Imperial heel realization

[Xilizhra]

Is there any moment, for those playing Imperial classes, when your character IC has looked at their actions and gone "holy crap, I'm actually the bad guy!"?

 

I think this just happened for my inquisitor, rather early on: on Dromund Kaas, after cutting through the slaves at the unfinished statue. It didn't hit at the time I was playing, but after thinking about it more, I asked myself why the hell I was just killing rebellious slaves like that? I used to be one myself; they might have been my family. Hell, there were green-skinned Twi'leks there; there's a (admittedly small) chance that one of them literally was! And then came the realization that the Sith are, well, completely evil; not only are they totalitarian aggressive conquerors, but they're wholly ineffectual by their constant backstabbing and even continually murder their own students, at one point forcing two of them to try to kill me just to make it off Korriban alive. I think she realized that her entire career thus far has been a betrayal of her own roots and of basic decency, and... well, at this point, would take the first opportunity possible to defect to the Republic. Sadly, that doesn't seem possible in this game, so I may just stop playing her.

 

How about the rest of you? Any similar moments?

[ZirusZero]

As Cipher-nine, you find out Imperial Intelligence brainwashed you because you dared to defy Darth Jadus. Then I wonder, why am I working for these people? So later on because I went light-side, literally defected to Republic SIS. Only happens if you spare Kothe and his entire SIS team.

[Darkelefantos]

Heel? Is this wrestling? Who's the babyface? Will the writers decide if I make a face turn or not? And where is the world title?

 

More serious though, this moment doesn't exist for my characters. My Inquisitor is batsh*t insane but very patriotic, my Warrior is rather rational (though he can become brutal if he's betrayed) and also patriotic, my Bounty Hunter just does her job and my Agent has split personality issues.

[TheNegotiator]

As Cipher-nine, you find out Imperial Intelligence brainwashed you because you dared to defy Darth Jadus. Then I wonder, why am I working for these people? So later on because I went light-side, literally defected to Republic SIS. Only happens if you spare Kothe and his entire SIS team.

 

 

Not true, the option is for double agent, not defection.

 

 

How you play your class is mostly up to you. You don't have to complete any quests outside of your story if you don't want to. My agent is light side and he declined many of the missions on Taris because they were too destructive. He is very loyal to imperial intelligence and if you play an agent you will understand why. I have not played warrior or inquisitor but if you do decide to play a Sith don't expect chocolates and flowers.

[theUndead]

Heel? Is this wrestling? Who's the babyface? Will the writers decide if I make a face turn or not? And where is the world title?

 

More serious though, this moment doesn't exist for my characters. My Inquisitor is batsh*t insane but very patriotic, my Warrior is rather rational (though he can become brutal if he's betrayed) and also patriotic, my Bounty Hunter just does her job and my Agent has split personality issues.

 

YES YES YES!!! (Daniel Bryan reference)

 

Anyway to the OP, I choose my decisions very carefully on all my toons. For example my Jugg is an absolute psychopath. He is true enforcer of the dark side and will not hesitate to cut you down if you breath in his direction. I chose him this way because I feel the warrior storyline fits it and I also have the stomach for being evil. However, my JK is pure light side except he does not like the rules regarding marriage but other than that he will defend the weak and innocent. My BH is bad but honorable. What this means is that he will hunt all kinds of scum and will not hesitate to execute those who deserve it but he will not murder innocents and will capture targets if they are more valuable alive.

 

My Operative is another example of really callous person. His way of thinking is if your in the way of his objectives he will stab you in between the ribs. He is also quite the ladies man but the point is I chose his personality to be that way.

 

My Sniper however is grey as well he will only harm someone if it is absolutely necessary other than that he is quite merciful .

 

I have other toons which are mixtures of what I described but the overall point is only once was there a time where I took a step back at a decision and that was early on in my BH storyline but other than that I choose the moral decisions my toons make based on how I see the world through their eyes. Furthermore, this game's portrayal of morality is quite warped IMO.

 

I say this because in the real world every decision we make has more than just 3 outcomes and we usually think of consequences before we make a decision. But because this games morality has no bearing on the world around them, the only person affected is in fact you. Because you make the decision and you choose to live with it. It is always and only personal feelings.

[Allronix]

First off: Greetings, Troper!

 

I'm with you there. I play a Bounty Hunter, so my loyalty to these $%@@#$ extends only as far as their pocketbook.

 

The first was running through the Black Talon. Here I was, just trying to hop a ride to Dromund Kaas. And I'm stuck with three Sith. And here's this arrogant scumbag of a Grand Moff putting an assassin droid aboard and telling us to go kill loyal Imperial soldiers if they weren't going to walk into an obvious trap. I did not beat the saber-swingers to the draw, and they butchered good, loyal, useful soldiers from their own side. Then, we board the ship and there's this gravely injured old man, a defector, being smuggled to the escape pods. And this Padawan kid that couldn't be older than Mako willing to lay her life down to buy that old man just a few more minutes. And the old man? He's talking about WMDs the sith have, bloody warfare. OK, I'm a Mercenary. War's good for business, but not the kind of war he was talking. I managed to beat the saber-swingers to the draw and ask the old man's life get spared (best I could do to honor him and the kid), but realize I probably condemned him to a lot worse than a painful death.

 

Dromund Kaas wasn't much better. Couldn't stand everyone's attitude. More than once told someone to go do it themselves. (you want me to poison a bunch of alien slaves after you just called me "alien scum?" Screw you.) Spook wants me to shoot his boss. Guy wants me to shoot his own daughter. Imperial nobles are just as full of it as I suspected. Duchess and the Revanites were the only decent folk on that rock. With all that infighting, you wonder how the hell they managed to quit it long enough to invade the Republic. Plus, their capital is a pathetic little town compared the cities Republic core worlds, with a dirt road leading to the spaceport. But are they working on infrastructure? Nope. They're putting a bunch of slave labor into building momuments to the Darths' egos.

 

But Mako and I need to eat, and we are trying to carry on the Old Man's dream of his stable winning the Great Hunt. Time to grit our teeth and keep going.

 

The big "We're on the wrong damn side, Mako" moment, though, came on Balmorra. Not only are we there as invaders to make everyone's lives a living hell, but the incomptant twit of an officer wants me to undermine his more intelligent peers, no matter who or what gets hurt in the process. (Imperial Standard procedure, apparently. Keeps me employed, but just serves to make me hate them all the more). And then we get to run errands for Darth Lacris (geez, I wanted to beat the Consular to it and ventelate that shutta's head), who was just as competent as she was sane and merciful. And here was that renegade general from the Republic turned "mercenary" with a squad of men who were willing to fight to the death for this planet in defiance of the treaty everyone knows might as well be made of toilet paper. And when I faced down the general? He was willing to surrender if it spared the lives of his crew.

 

It's what Braden would have done. Other time, other place, other client, and that guy could have been Braden.

 

There are good people in the Empire, but they're wasted there, trampled underfoot by backstabbers, lunatics, and bloodthirsty thugs. They got lucky in catching the Republic off guard, but their luck isn't going to last, especially with their track record of infighting and lack of infrastructure. So, whatever I can do to speed it along...

Edited August 27, 2013 by Allronix

[Khalhazar]

The imp-side characters can actually be played as a force for good on the large scale, even if the questlines force them to petty violence on the small scale.

 

The advantage of playing on an RP server: being more able to break free from the stories and separate plot character from RP character. That made it easier for me to play a "bad guy" in the plot, even though there's no rational reason why, since the two are different!

[TheWhacko]

My Juggernaught had her Heel Face Turn moment pretty much as soon as she stepped onto Korriban. She saw teenagers dying left and right during trials, at least half of them having been forced to come here. She realized the Sith Code was just as, if not more, hypocritical than they claimed the Jedi's to be. How can one free themselves through passion when it only makes new chains? Not even getting into the whole 'Join or Die' policy they've got going. Even coming from a Pureblood family, she was pretty disgusted. Honestly, she was just biding her time until she got an asignment to Nar Shaddaa or some other neutral planet where she could find a Jedi and ask about defection.

[wishihadaname]

My operative had this smack in the face moment on Taris. Watching the desolation and slaughter of a world barely clinging on to life was too much. Between that and the previously mentioned "gift" from intelligence for your heroism in chapter 1 were enough to send him off the deep end. The rational agent became an unstable element, on the one hand my RP of him has him hating the republic for the slaughter of his entire family during the last war, on the other he sees now that the Empire is even worse.

 

Interestingly though, he had another about face after the events on Voss. But between Taris and Voss he was a sarcastic nutjob packing neurotoxins and a bunch of knives. In the end, he spit in everyone's faces and went rouge. The often referred to "batman" ending.