Final Analysis

Introduction:
In this analysis I am going to look at the Star Wars: The Old Republic "Return" cinematic trailer.  I will examine how video game companies who are redoing famous stories can build ethos with gamers and fans of the original stories. I will give a brief summary on the artifact, explain my method of analysis, then move straight into the analysis portion of this project, and finish with a summary on what we have learned.  We will find out specifically with this artifact how a video game company can build its ethos with both gamers and Star Wars fans.


A description of the artifact and its context:
This artifact is an opening sequence from the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic.  It was first shown as a cinematic trailer at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 2011.  It was the final installment of a three part cinematic trailer trilogy telling the story of how the Great Galactic War was started. 
Although this was the last of the three trailers released it is chronologically the first of the three.  It is the first time the Sith Empire has been seen in over 300 years after they were supposedly destroyed in the last war. This entire game was set nearly 2,700 years before the original Star Wars Saga.


A description of your method of analysis:
I have chosen to take a narrative analysis standpoint to criticize this artifact.  "Characteristics of a narrative were defined as early as Aristotle in his Poetics (Aristotle)...".  A narrative analysis takes the pieces of a story and breaks it down so one can more effectively look at the rhetoric of the story.


Your thorough findings in your analysis:

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this video was to maintain current fans and gain additional fans to openly support the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. While keeping to the rules and statutes of the Star Wars Universe.

SETTING
The setting is on an orbital station surrounding the Ancient Sith home world of Korriban. The orbital station is under attack and we move from the halls to the hanger bay.  The setting changes later on to a space battle that is raging on the outside of the orbital station.  The setting is built to be detailed and more realistic looking (for a space station).  It is built to be in depth and engaging, but at the same time built almost monotone as to not distract from the storytelling and main characters in the foreground.

CHARACTERS

Kao Cen Darach:
Race: Zabrak
Gender: Male
Rank: Jedi Master

"The Zabrak Jedi Master was held sacred his own rigid belief system, which stipulated that the dark side of the Force needed to be confronted and defeated, no matter what form it may take. This unique, hardline approach to matters of the Force made him an unpopular figure in the upper echelons of the Jedi Order on Coruscant..."

Setele Shan:
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Rank: Jedi Padawan

"Satele Shan ... was born during the decades leading up to the Great Galactic War. Descended from the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan—who fought against Darth Revan and Darth Malak's Sith Empire during the Jedi Civil War— She was also a descendant of Revan, who had married Bastila after his redemption, and their son Vaner Shan. Shan hailed from the planet Brentaal IV. She was deemed suitable for Jedi training, becoming the Padawan of Ngani Zho, although she later came under tutelage of the Zabrak Jedi Master Kao Cen Darach. During this time, the resurgent Sith Empire attacked the Galactic Republic, initiating the Great Galactic War."

Vindican:
Race: Sith Pureblood
Gender: Male
Rank: Sith Lord

"A male Pureblood^, Sith Lord, and Inquisitor, Vindican served the Sith Empire during the early years of the Great Galactic War."

Malgus:
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Rank: Sith Apprentice

"[Malgus] was born under the name Veradun within Imperial space, and raised by his adoptive father. While still young, Veradun killed a Twi'lek servant on his father's estate, revealing the dark will behind his sensitivity to the Force. The young boy was subsequently sent to the Sith Academy on the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas, where he became a Sith Warrior and a successful commander of the Imperial Military. During a trip to the Outer Rim world of Geonosis, Veradun discovered the Twi'lek slave girl Eleena Daru and took her as his own. Although she was technically his slave, the two fell in love with one another and fought side by side in many battles during the Great Galactic War against the Galactic Republic. Veradun later eschewed his birth name and adopted the Sith moniker of Darth Malgus."

Jace Molcolm:
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Rank: Colonel
"Jace Malcom was extremely loyal to the Republic, and was willing to give his life to defend his government. He believed that, despite the strength of the enemy, hope for peace could be restored to the Republic and the galaxy through simple acts of courage in the face of those overwhelming odds."

Nico Okarr:
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Rank: Smuggler

"It was no coincidence that Captain Okarr had come to Korriban that day. It was the Force. No other pilot could have so deftly maneuvered us through that maelstrom. I owe him as much as I owe Master Kao."

―Grand Master Satele Shan

NARRATOR
The narrator in this video is Setele Shan.  They use her to give context to the video.  She gave location and why it was important.  She was a good choice for the narrator, for she is one of the few who survives this Sith attack. She has a strong ethos with the audience due to the fact that she is a main character throughout all the trailers and the entire game.

EVENTS
Kernels:
The Sith Empire came out of hiding and attacked the space station.
Lord Vindican and Malgus boarded the space station and engaged the Jedi.
Setele, Nico, and Jace escaped the attack and were able to warn the Republic




Satellites:
Setele, Kao, and Jace took Nico into custody.
This gave a reason for Nico to be on the orbital station; therefore, giving the means to escape the onslaught of Imperial ships.


Setele senses the Sith Empires attack.
This builds up to the battle that is about to happen.  Gives a small suspense where we knows something is going to happen, but we're not sure what.


They make it to the hanger and Captain Okarr goes in to prep is ship.
This opens it for the later part when Setele jumps onto the already flying ship out of the battle to escape and warn the republic.

Kao saves Seteles life and then tells her to leave the battle.
Kao right here is pretty much sacrificing himself to let Setele leave and warn to republic he is making the ultimate sacrifice so that many people can be saved.

Setele gives Kao her lightsaber.
This gives Kao the advantage he needs to critically wound Lord Vindican.  It wasn't enough to save him, but he took one Sith down with him.

Lord Vindican gets stabbed and Malgus steals his weapon.
Malgus knows that the fight is in his hands so he evens the ground by stealing his masters weapon.  Malgus goes full out rage on Kao and ends up cutting the Jedi Master down.

Kao dies.
Setele can feel the disturbance in the force when her Master dies.  She is at first saddened and looks as if she is on the edge of giving up until she decides to not let him die in vain and it gives her the added courage and focus she needs to finish the escape plans and warn the republic.

Malgus kills his master.
It shows the true ways of the Sith.  That they are evil, so evil they will kill their own masters, trainers, and superiors without a second thought.

TEMPORAL RELATIONS
This narrative is set out in real time.  The actions and what is going on in the screen is happening in perfect time with how it would have went.  The story happened in a brief six minutes and the narrative took six minutes to recount.

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS

They had the cause and effect of the Sith attacked and the Republic reacted to the attack and fought back, but I think the biggest cause and effect that took place in this artifact was when Lord Vindican let Setele escape.  This action lead the Sith Apprentice, Malgus, seeing his master as a failure and ultimately killing him for is failure.

AUDIENCE

The audience for this certain trailer was gamers, but more specifically, PC and MMORPG gamers.  It has a secondary audience of Star Wars fans, but one can clearly tell that the trailer was targeted at gamers. 

THEME

Many themes are present in this narrative.  A few I have found are we should always listen to our feelings, we should listen to those around us, we can and should make hard sacrifices for the greater good of others, and we must let go of those who pass on and move forward and stay focused in our lives.

TYPE OF NARRATIVE

I'm going to say the type of narrative for this certain artifact is a romance.  Although it does have the tragedy of Master Kao being killed by the enemies of the Republic, Setele was able to break through and warn the Republic resulting in a happy, enlightened end.

A discussion on how your findings help the human condition:
We have thoroughly examined this from a rhetorical criticism standpoint. This artifact appeals to gamers because of the action, story, and graphics of the video game trailer.  The action is probably the most appealing to the gamer community.  This trailer shows both good and bad characters pulling off some wicked sweet moves that if one would buy the game, they could be doing as well.  The story ends with both sides winning, but the bad comes off with a bigger win giving gamers a look at how difficult the enemy in the game is going to be and this will make them feel more accomplished when they beat the game and triumphing over these certain enemies.
Now onto why it attracts Star Wars fans. It gives off that classic Star Wars feel with good vs evil, Jedi vs Sith, epic lightsaber battles, and epic storytelling.  The story is what brings the Star Wars fans in so strong.  It gives even more background to the Star Wars universe.  It brings in more Star Wars characters and Star Wars lore to learn about.  Fans find the history of Star Wars most intriguing and this storytelling is exactly what the Star Wars fans are looking for.  Lastly, BioWare didn't break any rules of the Star Wars universe.  They used force moves that had been seen before and didn't change anything.  This is the biggest thing for fans of any old series.  They don't want big shot companies to come in a ruin what they loved, they want the companies to come in and extend what they love.  In conclusion, we can see that BioWare fully understands how to win over a crowd of both video gamers and Star Wars fans in one epic six minute video.
This can be carried out over to almost any video game or movie company that may be redoing an old beloved story.  The company should be careful to keep its understanding of the lore of the classic story in mind at all times.  This above all else will keep the ethos of the company in tact.

Narrative

Objective:

The objective of this video is to maintain and build a fan base for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.

Setting:

The setting is on the cloning world of Kamino, which is why in the end you see the clones of Starkiller (main character) you understand that Vader cloned Starkiller.
The Setting is very much built to sell that it is kind of a realistic place, but it also built not to deter from the front ground and not to distract from the main characters.  It is built to be non-obtrusive.

Characters:

We have our protagonist, Starkiller; our antagonist, Darth Vader; many stormtroopers, a few large machines, and in the very end we have the Starkiller clones.

Narrator:

The Narrator is the voice of Starkiller.  He is explaining that Vader has betrayed him too many times and he is sick of being betrayed.  He is going to go rouge and find Juno Eclipse, the romantic character in the video game series.
While Starkiller is Narrating he has an angry tone in his voice like he is fed up with being treated like a tool of Vaders.  Also in his speech he has this overlaying tone of just cockiness, "Vader can't stop me. No one can."

Events:

I see three Kernels in this narrative.  (1) When Vader says he has no use for Starkiller and tells the troopers to kill him. (2) That Starkiller was escaping from Kamino. and (3) when we are taken down to the basement and shown the clones of Starkiller.
The first Kernel is both stative (Vader has no use for Stakiller) and active (Vader tells the troopers to kill him).  The Second Kernel is an active event; Starkiller is escaping. Third, is a stative event.  It states that Starkiller may think he is invincible, but look what Vader has up his sleeve.

Temporal Relations:

The entire narrative happens in just a few minutes.  The video is all in the now, but the narrator did give a flashback when he said, "Someone worth dying for."  That was a flashback to the first game talking about his love interest, Juno Eclipse.  Starkiller flashes back once again when he says, "betrayed by Vader for the last time."  giving the flashback and eluding to the fact that this isn't the first time that he has been betrayed by Vader, on the contrary, that being betrayed by Vader is a common thing and he is sick of it.
Other than these two flashbacks the rest of the story really just falls out chronological order in the few minutes it takes him to escape Kamino.

Causal Relations:

The biggest cause and effect relationship I can see in this narrative is Vader's betrayal.  Vader betrays and tries to kill Starkiller and the effect of that action is that he gets mad and escapes Kamino.  Smaller Causal Relations would be when machines or troopers attack Starkiller that causes the effect of him fighting and defeating them.

Audience:

This video was intended for gamers who had played the first game and were excited to learn more about the second game.  I would say it was made for all gamers, but in this video the narrator uses a lot of flashbacks of the first game and if one hasn't played the first game, then they would be lost to those references.

Genre:

The genre for this narrative would have to be romance.  Starkiller receives enlightenment that Vader really isn't a good master and he defeats his enemies and leaves Kamino victorious.  Sounds like a stereotypical romance genre narrative to me.

Ideological Artifact - Star Wars: The Old Republic video game

Name: Keeper
Job: Head of Imperial Intelligence
Race:Caucasian
Gender: Male

Name: Colonel Jace Malcom
Job: Head of Republic Military
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male

Name: Darth Malgus
Job: Dark Lord of the Sith
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male

Name: Setele Shan
Job: Head of the Jedi Order
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Female









 After looking over the leaders of almost all the factions in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), I have noticed that there is one very interesting thing in common.  They are human Caucasians. Looking at this through the standpoint of racism this begs the question, "Is SWTOR promoting Caucasian supremacy?".  Sadly, I believe it does.  It's giving off the hegemony of Caucasian supremacy through a video game.  Showing that, "Ya, it's okay.  Caucasians rule all the factions in the Republic and the Empire." Giving the underlying message that Caucasians should be in charge.  I'm not saying that they shouldn't be, I am just pointing out that maybe a couple of these faction leaders should be of a few different races, maybe even a few alien leaders. Instead of them all being Caucasian humans.  Just food for thought.

Metaphorical Criticism

Metaphors:
0:09 "Tougher than a no scope headshot from a moving troop transport."
1:16 "sweet PlayStation gaming juice you've always loved, throwing it into an industrial sized 3D, HD, access to online gaming for free centrifuge and unleashing it in a 5 oz form that could kill a Centaur."
1:37 "Long live what brought all of us to this party in the first place. Play."

Obvious and Subtle Substitutions of Meaning: 
In the second metaphor he compares PlayStation to a juice, not just any juice though, a juice that is sweet and it is a juice that you like! It's a juice that has so many different good parts it needs to be separated by a centrifuge. Once separated they are going to allow you to have this, but be careful, because the way that it is being released is so powerful that a small 5 oz glass of that juice could kill a Centaur. This is giving the meaning that PlayStation is sweet, has many different parts, and is very powerful.

In the third metaphor he is talking about play being the reason we're at "this party". He is hinting to the fact that life is a party and "play" is the reason we're all here, but by "play" he is going almost specifically to gaming, so if you look at his underlying notes that we have here. It is almost safe to say that Kevin is saying that we're all alive, so we can game.

Identify tenor and vehicle:
The first ones tenor is the carpet he is trying to sell to Amanda, his costumer. The vehicle is using the gaming situation of preforming a "no scope headshot from a moving troop transport."

The second one has one tenor and multiple vehicles starting with the tenor "PlayStation gaming" with the vehicle of "sweet juice that you love." They then use the tenor of "PlayStation gaming" again, but the vehicle this time is "industrial size" it's huge, it's big! Lastly, the tenor is the same, but the final vehicle is "5 oz form that could kill a Centaur". Giving the effect that it's powerful and maybe even a little dangerous, but very powerful.

The third metaphor tenor is not clear, but from my perspective I thought of the tenor as life. The vehicle he uses is "party" and what do you do at parties? You play.  

How may this structure have an effect on the intended audience:
The intended audience is gamers, but this ad campaign was on live TV. In this case I believe using all the gaming related items "no scope headshot" "Kill a Centaur" were good use of getting the gamers attention, but using much more common metaphors like, "sweet juice", "centrifuge", "party", and "play" were a great display of how Sony had thought out the audience. It effects the gamer audience to respect the guy for knowing about gaming lingo and he also gains credit from other non-gamer audiences through parties and playing. Everyone likes a good party or playing ever now and then. I think it gave Kevin a real reliable ethos about him that he could connect with everyone in the audience, not just the gamers, but non-gamers too.

Ending Spending - Rick Santorum - Neo-Aristotelian

Rick Santorum is the rhetor in this particular example. The audience is a group of people that are drawn in to watch this show called "Ending Spending". It's about ending government spending. The rhetor, Santorum, claims that he has a plan that will stop government spending and return jobs to American citizens.

He appeals to logic when he uses the problem and solution model about manufacturing at 1:20 when he says people need jobs, manufacturing in America gives jobs, so manufacturing fills that need of jobs.

He appeals to ethos at 2:07 when he says, "Just like I did when I..." giving himself that credibility like he has dealt with similar situations.

He appeals to Pathos at 3:10 when he uses the words, "...create real security and stability..." everyone wants to feel secure and stable, especially the audience watching a show about cutting government spending in a time of recession.

The structure of this certain artifact is an interview style structure. Santorum isn't giving a memorized speech, he is more making up the answers on the spot.

In the delivery Santorum gives a lot of head nods and hand gestures to give extra emphasis on words or phrases that he believes to be his stronger points. Throughout the interview he seems calm and relaxed in the situation.

Throughout the entire interview Santorum was focused directly on cutting government spending and talked in such a way that would appeal very much to an audience that was searching for government spending cuts, which is exactly what this interview was intended for. For example at 3:44 he avoids a question and makes it seem that he cares intrinsically about cutting government spending, he cares about it more than any other topic and that was extremely well played on his behalf due to his audience.

I believe that Santorum got the intended message across to the certain audience he was talking to at that particular time.