History StarWarsTheOldRepublic / TropesQToZ

* WeHaveReserves: The standard Imperial response to most problems is to throw people at it until it goes away. And by "people" we mean "conscripts, mercenaries, and slaves". The officers shrug it off; they're just "common soldiers." The Sith don't give a bantha's rear about much else other than themselves and their power games (the [[HumanoidAbomination Emperor]] is an OmnicidalManiac who wants ''everything in the galaxy except himself'' dead), and Empire officials follow the lead of the military and Sith. Couple this with [[TheStarscream conspiring against]] and [[KlingonPromotion killing one's boss]] being the ''preferred'' method of advancement (it's just gauche for a non-Sith to not be sneaky about it), and the Empire does more damage to itself than it does its enemies. Mandatory conscription and [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture extensive use of slave labor]] are likely the only reasons they managed to get off Dromund Kaas. Their early success is likely due to catching the Republic by surprise [[WhatAnIdiot thanks to Revan and the Exile having ''no backup plans'' and walking into an obvious trap]].

* VendorTrash: Very common. The item descriptions make no attempt to hide it either. Players can, however, send a companion on a one-minute mission to sell these to a vendor.

* QuietingTheUnquietDead: During Chapter 2 of the Sith Inquisitor storyline, the PlayerCharacter binds a total of four Sith ghosts to themself. At the end of the class story, a light-side Inquisitor has the option to draw on the light side of the Force to redeem them and allow them to become one with the Force at long last.
* TheQuisling: On Corellia, it quickly turns out that [[spoiler:the Corellian Council voted to]] defect to the Empire. Suffice it to say, the Republic is very upset when it learns about this. This was caused by [[spoiler: the Bounty Hunter capturing them all and dragging them to a Sith Lord, who basically forces them to sign at lightsaber-point]]. Although there are still several genuine examples: in particular, Councilor Darbin Sull, who aids the Empire in the Imperial planetary storyline in exchange for the promise of the Prime Minister's seat once the planet is secured.

** It's Creator/BioWare so you just know at least most of the companion crews are gonna be this. There's a Jawa tank, Killik joined diplomat, Incredibly patriotic droid -- and ''Reaper''-minded droid. Some crews are collections of odd ducks while others are downright wacky. The Republic Trooper largely averts this, since all but one of their team is already a crack, loyal Republic soldier, and the last one joins you very late. Then you add the three bonus companions and the crew starts to look like a variety show cast.
*** The Trooper crew may be the most normal compared to the others, but even they've got a [[CatFolk Cathar]] SergeantRock nicknamed by the fandom "Grumpy Cat," an ex-Imperial ByTheBookCop, a PlayedForLaughs PatrioticFervor [[AmericanRobot RepublicDroid]], a spiritual tracker from an insect race who's also a GadgeteerGenius, and a guy who joined the army as protection from the criminals who want him dead and continues his criminal activities as a member of the Republic military. On paper, not what you want in an elite [=SpecForces=] squad, but [[BunnyEarsLawyer they get the job done]].
*** The Jedi Knight has a plucky astromech who seems to think he's at least an honorary Jedi, a snarky Jedi Padawan with a dark history, an incorrigible ladies man genius doctor, a Republic trooper straying a bit too far into HeWhoFightsMonsters, and a full-fledged Sith Lord.
*** The Inquisitor stands out as probably the wackiest of the whole bunch. A literal man-eating monster, a space pirate, a Jedi Padawan not on board with all the Jedi teachings, a flighty but very well-read Imperial archaeologist, and your Sith apprentice who has no concept of "tact" or "subtlety." [[spoiler:And the disembodied spirit of your ancestor and your former Master.]]
** Even more so in ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' as the Outlander recruits many companions from both the Republic and Empire, and even defectors from the Eternal Empire. In Chapter II, Valkorion even lampshades this as he describes the Outlander's original companions in the least flattering ways possible. By the time you finish Chapter IX and start working on assembling the Alliance and recruiting for it, this gets a serious crank UpToEleven, and that's both in the size of your crew and in increase of ragtaginess. New companions range from a displaced Selonian gunslinger and an Ithorian Jedi to ''Nico freakin' Okaar'' from the "Return" trailer. Returning companions, aside from Teeseven and Scorpio, include Yuun, Talos Drellik, and Qyzen Fess, among others. And this is not a comprehensive list by a long shot! The list gets longer in every expansion, although a few are mutually exclusive.

* RainbowPimpGear: The developers have tried hard to avert this. Besides strict adherence to each class' theme, there is a liberal usage of {{Set Bonus}}es. In Patch 1.2, the developers further averted this by adding the option to make visible armor pieces match the color scheme of the chest piece. A later patch added dye kits that allow you to set the colors for an armor piece yourself. An even ''later'' patch allows you to create outfits out of whatever clothing you like without having to equip them. That said, with the assortment of gear options available (dropped, crafted, and Cartel market) in their own colors and the plethora of dye modules available, it's incredibly easy to invoke this trope, should you want to.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: In ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' Chapter I, as Marr's flagship is on the verge of destruction you have the option of ramming it head-on into the Eternal Fleet.

* TheRealRemingtonSteele: Early on in the Imperial Agent's class quest, the player steals the identity of a pirate called the Red Blade. The real Red Blade eventually learns of this and [[BossFight is not amused]]. Funnily enough, he strongly implies that the identity really is a LegacyCharacter.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Vanilla game {{Love interest}}s returning for the expansions as bisexual (LS!Jaesa, Nadia, Kira, Scourge, etc) was criticized by some players as unnecessary {{retcon}}s, but the reasons many returning companions give for not being romantically available before (slowly discovering their sexuality, not being aware of their feelings for the PlayerCharacter until it was too late, believing the PlayerCharacter saw them as JustFriends, etc.) feels very true-to-life for a lot of LGBTQ+ players and allies.

* RedAndBlackTotalitarianism: The Sith Empire's color palette uses a lot of blacks, dark grays, and reds, in contrast to the golds, whites, and light blues and grays of the Galactic Republic. This is exemplified by two of the default Imperial-exclusive playable races, red-skinned Sith Purebloods and Zabrak (Republic toons can choose brown Zabrak instead).

* RedShirtArmy: Some of the space battles start off, with the player being part of a fighter formation and... [[ItsUpToYou yeah]]. What's funny about this, is that Republic Trooper players will see extremely expensive armed transports, crewed by Special Forces, slagged on a regular basis.

** Players have the option of resetting story line quests in the event they choose the wrong options or dislike the outcomes.

** HK-47 for Imperial characters. He is fought in the Imperial-only Flashpoint The Foundry and in the faction-shared Flashpoint The False Emperor. He also shows up one more time to defend his creator in the Temple of Sacrifice Operation.
** Revan for Imperial characters: First in the Foundry, later in the ''Shadow of Revan''-expansion.
** Malgus for Republic characters: First in the False Emperor-flashpoint, later in the ''Onslaught''-expansion.

** This has continued onwards since then, with (most notably) Jedi Under Siege explicitly mentioning [[{{Film/TheLastJedi}} Ahk-to]] as a potential true homeworld of the Jedi Order since the Jedi's records are a mess and the ones on Ossus are older than those on Tython.

* RobotWar: The Eternal Empire from ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' conquers all of the other factions with a fleet and army almost entirely composed of droids. [[spoiler: It comes back to bite them when a rogue droid hacks the entire network in Chapter 15 and seizes control of the Empire.]]

*** This was already part of the Imperial Agent's storyline. One of his companions has slight force potential and has been hiding from the Sith.
** There are many people who root for the empire for completely unrelated reasons, [[InvokedTrope like]] [[EvilIsCool evil being cool]], [[SpikesOfVillainy their]] [[SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains various]] [[PowerCrystal fashions]], sexy EvilBrit accents, the [[ComedicSociopathy pleasure]] of getting to wield [[AgonyBeam Force Lightning]] both [[ShockAndAwe inside]] and [[ElectricTorture outside]] of combat, because all of their class story-lines [[PlayingWithATrope play with]] or [[SubvertedTrope Subvert]] TheHero archetype that RPG's always force players into, and just because they like the Imperial companions. [[http://empowerednews.net/star-wars-the-old-republic-swtor-guilds-filling-up-fast/1814921/ More]] Imperial than Republic guilds are registered for a reason...
** There's also the fact that one can play a [[DarkIsNotEvil light-side Imperial or Sith]], which many find more interesting than playing a good guy who belongs to the faction where you'd expect to find them. The appeal of AnotherSideAnotherStory also comes into play, as most Star Wars media is centered on the Republic. Of the four permutations (Light/Dark, Imperial/Republic) there is definitely an OnlySaneMan aspect to a Light Imperial.
*** And it helps that a Light Side Imperial/Sith comes across as a reasonable person, whereas a darkside Republican/Jedi spends most if their time acting like a schoolyard bully.
** There's also the fact that three of the Republic classes have excruciatingly dull first acts based on glorified fetch quests, with the same basic plot repeated on every planet with little variation. Those classes also suffer from TwoPartTrilogy much more blatantly, with nothing from Act 1 ever coming up again beyond short call backs.

-->'''Master Sumalee:''' I'm going to preserve our good working relationship by assuming he shot first.

*** The Trooper crew may be the most normal compared to the others, but even they've got a [[CatPerson Cathar]] SergeantRock nicknamed by the fandom "Grumpy Cat," an ex-Imperial ByTheBookCop, a PlayedForLaughs PatrioticFervor [[AmericanRobot RepublicDroid]], a spiritual tracker from an insect race who's also a GadgeteerGenius, and a guy who joined the army as protection from the criminals who want him dead and continues his criminal activities as a member of the Republic military. On paper, not what you want in an elite [=SpecForces=] squad, but [[BunnyEarsLawyer they get the job done]].

** Happens a lot in Knights of the Fallen Empire, due to the sheer amount of [[SadisticChoice sadistic choices the game throwes at you]] [[DealWithTheDevil... and]][[TheCorruption other reasons.]]

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Killing [=NPCs=] you converse with often gives you Dark Side points, but as for the {{mooks}} defending those [=NPCs=]? Oh, go ahead and slaughter them all, the game won't punish you for it. The Jedi get this especially bad, lecturing other characters about Jedi principles of mercy while knee deep in fresh corpses.

** Happens a lot in Knights of the Fallen Empire, due to the sheer amount of [[SadisticChoice sadistic choices the game throwes at you.]].....and[[DealWithTheDevil ...]][[TheCorruption other]] [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GameBreaker reasons]]...

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Most of a Sith Inquisitor's problems are solved by blasting the problem with lightning.

* TakeYourTime: Planet-destroying superweapons tend to have a very long charge-up time.

* SwordAndSorcerer: The first companion for the Sith Inquisitor (Khem Val) and for the Jedi Consular (Quyzen Foss), are both tanks, allowing this trope to be used when you go Sorcerer or Sage (either type depending on your spec).

** The blaster rifle has largely become this, too. With the alterations to classes, the Trooper and Agent subsets that use blaster rifles (as opposed to assault cannons or sniper rifles) have few, if any, blaster attacks beyond their basic attack, doing most of their damage (or healing) via gadgets.

** Alderaan's snowy mountains and meadows, Rishi and Rakata Prime's tropical paradise, the vibrant city of Nar Shaddaa, and the gorgeous glaciers and jungles of Belsavis.

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* RagtagBunchOfMisfits:

** The state of the Sith Empire in general after SWTOR classic and before ROTHC. While things seem to look pretty bright after you've finished the Imperial storylines, it turns out that the Empire is on the verge of collapse despite all your best efforts. This is fully justified, though - while all Republic classes contributed to their faction's victory (the Knight killed Councillor Angral and the [[BodySurf Emperor's physical form]]; the Consular killed the Emperor's [[TykeBomb sleeper agents]], the Trooper and the Smuggler killed the Empire's [[BadassNormal most prolific generals]]), the Imperial classes ultimately didn't really help anyone but themselves for the most part (the Warrior and the Inquisitor participate in the usual [[WeAREStrugglingTogether Sith infighting that cost a bunch of Dark Council members their lives]]; the canonically dark-sided Bounty Hunter [[TheKingslayer kills the Supreme Chancellor]] who was about to step down anyway; and while a non-defected Imperial Agent may have prevented a worse outcome, the final state of the Empire's intelligence service is [[MindRape worse than it was at the start]]). On top of that, the [[HappyEndingOverride Empire's most noteworthy victories on the core worlds of Balmorra and Corellia are nullified by the Republic's efforts, costing them a few more Darths (and Dark Council members) in the process]]. Essentially, while the Empire may have had the upper hand in the beginning, them constantly infighting instead of focusing on the Republic brought them close to the brink.

** According to 'Onslaught' his priginal body was still alive and was killed by [[spoiler: Kira and Lord Scourge]]

* UnclePennybags: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with a Light-Sided Sith Warrior, but buying [[spoiler:Tivva's Freedom]] could not have been cheap.

* UnflinchingWalk: A sith warrior/inquisitor can do one on Balmorra. After activating orbital lasers to destroy an enemy facility the character first looks on, then casually strolls away while behind them the facility is vaporized from orbit.

** Meet the Bounty Hunter's nemesis, Tarro Blood, the most smug, cowardly, dishonorable Mandalorian ever.

-->''I am Yadira Ban, Padawan of the Jedi Order. I was sent to protect the General, and you will not pass!''

* YouHaveFailedMe Darth Baras's disposal of a particular stupid minion matches [[ShoutOut Darth]] [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Vader's]] scene to the letter, including tele-choking and promoting a random bystander.

** At a certain point Vette can ask the Sith Warrior to buy her sister, Tivva's freedom. An asshole male Sith Warrior can say he wants to "sample the wares" first, while a scumbag female Warrior will say they'll free Tivva after she first has sex with the crew. An '''especially''' assholish Sith Warrior can afterwards decide to NOT free Tiva and call her a fool for trusting the Warrior. That's right, you can use SexualExtortion on your teammate's sister and then send her back to her slavemaster.

** Justified in the Trooper's case, as they had just arrived on Ord Mantell and was aboard a transport walker to the Republic's main base in the area before it got disabled by a separatist missile. As the Trooper completes quests around the planet they get pieces of the armor they would've been issued had they arrived on Fort Garnik unimpeded.