Part 10: Telos: Let's Verbally Spar for 15 Minutes!

Last update, we were flying along on our merry way when a killer robot with a rocket launcher shot down our ship.



They've got a society advanced enough to have interstellar space travel, and yet they still don't have modern seatbelt laws.



"Quick Clarification: But now that we have found you, we hope that we can facilitate communications."
"Unnecessary Addendum: And put an end... to hostilities."



"Unnecessary Clarification: We merely wished to cripple your vessel. Once we tracked your coordinates, we were able to deploy several droids in this location."
"Probing Query: We are, however, curious as to why you chose to come to the remnants of the polar Telos irrigation system. There is nothing here that our instruments can detect."



"What are you assassin droids doing here?"
"Self-Evident Answer: Wherever you try to run, we will be there, armed and ready."
"Rhetorical Query: So the query you have posed to us is one we put to you. What are you doing here, we wonder?"





These guys can be really easy or really hard, it's a little random, and I don't know why. They use disruptors, which can go through shields. I believe they also have the assassination protocols that HK-47 later acquires.



Speaking of HK-47: here's the 2nd part we need to put Humpty Dumpty back together.



Bao-Dur seems out of it. We can't do anything for him right now, so let's leave him to freeze to death in the snow. Really.









This is some sort of albino heaven, with albino women appearing out of nowhere to frolic, singing tra-la-la-la.

Well, not really.



Fine, but getting captured all the time is getting tiring.



"I mean, why did they lock us up? What is this place?"



"Yes, it bears the semblance of an academy... but where are all the students? Curious."
"You've got to be joking. What is a Jedi Academy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"It is a place hidden from the galaxy, like the academy on Dantooine. But this place... oh, Atris... you have been clever."



The voice directions for Kreia here actually says she 'smells blood'.

"And what is it about this place that causes you such fear?"
"What do you mean? We're in the middle of a bunch of Jedi. You know how they are."
"No, I do not... not in the way you seem to."



"Stop struggling... let me follow the current, deep... deeper... to its source."



"Ah, with the fear... is mingled guilt... it squirms in you like a worm. And the why... ah, and there is its heart. You surprise me - I could not feel it before... your feelings are a powerful shield, indeed."
"Do not worry, 'Atton.' If he is a Jedi, he will forgive. And if he is not, he will not care."

I don't know if Jedis are really into this whole 'forgiving' thing though. Just the fact that they threw the Exile out for 10 years is pretty damning.



"...think less of you? I hardly think that's possible. Still, there is no shame in what you ask. We all wage war with the past. And it leaves its scars. I will not speak of yours, Atton, but there is a price for such things."
"There are those who wage war, and those who follow them. You are a crude thing, murderer, but you have your uses. You know how important this man we travel with is - even one such as you can feel it. You will serve him... until I release you."



"I feel you have crossed our path for a reason... perhaps even you, at the right moment, may be able to turn aside disaster. If so, your potential is not yet spent."
"Fine. I'll be your pawn. But I still think you've got the wrong man."
"Perhaps. But someone has to fly the ship."
"Our path brought us here for a reason... and now I know why. The past is here, and it must be met before the future can be set in motion."
"More Jedi speak. Care to explain?"





The moment you've been waiting for.







"Your concern is noted... your friends have not been harmed. They have been detained, for their safety."





"Yet here you are. Perhaps you do not know yourself as well as you think. Regardless, your arrival here begs an explanation. Have you come to face the judgment of the Council, as you did so many years ago? Are you finally willing to admit that we were right to cast you out?"





"The Council wanted to assess the threat, while people were dying by the millions."
"So you said, so long ago. I didn't believe it, then, and I don't believe it now. You sought adventure, you hungered for battle. You could not wait to follow Revan to war. The Jedi Order asked only for time to examine the Mandalorian threat. They urged caution, patience. And you defied them."
"So when you returned, you were brought before us. You were a Jedi no longer. And so you were exiled. "



"I also recall you wished me imprisoned... or worse."

Remember how we told Atton our lightsaber was silver?





"Indeed. A lightsaber is the mark of a Jedi. When you turned your back on the Order, it was not yours anymore."
"I have always kept it, as a reminder of what can happen when your passions dictate your actions. I have kept it, so I would never forget your arrogance or your insult to the Order."



"Then you misunderstand its meaning while it is in my possession - and what it now represents."
"I went to war to protect others, not for battle."





"Every choice we make, whether we know it or not, sends echoes through the Force. It can awaken feelings, ignite passions, hate, anger, fear - where none existed before. By meeting aggression, by serving as an opponent against which the Mandalorians could test themselves, you fed their hate, their lust for war. And it sent a terrible echo through you. And because of it, you and those Jedi who met them on the battlefield lost their way... and you turned on us."
"Were you not tempted to help the innocent?"
"Of course I was. But the Jedi teachings require we examine how we may best help them - action without reflection is not our way."



Jesus is about to get REALLY righteous.









Cutting her off is soooo satisfying.

"Do not twist my words. A physical victory is not the only victory... or the only loss."
"Nice words... but if we listened to you, we'd be hearing it in Mandalorian right now."
"You do not kno-"
"Oh, please. Anyone who stepped outside the Jedi Archives would know it."



When she gets angry, she starts waving that lightsaber around.



"Your anger... is it because you secretly wish you'd had the strength to follow me to war?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"I can see it in you - you wanted to fight by my side. But you were too scared to defy the Council."
"You are wrong, just as you were when you defied the Council."

She's still in denial.

"So answer me. If you can not seem to admit the Council was correct, then why are you here?"





For the last time, we didn't blow up Peragus!

If we did blow it up, we would have to lie here, and it'd cost us Dark Side Points.

"The destruction of Peragus was an accident."
"You have not changed. Acting instead of thinking. Putting yourself before the galaxy, before the Jedi."
"Without the fuel from Peragus, Citadel Station cannot maintain its orbit. It will crash into the planet, and its destruction will echo across twenty other worlds. Telos was a test, to see if the Republic could mount a restoration effort on the Outer Rim. When it fails, the Republic will not finance another. The other Rim worlds devastated by the Sith will remain graveyard worlds, devoid of life. And that is the magnitude of your crime."







Atris thinks she knows everything, but she somehow doesn't know the Sith have returned.

"The Sith? What do you mean?"
"You'll find out when their hand is at your throat."
"Tell me - where did you encounter them?"
"If you seized my ship, you'd know I was at Peragus... and so were they."
"Peragus... what would they want there? They can't have been looking for you."









Ouch.

"If these Sith attacked you, they will soon realize their mistake. And if you escaped... they most likely let you go, to see if you would lead them here."
"If so, then I offer you my help. You'll need it."
"You offer your aid? After turning your back on me... on the council? The Jedi is not something you embrace out of fear. The commitment is stronger than that, something you never seemed to understand."

Despite all the the bitterness, Jesus still wants the Sith dead, and Atris could probably help.





[Success] "Perhaps... but if you help me, it cannot be done from here."
"There are others in the galaxy who may help us against a Sith threat. If you can find them, gain their trust, perhaps our defenses shall be stronger for it. Take your ship, seek them out. If you find them, encourage them to gather on Dantooine - from there, we can call a council and see what can be done."
"No arguments here."







"Forgive me, mistress... but I must ask. The exile... I have never seen another effect you so strongly."
"Did you care for him once?"
"The Jedi have no such attachments. As always, he will do as he wills, and the galaxy... and the feelings of others... can burn for all he cares.
"The day we judged him, I stood in the chamber, and he was... he was so right. He was so certain of it, I doubted myself."
"He chose Revan over the Jedi, over the Council... over..."

She wants to say 'over... me.' but stops herself.

"But now... now I am tired. I must meditate."



Atris is a few years older than the Exile, but it definitely wasn't a mother/son relationship. It's heavily implied here that she had a bit of a babysitter complex. In fact, the voice directions for her last bit of dialogue here say, *Slight bitterness, doesn't want to admit she loved the Exile*. If you wanted to, you could view the whole argument/conversation from the point of view of Atris as a spurned lover.

One thing you don't realize at this point is that Atris is almost as manipulative as Kreia. She's not as morally relativist as Kreia, but she's delusional, and as a result of her conviction she's directly responsible for a lot of what happened during the last 5 years.



For agreeing to help the Jedi, we get Light Side points.

And that was the climax of Act I. It's a brave decision to cap the events of Telos and Peragus off with a huge, sprawling conversation tree. I think other games, any games that have less confidence in their writers than this one, would have chosen to have a boss fight at this stage instead. Atris would have talked to you, then attacked you; it would be the typical thing to do in this genre.

But in a way, that conversation WAS a boss fight. It was fought with ideas and words instead of lightsabers, and thematically it fits in with the rest of the game.



There's one little detail in this level that's hiding in plain sight: these chairs here, they're arranged in the same way as the former Jedi Council chambers. Atris intended to reassemble the Jedi Council here under her leadership.

This whole place use to be the main irrigation facility for the planet of Telos. It pumped water from the polar ice caps to the temperate regions. In fact there was suppose to be running water here during the conception phase:



But it's changed a lot from the concept art.

Let's go talk with the last of the Handmaidens, the only one willing to show her face.



"Are you the "last" of the Handmaidens?"
"I am the last of the Handmaidens, this is correct. I train so that one day that will no longer be true."
"The others said you were easily distracted from your training."
"It dishonors me they would say such a thing to an outsider. But I cannot deny the truth in what they say. My thoughts are not always focused on training. Perhaps once having known the ways of the Jedi, you may understand what occupies my thoughts."

"Did Atris ever mention me?"





"Atris says that you fell to the dark side in the Mandalorian Wars when you gave in to your lust for battle. Once you tasted war, you could not give it up."
"Atris says when the dark lord Revan returned to the Republic, you did not march with them because you had fallen so far you could no longer feel the Force."



"I believe that is the extent of her expressed feelings toward you. There are variations at times, but all rise from the same foundation."
"Expressed feelings?"
"Yes. It is difficult sometimes for others to truly speak their heart or listen to it. The words often prove difficult, or they do not come at all."
"What do you think Atris' heart says?"
"Without having seen you and Atris fight, I cannot say."



Where have we heard that before? Oh right:



A lot of what Kreia says reflects Echani philosophy. It's another clue to Kreia's real name.



Jesus wouldn't really do that, but it's fun to entertain the thought.



"I know only of its loss."
"Then tell me of its absence."

It's one of those, "What can change the nature of a man?" type questions.



Okay, all the makes Jesus antsy. Jesus wants a fight.



These Handmaidens don't like Jesus after all the lies Atris told them, so they're easy to goad into a fight.





I don't see THEM stripping down to their underwear. This isn't fair.

"All duels between us shall be without armor of any kind. There shall be no restrictions upon our movements - or upon yours."
"Your feet are not to leave the training mat during the battle. If they do, you will lose. "
"Also, this is not a fight to the death. Restrain your instincts when we fight, and we shall do the same."





Cue the kung fu music!

The first fight is hand-to-hand only, no force powers or weapons. This makes it the easiest fight for a Jedi Guardian and the hardest for a Consular like Jesus.



One thing I got to say, if there's one part of game's animation system they really improved on from the first game, it's the hand-to-hand fighting moves. They tried to make unarmed combat (and guns) an actual viable alternative to lightsabers in this game. There must be a dozen different fighting animations they added, and most of them look really good.



She said no striking to kill, then she goes and kicks Jesus in the crotch. What is THAT about?



It all looks quite good in motion, but sometimes when you take a screenshot, they look like dancing chickens.



Jedi Jesus has 8 Strength and is a Consular, so you can't get any worse than that. The key is to keep things simple. Stuff like Power Attack, Critical Strike, etc. all have disadvantages at low level, so using just the default attack is much more effective. Either way, it's a tough fight.



Our next fight, she hits a bit harder, but we're allowed to use a melee weapon. We've got a double-ended Sith sword handy.



This is what you get for that crotch kick.





Our third fight, we can use our force powers.



These Handmaidens have pretty high saves, but Jesus powers are equally hard to block.



Our fourth fight, we have to fight 2 of them at the same time.

No sweat.



Jesus gets a little cocky.



"Care to back up those words?"



"Why not all six of you?"
"There is no need for the last of us to join in this fight - the weakest among us will only serve to diminish our techniques."



This is the fight lots of people have trouble with apparently. There's 3 in front of us...



..and 2 behind us.

We could do this the hard way. Or we can be a cheapass Jedi bastard and do it like this:



First we back ourselves into the corner. Remember we don't have to beat them all down, we can also knock them off the mat to win.



Then we pick the Handmaiden in the centre and use Force Whirlwind. The ones beside her all have to make a save or go flying sideways. Once they do, they fall off the mat.



We only have one left to deal with. By shooting her in the face repeatedly.



Wimps. We get a nice 750 XP for all that though.



"Did you find what you came for?"
[Wisdom] "That depends. What was I supposed to find here?"

Jesus is good at spouting the typical Jedi mumbo jumbo.

"There was something from your past here - something unresolved. I feel we did not come to this place by chance - you were led here. This woman who resides here - she did something to you once... something that hangs upon you still?"
"The woman here is a Jedi, Atris, one of the Council."
"There is a Jedi here, perhaps. In that, you are correct."
"Yet there are no students, and this woman... this Atris... surrounds herself with those who cannot feel the Force. Curious."





Notice how she doesn't really give a straight answer. She's good at the mumbo jumbo too.



"Is Atton okay? He looks out cold."



"He can sleep on the ship. Let's go."





"Don't be ridiculous. Atris stole the ship and the droid."











"She has left with the exile. Her reasons are unknown to me. But I fear she may no longer be trusted. "







In an alternative scene, Atris was suppose to send the Handmaiden directly. This ties in with the cut content during the corresponding bookend scene at the end of the game.

"Mistress? You summoned me?"
"I have a task for you. The exile... is dangerous."
"I am concerned that he was able to return to Republic space and reach Telos without my knowledge."
"Mistress, the Harbinger was lost in transit. It was our failing."
"I will need you to travel with him. I realize what I am asking of you - and I am asking that you keep your purpose a secret, even from your sisters."
"I need someone to watch the exile closely - and let me know if he contacts the Sith. More importantly, I need you to study him closely - I need to know what he thinks, what he does. Become part of his group, earn his trust, get him to confide in you."
"I... will do as you ask, mistress."
"Mistress, the exile did not seem to pose a threat to us."
"Ah, but he does. Do not be fooled by the exterior - it is his nature you must beware. He fell to the dark side once, he will do so again."
"I am trusting you with this task, last of my Handmaidens. Do not disappoint me - the galaxy, the Jedi, may depend on it."

One thing this cut dialogue reveals is that Atris had a hand in the Harbinger going out and picking up the Exile in the first place.





"What is the machine saying?"





This is the Jedi Council chambers on Coruscant (I think). Notice the parallel to Atris' chambers on Telos.











Every bit as uppity back then as she is now.



"You refuse to hear us. You have shut us out, and so have shut yourself to the galaxy."







It's the Jedi version of flipping the bird:







And Jesus stomps off.

"Much defiance in that one."
"You were correct, Kavar. When he was here I felt it. It was as if he was not there, more like an echo."
"The war has touched the youngest of the Order. Many of them have lost themselves in battle against the Mandalorians."



"I fear it is our teachings that may have led Revan to choose the path he did."
"We are not the ones who taught him."
"We take responsibility, Atris, not cast blame."



This is the first time we hear about Revan's master. We'll find out more about him/her later.

"Yet they all stem from the same source. Her teachings violated the Jedi Code and lead all who listen to the dark side, as they did the exile."
"Malachor V should have been his grave. You saw it in his walk, and in the Force. It was as if he was already dead."
"We should have told him the truth. A Jedi deserves to know. "
"No good would have come from it, even if what you believed was true. There is still the matter of Revan, and such truths could leave us vulnerable on two fronts."





They built such a cool looking room with a nice ceiling and everything, and you only see it once for this scene.





He was in KOTOR 1, and he was a dick.



George Parros of the Anaheim Ducks.



Don't know him, but he's got nice hair.



On the other hand, this hair is horrendous.



She's too good to dress in brown like everyone else.



Voting

Now we know where the Jedi Masters are; the assholes responsible for stripping the Exile of the Force. If we want answers, we'll have to go flush them out of hiding. So which planet should we go to first...

Onderon, which is on the cusp of a military coup?

Nar Shaddaa, the Smuggler's Moon?

Korriban, the Valley of the Dark Lords?

Or Dantooine, the graveyard of the Jedi?