Why is there no option to amicably part ways with Lana?

[Xenipher]

It doesn't break the game. There is nothing prohibiting the Devs from writing key conversations with a couple of EITHER/OR options based on choices the player made. We know this to be true because everything that occurs in KOTET on the Gravestone is accomplished by either Koth or Tora. So, when the Devs have the time to do it, they account for those choices.

 

So, there's nothing technical about the game that would prevent them from doing two versions of conversations. I mean, they could just have Lana do anything that would otherwise be spoken by a person you had killed in your choices. So its purely a matter of time and money.

 

Lana makes sense to stay with you and the Alliance. She's already sacrificed everything to find you, burned bridges on both sides, and mended ones as well. It fits with her character and until that character has a reason to doubt you, I don't think we'll be parting ways. It's a good thing she forgives me for all the times I wipe on trash.

I think it's a matter of resources, or rather the lack of them. They could do what you're suggesting but it takes more hours and people to get it working - plus the cost of voice actors. I think the game is on a skeleton crew and they just don't have the people or money to spare, to be honest. That's why it's all Lana all the time as quest giver and primary companion; it's less work and more cost efficient to just put her in everything.

[IoNonSoEVero]

I disagree. She and Theron are the ones who guided you through the Revanite crisis, not your LI, and there are several love interests for whom it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't come and find you:

1. DS Jaesa
   
2. Raina Temple (she is a fugitive from the Sith after all)
   
3. Risha Drayen (would ultimately go back to Dubrillion, until its defeated by Zakuul, and then she goes out on her own)
   
4. Mako (yes, she was always very cautious about the romance with the BH and she'd chalk it up to her destiny of bad luck and move on)
   

I mean I can certainly go on. I've never played a female toon so I can't speak to the male LIs, but between Theran Cedrax, Doc, Talos, Vector, Quinn, Pierce (can you romance Pierce?), Andronikos,, there's plenty of folks with egos, conflicting loyalties, lack of combat skills or any combo of the above to think they wouldn't come for you.

Not to mention the fact that you could go through the vanilla story and not romance one of those companions.

 

So yeah, Lana makes a ton of sense. Theron isn't the one to make the aggressive play, charging into enemy territory. He's more of a coordinator in the background, even once he joins your alliance. "I can do more damage away from enemy lines" he says (or something like it) as he drops you off on Odessen to face Vaylin.

 

All of this. I feel like there are others who just wouldn't have cared (Kaliyo), those who would have needed to take care of their own safety first, and those who might have wanted to try but might not have had the ability to even get close (Felix, Nadia, Mako).

 

You're so right, too; not everyone has a love interest in the class stories. You know, like those of us who were LGBT and excluded from romance in the class stories. Or those who just didn't like the companions available for the romances. What then? You get rescued by the ship droid or something?

 

Not every action has to be carried out by the love interests. I mean, don't people have actual friends and colleagues other than the person they're sleeping with in real life? Or is everyone supposed to be joined at the hip to their LI and never talk to or interact with anyone else, and only their LI is permitted to be the hero in their stories, and we devalue any other character who makes a contribution?

 

Lana made sense to go into enemy territory and grab the PC, and then do exactly what she did, which was to gather allies. Even if the PC hated her in SoR, she was rescuing them to serve a purpose (killing Arcann and Vaylin), not as a social call.

[Goreshaga]

I mean I can certainly go on. I've never played a female toon so I can't speak to the male LIs, but between Theran Cedrax, Doc, Talos, Vector, Quinn, Pierce (can you romance Pierce?), Andronikos,, there's plenty of folks with egos, conflicting loyalties, lack of combat skills or any combo of the above to think they wouldn't come for you.

Not to mention the fact that you could go through the vanilla story and not romance one of those companions.

 

So yeah, Lana makes a ton of sense. Theron isn't the one to make the aggressive play, charging into enemy territory. He's more of a coordinator in the background, even once he joins your alliance. "I can do more damage away from enemy lines" he says (or something like it) as he drops you off on Odessen to face Vaylin.

I don't really remember everything, but from what i recall Doc searched the JK with Kira and Scourge for some times, untill Scourge went on a hunt and Doc was separated from them and ended up on Ossus.

Quinn actively tried to find the SW untill he was put in an imperial prison because some people didn't want him to find the Wrath.

IIRC, Aric and Elara tried to convince the Republic to keep searching for the trooper untill the trooper was declared KIA.

Torian spent some times searching with the rest of the crew, and then hunted a bit with Mako and then joined the Mandalorians, so, he'd probably not have been part of the rescue mission

Don't really know about the others though

 

But about Theron, he is a field agent who killed 2 Dark Councillors (Darth Mekhis and Darth Karrid) and he was working with Lana all along, he could've been there for the rescue as well actually.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Goreshaga

[Xenipher]

I don't really remember everything, but from what i recall Doc searched the JK with Kira and Scourge for some times, untill Scourge went on a hunt and Doc was separated from them and ended up on Ossus.

Quinn actively tried to find the SW untill he was put in an imperial prison because some people didn't want him to find the Wrath.

IIRC, Aric and Elara tried to convince the Republic to keep searching for the trooper untill the trooper was declared KIA.

Torian spent some times searching with the rest of the crew, and then hunted a bit with Mako and then joined the Mandalorians, so, he'd probably not have been part of the rescue mission

Don't really know about the others though

 

But about Theron, he is a field agent who killed 2 Dark Councillors (Darth Mekhis and Darth Karrid) and he was working with Lana all along, he could've been there for the rescue as well actually.

Considering Theron's SIS background I think it would have made more sense for him to be there with Lana during the rescue instead of Koth.

[phalczen]

I don't really remember everything, but from what i recall Doc searched the JK with Kira and Scourge for some times, untill Scourge went on a hunt and Doc was separated from them and ended up on Ossus.

Quinn actively tried to find the SW untill he was put in an imperial prison because some people didn't want him to find the Wrath.

IIRC, Aric and Elara tried to convince the Republic to keep searching for the trooper untill the trooper was declared KIA.

Torian spent some times searching with the rest of the crew, and then hunted a bit with Mako and then joined the Mandalorians, so, he'd probably not have been part of the rescue mission

Don't really know about the others though

 

All of what you said was true, of course. I was speaking in terms of, at the moment that the player character vanishes in wild space (i.e. the start of Chapter 1 on Marr's flagship), who, out of all the people they know, have developed backgrounds that searching for you until the bitter end makes sense. We find out later, of course, that Felix Iresso and Malavi Quinn were imprisoned; that LS Jaesa, Ashara, and Nadia search for you until they vanish in wild space or join the Ossus colony. We find out that Andronikos Revel, a guy who's pretty merciless when it comes to revenge, he is so distraught at your disappearance that he starts attacking anything and everything with a Zakuulan logo on it, so much that he doesn't even realize when the war's over and you've taken over. But as a player character, we only learn these things AFTER five or six years. My examples were based on what we knew of the companions just before you were frozen.

 

But about Theron, he is a field agent who killed 2 Dark Councillors (Darth Mekhis and Darth Karrid) and he was working with Lana all along, he could've been there for the rescue as well actually.

 

I never read the novel about him, so perhaps I'm not giving him enough credit. Maybe I'm discounting him because I have a natural bias to think that a strong Force user has more chance of success in such a hopeless rescue mission, and I'll apologize up front for that. There is a pragmatic aspect to Lana Beniko that might even dissuade her, at least initially, from undertaking this foolhardy mission. Maybe Theron had a lot of baggage after the debacle with the Sixth Line on Ziost that made it hard for him to get involved with the initial search. I don't know. For him, we're given a lot more of an emotional rollercoaster, and so it makes sense that we'd have all three options available to us: rescue and part ways, rescue and forgive, or leave to die. I'm curious what his dialogue is like if you romanced him but don't let him back in the Alliance after Nathema.

 

I do think that Lana has had enough character development that it would make sense that she would search for you. There are others, as you pointed out: Iresso and Quinn might have succeeded, had they not been thrown in prison. But, Lana is one NPC that every player, in theory, would have interacted with, which makes her an excellent choice. Not every PC interacts with Iresso and Quinn.

 

So yeah, back on topic, I think we're not given an option to part ways because it just doesn't make sense from her perspective to leave you. Even if you break her heart, or go against her advice, she still stands by your decisions. She'll even marry you even if you leave Theron, revealed to actually have been undercover, to die on Nathema. Dare I say, she is following the will of the Force to follow you (ironically making her a better jedi than some of the ones left)?

 

For the record, I don't think Lana is the greatest companion since sliced bread and I have no problem with people who don't like her. In general I like most of the supporting cast and I've even saved Skadge more often than I thought I would despite being overjoyed learning we were getting the option to give him the axe. I just don't think anything has been developed/written thus far about Lana that it would make sense for her to want to leave.

[Damask_Rose]

So yeah, Lana makes a ton of sense. Theron isn't the one to make the aggressive play, charging into enemy territory. He's more of a coordinator in the background, even once he joins your alliance. "I can do more damage away from enemy lines" he says (or something like it) as he drops you off on Odessen to face Vaylin.

 

You do need to go read the book. Your description of Theron is completely opposite of the kind of man he is. He is absolutely one to go deep into enemy territory undercover to do very risky things. He made every bit as much sense as Lana to be the one to do the rescue, if not more. It was exactly the type of operation he was trained to do and excelled at. Where as it was not at all what Lana was trained to do.

[SithKoriandr]

You do need to go read the book. Your description of Theron is completely opposite of the kind of man he is. He is absolutely one to go deep into enemy territory undercover to do very risky things. He made every bit as much sense as Lana to be the one to do the rescue, if not more. It was exactly the type of operation he was trained to do and excelled at. Where as it was not at all what Lana was trained to do.

 

That seems to be part of the problem.

 

Go outside the game to find out about a character. Then to use that as a "Theron is this way."

 

Then it's said, Lana should get a book. However, if she did, and it made her look even better than what people want to believe, it'd just be "She's a dev favorite, that why she came out looking so good."

 

Point being, maybe stick to what we see in game.

[OldVengeance]

I disagree. She and Theron are the ones who guided you through the Revanite crisis, not your LI, and there are several love interests for whom it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't come and find you:

1. DS Jaesa
   
2. Raina Temple (she is a fugitive from the Sith after all)
   
3. Risha Drayen (would ultimately go back to Dubrillion, until its defeated by Zakuul, and then she goes out on her own)
   
4. Mako (yes, she was always very cautious about the romance with the BH and she'd chalk it up to her destiny of bad luck and move on)
   

I mean I can certainly go on. I've never played a female toon so I can't speak to the male LIs, but between Theran Cedrax, Doc, Talos, Vector, Quinn, Pierce (can you romance Pierce?), Andronikos,, there's plenty of folks with egos, conflicting loyalties, lack of combat skills or any combo of the above to think they wouldn't come for you.

Not to mention the fact that you could go through the vanilla story and not romance one of those companions.

 

So yeah, Lana makes a ton of sense.

 

I disagree. All those characters you mentioned care about you enough to be the one to find you. Even the non romancable characters you mention later are supposed to be close enough to the PC that they wouldn't let things like egos or conflicting loyalties stop them from finding the Outlander. Oftentimes the unromanced companions still come to regard you as family.

 

Lana makes sense as someone who would rescue you, and she's obviously the practical option from a recourse perspective, but the fact that our love interests didn't help her is what is rather questionable. In fact, we've never gotten a concrete explanation for why Jaesa, Kira and Ashara couldn't sense their Master through the Force.

 

If anything, people like Darkside Jaesa or even Temple should have been exactly the type of people that would have been most useful to Lana in breaking you out.

 

I know there is an out of universe reason for why it took so long for companions to return, but in universe, it was actually starting to seem like an indictment of Lana and her agents' competence that it ended up going the way it did.

 

Theron isn't the one to make the aggressive play, charging into enemy territory. He's more of a coordinator in the background, even once he joins your alliance. "I can do more damage away from enemy lines" he says (or something like it) as he drops you off on Odessen to face Vaylin.

 

What about charging into an Imperial Core World by himself while it's under attack by a world eating Sith ghost?

Edited January 12, 2019 by OldVengeance

[aerockyul]

That seems to be part of the problem.

 

Go outside the game to find out about a character. Then to use that as a "Theron is this way."

 

Then it's said, Lana should get a book. However, if she did, and it made her look even better than what people want to believe, it'd just be "She's a dev favorite, that why she came out looking so good."

 

Point being, maybe stick to what we see in game.

 

That's pretty much it there.

 

If they actually gave in to these people and killed her off--and the death scene took five minutes of screen time--they would STILL COMPLAIN there was too much Lana in that chapter/story bit. "I got what I wanted but there wasn't enough Theron or Quinn or Arcann or Doc or Scourge or Corso or Aric standing next to me while I tortured and fried the **** out of her!"

 

inb4 "I don't want her dead, I want her exiled!" I'm sure the cutscene would insult you the same.

Lana: "Well, after all we've been through, I guess this is goo...."

Ego-centric PC: "SHUT UP AND LEAVE!!! TOO MUCH LANA IN MY LANA-GOODBYE CUTSCENE! THERON SHOULD BE THE ONE TO BOOT YOU OUT THE DOOR!!"

Edited January 12, 2019 by aerockyul

[casirabit]

With regard to Doc, you are correct and once he was on Ossus they had a communication black out so once he was there he had no knowledge of what was actually going on in the galaxy.

[IoNonSoEVero]

That's pretty much it there.

 

If they actually gave in to these people and killed her off--and the death scene took five minutes of screen time--they would STILL COMPLAIN there was too much Lana in that chapter/story bit. "I got what I wanted but there wasn't enough Theron or Quinn or Arcann or Doc or Scourge or Corso or Aric standing next to me while I tortured and fried the **** out of her!"

 

inb4 "I don't want her dead, I want her exiled!" I'm sure the cutscene would insult you the same.

Lana: "Well, after all we've been through, I guess this is goo...."

Ego-centric PC: "SHUT UP AND LEAVE!!! TOO MUCH LANA IN MY LANA-GOODBYE CUTSCENE! THERON SHOULD BE THE ONE TO BOOT YOU OUT THE DOOR!!"

 

Precisely. If there were a kill scene, I'm sure there would be complaints about not being painful enough. If there were an exile, same. And then they'd complain if the devs didn't brick her and gave her some screen time for those who kept her because it would take time away from their space husbands.

 

There's really nothing they can do with Lana that would not result in people complaining and wanting to roast her.

[Goreshaga]

Considering Theron's SIS background I think it would have made more sense for him to be there with Lana during the rescue instead of Koth.

Well, Koth being a former zakuulian soldier he makes sense being there as he knows the place.

Lana being a strong Sith makes sense as well as she's able to fight against the Knights if needed.

But Theron being there would make sense as well, probably more than T7, unless you're playing a JK. T7 makes sense as he's able to go everywhere pretty much unnoticed but why would he be there to rescue a Sith in the first place and how did he end up with Lana ? That is a mystery...

 

My only explanation as to why Theron was not there to rescue my JK was that he wanted to come but Lana being the pragmatic of the two talked him out of it because she feared his feelings for her could compromise the rescue mission and put them all in danger, and so T7 came with her to help instead. (But this only works for my JK romancing Theron)

 

That seems to be part of the problem.

 

Go outside the game to find out about a character. Then to use that as a "Theron is this way."

 

Then it's said, Lana should get a book. However, if she did, and it made her look even better than what people want to believe, it'd just be "She's a dev favorite, that why she came out looking so good."

 

Point being, maybe stick to what we see in game.

Well fact is that what he did during the traitor arc is pretty similar to what he did on Nar Shadda to help a friend, but on a bigger scale, he's able to mess pretty badly when someone he cares about is concerned and would go to great lenght to help them.

Then there are also some references to Annihilation in game, first with Lorman on Dromund Kaas in KOTET and then with Gnost-Dural during one of the cutscenes of JUS.

So what is sais in this book is valid to be used in game as well

 

As for Lana, honnestly if her getting a book means i'll have less of her in game, i'm perfectly fine with that. At least reading the book is optional, while her constant presence in game is not.

As i already said i don't need her removed just see less of her and be able to interact with other companions when they make sense, even more so when they make more sense than her (they should use her by default only when she's the one to make the more sense or to replace a character who actually died in ones playthrough and not each and every possibly dead companion, even when they're not actually dead)

Actually a book about what she was doing during the 5 years we spent in carbonite and her search for us could be very interesting, or something that would show more about her background and how she came to be the person she is now.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Goreshaga

[Estelindis]

Lana being the one to rescue us has, in my opinion, precisely the same logic as Lana being a central quest-giver: Bioware needed a single character to fulfil this role (as they only had the resources for one version), and she was the one they picked. Doesn't mean she was the best pick. Plenty of other characters could and would have done a great job, including Theron and several of the class LIs. But Lana is the one they picked, and the fact that plenty of others could've made more sense doesn't mean she made no sense.

 

Those of us who prefer lots of other characters to Lana can only imagine an alternate story written by devs with much greater resources where Lana's various plot-critical roles could've been fulfilled by other characters. And, to be perfectly frank, even those of us who like Lana a lot might wistfully imagine a story where she was more free to "be herself" rather than always needing to do whatever the devs require her to do for the critical story path (e.g., as I have discussed with Io previously, Lana's preposterously OOC suggestion to go talk to Valkorion at the start of chapter 12).

 

Some days, I think about the beautifully reactive, multi-strand story Bioware could've given us for KotFE/ET if they'd had far greater resources. Different characters could've taken part in the rescue. Every companion could've received an appropriate, compelling, replayable reunion. We could've had a story that required less handwaving and made sense no matter what our character background and roleplaying approach. We could've told various characters to take a hike if we didn't want them around, and chosen the characters we wanted to bring on missions so they'd get more screentime. We didn't get that, and our various complaints here and in other threads will never change that. Bioware will likely never be granted the near-mythical level of funds they would need to make our dream updates - and will certainly never be going back to redo any of the old content we would've liked to be different.

 

But one thing I do see in common in these various threads, whether they're complaining about a companion or showing great love for a companion, is passion. People with a great focus on one particular companion appreciate aspects of the companion and are able to describe them in ways that often make me appreciate a companion I mightn't have liked all that much otherwise. I bet that, collaboratively, people here could do a great job of describing what they'd like to see in any material that focused on their favorite.

 

Since we don't have much control over what would actually go into the game, I wonder sometimes if people would be interested in a big collaborative fan rewrite of the story from KotFE/ET to the Nathema Conspiracy. I've been thinking for a while about organizing a thread where we'd break down the story, discuss what worked and what didn't, move things around as needed, add some things and take some others away, etc. Every companion could get their "day in the sun" - but none of them would be obligatory, so those strongly opposed to some companions would have the agency to say no to those moments if they wanted. And any material with a strong focus on a particular companion could be written by fans of that companion, who know the character best and have the best sense of what fans of the characters actually want. At the same time, we'd all be giving each other critical feedback and commenting on how each individual bit fits into the whole, to prevent any particular bit getting too "bad fanfic-y."

 

Here are a few brief examples of what I'm thinking about. Lots of people dislike KotFE ch 12 (especially for non-force characters), so we could create a story branch where the PC can still go into the wilderness if they want, or alternatively the PC goes on the Spire mission assisting Kaliyo and Jorgan. Each branch would have a benefit and a drawback. Or we could more coherently tie together all the Iokath material and all the Nathema material - maybe the original intention before KotET was curtailed wouldn't have had us do two short separate visits for each, and we could find some way to "get back" to whatever would've been. Or again, maybe we could make a plot line that would give the PC a bit more intellectual credit, have them realize Valkorion's extremely obvious plans, and have a tense situation where they work against a malevolent presence in their mind observing their every move, trying to find some way to counter him that will actually surprise him (using our own wits and creativity, rather than just having a convenient macguffin fall into our hands). Whenever we notice issues or gaps in the story, that could be an opportunity to link in a neglected companion in a more interesting way. I bet with lots of different viewpoints and sources of fan knowledge, some great ideas could come up.

 

It could be fun. I'm not sure about the level of interest in such a thing, but maybe there'd be plenty - many of us put a lot of time into arguing on these threads, after all.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Estelindis

[Xenipher]

I don't want Lana dead. I don't even want her gone from my game. What I want is less of her in the critical path going forward. It's not about this or that LI not getting any screen time, it's about Lana being the only companion I seem to have any meaningful interactions even in scenes where someone else would make more sense, or literally getting the mission from the mission terminal would have been fine - and the times I saw you need Lana for this. It's got to the point where I feel like my character can't round a corner without Lana being in my face either giving me a mission or her telling me someone else has a mission for me.

 

Take for example Into the Void; Lana's presence during that mission made no difference whatsoever, so why was she forced on me there? The mission itself would have played out exactly the same if I had been able to take a companion from the terminal. Any companion. I'd keep the holocron on my person. In the end giving it to Lana didn't make a difference anyway.

 

Jedi Under Siege: Talk to Lana. That's fine for me the Empire player. I had no problems with her being the go-to here; it made sense.

 

But then the romantic like walk happens, and later I have yet another cutscene with her and I'm just...

OMG GO AWAY! FFS. I'd take Skadge at this point.

 

I guess my point is that it's cumulative. Over time she has started to wear on me. She's the overly needy friend who constantly calls wanting your attention and you're looking for a way to extricate yourself without hurting their feelings. At first the constant calling is fine because you hope it'll die down but it never does. After a while it begins to take its toll and you look for an out.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Xenipher

[AscendingSky]

Lana makes sense as someone who would rescue you, and she's obviously the practical option from a recourse perspective, but the fact that our love interests didn't help her is what is rather questionable. In fact, we've never gotten a concrete explanation for why Jaesa, Kira and Ashara couldn't sense their Master through the Force.

 

If anything, people like Darkside Jaesa or even Temple should have been exactly the type of people that would have been most useful to Lana in breaking you out.

 

I don't know about Jaesa or Ashara, but Darth Hexid told my female Jedi Knight main that Kira actually put together a team to attempt to rescue her from carbonite on Zakuul before Lana and Koth ever showed up on the scene. Apparently she and her team were caught in the act and stopped, but Kira managed to get away. I thought that was good to hear, that the writers acknowledged that at least one of our class story companions would have figured out your Outlander was alive and where they were on their own.

 

I haven't gone through the Alliance Alert for Hexid on a Warrior or Inquisitor yet, but perhaps she might have something to say about Jaesa or Ashara in the same vein for those classes?

 

That's pretty much it there.

 

If they actually gave in to these people and killed her off--and the death scene took five minutes of screen time--they would STILL COMPLAIN there was too much Lana in that chapter/story bit. "I got what I wanted but there wasn't enough Theron or Quinn or Arcann or Doc or Scourge or Corso or Aric standing next to me while I tortured and fried the **** out of her!"

 

inb4 "I don't want her dead, I want her exiled!" I'm sure the cutscene would insult you the same.

Lana: "Well, after all we've been through, I guess this is goo...."

Ego-centric PC: "SHUT UP AND LEAVE!!! TOO MUCH LANA IN MY LANA-GOODBYE CUTSCENE! THERON SHOULD BE THE ONE TO BOOT YOU OUT THE DOOR!!"

Precisely. If there were a kill scene, I'm sure there would be complaints about not being painful enough. If there were an exile, same. And then they'd complain if the devs didn't brick her and gave her some screen time for those who kept her because it would take time away from their space husbands.

 

There's really nothing they can do with Lana that would not result in people complaining and wanting to roast her.

 

That's a lovely strawman you two have constructed there! Pity it's not actually an accurate representation of the attitudes and statements of people in this thread and other threads on the forum. No one has been anywhere near that over the top in hating Lana (unlike one of you who loves to rant about how they hate Theron's guts on a regular basis). How about not painting people who aren't mega Space Waifu Lana fans as irrational egomaniac rage monsters solely to try to discount their opinions and reasoning? It's pretty childish.

Edited January 12, 2019 by AscendingSky

[JakRoanin]

That's a lovely strawman you two have constructed there! Pity it's not actually an accurate representation of the attitudes and statements of people in this thread and other threads on the forum. No one has been anywhere near that over the top in hating Lana (unlike one of you who loves to rant about how they hate Theron's guts on a regular basis). How about not painting people who aren't mega Space Waifu Lana fans as irrational egomaniac rage monsters solely to try to discount their opinions and reasoning? It's pretty childish.

 

Very true, I'm sick of being classed in a group of homophobic bloodthirsty emo children. I want Lana gone because she uses my PC's and disrespects them. Plus, my Imps want out of the Empire they are against everything she believes in.

[Goreshaga]

I don't want Lana dead. I don't even want her gone from my game. What I want is less of her in the critical path going forward. It's not about this or that LI not getting any screen time, it's about Lana being the only companion I seem to have any meaningful interactions even in scenes where someone else would make more sense, or literally getting the mission from the mission terminal would have been fine - and the times I saw you need Lana for this. It's got to the point where I feel like my character can't round a corner without Lana being in my face either giving me a mission or her telling me someone else has a mission for me.

 

I guess my point is that it's cumulative. Over time she has started to wear on me. She's the overly needy friend who constantly calls wanting your attention and you're looking for a way to extricate yourself without hurting their feelings. At first the constant calling is fine because you hope it'll die down but it never does. After a while it begins to take its toll and you look for an out.

It's exactly how i feel as well.

I don't hate her yet, but i'm starting to get tired of her being the default companion and seemingly the only person my characters interact with. It was still okay untill the end of the traitor acr because up to that point i stil had interactions with other companions from times to times, but in JUS, it started to become annoying.

I guess my main problem here is that my main characters are all siding with the Republic so Lana being the only one who knows doesn't make sense, while it's logical that she would know for characters romancing her no matter what alliegence they choose or for any character siding with the Empire, clearly my saboteurs would at least tell Theron and their LIs, and my JK who is romancing Theron would have talked about that with BOTH Lana and Theron because it'd make sense that she would talk about that with them both.

 

But then the romantic like walk happens, and later I have yet another cutscene with her and I'm just...

OMG GO AWAY! FFS. I'd take Skadge at this point.

I think that romantic like sunset walk in the woods was the worst part for me.

Seriously, a romantic sunset walk in the woods is totally something my JK would do, with Theron, not with Lana. Considering it was a buisness talk, they could've done it anywhere, it didn't need to be in such a romantic setting.

If they wanted to do a romantic sunset walk for Lana, they should've done it for her proposal (i'm pretty sure people romancing Lana would've liked it better too than doing it in that hangar), not for a buisness talk about who you want to side with...

[IoNonSoEVero]

It's exactly how i feel as well.

I don't hate her yet, but i'm starting to get tired of her being the default companion and seemingly the only person my characters interact with. It was still okay untill the end of the traitor acr because up to that point i stil had interactions with other companions from times to times, but in JUS, it started to become annoying.

I guess my main problem here is that my main characters are all siding with the Republic so Lana being the only one who knows doesn't make sense, while it's logical that she would know for characters romancing her no matter what alliegence they choose or for any character siding with the Empire, clearly my saboteurs would at least tell Theron and their LIs, and my JK who is romancing Theron would have talked about that with BOTH Lana and Theron because it'd make sense that she would talk about that with them both.

 

But neither Lana nor Theron really had much interaction in 5.10 at all. Yes, there was that walk in the woods (and in hindsight, flipping that with the military hangar would have been nice. Have the proposal in the woods; have the business talk in the hangar), but after the PC went out on the mission they interacted with all sorts of characters who were not Lana or Theron. Anri, Tau, Gnost-Dural, the stupid Imperial droid (I don't remember his name and can't be bothered finding it), Jonas, The Surprise Guest, Mallora, the returning companions, etc. Lana and Theron aren't even in touch by comlink.

 

So I'm honestly confused by the "we want to talk to other companions" with 5.10. You did. You talked to a lot of other people. There wasn't even an Alliance debrief at the end of Ossus. There were letters from lots of other companions. Lana wasn't the forced companion on either side for Ossus.

 

If by "other companions" people meant their LI or the class companions, well, we already know dead for one = dead for all, and BW seems determined to die on that hill. Advocating for dead for one = dead for one would seem to be more constructive, but people aren't really doing that.

 

I do think it's silly for Lana to be the contact for the Republic, and I do think that the PC should have had a choice of whether to tell Lana or Theron they are undercover, if they chose that option. The PC could perhaps have had a choice to talk to either the Imperial droid or Jonas and declare their true loyalties that way. The droid/Jonas could have asked them, "Do you want me to inform your advisor(s)?" if the PC was a saboteur, and if you said yes, you could have chosen [tell Lana] [Tell Theron] [Tell both].

 

But that's where we are after all the endless kill/exile requests for other characters. If people hadn't screamed so loudly for the writers to kill or exile Theron, maybe there WOULD have been a way for the PC to at least choose to talk to Lana or Theron or have them both in the room for the discussion about future plans.

 

But that's not the character's fault and it's not the fault of the fans who tried hard to keep Theron alive for you, regardless of how they felt about him personally.

Edited January 12, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Xenipher]

Just did Jaesa Willsaam's reunion and they even shoe-horned Lana into Jaesa's reunion. If I never see this character again it will be too soon.

 

But seriously. Stop. Writers please stop feeling the need to insert her into everything and anything. Please. No more. I don't want her dead but going forward stop inserting her into everything. We have new NPC's to interact with now and I'm perfectly happy to get to know them. I can only hope they intend to bring these new people forward and I get much less Lana in my game.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Xenipher

[OldVengeance]

I don't know about Jaesa or Ashara, but Darth Hexid told my female Jedi Knight main that Kira actually put together a team to attempt to rescue her from carbonite on Zakuul before Lana and Koth ever showed up on the scene. Apparently she and her team were caught in the act and stopped, but Kira managed to get away. I thought that was good to hear, that the writers acknowledged that at least one of our class story companions would have figured out your Outlander was alive and where they were on their own.

 

I haven't gone through the Alliance Alert for Hexid on a Warrior or Inquisitor yet, but perhaps she might have something to say about Jaesa or Ashara in the same vein for those classes?

 

Yeah I saw Hexid's comments of Kira and I have to say I was pretty glad to hear them. Her comments on Jaesa and Nadia were not quite as interesting. She just says that Jaesa had been terrorizing the Eternal Empire and destroying their outposts. That was actually very satisfying to hear, but didn't tell us much about her relationship to the Warrior.

 

And all she says about Ashara is that she had heard that she had ambushed a Zakuulan patrol all by herself.

 

The thing about Kira, though, is that we know from her romance letter that she could not sense the Knight in the Force. And we know from Ranos that she eventually decided that they must be dead. So the question becomes how and when did she learn that the Jedi Knight was alive?

 

Now, given Nadia's reunion, it's possible that the writers will completely ignore what Ranos and Hexid told us. But if not, I think I'd like to know why Lana didn't find her before now, seeing as how they were both working on the exact same problem with the exact same plan at some point(s) or other in time.

Edited January 12, 2019 by OldVengeance

[OldVengeance]

Just did Jaesa Willsaam's reunion and they even shoe-horned Lana into Jaesa's reunion. If I never see this character again it will be too soon.

 

But seriously. Stop. Writers please stop feeling the need to insert her into everything and anything. Please. No more. I don't want her dead but going forward stop inserting her into everything. We have new NPC's to interact with now and I'm perfectly happy to get to know them. I can only hope they intend to bring these new people forward and I get much less Lana in my game.

 

It didn't super bother me that she was present for the Nadia and DS Jaesa reunions, because I had been curious how a meeting between Lana and those two might go, but Jaesa's reunion ended up with even fewer dialogue choices than average (unless you don't romance her or are just starting one), so that did make me raise an eyebrow. Perhaps those things aren't related, but thinking about it now, it does make me wonder if the lack resources were a factor. And if that was the case, Lana dialogue in a Jaesa Alliance Alert is probably not a good idea.

[phalczen]

I disagree. All those characters you mentioned care about you enough to be the one to find you.

 

I guess you and I saw very different cutscenes of, for example, Risha Drayen, or as Iononsoervo mentioned, Kaliyo. Or, at least if the cutscenes were the same, we interpreted them very differently. My point is that your blanket assumption that the player character's designated LI should have been the one to rescue you does not work, or is less plausible, for a number of companions. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

Even the non romancable characters you mention later are supposed to be close enough to the PC that they wouldn't let things like egos or conflicting loyalties stop them from finding the Outlander. Oftentimes the unromanced companions still come to regard you as family.

 

Riiight …. which is why I specifically mention Iresso and Quinn as guys who got imprisoned just because they wouldn't give up. But we don't know about that until AFTER the Eternal Empire is defeated. And, of course, they couldn't be with Lana because, you know, they were in prison. So, again, from the standpoint of, what do you know about the characters as of KOTFE Ch. 1 … that's what I'm going by.

 

You do need to go read the book. Your description of Theron is completely opposite of the kind of man he is. He is absolutely one to go deep into enemy territory undercover to do very risky things. He made every bit as much sense as Lana to be the one to do the rescue, if not more. It was exactly the type of operation he was trained to do and excelled at. Where as it was not at all what Lana was trained to do.

Well fact is that what he did during the traitor arc is pretty similar to what he did on Nar Shadda to help a friend, but on a bigger scale, he's able to mess pretty badly when someone he cares about is concerned and would go to great lenght to help them.

Then there are also some references to Annihilation in game, first with Lorman on Dromund Kaas in KOTET and then with Gnost-Dural during one of the cutscenes of JUS.

So what is sais in this book is valid to be used in game as well

OK, OK, I'll read the book! I apologize for misrepresenting Theron. It just that a few things in game made me think he's not the one to make that play, at least at this stage in his life (I don't know if Annihilation is set before or after the events of "Forged Alliances"):

1. First, during the Star Fortress missions, he's not the one who comes with you. He stays on the ship with Miot Dengd. Couldn't he have done a lot more slicing if he had been directly in the station with you? We can do solo versions of Umbara, Copero, and Nathema with any companions we want … but the initial version had to be with Lana, Raina, and Lana+Theron respectively. Similarly, the Star Fortresses could have gone that way too.

2. On Iokath, he refers to the sanctuary as secure ("Anyway its secure"), but if he's not a good foot soldier why is he judging what's secure? The writers had plenty of folks to choose from: Jorgan, if alive, Koth, if alive, and Torian. Any of these companions had more experience to judge how secure the sanctuary was. He would have been the perfect character to be manipulating the Technoliths, trying to hack into them, but for some strange reason it was Vette.

3. The line he says to you and Lana when he drops you two off on Odessen after returning from Nathema and Vaylin has started her invasion. He says something like, "I can do more damage away from enemy lines" or something to that effect. Perhaps its just referring to him not being a very good foot soldier (see #2 above), and by no means am I implying Theron Shan is a coward … he is anything but a coward. But, he's not a great tactician or soldier. He's an operative. He makes the most of the situation as he can, because his situations often go awry, and he can adapt, but he's not a great planner. He needs the help of Col. Darok to accomplish the Korriban invasion.

 

So, anyway, I like Theron, I've saved him even on my darkest characters thus far, and I admit it might have been plausible for him to be involved in freeing you from Arcann's prison. But, as another poster said, he's not the one they chose. They chose Lana, she makes sense, and nothing has occurred yet in game to make me think she'd want to leave.

 

I want Lana gone because she uses my PC's and disrespects them. Plus, my Imps want out of the Empire they are against everything she believes in.

When? When has she used the PC? When has she disrespected them … even if you don't take her advice she says she'll follow you?

Do you really know what she believes any more? Do you really think she's truly a Sith? I mean, if you are a republic character and you've recruited Xalek, when you finish Ossus you get an email from him with the subject "I am Sith." But Lana never makes any claims like that, and in fact implies she would never go back to the Empire. I mean did you watch the cutscenes or just spacebar through them because you hate her? She's not a model master Jedi of course, but she's no Darth Jadus.

Edited January 12, 2019 by phalczen

[Xenipher]

It didn't super bother me that she was present for the Nadia and DS Jaesa reunions, because I had been curious how a meeting between Lana and those two might go, but Jaesa's reunion ended up with even fewer dialogue choices than average (unless you don't romance her or are just starting one), so that did make me raise an eyebrow. Perhaps those things aren't related, but thinking about it now, it does make me wonder if the lack resources were a factor. And if that was the case, Lana dialogue in a Jaesa Alliance Alert is probably not a good idea.

I'm tempted to roll another SW just for DS Jaesa romance for a psycho lady Wrath but I'm waiting to see if they plan more content for her or if she's going to collect dust with the rest of the vanilla companions.

[JakRoanin]

When? When has she used the PC? When has she disrespected them … even if you don't take her advice she says she'll follow you?

Do you really know what she believes any more? Do you really think she's truly a Sith? I mean, if you are a republic character and you've recruited Xalek, when you finish Ossus you get an email from him with the subject "I am Sith." But Lana never makes any claims like that, and in fact implies she would never go back to the Empire. I mean did you watch the cutscenes or just spacebar through them because you hate her? She's not a model master Jedi of course, but she's no Darth Jadus.

 

 

No, I haven't skipped cutscenes just because I hate her, she does act rudely and disrespectfully. If you shut down the reactor on Zakuul she says "Enough I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not" like PC is throwing a tantrum at Wal-Mart! Then after she sends PC to chat with Valkorian she berates you when you return, then if you don't want to get into it she says "That doesn't mean you don't have to tell" as if PC blew her curfew!

 

Do I believe she's a Sith? She believes she is and I wouldn't trust her EVER. Jadus isn't even the scariest Sith in-game so that isn't an endorsement. She is Imperial to the core but she's a power groupie!

[SithKoriandr]

No, I haven't skipped cutscenes just because I hate her, she does act rudely and disrespectfully. If you shut down the reactor on Zakuul she says "Enough I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not" like PC is throwing a tantrum at Wal-Mart! Then after she sends PC to chat with Valkorian she berates you when you return, then if you don't want to get into it she says "That doesn't mean you don't have to tell" as if PC blew her curfew!

 

Do I believe she's a Sith? She believes she is and I wouldn't trust her EVER. Jadus isn't even the scariest Sith in-game so that isn't an endorsement. She is Imperial to the core but she's a power groupie!

 

You think the Zakuul line is a tantrum? That was her caring about the character and caring very little about the people of Zakuul. You know, caring about the one she saved from almost dying, versus risking the life of the one she savedto save the people trying to kill them.

 

And yes, the people as a whole are still trying to kill the character, even if it's not directly. The people of Zakuul have a majority mind set and that mind set is kill the killer of the immortal emperor.

 

As for the where the hell have you been line, I always took that for really bad writing. I love Lana as a companion and even I was all "Where you sent me. o.O"

 

One thing we can all agree on, is the bad writing they did.