Graggory

I had said on my other blog that I'd post character studies for Space Opera X loosely based on concepts that I developed visually, if nothing else, in the SWTOR game. This isn't meant—yet—to be that, this is merely a documenting of my current looks/concepts for my current crop of characters. Of course... right now, I have 20 characters, so that's a lot, but most of them weren't created with any idea in mind other than to play SWTOR, of course. That said, playing around in someone else's playground has always sparked my imagination about potential other playgrounds, and Star Wars has, lately, been uninspiring and disappointing enough that I'm more likely to think towards Space Opera X with concepts originally from Star Wars. So, let's see Graggory, my oldest SWTOR character, in all of his current outfits. Granted; some of these I've either just created, or at least modified, in the last week. Others I've had for months. The original world drop sha'tek armor set has been—mostly—unmodified for literally years.

Even the galaxy's toughest bounty hunter needs to relax and wear something more comfortable. Here's a "space biker" look; one that I like and have used variations on with other characters as well.

One of the nice things about this outfit is because it shows his head and isn't very bulky, it's a good representation of what Graggory really looks like.

Graggory's signature piece, a big old honkin' tuned up weapon from the light side vendor. Back in the 6.x version of the game, it was easy to get nearly max lightside just by setting your ticker on light and playing the game, while forgetting about it. When I realized I'd maxed him out, I picked this up. In 7.x, characters' alignment is more based on actual choices made in game, so my characters will be more neutral or even dark side, because I ignore the stupid morality built in to the game and try and pick the closest thing to a sensible choice, if they even offer you one. Of course, now we can vary weapons with outfits, but Graggory has pretty much always just used this one.

It didn't occur to me to take Mako out of the shot until I was nearly done with this series, so you get to see slave Leia outfit cyberpunk Mako in a lot of pictures. I didn't actually have that customization on her until relatively recently, since I don't play much story with Graggory anymore anyway. Not only was my Mako uncustomized for my entire first playthrough, because I kind of like her default look, but I had her wear a progression of crafted armor because as I was playing, I was working up Graggory's Armormech skill.

The oldest concept look for Graggory, although I've updated a few pieces like the pants here and there over time. Most of these pieces, including the boots, the chestpiece and the helmet were all world drops as I was playing through the game, mostly fairly early on even, since I hit max level (at the time) way back on Alderaan. Not only did I do every story, faction, and exploration quest I could find, but I played through him during a long-running double XP event. He maxed out really early on.

I couldn't turn him very much without putting his face in shadow, which defeated the purpose of trying to take these pictures, but it's nice to see just a bit of the beautiful Yavin IV landscape, including the red gas giant in the sky.

One of my early attempts at a casual look for Graggory; he can't run around in bounty hunter armor all the time without looking like a try-hard, after all! This outfit is mostly made up of world drops too, although there are similar craftable items you can get (the coloration is different, though.)

Although there are a fair number of options for hair and face shape, etc. the reality is that there are few that I would have any interest in picking, meaning you often see the same options repeatedly, and many of my characters look like they could be brothers with each other. But Graggory was always meant to be an active, outdoorsy type, who spent a lot of time in the sun; either on the surface of harsh wasteland planets like Tatooine, or in the cockpit of his ship where the sun's rays might be even harsher. I like the very tanned-skin look with the burned cheeks. Graggory probably turned out the darkest of my characters; he's so dark, he could almost be Erik John Stark. Or maybe he's a reversion to the phenotype of our Western Hunter Gatherer ancestors from the Mesolithic.

An alternative heavy armor look, based mostly on pieces that I've picked up more recently (although the helmet is a very old world drop.) I doubt I'll keep this one forever. I don't love it, but I'm trying it out for now.

I've also been crafting a fair amount, and picking up new schematics because of my gathering skills. This is a recently crafted chest piece that I need to try out with something. I do like that helmet a lot too as an alternative non-Mandalorian heavy armor.

This set was always meant to be a kind of local scavenger type ruffian. Less the slick interstellar privateer and more the backwoods privatized law enforcement, chasing off bandits or wild savages from the homes of brave homesteaders.

As you can tell from my last caption I don't think of bounty hunters as thugs for career criminals and gangsters, as Star Wars has often portrayed them. Rather, in frontier environments where sheriffs, marshals, or other official law officers are in short supply, the bounty hunter steps in to protect the settlements, and that's how he makes his living. Classic white hat Western hero type stuff. John Wayne in space.

A very classic crafted (mostly) heavy armor look, although just recently I threw a dye module on it because the off-white color just wasn't doing it for me any more.

And finally, an early attempt to get something close to the look of the main character from the first season of The Mandalorian, before I had access to the Infamous Bounty Hunter helmet, which obviously looks exactly like the Mandalorian (for exactly that reason, I often prefer using this one.)

I'm pretty over that show now, especially after The Book of Boba Fett kind of screwed over the Disney+ Star Wars audience and made them feel like there wasn't much point in continuing to tune in. But I still really like the look, and I imagine I'll keep it indefinitely.

Now, I already said that this isn't meant to be an exploration of Space Opera X character concepts, but let's spend just a few minutes noodling around with Graggory and see what I can do with him in Space Opera X, if anything. 

In Space Opera X, I'm not sure what race Graggory would be. Human, obviously, but what kind? Probably some kind of earth-extraction human with a touch of some other DNA in him from some kind of exohuman. Maybe he's a typical, if slightly darker than normal Bernese type, or maybe he's even one that would be found in the Dhangetan space. Then again, like Eric John Stark himself, maybe his darker skin is just a natural reaction to years of exposure to harsh sunlight rather than a racial trait.

Like I said earlier, just because Star Wars treats bounty hunters like villains and smugglers like heroes doesn't mean that I do, or that I see any real distinction between them, honestly. Of course, I don't love the idea of the heavily armored bounty hunter archetype all that much either, which is why you'll see that few of my outfits really look like very heavy armor. That's more of a military/soldier kind of thing, and on the frontier, I'm not sure how many of those you'd see on a regular basis, unless you're in a highly settled one with a strong local duke or baron who rules in the Monarch's (or Emperor's, or President's) name. Keep in mind that while Boba Fett is mainly known as being a bounty hunter, the development of his armor type was based on soldier ideas, and his original concept art was for a supercommando left over from the Clone Wars. This was long before any of the detail that we now have for the Clone Wars was developed, and Boba Fett was once envisioned as a leftover; a hanger-on from the side that was defeated by the Jedi. 

That's why even my heavily armored options aren't really all that heavy. The last one, that looks a bit like the Mandalorian from the TV show, is probably more typical. The next to last one, with the eye-patch and the brown and red armor, could be a veteran from some military, or a mercenary who still fights with one on his own terms.

Most of the rest of those options would best be seen as some kind of fairly typical space gunfighter from the frontier regions. Bounty hunters rely on and service the community in some fashion; these Graggory outfits tend to look less like some kind of professional in that regard, and more of a free agent just doing his own thing, who happens to be really good with a gun. Maybe a gambler or a smuggler, even. I picture him, especially in his lighter outfits, as being someone really good with a gun and in a fight, but not someone who's necessarily looking for one; otherwise, maybe he'd be more willing to use the armor. He's not going to war, even in the low-grade crime war sense. 

Maybe he's a spy. A kind of space James Bond, although one more prone to hang out in seedier dives rather than ones that require a space tuxedo. But if so, he's one who operates a bit more openly, and people see and know him, and making an impression is a big part of what he's meant to do. Like, James Bond, actually. It's usually the agent class characters who tend to wear the black ops type stuff; like space Sam Fishers (from Splinter Cell); nothing Graggory has one really fits that bill.

My so-far unnamed protagonist from my so-far only vague inclinations at actual stories in the setting of Space Opera X, would be not unlike Graggory here, although honestly, many of my SWTOR characters could be him too.