Wow, I could not agree more with the thing you said about Star Wars only wanting to tell the story of wookies just being slaves. I tried replaying the game about a year ago with a lot of time in between many of my other stifled attempts at trying to get through it. Somehow, some part of me hoped that the story about the wookies would be completely different. I knew the game was much, much older now than when I first played it, but still I sort of half-expected that the story for the wookies would revolve around their livelihood, their way of living, sort of akin to how the Tusken Raiders got *some* nuance (though of course with those problems which you mentioned, I saw them then too, and felt weird and powerless about it). Most of the other Star Wars games I've played are the exact same thing, telling the wookies' story as being that of slaves (with Fallen Order giving just a smidge more insight into who the Wookies really are). But it was the same old thing, wookies are slaves, and with that tired trope of the oppressed enabling some oppression unto themselves... It was disappointing playing through that part. I mean, I didn't see that trope as much in other Star Wars games, but it left me wanting more from the narrative. I felt even worse bringing along Zaalbar with me, back onto my ship. I almost semi-fooled myself into believing that there must have been an option in the game to let me leave him with his family and community at home, but apparently there just wasn't and that's sad. :/ This was an amazing video, and being trans myself, you're inspiring me to write my own video essays about games someday... Hopefully with the same awesome nuance that you manage to capture with your own videos. I wish well and I really hope to see more videos from you soon! Stay safe!
I know it might not seem like much because I know you personally but I come back to this video a lot because I honestly think its peak content from you. It explains an experience I would never get out of the media in question just because of my perspective and makes me think about it in a different way and I really appreciate that
Finally got round to watching this, it was so good, probably your most cohesive video yet, I'll be looking forward to the Eva one. As unflinching as it seems to be to examine anything that flies in the face of the established franchise, the destruction of Kalis and cutting off of large swaths of the content, does sound compelling, but I've been playing Torna side quests too long and it's stubborn approach to preserving the community chart at the expense of interesting story telling, may be colouring my impression a bit on something that's essentially just "Reference a New Hope lol."
I've gotten this question a couple times so I should probably address it - originally, this video was going to be about both Kotor 1 and Kotor 2, but after I finished the script, the allegations against Chris Avellone surfaced, and I did not feel comfortable praising the writing of a man who had been outed as a sexual predator in that context, so I rewrote the script and tried to salvage it as best as I could focusing solely on the first game. This is partially why it's as long as it is lol. A Kotor 2 video is definitely on the cards, but there are some other projects I wanna make first, and I would like to find an angle on it that hasn't been discussed as much, as it is a game where a lot of very clever people have said a lot of very clever things about it, and I don't think there's much point in treading over ground that others will have covered better before me. I do have some ideas though, it's just a matter of putting them together. Thank you so much for your kind words
Hey, thanks for this video! You've managed to capture so many of my thoughts that I had when I replayed it recently, especially the bit about never being allowed to explore the implications of being Revan. I also found it frustrating in light of my own gender identity as well. The lack of agency parallels with so much of the experience of your gender not being seen in day to day life. And the part where Star Wars is too beholden to itself to the point it gets in its own stories' way (which I'm hoping against hope we'll be able to see remedied somewhere down the line). It's got me excited for your next video! Keep up the great work!
Watched you vid, very enjoyable. Vocalised a lot of my inward criticsims against the game that I had never really taken the time to articulate beyond the morality system point of view and the whole jedi brainwashing whit being pretty fucked. Also congrats on coming out as trans on the youtubes, is congrats the right thing I am trying to convey? who knows. Big fan of the line "Video games dont have the luxury or infinity" Points that I hadnt really considered before: Any romance commentary - They are never something I felt the need to engage in with KOTOR as I never really felt it right for my character. The game suffering trying to be too star warsy - It does really suffer across the board from trying to just be thematically in line with star wars and isnt something I have really paid attention to before The slavery stuff - I think this stuff was my favourite (or at least the most stand out point of the video) Overall was a good mix of serious, humour, new ideas, analysis etc.
I'm suprised that such a small channel can produce a video of this quality, keep up the good work.
Wow, I could not agree more with the thing you said about Star Wars only wanting to tell the story of wookies just being slaves. I tried replaying the game about a year ago with a lot of time in between many of my other stifled attempts at trying to get through it. Somehow, some part of me hoped that the story about the wookies would be completely different. I knew the game was much, much older now than when I first played it, but still I sort of half-expected that the story for the wookies would revolve around their livelihood, their way of living, sort of akin to how the Tusken Raiders got *some* nuance (though of course with those problems which you mentioned, I saw them then too, and felt weird and powerless about it). Most of the other Star Wars games I've played are the exact same thing, telling the wookies' story as being that of slaves (with Fallen Order giving just a smidge more insight into who the Wookies really are). But it was the same old thing, wookies are slaves, and with that tired trope of the oppressed enabling some oppression unto themselves... It was disappointing playing through that part. I mean, I didn't see that trope as much in other Star Wars games, but it left me wanting more from the narrative.
I felt even worse bringing along Zaalbar with me, back onto my ship. I almost semi-fooled myself into believing that there must have been an option in the game to let me leave him with his family and community at home, but apparently there just wasn't and that's sad. :/
This was an amazing video, and being trans myself, you're inspiring me to write my own video essays about games someday... Hopefully with the same awesome nuance that you manage to capture with your own videos. I wish well and I really hope to see more videos from you soon! Stay safe!
I really enjoyed this perspective on KOTOR. I’m now playing KOTOR II. I would love to see the same treatment for that game as well.
I know it might not seem like much because I know you personally but I come back to this video a lot because I honestly think its peak content from you.
It explains an experience I would never get out of the media in question just because of my perspective and makes me think about it in a different way and I really appreciate that
Finally got round to watching this, it was so good, probably your most cohesive video yet, I'll be looking forward to the Eva one.
As unflinching as it seems to be to examine anything that flies in the face of the established franchise, the destruction of Kalis and cutting off of large swaths of the content, does sound compelling, but I've been playing Torna side quests too long and it's stubborn approach to preserving the community chart at the expense of interesting story telling, may be colouring my impression a bit on something that's essentially just "Reference a New Hope lol."
Just found your channel. Loving it. Also, would love to see a KOTR2 one someday if that fits into something you want to do.
I've gotten this question a couple times so I should probably address it - originally, this video was going to be about both Kotor 1 and Kotor 2, but after I finished the script, the allegations against Chris Avellone surfaced, and I did not feel comfortable praising the writing of a man who had been outed as a sexual predator in that context, so I rewrote the script and tried to salvage it as best as I could focusing solely on the first game. This is partially why it's as long as it is lol. A Kotor 2 video is definitely on the cards, but there are some other projects I wanna make first, and I would like to find an angle on it that hasn't been discussed as much, as it is a game where a lot of very clever people have said a lot of very clever things about it, and I don't think there's much point in treading over ground that others will have covered better before me. I do have some ideas though, it's just a matter of putting them together.
Thank you so much for your kind words
Hey, thanks for this video! You've managed to capture so many of my thoughts that I had when I replayed it recently, especially the bit about never being allowed to explore the implications of being Revan. I also found it frustrating in light of my own gender identity as well. The lack of agency parallels with so much of the experience of your gender not being seen in day to day life.
And the part where Star Wars is too beholden to itself to the point it gets in its own stories' way (which I'm hoping against hope we'll be able to see remedied somewhere down the line). It's got me excited for your next video!
Keep up the great work!
Watched you vid, very enjoyable. Vocalised a lot of my inward criticsims against the game that I had never really taken the time to articulate beyond the morality system point of view and the whole jedi brainwashing whit being pretty fucked.
Also congrats on coming out as trans on the youtubes, is congrats the right thing I am trying to convey? who knows.
Big fan of the line "Video games dont have the luxury or infinity"
Points that I hadnt really considered before:
Any romance commentary - They are never something I felt the need to engage in with KOTOR as I never really felt it right for my character.
The game suffering trying to be too star warsy - It does really suffer across the board from trying to just be thematically in line with star wars and isnt something I have really paid attention to before
The slavery stuff - I think this stuff was my favourite (or at least the most stand out point of the video)
Overall was a good mix of serious, humour, new ideas, analysis etc.
Kotor, more like Yooooooootor
"Trask is an absolute chad"
You're part of the facebook shitposting group, aren't you?
Ah, I see what happened to this channel. He became an anti cop communist.