The Former Legacy: Priss

I haven’t played Star Wars: The Old Republic in quite a long time now, for a couple of years… I think. In fact, this article has sat in my Draft folder for over three years now, but I thought, eh, why not dig it up and complete it. I’ve captured a tonne of screenshots of that game, may as well finish off this series about The Former Legacy.

“Look, I ain’t in this for the Republic, and I’m not in it for you. I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money!”

In the Star Wars universe, smuggler’s live by their own rules and most tend to fly by the seat of the pants when it comes to everything they do. They live for the thrill of out outmaneuvering their foes and take pride in boasting about their skills… and their modified freighters. The daring and guile of many smugglers is known to the Galactic Republic, which is why they are often hired to undertake dangerous missions despite not being 100% trustworthy.

Like Silvana, I have a bit of a soft spot for Priss, though for different reasons. I named her after Priss Asagiri from a cyberpunk anime called “Bubblegum Crisis” which is also where she gets her style from in terms of her blue colouring. Though, there’s a bit of a chain being linked in terms of the name because the Priss from Bubblegum Crisis is named after “Pris” from Blade Runner, the well-known cyberpunk film directed by Ridley Scott loosely based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” a novel by Philip K. Dick which also features a character named “Pris”.

To be perfectly honest, my motives for creating Priss were based on a more superficial level compared with other toons created in The Former Legacy, though this doesn’t mean that her creation was simply thrown together from nothing just so I could put her in a bikini. Priss is actually my small tribute to the cyberpunk genre which is heavy on very striking imagery, so with that thought in mind, I created Priss to represent a specific image of cyberpunk in the Star Wars universe… without actually turning her into a cyborg.

Her species, general appearance, clothing and weapons were all inspired from various cyberpunk sources, though mostly in relation to Bubblegum Crisis more than anything else. She became a blue skinned Twi’lek as a tribute to the powered hardsuit Priss Asagiri dons frequently in Bubblegum Crisis. I tried to choose facial features that reminded me as much of Daryl Hannah, the actress that portrayed Pris in Blade Runner, as much as possible with the choices available. Her weapons of choice, the dual blaster pistols of the Gunslinger advanced class and the actual pistols themselves were chosen to pay tribute to RoboCop and the awesome pistols Alex Murphy used as RoboCop. Her choice of speeder, always in red are based around the motorcycles, motoroids and motoslaves used by Priss Asagiri in Bubblegum Crisis and Kaneda’s motorcycle from Akira.

One of the most difficult things about Priss was the selection of her clothing, though, surprisingly her completed set of clothing came together extremely early on and was my interpretation of the cyberpunk style of clothing used by Priss and the connection of Pris as a “basic pleasure model” android. The Republic Dancer outfit in The Old Republic fits this concept pretty well, at least in my mind, and also adds a necessary touch of red to her design to further reflect the colours used in the hardsuit used by Priss from Bubblegum Crisis.

With cyberpunk media being based around dystopian interpretations of the future, the Priss I created tends to fall in the favour of the dark side. She’s in this for herself and the money and nothing will get in her way. She grew up in a very hostile galaxy and knows that the only way to survive is to make sure you exploit everyone else before they exploit you.

I have a lot of fun with Priss since I don’t have to think about doing the right thing, I just do whatever gets me what I want with hilarious outcomes. It’s too bad that I lost interest in The Old Republic, but maybe in a little while I’ll post about another character from my toon list… but who to choose.

I know, I’ll post about the other girl in blue on the Imperial side, Fiora.

“The Republic is a big, self-righteous pool of money, and I’ve got swimming privileges.”