listen you stinkin' alien"

"Don't worry I'm an alien too. Lets be friends."

"Aliens just don't think the same, you know? Rather slow"

That sorta stuff.

But, I'll admit I didn't get that far during the beta, and it was better done than that =P

 

Perhaps it's more prominent if you play an alien Imperial. Maybe when I get around to making an alt, I'll have the opportunity to test the waters.

 

Still. I would have assumed that the Empire hierarchy would have stood more along the lines of:

Force Users >Military >Humanoids >Non-humanoid creatures >Droids

 

For an ideology that prides itself on always striving for power - they sure are limiting themselves by adopting the, "Aliens suck" party line.

[overfloater]

Pretty long thread going on this subject here, too.

 

 

You realize Britain includes Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland?

 

Because I'm yet to see an accent that could be any of them but English.

 

I've run into several Scottish and Welsh accents. No Northern Irish so far, though.

 

Not all Imperials are British, though. There's a good number of formal/mid-Atlantic/theatre accents, too -- i.e. American base accent with some acquired English-isms and manner of speech.

 

(Think James Earl Jones (as Vader), or Christopher Plummer. Or any number of Hollywood actors from the 50s and earlier with super-formal accents. They do actually have North American accents but they're so formal and carefully enunciated that they blend in nicely with the RP English.)

 

 

As a British person myself I can tell you that the Imperials in this game speak American English with a British Accent. It's almost as if an American wrote their dialogue for them

 

Definitely more than a few cases of that. The occasional super-RP-English-accented Imperial officer using colloquial US phrasing ... can be a little grating.

 

The voice actors seem to be a mix too. Some are definitely Americans putting on British accents, usually given away by their pronunciation and emphasis rather than the accent itself. (e.g. Saying "de-TAILs" instead of "DEE-tails".) But some are almost certainly English voice actors; that or they have the most convincing accents I've ever heard in games/movies/anywhere.

 

 

But yeah, it's clear the Imperial accent is intentionally British/formal. It's even referenced in the dialog and storylines. The first Imperial Agent storyline quests send you undercover, and the quest giver specifically tells you to "lose the Imperial accent" to avoid blowing your cover -- and your character does indeed go from using his/her English accent in regular dialog to putting on a mid-west US accent when she's undercover.

Edited January 15, 2012 by overfloater

[Sanguinal]

That's really not it at all. The game goes into great detail. On Korriban, there's a quest to check the purity of the Overseers. The dialouge changes if you play an alien, and the game makes it clear that they hate you soley because your an alien. You are ineferior BECAUSE you are alien. The game makes it clear Pureblood Sith<Human<Alien. Even if your the same rank as someone else, your lower if your an alien.

Also, the "Pass on the Sith-human hybrid" is inherently speciest.

 

There's no such thing as speciest. Racism is moronic because you take a minor difference in the same species and blow it out of proportion. Two entirely seperate species are inherent competitors and if you don't subscribe to a viewpoint which values sentience the other species is going to be less to you than your own.

 

Also you're treated like dirt as an alien on Korriban because you are just an alien. You've not proven yourself to be anything else and you've got nothing tying you to the wellbeing of the Empire. By the time you can put Lord in front of your name you're Sith and you've proven you're the elite, whether pureblood, human or alien you stand by your own power and cunning. They don't make you a Darth and then throw you out with a shout of "Alien Scum!!!" after all.

[Crito]

 

Definitely more than a few cases of that. The occasional super-RP-English-accented Imperial officer using colloquial US phrasing ... can be a little grating.

 

.

 

I don't think its much of a spoiler to say that one of the very first phrases my Imperial Agent had said to him 30 seconds into the game was "Don't get cute" .. pure American. Also, I've only come across one Imperial character so far that pronounces lieutenant the British way "LEF - tenant" rather than the American "LOO - tenant"

 

It's no big deal, but like you said, it does jar.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Crito

[overfloater]

I don't think its much of a spoiler to say that one of the very first phrases my Imperial Agent had said to him 30 seconds into the game was "Don't get cute" .. pure American.

Hah, I noticed that one too. (Though I'm a Brit living in the US, so I've adapted and it's probably not quite as obvious/grating to me.) Then again, "Keeper" can't seem to decide whether his accent is RP English or mid-Atlantic "Shakespearean theatre" American, so it's definitely not his only glitch.

 

Also, I've only come across one Imperial character so far that pronounces lieutenant the British way "LEF - tenant" rather than the American "LOO - tenant"

Definitely noticed this one because it's such a glaring difference. Many (recent generation) British pronounce it LOO-tenant anyway, through ignorance of the traditional pronunciation and/or American influence, so I could see that one slipping through even if the voice actor was British. Although an NPC with a super-formal RP accent saying "LOO-tenant" doesn't really fit.

 

(All that said, I've always thought "LEF-tenant" was a ridiculous pronunciation and it's always made me squirm any time I've had to say it... which hasn't been very often, fortunately!)

[stivius]

How the hell did you make the link between needing an accent to be Imperial and then suddenly jumping to they must all be British?!

 

You realize Britain includes Scotland, Wales, England (and Ireland?)

 

Because I'm yet to see an accent that could be any of them but English.

 

Ehh Britain is England Wales and Scotland (untill 2014 depending on Scotlands independance referendum). The U.K. is England Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ireland is an independant Republic unlike the the UK.

[Golar]

 

Ehh Britain is England Wales and Scotland (untill 2014 depending on Scotlands independance referendum). The U.K. is England Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ireland is an independant Republic unlike the the UK.

 

Damn Scots will do anything to separate themselves from us English. They'd have Scottish servers on SWTOR if they had their own way.

[BrigOrion]

 

 

But yeah, it's clear the Imperial accent is intentionally British/formal. It's even referenced in the dialog and storylines. The first Imperial Agent storyline quests send you undercover, and the quest giver specifically tells you to "lose the Imperial accent" to avoid blowing your cover -- and your character does indeed go from using his/her English accent in regular dialog to putting on a mid-west US accent when she's undercover.

 

It's not a mid-west accent they're using, it's the California accent. Spend some time in the mid-west and, if your ear is attuned to accents, you'll hear the difference.

[Sai-to]

All Imperials in the OT had British accents. The game is just mirroring that.

[Sai-to]

It's not a mid-west accent they're using, it's the California accent. Spend some time in the mid-west and, if your ear is attuned to accents, you'll hear the difference.

 

 

Being a mid-westerner, I can somewhat agree with this. But this is wrong too. It's not Californian.

 

What it is, is a British actor trying to sound like an American. The Imp Agent's accent doesn't really match any accent in America.

[Trauglodyte]

The reasoning behind the British accent for the Imperials was that, and you can look this up to verify, George Lucas wanted to differentiate between the Imperials and the Rebels. To give the Imperials a "higher" cast and tone of authority, he decided that British would suit them well. This also made it easier for him to utilize several famous British actors to support that position.

 

SO, essentially, you're part of the colonial monarchy trying to put down the 1776 rebellion.

 

 

 

PS> The bounty hunter speaks with an American accent, if you will, because while the class supports the Empire, it is a free agent and takes no real sides unless there are credits involved.

[Golar]

The truth is, the English are always the baddies in movies.

 

Either the English or the Russians.

[xeeki]

I don't speak English natively (though I am very good at it for a teenager that uses it strictly as a second language) so I am asking you Brits, is the male Sith Warrior a real british voice actor, or one of those Americans faking the accent? (Because I like how he sounds)

[JawaJedi]

Perhaps it's more prominent if you play an alien Imperial. Maybe when I get around to making an alt, I'll have the opportunity to test the waters.

 

Still. I would have assumed that the Empire hierarchy would have stood more along the lines of:

Force Users >Military >Humanoids >Non-humanoid creatures >Droids

 

For an ideology that prides itself on always striving for power - they sure are limiting themselves by adopting the, "Aliens suck" party line.

 

Any alien force user would have sway, but not as much as a human force user with just as much power. Moreso in the military is this evident.

[anairien]

I don't speak English natively (though I am very good at it for a teenager that uses it strictly as a second language) so I am asking you Brits, is the male Sith Warrior a real british voice actor, or one of those Americans faking the accent? (Because I like how he sounds)

 

 

it is a kind of generic "posh" (almost but not quite received pronunciation) accent. the contraction of, for example "you will" as "you'll" sounds somewhat forced-if you listen carefully it sounds more like "youwul", rather than the more common "yool" sound, and the lengthened "a" sound (i think it is called "rhotic"-for example, "bath" in my own local accent is pronounced "baff", but in rp/posh/certain southern dialects it is pronounced "barth") is pretty stereotypically an upper crust thing in england.

 

but yeah-you come across all the standard national accents amongst the UK nations-ive encountered a scot, a welshman, one very soft spoken irish and a lot of toffs.

 

not one mancunian mind. just me

Edited January 16, 2012 by anairien