Deep Dive - Arn Romance - Part 1
Welcome to part one of my Arn romance deep dive. We will deep dive into Arn himself as a character and the effect this has on one of if not the slowest build up but most adorable romance pay-offs in SWTOR.
I am a sucker for romances that are force users with non-force users.
No AI has been used when writing this.
So, let’s start off with first introductions. Master Gnost-Dural had flagged about Tau getting a new padawan but with a Smuggler character I imagine Tanner was not really to interested during this conversation not being a Jedi himself and passed it off as 'yeah sounds good' without a second thought.
Before Arn and Tanner's very first meeting, based on what we know and will find out about Arn, he’s very much into knowledge and knowing everything he can before any engagement (reminds me a little of Lana), so I 100% believe he would have read every single report on the commander (Tanner) before meeting them. He comes up to us I believe a little starstruck which is cute, by this stage the ‘commander’ is a big name, I mean we 've only saved the galaxy a few times now.
Arn comes right out with his past regarding his cybernetics. Being the genuine kind of guy he is Tanner hadn’t even thought about Arn's cybernetics at all which is why I like the ‘what’ from Tanner here when Arn brings it up straight away.
Arn tells him that it's everyone’s first question, I find that quite sad that it seems everyone immediately goes for the how you got injured line because of how he looks, we’ll be digging into some deep trauma with Arn about this and it all starts here.
An obviously traumatic event of being very seriously injured and losing his master, he seems quite open about this on the outside but as we will see he definitely hasn’t healed on the inside. His comment of, 'I survived. More or less' makes it feel as though he doesn't ''feel'' really alive, I believe there is some clear PTSD and survivors guilt all which I believe builds up a reluctance to get close to anyone for fear of losing them (our very slow build relationship).
At this point there’s no flirting or anything from Tanner, he makes a genuine comment about how strong Arn must have been to get through it all which is a nice comment to make before Arn asks about Tau and they head off.
If you want a good indication of the level of Arn's cybernetics check out this awesome post by @thegingerjedi https://www.tumblr.com/thegingerjedi/814195877885378560/may-i-present-what-the-fuck-is-going-on-with?source=share
Arriving on Onderon we get another sign of him being very knowledgeable, much to my Smugglers delight as Tanner clearly would have read nothing on the way in. Tanner is clearly impressed.
Arn is apprehensive about Lana Beniko being a Sith which Tanner can absolutely relate to as he felt the exact same way about Lana but eases his nerves. This is one of my favourite interactions in the game with Lana and Arn, she clearly enjoys the conversation. After this chat we go meet Tau.
Meeting with Tau Tanner must really push the interaction with Arn as they’re both quite awkward a trait that our boy Arn is not really going to lose anytime soon. It’s nice to see that just like with Tanner Tau does not ask anything about his injuries or cybernetics, this is just her new padawan.
Now we get to clearly see that Arn has some severe PTSD still, the sounds of explosions in this scene have Tau/Tanner immediately jumping into action. Arn freezes on the spot, after what he’s been through we can tell that this is not something he will just be able to move on from even as a Jedi.
Tau and Arn eventually both run off as Tanner goes the opposite direction.
Later on Onderon when discussing Savik Arn uses his knowledge to assist us with knowing where Savik is. Here Tanner can again praise Arn for his knowledge, even though there are no [flirt] options for awhile we can already clearly build up a positive relationship (with the conversation choices).
Building trust that we’re seeing Arn as someone who can help, where as Arn see's himself as just a Padawan full of self-doubt. We also see this when Arn is meditating with Tau and he gets annoyed with himself when he can't find Lana.
It’s clear at this very early stage that Tanner knows Arn is focused on his learning with his master Tau, we’re not taking away his time with his new Master, Tanner is just being that friendly face if needed and leaving it at that.
At the start of Mek-Sha again Arn is focused on his time with Tau, Tanner is also focused on his work so the two especially at the start don’t interact to much, there is a crisis and they have work to do.
We meet later with Tau at the big event where she states that Arn has been sent out of a mission to investigate the Brothers territory on his own, it’s clear Tau and Tanner are similar in wanting to give Arn time to shine as they know he can. Tau even says Arn needs to trust in his skills more. I feel as though it’s great that both Tau and Tanner can be such positive influences for him at this stage when he clearly needs it.
After chatting with Veek the Sneak (love the name), we get a call from Arn which is a surprise for Tanner but clearly shows to me the trust that has developed between them already and that Arn knows he can reach out to him for help.
Tanner being himself is quick to agree and want to come and assist Arn with the slavers without thinking, but instantly calls Tau to let her know also as he does not want to step in-between them, he may not know much about Jedi but he knows enough to know they need to be working together.
Upon arriving at the location Tanner quickly runs up to Arn who is using a well known dark side force power on one of the brothers. Tanner is quick to notice there are many dead brothers around and Arn even admits that he didn’t want to kill them but he had no choice.
Arn gives us a big question here asking about what he should have done and that we need to tell him if there was something else he could have done. This is a very deep psychological question that neither I (or Tanner) could possibly help with. Tanner (the commander) who has been through so much death/destruction/loss already can understand what Arn is saying as all commanders no matter who they are in your stories must have regrets. The only thing Tanner can do is say from his own experience that Arn made the call and he saved the lives of those people and that maybe that is enough.
We dip our toes again into some severe PTSD as Arn reveals more of his back story that he had been injured fighting against slavers and they had ultimately caused all that pain and suffering he endured for so many years and this had been his chance to exact 'payback.' Arn coming to terms with the pent-up feelings inside against those who hurt him and it all spills out here to us, someone he clearly trusts and looks up to.
Looking into the future expansions if this is how Arn reacts when he thinks that people are in danger because of him then his reaction to someone he really cares about loves being introuble and possibly being killed it makes sense his reactions much later in being so reluctant to let anyone get that close to him and then his absolute fear/panic/dread of losing them. He already couldn't save his master and others how could he even think about losing someone he loves.
Tanner a smuggler who has never had to hide his feelings like he believes the Jedi do (to their own detriment in his eyes) can tell Arn that these feelings (which are ok) just make him human like everyone else. Arn tells him Jedi are supposed to be better, I wish especially for non-Jedi classes we had the option to refute this and tell him that maybe that doesn’t actually make them better, Tanner is just as happy being a regular non-force using human (Zeltron).
I like how Tau just with Tanner is clearly shocked at what happened but immediately says that they need to leave first and then later sticks up for Arn. I haven’t played this for such a long period of time I had forgotten how much your character and Tau can really stand up for Arn and watch out for him, it’s clear why he looks up to you both so much.
When we get to the next meeting scene we see Arn leave before it begins, he clearly is ashamed of what he’s done and looks at Tanner before leaving without a word. Tau instantly sticks up for Arn at the meeting which s great.
Here we can ask about Arn and his welfare, to me this is the first hint that maybe Tanner is starting to really care about him. Tau at the end of the meeting will say she’s thankful that Tanner let her know, we can say that we know deep down Arn is a good person again a little glimmer of a future romance shining through.
After the mission Arn is a little more like himself, I feel as though him doing good with Tau helped him recover from what happened knowing he can still do good. We get his knowledge shining through again with what possibly happen to Sharr.
Then more of awkward Arn at the end when leaving as Lana asks if they want to stay for drinks until Tau says no, wish we could have said something here especially as a smuggler!
We can speak with Gnost-Dural afterwards who echoes that he is glad we helped bring Tau and Arn closer.
If you made it this far hope it was a good read and I look forward to our next deep dive on the slow but steady Arn romance build up. This was a long one because I wanted to look into Arn's background more closely so following deep dives make more sense with his reactions.
