Discussing Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and How to Write a Story With a Villain Protagonist

[Winter]

To be clear I'm referring to game released in 2002 which is the story about how Jango Fett was recruited by Count Dooku to be the template that would shape the Clone Army made to be led by and eventually destroy the Jedi. It's honestly a really underrated game IMO, not a master piece as there are elements that I either find dated even by the standards of the time, levels I find frustrating and the gameplay loop gets a bit repetitive after a while.

However, what works about this game really works. The look of the game is fantastic and really feels like a Star Wars game. Sure the graphics aren't anything special but the look of this great and has that feel of a Used Future that Star Wars made popular but still feels like it's part of the Prequel Era.

But what I love most about this game is how it writes the characters, more specifically how it never forgets the fact that the characters we're focused on are not and should not be considered heroes. These people are villains and are kinda horrible when you really think about it.

To often when we have a story that is suppose to be about a bunch of villains the characters are effectively rewritten as heroes how are just misunderstood and would be on the right side if things were different or are on the way to becoming heroes. A great example of this is the first Suicide Squad movie where that film's characters are presented in a more heroic light and we see how they're going up against a greater evil but it never feels like we're watching a lesser evil taking on a greater evil but misunderstood heroes fighting a generic villain.

Hell many Star Wars games where we're playing as villains often either try to direct us or force us into the role of a hero and will either brush aside the horrible things we've done for the sake of the narrative that's being shaped for us.

But on the flip side a story where the villain is the main character can often go to far in the exact opposite direction where the character we're following us such a horrible person that makes it hard to care about what happens to the person we're following. That's basically the problem with Grim Dark stories like the Saw series, we're focused mainly on a Serial Killer and his victims and the people trying to stop him are often if not always as made or worse then he is.

Bounty Hunter masterfully avoids all these issues. First off it makes Jango, Zam and Roz all overall likable. Roz in particular stands out as someone who really helps humanize Jango as he does care about her and she's a really nice old lady. You get the sense that these two really are friends and the banter between them is a lot of fun. Zam is also rather interesting as while you can see that she and Jango would turn on one another if given the chance they also have some real chemistry. Personally I still subscribe to the theory that Jango didn't kill Zam just hit her with a poison that brought her close to the death that it would even fool a Jedi, thank ND Stevenson.

However, this doesn't negate that fact that Jango and Zam are still kinda horrible people and while Roz may not seem that bad she still has no issue with some of the things Jango does and he does a LOT of morally questionable thing throughout the game. He captures someone to give as a gift to a crime lord, knowing he would be tortured to death and never once shows any sign that this bothers him. He kills someone begging for his life who was already on the fence about the terrible things he was doing for no real reason other then Jango just didn't really care about him. And he leaves his greatest enemy to die a slow and horrible death instead of mercy killing him and while that enemy did deserve to die his death still feels undeserved.

I've read a lot of comments and seen a lot of reviews noting how it was hard to see Jango as a hero because of some of the horrible things he does but what these people miss is Jango ISN'T a hero. He just happens to be a lighter shade of black compared to those he's up against and his hunt causes a LOT of collateral damage and Jango often just doesn't care and leaves without any care about what he's done.

This is why this game is such a great example of how to write a villain as you're main character. Jango and his allies are overall likable and you really get the sense that they care about each other, you come to understand why Jango wants a son when this whole hunt is over and his adversaries are overall worse then he could ever hope to be.

None of this changes that Jango is a villain himself who doesn't care who gets hurt during his hunt outside of the few people he cares about and the people he cares about are almost as bad as he is.

It's the perfect balance of just making us care about these villains but the fact remains they are still villains who are motivated by their own greed and any good they do along the way is unintentional on their part.

[CharlesPhipps]

Weirdly, I think the best villain story is THE OLD REPUBLIC's Bounty Hunter story. You're a professional, you're not inclined to be a sadistic evil asshole, and then at the very end of the story arc's First Act you're ATTACKING A REPUBLIC VESSEL to KIDNAP a Jedi.

And it feels organic, even though you're suddenly complaining about being labeled a terrorist in-universe.

I mean, you absolutely ARE but your mindset is, "Listen, it was JUST a job."

[Winter]

Weirdly, I think the best villain story is THE OLD REPUBLIC's Bounty Hunter story. You're a professional, you're not inclined to be a sadistic evil asshole, and then at the very end of the story arc's First Act you're ATTACKING A REPUBLIC VESSEL to KIDNAP a Jedi.

And it feels organic, even though you're suddenly complaining about being labeled a terrorist in-universe.

I mean, you absolutely ARE but your mindset is, "Listen, it was JUST a job."

It's not a bad example but I feel it still falls into category 1, you're not really a villain. No one we hunt, for most of the first act at least, is even remotely a good person, most of the people we're working with are overall good people and the few that aren't quickly get their comeuppance and no one's death is really that bad. And in terms of the final hunt in Act 1 with the Jedi, we're not given any choice in how that plays out, we have to do this and the game, IMO, goes to far in making the Jedi Master a good person so it's clear that we're doing something wrong.

And after that it does something that often bugs me in stories like this, the Jedi we're up against is clearly a villain with no sympathetic qualities to speak of. Even us hunting down and capturing the Grand Chancellor is more to get this asshole off our backs then anything else. Further more there was clearly more effort put into the Light Side Bounty Hunter than the Dark Side one as most fans feel it's the better story.

But in Bounty Hunter the Jango Edition Jango is the one making all these choices. No one forced him to do anything, he choose to hunt down Komari Vosa, no one forced him to interrogate and then murder a Republic Senator, no one forced or tricked him to break into a prison to steal a prisoner who who would be tortured to death by the person Jango wanted to give him to. He's not doing this because he's desperate, he's not in need for money or to help Roz get money, he doesn't even want a family, at least at first, and he's not doing it to get revenge for anyone he knows he's doing it because it's a lot of money being offered.

Sure it's just a job but his job leaves a lot of collateral damage and it's all Jango's fault and he shows no sign of regret. Contrast this with the mission where we work with an imperial officer to cause a lot of terrible things to happen just to get to our target. In that hunt it's our client's plans that cause more of the damage and the game presents him as a terrible and pathetic person we're clearly not suppose to like or sympathize with and our companions are clearly unhappy with this whole mission.

This mission has us at our worst and it's not even really our fault but choices force upon us by forces outside of our control. To once again compare this to the 2002 game, look at the mission where Jango goes after the Senator. He breaks into a building, kills tons of guards just doing their job and kills someone begging for their life who already wanted out of the the criminal underworld and either kills or scares several innocent people who had nothing to do with his hunt. Again, this isn't something he's being forced to do but something he's choosing to do.

That's why I feel the 2002 is the better example, because at the end of the day, Jango and those working with him are all villains while in TOR most of our companions are closer to Anti-Heroes then villains, we're forced to do what we're doing and the people we're up against are mostly horrible people with deaths that are fairly fitting and not needlessly cruel.