Who watches the watchers? (Colonel Moraal Q&A)

[Col. Hala Moraal]

I do.

Ask away!

[Sylvain Torsin]

Thoughts of Sylvain?

Highlights?

Favorite thread not your own?

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Sylvain was probably her favorite non-Moyr Sith, and also the one that she probably opened up the most to. She certainly respected him enough to not creep onto the Magpie thread and try to eavesdrop. And then things started exploding and limbs started falling off and they didn't really get a followup thread (unless that happens D11)

I certainly appreciated the fact that the scene went in a direction that Syl was able, the degree I don't exactly know, peer behind Hala's veil. He's the only character I'm aware of that did.

Favorite thread: I didn't read an awful lot of non-Hala threads, but I did certainly enjoy Cole killing Kidaja. That thread felt nicely symmetrical and earned.

[Durasay Mixo]

I enjoyed reading Hala, especially her split with the Watcher personality and her normal personality, though that might not be the most accurate description of what that dichotomy was.

What were your sources of inspiration?

What lessons do you feel Hala came away with?

[Nekoinu]

I feel like Watcher-7 had a long list. But who did she want to kill the most xD

[Col. Hala Moraal]

I enjoyed reading Hala, especially her split with the Watcher personality and her normal personality, though that might not be the most accurate description of what that dichotomy was.

It's not dis-associative personality, but it is definitely a different set of mannerisms and I hope it came across reasonably well when I was either blending them or made a hard transition. I had a few others established, but since Hala had a very public platform I never switched them up like Moyr did.

What were your sources of inspiration?

A few things, but the main one was that I feel that the Empire in most eras gets portrayed in a fairly cartoonishly evil way, or most of the evil is perpetrated by the evil space wizards. So in the same way that the Empire is also a bit of an allegory for Nazi Germany, I wanted to create and play a perfectly capable cog in the machine that would perpetrate mundane evils that are still in no way "lesser" just because they are more grounded.

That, and also the Army Field Manual on Interrogation. Because beating people as a first recourse when you want correct information isn't really the way to do it. You try to get them what they want, because that's usually more efficient. Torture is only really useful for false confessions and Hala never had cause to extract one. So I wanted a good spymaster and HUMINT collector.

What lessons do you feel Hala came away with?

She didn't really have that much opportunity for growth I feel since most of her time was either spent consolidating power, politicking about the peace talks, or getting stabbed. There were a few good scenes she had, but none of them really formed a changing arc for her. That said, she did get proof that she was more physically capable than she believed or had been in quite some time. And then it got cut off!

[Zanebry Varliss]

Had fun in our few threads Hala.

I shall find out your true identity one day!

[Col. Hala Moraal]

I feel like Watcher-7 had a long list. But who did she want to kill the most xD

She really didn't want to kill that many people, because killing people is inefficient.

There's an irrational list, but she tries to suppress that.

Probably Zash's operative, mostly because he deprived Moyr of her artifact that had been used in the search for Jadus. And the head of Imp Int needs to be brought back online.

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Had fun in our few threads Hala.

I shall find out your true identity one day!

I'd sincerely hope not, since she's been very careful and since it's predominantly a passive thing for her.

That said, I did enjoy our threads even if I am disappointed you don't think Hala worth your time to pursue.

[Zanebry Varliss]

It's not that she isn't worth the time. By the time we got around to it though he was trying to be more passive about that sort of thing.

If Hala wasn't all half broken on day 10, he may have very well tried to drag her off somewhere though. It got close to it. >.>

[Niall Organa]

Making Niall feel better... was that her goal, or was she advancing some agenda? Or two for the price of one?

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Making Niall feel better... was that her goal, or was she advancing some agenda? Or two for the price of one?

Both. He's a bit of a kindred spirit to her younger self by her reading, and also making peace with a prominent non-Force user member of the Republic delegation (breaking the Imperial dickish stereotype) would have been politically advantageous.

I didn't have a specific plot in mind and only had him tagged as maybe SIS-adjacent before the whole Project Evolution thing because he reported to Garza, but a lot of what I did involved trying to cultivate opportunity and see where that lead.

[Niall Organa]

Interesting.

Well, very well played! Hala was a fascinating character.

[Moyr Ahaya]

You know my feeling about Hala (and if you don't you can ask, kekeke) and we had a decent amount of talk before and in the middle and threads are still going on and we'll have one more, but since there's a lot to cover, maybe let's get a bit structured before post-game flop kicks in?

Basic:

Highlight of the game?

Biggest regret?

Moment of desperation?

Dirtiest in-character thought?

Extended!

What impression did it leave when Moyr was coming up in your conversations with others?

Was our relationship what you more or less expected, or did it take unpredictable turns for you?

Did you enjoy the kind of contribution Moyr made to your story? Did you want something to go better or in different direction?

Some key "turning" points in your story?

What was the most inspiring/positively challenging part of our joint role-playing, and when was it the opposite, dull and tedious?

And since we probably have read quite a lot of each other's threads where we were not in, what you liked about how I handled Moyr this time? Some advice where I should/could go with her in the future, what's better left behind?

[Shaisha Vreysk]

Hala was interesting, and had I known you were Intelligence-related I probably would've tried to involve you more with Section IX operations. Oh well... I will keep it in mind for the future in case Hala and Shaisha cross paths again.

Will Hala be happy with her cybernetic arm now? How much else does she want cyber-ized?

[Col. Hala Moraal]

Hala was interesting, and had I known you were Intelligence-related I probably would've tried to involve you more with Section IX operations. Oh well... I will keep it in mind for the future in case Hala and Shaisha cross paths again.

It's the downside of both the way I was playing the character as well as my style, I think. I try not to come out and openly say things via thought bubbles, and I tried to play Hala very straight laced and close to the chest. I referenced Watcher only a few times explicitly in her posts and the only one to really treat her like a Watcher was her Cipher. Those also tended to be private, and relatively short, update threads. They may also have gotten a bit lost in the Asra/Luth reveal.

Will Hala be happy with her cybernetic arm now? How much else does she want cyber-ized?

Not immediately, but eventually. Much as she wished it had just been cut off years ago and replaced already, losing it in a fight like that is pretty catastrophic.