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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

My thoughts about Malavai Quinn. Spoilers.

Zeruhn

By Zeruhn
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Zeruhn

Zeruhn

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I'm not entirely sure where to post feedback for the developers, so I thought I'd post here in the hopes that perhaps they'd see it. I'm sincerely grateful for this wonderful game they've all created. For me, my entire game experience has been focused around 1 character, the companion "Malavai Quinn". I know some folks feel.. "strongly".. about Malavai, and not in a real positive sense.

 

I finished the Sith Warrior story in about a month; the first month I started playing. I was so hooked and happy, I could barely believe it. I found myself grinding through the story, seriously under-leveled, frequently using a med-pack here and there, always buffed w/a Presence stim and some extras from the Cantina. Playing under-leveled was an accident at first. We were sneaking around and then fell into a group of mobs, on Quesh. There were about 5 mobs of ranging between levels 35-37 and we were 32.

 

..."we"...

 

I say that a lot these days about myself and I, my companion who is basically *me*. (lol)

I make sure he is equipped about as well as I am. I tank for him. I am a DPS/Marauder, but I *NEVER* - let him take damage if I can help it. We plowed through multiple elites, dozens of groups of higher leveled mobs, all of which were about 4-5 levels ''bigger than us'' in order for me to see the rest of *his* story.

 

 

The first time I ever flirted with him, the music changed. It reminded me of Kotor. I suddenly realized that THIS GUY IS COMIN' WITH ME!!!!! :p I thought it was so cute, how he became so flustered because I flirted with him - I was immediately hooked. He's absolutely adorable. I had about 10k affection with him at level 24. I know what decisions to make that he'd like while I'm in conversations with folks. Got him a lot of weapons and gear. <3 I was so excited when he asked about me being interested in him, I coulda' just popped with glee!! ["My Lord"] "Technical Changes" is so cute, I can't begin to express myself adequately. :p Mr. Teverson's voice is *perfect*.

 

Malavai's story around level 44 gets a little disturbing, to tell the truth. But before that, it kinda reminded me of HAL 9000... I took everything Malavai said quite literally. @_@ I assume others may not be aware of his story at all, and I suggest to them that they listen to him very carefully, and to listen to everything he has to say.

 

He says his path is less clear when he realizes he has a superior that he feels is jeopardizing the Empire. He says that he ruined his career by defying a superior but he should have done it sooner. He's extremely loyal to Baras for assisting him and keeping him working within the Empire. He flat out warns you that he has been compromised and that he needs to leave. He says that he feels distracted because he's having thoughts about the sith warrior, which is interfering with his work.. (Perhaps it's because I loved 2001 and 2010 so much that I saw it coming... lol) :p I knew he couldn't possibly be happy about us suddenly turning on Baras and working against him. I was in a neutral state about "Baras suddenly out to kill us". Baras did tell me that it's the "Sith Way" for the apprentice to go after the Master. I didn't really have any hard feelings. We were assigned to go after him because of the Hand; that's how I saw it.

 

I thought it was really funny that Lord Draahg was sent to destroy us in front of my own ship because we had to go and rescue him in the first place. lol :p Poor dude.

 

After Baras had sent us to destroy his entire network of spies, he sends Draahg to destroy us. Who else was left? Honestly? Who else could Baras send? lol It *had* to be Quinn. I felt so bad for him.

 

It was an easy fight. I *did* kick the crap out of him. lol

 

I think I felt more offended that he asked Jaesa to join he and Baras than I was about him saying that he was going to kill me.. (LOL) :D

On that note I was thinking: "Yah yah, whatever... wait - you want Jaesa...?!?" lol

 

At first it didn't make any sense to me, story wise, except that Anakin does it to Padme in SW#3. (The betrayal thing, sorta.) It doesn't fit Quinn's character. Not at *all*. He despises betrayal. He's very honorable.

 

He's also a very good tactician, however. It's possible that he knew he'd never survive telling Baras "no" about betraying the Sith Warrior - never - and that fighting against his own Sith-Wife - he might actually have a chance to be forgiven in the future, if he could just get far enough away from Baras to complete his task. He'd at least live another day, another month. Quinn said he "knows her strengths and weaknesses". Maybe he also knows he does care for her and didn't program them to totally destroy her, because he does love her? Oooo!

 

Although it did seem strange that Quinn didn't *ever* mention it to the Sith War. I know Quinn's career was really important to him, but I can't imagine his life being less important than his career, lol. :o Which may be why Jaesa doesn't pick up any vibes from Quinn.

 

Then there's that thing Imperial Intelligence does to its people at times. Ohh... Brain washing.. Castellan restraints... Some of that came to mind. ((I went to play the Imp Agent's story after my warrior, in order to improve my Warrior's game by learning how it is for Malavai to heal, or to get a close approximation of how Mal heals.))

 

Of course, along the way, you've got Jaesa telling you there's a Sith that's not a true Dark Sith out there she's going to maul. Pierce tells you he blackmailed his last superior to get out of his post. Hehe, I remember thinking "My whole CREW is going to KICK MY ASH!" lol :D But that was all really fun. Just a red herring.

 

I'm sincerely grateful that Malavai Quinn isn't totally destroyed in the Transponder Station mission. Thank you for that. I think it would be too tragic. It's much better taking him to the end, meeting up again with Overseer Tremel (I never kill Tremel, lol) and kickin' Baras' butt.

 

I did feel angry that Quinn betrayed me. In real life if your husband is trying to kill you, I'd say tha'd be a real unhealthy situation!!! :csw_jabbapet: GTHO! lol But, in the game, hoping he **reallie reallie won't do that again right??** lol - I will forgive him, always, in the future. Especially thinking of some of the things Baras could have possibly done to him, like that poor Republic guy on Dromund Kaas. Gives me the chills.

 

 

I LUV MAH QUINN! :D I LUV posting [QUINN'S PANTS] in the Gen Chat window!!!!!!! NOBODY HURTS MAH QUINN!!!! :o

 

:jawa_angel:

Thank you for your time.

:ph_love_this:

 

:sy_empire:

 

:ph_thank_you:

 

 

 

edit: syntax

Edited by Zeruhn
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Zeruhn

Zeruhn

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My thoughts on Quinn..I'd kill him if I wasn't a Marauder and needed a healer.

 

I'm a Mara, too. All of my Warriors are Maras lol.

 

Heh, like I said: I'm familiar with this sentiment. Did you read my spoiler section? lol :p

Might not have been entirely up to him.

 

 

I'm also curious, how you would have handled the situation if it would have been Vette?

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DeutschGamer

DeutschGamer

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I don't see how Vette would ever be in a position to do what Quinn did. She is just nothing like him, its obvious in her romance and conversations.

 

If for some crazy reason Vette was the one doing it to my Male SW, I would most likely still kill her. It would just leave a horrible taste in my mouth.

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Zeruhn

Zeruhn

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I don't see how Vette would ever be in a position to do what Quinn did. She is just nothing like him, its obvious in her romance and conversations.

 

If for some crazy reason Vette was the one doing it to my Male SW, I would most likely still kill her. It would just leave a horrible taste in my mouth.

It definitely wasn't a particularly pleasant experience. I did anticipate it, based on a few things that he was saying. But most of that had to do w/my knowledge of HAL from 2001. :p Poor HAL, lol.

In my opinion, it's difficult to really see how MQ was in a position to do what he did, based on his personality. It doesn't fit him at all. In Quinn's romance, especially when he asks you to marry him, he says 'there's nothing we can't achieve together." Curious as to why he didn't go to the Sith Warrior with the issue. However, if Baras used a certain Imperial brain-washing technique on him that is mentioned elsewhere in the game, Quinn wouldn't have been able to talk about it, even if he opened his mouth to talk about it.

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theChainsaw

theChainsaw

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I think we should have been given the option to kill Quinn for his actions. I find it weird that as Sith we can't punish betrayal in the manner that Sith usually do. It should allow us the option but give us a warning message before we do like "YOUR ONLY NON-DROID HEALER IS GONNA GET KILLED U SURE BRAH?"
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Kalterien

Kalterien

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It's been mentioned before that the option was available in the Beta but because people kept submitting CSR tickets to get their companions back, yes, more than one companion has the opportunity to die, the developers just took out that option entirely. I believe there was even one of those "Are you REALLY sure? This guy will be DEAD." warnings, meaning a player would have had been able to change their mind at last minute.

 

Back to the OP though: I did find it out of character for Quinn but *shrug* he was still adorable.

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Shockazilla

Shockazilla

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It's been mentioned before that the option was available in the Beta but because people kept submitting CSR tickets to get their companions back, yes, more than one companion has the opportunity to die, the developers just took out that option entirely. I believe there was even one of those "Are you REALLY sure? This guy will be DEAD." warnings, meaning a player would have had been able to change their mind at last minute.

 

Back to the OP though: I did find it out of character for Quinn but *shrug* he was still adorable.

 

I thought about it, about losing Quinn forever, and I would have killed him anyways. My marauder only has gathering skills too, so sending crew members away on missions is not all that important. I think there should be an option to kill Quinn and replace him with a clone or other Quinn-like toon later in the story line.

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Zeruhn

Zeruhn

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In another forum I discovered someone's thoughts regarding Quinn's .....

..........betrayal as a possible suicide attempt - "death by Sith", it was stated. I found this to be really quite ingenious. It begins to make a lot of sense in this light, as Baras mentions nothing of it at the end of the story. Nor does Baras force choke Quinn through a holocom for his "supposed failure" for killing the Warrior through a holocom. I think it was also mentioned that Quinn is intelligent, "and smart people don't make good choices, emotionally"- something to that effect, lol - and may have felt suddenly conflicted about needing to turn against Baras regardless of how he feels about the Warrior becoming the Wrath of the Emperor. This would make sense in light of everything that Baras has done for Quinn in the past.

 

 

 

I was truly fascinated and stunned by this insight. I hadn't considered it. But as I thought more about it:

"I'm sorry it's come to this, my lord"

- I really think it could have been the case. Poor, shweet Quinn. <3

 

I need to find the link to the posting to do the player some credit and to make sure my phrasing is correct, because I think it's fantastic.

 

Not sure if I entirely understand where folks are coming from with the stunned by the betrayal stuff, though, and wanting to really kill the man -betrayal is what being a Sith is all about. Ain't it? lol :o IDK, I'm kinda a *nice* Sith. xD

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Mrs. Quinn :D

 

:sy_empire:

Edited by Zeruhn
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Mirandel

Mirandel

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The problem is, all our thoughts are only that - thoughts. BW obviously planned to let us kill Quinn like in beta and then (like with many, many stuff) forgot to iron all these cracks in the story so we were left with separate pieces and now have to patch it with our imagination. Really bad work of putting things together, like in a long movie wich director planned to make for 3h but producer wanted to see only 2h. And a lot of important explanations were cut out.

 

It's still better then nothing but for a "story-driven" game they could make it better. At the end this is TOR's major saling point.

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LordTaral

LordTaral

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When our class stories are continued, we should be able to get more companions and the option to kill companions should come back. That way, I finally get to kill Quinn.

 

This might take up a bit of space, so prepare yourselves. I rp a little (would have been on an rp server if I didn't find an awesome guild a year prior to SWTOR's release, bringing me to a pvp server) and as such, my pureblood hates just about anyone. You could say he is racist or something (may not be what I am thinking of, it's pretty late here and I am tired. :D). In fact, the only way to be guaranteed to not be hated immediately by my character, you'd have to be a pureblood.

 

That said, if he comes to like or even respect characters, it no longer matters if you are an alien to him. All of my companions paid their dues and eventually won the respect of their lord (Possible exception is Jaesa. Despite now faithfully serving him, he can never fully trust her because she was once a Jedi.) Even despite gaining his respect, he refused a romance with both Vette and Jaesa, because they are not purebloods and he wants children as pure blooded as possible.

 

Ok, on to Quinn (sorry, got into typing that). Quinn was my favorite companion. So loyal. So dedicated to me. And I needed his heals.From the moment I got him, it was rare that he wasn't by my side. He was by far my favorite companion too. The ideal Imperial. So when he betrayed me and tried to end my life, I crushed his droids and beat him badly. My character will repay any and all betrayals with death or possibly a fate worse than that. At least he would, if my option to kill him wasn't thrown in the garbage.

 

I just got to force throw him all over the room and have a hissy fit. If anything, I'd have force thrown him everywhere and then killed him, because despite his betrayal, I felt he at least deserved to die honorably by my hand. Instead, all I get is a promise from Quinn that he will never betray me again, and his faith in me has been restored tenfold. I hate having to bring him everywhere, a constant reminder of my "weakness" by not killing him.

 

It is my firm belief that the possible deaths of companions should make a comeback. In my eyes, Quinn will never regain the respect and trust he once had. He was my right hand man, and he threw it all away. From our adventures, he should have know that Baras would have fallen before me. Those are my thoughts about Malavai Quinn. So if you give us more companions, give me another healer, so that Quinn can finally be dealt with.

 

Sorry for the long post. Thank you for taking the time to read my post (those of you that do).

 

- Lord Taral

Edited by LordTaral
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CutlassJack

CutlassJack

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You really didnt see his betrayal coming from the moment he forced his way on your ship when you first got him? It was a little hard for me to be angry at him doing exactly what I knew he was going to do all along. I was more mad that I couldn't keep him off my ship to begin with knowing that.

 

So instead I largely left him on the ship and didn't get used to him. Was no point in getting attached.

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bright_ephemera

bright_ephemera

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Sigh. Okay, so I'm the player who didn't see it coming (um, until I accidentally moused over spoiler tags in another forum.) I liked the man. I married him, if only because he did the most miserable sadface when I said I didn't think marriage was really necessary. Freaked me out that I could hurt him, so I redid the conversation to accept.

 

 

And believe me, I want to rationalize. I want to say his pathetic maneuver was a roundabout way of committing suicide to get out of an untenable situation, that it was a backhanded way of switching sides without losing some notion of honor, that if I listen enough to the silences between words and the things that were never said and the sheer impotence of the actual attack I can find some reason, some thought process that means it was all a feint and Quinn was secretly dedicated to my character all along.

 

That's ********.

 

I know that the entire romance prior to Act 3 is built on such wisps of hope and silence. I got used to grasping at straws. But this, at the end? No. They wrote the man to shiv my character. He has demonstrated that he'll play personal politics before. He's ace with finding a sponsor who will cover his *** while he does the bloody work - believe me, he wouldn't have ganked Moff Broysc without your protection, and he'll gank you if that's what it takes to keep Baras's protection. If he can get Baras's approval, advance the Empire's goals, and get laid, that's great, but don't believe for a minute that he's going to prioritize that third part. He's Baras's creature and Baras was always meant to turn on you. That's how the Sith work.

 

I love Quinn, and I love how the realization in that scene flipped back to invert every, powerful emotional interaction we had. I love that I hate him this much. I hate that I loved him this much. It's great. But he's no secret hero.

 

 

I needed to kill him. The sheer magnitude of feeling, suddenly turning bad, I had to kill him. Any other outcome utterly neuters my character. If that means I tow around some generic Joe the Rent-a-Healer for the rest of the game, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

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Thril

Thril

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I was another that didn't see the betrayal coming. I didn't suspect a thing till Madaga-Ru told me someone will betray me in a vision. I tried for a day or two to figure out who would and I could not bring myself to accept that it would be Quinn. I couldn't see any possible reason. I pretty much gave him all the praise and support he wanted back on Balmorra and I took him everywhere I could (till Jaesa came along) because of the healing. He even still bailed me out when an elite or boss was too much for max DPS.

 

After his betrayal I chose my option (throwing him around and choking him out) on an intent in killing him. Was almost upset that he was still alive afterwards but I guess a dedicated healer is still needed. I figured Jaesa would kill him later on since I married her before the betrayal. Alas that hasn't happened either. I was also vary wary when I had him battle me against Barus and I still do not completely trust and try to limit his use.

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bright_ephemera

bright_ephemera

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Funny you should mention those last couple of points.

 

 

I figured Jaesa would kill him later on since I married her before the betrayal. Alas that hasn't happened either. I was also vary wary when I had him battle me against Barus and I still do not completely trust and try to limit his use.

 

Honestly, I figured Pierce would be on the giving end of a tragic friendly fire accident the minute I turned my back. Or in front of my back the minute I failed to forbid such an accident. And I can't blame him; I'd make the kill myself if I could.

 

I took Quinn along in endgame to see whether any special dialogue happened, but it didn't. Disappointment. Instead the weasel stood there and approved every time I punched Baras. Yeah, so now you're thrilled that I'm fighting him. You really are an unmitigated jerk to everyone who lifts a finger to help you, aren't ya?

 

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Shaynae

Shaynae

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You know it's funny, I messed up my romance with Quinn, never had one all because

 

 

I never trusted him to begin with. I play a light side warrior and his smarmy Empire loving was too much for me. So I didn't flirt with him in the beginning. I always knew he was loyal to the fat man and knew he'd eventually cause me trouble. If I could have I'd have refused to have him come along on my ship.

 

 

That said...he kind of grew on me. Eventually I kind of wanted to see where the romance would go, but since I'd closed off that option accidentally it never happened and eventually I was glad.

 

I can't stand Pierce either, as a romance option, so I'm really hooping that there is eventually another one more palatable for my tastes.

Edited by Shaynae
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Faeldawn

Faeldawn

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Posted

Quinn is rotting in the bowels of my ship never to be heard from again, if i can't kill him, i certainly will never use the bastard again!

 

As others have said, the robot is a better healer anyway.

 

But no option to airlock him? Terrible really, what kind of sith keeps a man like that around without at least reassigning Vettes shock collar?

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YunVor

YunVor

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I'll admit I was a wee bit surprised by Quinn although it made sense with the warning of Betrayal the spirit on Voss gave you. Though the fact of the matter is I loved being able to tell Quinn that for all his smarts and tactics that he still hadn't learned no one could kill me storywise yet even when they thought they had the upper hand. Still I commend him and if it was an option like in KoTOR 2 I would have gladly made him a force user.

 

I mean Betrayal it's the way of the Sith after all. I mean we are asked to betray our first instructor on Korriban who brought us there specifically to help deal with Baras. Then of course we have Baras turn on us and it seemed logical that there should at least be another betrayal. Let's face it Pierce was gracious that you pretty much lifted him out of a go no-where assignment. Quinn could be restationed anywhere and specfically chose you and your ship as his re-assignment that struck me as a little odd.

 

 

Still Quinn has the makings of a Sith. I'll still take <3 Jaesa over him any day though. As a Marauder I just go all out DPS and just use health packs when needed. So now Quinn has a

is paying for his betrayal

permanent infection of the Rakghoul Virus. :D

Edited by YunVor
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