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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 4, 2026

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Would you say it happened organically in Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire?

The whole concept of the series is exploring this aspect of the Star Wars universe; how can normal, realistic human beings can become what appeared to be comic book villains, so it felt like the morality system and its difficult questions was in service of the world building. Yes, the Sith are comic book villains, but the comic book villains occasionally make a good point. And I'm reminded of that planet in KOTOR where a Republic officer is decidedly guilty of murder; this is the kind of realistic dillema that helps the world building. KOTOR2 also works a lot to knock the Jedi down a peg, not intervening against the mandalorians was a problematic decision that with the benefit of hindsight the Jedi love to act all superior about, nothing says that it needed to have happened that way, especially if the Jedi had been led into the war by wiser masters rather than hothead Revan. I don't remember much of Jade Empire, I remember the thesis of closed fist being not exactly evil made sense when it came up in the game, but as applied in the game it felt disconnected (it would have made sense if CF was about letting or empowering people to deal with their own problems, but in the game it felt more like inflicting additional cruelty for the lulz)

However, you can tell that Dragon Age is written by people who have the KotOR/JE/ME script still in their heads, and they keep presenting you with contrived dilemmas that feel like they're from earlier games.

Yeah, Bioware of that era was high on their own supply in that regard (and in the LGBT romances department) due to the praise they were getting. It's not the morality system I resent, but the contrivances made to force you to engage with the moral dilemmas. In the KOTOR murder case I mentioned, the murderer doesn't also randomly kidnaps your dog and forces you to chose between losing your dog or helping him off the hook; the reason why you would hesitate are utilitarian calculus (his condemnation could affect the balance of power on that planet), or perhaps an extremist belief that all Siths deserve death because the ideology they willingly embrace would spread it, etc... The story doesn't feel the need to twist itself to try and make the choice harder.