You think Ardun Kothe planned it out?

[JLazarillo]

Just got back to the game and started my Agent back up, got into Chapter 2, and dang, it was even better than I remembered. However, and maybe I'm overthinking things, I can't help but wonder if the Agent learning about his programming and how to break it wasn't Ardun's plan all along.

 

When it's first activated, there's a whole blackout scene, and of course, the player never "experiences" the events between chapters when the Agent is presumably kidnapped and given the restraints in the first place. This seems to indicate that Ardun could've never shown the Agent how the control was being done. However, instead, he makes a really big deal about "puppeteering" the player character at first, explaining what he did and how he did it. He deliberately gives a window of no new orders after Taris, and when it's time to go after the Shadow Arsenal, there's a distinct feeling of him slyly winking when he asks if the Agent has ever visited Quesh before, not to mention his utter lack of surprise when the programming is, in fact, broken.

 

It makes me wonder a little if Ardun's plan from the start was for the Agent to figure out who programmed him, and why, and break free of it, with the hope that the Agent would defect for real when s/he realized what Imperial Intelligence and the Sith had done.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

I think it's just wishful thinking on your part to make Ardun Kothe some master schemer with lofty, 'ethical' goals.

 

He was engaged in spy work during a time of war - that means you do some necessary and morally ambiguous things.

 

Even if he had some weird scheme of turning an imp agent for real; most of my agents held the viewpoint that the Empire may have programmed them as a precaution, but the Republic were the ones who actually USED the programming.

[JJKerryee]

Even if he had some weird scheme of turning an imp agent for real; most of my agents held the viewpoint that the Empire may have programmed them as a precaution, but the Republic were the ones who actually USED the programming.

 

Very interesting. Most of my characters think the exact opposite. Nothing in the story suggests the Empire didn't use the conditioning. Actually, it is heavily suggested that they did use it and made you forget about it, just like when they applied the serum. Regardless, it would have never been a problem if the Empire hadn't implemented it in the first place. IMHO, the Empire is at fault here. It was the Empire who implemented and caged the agent. The Republic only held the leash temporarily.

[JLazarillo]

I think it's just wishful thinking on your part to make Ardun Kothe some master schemer with lofty, 'ethical' goals.

Maybe. Certainly, I'd definitely be overstating it to say that he planned for the Agent to legitimately defect, for the very same reasons you mentioned. I still wonder a little though, maybe not that it was a "scheme", but rather a gamble, or a hope.

[FlameYOL]

I don't think so. Although maybe a LS Agent grows that hope inside him.

[Ardrossan]

I don't think so. Although maybe a LS Agent grows that hope inside him.

 

It's a good rationalization for becoming a double agent, in part because it's the only rationalization that the game offers that vaguely makes sense.

 

I do find it interesting the way players split over who is most at fault here, the Imps for designing it or the pubs for using it. I tend to blame the imps, but there's good arguments for both, and an excellent argument for ditching both and going freelance.

[FlameYOL]

It's a good rationalization for becoming a double agent, in part because it's the only rationalization that the game offers that vaguely makes sense.

 

I do find it interesting the way players split over who is most at fault here, the Imps for designing it or the pubs for using it. I tend to blame the imps, but there's good arguments for both, and an excellent argument for ditching both and going freelance.

Yep, I agree that both are at fault here. Heck I can imagine an alternate scenario where as opposed to trying to forcefully make you work for them Ardun looks at a LS Agent and tells him about the brainwashing in a desperate, and extremely naive, attempt at convincing you that the Sith Empire are not the people you should be working for since this was their reward.

[Keta]

The arguments about who is the most at fault for the programming and use of the IA during the story line is excatly why I invariably end up with my IA's taking the "independent" route in the end. I've never actually had one do anything else ... yet.