Update: He has just been informed that a dip in toxic waste is in his immediate future. This is not the stuff that a conspicuously shirtless Sith with subtle winged eyeliner is made for. Zash does not appreciate his talents, obviously.
*Cue "I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt + I'm Sexy And I Know It" Mashup* I'm weirdly fascinated with the Sith chest ridge thingies, and xenomorphology in general and it's lead to this: 'Pub Dancer Outfit is a standard bikini Imp Dancer Outfit cris-crosses over the chest, right over where those ridges would be. What if those ridges were a species-specific erogenous zone? Like, say Sith don't have nipples because they're, fuck, I dunno, parthogenesis-capable, live-birthing monotremes or whatever, so having your tits out is NBD but damn son you better put a torc necklace on or something. And it's gender-neutral! Like, Sith only started covering tits because mammals are fussy about pseudomammaries, but a human with a bony sternum in low-cut top could make Lord Scourge walk into a wall (back when he was actually capable of emotion)
I've also thought this about the ridges! The ones back between the shoulders also kind of seem that way. Amusingly, the harness Sericus has on does actually partially cover those, leaving it with the equivalent of, like, cleavage back there. Scourge having a clutzy moment is the best mental image and I approve highly. Further updates on plot: Sericus cannot freaking believe that "We have to find some way to make this pit less deadly." wasn't followed by "We need a really kickass diving suit" or "We need a chemical to neutralize it or dry it up", but instead "MAYBE WE CAN TURN HIM INTO A GIANT BUG"
Oh, and further on clothing and morality and power dynamics: My personal theory is that rather than have gendered divides in power and sexualization associated with clothing, there's a Sith/non-sith divide, specifically: robes vs. pants. Apart from a few exceptions like Marr and a bunch of the cyborgs, powerful Sith pretty much all wear robes, whereas the Imperial armed forces, well. It's all tight pants and those jackets that only cover half of the butt. It's like the equivalent power dynamic between suits and ties vs. skirts and high heels, complete with "why do these not have pockets".
Well obviously he has to leave something to his admirers' imagination. Betcha the back ones are more special because you're trusting someone enough to turn your back on them ~swoon~ Re: Pants vs Robes AGREED. I imagine pants on a Sith is a sign of like, barbarism and savagery because "oh shit they're dressed to physically kick my ass" vs "electrocute me with their brain". Also practicality, because pockets, but no robed Sith would admit that. nehehehehehe "My Lord Zash, I simply must compliment you on your new robes, they're simply stunning, who is your tailor?" "Thanks! They have pockets!"
That, or the back ridges are only visible if you're kneeling or bowing really low to someone. Sith are so ridiculously into the kneeling thing, and I am very okay with that. Yes! It's almost more of a more class-based divide than anything, really, backed up with the force sensitivity divide. You can hide mad pockets behind all that paneling and pleating they've got on those robes.
Great, thanks, as if the trope of "gently running your fingers across the back and shoulders of a kneeling slave/captured enemy/supplicant apprentice as you pace ominously around them" wasn't skeevy enough. No, really, thanks, that's excellent. It's probably a deadly insult and borderline sexual assault and Not Done among purebreds because there's creepy and then there's that. Bet the first non-pureblood superior to do that and not get killed for it had HUGE powertrip over it.
Did you mean: stuff people have been doing to Sericus all his life? XD I bet it doesn't even phase him anymore. He starts composing a grocery list inside his head. (I'm so glad we're all in agreement that making Scourge do silly things that reveal him for the giant dope he is, is so much fun!)
My absolute favorite thing is making terrifying badass villains and heroes just that little bit more "normal" with like, mundane or silly habits and quirks. It makes them more real.
Yep this is 1000% Sericus' life. Prior to the truth coming out about his Force sensitivity, his entire existence was basically a power trip for human Sith. Which he was fine with, because, sure, he didn't have any legal rights or freedoms and was objectified to hell and back, but he was an expensive and rare object! He was like a limited run Lamborghini! You take care of a Lambo, you don't scratch it up and cover it in mud and use it to go do mundane errands! And then he went to Korriban and suddenly everyone was mistaking him for a Yugo and he was not happy about this.
This is why Rejalgar loves sewing and diner food and wandering around the Fury wearing a bedsheet around his waist when he's lazy in the morning. And why Issun the super-professional agent most definitely found some time on Hoth to get away from everyone else and just faceplant into a snowdrift because holy fuck he missed cold weather. Because hyper-competent characters are so much better when they're secretly complete dorks.
Also I really like the "pants on a Sith = savage asskicking" explanation because so far as I can tell, all of the Outlander armor for Sith includes pants? I don't *remember* seeing any robes anyway. So even a Sith Inquisitor, who might have been wearing robes for the entire game up to that point, switches to pants in order to kick Arcann's ass. Be afraid, be very afraid. Marr's ghost: *greatly approves*
There might be some robes in the loot boxes, but the data crystal gear on Odessen might be all pants, I think. I don't know, the only character I've gotten that far is Issun, and as soon as I got the level data crystal gear on Makeb (I think?) I was just "yes. This is the outfit for me. The one with the coat that makes his backside look fantastic", and I haven't gone looking at other class' gear for aesthetics since then.
To be fair, Issun did lose a kidney a little while back to a petulant half-masked buzzcut, so he's not winning at everything. But he looked fantastic when that happened so let's call it a draw.
Isilta has her smoking habit and is probably uncomfortably obsessed with space sudoku, and the sexiness of the uniforms was absolutely a perk of enlisting. Kyraza has dermal piercings in her ridges. More quirks will probably occur to me, she's new.
Khem: Are you sure it's wise to swim in this substance? Thank you, Khem. My bigger problem is that I slipped off a platform and died, though.
Khem never lets you live this down, either. He's a pretty snarky asshole, under all that teeth and cannibalism. (Does it still count as cannibalism when you're knowingly eating sapients from a species other than your own?) I love him.
On an unrelated note, how often do you think adventurers who specialize in Artifice or Synthweaving accidentally inject themselves with thermoionic gel suspension, under the mistaken impression that it was a fortitude stim? XD Because I get the icons mixed up *all the time.*
