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Ossus Academy Session Four

Your humble professors Leo and Evan are back, and on-schedule, for once, to bring you an historical primer on the Jedi Order. Last class featured the Sith and now they look at the other side of the coin with the Light Side of the Force. Also, the suggested reading list continues to grow and more great listener questions get answered before the final bell rings.

Music for this episode comes from selections of the Star Wars: The Old Republic Original Soundtrack. These are just some of the free tracks BioWare made available on Facebook. Big thank you to them and the whole musical team over there!

Weigh-in on this show’s topics and many other subjects over at our forums, the official home of our SWTOR guild, MERC!

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6 replies on “Ossus Academy Session Four”

Hey guy! First time listener. Great job on the podcast. Its a nice break from listening to the other podcasts that cover game updates. You should start each session with an overview of what the podcast goal/purpose is so listeners will know what to expect.

Thanks for listening! We did kinda do that with the first three episodes, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s still a work in progress. We’re experimenting with a lot of different ideas off the air, but do keep suggestions coming and let us know what you’d like to hear us talk about. Thanks again.

Worst line ever: ‘only sith deal in absolutes.’ ( too garbage and stupid of a line to bother with looking up actual quote.)

The problem with pursuing the dark side is actually discussed in the game, at least on the Imperial side. One of the quests in the Dark Temple has you talk to Kel’eth Ur. He talks about how passion and fear can be used to boost your power with the Force, but it isn’t sustainable. Passions can be twisted and manipulated. He claims that peace leads to true strength.

Now I agree, the pre-Galactic Empire Jedi are overly stuffy. They walk such a razor thin wire to be apart of the Light Side. They seek to deny strong emotions in fear of falling to the Dark Side, but at least you can trust your comrades and aren’t constantly wondering who’s gonna stab you in the back and when.

So, at first I thought the line would be ‘only a sith deals with absolutes’, but in a way that line is perfect for the entire arc for obi-wan. Lucas’s point was that Obi-Wan did not get it, he never got it, and that line ties in perfectly with the attitude of Obi-wan in IV to lie to Luke (retconny since Vader wasn’t Anakin until late in the writing of V), in V when he says “He was our last hope”, and in VI when he explains that Anakin cannot be redeemed.

So the real line is the one Yoda gives to Anakin:
“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

Such a silly line. I mean, yes, Yoda is the Pope of their Jedi religion, but dang. Just not the right thing to say to Anakin. Yoda obviously wises up with Luke. “Always in motion is the future.” And “Decide you must, how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered. ”

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I’d talk about Malgus, but I don’t know what to say. Let’s just say I don’t agree with the assessment that he’s merely a “here are some cool things go do them” kind of guy. I think the dialogue and story behind his missions are quite clear in that he is using you deceptively to gather him an army, weapons, technology experts, aliens, remove rivals, and fuel sentiment between the Republic and Empire. Look at Athis, is that just a “go stop these Republic archaeologists” mission, or is it “The Emperor said not to go here, but what happens if I defy the Emperor?”. Each mission has the story which is given to the player, and a hidden agenda behind it which leads to the Ilum planetary quest and the last two flashpoints. Malgus repeatedly lies to you and holds back information until afterwards when he can gloat to you about it.

Did you really think it was normal to receive coded transmissions from random droids? You are being used the whole time.

Thanks for the Malgus info! Like me and Evan said, we’ve both been playing Republic exclusively. Of the two of us, I spent the most time playing Imperial during beta, but that was still only to level 25.

Almost 50, then I can start leveling an Imperial alt.