The fate of Kadara Port

...you mean besides the Collective base? Where they have their own torture and execution cell for disappeared individuals?

They're all civilians, so unless you categorically disqualify all outcasts from being 'civilians'- in which we're back at equivalence since the Collective hardly ignores Angarrans from their thefts and collections- the Collective base is itself the proof that the Collective beats, tortures, and murders civilians.

When they're not robbing them as well, of course.

I didn't shoot him, but the next time I see him he dies. I'm really tired of these lying DA types. Although it was obvious after the first meeting that he is Charlotte (not a typo, it's funnier this way ), but he used me, tried to cheat in the big fight and his lackeys are just as bad as the outcasts. At least Sloane keeps them in check. Mostly. Also he was annoying a bit. Hawke doing a Zevran impression while trying to behave like Varric. Meh.

So yeah, Sloane, no question here. With casual options we can become secret bffs. Nobody can resist the Ryder charm!

(Maybe I'll roll a Sara with Reyes romance but after I let him take over they part ways with a "beep you, you lying bastard" goodbye. I don't know, that's deeper RP stuff, I'll have to wait for the sequel to decide if it's worth it.)

I went with Reyes. MHawke voice actor is awesome.

I went with Sloane.
She's loyal, simple minded and honourable in her way. Should one day Nexus and Exile be reunited, I think Sloane would be mandatory for that to happen. Being an overreaching despot, should the Kett return to Kadara it’s obvious the Nexus would be needed to help her defend her throne.
And at that point, guilty tripping Sloane to come back would be all the sweeter.

Reyes instead strikes me as someone who would say “nope” simply because of credits: he would side with the Kett, for all I know. True, he’s smart and brilliant but literally too much self-serving.

WHOA.  I never knew that was the same guy.  Just looked up his imdb page and he also voices the antagonist in Nioh.  That man has incredible range.  Thanks for pointing that out! 

I also went with Reyes. Sloane just didn't seem competent, the very fact that she actually thought there'd be some sort of fair wild west duel for Kadara tells me she'll be eaten alive by someone more cunning in the long run. Also, the fact that she kicked out angara who lived there before she showed up and demanded protection fees was a bit too much on the Imperial Coloniser side for me. Reyes is no doubt also a liar and he's about as trustworthy as quicksand, but at least we got the leverage over him that we know his identy. That said, Kadara seems to be headed for being this universe's Omega and there isn't really much you can do about it. It'll probably always be led by a criminal and I just chose the one who seems more likely to have the town in hand enough not cause another gang war in a year's time. I don't think Reyes is a better person than Sloane morally.

Reyes. Each and every time. For Sloane, the fact that she was easily able to embrace a criminal lifestyle (especially shaking down the outpost you build) and aesthetic after the Nexus incident instead of making a safe haven for the Exiles showed me how unbalanced and self-serving she really is. With Reyes, even though he's just as self-serving as Sloane, he at least comes across as more reasonable and less likely to give into his anger. Plus, between knowing he's the Charlatan, having him dumping his purse on you on top of the tower, and his angaran friend apparently telling you that Reyes wanted to come clean to you about being the Charlatan if you take out Sloane, it makes me feel as though he isn't as strong-willed as Sloane and can easily be manipulated if the need ever arises.

Dude, she was head of Nexus security and then turned mutineer. She is the most famous backstabber in the entire Heleus Cluster.

Except that she didn't 'backstab' anyone. Sloan took arms to protect dissidents- who she'd just been in the middle of negotiating their surrender- against a massacre by Tann's Krogan crackdown. Which was launched without anyone consulting her, the head of Nexus security.

Saying that people on the other side of a civil war are backstabbers is to buy into the victor's narrative that covers up the Nexus's (especially Tann's) incompetence that helped escalate the crisis in the first place. Calling Sloan a mutineer is even less appropriate. What happened wasn't even a mutiny in the first place- it was a bunch of workers refusing to go back into cryostasis at Tann's orders when supplies were low, after a series of events in which the Nexus leadership's competence and trust was lost.

The 'rebels' weren't looking to take over the nexus- they wanted elections for leaders they could trust. Tann's solution was a frontal assault expected to leave hundreds dead.

That's what Sloane 'mutineed' against. Her 'backstab' was refusing to stand by or join in on a massacre.

Except it's really not at odds, and pretty much consistent with what we hear and are told about Sloane and the uprising in-game. No one- except the more self-serving Tann and similar- claims the exiles were completely unjustified, or that the Nexus leadership was entirely in the right. No one claims Sloane started the uprising- we're told she joined in late, and went into exile with the exiles. We know from our arrival that the Nexus is in desperate need of food and resources, which they haven't been able to get. We know the Nexus is short on food, and that they prefer exile to imprisonment for crime. We know that Sloane came to Kadarra, removed the Kett, and set up a proto-state in which while the Angarra have it better than under the Kett, her priority is the Exiles of the Nexus. That she gives food and drink (we hear from the bar), extorts money in exchange for protection (also known as 'taxes'), and has a hardline view on keeping order that was affected/created by her departure from the Nexus.


The 'why' of the uprising may not be explained, but that's not needed to get a general grasp on Sloane. She's a hard woman who disagreed with the establishment in the uprising, and left with the Exiles when they were ejected with almost nothing from the Nexus. She went through hard times with them, and has resorted to harder measures in order to keep things in line as best she can for their own good, without expecting or relying on charity or benevolent authorities who repeatedly failed or betrayed them. She runs a hard and basic society, but it's about the only one that can exist in its context, where the Exiles include both good and bad eggs and have no one else looking out for them.


The main people who trash Sloan in-game are people who either have their own biases and self-interest in play. Tann wants everyone to believe the Exiles are monsters because he was half-responsible for taking a problem and turning it into a crisis. Reyes, ambitious, didn't help establish Port Kadarra but wants to 'be someone' and be freer to prey on the inhabitants himself for his own profit and ambition. Drack's condemnation is shaded by his loyalty to his clan, and his moral framing somehow misses the question of crushing them at all.

The game isn't really 'at odds' with Sloan and her history. People are just bad at filtering unreliable narrators and exposition/authority figures.

Nah, that's Spender. 

Agreed. Throughout that part of the game while Sloane has certainly fallen you see and hear instances of the old Sloane still being there. For example people who like and hate her both talk about how she has a code of honor she abides to and expects those she leads to follow, having some things that she won't do like attacking or executing innocents or her people(unless they commit treason). Even Reyes acknowledges this and even uses that in his attempt to bring about her downfall.