Regarding Ashara (Spoilers)

[AJediKnight]

Spoiler

Even after all this time, I still wonder why Ashara wound up... well, the way she is.

If you happen to be playing a light-side Sith, I guess she's alright (though I would argue that she is one of the more insuferable examples of a Jedi [or whatever the hell she is] that exists in the game). However, her presence aboard a dark-side SI's (which I would assume is the more common playthrough) ship is... specious at best.

First of all, I'm not sure why my character would tolerate this lunatic constantly raving about Jedi ideals why we're off cutting down her own order. Second, she is basically a lightsaber-wielding, chattering, nearly-delirious example of Stockholm Syndrome (which makes romancing her one of the more distinctly icky choices in SWTOR). This essentially makes everything she does with your character seem more like a kidnapping victim being dragged along on a crime spree than a willing accomplice.

And finally, there's the fact that her refusal to learn the dark side very much robs the Inquisitor of any opportunity to train an apprentice - something I would regard as a core experience, and one which every other force user gets. When you meet her, Ashara is clearly VERY unready as a padawan - she could be something of a blank slate to train in the Sith ways (especially if she didn't go absolutely berserk like Jaesa).

But no... we don't get that option. We just get saddled with this deranged crew member babbling nonstop about the Jedi Code while de-limbing Republic innocents. Even after 11 years, it's still immensely disappointing to me.

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by AJediKnight

[Otowi]

I agree that Ashara is a strange one. She's clearly headstrong, just like another one we know so well, namely Anakin. Unlike Anakin however, she's not so reckless.

She holds the Jedi ideals at heart, but that contrast a lot with gameplay, so that her story clashes with actual gameplay. 

Would she be better if we could turn her? Maybe, but I think the writers did not want another Jaesa, who goes utterly bonkers dark side. And it's not like we should be able to turn any Jedi or Sith we meet to the other side, as that would end up a bit boring.

[RowanThursday]

From a certain point of view™, Ashara Zavros can be seen as an attempt at a more subtle and manipulative "corruption to the Dark side" ploy by our various Siths, than Jaesa Wilsaam.

Jaesa, if corrupted, essentially gets a personality transplant via holocron, swapping out Little Miss Perfect and replacing her with a scenery-chewing blood-soaked table-leg humping loony. Now, that's not to say that Dark Jaesa isn't quite funny to play with, and very useful as a foil to a Dark Sith Warrior, but, she's basically Dark Side turned up to eleven, more or less in an instant. If having her as an apprentice gives you any part of "The Palpatine Experience" (The Theme Park Ride Nobody Asked For), then it is only the part of being the Emperor and having a fully Dark side committed Vader on your hands, someone to whom you can give the "Go eat those puppies" orders.

Ashara never thinks of herself as a bad person. She's the arrogant, ignorant young rebel who thinks, because she's young and powerful, that she knows better than her teachers, who doesn't understand that all her revolutionary new ideas get dismissed by her mentors not because they're just old and stuffy, but because they've been tried before by people more experienced than her, and didn't work. 

She thinks she can forge a path between Jedi and Sith, in doing so bring peace to the Galaxy and reform the Empire, and help the Sith Lord she's apprenticed to to usher in a new age. Like Anakin, she honestly believes she's doing the right thing and everyone else is too stupid to see it. Like Anakin, she puts her trust in one mentor outside her organisation who fosters belief in her and seems to offer something different. 

IF your Sith is Light-side, then she makes sense as an ally in the Inquisitor's sincere efforts to redeem the Empire. If your Sith is Dark-side though, I do feel that the Inquisitor's interactions with Ashara in many ways are more like the Sheev Palpatine Experience of seducing Anakin to the Dark side, than what the Warrior goes through with Jaesa. 

It's offering different perspectives on the same thing, really. 

The Dark side Inquisitor's story with Ashara, is Palpatine sitting in the opera box with Anakin, having friendly supportive chats whilst delicately steering him toward darkness, revelling in and using his hypocrisy and arrogance to your own ends.

The Dark side Warrior's story with Jaesa is Palpatine sending his tool to kill things, all manipulation and seduction over and done with as no longer necessary.

[Traceguy]

I disagree. Not Stockholm Syndrome. Ashara is there by her or will.  She isn't a captive or a slave like Vette.  You needed her to pacify a ghost on Taris, that was all. You could have left her on Taris or even killed her. She joined you on her own accord.

Second, romancing her is a LS option, and she joins you under the premise of reforming the empire for the better. Completely concentual relationship. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Traceguy