KotOR II: Main Plot Theory

***spoilers***

(slightly edited from several entries I posted in Obsidian’s forum, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - SPOILERS - KotOR 2, “Filling in the plotholes at the end…”)

After the final battle, Kreia suggests that you can follow Revan’s path, but this doesn’t mean that you literally track Revan down. S/He disappeared unexpectedly after destroying the Star Forge, and for some reason, I convinced myself that Revan is dead (maybe because I was still hoping for another Carth romance). As such, when Kreia suggests following Revan’s path, I interpret it as flying down the same space lane in a figurative sense–maybe to continue where Revan left off, searching for the underlying cause of the Mandalorian Wars, or the “greater threat” (greater than Malak) to the Republic. Kreia, Sion, and Nihilus could have been what Revan searches for at the end of KotOR–the larger threat that s/he senses but can’t recall because of the mindwipe.

I don’t believe that Kreia engineered the entire KotOR II situation out of revenge against the Jedi Council and Sith who cast her out. Perhaps that’s what spurred the idea, but throughout the game, she remains neutral (she was expelled by both the Jedi and the Sith, after all). By the end, what she wants is for people to face the truth–that Force sensitives can choose to live a life without it; that this is the very reason the Council was frightened by the Exile and the real reason you were banished. The Jedi lived their entire lives using the Force as a “crutch,” so to speak and couldn’t imagine leading a life without it.

Kreia also wants you to face the truth about yourself–that you defied the will of the Force and chose to forge your own path by turning away not just from the dark side, but from the Force itself. After having been rejected by both the dark and light sides, she envies your ability to do this–not maliciously, but in more of a wistful manner.

One of the things I have trouble reconciling is that, if the Exile is such an inspiration and able to influence others, how is that different from Revan? In KotOR, characters continually remark on Revan’s ability to gain loyalty. In KotOR II, they say the same about you. Additionally, everyone, including the Masters, comments on how strong you are in the Force. Wouldn’t that make you more powerful, or at the very least, equal to Revan?

Granted, after fixing the protocol droid on Dantooine, you find a recording it has of a conversation between Masters Vrook and Vandar in which Vrook argues that you’re a mediocre Padawan. However, if you play LS, after you defeat the mercs, Vrook acknowledges how strong in the Force you really are. Maybe he and the other Masters didn’t realize this at the time of the recording. Or, maybe Vrook didn’t want to admit it, the way he doesn’t admit the real reason you were cast out of the Order.

Further, why is it that you’re the one to whom the characters ascribe the destruction of not just Malachor, but the entire Mandalorian race? Why isn’t Revan blamed for this? She was the one who led the Republic and the “defiant” Jedi to the Mandalorian Wars, after all. Even Goto and HK hint that this was all your doing. If some of the Republic citizens believe that you’re responsible for ultimately defeating the Mandalorians, it certainly explains why everyone in KotOR II blames you for Peragus’s destruction. (With HK and Goto, however, this is abased on what I read between the lines, so it’s possible that I’m wrong because the dialogue leaves too much out. It’s one thing to hint, but shouldn’t there be a resolution later, that the protagonist stumbles upon him/herself?)

This is why I chose the response that the reason my PC went to the Mandalorian Wars was not to follow Revan, but because I made a choice to protect the innocent. This is also why, when the Mandalorians were defeated and the threat to others extinguished, my character returned to the Council to face judgment instead of following the Sith.

I imagine that the Sith teachings Revan studied on Malachor were about the Rakatans and the Star Forge. Anyone who controlled it would have the potential to conquer the galaxy as the Rakatans had done in the past, and the best course of action was to destroy it. Unfortunately, Revan was corrupted along the way when she realized the extent of the power that the Star Forge held.

Both Kreia and Revan studied Jedi and Sith history, and it’s possible they discovered other previously unknown dark Force users after the Rakatans’ Infinite Empire. However, in KotOR, the Rakatans were portrayed as having had such a powerful empire that no one was able to surpass it once the information (the Star Maps) about the Star Forge was concealed and access to the Rakatan Temple denied.

The Jedi already knew about the Great Hyperspace War, Ulic Qel-Droma, and Exar Kun, all of which occurred 1,000 years prior to KotOR. The Council on Dantooine knew that dark energy emanated from the ancient ruins (built tens of thousands of years before the Republic was established, according to its Guardian), but no one except Revan, Malak, your KotOR PC, Bastila, and your third party member return from it alive, so chances are, they don’t know about the Star Forge. Although it the ruins hold the first Star Map that your PC finds in KotOR, that doesn’t mean that Revan learned about the Star Forge there.

In addition, Kreia implies that she was Revan’s first Master, and I believe she says that at the end of Revan’s training (which coincides with the end of the Mandalorian Wars?), Revan returned to his/her original Master. Presumably, Kreia was already on Malachor and had already established the Trayus Academy, since she does acknowledge her participation in the Mandalorian Wars, which would explain her presence on Malachor.

Though Kreia probably didn’t know about the Star Forge (in KotOR II you ask her how “Revan amassed such a large fleet in such a short order,” but she evades the issue), during Revan’s time at the Trayus Academy, Kreia still could have begun leading Revan down a dark path with the intention of making Revan, not Nihilus or Sion, her Sith Apprentice. At the beginning of KotOR, Malak is the new Dark Lord, having defeated Revan. This implies that Sion and Nihilus had already rejected Kreia when she was the Dark Lord, but because they chose to remain in “the shadows,” Revan claimed the title after Kreia’s defeat (and prior to Malak). In other words, during KotOR, Sion and Nihilus were busy plotting the events of KotOR II from “the shadows.”

At the end of KotOR II, Kreia says that you might choose to follow the path that Revan trod after the Jedi Civil War (destruction of the Star Forge). This could mean the path of redemption–the Jedi Order’s, not Revan’s or your own (if you play LS). At this point in time, many Republic citizens fear the Jedi because of their inability (or unwillingness) to distinguish the Jedi from the Sith. That your character has the power to inspire followers would enable you to re-establish the Academy (not necessarily on Dantooine or Telos–the Jedi Academy in the larger sense), thus redeeming the Jedi in the Republic’s eyes. Conversely, you can establish a Sith empire.

However, when conflating KotOR II with the Star Wars canon, it makes sense that, if the Exile chooses to continue a life with the ability to feel the Force, s/he re-establishes the Order. By the time of the Clone Wars, the Jedi were once again in good standing with the Republic, so someone had to have convinced the rest of the galaxy that Jedi weren’t evil. Also, the Sith Lords were believed to be non-existent, which reinforces the possibility that the Exile restores the Order. But, this is all speculation because as of yet, no literature exists that takes place between 4,000 and 1,000 BBY/BANH (before the Battle of Yavin/before A New Hope), nor between 1,000 and 44 BBY.