Skip to main content

Star Wars Readthrough Part 3: Knights of the Old Republic: On video games and comics

The next items on my chronological read-through of Star Wars Legends stories are those associated with Knights of the Old Republic.

This is the first time I won't be merely discussing novels or comics, but other media such as video games.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.  Image from Wookieepedia.
For this review, I consumed the following material:
I read the handbook as a comic issue, but the remain comics were read in my copies of Omnibus: Knights of the Old Republic Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3.  I own all of those comics in issue form as well, a format I generally prefer.  

While I own both Knights of the Old Republic video games (for PC, the first bought on Steam and the second bought from GOG.com), I haven't played them to completion.  Instead, I watched two series of videos produced by my favourite Let's Play channels on Youtube, GetDaved and Whycalibur.

Cover of Omnibus: Knights of the Old Republic Volume 1.  Image from Wookieepedia.

Story:

The video game Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) depicts the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War, in which two Jedi Knights, Revan and Malak, had fallen to the dark side, become Sith Lords, and convinced much of the Republic military and many Jedi to join their new Sith Empire.  Prior to the game, Darth Malak had betrayed his master Darth Revan, seemingly killing him.  The player character is a crewman on a Republic ship that is destroyed during the war, who develops Force powers and becomes a Jedi.  Through the game, it is revealed that the player character is the original Revan, having had his memory erased rather than having been killed.  He and his team defeat Malak and destroy his weapon, the Star Forge (a space station belonging to the Rakatan Infinite Empire, which uses material from a star to build ships and weapons).

During the game, we learn the backstory of Revan and Malak.  Years earlier, the Mandalorians had invaded the Republic.  The Jedi Council refused to intervene, but some Jedi thought it was important to fight the Mandalorians.  Revan led these warriors, with Malak in tow.  After the Mandalorians were defeated, Revan and Malak went out into the galaxy to search for new invaders, but returned corrupted by the dark side of the Force.

Darth Revan (right) and Darth Malak (left). Image from Wookieepedia.

In the sequel, the player character is a Jedi who fought alongside Revan and Malak during the Mandalorians wars.  When she returned after the war, she was cut off from the Force and exiled from the Republic.  She returns two years after the redeemed Revan slew Darth Malak, to help rebuild a Jedi Order that had been devastated by new Sith.

The comics told a new story set at the start of the Mandalorian wars.  These focussed on Zayne Carrick, one of a handful of Jedi apprentices whose masters would see into the future to stop new Sith threats.  Their visions leads them to slay their students, except for Zayne, who escapes and joins a ragtag group of criminals, bounty hunters, and survivors.  Zayne's story periodically intersects with the Mandalorian wars and the adventures of Revan and Malak, though the central premise is the defeat of a corrupted Jedi Covenant and later a massive slaver organization called the Crucible.

The Padawan Massacre of Taris, which launched the events of the KOTOR comic.  Image from Wookieepedia.


Thoughts:

When the first KOTOR game came out, I didn't have a computer powerful enough to play it.  By the time I did, it was difficult to find.  One day, however, Star Wars games began appearing on Steam, and by that time I had a much more powerful PC, and disposable income to buy older video games.  I almost certainly waited for a sale, but picked it up and started enjoying the hell out of it.

My first real exposure to the KOTOR time period though was through the comics.  I began buying comic books in 2006, as the first few issues of John Jackson Miller's KOTOR series were on the shelves.  There was a comic book shop on the university campus, and I decided to try it out.  KOTOR was my first foray into the world of Star Wars comics, and would lead to a period where I would purchase every single Star Wars novel and comic available.  That university comic book shop is gone, but I still do all of my comic shopping at the owner's other location.

The stories of the video games are great examples of a story that focusses on a few key characters in a massive conflict.  The player character builds a small team of heroes and sets off to fight the villains.  While epic in scope, the battles still come down to small groups of well developed characters, which I think is the way to go.

The games also launch the player into the story without much backstory.  We learn the basic context from the opening crawl, but the rest of the world is slowly built up through dialog with your party members and other non-player characters.  The comics serve to build the world further; by setting it in a time period referenced in the games, we can learn about key events in the Mandalorian wars, some of which are referenced in the games.

The way the games work also make them feel cinematic.  You're seeing your character and his or her party from behind and above (not through their eyes).  Fights are animated in a way that looks much more realistic than the hacking-at-each-other mechanisms of other games.  You're playing a game, but you're also watching a movie.  The art style of the games also feels much more consistent with a modern movie experience, unlike the Tales of the Jedi comics, in which ships, buildings, and other objects looked sufficiently strange and unique that they might put someone off.

Battle scenes from KOTOR (top left), KOTOR II (bottom left) and the KOTOR comics (right). Images from Wookieepedia.


Because the player characters of both games were once powerful Jedi who had lost their connection to the Force (either from memory tampering or trauma), the difficulty curve of the game makes narrative sense.  You have no Jedi powers at the start, and slowly develop them.  Since most Jedi are trained from birth, having an adult player character suddenly develop powers isn't realistic, so I liked this approach.

The comics are not merely for background, of course.  The story they tell is in no way less epic than the games.  The first major story, in which hapless former Jedi apprentice Zayne Carrick and his unlikely allies take down a corrupt Jedi Covenant, took three years to tell.  Other stories lasted years longer.  One thing I liked in particular were the connections to Tales of the Jedi, as the motivations behind the Jedi Covenant are tied to the Great Sith War.  This also makes that conflict feel larger than it appears in Tales of the Jedi.  While the KOTOR comics did end on a satisfying note, I only wish that there was more time to recount the continuing adventures of Zayne Carrick.

The KOTOR games and comics represent another great story of ancient Jedi vs. Sith, light vs. dark conflicts.  Unlike the Tales of the Jedi comics, the KOTOR stories feel significantly more modern, with art styles that seem appropriate for a movie in the 21st century (ships have clean lines and consistent designs, lightsabers look like real movie props and not insane antiques, etc).  In my opinion, while I loved the Tales of the Jedi stories, I would encourage new readers to play the first KOTOR game and read John Jackson Miller's KOTOR comics, and then read Tales of the Jedi afterwards.

The Dark Horse omnibuses are more difficult to find, given that they are out of print.  However, Marvel Comics has begun reprinting KOTOR comics as Marvel Epic Collection: Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The first and second volumes are available now.



Comments

Popular Posts

Star Wars Read-Through Part 19: Clone Wars Adventures: Tartakovsky's Dream

In November 2003, the Clone Wars animated series premiered on Cartoon Network. Composed of at first ten very short (approximately four minutes each) episodes, these cartoons told stories of the Jedi and Sith, of Republic and Separatists, of light and dark set between Attack of the Clones and the then-unreleased Revenger of the Sith . Kids were treated to Star Wars on television for the first time since the 1980s. This cartoon was written and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, an animator with a very distinctive style whose other works included Dexter's Laboratory , The Powerpuff Girls , and Samurai Jack . The new show lines up with his style, and he was able to create truly massive battle scenes between the grand armies of the Republic and Separatists.  Characters of very similar animation style from three Genndy Tartakovsky series: Dexter's Laboratory , The Powerpuff Girls , and Star Wars: Clone Wars . Images from Google Every episode was aired in a five-minute timeslot on Carto

Star Wars New Canon: The Clone Wars: Inconsistent Start but Fantastic End

I recently finished watching The Clone Wars TV series, and knowing what I do about the show, I opted to consume what other Canon material was available pertaining to the cartoon. The Clone Wars began airing in 2008 following the theatrical release of a tie-in movie.  It aired for five seasons until Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 (the deal was completed during the fifth season).  All Lucasfilm projects were stopped at that time, including work on The Clone Wars and several other TV shows in development.  At this time, a sixth season was partly completed, and seasons seven and eight were almost completely written. Lucasfilm agreed to put the finishing touches on 13 season six episodes and release them on Netflix.  Furthermore, two four-episode arcs whose audio work had been completed but had only been loosely animated were put on Youtube.  Four unrecorded episodes were adapted into the Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir comic miniseries by Dark Horse Comics and eight episode

Star Wars Read-Through #7: Darth Bane: The Start of the Sith's Eventual Victory

In the final moments of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Yoda and Mace Windu discuss the fact that the enemy recently defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Sith, but that "Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice."  But the Sith we had seen in stories set earlier (written both before and after) featured entire empires of Sith.  At some point, the Sith way changed from being empires of many down to only two individuals.  The stories I read for this post (below) chronicle that transition and the Sith Lords that brought it about. Darth Bane: Path of Destruction (novel by Drew Karpyshyn , 2006) Jedi vs. Sith 1-6 (comic by Darko Macan , 2001) Darth Bane: Rule of Two (novel by Drew Karpyshyn, 2007) Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil (novel by Drew Karpyshyn, 2009) I read Jedi vs. Sith in the Trade Paperback format.   Path of Destruction and Rule of Two I read as paperback novels, while Dynasty of Evil was read as a hardcover novel.  There is a short s