*Spoilers* Was Anyone Else Disappointed...*Spoilers*

[BellumEstBellum]

That in the end, Valkorion was just another mustache twirling villain? Like the writers had a lot of nuance that they blew, on the last part of the expansion. IMO, it would have been more interesting to make the PC emperor with Valkorion as an intrusive ghostly mentor, and have them run around the Galaxy like an Elric of Melnibone type character.

[ceryxp]

That in the end, Valkorion was just another mustache twirling villain? Like the writers had a lot of nuance that they blew, on the last part of the expansion. IMO, it would have been more interesting to make the PC emperor with Valkorion as an intrusive ghostly mentor, and have them run around the Galaxy like an Elric of Melnibone type character.

 

What was originally planned was a much longer story. Just as Fallen Empire is a 'book' with 16 chapter, there were originally planned to be two more 'books' of approximately the same length. Things happened and after Fallen Empire the rest of the story was cut down to what we got with Eternal Throne, and quite likely much of the Traitor arc (Iokath to Nathema). Charles made a post some time ago that detailed some of that story. I do not have that post bookmarked, but if I can find it I will post it.

 

ETA - I misremembered. Charles posted about Vitiate/Valkorian's backstory. Still an interesting read.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9347029#post9347029

Edited August 15, 2020 by ceryxp

[Bxvx]

I wish there was better thought into the become Emperor part, instead now if you go that route you are basically considered just the same type of tyrant you were overthrowing. Maybe a middle ground between the Peacekeeper and Tyrant part, not that any of it matters too much we lost the Gravestone and the Eternal Fleet for good.

[HollyUSEC]

The "Traitor" / Heralds of Zildrog could have easily been the whole 6.0 expansion. Give us some more time to play around with the fleet and the Gravestone. I understand they needed to get rid of those eventually in order to put the Pub vs. Imp war back on even ground once it resumed. But I felt that "Jedi Under Siege" and then "Onslaught" could have been postponed until 7.x. Unless too many people were just in a hurry to get back to Pub vs. Imp and leave the Alliance behind.

 

Disbanding the Alliance COULD create other problems as far as Alliance companions raised to high influence level, now suddenly leaving because of faction loyalties, but that can be worked around (if semi-clumsily) by simply excluding certain companions from the story any further, based on faction. Example: I'm not sure why an Imp character would raise Aric Jorgan to a high influence level, for example, but they had to accommodate any player who might have, by not removing him from the companion list altogether if you're an Imperial. At the same time, there's a noticeable line of dialogue in the Meridian FP when done for the first time as part of the story-- Pubs get it, but Imps don't: Either Lana or Theron telling you that Aric Jorgan has set up a sniper post. Effectively, Jorgan was written out of the story for Imp toons (at least for now) but can still be used as an adventuring/crafting companion.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling on tangents.

 

Valkorion had to be written out of the story sooner or later. For him to continuously pop back up in some form only to have to be swatted down again is like a case of herpes or crabs that has to have medication rubbed in every so often. If that makes him "just another mustache-twirling villain," then that's the price we have to pay.

[Bxvx]

I was bored decided to do some of the old planet quests, remember the story on Tatooine. Where there was the Rakata known as "The Imprisoned One" had his mind trapped in some device for like 20k years. Too bad we couldn't have done that to Valkorion, can just hear him saying you have come for my secrets and trifled with my patience for the last time! Having a pocket Valkorion to torment would be fun!

[ceryxp]

I was bored decided to do some of the old planet quests, remember the story on Tatooine. Where there was the Rakata known as "The Imprisoned One" had his mind trapped in some device for like 20k years. Too bad we couldn't have done that to Valkorion, can just hear him saying you have come for my secrets and trifled with my patience for the last time! Having a pocket Valkorion to torment would be fun!

 

A couple times I have decided to ignore the class story and just play the planetary arcs and side missions. I have a character I and doing that with right now, actually. Just play through to the end of the capital world to get your ship then ignore the class story from there. It is pretty interesting. You get to see a lot of stuff that is now ignored.