I promise not to write about KotOR every time I write this column, but it really is a wonderful example of realistic character writing in games, and should, along with its sequel, be considered more carefully before we try to move on to a third installment in the series. BioWare has been sweating rumors of a third game since KotOR 2 game out, and every few months a new one seems to pop up trying to lend credulity to the idea that a new game in this franchise is inevitable. I fucking hope so, and so should you. Right now I feel like convincing you that KotOR 2 actually had an amazing plot, despite the complaints circling it since its release. Hundreds of fans had dozens of reasons to bitch about it, but the writing was no excuse to whine.

For those of you missing the whole picture, here goes nothing. About forty years before Revan hit his prime, there was a dude named Exar Kun who basically wrecked so much shit it’s not even funny. His list of battles during the Great Sith War (also known as the Exar Kun War for God’s sake) is so long on Wookieepedia, it rivals some of the better known character pages, like Han Solo.

Here are some fun facts about Exar Kun: He was the first guy to make a double bladed lightsaber (so he’s already pretty awesome). He was better with a lightsaber than anyone that ever lived, including all the Jedi and Sith up to and after the days of Darth Vader and all that nonsense. He invented the tarentatek, one of the most deadly encounters in either of the KotOR games, in his spare time. He was turned to the dark side by the spirit of another of the ancient Sith, Freedon Nadd, and when he fully embraced his potential and grew strong enough, Nadd asked him to use his new powers to create him a body to inhabit. However, growing tired of Nadd’s constant bullshit, Exar Kun used his new powers to instead destroy the nagging spirit forever. In what was probably a show of his superior skills, Kun, when finally defeated, sealed his spirit away in a temple for four thousand years (much longer than Nadd was able to keep his sustained). When he tried to do the same thing to Luke Skywalker that Freedon Nadd had done to him, he was too powerful to be destroyed. Instead, the Jedi of that time merely succeeded in banishing him from his tomb. Nice work, guys.

What a man. And as I said, the first KotOR game takes place about forty years after Exar Kun’s (original) threat was ended. The whole premise of the game relies on this factor. Revan, as a young and promising Jedi, went to war against the Mandalorian raiders despite the protestations of the Jedi Council. One of the reasons given for the Council’s reluctance to join the Republic’s battle against the Mandalorians was their fear of some unknown threat lurking beyond their sight. What they don’t tell you is that as Exar Kun’s most ridiculously awesome years were only four decades in their past, there was definitely another source of their shakiness at the prospect of another galactic civil war.

Revan took with him Malak, obviously, and the unnamed Jedi Exile (the main character of KotOR 2) as his top generals during the Mandalorian Wars. In his explorations, Revan discovered that the Mandalorians were basically petrified in the presence of the planet Malachor V, and sought to discern the real reason behind this. When he descended on the planet, he discovered powerful dark side energies and the Trayus Academy, which would end up hosting the climactic showdown between the Exile and Revan’s former master, Kreia. This academy, once upon a time, was built by a long-hidden danger known as the “True Sith,” and all of Revan’s schemes from that point forward were in an effort to save the galaxy from this threat.

All of the information I just put forward is available in subtext, background stories, dialogue branches, item descriptions, and all sorts of random blurbs of text within both KotOR and KotOR 2. Unfortunately for many, the full picture is so difficult to piece together, because of KotOR 2’s presentation, that everything after the battle of the Star Forge at the end of the first game is dismissed without hesitation.

Revan discovered this immense threat lurking in the Unknown Regions during the Mandalorian Wars, and from that point forward, the greatest tactician of the time set forth with a new plan. At the same time Revan dueled and killed the leader of his opposition, Mandalore the Ultimate, he lured the majority of their fleet to the space above Malachor V. The forces he sent to do battle with the enemy were actually his least loyal followers. The Exile was the one woman Revan trusted to order the detonation of a super weapon that destroyed almost everybody present. Revan had ended the Mandalorian threat and ensured that his [remaining] forces were all willing to follow him to the depths of hell.

He embraced Sith teachings to gain more power, and engaged the Star Forge in the creation of his immense army, but did not linger in that place. Malak, in the end of the first game, criticized Revan for being too weak to endure the dark energies of the Star Forge. Before he died, however, he realized that Revan truly was the cleverer of the two all along; he did not want any more darkness in him than was necessary for the task at hand. During the Jedi Civil War, Revan had bypassed several strategic systems, and sought to convert as many as he killed in an attempt to end the war as quickly as possible, assuming complete control over the galaxy as soon as he could.

Unlike his unfortunate successor, this was not a greedy bid for power, but a desperate effort to solidify all available forces under his command in order to present a united front against the True Sith. Revan was a man committing evil acts not out of blood lust or any of the base passions the Sith teach, but the need to protect the innocents of the galaxy from a more dangerous enemy than he could ever become. He was doing very bad things for the very best reasons. Does this make him good or evil? If you answered either a) good or b) evil, go fuck yourself.

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