Part 39: Korriban: Darth Grumpyface

Last update we entered the Korriban Sith academy searching for this:



And found this instead:



Yeaaargh.



He disappears on our arrival, but his Sith Assassin buddies are all over the place in here. It's just the same stealthed guys that attacked us back in Peragus on the Harbinger. The game scales enemies to your level, so they get tougher as you level, kinda like in Oblivion; Kreia explains it away as the fact they're trained to fight Force Sensitives, so the stronger the Jedi they hunt, the stronger these assassins are. Nice try.



There are also these Tuk'ata around, which look like little horned dogs. The old Sith in here trained them as pets or something and they got loose. Great.





This is why the Sith must be stopped. If they ruled the galaxy we'd all end up working under excellent tech support like this.

"What's that? The Exchange server isn't responding again? Just fix it yourself. What are you, too weak?"







That's a pretty long student number. When I was in high school I had trouble remembering my damn locker combo, let alone a 19 digit alphanumeric number.



I only bring that up because in the next screen (if you don't have the Computer skill like this), you're suppose to remember the correct 19 digit number and select it. It's like some designer thought it would be a great joke on the player. Almost like having Lewis Black working at Obsidian. "Haha! Pay more attention next time, fuckers!"

In fact, that should be this game's motto.



To access the other parts of the academy, we have to take some stupid Sith academy test. You can open a library in another part of the academy to study up, but I wouldn't even bother; the library terminal is broken and doesn't even give us the proper answers.

We're just going to wing it. Like how I got through my last 3 and ½ years of university.



Kreia listed out all the Sith Lords buried here in Korriban when she was doing the guided tour as we landed. If you don't remember, well, "Haha! Pay more attention next time, fuckers!"



A math puzzle!

The answer is (16 - 6) * 2.

Actually the correct answer is, "Why the fuck were there so many Sith Lords hanging around?"



This is probably the most unfair question here; I don't think Gizka even appear in this game (they were in KOTOR 1), and if you hadn't been to Dxun at this point, you wouldn't know what a Boma Beast is.



#2 is the correct answer, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me actually. Then again, I try not to think about these things too hard. It's also like 2:30am right now. Maybe someone else can explain it better.



The Sith code is the only answer you can find in the library if you decided to go there first.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.



Thus ends Sith Social Studies 101. Passing the written test gets us access to the training room.



After passing the exam, we get jumped by fellow Sith students who want to crib answers off our test.





Back here is, if you played through this part in KOTOR 1, the quarters of Uthar Wynn, the Sith master of the academy during Revan's time. It's locked tight though.





I kinda always thought Thorium was one of those generic made-up elements, like Adamantium, since I've seen it in World of Warcraft too. Turns out is a real, naturally occurring radioactive metal.





Well fuck.

If you must know, if we set Revan to Dark Side at the beginning of the game, this holocron would have contained a recording from Bastila talking about what happened to Revan. To summarize, Revan returned to the Sith academy with Bastila, but his full memories returned and he remembered something terrible he found in the Outer Rim, while fighting the Mandalorians. He ditched Bastila here, and without a leader, the Sith began to turn on themselves and fought a civil war.

Since we've set Revan to Light Side, none of that happened, and that's why the holocron is unusable.





We make our way down the training rooms, but there's still no sign of Master Vash.



There's these dog things though. Poor things. It's been like years since the Sith here all died, and no one's fed them since.





Release the hounds!

I always wanted to say that.





We didn't kill them fast enough for this stupid computer.



Fortunately that means we've unlocked the door to the Torture R- err, the Detention Room.





Ick. Looks like we won't be getting any answers out of this particular Jedi Master.



It's probably worth noting it's one of the few times we see blood in the game. It's Star Wars, so it's for kids, and even the lightsaber wounds in the movies are suppose to be cauterized.







Oh dear.

"If I keep my wits about me I have no doubt I will escape this situation."



She may not have time to use her computer login, but we can try entering it.



It allows us to open the back doorway again and lets us escape this place. With Kash dead, it's probably a good idea to get out of here before Sion comes looking for us.



Here's the deal: Lonna Vash was suppose to be alive at one point. In fact, they already recorded part of her voice acting. You were suppose to be able to talk to her about your exile and your Force Bonds, just like all the other Jedi Masters.

She also had a Padawan with her named Kaah Ohtuk, with whom she also formed a Force Bond with. You have some sort of encounter with him where you discover he has turned to the Dark Side (his lines had not been recorded, so we don't know exactly what happened to him). You end up having the option to either redeem him or kill him.



There's a body here on the torture rack near Vash's body; I think some wishful people assume it's Kaah's corpse.

The original script called for the Exile convincing Vash to return to Dantooine to meet with the rest of the Jedi Council; she agrees, but as they're leaving the academy, Darth Sion attacks. Vash closes the door behind her, fighting Sion alone and sacrificing herself to save the Exile.

Someone (not me) did a restoration of the scene here, if you want the full experience:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oBz3wAJt7Do



Anyway, Jesus and co. are bailing out of here.



Ah crap. We had to bump into him sooner or later.

"The call of Korriban is strong, but it is the call of the dead. It is fitting you came here."







There's a slight parallel to the Malak/Revan relationship here. Malak thought he had defeated Revan fair and square and taken the crown as the uber Sith Lord; when Revan returns from the dead, Malak gets a bit of a complex over it. At the beginning of the game, Sion thought Kreia was dead as well. When he discovers she's alive and well, and had shacked up with another new student, he gets doubly pissed.

He's actually jealous of the Exile, competing for Kreia's attention.

"What does Kreia want with me?"



Veiled reference to Revan again.

"She is a fool who escaped death once. She will not do so again."





Here's some early Sion concept art, before the whole shirtless Sith Lord thing kicked in:



"I will not let you harm her."
"But you do not know her as I do."



"Yet still she walks with you, is willing to sacrifice herself for you!"



"You know war. You know battle."



Darth Sion is voiced by a guy named Louis Mellis, who also wrote the script for Sexy Beast amongst other things. He gave Sion this deep, rumbling Scottish accent, which makes him the first Scottish Sith Lord as far as I know.



"You are a wretched thing, a thing of weakness and fear. You are her apprentice in name only. I am the Master."





Come get some.



Sion, as you expect, hits like a truck. He doesn't use a lot of Force Powers, but his lightsaber is more than enough. He also uses just the 1 saber, like all the cool Sith Lords.



He also can't fucking die. His story is that his body's been broken into a thousand pieces, but he's just holding himself together through sheer will and hate. Hence all the scars. So every time you get him low enough, he just heals himself up to full instantly. It's impossible to beat him here.



After a certain period of time, Kreia breaks up the fight, so you just have to last long enough for this to trigger.

"He cannot be defeated... he is not a beast of flesh and blood. This is not a battle that can be won. Flee."



Sometimes you get a dialogue option that mirrors exactly what you're really thinking.



I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't point out behind Kreia are the walls of the Sith Academy - yet she's not suppose to have left the Ebon Hawk. It's just a programming decision (so that we don't have to load the map for the Ebon Hawk when this scene starts).

I also mentioned this earlier, but there's another mistake during Kreia's cutscene with Sion and Nihilus. Her model in that movie is missing her left hand, but she's not suppose to have lost her hand until much later (on Peragus, at the beginning of this game). I think they just forgot to create a character model for her with black robes plus both hands.

It's like the damn Fedex arrow; I always notice those little things now when I rewatch them.



Brave Sir Robin runs away.



Again with the brotherly jealousy here.





Interestingly, if the Exile is a female character, Sion lets her go:

{Sion watches the player flee, his face indecisive. The Sith assassins gather behind him, and as one moves forward, he cuts them down with a backslash.}
{Quiet} "Do not harm her. I command it. She... has earned this."
"She and I will meet again."

That's because Sion is a quasi love interest for the female Exile.

Yes, love interest. Granted, it's a one-way love, like a creepy obsessive stalker thing with a slight incestuous vibe to it (Sion is as Kreia's neglected son, to the Exile's role as the favoured child). The male Exiles get Atris as the forbidden love, females get... Darth Sion. Here's a snippet from an interview with Chris Avellone, the head writer on this game, which should give a bit of insight:

quote:

I wished I believed in romance more than Bioware. I just can't write it unless one of the pair gets impaled on a pike, set on fire, or betrays the other and then impales them on a pike or sets them on fire. Generally, I prefer unrequited, melancholy, quiet suffering whenever possible, which really doesn't go over well with a lot of the role-players out there.