You're judging intent from a barely finished piece of cut content and a blurb from an old sourcebook. That's bad basis for establishing intent. In fact, having played the relevant content, we know that unprogrammed HK droids are of variable allegiance. We know this because it an happen in the self safe cut content. GOTO can assume control over them (and even HK-47) given the proper variables, which immediately shuts down your notion of answerability to only other HK units. So perish this thought that we were necessarily dealing with independent machines. We're not. Not entirely. And all it takes for a quick lore fix, like it or not (and frankly, I don't care if you don't like it), is to say that the units liberated by HK-47 were unique.Soviet Heavy said:
Canon shifts all the time, particularly in this IP. Nothing is ever completely sacrosanct. Hell, not even the films are.
Now we are talking about visual aesthetics, which is tricky because there's even lore reasons for this (ie. similarities of ship structure, the usage of the Bendu symbol, and even the visual similarities of Imperial military uniform). We can argue if it was lazy design and I'm generally inclined to agree with those but the fact of the matter is that all these things that apparently drive you nuts have escape clauses written into the very fabric of the IP. And not just by BioWare's writers.
As to the notion of internal war, the theme is not wholly abandoned, despite your proclamations. Indeed, one of the large struggles of TOR comes from the ideological struggles of the Jedi and Sith, extending back to the time of the Great Hyperspace War. To say nothing about the game's desire to explore the relative worth of the Republic and Empire with no definitive answer. The physical manifestation of this (ie. war) would have occurred no matter who handled the writing and no matter the exact nature of the True Sith. Avellone would have obviously done things different but he relishes in deconstruction while BioWare's MO has always been rooted in notions of reconstruction first.
Ignoring your gross, gross oversimplifications and immense fawning over Obsidian (who, I might add, I do think write consistently better stories than BioWare)...BioWare has the right and Lucas Licensing has the right to take the frame work offered by Obsidian and do whatever they want with it.
Regardless, this discussion is not only off topic but dull. It amounts to bruise ego nonsense. "Oh, what if Chris Avellone did this." "Oh, I wanted this instead of this!" "If only he managed to.." Well, guess what? Unfortunately, he didn't. Instead, he got to return to the work he started on Van Buren and finally weave it into New Vegas. I, for one, am immensely glad for that turn of events. Fallout 3 was fine enough but to have so many old Black Isle individuals return to the IP was nothing less than a godsend.
Damn TOR on its own merits if you must damn it. Not on in comparison to some hypothetical, perfect Obsidian developed masterwork. Judge it on the actual and on its own. Many of your critiques would still hold and you'd also sound a lot less petulant. You've had years to accept the notion that Obsidian's vision was likely not going to come to pass. It's probably best to let that go, Indiana.
