Is Joko already out?

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

> @"Arden.7480" said:

 

> So Joko certainly knew it, so why he didn't just say: "Oh leave me here, I'll be fine (*sarcastic*)", if killing Balthazar would release him.

 

I think there's a good chance that he simply didn't believe we would succeed. Remember, at that point we're a random nobody to him, a lost soul in a place full of them. There's no sign that he recognized us as the dragonslayer whose exploits he'd been perverting, and Balthazar was a souped-up former god with an army at his back. You can't blame Joko for not knowing that he'd been dropped into the middle of a Chosen One plot.

 

 

[Torolan.5816]

If the commander was already taunting him he could have gone the whole way and tell him that he/she will use the ressources of Jokos army and he only won´t do it if Joko can say it to him face to face by making a step forward through the bars. After the inevitable rant and hysterical breakdown of Joko, he/she could have stepped forward and tell him that he is a second grade impostor of a non-heritage ruler and already next on his/her list.

 

I would also be fine when Grenth had somehow sensed the essence of Joko, returned shortly into his realm to give him a spiritual wedgie and took over the energy Balthazar used to imprison Joko. :)

[Arden.7480]

And he also asked Nennah to release him: "It doesn't matter. Deserter, defector, or exile—help me now and all will be forgiven."

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> > @"Arden.7480" said:

>

> > So Joko certainly knew it, so why he didn't just say: "Oh leave me here, I'll be fine (*sarcastic*)", if killing Balthazar would release him.

>

> I think there's a good chance that he simply didn't believe we would succeed. Remember, at that point we're a random nobody to him, a lost soul in a place full of them. There's no sign that he recognized us as the dragonslayer whose exploits he'd been perverting, and Balthazar was a souped-up former god with an army at his back. You can't blame Joko for not knowing that he'd been dropped into the middle of a Chosen One plot.

>

>

 

Well, so how all the Awakened and the corsairs and everybody knew that there's a bounty on our heads?

 

for example the Archivist from the Astralarium: Shh! There's a bounty on your head!

 

And she knew us, she said she knows Canach.

 

Joko knew that we are the Commanders. Perhaps not while talking to us, but he realised that after, but he knew who he deals with.

 

And this kidnapping Taimi...

 

 

 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"Arden.7480" said:

> Well, so how all the Awakened and the corsairs and everybody knew that there's a bounty on our heads?

>

> -snip-

>

> Joko knew that we are the Commanders. Perhaps not while talking to us, but he realised that after, but he knew who he deals with.

 

Right. Joko knew who the Commander was after getting out, as per the message he left *specifically for us* after *specifically kidnapping the Commander's ally*.

 

But he didn't know who the Commander was during The Departing. It wouldn't be very hard for Joko to hear a report from Grand Vizier Utumishi (or one of the various marshals) to learn that the Pact Commander from Central Tyria killed Iberu and disguised themselves as Iberu to trick the Awakened into following them. Especially when Joko knew the Commander's plan.

 

And that's what Aaron was talking about: that during The Departing, Joko didn't know who the Commander was.

[Fenom.9457]

Yea probably

[Chilli.2976]

His bail bond was not big enough.

[Tiny Doom.4380]

I find it odd that almost everyone accepts the voice is Joko. It actually never even occurred to me while I was playing the episode that it was really him. I thought it was made none too subtly clear that it was an imposter. I'd play through it again to see if I've misinterpreted that only it's such a miserable, tedious process I can't face it.

 

Going from memory, the voice didn't sound like the same voice I heard in the main PoF story, but that was a couple of months ago now so it's hard to be sure. What about all the wild fluctuations where the voice goes weird and staticky, like a bad radio signal? What's going on there? It almost sounded like there were two different people talking to the Commander as "Palawa Joko". Again, I'd need to hear it again - half the time there were other things happening so it was hard to concentrate on the fine details.

 

As for Taimi, she hasn't ever met Joko before, has she? How would she kn ow whether it was him or someone pretending to be him? All we can say for sure is she was kidnapped by someone who told her he was Joko.

 

If it does turn out that it's really him then I agree with those who think it's a weak way of bringing Joko into the plot again. He was fairly obviously going to be a thorn in the Commander's side. That was set up painfully clearly (I shouted at the screen when the script had my character taunting him as we left the Realm of the Lost, not only because it was totally out of character but because it was utterly stupid). I certainly didn't expect him to just reappear at the very first opportunity with no build up of tension, no foreshadowing and no explanation.

 

If it does turn out that it's really him it will be a major disappointment. I'm hoping for a plot twist where we have to go back to Joko and negotiate with him over some kind of issue arising from our troubles with his impersonator - which would lead to Joko and the Commander having to ally against a mutual enemy - until one of them could get the advantage and stab the other in the back - possibly literally in Joko's case.

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"Tiny Doom.4380" said:

> I find it odd that almost everyone accepts the voice is Joko. It actually never even occurred to me while I was playing the episode that it was really him. I thought it was made none too subtly clear that it was an imposter. I'd play through it again to see if I've misinterpreted that only it's such a miserable, tedious process I can't face it.

>

> Going from memory, the voice didn't sound like the same voice I heard in the main PoF story, but that was a couple of months ago now so it's hard to be sure. What about all the wild fluctuations where the voice goes weird and staticky, like a bad radio signal? What's going on there? It almost sounded like there were two different people talking to the Commander as "Palawa Joko". Again, I'd need to hear it again - half the time there were other things happening so it was hard to concentrate on the fine details.

>

> As for Taimi, she hasn't ever met Joko before, has she? How would she kn ow whether it was him or someone pretending to be him? All we can say for sure is she was kidnapped by someone who told her he was Joko.

>

> If it does turn out that it's really him then I agree with those who think it's a weak way of bringing Joko into the plot again. He was fairly obviously going to be a thorn in the Commander's side. That was set up painfully clearly (I shouted at the screen when the script had my character taunting him as we left the Realm of the Lost, not only because it was totally out of character but because it was utterly stupid). I certainly didn't expect him to just reappear at the very first opportunity with no build up of tension, no foreshadowing and no explanation.

>

> If it does turn out that it's really him it will be a major disappointment. I'm hoping for a plot twist where we have to go back to Joko and negotiate with him over some kind of issue arising from our troubles with his impersonator - which would lead to Joko and the Commander having to ally against a mutual enemy - until one of them could get the advantage and stab the other in the back - possibly literally in Joko's case.

 

she doesn't know Joko, but she should be able to differentiate an undead male and a (fairly pristine) undead female.

Sure, she doesn't know Joko personally, but she does constantly call them "him" all the while we're even in a single room with the figure and Taimi. So it's extremely unlikely she considered the mysterious figure as "him" during the phonecall.

Plus, as said before, if anet pulls of the "imposter" gag right of the bat again, it will only show poor writing, instead of a plot twist..

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"Tiny Doom.4380" said:

> I find it odd that almost everyone accepts the voice is Joko. It actually never even occurred to me while I was playing the episode that it was really him. I thought it was made none too subtly clear that it was an imposter. I'd play through it again to see if I've misinterpreted that only it's such a miserable, tedious process I can't face it.

 

The voice was 100% the same tone that Nolan North gave in The Departing. Distorted a bit with the communication device effect, but otherwise still pretty clear it was Nolan North (same voice actor who does human male PC, Rhoban the dwarf head, and Mordremoth, so its clear).

 

> @"Tiny Doom.4380" said:

> What about all the wild fluctuations where the voice goes weird and staticky, like a bad radio signal? What's going on there? It almost sounded like there were two different people talking to the Commander as "Palawa Joko". Again, I'd need to hear it again - half the time there were other things happening so it was hard to concentrate on the fine details.

 

I didn't hear anything beyond typical Taimi communication device static and distortion, same kind of effect used all the time throughout Season 3, especially when it was hard to get a clear signal (such as in Blood and Stone, Sparking a Flame, and Beast of War story steps).

 

> @"Tiny Doom.4380" said:

> As for Taimi, she hasn't ever met Joko before, has she? How would she kn ow whether it was him or someone pretending to be him? All we can say for sure is she was kidnapped by someone who told her he was Joko.

 

Joko's visage is shown throughout Elona. Taimi has undoubtably seen Joko statues, which are pretty damn accurate as we can verify for ourselves, as there is even a stall in Amnoon with a bunch of Jokonian busts and statues.

[Cronos.6532]

> @"Feanor.2358" said:

> According to [wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko "wiki") he was "able to free himself" with the defeat of Balthazar. Personally I don't like such events happening behind the scenes.

 

I thought it was fairly obvious that Joko would be freed with the defeat of Balthazar as you could see his magic immobilizing him.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Cronos.6532" said:

> > @"Feanor.2358" said:

> > According to [wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko "wiki") he was "able to free himself" with the defeat of Balthazar. Personally I don't like such events happening behind the scenes.

>

> I thought it was fairly obvious that Joko would be freed with the defeat of Balthazar as you could see his magic immobilizing him.

 

Someone needs to do a voice comparison between Joko in the Domain of the Lost and Joko heard over Taimi's communicator...if the inflection and tone are similar then I would say he managed to somehow escape the Domain of the Lost after his prison vanished with Balthazar's death. If they're to dissimilar then I would say it's someone using his voice, not a false Joko, but Joko from afar or like a ventriloquist.

[Rognik.2579]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > @"Cronos.6532" said:

> > > @"Feanor.2358" said:

> > > According to [wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko "wiki") he was "able to free himself" with the defeat of Balthazar. Personally I don't like such events happening behind the scenes.

> >

> > I thought it was fairly obvious that Joko would be freed with the defeat of Balthazar as you could see his magic immobilizing him.

>

> Someone needs to do a voice comparison between Joko in the Domain of the Lost and Joko heard over Taimi's communicator...if the inflection and tone are similar then I would say he managed to somehow escape the Domain of the Lost after his prison vanished with Balthazar's death. If they're to dissimilar then I would say it's someone using his voice, not a false Joko, but Joko from afar or like a ventriloquist.

Sadly, we can't even really use that as a basis. I didn't exactly listen closely to Lazarus and Balthazar-as-Lazarus, but I bet they had the same voice and similar inflections. Mesmer magic is powerful, allowing one to perfectly imitate another person with just a little knowledge of the target. Don't forget that Kasmeer made the PC look and sound exactly like Iberu, no matter the species or gender.

 

As for whether Joko freed himself after the events of PoF or was freed after Balthazar's death, it's unclear. Whoever put up the bounty knows that the Awakened army was borrowed to fight the Forged, which leaves a very short list of individuals who knew and would care. I'd put my money on it being the genuine Joko, but I've been wrong on these sorts of thing before.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Rognik.2579" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > > @"Cronos.6532" said:

> > > > @"Feanor.2358" said:

> > > > According to [wiki](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko "wiki") he was "able to free himself" with the defeat of Balthazar. Personally I don't like such events happening behind the scenes.

> > >

> > > I thought it was fairly obvious that Joko would be freed with the defeat of Balthazar as you could see his magic immobilizing him.

> >

> > Someone needs to do a voice comparison between Joko in the Domain of the Lost and Joko heard over Taimi's communicator...if the inflection and tone are similar then I would say he managed to somehow escape the Domain of the Lost after his prison vanished with Balthazar's death. If they're to dissimilar then I would say it's someone using his voice, not a false Joko, but Joko from afar or like a ventriloquist.

> Sadly, we can't even really use that as a basis. I didn't exactly listen closely to Lazarus and Balthazar-as-Lazarus, but I bet they had the same voice and similar inflections. Mesmer magic is powerful, allowing one to perfectly imitate another person with just a little knowledge of the target. Don't forget that Kasmeer made the PC look and sound exactly like Iberu, no matter the species or gender.

>

> As for whether Joko freed himself after the events of PoF or was freed after Balthazar's death, it's unclear. Whoever put up the bounty knows that the Awakened army was borrowed to fight the Forged, which leaves a very short list of individuals who knew and would care. I'd put my money on it being the genuine Joko, but I've been wrong on these sorts of thing before.

 

Well, I'm going to presume that people familiar with Nolan North's work would be able to tell the difference in delivery, unless of course he was instructed to change the delivery to throw us off...but that would take some planning on ANet, not saying they couldn't but it doesn't seem like their style.