You are on an Origin controlled game on Patch 1.69? If so, you must use Origin to start the game, there is no way around that. If you are starting out with the Launcher and you aren't already signed in to Origin, it's just going to try to take you back there so you can log in.
It could also be you are getting stuck because the Launcher (or the TS3.exe program) is already running by then. Any improvement if you reboot your computer, login through Origin, and try to start the game from there?
By the way, TS3 hasn't needed a 4 GB helper app since Patch 1.17, the one that came out alongside of LateNite. It's been Large Address Aware (LAA) all by itself ever since then.
