Star Wars: The Old Republic/Fridge

Fridge Logic:

• Nico Okaar wears a fedora while piloting a star-ship. Cowboys didn't need to look up...
  • Maybe he takes it off normally.

Fridge Horror:

• NR-02 on the Black Talon casually mentions among his functions are "manslaughter and calumniation." He expresses in Machine Monotone not to worry about any injuries among the crew of the ships, as their deaths would be statistically insignificant. If the players kill the captain for treason, they later return to the ship to find all but two of the crew dead, and those two suspiciously mute despite falling all over themselves trying to server the party. He has eight restraining bolts, when one has been shown to be sufficient mind control. In other words, he's a Killer Robot whose function is to cause slaughters for propaganda, has followed the party killing any survivors of their own crew, may have executed nearly all other survivors while the party was away, and requires seven redundant failsafes because even his master doesn't want him getting loose.
  • In an Imperial flash point it is reveled that Revan, with the aid of the Republic, was building an unstoppable army of battle droids that were intended to stop the Sith Empire once and for all. And how does he plan to do that? By programming the droid army to hunt down and kill ANYONE with even the slightest Sith ancestral heritage in their genes. And according to HK-47, that accounts for about 97% of the entire Imperial population. That in itself is already horrifying but the more you think about it, the worst it gets. Since the droid army will also target light-sided Sith Lords, Imperial citizens that either wants to reform the Empire or were simply born into it against their will, and worst of all even defectors to the Republic. Now consider this: When you are playing as an male republic Trooper, your love interest Elara Dorne, was a defector. Just think about this for a moment, Revan, the hero of the Knights of the Old Republic, is willing to kill your lover/wife and the children that the two of you are planning to have together in the name of 'saving lives'. Not only that, he has the backing of the Republic military, the same Republic military that you and Elara have loyally served.
  • Although it is questionable just how much the Jedi and Republic know of Revan's plans for the Foundry.
• One of the planets that you will get to visit in the game is Belsavis, a nightmarish penal colony prison world that holds some of the worst and most dangerous criminals in the entire galaxy. In addition to the prison being staffed by corrupt and abusive guards, the entire world is filled with death traps leftover by the ancient Infinite Empire. Also, the prisoners held there live in appalling conditions. For example, in one of your missions, you are authorized to offer one of the prisoners improve living conditions in exchange for his cooperation, and said improvement is that he will now be allowed to take ONE bath per-week. And what is the worst part about this? Belsavis is controlled and run by the Republic! Now just imagine of the Republic treats their prisons like this, how much worst things are in the Empire. Being taken alive as a prisoner of war by the Imperials can easily be a Fate Worse Than Death.
  • The worst part of this is: the Republic is implied to be actually worse. Imperial Intelligence finds many documents showing that the Republic had been pitting various alien prisoners against each other in gladitorial combat, not for punishment, but to find out and record the strengths and weaknesses of each race. When the Imperial scientist finds out, he is horrified, not because it's so heartless, but because he had come up with the idea years earlier but the Empire refused it, believing that such an act would yield no valuable data and is a waste of potential laborers.
  • This is actually confirmed republic side, where a quest involves finding out the details of the games and the character either deciding to let the senator, the prison official and their team of scientists continue or putting a lid on the whole thing.
• A lot of the romance that you can pursue in the game falls under the category of Unequal Pairing. For the Force-sensitive classes, male characters are romancing their current or former apprentices. In the Imperial agent, Republic trooper (and keeping in mind the nature of the Jedi/Sith, those classes as well) storylines, the player character is a commanding officer romancing soldiers under his/her charge. Sith lords belong in an elevated social caste compared to their non-Force-sensitive romanceable companions, a Twi'lek slave, a disgraced Imperial officer, and a space-pirate Republic defector. While this is all warm and fuzzy, an underlying power disparity always overshadows relationship. Worst of all, as demonstrated in this video of the Sith warrior storyline stating at at 5:41, a ruthless enemy can easily exploit your relationship as a weakness against you. Imagine if someone threatens to murder your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife unless your character does exactly as they say. Even if you have a super tough, unbreakable and light-sided character, do you think they can actually live with watching their loved ones killed in front of them? Perhaps there is a good story reason to not pursue a romantic relationship with any of your party members after all...
  • It gets even worse when one looks at the way the relationship system works in this game. Or more specifically, the fact that gifts that fit a character's likes are more effective in many cases than actually gaining their affection through conversations. Not to mention that affection lost through conversations is usually very minute, and easily overwhelmed by the gifts you can give. Meaning you can screw with your companions all you want, making decisions you know they dissaprove of, while keeping their affection high by giving them small trinkets.

Fridge Brilliance:

• Once you've completed the romance quest for a companion and married them, they will give you companion gifts, with a startling trend toward delivering things that should interest your character class, if not your specific character.
• During the trooper's storyline, part of Elara's loyalty quest involves her being forced to put up with a Jerkass Obstructive Bureaucrat from Personnel Division that accuses her of being an Imperial spy who faked her defection, even though he has absolutely no evidence. But when you play though the other classes' storylines you will discover that the Imperials were excellent Spy Masters that managed to infiltrate even part of Republic society, even the senate and the Jedi Order for the past 1000 years. That realization suddenly puts the behavior of that officer in a different light, instead of him just being a racist jerk, he was merely being Properly Paranoid and the entire affair being a tragic case of a Knight Templar going after the wrong person due to himself being a victim of Wrong Genre Savvy.
  • Honestly, Easily Forgiven for defectors is such a common trope in Star Wars the subversions are more notable. Now, originally, it was because the Rebellion couldn't afford to turn away help, but that nuance seems to have been forgotten by writers, and by now, it's just standard.
• It has been said that this game is more of a spin-off to the Knights of the Old Republic games, which is fair enough considering those were single player experiences and this is an MMO. But look at it as if it were a true sequel, making it the third game in the series. The first KOTOR was very A New Hope in feel and tone, infamous plot twist not withstanding, and all you need look at is the cinematic for the good ending to see proof of that, since it was very much channeling the award ceremony of Episode IV. KOTOR 2 was unquestioningly Darker and Edgier, essentially being one huge Deconstruction of everything star wars, and ending on a very somber note... just like Empire Strikes Back. So since The Old Republic is the third in the series... Think about it. Doesn't it make a lot of sense from a thematic point?
  • No. The Republic v Empire conflict will have to be resolved and its not going to be pretty for some people Grey and Gray Morality and all