In defense of Rosh...

[the_raven]

I never really understood why everyone hates the guy so much. Yeah, he was somewhat annyoing with this overzealousness and sometimes acting superior, but people give him way too much hate for a character that's only been seen in the game briefly. Then again, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan/ Ben Kenobi too appeared only briefly in the ANH but instantly became fan favourites. Still, we're talking about Rosh. Let's analyze:

We first meet him on the transport to the Academy. He seems cool at first, but then, he suddenly bursts into a fit of excitement, forgetting about personal space and ignoring that he doesn't even know the person whose face he gets into. Ok, personal space is important, and Jaden looks like he's got stuff on his mind anyway (What kind of stuff? We'll never know, I guess), but how would any of us have reacted knowing that we're going to a real Jedi Academy, and not a mock-religion or Summer-camp type of real, but Star Wars real? I'd sure as hack be excited! Anyway, Jaden's somewhat cold response brings Rosh back on the ground, and he admits that he's nervous and wants to make a good impression. This latter point is also hinted at by Rosh's remark on getting 'one of those stupid training sabers' as he notices Jaden's. He even asks Jaden why he isn't nervous and excited (see above). So, finally, once conversation gets going, Rosh, albeit briefly, seems like a normal, even likeable, chap. But then the transport crashes, and somehow the duo is separated from everyone else (I'm not going to discuss how this happens, because as per level (and ship) design, that shouldn't be possible). What does Rosh do? He advices Jaden to cut the tree down, to help him get off the cliff, where he's stuck. Some might say that it was an obvious course of action, but was it really? When I first played the game, it really didn't occur to me. Maybe the language barrier (I couldn't understand English back then) had something to do with it, and maybe I'm just stupid that way, but it just shows (also, in reality, getting down from that cliff without any bridge would have been possible, and quite easy, but a game is a game, I suppose).

Next, the duo strolls through the jungle. When Rosh opens the door using the Force, he does so with the showy 'No problem!', which kinda makes sense, considering that he views Jaden as 'way more ahead' than him - Jaden does have a lightsaber, and even if a lightsaber doesn't make a Jedi, having a working lightsaber is a good hint the person might be learning to become one, and that they did some progress, after all, building a lightsaber is one of the traditional Jedi trials. So Rosh just wants to show that while Jaden is more ahead than him in his training (as Rosh believes), he's still not a loser and does have something to show for.

When they encounter the Howlers, Rosh says 'These Howlers make good target practice, eh, Jaden?' this 'eh, Jaden?' remark shows that Rosh actually looks up to Jaden, whom he, again, views as being farther with his training. That, or he - being the coward that he is - just wants to be on the lightsaber-wielding guy's good side.

But the previous point is somewhat untrue, considering that once they come across the two Stormtroopers, Rosh instantly hides behind a rock, leaving Jaden in the open. You might ask 'But how is it untrue, if he just did what a coward does, and selfishly hides while his friend remains in plain sight?'. A reasonable question, but if we look at Jaden's reaction, we notice that he himself didn't notice the Stormtroopers and was surprised by Rosh's behaviour. Rosh even had to tell him to get behind cover, as there' stormtroopers in the clearing, which Jaden then proceeds to do. Here, the fault isn't Rosh's, but actually Jaden's, because he was blind to the obvious threat - the Stormtroopers were regarded as elite soldiers of the Empire, surely this view remained even after the Empire fell apart. If not, then they were still two armed, military-trained guys in full body-armor, which is still not something you'd want to encounter in a dark alley, or a jungle clearing.

Rosh suggests that Jaden checked it out because he's the one with the lightsaber, after all. Again you'll say 'Rosh is a coward!', and again I'll disagree. You see, as we've already established, Rosh thinks Jaden is already close to becoming a Jedi, having completed one of the classic trials (building a lightsaber), which implies that he'll have a higher chance of surviving an encounter with hostile armed characters. At the same time, there are two practical reasons why it was indeed best for Jaden to deal with the Stormtroopers: 1) he held a highly destructive weapon, one that even when inactive, could defuse a potentially violatile situation (though if you remember the events of JO, Kyle was actually lying on this one, but that's just a side-note), so even without being a Jedi, it already counted for something; 2) Rosh wielded a blaster, a ranged weapon, so it'd make more sense for him to stay back and cover the melee-weapon wielding Jaden, as the latter goes to get 'close and personal' with hostiles (he didn't do that, but tactically, it'd make more sense).

From there, Jaden suddenly decides to scout the temple by himself, leaving Rosh behind for whatever reason (again, level design makes it impossible), and gets pwnd by Tavion's energy blast from the scepter (how does the scepter know when to blast someone with a debilitating blast, and when to infuse them with Force energy anyway?). Not that Rosh'd have been of any use in that situation, but it still doesn't mean Jaden had to run off like that. Once Jaden wakes up, he finds Kyle and Rosh standing above him. Rosh explains that he saw a huge flash of light, and came to find him lying unconscious - meaning that Rosh was either genuinely worried about Jaden, or that he was just curious, or hoped that it was some kind of evac signal.

Once Luke shows up, Rosh goes all fanboy, which is, again, understandable - Luke is a Jedi, he's THE Jedi, and he's a hero of the New Republic. Who wouldn't have gone fanboy upon meeting him? Most people go full fanboy when they meet Mark Hamill, despite Hamill always being cool and acting like a regular person, and not like the big celebrity that he is. And Hamill is neither a Jedi, nor a hero of the New Republic, at least, not in real life. So imagine what it'd be like to meet Luke Skywalker in person!

At the academy, Rosh is teeming with excitement to begin his training, obviously understandable, considering the above points. Once he and Jaden are assigned to Kyle, he plays a bit of a kiss-up. Not very noble, but understandable, I suppose - good impression, and Kyle's a hero too. They go to 'one of the many training grounds', and Rosh starts racing Jaden to the end of the course, by quickly dispatching the remotes, and even sicking a potentially lethal lighsaber training droid on Jaden. The latter indeed showed his connivingness, if not stupidity (since he didn't figure the droid could actually be dangerous) - as shown at the end of the course, when Kyle shames him for doing so. But it was an honest mistake to think that it was race, nobody said that it wasn't, and when you have two or more people doing the same thing separately, and at the same time, there's bound to be competition - I sure thought it was a race, in no small part due to Rosh's attitude though. Still, after the 'race', although at first he is defensive and even looks like he's getting ready for a fight when Jaden approaches him (this much is understandable, as he recognizes that his unsporty behaviour might have negative consequences for him), he does acknowledge his fault, and honestly apologizes to Jaden. You would say that it was because of Kyle, but that's why Kyle's a Master, he's supposed to teach students to overcome their differences and to be honest, especially if they're supposed to become Jedi. Once the incident is settled, Rosh again plays a bit of a kiss-up, but since he feels ashamed of his previous action, he wants to regain Kyle's trust, even though there's no reason to. This either shows that Rosh is a manipulator, or just immature. If it's the former, that's not good for him; if the latter, then it's perfectly forgivable, even though it's annoying. Why I don't think he's much of a manipulator is because later in the game, he proves to be a decent person. Manipulators hardly ever redeem themselves as decent people. But more on this later. As to his leaning on Kyle's shoulder, that too is understandable, since Kyle wants to play it casual, and Rosh wants to show his friendliness; although its still a bit excessive.

Skipping a couple first tier missions, we get a cutscene where the frustrated and somewhat disappointed Rosh complains and muses as to why Kyle doesn't let him do any of the real important stuff. It's understandable that he wants to prove his worth, but here we again see that he's either immature or stupid, because he fails to understand that: a) there's no need to prove anything, he's a trainee, and training goes as it goes (this is even called by Jedi2); b) those are just the first tier missions, so it's expected that Kyle's gonna be holding his hand; and c) being a Jedi isn't just about exciting fights and saving the Galaxy, it's also about boring investigations, and doing "chores" (the actual things that save the Galaxy, but seem insignificant). You might say that Jaden didn't have his hand held by Kyle, but if we look at Jaden's first tier missions, most of them were either supposed to be simple errands - pick up merchants who crashed on a desert planet (nobody knew of the sand burrowers), or find Jawas and buy a droid (nobody expected the Tusken Raiders); or Kyle simply failed to show up, for whatever reason. On the other hand, since Jaden seemed (and proved to be) more mature, and arguably more responsible than Rosh, Kyle most likely gave him more freedom of action, which is actually a normal for a teacher.

During the scepter briefing at the Academy, Rosh makes a somewhat out of turn comment, but based on everyone's reaction, it seems that comments are a normal things, Rosh or no Rosh - Kyle, Jedi2, and even Jaden also make comments. Luke seems to be a lot more democratic as the Archmage Grand Master than Windu or Yoda, no? Either way, we again see Rosh being excited - he wants to be a hero, and he's sure he can deal with anything thrown his way, remarks such as 'I bet those Cult guys can't take on a Jedi' and 'No problem' when warned of the Imperial Remnant possibly lurking around Byss prove this. This is, yet again, understandable, he's immature, exciteable, he most likely grew up watching too many (Jedi) holovids; but at the same time, Kyle claims that both he and Jaden are well on their way to becoming Jedi, which implies that whatever Rosh was doing must have been good enough for Kyle to encourage them both (or he just wanted to enourage Jaden without insulting Rosh). Either way, I think we can assume that Rosh actually did get ahead of Jaden with his training, because Jaden only got to go to Byss on his second or third tier, either that, or Byss wasn't considered such a big deal before Rosh disappeared.

Later we find out that Rosh never returned from Byss, and that nobody knew anything about him except that he was still alive, as per Luke's sensing. We finally meet him on Vjun, working with the Disciples of Ragnos, trying to syphon residual Force energy from Vader's meditation chamber. We don't know exactly if his time with the Disciples improved his Force and saber mastery, or if they just taught him some Dark Side tricks, but I assume it was the latter (as per previous point). He argues that his suspicions on Kyle were true, and offers Jaden to join him in the Disciples, but Jaden refuses, and tries to bring Rosh back to the Academy. While Jaden's initially somewhat successful - Rosh actually acts like he's being mind controlled rather than is actually evil - Rosh is swayed back by the Kothos twins, and as per their order, attacks Jaden. Here, Rosh's decision to attack Jaden is understandable for two reasons: 1) as already mentioned, he acted like he was mind-controlled, so the simple answer is that the Twins regained control over him; 2) he was worried about betraying the Disciples, considering that two of the most powerful ones stood right next to him, whereas Jaden was still just a student - here, Rosh's reasoning might have been that if he, the talented and 'great Jedi' was outmatched by the Disciples, then surely Jaden, whom he now saw as inferior (remember the final words before they departed to Hoth and Byss accordingly: 'Good luck! Call me if you need any help!'), would be easily dispatched by them. Once Jaden defeats the trio, Rosh gets ready to get killed too, but then Kyle shows up and Rosh tries to explain himself, and possibly apologize, only to be interrupted by Tavion. Tavion is the Disciples' leader, she's arguably the only person in the organization who has a natural Force sensitivity and proper darksider training, so her showing up, shoving Kyle into a wall and Force Lightning-ing Jaden was impressive in itself. As we've already discussed in a different thread, she's supposed to be this seductress type of character, so that's another reason why Rosh would want to side with her - hey, we never did find out what he did during his time with the Disciples! And while we don't know for sure if Rosh had any second thoughts when Jaden said 'Rosh, no!' only to be mocked by Tavion, we do know that he ran off with Tavion as the ceiling started to collapse (thank you, Jaden!).

Finally, we meet him after ending the third training tier, on Taspir 3, because he sent a distress call. As Jaden noted, he didn't look like much a captive. But Rosh indeed wanted to be rescued. It seems that he was only allowed to send out the distress call because Tavion wanted to test Jaden's loyalty - the latter was revealed by Alora, who was there for the whole affair. It also seems that when Rosh finally 'saw the light', Tavion also gave him the chance to call for help because she wanted to replace him - remember, the plan was to make Jaden strike Rosh down, and turn to the dark side, and by extension, to the Disciples' cause. In spite of the plan, which Rosh might have known - since he was trying to warn Jaden about something - he also tried to calm Jaden down, to prevent his fall to the dark side. If he knew the plan, he may have acted cowardly, knowing he'd be killed (or at least, badly injured). But what if he didn't know the plan and decide to abandon the Disciples in the first place? Hence Tavion deciding that Jaden'd be a better choice. From his own words, and from Kyle's telepathy, we know that Rosh only fell to the dark side because he was scared, afraid of dying - this, and his behaviour on Vjun show that he wasn't trully evil. In the non-canon dark side choice, we see that Rosh's desire to return to the Jedi was honest, because in his dying breath, he had no arrogance, he didn't whine, he didn't blame Jaden, he just accepted his death as punishment for his stupidity and cowardice, only apologizing for failing Kyle as a student, and making Jaden fail too. As to the light side choice, he loses his arm to Alora, but survives and gets a cybernetic replacement. Finally, back with the Jedi, Luke tells him about the virtues of patience and humility, and Rosh willingly accepts the lesson.

Also, when Jaden is about to fight Tavion, she refers to him as 'Katarn's good student'. In the light side choice, this has a double meaning - a) Jaden is more capable than Rosh, and b) Jaden didn't turn to the dark side. In the dark side choice, this just means that Jaden didn't turn to the dark side, although this is instantly proven wrong.

 

In conclusion: Rosh started out as a character that was overly exciteable, somewhat ambitious, and insecure of his own skill, who was yet a helpful friend if needed. Later, as he became stronger, he became arrogant, and this proved to be his undoing, because he ended up face-to-face with his demons, who materialized in the form the Disciples of Ragnos - alongside his arrogance, his insecurities came out, and he was easily swayed to the dark side. Finally, for all his arrogance, he understood that fears are to be met head-on, and redeemed himself as the good character that he was at heart.

Rosh is a good character, who gets actual development. He is annyoing in the beginning, but even in spite of this, he proves to be a capable fighter and a good friend, who is simply maximalistic and somewhat misguided. He grows, he learns to cope with his insecurities, he heeds the advice of his superiors, and he understands that all things come at their own time.

All this said, he doesn't deserve all the hate that he gets. Thank you.

[bigphil2695]

>Introduce annoying character

>lets you murder him

 

Good job Raven.

 

 

Seriously though good article, I've never disliked Rosh either.