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The same is true whether you’re talking about the Sith and the Jedi, the First Order and the Resistance, or the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong.
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The Empire wants to impose its will on the galaxy the Rebels are good because they want to restore power to the people. The main theme of Star Wars, regardless of the story in question, is about freedom vs. The Force lets a handful of people wield massive power, giving them undue and unfair control over other living beings. It is the antithesis of free will, determining the fate of the galaxy while treating its inhabitants like pawns. And the Force is not a benign presence in the galaxy. But it’s never exactly clear why she’s so keen on mentoring the Exile, until the very end.ĭuring the final confrontation (which is more subdued than climactic, much like the rest of the game), Traya finally reveals her motivations: if the Force can be wounded, as the Exile demonstrated, then perhaps it can be destroyed. And no, her real identity is not a big twist she reveals her Sith affiliations about halfway through the game as part of a regular conversation. She’s an old lady she’s soft-spoken she has a morally gray view of the world she has no interest in acquiring or exercising power she even spends most of the game as a member of your party. Games like Dark Forces and books like The Han Solo Trilogy focus on non-Force-sensitive characters, so the Jedi’s obscure power source doesn’t really factor into the plot one way or another.ĭarth Traya is an unconventional Star Wars villain in a lot of ways.
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Why KOTOR 2 succeedsĪs I stood in front of the sink, hot water sloshing off of a sauce-covered plate, I wondered: Did any Star Wars stories not use the Force as a fallback plot device? A handful, sure. It’s a way of telling the audience, “just go with it.” This lets the heroes conquer impossible odds and the villains concoct outlandish plans, of course, but it also forces (heh) the audience to surrender to the story rather than try to analyze it. I began to realize that Star Wars stories, from the old EU to the new Disney trilogy, have gotten into a bad habit of using the Force to hand-wave any questionable story decision. During the course of the story, the Force lets characters enter battle trances, deflect starship missiles, create lightning storms in space, lay dormant for centuries, create indestructible records and even transfer a consciousness into a new body. But characters in Dark Empire rack up Force abilities like they’re special skills in a video game. Granted, the Force should be mysterious, and its powers not fully defined. No, KOTOR 2 was ambitious, they say, but ultimately it’s too unfocused and ambivalent to reach quite the same heights as its predecessor. Not even the most comprehensive fan mod could completely fix its technical problems. Furthermore, KOTOR 2 was a buggy, unfinished game, with a ton of cut content and dangling plot threads. It’s dark, it’s deliberately paced, it’s about morally gray characters, and it ends on an uncertain cliffhanger. Knights of the Old Republic II, the KOTOR-boosters argue, is more like The Empire Strikes Back. How Disney killed the most interesting thing about Star Wars.Learn where to start if you want to watch the Star Wars movies in order.It’s a straightforward story about good versus evil (or evil versus evil, if you pick the Dark Side path), with archetypal characters, a satisfying resolution and a narrative that really makes you feel like a righteous hero or a charismatic villain. People often say it’s because KOTOR is so classically heroic, much like the original Star Wars (or Episode IV, or A New Hope, depending how old you are). And yet, when we’re invariably forced to rank them, the first KOTOR game usually winds up on top.
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