How is Merrin able to use Magick without the power corrupting her? I thought all Force-sensitives who relied solely on the Dark Side were driven insane, turned evil, or both.
The Nightsisters’ magic is different from the “regular” Force. Additionally, Merrin only used her magic to defend her home, which isn’t really an evil act, so that might have prevented her from being corrupted.
More so, the Dark Side isn't a single ability or a power, it's more a mentality, a state of being. Specifically, the Dark Side of Disney-Canon follows the general consensus that "The Dark Side" is negativity. Hate, anger, fear, lust, greed. Someone who bathes themselves constantly in all these negative emotions and feelings will find growing more and more morally corrupt over time. But remember, the Dark Side doesn't make someone evil. It exacerbates issues already present in the person.
At the very end, when Cal destroys the holocron, he never mentions his scary Force-vision as a justification for destroying the holocron. Why didn't the other characters call him out on it, or ask why he made that decision?
The fact the gang had to storm into one of the most secured locations in the Empire as well as barely escaping from Darth Vader himself may have convinced them all that the knowledge of the holocron was way too risky to hold onto. Even if the crew do meet a gruesome end, the fact they ultimately know nothing will keep those children safe.
I guess that makes sense, but it still seems like a missed story opportunity.
Both Greez and Merrin had independently pointed out that the children would be hunted just like them, and Cere knew firsthand how ruthless the Empire was in tracking down Jedi and turning them to the Dark Side. They already knew why the holocron might not be such a great idea. All Cal really did was decide that rebuilding the Order just wasn't worth the risk that they all knew it would entail.
Why did Cal immediately fight his vision of Jaro Tapal?
Gameplay and Story Segregation. You can choose to avoid fighting the vision, as it won't actively attack you the first time, but you have to fight it eventually to progress. As for the in-story reason...he knows it's some kind of dark side vision trying to mess with him?
Wouldn't the children on the list be adults by the time it's found? And for that matter the Empire likely already scout force sensitive children so breaking the holocron feels like letting them to fend for themselves in a world were the Force is unbalanced and hope they don't die or get conscripted in the inquisition.
The Empire's only five years old at this point and the children's existence must have been recorded shortly before Order 66. I also imagine that finding Force-sensitives is nearly impossible without rigorous testing.
When Vader arrives to kill Trilla for her failure to kill Cal and Cere, why doesn't he kill her right away from a distance using Force Choke and instead kills her personally up front with his lightsaber?
Intimidation value, perhaps. He wants Trillia, Cal, and Cere to KNOW he's there, and that he's most displeased. Despite everything else, Vader is something of a bully who relishes in fear.
Or Vader was granting Trilla a quick death since he saw no point in making her suffer. It's possible that a very, very small part of him that was still Anakin Skywalker empathized with her.
Darth Vader is known for his cruel mercy. Watch Trilla's face even before you can hear Vader's breathing. She knows he's there before we do. It's likely he did it that way to run salt in the wound: she knew he knew she felt the tug back to the light. He was going to kill her without mercy. No words, no pleas. Nothing she could do to change that. And when he would effortlessly kill her, he'd kill Cere and Cal.
He did it that way to give her an agonizing death on both an emotional and physical level.
It's because while Cal could use the Mind Trick (or at least he probably can, he's never shown actually using it during the game) in such a way a Jedi wouldn't use it to dominate a mind to such a degree, especially not to have the target go kill themselves. Starkiller isn't a Jedi so he's fine with using the Mind Trick like that, but Cal wouldn't be willing to do that.
Or Jaro Tapal simply did not teach him that yet.
If Cal does know how to do it he wouldn't use it as he doesn't like the idea of taking over people's minds as noted in an offhanded remark where Cal asks BD-1 what it's like to hack other droids and says that he wouldn't like hacking other people.
Maybe not every Jedi used that power for whatever reason. Cal also doesn't use Force Heal, which has been a staple of many Star Wars games, particularly those with RPG Elements.
The mind trick seems like a rare Jedi ability even in canon. Very few Jedi are seen using it.
Why didn't Cal's psychometry flare up as soon as he touched Cere's lightsaber?
This user’s opinion is that it was because Cal didn’t use the Force to grab her saber. It looked like Cal needs to specifically probe the object in question with the Force to experience the memories. While he obviously didn’t specifically use the “Sense Echo” move on Trilla’s saber (or rather, the kyber crystal, the saber base is Inquisitorial exclusive), it is possible that the signals he sends while trying to pull an object are similar or the same as the ones used in psychometry; so to speak, “reaching out” to the object. This would explain why he could trigger it even unintentionally while using the Force, but not otherwise.
Why do the Purge Troopers have a different voice than the Clone Troopers? They hired Dee Bradley Baker to reprise the role of the Jango Fett clone template and the Purge Troopers are canonically the very last batch of clones, deployed after Order 66 had been activated. So why do they sound different than the clones appearing in recordings and flashbacks?
Probably because prior to the events of this game, in the comics, the purge trooper clones were able to be turned against the Inquisitiors by invoking Order 66. I'm sure after THAT debacle they were 'retired' with prejudice and replaced.
Why does Cere still have a lightsaber to give to Cal? It's hard to imagine the Empire would have let her keep it, or kept it laying around after her capture. And it seems equally unlikely that she would go to the trouble of creating a new one after cutting herself off from the force.
Keeping the lightsabers of Jedi seems like a very Palpatine thing to do. The dude built his palace on the site of the Jedi Temple, after all. It could have been stashed in an armory or something, and she just took it on her way out.
She killed a bunch of inquisitors to escape, presumably one of them was holding on to her saber. They wanted to turn her into an inquisitor, and if they succeeded, she would need a saber, so it makes sense they would not destroy it.
Why does the game force Cal to repair Tapal's lightsaber when it doesn't make canonical sense?
How does it not make sense? The crystal in it was fine, he just had to fix the emmiter for the second blade. And later on, when the crystal does break, he does make a new saber, using pieces of two other ones for scrap.
Did Trilla know about Cal's psychometric abilities in advance or did she just take advantage of them once she realized what he was doing? Either way works, but it is not clear which of the two it is.
After Trilla stole the holocron, why didn’t she do anything to ensure the Mantis couldn’t follow her, like fire on it while it was still parked?
