“Legions have risen to test me” – Anna plays SWTOR Pt. 6

Chapter three, we are on our way. And the first thing we have to do is to shut down this annoying companion that keeps on flirting in the crudest possible way…

We know that the Emperor needs to commit a mass sacrifice, basically committing genocide somewhere in the galaxy to fuel his power and become truly unstoppable. He of course has several plans in motion and it is up to us to stop them all. First on Belsavis, a world that Zhyi had never even heard of before. And for good reason as it turns out because the Republic kept the existence of the entire planet a secret for many years.  Why? Because it is a massive prison. Where they keep people, mostly without trial, indefinitely. The worst of the worst criminals, together with prisoners of war. The tragedy? A lot of the population is second or even third generation by now. Born on this prison planet and still treated like they committed crimes themselves. A rather ugly business and Zhyi is appalled. On top of it the Empire recently figured out the location of Belsavis and is fuelling prison riots and freeing powerful Sith Lords imprisoned. And to top it all off the prison is build on an ancient Rakatan structure (an ancient empire that has long fallen but there is still technologically very highly advanced remnants of it all over the galaxy). And the Rakata put a lot of not so nice stuff in their vaults. In the middle of all this Zhyi has to stop a suicide commando of the Emperor that tries to annihilate the entire planet.  With no time to rest they need to travel and intercept her old team members that up till now were lost after their confrontation with the Emperor. Turns out they all were converted by the dark side and are serving him now. Some of them can be redeemed, some… not so much. But the thankless job of tracking, basically hunting them down falls to Zhyi.

Again with no time to spare they get sent to Voss, a planet that has a group of powerful force users called the Mystics whose visions guide their people in all aspects of life. Both Empire and Republic are trying (without success) to get Voss, so far a neutral world that is very weary towards outsiders, to join them. Here Zhyi has to be careful not to cause a diplomatic incident while chasing down a Sith Lord that wants to corrupt the entire planet for the Emperor. The culture is both strange and fascinating for Zhyi and she has some trouble with how hostile the Jedi behave towards the Voss Mystics.

The council does not approve of these two working together

She also keeps spending more and more time with Lord Scourge who seems to be more accepting of her ways in many aspect than the council is. He offers to help her train in the dark side and Zhyi is not one to turn down a chance of learning an advantage. And while the council calls her “worrying” and “bloodthirsty” he calls her pragmatic and capable. She learns how to use both the light and the dark side of the force and get’s taught how to not let it show. And while Scourge and Zhyi are far from being friends there is a lot of respect growing between them. Which in turn gives Zhyi even more trouble with the council whi is very weary about them working together. Zhyi keeps contacting them less and less, only calling in for the most important things. After a while the only thing she does is give reports. If any of the council members notice that she stopped asking them for advice completely, they do not let it show.

While tracking down another former team member they find out the Emperor’s next plan: Master Tol Braga is on Corellia, where both Empire and Republic are locking in ground warfare and he is trying (do we sense a theme here? No?) to end the entire planet to help the Emperor ascend. Zhyi is named Supreme Commander of the Jedi Forces on Corellia and has to simultaneously try to help the Republic and track down Master Braga who, as it turns out in a final surprise, is not brainwashed by the Emperor at all. He actually switched sides and believes in what he is doing –  there is really nothing from Zhyi’s perspective that she can do to sway him. When she barely manages to stop him in time he gives her the location of the Emperor – in his mind i doesn’t mater anymore because he is convinced she will fail.

After doing what she could Zhyi retreats from Corellia and they plan their final assault. Not without difficulties. The Emperor is on Dromund Kaas, the capital world of the Empire. Surrounded by an entire planet full of people who would want to kill them. In an ancient temple under the highest security guarded by his elite soldiers. Yay, funtimes! Zhyi asks for help from the council but gets shot down. They will not risk anyone else. At least they offer to act as a diversion. Republic and Jedi will attack the planet from orbit to mask Zhyi and her ground team. Lord Scourge found them a shuttle with security codes to steal and now all that is left to do is battling through a city full of Imperial military. Oh and they only have one shot at this. And it’s literally the only chance to save the entire galaxy. No pressure at all! Zhyi, Scourge and Rusk are of the same opinion: Succeed or die trying. Kira and Doc disagree but come along to help anyways. They pair up to distract the enemies while Zhyi and T7 go after the Emperor directly. (T7 is immune to mind tricks and dark side influence – though why they are not building a huge droid army or a very powerful warbot to take out Sith I don’t really understand…)

The confrontation with the Emperor goes as expected: A LOT of condescension, a fight (that at one point was super hard back then before they changed some stuff in the game around but now is actually over pretty quickly…) some banter and some death. The Emperor’s death. While he is still taunting her that she would never kill him with being a Jedi and all she buries him underneath a pile of his own temple. The fact that he straight up tells us “There is no death, only the force and I am it’s master!” should maybe give us pause… Buuuuut it doesn’t. Lord Scourge confirms the Emperor is fading and we start running like hell because the Temple just got really into this whole fading business and starts to collapse around us.

After a quick headcount (everyone lives!) Zhyi sets course to the republic flagship Valiant to report to Master Satele. Who is full of praise for what we did. And then actually goes on to tell Zhyi in front of everyone at the celebration that she senses too much darkness in her to make her a Jedi Master. And ends the whole speech with verbal pat on the head “There will be other opportunities to prove yourself.” Zhyi doesn’t really understand. She just saved the entire galaxy. And they didn’t tell her she is too corrupted to be a Jedi. She is apparently fit to be a member of the order. She is just simply not “good enough” to become a Master. Luckily the republic military takes the chance at getting themselves some high ranked help and declare that they are in her debt and promote her to a General of the armed forces. Everyone celebrates the demise of the Emperor. And no one seems to find it peculiar that Lord Scourge mentions he will stick around until he is certain that the Emperor is actually dead. Like, hello? Sith Lord that has been connected to the Emperor for centuries is apparently not sure that he is actually dead? No one is worried by this? Really? Ok then…

With this celebration ends the vanilla game storyline. It’s not the end for Zhyi though, there is much more ahead for her.

Compared to the first time I played her story I did make a few changes though. The first time she went completely dark side. All the way, as uncomfortable as I was with some of the decisions. This time I played it a bit different. She is mostly in a grey area by now, being as kind and helpful as possible while still being very straightforward and practical. But she is none the less slowly realising, that the Jedi Order might not be the right place for her.

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