Part 19: Nar Shaddaa - The Radical Revan Retcon

Just a few more things to clean up before we leave Nar Shaddaa. First, a little alone time with Bao-Dur, the guy who never talks.



Bao-Dur has little or no lines in the game. As mentioned before, they pretty much stopped writing for him after his introduction sequence. Did they just get bored and forget about him?

Who knows.

"Why did you decide to fight?"





"I remembered when word of the Mandalorian attacks arrived on Iridonia. My people had colonies across the Outer Rim. Many of them were among the first systems to fall."
"So you wanted revenge?"
"Revenge, and to crush the Mandalorians - to send them back to wherever it was they came from."





"Do you know how it felt?"
"I detached myself from the frenzy of battle. It was impersonal."
"I couldn't do that. It was almost as though the battle took control of me, drove me forward. It's always on my mind, now. That loss of control blinded me, turned me into a weapon."



The thing is, Bao-Dur isn't unimportant. He had a pivotal role in what happened at Malachor V, he's got a long history with the Exile, and most of the other NPCs are far more tangential to the main plot than he is. But he's just... got nothing much to say.

"You know, I'm glad I found you again, General. We were together at Malachor. I don't know if anyone else could understand."
"So, why are you here?"
"Getting philosophical on me? I'm here because you found me on Telos and I decided to come along for the ride - not that I had much choice after we got going."



"Guess if one planet was good enough for me, why not the galaxy?"
"Sometimes there are things that can't be fixed."
"You just have to know what the circuits look like."
"It's all wires and switches to you, huh?"
"That's the way I see things. Traveling with you, I know there's something else in the universe, but I can't do anything about it anyways. So I'll leave it to you to take care of."
"I told you, I'm not a Jedi."
"They might not call you a Jedi anymore, but believe me, you are. It's not the sort of thing that you just stop being. You're stuck with it, just like you're stuck being the General."

The other problem with him is that his voice actor had his microphone half-muted or something. Every time he has a line _{it sounds like this}.



This is Goto's droid. In a fit of egotism, he named it G0-T0. Clever, I guess.

Let's see if we can pry any further info out of him.

"Considering I saved you, you could be more grateful."
"The fact we are even having a conversation is gratitude. Usually, my conversations do not have the give-and-take that our current interaction does. And, of course, there is much more screaming on the part of the listener when the torture field is activated."



"Now, that would be telling. For now, my presence must remain a secret - and it may remain that way forever."



"The assassin droids? I have encountered some, purchased the services of others."
"Why are they hunting me?"



So it was Goto the whole time causing all this HK-50 ruckus? Not cool.

"Do you know where they are coming from?"
"If you mean produced, no, I do not. I do know that there are a surprising number scattered throughout the Republic fleet, searching for you. What they will do now that you are found is easy to predict."
"You mean they're going to come after me?"
"Of course they are - they're droids with very specific protocols, that unless changed, will dictate their movements. Unless you shut them down at the source, they will be stalking you until you are captured or terminated. Why don't you ask their predecessor? That archaic memory-impaired assassination droid will know more about his subsequent generations than I would."

This was, again, suppose to be a lead-in to the droid factory subplot.

"What are they doing in the Republic fleet?"



If he wanted to save the Republic, it would make sense to for him to eliminate these HK-50s, right? Hmm.

"Why doesn't the Republic know?"
"Because the Republic has no reason to investigate otherwise - and any discovery of their true purpose has been concealed by well-timed "accidents."
"Why haven't you acted on this information?"



Bit of a control freak, isn't he? Explains why he sent a droid to spy on the Ebon Hawk.

"You wanted me to save the Republic. How is that possible?"
"There are several factors, all of which effect each other."



What a coincidence, those are the planets where all the Jedi Masters may be found.

"Is there anything you can do to help those systems and their people, either with information or resources?"
"The destruction of my yacht and of all my activities on Nar Shaddaa carry a cost that would take you several lifetimes to pay back. But perhaps the offer of credits will spur you to act quicker, more decisively. I am not unsympathetic to such greed. For every system you stabilize, I will reward you for your efforts. Telos is instrumental to the stability of the Republic. Its success or failure will dictate the economic forecasts of many other worlds."



For the last time, we didn't mean to blow up Peragus .



"Then stop causing events of planetary destruction. You are a walking catastrophe, and you are not making saving the Republic any easier."





We were drugged and unconscious, you jackass!



"That wasn't an option, either."



It's funny how everyone you talk to says Telos was the nexus of the Republic restoration effort, and it turns out Peragus was the sole supplier of fuel to Telos. So theoretically, if someone wanted to fuck over the entire Republic with the least amount of effort, all they would have to do is... blow up Peragus. And the dominos would fall. A small thing setting in motion a much large catastrophe; where have we heard that before?



This is KOTOR 2's dirty little secret: they retconned Revan to the point where she probably has a better backstory in this game than in KOTOR 1.

"A common misconception, not supported by facts. Revan did not intend to destroy the Republic. He deliberately left the infrastructure of many planets intact - and many military production facilities."





"My prediction is that whatever production facility was being employed, it carried a price that Revan perceived as detrimental to the goals of the Sith. And that is why Revan left many military production facilities in the Republic intact."
"But why? Revan wouldn't need to conquer anything else once the Republic was beaten."
"That is what occupies my calculations as well. I believe that Revan saw a war on another front that we did not, or saw the value in keeping a strong military force."



"That is also a mystery to me. I do not have any evidence upon which to build an answer. It is significant that after the defeat of Malak, the forces decreased considerably, and after Revan's departure from known space, production ceased completely. It is my prediction that whatever was producing such forces needed a strong, effective leader to insure its stability. Without Revan or Malak, there was no such figure left among the Sith."

It was the  Star Forge  . Though I struggle to believe that with such a huge battle fought there, it wasn't common knowledge to the point where Goto would know about it. He seems to know everything else.

"What about Malak?"







Yeah, Malak was always a bit of an idiot.

He was a Saturday morning cartoon-type villain; entertaining, but an idiot. In other words, perfect for a Star Wars game. Bioware managed to capture the George Lucas-esque feel to him right down to the maniacal cackling.



As I said, Revan has a bigger and badder backstory here than in her own game. You find out a lot of it from some unlikely sources: HK-47, T3-M4, Kreia, and... Goto. KOTOR 1 was mostly concerned with the Jedi Civil War and what happened between her and Malak. In KOTOR 2, it delves a lot deeper into why Revan ran off to join the Mandalorian War in the first place. Some of the things you find out about her are quite the mindfuck, and you get to realize that she was an expert manipulator, kind of like... Kreia.

In fact, let's talk to Kreia now.



Kreia was once a Jedi historian with the Order, she must have at least known of Revan.



Here comes the 'Missing History of Darth Revan, Volume I'.

"Where did Revan come from?"
"Revan had a mother and father, parents, ancestors, like all Jedi do. And when she awakened to her potential, I was there to see it. But where she was born, where she came from, I do not know... anymore than I know where she walks now."



"What caused Revan to fall, to turn on the Republic?"
"Fall? Ah, already you presume much."



"Then what made her turn to the dark side, become a Sith Lord?"







That seems to contradicts most of the story of KOTOR 1. She's saying Revan never truly went over to the Dark Side; that she only did what was necessary to save the Republic, which was neither good or evil. There's a writer's voice here basically criticizing the overly simplistic Light Side/Dark Side dichotomy. People comment this game tries to include non-traditional Star Wars themes into a Star Wars game, and this is the kind of stuff they're talking about.

"The galaxy would have fallen if Revan had not gone to war. Perhaps she became the dark lord out of necessity, to prevent a greater evil."





The truth comes out. Kreia was one of Revan's masters.









"But Revan, when she had learned all she could, had other masters... that fool Zhar, and other Jedi on other planets. She learned from each."



There is a subtle thing to note here: she says Revan returned to her to learn how to leave the Jedi Order. That implies... Kreia herself had already left the Jedi by that time. This was before the Mandalorian Wars. It's such a tiny little aside, but I'll show how it comes back into play later.

"What was Revan like as a student?"





She's a parent being asked to pick her favourite child.

"You are different."



(Cue the ominous music.)

Meanwhile...







You two spent all of KOTOR 1 together; best friends forever. Don't you remember?

"Statement: This is all the more important since during my routine inspection of all potential escape routes from this vessel, I made an interesting discovery."
"Observation: The navicomputer is voice-locked. As a consequence, you are now responsible for course corrections and astrogation. Statement: That is indeed a great burden. It also raises many questions."











T3 and HK have this demented C3PO/R2D2 relationship going on and I love it. HK-47 is the confident badass, and T3 is the weaker and slightly anxious one; yet T3 basically owns HK at every turn.



Last thing to do before we leave: we have to get Vogga the Hutt to resupply Telos's Citadel Station with a new source of fuel from Sleheyron, a home planet of the Hutts. Speaking of which, did you know that it was originally suppose to be one of the planets in KOTOR 1? Yes, KOTOR 1 had cut content too! Bioware was just a lot better about leaving the files out of the finished discs. This is Bioware's lead writer talking about it:

David Gaider posted:

Well, Sleheyron (the one planet that was cut) was mostly written when it was cut and I had written it, and there was a series of Hutts there that you could take jobs with. They were all enemies of each other and you could play them off each other. it was kinda cool. One of them was named Suuda the Hutt and I liked him a lot, he was very catty.

And, no, before anyone asks it is not in a state that it can be restored. I think the dialogue I wrote back then was even in a different format, so it is not salvageable.

Actually, Goto is behind me...



... or at least Goto's droid.



"I do not have Goto here, but rest assured, he will trouble you no longer."
"Indeed, I had heard as much. I wouldn't have thought you could have so easily disposed of him. Rarely am I as impressed by a human. I believe that means we have a matter of business to discuss. My freighters have already begun their work. I will open trade with the Telosians, however I believe they will be reluctant to listen to my offer, should it come from me."



"Now leave, I haven't grown so fond of you I'd like you around."

You know, come to think of it, Goto was the one who was fucking with Vogga and preventing him from sending fuel to Telos. If Goto wanted to save the Republic so bad, why doesn't just he just let the fuel through? Ugh.



Time to leave this claustrophobic, badly lit dump!

Voting Time

Where should we jet off to next?



Onderon?



Korriban?



Or Dantooine?

Up to you, I have no particular preference.