Dan Vs. Kent · 1:20am Feb 8th, 2021
After much trial and experimentation, I finally have a decent character of my own I want to permanently add to the Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship cast. I spent a lot of time designing a character that could be and do so many things, but flawless characters aren't fun. He also represents a bit of my own personal history, and the fact I found FIMFic from SWTOR. Rals is more of the ideal character, and I'm happy people seem to like him, but I don't design characters just for them to be liked. No, a good character is one that is fun to use, fun to read about and easy to imagine yourself as. Thus have I created Kent the Sentinel.
Kent is still his own character, though. Like Rals, his mentor, he is inquisitive, curious but also steadfast in his morals and beliefs and quick to defend them. He's also quick to act and to the fight if need be, and doesn't shy away from battle. In fact, he can even take things too far, and continues fighting, arguing or otherwise engaging long after the conflict has been decided. Like Dan, and like myself at times, he has difficulty letting things go.
Taris, which I've written about already, is indeed the place where Kent suffered his worst defeat. The Republic came to Taris just to rebuild the planet. Sure, it was right on the doorstep of the Sith Empire, and there were multiple secret weapons projects the Republic was researching on Taris, but the primary effort was simply to restore and recolonize the planet. Unfortunately, the Sith relentlessly attacked the world and forced the Republic off. They destroyed the spaceport at the primary base, Olaris, which ended their efforts to rebuild. There were attempts made to restart the Taris Resettlement Project, even an attempt to reclaim the planet from the Sith using a hidden fleet of ships in a hidden hangar, and the Sith blew that up, too.
What does the Empire gain out of keeping Taris a polluted, bombed-out wasteland of swamps, toxic radiation and ruins? Well, honestly, I had a few ideas about that as well. They'd probably build a new Sith Academy on the planet. They're not interested in rebuilding it as a city world, it has very little strategic and military value(aside from Project Ciantide), and it has no usable resources(again, aside from Project Ciantide). It does have plenty of danger, diseases, vicious beasts and harsh living conditions, so it would be the perfect place to train new acolytes.
Kent earned fame among the Republic for identifying a group of Sith attempting to sneak onto the Smuggler's Moon of Nar Shaddaa, and then by defeating those Sith when they attacked him. Taris, however, was a defeat, and a disastrous one. Kent only survived by being smuggled off the planet in secret after the Sith invasion concluded. All the while, Rals, or Brad the Shadow, was leading the Republic to victory in the liberation of Balmorra. The Republic loses one world but wins another, same as the Sith. And Balmorra is a massive weapons complex planet and Taris is a swamp- I think it's clear to see who the real winner on that one is.
So now, Kent is on Equestria, and he's somewhat of a jerk to Dan. Surprisingly, Dan likes this. Instead of having Captain America, Chris Redfield, Solid Snake, Khan, Ridley and a bunch of other characters, Kent is going to be one powerful individual that is going to be forced into situations with Dan. Although Dan seems to like Kent, Kent's primary focus is preventing what happened on Taris from happening on Equestria. He sees Dan as more of part of a solution rather than all of it. He knows Dan relied on his friends to help him get him where he is and while Dan is the leader, Kent finds him more of an annoyance everything just centers around.
Like I said, it took me a long time to design Kent. Writing action stories, you need a decent action hero. Someone like James Bond, John McClaine, the Master Chief from Halo, but there is a reason why these are good characters. There's a person underneath it all. Kent's motivation is finding a way to make up for his failures, for not being a hero. He has a lot to learn, including the fact that no one is perfect. Dan will be the one to teach him that, while Kent is going to teach Dan how to deal with someone a lot like himself.
I'm interested to see where things go with Kent, he seems like a pretty interesting character to bounce off of Dan. That same kind of impulsive aggression, but at the same time more experienced, having already seen some major failures.
I actually like him a lot more than Rals from what I've seen so far, mostly just because Rals seems too... I don't want to say perfect, that's not the right word. Too good maybe?
5450085
He's meant to have that high-and-mighty air about him. Rals is success, Kent is failure, yet Rals has his secrets, too. In the end, both men failed to let something go and were exiled for it. For Kent, it was the war and for Rals, it was his wife. Jedi are not allowed to marry, yet he did anyway.
Kent is unable to let go of hate. Rals is unable to let go of love. Dan, as has been stated, has room enough for love and hate in his heart. They can both learn from Dan.
Also, thank you so much for reading my story, I hope you enjoy it very much.
5450094
I started reading the story a while ago, and I do enjoy it!
I don't really see Rals being unable to let go of love as a failure. I know the Jedi see it that way, but the Jedi never truly have the full picture either. In a way I would think that makes Rals even more realized than normal Jedi.
5450102
That's a common view, and I happen to believe it as well. Love is a strength, not a weakness. Yet the Jedi, at least of the time of these two, don't agree entirely with that. Rals is indeed more realized, which is why in this story, he's more of a figure of judgment. His green armor and saber represent the Green Knight in Arthurian legend, an intimidating and imposing figure that judges the worthiness of other knights.
The characters alongside Dan have a lot of things in common and all have a common themes, including survival. Tux is the last surviving dinosaur(or gentlemen as he prefers), Reginald is the only crystal pony with full memory of the events in the Crystal Empire, Captain America is the enduring spirit of America, Dan's home country, Chris Redfield is a survivor of literal horrors, Rals and Kent are survivors of Order 66, and so on.
5450111
Ah the Green Knight, an interesting comparison to make. Yeah, I honestly like that, plus the fact that the Jedi COULD have sex, just no relationships.
Fuck, now I wanna play SWTOR again
5450478
Rals is based on the Jedi Consular from that game, as it may be obvious. But I've made a few tweaks to the storyline to make him less of an invincible Gary Stu and more like a dedicated negotiator who sometimes gets too caught up in his role.
5450527
Interesting. May play SWTOR again. Is it still getting updates and such?
5450651
Yep. The devs are still rolling out the content. Just added a new flashpoint and some new story- Echoes of Oblivion.
5450699
Oh nice, haven't heard much about Echoes, or well, anything about it. Last SWTOR trailer I saw was....Fallen Empire. Shit that was years ago. Oh, speaking of, a friend recently got into the game. He says the gameplay could be better, but he loves the writing.