Being A Good Person Is Not Enough To Be A Good Jedi

As you might have read, my main is now my Jedi Sentinel. I’m playing her as a basically good person… which leads to many dark side choices. Hooray for the Jedi Code.

So far, she’s gotten darkside points for:

Covering for a friend (who would have bad stuff happen to him if she had not)
Stating (truthfully) that all the evildoers in a particular quest had been killed (rather than, I suppose, giving a self-important lecture about how revenge is wrong.)
Failing to be a huge tattletale to the Jedi Council (at least 3 times, by my count)
Stating she will protect her padawan from the Sith (buh?)
(Spoiler) Marrying/Kissing/BSOCKing Doc. Now, I get that Jedi aren’t supposed to form attachments but still… Dark side? Really? It ain’t killing an orphan.

I mean… I understand why I’m racking up the dark side points for killing assholes because Jedi are big into redemption and crap. But getting dark side points for doing normal human actions, based on a desire to help (not based on selfishness), that kind of stings. OK, the stuff with Doc, that’s selfish, oops.

I know that Anachan and others have talked about anti-military bias in the available choices. Have you come across Light Side/Dark Side choices that you find difficult, odd, or inconsistent?

Comments

Being A Good Person Is Not Enough To Be A Good Jedi — 13 Comments

Karla on March 15, 2012 at 11:08 am said:

My sentinel has become my main as well, and the only dark side points I’ve racked up on her so far (she’s 44) are from BSOCKing Doc. 🙂 I’ve purposely gone light all the way, but the Doc thing is just too hilarious to not do it.

Though… Marry? You can do that? Hah, I have to give him more presents and see if I can get that option too!

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- Njessi on March 15, 2012 at 11:11 am said:
  
  I won’t spoil it for you, but everything about Doc is HILARIOUS. Including his love notes. Keep giving that dude courting gifts.
  
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Fluffy on March 15, 2012 at 11:36 am said:

I think the Jedi are being presented as your classic, Lawful Good Paladin. You have a Code. Your Code is more important than anything else. Breaking the Code is BAD™. Whether that Code, as presented, is anything anyone in their right minds would want to follow might be the point 🙂

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- Targeter on March 15, 2012 at 12:01 pm said:
  
  The inflexibility of the Code is also a great plot point for Jedi characters … the Code is black and white while the player is living in a gray world. The Code is inflexible for a reason and it provides a great backdrop for the storylines.
  
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Yngwe on March 15, 2012 at 12:03 pm said:

I did not get any DS points for BSOCK with Kira. I guess jedi-on-jedi action is slightly less evil.

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- Njessi on March 15, 2012 at 12:04 pm said:
  
  I find this double standard unacceptable! She’s your student or former student. That should be WORSE than BSOCKing the good doctor…
  
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- Iyeri on March 15, 2012 at 8:57 pm said:
  
  I am actually a little troubled by that… it smacks of “a man (jedi) who sleeps around is a hero, but a woman (jedi) who BSOCKs someone even once is a dirty whore.” Probably not enough to be established as a pattern just yet, but I don’t love it. Double standards are bad, Jedis! Mmmkay?!
  
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  - Njessi on March 15, 2012 at 10:32 pm said:
    
    Well I’m pretty sure that female consulars do not get DS points for getting it on. Maybe it’s because Doc is a man-whore?
    
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Reznikov on March 16, 2012 at 2:26 am said:

Wow those are some rough things to get saddled with dark side points for. I don’t really get the system sometimes either. I play Empire and often get light side points for lying, for example. Mind you, lies Empire side often mean someone doesn’t get in trouble or that someone’s evil sith work is sabotaged, but I’m still not sure it’s ‘good’ to falsify evidence and such.

I find it a little odd that the Jedi are so unforgiving of minor infractions or grey areas, considering Obi-Wan’s line about how “only a Sith deals in absolutes”. Or something along those lines.

I’m surprised to hear that helping the military is considered bad Republic side too. I assumed I got dark side points for helping them as Empire because well.. I always get dark side points for doing anything that helps the Empire. I didn’t realize this might be part of a larger anti-military theme.

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- Njessi on March 16, 2012 at 6:03 am said:
  
  From the little empire I played, it was bizarre what the light side options were. I did get light side points for sabotaging someone’s work, but it wasn’t really for a good cause – it was due to another sith’s petty annoyance. How is THAT a light side choice?
  
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  - Rem on March 16, 2012 at 5:30 pm said:
    
    I remember that quest and I think that is actually a fitting example of light/dark not being the same as good/bad. The guy whom you sabotaged was researching ways to make the dark side stronger. By undermining his work you thus supported the light, in a roundabout way.
    
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Calli on March 17, 2012 at 3:58 pm said:

There’s a quest on Ord Mantell where an old couple want to try to find their son. He was kidnapped by seperatists years ago, drugged and brainwashed and used as a child soldier. When you find him, you get Light Side points for sending this abused and messed up kid off to the spaceport where he can have his life wrecked even further trying to survive offworld and penniless. You get Dark Side points for sending him back to his family where he can be looked after and loved.

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- Njessi on March 17, 2012 at 5:44 pm said:
  
  Yeah I never understood that one. I guess it’s dark side because you know he won’t GO home? I’d like an option to tranq that little brat and drag him back.
  
  There’s also a weird one where you are asked to retrieve a necklace, and on the way you meet a dude who says “no, I’m SIS, ya know, the good guys, you should totally give that things to me.” But despite my asking, he shows no credentials. Why is it light side, then, to hand over the doodad to him?
  
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