A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 79: The Nameless World and the Star Forge (Knights of the Old Republic 10)

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

In only ten episodes, we've traveled from the comfortable military quarters of the Ender Spire to the viewing platform of an ancient alien species' life-devouring shipyard. Finally, it's time to face our destinies: Some of us must overcome the sudden separation from our companions and the limits of our support-focused character builds. Others must commit to doing absolutely cartoonishly evil things to our erstwhile allies.  But all of us have to dig deep... deep into our inventories, and finally use all those mines and grenades that we've been hoovering up over the last 30 hours. Thanks for joining us during this wonderful diversion into the time of the Old Republic! If you've enjoyed this season, consider supporting the show on Patreon. And make sure to get your questions for our KOTOR Q&A episode ASAP: Send them to amorecivilizedage at gmail dot com! Next time: Rebels 16 & 17 ("The Siege of Lothal Parts 1 & 2") Show Notes Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Ricardo Contreras (@a_cado_appears) Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)  

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakeney, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners via patreon.com slash civilized. So head over there if you'd like to support the show and get access to our Q&A episodes, the Tales of the Jedi series, they get into the deep lore behind all this. and if you're ready to hear us start answering questions about cartoons again because it's getting to be that time.

It sure is. I was just on the Rebels Web, the Rebels Wiki thing to see what our next set of episodes are. Nothing could have primed the pump more than the end of Cotor, by the way, just to be done. We'll get to that. Oh, I'm sorry. This week, the gang journeys to the Star Forge System,

only to have their ship crash on a mysterious tropical island chain populated by the remnants of the species that built the Star Forge and wrecked Tatooine, as we'll recall. Some have become bloodthirsty warrior tribes who devour one another and the sentient species that crash on the planet, while a handful of others have inherited the job of securing the history and the forbidden technologies

of their once great Rackatan... Uh-huh. Now... Racketan Empire. The Infinite Empire, the Racketan Empire, which we heard about one of the Racketan Empire, Once before, besides me saying it out loud last time because of that prisoner thing, in a Star Wars thing, a Star Wars thing, I'm very curious that anyone remembers where we heard this.

It's an unlikely connection. It's maybe the least likely connection. In visions? Not in visions. No. Everyone gets a guess. Give me a guess. Where did we hear the word racketan?

I give you the word after racketan. Rackatan invaders is what the is what was told to us Not boba Not boba Allie you need a guess Where have we heard of Rackatan before in currently canon Star Wars Oh you should have said that part The second guess

Does that open your own? Andor It is Andor Really? Luton says it's a Kuwati signet Blue Khyber Star, Skystone, the ancient world celebrates the uprising

against the Rakitan invaders. Somebody remember that shit. Somebody remembered that shit. Somebody kept that day holy. Yeah, they did. It's almost like, I'm going to get a chance. Hey, you know what today is? It's Rakitian Day.

It's fucking Rakitan Day. Except it might have been the day. The day we released the plague upon the racquetan and watch them rive and vomit themselves to death in the streets, then dance to the day. That's what we've learned here. What was the uprising? Like, oh, mostly bio weapon.

Mostly released the blue shadow virus against the Racketan. We'll get there. We'll talk about it. It was chill. They had it coming. Believe me. They sure did. Anyway.

Yeah. Once Revan and company decide who they're going to side with to gain access to the special temple controlling access to the planet, they fly up to the Star Forge for the final fights with Malik and his Deadly apprentice, Bastila. Well, that's what happens if you're light side. That is not what happens if your dark side, Rob. She comes up there with you if you were dark.

So here we go. Where we're, I guess I actually frame this really quick. A thing I didn't remember until playing through this is you make that decision at the, you know, at the temple you're describing on this unknown planet, the planet that's like the star ford is orbiting. You decide, do I want the light side ending or the dark side ending? And nothing before that matters. When you... Wait, I thought I needed nightside score points. You can swing back to the middle, no matter what you do, in that confrontation with Bastila atop the temple.

If you decide at this moment, I want to be dark side, fuck it. You can be dark side. I had a really bad swing. Did you have a really bad swing? Yeah, we'll get there. It was a Star Forge mistake. We'll see what happened. I'll let you know.

Oh, wait. Did you get the secret second ending? No. I got my equipment de-equipped in because I'm very curious. I made a very subtle change in the middle there and I was not able to have my rungs on anymore. That's very funny. Yeah, you see, armor in this world knows if you're a light side or dark side. And it'll just jump off your body.

The second, you're like a little too mean to Carthonassi. Yeah. Anyway. Wow. What's up with this world that we've landed on? I guess actually, first of all, we left Corabon. Did anybody clean up anything after that? Or are we all just like, let's just knock the shit out?

No, but I feel like I missed something. Interesting. Because I went to the dark, I was like, you know what? I'm going to go back to that dark side playthrough that I was watching and see like, what, what, how does this play out for a dark side, you know, a character. Yeah. And when I started it, it was like 13 hours left

in the Vod. Is this the gameplay share video? Yes. I raised this last time, I think on the recording, but maybe I only raised it before the call or before we started to start recording. Have you figured out what you,

you'd keep talking and I'll explain what happened. So I was like, how could, because the other Ix, Exthua, who is the light side that I followed last time and throughout the sort of the entire Cotaur play through. He became like my main, main watch through character. There was only six, no, less than that. It was like four and a half hours left in, in their playthrough. And I was like, huh. So am I going to watch 13 hours or am I going to watch four hours? And I was like,

I'm going to watch four hours, but how could it possibly be 13 hours? So I scrub through the footage and there's a Mandalorian thing to go do. No, there isn't. What? This person that you're watching this long, okay, I just want to, just for the record, there is nothing that you could have known outside of me talking about it last time. Star Wars, Nice of the Old Republic, 48 hour long play. This is on Gameplay Share.

The description on this just says This is the guy with the weird mods This guy has like a 13 hour Modded in new content thing That's like a whole side story That's fan made Which you can tell because the voice acting is off The voice acting is different

I was listening that shit on 2x speed So everything that sounds like There's a couple of ways you could tell One is You can have the Revin armor earlier in the game. The other one is you can see that the other, that there's like a twillick in your party throughout all of them.

Yes, I was like, who is she? What am I getting her? And she's dressed. Did you want to describe how she's dressed? She is. I can't. Uh-huh. She's in the all-black, like, lace,

uh, uh, like the fish nets. She's on the, like, the boostie. Like, she is in, she's a jazz lady. She's what I would traditionally call a jazz lady as a child. When I understood the world to have a thing in it called jazz ladies. She's like, like, her gender is sexy. Like, you know what I mean? Her gender is perilous sexy woman, you know?

Evil hot woman. Yes. Uh-huh. Doesn't need armor. The force is her armor. Yeah, this is like a 13-hour side thing that is not real. Okay. so I was like

I sat there and I was going to watch it because I was like fuck everyone's going to know about this whole Mandalorian old Mandalorian space station that we need to go to and it was confirmed it was confirmed by

okay there are two things that happened because eventually I was like fuck it I'm just going to say oh I didn't know we had to do that it wasn't in my play through and just like play it off and the call and just whatever Yeah. But then in my, in the normal walkthrough, there are two things that made me, like, believe it.

Because at one point, my, the, the, Revin, like, talks to Canderas. And Canderas is like, I don't want to be a Mandalorian anymore. Like, the times, like, of clans are past us and, like, pillaging and, you know, like, just, like, ravishing planets is not, and honors and I was like fuck that shit must have been what happened on the like how did he turn over like it must have happened on this mandoloreans like space station or whatever um and then something else happened it was uh the minute candorous is like I just want to be a stay at home dad I'd be like this might be a mod no that is real that part's real he is like I don't know what I'm doing next the way of the mandamores and do well I couldn't get him to open up about it

He was just like, war is awesome. The other thing was that at one point, the player character opened up their quest logs, and there was still an outstanding Mandalorian quest that was like the invisible Mandalorians. Yeah, and I was like, yeah. Yeah, like everyone's going to have something to say about this Mandalorian planet that I didn't go to.

And whatever, I was like, I can't. I found... I'm happy for you or I'm sorry that happened. I don't know. I can't go there. I found a poster for this expansion. It's called... This fan-made expansion.

It's called Brotherhood of Shadow Solomon's Revenge. Oh, my God. Brotherhood of Shadow Solomon's Revenge is a mod that provides a significant expansion of content to buy where Star Wars and Ice of the Old Republic. Posting an epic storyline which encompasses new quests, new party members, new fully voiced characters, new items and brand new areas.

Brotherhood of Shadow Solomon's Revenge has many additional hours of gameplay to Cotor. All I know is there's a character named Kobayashi in this game. No, there's a lot. Yeah, uh-huh, there sure is. Be serious. Be serious. You can't be doing shit like that. Travel is shadow, Darth Ravon's personal assassin as she investigates a great, that's the Twilick, I guess, is shadow.

As she investigates a great disturbance in the force on Corabon. Great. Wow. Well, I'm glad I just made that decision. Darius Solomon, the former Jedi master of the mysterious shadow. And a man thought dead in the Mandalorian Wars has returned. Joy in shadow as she journeys across the Corabon waist on a quest to confront the man who was once her mentor. On the way, you will encounter ancient evils, meet with new allies, and relive the epic finale of the Mandalorian Wars, the Battle of Malacore 5.

It's like a cool thing to make. Like, you know, this whole thing's voice acted. There's all sorts of new shit. Yeah. But we're not covering it. This isn't a thing that we set out to go to deal with. No, we did not. So wait.

So you didn't watch it. I did not. I was like, I'm, I'm, I'm not watching this. Right. Like, I was like, they'll catch me up tomorrow on the pod. Did you really think that I was like, we're going to do an eight-hour Mandalorian quest and the end of the game? I didn't realize it was a fan mod. I didn't realize.

But I just mean in terms of pacing. I was, well, I was, well, then I like justified it. I was like, the playthrough I'm watching must have done it like, in one of the episodes that I watched someone else in like one of, so I was just like, I must have happened already at some point, and we have all just been waiting to talk about it till the very end. There's so many ways I like justified the existence of this like 10-hour Mandalorian campaign.

Did you notice that one of the other videos that you were watching literally only had two hours left after Corabon? Is that, was that the giveaway? Yeah. Well, yeah. The one that I ended up watching, was like, it had, like, yeah, I think it was like three and a half hours left. And I was like, how did this person?

I was like, you really meant it when you said long play. Like, this person must have been spending time on every character, like, every quest descriptor, just like giving you as much time as you need to read the whole fucking item description. Like, is the kind of person a walk out and like taking the visco, you know, like, just the slow pan around to see the whole environment. They just go out on Taurus at the beginning and just hang out. Like, just getting the ambios.

Yeah, he just like sits in the canteena and hangs for a while. So, you know, I respected it. But I was like, this is, I got to be on a utilitarian, you know, uh, uh, mindset here. So. But that's not what we did. Instead of doing that, I did swing back. We played the normal game. I was swung back to Yavin and bought the best stuff in the game for all my people.

sold all my bullshit. Oh, did you fight those guys? Yeah, did we talk about the trans oceans at the end of? I don't remember. They show up to harass this guy. You've killed them. Uh-huh. But I was just like, I was going back to pick up some milk or whatever, you know?

And then all these people show up. I was like, I'm not prepared for this. Yeah. Yeah, I ended up kidding out candorous and HK thinking I'd have to use them at the end because I couldn't quite remember how stuff shook out. I would love to use anyone at the end. Uh-oh. Oh, you mean the very end. You mean the very end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I was so, I'm so worried about duffs. We'll get there. And I think we'll get there pretty quick because this planet kind of ain't shit. There's, yeah. It's kind of like the worst version of all bioware stories, which is like, you're on a planet. There are two enemy rival factions. One of them is brutish and violent. The other is like isolated elitist eugenicists. Which one do you side with? shrug and there's like some neat

stuff along the way I guess in terms of I guess again to say that better you come into the Star Forge system you fly in uh oh the Star Forge is here it's a big machine in the sky in space and it's setting out

some sort of field a disruptor field brace yourselves it's gonna be a rough landing and is the smoothest landing that you've ever seen in Star Wars and then every afterwards mission's like whoa that was crazy Carth Boy, I'm lucky I haven't broken every bone in my body.

You go and you look at the engine and the engine, just like the lid on the engine. It's like off the side. It's a little skill. When you do the repairs, you just click on it once when you get the parts, it's like, and it's fine. No big deal. No repair skill check. No. Oh, T3, can you handle this?

T3, can you? I'm going to spoil an early Cotor 2 thing. There's a moment where T3 has to go out. T3 is there? Yeah, T3 isn't Cotor. T3 is in your... T3 is R2T2, right? So, like, of course T3 is back, right?

Is Cotor 2, like, what comes next? Yeah, Cotor 2 is a follow-up to this. Oh, okay, okay. I wasn't sure if it was, like, another story. No, you play as someone who was a lieutenant in Reven's forces at... Interesting. During the Mandalorian Wars and who was stripped of their power. And so, that's why they're level one.

Right. That's great. Yeah, it's good. Anyway, you land on this planet. It's a beach planet. It's like a... It's like, what's the... one bio we haven't. It's, oh, from, from Kingdom Hearts.

From Kingdom Hearts. It is like, you land there and it's like, I was half expecting to the, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Can you imagine? No, that'll be in the next Kingdom Hearts now that they have Star Wars. It feels to be kind of like, in the Edmonton studio near the end of a project is like, in the last zone we're going to work on is the beach zone. Yeah. Ah, beaches. Just stare at them. Just stare at your reference. Thinking about their The water look good They're thinking about

Like getting knocked out of the playoffs And going to Cancun They're like We're so close You know what? Let's just dial it In on these last few episodes These last few games

And just get out of here I mean this is basically the place Where you have the showdown With Rex It is It's very Vermeyer Yeah Especially down to the like

Your whole party is waiting for you On the beach And you have to talk to them About the situation Yeah, and we got to get through this ancient fortress thing. Yeah. In two identical buildings. And there are eugenicists here again.

They're just not that important in this one, but, you know, they are here. Yeah, but I did bring that guy back to the info, even though I'm kind of betraying them again. So I don't know. Anyway, jungle, beach planet, big, big temple. The north side, there's like a north beach and a south beach. North Beach is the rambunctious upstart, unifying, green. great con Alexander the great style leader named the one who is like unifying these people who again they have if you haven't seen the racqueton they have a big cone head but instead of

their eyes being in the head they're off to the side like on stalks uh candorous called them goggle-headed freaks he sure did what is He says something so fucked up. He's like, how can you talk to those goggle-headed freaks? When the Jedi messed up your mind, they must have kept that part there. I was like, damn, man.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, dude. Everyone is getting insulted here. Speaking of language stuff, I actually think we forgot one of the coolest things about Corban, which is you start running into humans who speak Twilik is their default language.

The first time a regular human man said Mucha-Paka to me, I was like, What? What? Um, anyway, did you all go, where did you go first on this plan?

Did you go to one of these racqueton places? Did you, I went straight to the one. Like you, you take a left, basically on the beach, and you run into the party, and they're like,

we're taking you to the one. Right. And there's not, like, you could evade it. Um, I had a persuade option and, like, be like,

we're not doing that right now. But I figured, like, might as well get to the bottom of this. Maybe this is why I could not. I don't know if there's a piece of, resolution. I failed to reach one here. No. It's like if you go to the

if you go to the one that you went to, you then have the opportunity to go to the other one and learn about it. But if you go to the south one first, you get locked into that path. And so the second you get to the one, like that northern end, they just jump you. You don't even get to talk to them and learn what they're dealers. It's the minute you've come in contact with the elders,

basically. Yeah. You're locked in on that side. Yeah. As far as I know anyway. Which is weird. Which is interesting, given kind of what they're doing with it, I guess, a little bit. But so what's the ones deal, Rob? So you get, I mean, there's a lot of echoes of just the way the whole, like, sand people village unfolds where it's like, hey, let's tell you the real history of our people.

Even the layouts of these places have, it feels like they're like, take two on the shit. Yeah. Also, the wicker baskets. I love to be at the end of the game, looting wicker bin number seven. Wicker footlocker. It's like, yeah, a wicker footlocker is a thing. It really is This is literally Lute Island

They should have done Fortnite On StarForge World They should add StarForge World to Fortnite The StarForge has Fortnite energy to me In many ways You just get in third party Constantly on the Star Forge It's true

It's a battle royale in there It is a battle royale in there It is so And googie's just dropping out of the sky around you People hear shots And they just come running Running to you It's like

Oh wanna go wanna go 3P that fight Let's go 3P that fight And this planet To be clear this planet isn't much better There are rancors fucking everywhere Do you know what the beginning This game we're like Oh no it's a rancor

We gotta use like we have to like plant Like 400 frag grenades Yeah To like trick it to eat eat a grenade to kill it and now you're just like blah blah blah blah blah blah cutting through them any more rankers around here uh yeah that's that's kind of the vibe uh so the you meet the one and he's like revin i didn't think i'd ever see you again and it turns out like you'd made a deal with this guy uh for like i think promising to help

him steal the secrets of the elders and then you bounced uh reven reven left all these people twisting your pattern that repeats because the elders also have had an understanding with him but they're surprised to see you back and then you can go around the village. What they want what the one wants is he knows that

these elders have really powerful technology and ancient secrets tied to that technology they're not sharing they don't give anyone but he can't get at them because they're protected by that technology. Basically got a lightning fence around their

around their house. So the one desperately wants it, and he wants your help to go and kill them and steal their secrets. Yeah, I have a note here. It says, hey, everyone, this is Revin. He's from space. He's going to kill the elders for us, so make sure you let him go through all of our wicker baskets.

He straight up as like, you could take whatever you want. You know, yeah, you're going to go kill them for his awesome, dude. And then behind him is seven wicker baskets. It's with like healing kits and construction kits. Honestly, my guy, you have the stuff you need to go run them down in this. Yeah, you've got to believe in yourself. You've got to believe in yourself. There's like 30 of you in here.

Get yourself some vibrablades. That's the rancourt. You've domesticated the rancourt. Come on. Cut a deal with the Mandalorians. Just knock that out. Let's go. So you're the run of the village.

And while you're there, you can talk to their historian. And he gives you the history according to he's the cross. of the one basically and it gives you the history of the people as they understand it and then the history of the one so their legends are of a time where like their people lived lived in caves and in darkness and they'd heard legends of like an elevated group of of people like them who lived above them and and in the sky uh and then one day like the heavens cracked open the planet it cracked open and it went from being temperate savanna to tropical island chain like overnight and he's like and we gave thanks and terror to you know clearly like the star forage like recoded their

planet in somehow the midst of this or some sort of apocalypse happened either way uh so these groups now emerge from their caves and inhabit their little islands but the secrets of what precedes them are lost, and they enter a period of, like, strife. Slowly an empire builds up. And I think they're talking about a different empire here. I think they're talking about, like, an empire that succeeds the infinite empire? So I think there's one of two things that's happening here, which is, I think, it's actually kind of really fun.

Either, yes, Rob, there's a second empire across the world of this planet, or this is the infinite empire, but it's been adapted to their understanding. adapted to their understanding of the world. Because they're talking about, they're like, this empire went from island to island and it conquered them. And it's like, that's the infinite empire. And their worlds they're going to. They're crossing not the sea with the sea of stars, right? But I think that's kind of interesting.

After they came back to this planet, they kind of like spread out across islands. And now they've consolidated to the black racquetta and the red racqueton. Well, you learn that the one has other people out there. Like, the one is here to try to, like, crack the rest of the world, in a sense, right? You eventually learn that, like, oh, he has, he was conquering the whole world, but has kind of hit a stop. And so he has turned to the, to try to beat the elders to get what he needs to, like, finish the job of conquering the rest of the whole world, basically. And this is, like, it turned into an obsession with him. Like, he's been here for three years or four years or whatever.

He's trying to get control. And it's like, when you start thinking about it in those terms, it kind of falls apart. Because it's like, dude, they're right down the block. Like, I don't, you've been here for three years? What are you been doing? You don't have anything else to do on this planet? But that is the gist of it. You're not.

It's like they're laying siege to like a T-Mobile store. It's like kind of the kind of the vibe. It's like, it's tiny. The elders are camped out in a tiny little place. But I do like, I do like that notion of like, he's really. creating an empire of they know they used to be a great empire they don't really have details of what that means and he sees himself i mean there is a sort of revanchist i am going to take back what we lost except he doesn't even really understand what they lost but nevertheless that is like

a unifying precept for his entire you know army or whatever which is fun well and like the culture they're emerging from is uh like kind of sithy in some ways i mean that's what they're doing right The strong, yeah, the strong rule of the week. Yep. You know, he rises to the head of his clan by, like, challenging the clan headsmen. The guy's like, I see how strong you are. You can eat me in the way of our people and pass on. And that way, like, ingest my knowledge.

And it's not clear whether this is literal, like, things are being transmitted or whether it's just like a fucked up ritual. But either way, like, he's going around. He's unifying clans and eating their elders. Yep. And now, but he's, he sort of hit his natural limit, right? Like, you can only go so far with, you know, canoes and spears. You hit a sort of natural limit of your ability to administer an empire.

And he's at that limit. You know, we hear that he's been stuck here and he's constantly, like, dealing with messengers arriving by boat and then going off to other parts of the empire. Things are not going well because, like, he hasn't, like, you either grow, you're either growing or you're, like, declining. Yep. And the way for him to break out of that cycle is to get whatever it is the elders are keeping. Which is, again, like, there is a nice sort of doubling. It rhymes with the story of the Sith, with the story of Revin, right? Revin succeeds in the Mandalorian Wars, but then goes and searches out more power and then finds the Star Forge and cracks his way into the temple.

And, like, the one is doing that again, right? There is a sort of like the wheel turns. There will always be a growing military passion, power. of passion and emotion and desire. And then there will also always be the cloistered protectors of knowledge who also happen to be eugenicists, right? Who also are denying the world power and who are, you know, jealous guardians, selfish guardians in some way, which is kind of what the elders are like who also recognize you.

You roll up and they put out a hologram. And they're like, yo, Revin. Is this you? Is this? Are you for real? This is you? Are you for your back? Really? After last time. And you're like, uh, sorry. Actually, one of my all time favorite dialogue options in this game where you meet. So you run the one is like go kill the elders, right? You run down to the elders. They bring you in. And you can ask, you meet the council of the elders who by the way, instead of sitting at the back of the elder area, they're right up front. You open the front door and they are there. BioWare knows, you ain't run in the back of no more little, you know, tribal areas. I'm here to meet them, put them up front when you're talking to them now. And they say, the counselor says, is this some type of test, Revin, some type of trick? You came seeking our aid.

You came in search of a way to enter the temple of ancients. You claimed to be seeking a way to destroy the Star Forge, and we were foolish enough to believe you. Unaware of your true nature. We helped you enter the temple. But you betrayed us, Revan. And instead of destroying the terrible legacy of our ancestors, you unleashed the evil of the Star Forge upon an unsuspecting galaxy. And now you stand before the Council of Elders once more.

And once more, we ask of you, for what reason have you returned, Revenue? And one of your options to response is, uh, I need to get into the temple so I can destroy the Star Forge. Which is so funny. That is so good. And then they're like, oh, I think that they're just like... You then get to follow up to be like, You take us for fools. They do say that.

They do say you play this for fools, and maybe they jump you or maybe. They really want to believe in you. You can tell them basically, oh, my, I hit my head. Uh-oh. I forgot. Uh-oh. Another good dialogue option here is when you're outside and you're like, um, those other guys sent me and they immediately activate their electricity field and

your entire party dyes. Oh, that's good. I definitely did that. I was like, I'm going to be a negotier. I'm going to dup's polo this situation. And just full, full party wipe immediately. Wow. Opened honest, yeah.

Okay, if I had seen that, maybe I wouldn't have been so hard on the one. If they got the my level 20 party instantly dies button, then I don't know, man, you got to deal with not being able to take them over. Just go have fun elsewhere on the planet. Go do other shit. Like, it's fine. They're doing other shit. I bet you could dig a hole and get into this temple somehow. You know?

Probably. Come on. Or just, like, stand on each other's shoulders until you get to the roof. You couldn't build a big ladder to get to the roof. The roof is open. That's true. The roof is open. The roof is wide open.

Bastille landed a fucking ship on there. So. Well, they can't use ships. They lost their ability to use. Yeah. So, like, the computer room in this space has a really nice, like, sea view. I noticed. I walked in there.

I was like, damn, this is really nice. But, like, you can climb up those clips and steal that computer. Just steal a computer. I said, I don't know how to you. One of the things you can tell him. Well, the computers are all biometrically locked. So if you're not, like, one of them. Yeah.

One of the things you can tell him, the one, if you side with him and then go through and get all the data and stuff from inside the temple, you can come back out. And he's like, you know, no matter what, he's going to turn on you, right? But the thing that you can tell him, one of the things you tell him is like, he's like, where is the, where you said you were going to tell him? me the information that was on the, that was in the thing. And what you can say is either, you're a fool, I only used you to get into the temple. I don't have the secrets on me, but I'll get them for you soon.

Or the information you wanted was all on computers. You couldn't use it, which is, he didn't so mean. Well, that's because you didn't side with him. You probably sided with the elders, right? And killed him? No, I sided with him. Oh, damn. Did you go back to him?

Yeah. What does he do? I was like, here's the book. And he was like, oh, no, after that, oh, okay, after the temple, after you go into the temple and come back down. Yeah, he'd let me into the temple. I'm saying, but after that, if you go back and talk to him again in his place, he'll jump you. Because, yeah, that's fair. I found it really interesting that he refers to like your magic and like doesn't call it the force.

but the historian is like talk the historian of the ones clan is talking about the forest like very explicitly and then there's like a rando in the camp that's just like hey tell me what's up with the forest and you just explain the force to him and then at the elder camp they're all like yeah we we know what's good with the forest but one of my favorite lines in this in this camp before you go to the temple of elders is when the one tells you that you used your power to rip the ricotta language from my mind even as you drove basic into our skulls so that we could help you in your quest to find something called the StarForge which is like why like I was thinking about why does Revin how does Revan know how to speak all of these languages and I'd never

thought of it as like a like a dark side power that you could like rip someone's language from them I don't know the the language of it just was so visceral to me um there's like I think that this is like I don't know where I remember reading so maybe it was in like one of the bad old republic MMO novels um which I read before that game came out and but but like Revin's a Ability with languages is like an established, like, key thing about what made him him, you know? Like, on top of, like, the, on top of the could build HK47, on top of the skilled tactician and et cetera, being like, oh, yeah, you know, he's a language guy is like part of the Revin legend, which is so funny to me. It's wild. And, yeah, I guess one thing to note is that at one.

one point the Rakata were force sensitive or like powerful in the force and then lost the ability to use it throughout their exploits. Yeah, that's what you get from their historian

where he gives you now the full sort of unabridged story of the thing that like the sand people were circling around and then the one's historian has sort of like a bastardized understanding of and then he's just going to do the full

exposition dumb which is that like unlike every other empire the sort that sort of hit their limits much the way the one is with his technology that he has available you know the ricotta had figured out a way to transcend all limits effectively that they were you know they were terraforming the galaxy at their at their will they could generate infinite military forces and resources and as he puts it like there were 10 billion ricotta and 3 trillion slaves in the in the galaxy over 500 planets which is like not that many planets all said like it's a lot but it's all high quality though they're all quite exactly they've terraformed them all I guess right so well and you hear from joly where he's like I'm pretty sure kashik is a garden plan and he's like I think the wookies were modified to like be a symbiotic species tending a garden for this empire is like the wookies don't like to hear that, but I'm pretty sure it's true.

That's so fucked up. Which is like these folks have changed the evolutionary destiny of every planet on the galaxy is kind of the argument. Also, just, just the difference between a billion and a trillion is so big. It's so big. It's a lot of slaves in this empire. It's all slaves, statistically. Yeah. Statistically, the empire is slaves, you know?

there's like the 10 billion ricotta to three trillion slaves or whatever a trillion slave whatever it is is like infinitesimally small there's it's nothing you know um and the the way they were able to do it was they had a car they had like two major advantages one was the star forge uh and its ability to do all this like sort of all these these workings uh to like refashion the galaxy that they're liking the other thing and both of these things dependent on the force the star for was sort of powered by their species, uh, sensitivity to the force. The other thing that they could do was they had some sort of special hyperspace that was better than what anyone has now. Mm-hmm. And so distances that were like, they're challenging and like, you know,

in this world, modern Star Wars were trivial to these people. Again, like the one is struggling to keep in touch with, you know, distant islands and people he's conquered. These folks, it sounds like could be almost anywhere at once at the same time respond to anything um it's all very like foundation uh in some ways where they just they had the resources the the ability to like freely travel to respond to any threat and the the story relating to you is like but we were awful he was like this is it was a it was a brutal slave empire uh we were a corrupt people um and he gets at the thing that was there undoing for reasons that that They're not fully sure of, but they suspect might have been because they're basically using the force as like their power source.

It was like their tool that they were using to power all these things. They lost force sensitivity to like as a species, just completely collapsed. Nobody could use the force anymore. So suddenly they couldn't travel the way they used to. Everything takes longer and they lose their ability to control and operate the StarForge. And the minute that happens, the uprisings begin. and this part just sounds like everything goes to hell so fast so so quickly

there's a he's like there's the uprisings and then there's a plague source of the plague unknown but it kills most of the ricotta so they retreat back their surviving warlords retreat back to this planet which they've never nobody knows about this planet

none of their subject species ever knew where these people were from they retreat back but because they're bloodthirsty imperial empire and now it's like all warlords in their armies coming back they immediately plunged into civil war devastate their own planet effectively wipe themselves out and then are plunged into 20,000 years of like darkness effectively like 20,000 years like rebuilding on this like planet they sort of half accidentally terraformed and then the only people who know the full

story are these elders who were entrusted with making sure based on how bad the last years of their empire went, nobody ever used that Star Forge again. Now, this is where they get a little weird. On the one end, they're like, we were so bad. Like, dude, we sucked so hard. You have no idea. Like, we were, we desert, we kind of had this coming.

But then the guy's like, oh, those people in those cages over there? Yeah, I don't know it looks weird. But we're just researching how we could maybe breed force sensitivity back into our species. and all the other tribes, they're just so mean. Let me send out truces, see if they will help out with this research effort and they just kill our messengers. So we're just abducting some people

because it seems like there's some people who might be force-sensitive, like the one, where it seems marked out for greatness in weird ways that are consistent with, like, force sensitivity. We just want to do some research. But we don't want our empire back. We just want to reconnect with the galaxy

and sort of, you know, learn from our mistakes. So you all kept sort of mentioning, like, yeah, the eugenicists, yeah, their eugenicists. I was like, I don't remember that part. My guy did not talk to whoever the fuck it was that tells you about the people in cages. He, like, looked at them and kept going. Yeah. That's weird, that guy said. Yeah, did not talk to a researcher La Awa who, you, like, you straight up can use the word eugenics.

Like this is, it is in here. You could literally say, I don't know if your eugenics program is a good thing. And he says, or they say, we would not revert to our old ways. Rest assured, Revin, we merely seek data on genetic drifts and changes in the millennia of our imprisonment here. And like, if you say so, man, I don't know that I trust you with. this, but Darkside Reven, who I was playing, sort of, you can get this data form in the temple and you can run it back to him. And I did do that to get some XP for my characters. But like, I'm about to betray them again. I'm not going to go blow up the Star Forge. So it's kind of like

a sick joke or like the classic like downfall of this Reven in my head where like, you know, 10 years later, they're going to develop the force again and come kill me. You know, that to me is the canon ending in my head of how I'm going to lose in the... Your revenant is Goku. Right, my, right. Or my raven's giving them the Senzu bean.

Yeah, it's being like, okay, they have to become stronger so they can fight me. Right. Wait, does Goku come to a bad end? No, but Goku is always just like, it's fun to fight people, so I want you to be at your best if you're going to fight me.

There's a moment where Goku is fight. I'm going to spoil Dragon Ball Z's Cell Saga, Yeah, where Goku gives a Senzu bean, which is the thing that keels you up all the way, to sell who is like the big bad of this. Are you covering your ears, Natalie? I might watch Dragon Ball someday. I'm going to stop talking. We're good. We're good.

Thumbs up. Yeah, I'm making a very general statement about Goku's personality. Yes. Because he loves to fight strong people. Right. Yeah. Like Candor. Like candorous. Like candorous. God, candorous in this section of the game is in love with you.

There are multiple times when you can talk to him as things unfold where he's like, I just need you to know. It's you and me to the fucking end, Revin. And it's the best. He's like, boys for life. It's all here repeatedly. Like you get one at the end of this big like jungle beach segment. And then if you talk to him again on the ship, he's different dialogue. to be like, it's still you and me. Oh, my God. So. I should have been talking more to my party. You should have. You should have. I mean, it is one of this, you know.

I thought it would be more like on Taurus, where it's like somebody, so-and-so, looks like they have something to say. They just stopped that. So I don't, I'm lucky that Jolese dialogue was still, like, available for the end-game stuff. But, like, Johani clammed up, you know, Carth, obviously, had less to say. Never, never did hear about his son. Yeah, Jahani and Johani and Jolie short-clammed up for me. Let me tell me.

Oh, boy. I bet. I do have to say once I spoke to the eugenics guy, I, because I was like walking around the temple, I was like, oh, am I going to kill these elders? I don't really know. But then I was like, I'm not wanting you all the way back there. They're coming all the way back here. I'm going to see myself the trip. I'm going to kill these guys on the way out.

And then I'm going to go to the one and give him this book. Allie, they know that because when you talk, or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it doesn't transport you back. No, you're right. You have to walk all the way back again. You're totally right. It's very annoying. There's a lot of walking on this planet.

There's also a quest that I fucked up, which is the invisible Mandalorian's quest, which is you can get jumped by these Mandalorians near the temple who, like, they decloak themselves. I guess we should say, there's sort of like a Bermuda triangle situation here on this planet. People's ships keep crashing here. There's some Doros and some other folks, right? Yeah. Because of the disruptor field. Right, right.

and you can fight the Mandalorians and you get one of their heads as the loot and you're supposed to go turn that in to a guy near the One's camp but I didn't find that guy and the next time I went back to the One's camp was after I dealt with the elders or talked to the elders

and so they just attacked me and so I couldn't turn it in so I just also have the Invisible Mandalorian quest unfinished but whatever like it's And you just have a head in your inventory? I just have a head in my inventory forever. Oh my God. We forgot to

there's a there's a there's a there's a rock aton guy who is like I there's hidden mandoloreans out here or whatever and you can you can give it to him to get XP I mean what do you what do you want for me you know that's it that's kind of it we forgot to mention that one of the reasons like one of the sort of time times time sensitive but not actually time sensitive but theoretically time sensitive things that's happening is that the entire republic fleet is on the way to fucking destroy the StarForge, and they're all about to run into the disruptor field and crash land on this planet. So a part of, you know, beyond just destroying, getting into the temple to destroy the StarForge is getting into the temple to turn off the disruptor field. Which you even want if you're dark side, because you need them, if you're a dark side, you might think, oh, just let them crash and then nice job. But if you're a dark side, you need them as a distraction, as a cover, for you to get into

the star for it safely, you know? You think of up here, you know, so. Anyway, whether you kill the one and rescue their one dude or steal the book and kill all the elders, you're actually getting to the temple, right? They can do the little ritual hours of singing. Oh, I guess I, do you want to complain? Wait, I got to say, if when you go back to the camp, because one of the things that the elders asked from you if you decide to side with them is like go rescue one of their guys from the

I'm very interested if you have the same note I do go ahead um and so you go back to the camp it's on sight immediately they know they somehow know they must have been like spying on you they somehow know that you sided with the elders and immediately everyone is agroed on you uh so you have to kill everyone you uh fight the one um And it's very dramatic. And then you can check in on the, uh, the, the, the, the homie that's, that's, was, uh, you know, uh, pre, imprisoned. And his three other friends are impaled. Oh, yeah.

On, on, on giant like stakes right next to him. He's like standing there. It's like a little qua, like, they're in the little. corner and he's standing right next to his three other friends who are just like kebabs on a skewer in the prison. I was like, that is so fucked up. That is, you're just been chilling here with their three friends. You should go home. Yeah. And then he like hobbles back to the elder camp. What was your note? My note is when, after you do this, you kill, you know, dozens of these rockado. Like a billion people. Yeah. A billion of these people, rank

all sorts of people, then you come back to the out. And, and, you know, it's nothing. Yeah, at this point, fighting these guys is nothing. The rancors can, like, maybe get a hit or two in on you, but, like, whatever. But whoever you have out at this point is so kidded out. And especially, I guess, if you're playing with, like, Jolie or Candoris or any of these, like, real strong end-game characters, it's just nothing. But you get back to them. And again, you killed a bunch of guys and you saved one guy. And they are like, oh, You know, we weren't sure about you originally, but you really took a risk for nothing. You know, you really put yourself out there for us.

And it's like, yeah, Reverend, you rescued a member of our tribe from the one at great personal risk to yourself. We believe this action shows you truly changed since your last visit here. What risk? Like 18 dudes with swords? Well, because they don't know that everyone on this planet is soft. They know that they're like, we have the technology to destroy the one clan, but we don't want to, they don't want the blood on their hands. They're basically like, we don't want to go back to our old ways. You want, again, classic Jedi Mastership.

Send the Padawans out to get their hands dirty. But like, why would you trust this person? This is not a trustworthy act. You're afraid that this person is bloodthirsty. I proved I was bloodthirsty. But black dynamite. I'm bloodthirsty. Like, let me into the temple.

They let you into the temple. They do their little song and dance. They're like... First of all, they tell you that the dart, that there are dark Jedi in the temple. Yep. And that you have to go in alone. And that it's going to take many hours to perform this ritual in order to let you in. Yeah.

But the dark Jedi, there's a lever inside the temple. And the dark Jedi are just hidden that whenever they want to let someone in. Yeah, someone got to go make a 7-Eleven run. They're just like, b'n. Yeah, they're just like that. And I was just imagining, like, the dark Jedi with, like, their eyes on the window, on the glass, watching you for hours. What do you think they're doing out there? Yeah, they're singing a lot.

What do you think that's like, what's the song? What's the song about? I don't know. I don't know. But you don't go in alone. No, Jolie and Juanie show up to. be like, no, wait, and say that, you know, you can't go in alone. It's too dangerous.

And the ricotta are like, how, like, you have to go alone. If you go with anyone else, you're going to betray us again. And then you basically are just like, I'm not going in alone. And they're like, okay, we trust you. Is that what they did? They said, we're not going in alone. because I said lower the shield or I'm going to cut you into little pieces

and Joe Lisa not exactly the way I would have handled it but give me the circumstances it'll do minus two dark side or you know plus two dark side points the way that I did it as being with the one the the singer or whatever was like no you can't go in alone this is ancient

secrets and I was like you don't give a fuck about their secrets fuck the elders and he was like oh yeah okay you can all go in I forgot who I was for a minute. Who, I needed that. That's so funny. Oh, my God. And then you go to dungeon.

And guess what? From here on out, it's dungeons, baby. We do get to, we've had two Malik visions at this point. Oh, we have. You're right. We had one when we first landed on the planet, which was Bastila getting tortured by Malik. And he's like, you know you want to become dark-sighted. And Bassett is like, no.

And he's like, I'm just going to keep torturing you until you join me. And she's like, never. And then the second Malik Vision. I've written down, who the fuck is Admiral Varko? Who is this guy? That's some empire shit. It's just like another weird, you know, Received pronunciation, evil,

Queen's English motherfucker is here. You know? Also, you see Malik mask off and. Oh, do you? I don't remember this. Yeah, he takes his mask off and he's got no jaw. No jaw. He's got no jaw.

He's like, he's got his back turned and there's like, little droids working on him. He's running his mouth. Damn, that's right. You think that's what happened? I think he was like. I think he got backhanded harder than anyone's ever been backhanded. God, you're probably right.

He's just got no jaw I hope Revin did that Yeah I think you're I bet you're right The the By the way It is canon That his name is Alec

But that's not from this game That's from like a comic or something So his like birth name The name he used before Darth Malik was Was Alec So I thought I kept thinking it was gonna come up in this But I had to look it up after to be like

I guess not I guess it's just from something else Yeah Shoutouts to Alec Yeah Yeah, it was, it was Revin. Revan did it. I just looked it up. Really? What did he do? It's apparently when at some point during the war, Malik openly viewed his master as being soft, causing tension between the two that culminated a lightsaber duel. Though this is apparently written in the campaign guide for Cotor, like the Wizards of the Coast role-playing game version of Star Wars, had like a Cotor.

like campaign book, like, oh, if you want to set your game during the Cotor era, and it's, it's in there that there's a point at which Malik steps against Revin and then gets his jaw cut off. So, with a lightsaber. So, which actually is harder than anything Malik has ever done in this game. They should have put that in this game because so much of what remains of this game kind of hinges on the fact that Malik is a punk who never directly stepped up against Revin until now, you know, so. Until Revin was just gone.

Yeah. Like, there was no actual, yeah, Revin just got an amnesiaed and left. So. Not such a punk. Anyway. Yeah, basically the Admiral is just like, hey, the Star Forge is pumping out more ships to the Sith fleet, just so you know. It's kind of weird. This game doesn't do a good job of being like, it's important we stop this now.

Like, I kept misremembering that Malik himself was like one step ahead of us the whole game. in trying to, like, re-find the Star Forge or, like, do you know what I mean? Like, oh, we're trying to get there first. We're trying to make sure that he can't X, Y, Z, use the Star Forge to do devastating. No, he just has it the whole time. Like, he's just been there, right? I didn't miss something about this.

There's no, like, the Death Star is charging up, but we have to stop it before it does blank type. That's a really good point. Because I think the former that you propose where it's like, oh, we're getting to each of these places, like, a step too late is so much, like, just adds such a, like a more compelling tension rather than, oh, the Star Forch has just been printing Sith ships for this entire time. And, like, at some point, we got to stop it. Mass Effect One story onto Cotor, because that is Mass Effect One, is Sarin is one step ahead of you every time. You're like, fuck, we're like, oh, we got to find the next star map. Because that the game is also a game. about finding star maps. The game is also a game about we have to figure out how to go to the ancient

alien planet and find out the truth of the galaxy and confront our enemy. And talk to something ancient that reveals deeper truths of the history that we didn't know. And they really just ran this plot again. Sarin is way cooler

than Malik though, so at least in my memory, maybe that's not actually true. It's also way cooler running to the tomb of the aliens versus actually just hanging out with the ricotta on this planet and they kind of suck. You're right. Whereas like you talk to the AI and it's like we really thought this whole cryo sleep thing

that's going to enable us to survive the doom that was coming. But as you can see, it's a morgue. Yeah. The fact that I remember that guy's name is Vigil. That AI's name is Vigil says a lot about Mass Effect 1 being one of the best bioer games. Real good. Real good ending.

But I think they, It was weird as I think it's just kind of they don't sell this stuff effectively. Because I feel like some of the loading screen messages are like, you know, after the Mandalorian War, Revin and Malik disappeared. Then nobody knows where they got their army from. Nobody knows where they got their flee from. Like their return coast, but like, how did they get so strong? And that is not a mystery that the Jedi Council appears to be solving, but it does turn out

to be this is actually why we got to take. of the Star Forge. He's not about to start, like, blowing up planets with it. It's that this is like, this is like the literal, the literal war machine. Like, he's just totally, but he's had it. So it's not like it's, the thing that's weird about it is like, the sooner the better, but totally, the sooner the better for sure, but there's no ticking clock. The, the Republic Fleet could leave and it would have been fine.

You know what I mean? There's no, like, if we don't stop them right now, they'll X, Y, Z. Like, it is the, as soon as possible is better, but, like, it doesn't have that same ticking clock feeling that it felt like most game, you know, most of the kind of bioware style RPG. By the end of the game, you're like, fuck, we got to get there now. Like, stuff is, you know, drop everything. That's not true. Normally, I'm like, go do all the side quests. But, you know.

And I guess actually, Malik is doing some weird force experiments with it. But you don't learn that until the dreaded final boss fight. so so yeah and you got to rescue Bastila who you know after you go through

this whole temple and like loot all the lockers all the canisters take all the stuff by the way the last thing I didn't Corabon

just because I had a feeling an inkling something Austin said earlier I went to the good shop at the bar and I bankrupted myself I never went back

to Yavin because I bankrupted myself buying thermal detonators at this bar interesting and but you Yeah, so you know, you fight through the temple, you do one last puzzle.

Walk an H. I didn't understand what that meant the first time. I was like, it has an H. So it's like a lights out puzzle. And I thought that the, you read a data pet, it's like walk the H. And you've just walked the shape of an H. You don't have to make it light up like an H. I made it light up like an H.

And I was like, I did it. It's an H. And like, no, you need to make them all light up. And the easiest way to do that is to walk in the shape of an H. We're talking about five minutes here. I wasn't stuck for an hour or nothing, but, like, it was annoying. Not a winner. No.

But you know what? I was also not here for another involved puzzle. I was like, I just need to get through all this. Like, I'm fighting a lot of SIF. They're not really very good because, like, I've got more suppression. Who is, like, he tried because he's one guy versus three, he lasted more than seven. He lasted more than five seconds, let's say. He might have only lasted seven.

But compared to everybody else where I'm killing them in a single combo at this, like a single hit one turn kills everybody in this temple um he at least put up two or three turns which i was impressed by so good job buddy i'm also impressed by the new fit the basil is rocking uh when we get to when we get to the top who yeah basile in all black with the mall saber is what i've written down here uh she's you know she's pulling it off yes she is she's very evil though She's so evil, but I wish she came with more heat. She's evil, like an evil valedictorian. She had no bars.

Like, just rehearsed. It was really rough coming from Uthara who like has it like that. Yes, that's what I was thinking. I was like, we just got like such an interesting Sith lady who had like more than just the Sith understand the force in the objectively correct. which is that we should use it, not, you know, follow it or whatever. Like, it was just so, I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but Basila, everything she said is something that we have heard another Sith NPC say like a hundred times. And there was nothing new to any, her argument at all.

And it was so disappointing. But whatever, we'll get there. And it's like you didn't even This is this As falls to the dark side goes This sucks Like you were strapped to a gurney And he zapped you and cackled at you for like

You know a couple days And you were like fine I'll go be a siff And then she's like now I'm out Now I see all the real power It's like man this isn't like This isn't seduction by the dark side This is just coercion

This is just coercion There's a better fault the dark side in the romance scenes with her where the two of you where you can be like are you using me for my power are the Jedi using us both right like that is the way that's so much stronger there's like little flashes of that here where she'll say oh the council's jealous of my power they wanted to exploit me to use my my battle meditation to win fights for them but jolie even calls out he's like you may not know basso as well as you think and it's such an interesting, like, man, if they had delivered on that, where Jolie is like, hey, there's

something rotten about this kid. Well, especially given his story is this, right? You know, it's like, it's the doubling of that. It's like, oh, I had this tight relationship with this person who fell to the dark side and I let them go and she went on to kill all these people. And like, it's happening again. Oh, my God. Jolie, can you stop it, you know, which is, which is, you know, so what happens for you?

Let's say, let's end this part. What happens for you when you're talking to Basila? How does that go? Lightside people? I think it goes in circles. We take a couple swipes to each other and she flees. And she flees. Okay.

Yeah. I think, yeah. Oh, all I wrote down was honestly, Basila, I thought you were going to come in with more game than that. But yeah, I think she, she, we kind of go back and forth and I get her down and then, yeah, she runs away. for me you kind of go back and forth and she is trying to like you know pull you to the dark side obviously um and the thing that you can kind of do is be like you know it's the same kind of like dark side cackling stuff of like now you after you beat her kind of you're like now you see

the power of a true dark lord like i'm stronger than malik is like uh and she's like damn yeah you are strong and like if i'm so powerful why do you serve a different master you're like why don't you serve me instead? And then eventually you can get her. If you're playing as a dude who's done with the romance stuff with her, she'll be like, I need deny my passions no longer. I'd stand by your side gladly as your lover and apprentice. I swore allegiance to Malacolum because I thought you'd lost the power you once wielded. But this, this would be so much better. And it's just so corny. It's just such a miss. To the point where like your response to that is like, yes, together we can rule the galaxy.

And it's like, oh, this is cartoon boring shit. It's so bad. Because the version of Revin, who lives in the past of this game is so good. They're like, why aren't the Jedi doing anything about the Mandalorians? Fuck it. I'm going to do something about the Mandalorians. The Jedi have lost their way. Oh, my God, look how powerful this thing is.

We could not only stop the Mandalorians. We could replace the decrepit Republic. You can tell that version of this story in your head. But then when it's time to be Darkside Reven, they got, yes, together we can rule the galaxy, which is so dry, right? Like, there's no, there's none of the stuff from Corribon that was interesting about, you know, Uthar is saying, I'm doing this so I can kill all the slavers. And then like, oh, wow, have I actually been doing, have I been actually killing all the slavers? Uh-oh, maybe I haven't been. That's way better than, ha, ha, ha, together I can rule the galaxy.

And I know the whole thing is like, you know, I actually had a moment. here. Because for me, the thing that happens is you talk to her eventually, eventually Jolie and Johani are like, yo, listen, man, the dark side's bad. Like, I've seen what the dark side does to people. I've seen what the Sith have done to people. And, you know, his final, like, confrontation with you, Jolie says, like, I can't, I can't let you do this basically. You can say, I'm a Lord of the Sith, bow down before me. Jahani says, a true Jedi will never bow down to the Sith. This is your decision.

I have no choice but to battle against you. And Jolie says, I'm a Jedi. I'll never bow down to the Sith, which is like this whole game, he's been like, I'm not a Jedi. I'm not a Jedi. And here he finally says, I'm a Jedi. It's big, you know, great moment. He's like, if you go through this, I'll have no choice but to do battle against you. It's like he won't step down this path again.

He won't make the mistake he made with his ex-wife or his now dead. wife, like he's going to have to confront you. And then Bastelah says, kill him. Grind his old bones to dust. Show him the fate of all who dare stand against us. Embrace the dark side. Just complete whiff.

I got this. It's such a bummer. It's such a bummer. And it's just like, I don't know. It, it could have been so good and it just isn't. And then they go down super quick because even leveled

up, even maxed out, like, it's just, they can't stand against the build that I have, which is a shame. And Basil joins you at this point. So, and the thing that happens, you know, not here, but following this on the dark side path is you go and confront people on the beach and things go bad. I'll just say that broadly so I can say the second point, and they'll talk about how specifically when we get to that sequence. There was a moment where I was like, I almost get it. There's a moment when you can turn on carth and admission in that confrontation, where the terrible, goofy, dark-sided shit, it's like, where it must be like, being in the head of someone who is like that must be like that feeling of peak and like ire, that like deep, like flash of meanness

that you might get, I don't know, you know, I'm not going to say other people have been as mean as me in my life, but I've been mean before. And that moment you're like, I'm going to say the meanest thing I can think of to this person. I'm going to be, I'm going to twist the knife on you. Like, I'm going to say the thing that I don't even know if I believe it, but I know you secretly fear it, and I'm going to say this thing that hurts you because we're arguing, we're having a fight, and I'm going to be cruel to you. And being dark-sided in this Star Wars way must be like living in that all the time. And the, you know, I think peak is such an important word there because it's that, it's that like, it is that feeling that

like springs out of you and you're like, ah, in this moment, I've just, it's just, I've lost control. I feel like this. And the feeling overcomes everything. And I'm just like, I'm tilted. I'm tilted emotionally into this thing. And Palpatine must just fucking live like that all the time, you know? And there's a moment where that can happen in what follows here that almost sort of works. But then like, I'm not like that.

The game can't sustain that feeling. And it doesn't make being in that space. It doesn't actually communicate that. It just like, that's the only way I could imagine doing. some of these things as living in a state like that. And I think that's interesting, but I don't think that's the game being interesting. I think that's me, like, sitting with these decisions that I've known about for 30 years or 20 years since I first played this game.

That's the part that makes it interesting. But betraying your people doesn't quite work, actually, because it's just they might work better if it was someone written as well as Jolie or Candorous Uthara or these other characters who are like, hey, the light side isn't all that, you know? Being your guide there, but instead you have Darkside Bastila and your, Your dark side foil is Malik and he sucks and the lines that you're given suck. And it's just, it's so flat and it's such a bummer. And I don't know that the light side stuff is better, I guess.

Is you feel good about trying to say Bastila at all? Like the Bastila, the second Basila confrontation is like you're, it's like the most superficial, you know you love. the path that my that my walk through took was like the most superficial you know like we love each other don't strike this down like and and uh there's one point where you're like going back and forth with her and then uh at one point you say like I'm not going to fight you anymore like I I'm going to you know uh unequip my weapon essentially and you can strike me down but if because I know I think one of the options is like, I know you're a Jedi and a Jedi wouldn't strike someone down who's defenseless. And then the other option is like, you wouldn't strike down us. Like,

you wouldn't strike down like our love or whatever. And then, and my guy went for the love one. And she's like, you know, I've been hiding my feelings or it's been hard to admit my feelings. And it just culminates to the two of you being like, I love you, I love you. And then she's like, I'll, like, you're right. Like, oh, no, she keeps saying, like, how can I ever atone for what I've done? Like, there's no way, I'm so deep in the dark side now. What does she do?

It's been 48 hours. I know. I'm like, girl, like, you can come. She hasn't done anything as far as we do. Well, she's been battle meditating in the sky, like. But she didn't even do Admiral Enigma stuff. That barely counts. I know.

I agree. She's, she's just. she's on her Jahani shit and she thinks that Johani was there for this confrontation and Johani was like I walked back from the dark side you can do it too and she's like you didn't do shit

like you got a glimpse of the dark side and you freaked out whereas like I've really gone into it and like there is no way she's so corny I'm so disappointed in how this is how this is gone and yeah she's like there's no chance like how could I ever prove that I'm like how could I ever atone how could I ever prove this and you just say like come with me to kill Malik and she's like okay that's a start and so she goes with you for the rest of that okay sure yeah how did the beach

convert how's the light side beach conversation go is there like what's the what is there a beach conversation when you come back down the from the temple nothing really happened you go to the beach and Carth is like, oh, welcome back. You disable the thing. And you're like, yeah, but still is evil now. And then it's like, okay, let's go to the Starvorge. Yeah, wait, what happens when you're darksided? Okay, so first of all, you've killed Johnny and Jolie.

Uh-huh. Right. What? On the temple summit. They're like, I'm not going to, we're not going to let you do this. We're not going to let you go dark-sided. So you kill them. You just kill them outright.

So then you go down the temple and then maybe you go drop off the eugenics data. It was for fun to make sure that Bastille is at level 20, you know. And then you get back to the beach and Carth is like, Basile, you're alive. I was worried about you. For a minute there, I was sure we'd never see you again. Once Malik got his, wait a minute, where are Johani and Jolie? And you can be like, I've reclaimed the title of Darth Revin, a bow before me.

Or you could be like me, or you could lie to me. You can be like, yeah, they went over to the dark side. which is, I think, the best option. Yes. Or, you're like, they didn't make it. And he's like, what are you talking about? And then Bastila opens up her stupid mouth. And there's like, the Jedi Council has failed, Carth.

Darth Reven has been reborn. Together we will destroy Malik and seize control of his fleet. God damn it to crush the Republic. And it's like, shh, babe, babe, babe. Keep it on the, like, we are trying to make moves. You know? We make moves in silence. In silence.

Neil Jee's move in silence like lasagna. We just said it. And she's like, Johnny and Jolie wouldn't swear loyalty to the new ruler of the Sith. They died for their foolishness. And you're like, shut up. And Carth is like, what? No, we serve the Republic. You're no better than Malik.

We'll never swear allegiance to one who serves against you. And there's extra stuff here if you've been romancing Carth as a lady raven. And she's like, he's like, you can't mean that this isn't. you, et cetera. And so you go back and forth with him. And eventually you're like, listen. He's like, he's like, we're all going to stop you. We're going to save you from yourself.

And you could be like, are you sure? All of you? Because only you're, you're the only one who's like part of the Republic, Carth. And so then it goes around the room. And everybody, you go like, Candoris, are you with Carth? And he goes, you're reven. And I'll follow you anywhere. It doesn't matter who you're fighting against.

I'll be at your side. Mandeloreans don't have any great love for the Republic anyway. Light side, dark side, it doesn't make any difference to me. Revan, I'll stick by your side no matter what comes. Now I have to tell you about the thing, which, Al, you know the thing. This is the thing, yeah. You go, Mission, what about you? And she goes, I saw what the Sith did to Taurus.

Anyone who serves the light side is big evil. That's not true. She just says is evil. Then she says, Big Z and I are with Carth on this one. I just transposed big. I do wish she had said it's being evil. And Zalbar goes, no.

Wait, anyone who follows the light side is evil? Sorry, anyone follows the service the dark side is evil. Big Z and I are with Carth on this one. And Zalvar says, no mission. I am bound by the oath of my life debt. I must stand with Revin. And mission says, Zalbar, Reven is a Sith, just like Malik. It's not a betrayal if you break your life debt now.

And Zalbar says, if I go back on my own. vow I'm betraying myself, my people, and my ancestors. I cannot do that. Please, Mission, join us. And she says, no, Zalbar, I don't care. I won't help the Sith against the Republic, not for anything, not even for you. And Karth says, you don't have to help the Sith, mission. Not why I'm here. I see now it was a mistake to let you go into that temple. I have all people should have seen this coming. First, Saul, Kraf, and now you. I mean, I should be an expert on betrayal by now. But nothing you can say or do will make me betray the Republic. I won't join you and I won't stand side and let you become the ruler of the Sith and and you could be like like you can respond back

to this at some point um and he's like run for it mission go go and then he runs away he runs away at this point he doesn't draw down on you he doesn't take the one opportunity he has to try to jump you with mission and potentially i guess not zalbar right but mission is here he doesn't even try to bring t3 or hk into this and i get it this is he's outnumbered but he runs away and leaves mission behind. And then mission says, no, this isn't happening. It can't be happening. And you can say, what I said was, go on mission, get out of here. We don't want you anymore. And I say that because the other options are you should have run when you had the chance. You're all alone now, swear your loyalty to me, or now it's time for you to die.

So I was like, get out of here. And she said, no, I'm not going, I'm not going to stand aside. and do nothing, you'll, you'll just have to kill me, but I don't think you will. I don't believe you've gone over to the dark side, not totally. I don't think you'll kill me, not if I don't attack you first. And you can say, you're wrong, I'm the dark lord now, taste my wrath, fine, I'll just kill you myself, or then I'll just kill you both. And at that point, Zalbar will try to defend her and you'll fight Zalbar or mission. Or you can say, I won't kill you, but Zalbar will if I tell them to. And Zalbar says, I've sworn a life debt to you, Revin. I will serve you as long as I draw my breath. I will not break my vow, but you cannot ask me to turn on my best friend. And

Mission says, looks like you'll have to do your own dirty work, Rebben, if you've got the guts. And you can hit number, you can say, force persuade. You swore a life debt to me, Zalbar. You'll do as I say. And Zalbar will say, I have no choice. The life debt is greater than any single life. It is a solemn vow of all my people. I cannot break it. Not even for you. Forgive me, Mission. And Mission will say, Zalbar, what are you saying? Revan can't force you to do anything you don't want to. It's me, Big Z. Mission. And he'll say, mission, forgive me. And she'll say, please, Zalbar, don't do this. Please. No. And then the next note here in the strategy guide is, any equipment is automatically retrieved.

And Bastille was like, it is weird. It is not as clean as you might think. It's like a weird, it's like a weird close up on him. She gets the like stunned effect, the like stasis bars floating around her and then falls over. And then he drops to the ground and like raises his swords up in a way that's like, I thought he was going to like take his own life there. But he doesn't. He sticks with you at that point. If you bring him to the Star Forge in the end, he then tries to betray you.

Like, on your way down to the, like, the first concourse after you, like, land, he goes, like, wait a second. I did not want to kill Mission. Holy shit. You're evil. And then tries to kill you. But that is too little too late, my man. So. Wow.

Wow. Wow. That is the end of Big Z. That is the end of Biggs. Well, for me, Big Z just out on the Eben Hawk. But I didn't bring him with me. I just let him chill, so I don't know. I've always heard, like, yeah, if you're dark-sighted in Cotaur, you can have Big Z Kill Mission as this, like, horrible, like, urban legend.

Oh, you didn't know. You didn't know that it had. Like, I didn't think that person was lying to me, but I thought that it was just such a nasty thing to do that I was like, I feared the option in some weird superstitious way. But yeah, that's the fucked up thing that you can do. But also, like, I, that's so disappointing because, like, Biggsie's whole arc is like, I went to my family, my brother was slaving our people. I left because I have to figure out what being a leader is for me. And in this moment, he can't be like slavery fucking destroyed our people. And life debts are fucking shit.

Like, yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well, he says later, he'll say, uh, uh, wait, this isn't right. you, uh, what am I doing here? I know you're evil, but I follow you anyway.

What have I done? Uh, you tricked me, revenue, twisted my mind. I made me kill mission. I will have entered death, Rar. And then you just kill her, kill him just outside the Evan Hawk, basically, instantly. Which again, it's not what I did, but, um, you just let him chill and that never happened. So when Carth runs off, where does Carth go? Carth, we'll come back later.

And, and, well, sort of. Carth runs off and calls the fleet if you go dark side. because you get a call. So before you go to the StarForge, you take off from the planet. By the way, somewhere around here, you've found parts to fix the Ebenhawk, just on the ground. So you fix the engine and you take off, right? And then on the way to the StarForge, you get that cutscene that is like the Admiral, right? And Vandar.

Vandar is back. Fake Yoda is here, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And on the light side side, I'm guessing it's just like, Carth being like, you've got to give a support. Yeah. Is that what it is? Basically, yeah.

Okay. Because I think actually my favorite, my favorite cutscene, like, direction is in the dark side version of this, where you get, you get called by Admiral Dada and Vandar. And Basil is like, you know, she says, the Republic Fleet must have gotten the message Carth sent as we were crashing under the planet. Maybe we can use their arrival to our advantage. da-da-da-da-da-da. And the way it's shot is actually really cool. You, Revin is just off-screen, like just off to the right of the hollow terminal. So it's just Bastila talking to them. And they do this, like, pretty good, like, camera work of showing Bastela shooting Revin a glance and Revin, like, shaking his head to be like, don't let them do that. Because Dada's

like, like, we're going to get out of here. We are going to get out. And you're like, no, we need them to stay. And they do, like, a pretty good. good, like, back-and-forth shot of you communicating silently to Bastille while she's on call, which they haven't done much of in this game otherwise. That's cool. And so she convinces them not. She's like, don't pull back. Like, I'm going to help you with battle meditation.

And that way, you'll be fine or whatever. And then, and Vandar is like, Bastila, you and the Paduan should join us, will need the combined strength of our entire order to defeat Malik because they're going to, like, land a bunch of Jedi strike teams. And Bastel is like, the fools, even Master Van der, didn't realize you've reclaimed your identity is the dark lord. The Jedi strike team, there'll be perfect distractions for us to get in and do the work or whatever.

And then later, at the end of the game, basically, Vandar and a cutscene will be like, yeah, I felt some dark side stuff. I just assumed it was the StarForge. I didn't realize that it was Revin. I just thought it was the StarForge as Big Evil. Oh, my God. Big Evil's here to stay in Star Wars. Big Evil has made the jump from, yeah.

It's true. It's true. So, yeah, I guess. if you're light-sided goes the same way but light-sided version. Oh, do you get the candorous? This is the other big candorous

thing before you board where you talk to candorous and he says, this looks like the end of our partnership. The battle we fight here will change the face of the galaxy. You, Revin, are the single greatest warrior of this age and any battle we fight will bring me honor. I'll stay by your side through anything. I don't think I'm ready to

give up this life of mine, this life of fighting, not quite yet. We have things we need to here. I'm your man until the end, whatever path you take. They're married. This is true love. This is the actual romance. It's not a factor here. Like the actual romance in this game is not written as well as that is. Like nobody is as committed to you as he is. A hundred percent. Well, we'll talk about Carth's final scene when we get there because there's a card scene. I think no one here got and we will talk about it later. Star Forge

Star Forge time It's more fighting It's like you land The Jedi It's infinite fighting almost I think it is infinite I didn't see spawns then I just had to get through rooms

And it was On the one hand This part almost works I think Because like you have to keep forward momentum You have to like Just blaze through the Sith troopers And the the dark Jedi

Who were showing up And if you stopped To do too much cleanup on this Like you will get bogged down and you'll get swarmed but there's just too much of it it's like the balance is a little bit off and it's like it doesn't feel like it's a lot off

it's just a little bit off but like it means that you consistently end up stuck in really annoying death spirals of like I'm out of force powers I'm just spamming med packs I just need to get out of this goddamn room then these enemies are hard these not good fights

it's just the sheer quantity of them you are just you're getting overwhelmed with your ability to crowd control the waves of SIF that are showing up and like the Sith troopers are using like you know the the adhesive grenades that are like pinning you down you're getting stun locked a lot so it's a lot like again the moments where it kind of works where it feels like you are completely like you're like a fullback and you've broken

through the line you were just running down the field just like trucking people when those moments work it's like yeah this is this is how nice the little republic should end like you're just this part of this team of badass is just like wrecking shot on the star for George, Jolene Canteris. Okay, yeah, good call. So it's just, it's just nonstop, like, me hitting Stasis Field, and then it's the least heroic shit in history. Like, it's me hitting Stasis Field, and then my buddy is just, like,

rendering Sif into sashimi platters, like, you know, before my eyes. And then we, then we move on. But again, there's just too much of it. Like, I started getting really frustrated because it's just, it's, if you slow down a little bit, you just get bogged. And you can survive getting bogged, but it just slows everything down. It feels like you fight the same fight like 50 times, you know, through all this before you get to, before you get to Basla. Yeah, it's not fun at all.

And, like, the thing of like dealing with crowds and then it's like, oh, it's the last guy and it's like five guys that were surrounding me. And then you see another Sith trooper coming up the hallway. It's like, I can't, this isn't fun. I'm not having fun. Yeah. The thing that kept happening with me is like we would carve. through the guys in front of us, and then Canderas would, like, hear someone coming up

from behind. Running off the other direction. I got to go kill this guy for you. Like, no, we're good. I promise you. We just got to keep going forward. And I got to the point where I was like, I'm just going to move forward. I trust Canderas and Basta to clean it up back there for me. It's going to be fine. And it was, basically. You have to bring Basta if you've gone dark side, by the way. She takes up a slot for you because

it's so funny. Well, at least that way you get the lightsaber shit. I gave her. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Because that crystal just wasted. I gave her just like a, I might have been the expanded crit thing. I gave her some sort of like basilia turned into by like double lightsaber,

just like pure damage character. And I gave her, you know, kit to do that and then she disappears. Crucially, I was not that character. We'll get to that. But so you fight through all the stuff and you get little, again, the sheer juicelessness of Malik

everything is as I foresaw send the droids What are you fucking talking about dude To unleash the room Have destroyed droid As a power It's an early power you get

I was I was light-sided with Jolie and Johani And we all had it It was we walked through there It was so stupid And it's so funny Emerald dudes like, the droids failed.

Send my soldiers. It's like they will crush the Jedi. It's like, no, they won't. This is not, this is, it's just like, it's him being really casual about this. Like everything is unfolding as I have foreseen and then doing jack shit. And it's like, this is, this is not, not compelling. And if you're lightsided, the Trump card he thinks he has to play is Bastila. Do you get the Sith Power Rangers?

Or is that, instead of bass, so, yeah, so I didn't see, I don't get Bast, the Bast of the fight. I think it's in that place. You get like, Blue Sith, Red Sith, no, Green Siff. Didn't get that. Wait, no. You didn't get these guys? It's, I'll just see if I can find you a, I'll see if I can find you a cutscene or a screenshot. I don't even know what to search for to find them, honestly.

But they show up and it's just straight up like the regular Sith outfit, you know, with the hood and the mask and stuff. except instead of just being black and gray, they're black, they're red, you know? I don't know how to let me see here. I'll see if I can find it. But yeah, this is where,

like, as a light, light-sided character, you have your, you have your, like, final conversation with Bastila. And yeah,

it's the like, I don't think you're really, you haven't really fallen to the dark side. And she's like, oh, no, I have. And then you fight three times. And you can keep being like,

you wouldn't, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, like, as Natalie said, you wouldn't, You wouldn't strike us down. You wouldn't, you know.

Toxic future looking at the phone meme, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And so she, you know, she, you know, comes back to your side and she's like, but I probably shouldn't be near Malik. I'll just do battle meditation stuff. But also in that fight, she like, she stunts and then locks the door behind Jolie and Kanderas. And that is the end of me having a party in this game. Right.

Yes. That's true for Dark Side also, Rob. This is a party-based RPG. Uh-huh. I have made decisions. Jop's Polo is built to be a playmaker. He is not a, he is not a volume shooter. He is not a scorer.

He is not a sniper. He is an assist machine. I set these things up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Field commander. Feel general. And the game's just like, well, no more of that.

And I need to understand how hard Here's how hard I committed to this role Dup's Polo does not have force breach Depp's polo does not throw a lightsaber Yeah Depp's polo does no direct damage with the force At all He has no capacity to do direct damage with the force

Are you light sabreing? What are you doing? Stunlocking and chopping people to shit Okay, I see Well you ain't stun locking Darth Malick are you Well and also I have no capacity to deal with his little juice boxes. Yeah, that is a big, that is a big problem. That is, so this is the thing, like, I,

there's a moment I don't know that. Surely they're going to give me my party back. Yeah, no, uh-uh. This is the end of the game. The Malik fight is on a big room that has two floors, a big stairwell up to the second. The second floor is kind of like a, like a rim around the outside of the room. And scattered across this room are eight,

cryopods basically, like, not like back to, sort of like back to tanks, but like not really, with Jedi kidnapped from Dantuin in those pots. And every time that you beat Malik, every time that you get Malik down to zero HP, what happens? He sucks another Jedi. He sucks another Jedi. So wait, so does that mean if you don't kill all the, if you don't get rid of all the Jedi, then. You just have to play through. You have to beat him eight times.

Wow. Wow. This is like a classic difficult light side ending fight. Because you know what I could do? I hit that drain life button, buddy. And it kills them and heals me. So there's kind of three things that you can do.

You know what else you could do? You can destroy droid on the machine itself. And it just kills the Jedi. Kills the Jedi, and you get the... So there's three ways to do it. You can choke or kill or force lightning or force storm, which kills the Jedi outright, and then he doesn't get to suck them. You can disable or destroy droid, throw lightsaber, or force breach,

and then he doesn't get to suck them, and you get maximum force. Or you can drain life or death field. And if you death field, you get multiple. You don't have to redo it. Like, if they're near each other, you get them both. And then he can't suck them, and you get maximum health and maximum force. So, uh, what? It's like, it's like when Cell and Dragon Ball Z suck, you know, it's the same.

It's when he, uh-huh. He can't be sucking. Uh-huh. So, um, wow. And there's Malik talk before this. Like, we kind of skimmed past this, but like, also, did we skip past the part, the terrible droid room? Uh-huh.

The most annoying. Oh, the terrible droid room is, is, with nothing to my character. It's the 100 duck-sized horses' fight, basically. He ran past all the droids. If you just destroy droid on all of the generators, like the droid machines, it just ends the fight. I see. That makes sense. That's good.

Because they can't make any more. I'm there going like, beep, beep, beep, beep, shut this shit down. As they're shooting me from behind. And it's like, none of this matters. You can generate the one droid who's your dog. Yes, I did that twice. And then I was like, they'll distract them for long enough for me to go through. There's a room with six droids generators.

The StarForge, remember, produces stuff. We didn't really explain this. StarForge is a big 3D printer that feeds on the life force of, we sort of did. The sentient computer. Oh, there was a sentient computer at the heart of the temple who explains all the... That explains its history lesson number three. But he just repeats some stuff you heard from it. He has a little bit more.

He's also the one, or it's also the one that says, the star maps were monuments to our great empire. They weren't really maps. They were just like murals, basically, of our empire. And like, they healed themselves over time because they're like me and their organic, sentient computers that can self-heal. And, like, you were able to put them all together to find it. And it also explains that the StarForge eats the force. Yes. And turns the force. Yeah, and turns the force into spaceships or whatever. And so that this room, the infinite droid room, is sort of like, you can, I can feel myself as the, as like the sort of writing director being like, wait a second, you have this

whole big dungeon at the end and you never show the Star Forge working. Show me what the danger of infinite, you know, machines is. And this room will produce infinite droids. And each time you kill a droid, it will spawn a computer spike in a bin next to these six computers, which are next to six droid generators. So if you come in here and don't have any spikes, you have to kill the droids to get the spikes you need to hack the computers, right? I had a lot of spikes.

The problem, I mean, was interacting with stuff in the interface when you're in combat. It's something forever to remember you have to hit the disengage button. I was like, I can see the terminal. Why can't I select it using the trigger button? Because you never do this. You're never in this situation.

Normally, it just makes sense to kill everything around you and then go deal with the computer. you're never like disengaging from a fight to interact with something, you know? Yeah, this has never been, like we've never trained for this. I've never trained for this, truly, truly. Well, also the, again, I'm doing this after the other, it's just, it's just corny malic plan after corny malic plan for me all the way up this, this, to this point.

Because again, I fought the red, white, and blue dark Sith guys who I've now, who I've now shown you a picture of. And, and again, the thing that. that Malik says during this, which is like, he just has no swag. He tells these three random guys that they are the strongest people that he's ever worked with. They're the three strongest dark Jedi. Whichever one of you, whichever one of you beats Revin, you'll get to be my new apprentice. And it's just, who cares? So them, so red droids, then red soldiers, then red, white, and blue Sith,

then infinite, like, little droids biting at your heels, because none of them can hurt you. Like, by the end of this game, you're, for me, at least, my deflection, my blaster deflection is so high. It's like, they're not hitting me.

They're not going to hit me. So, like, for this to be the big final thing before finally the malloc confrontation happens was just not good. But then, then it is, it is go time. You, you, there is no, there is no talking malloc. down here, right?

There is no reasserting yourself as the dark lord or convincing him that you can save him. None of that shit happens here. There's no, like, if you have high enough light side points, you can save Malik. Now, you're fighting this dude. I want to show you all the opening to this fight for me. Okay. I'm excited. So, when, immediately when this encounter starts, the character just,

put down like 20 fragment grenade mines on the ground and another 15 behind them and I please just watch this five second of when he finally I forgot about these robes this like did y'all get these special robes right so please yeah I made some mistakes I should have taken the time to maybe go with the elders and get those light side points or I was talking to Bastilla, and I went through the four, like, you can be redeemed. I was redeemed and I was dark revined. And then at the very end of that conversation, you could basically be like, yeah, you're good now. Or you can still be like, I'm going to kill you.

And I thought that it was kind of funny to do that after having this whole conversation. So I just killed her. I go into the droid room, everything seems fine. I walk in to see Malik and my clothes are different. And I was like, that's so weird. And I had these beautiful StarForge robes. Right, because you find another Star Forgey thing, which is you get a computer that can generate armor for you. And it generates like boring, light, medium, and heavy armor.

And then it can either generate the StarForge robes, which are these beautiful white robes you're talking about. Or the Reven robes. And that's how you get to look like Darth Reven. You don't get the mask. I was wrong about that. You don't ever get the Reven mask in this game. It's not in this game. You get the hood?

You get the hood. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks cool. It does like, and you get like the armor chest piece, you know, the stuff that Revin, if you think about Revin, you picture Revin, that you do look like that. So, minus the mask. And I was feeling so good. I was like, I'm not going to have, this Malik fight is going to be a breeze because the StarForge has been a breeze.

I'm going to redeem myself from having to run around in circles when I was 15 years old. And it's going to run away again for like 40 minutes and yet again. Me and Malik, 1v1, with all of the minds that were in my inventory that I have not used this entire game. Yep. Because, like, I've encountered a lot of weird glitches in this game. I don't know if this ever happened to you, but after Bistilla gets kidnapped or whatever, when you load back into the cockpit, her skeleton was there and then quickly disappeared. That did not happen to me. Okay.

Well, because I think that, like, instead of coding, like, her not being there, they just encoded her invisible. and interactible because that's what happened to me and I was just like okay that's weird that I'll just go back and I'll read maybe it's like a dramatic thing

I'm confronting Malik in my like starting gear maybe this is intentional and then I was like oh my God I can't put these these starboard drones so it's because you took some dark side points somewhere

I did because I killed Bastila why didn't you save her and you didn't have a say it to go back It was funny. It was funny. It was funny. Oh, my God. That's so funny.

And it is true. The funniest thing that could have happened did happen. Yeah. It was really funny. Yeah. And I had Johani and Jolie with me, so they had the second best light side robes. Oh, so you didn't even have those in the inventory where you could like. No.

No. Oh, that's very funny. So Malik has to me a couple times. You shouldn't go on dark side. Yeah, I I messed up Wow Wow

Wow Yeah, Rob Tell us your story Tell us Tell us the end of the saga Of Dup's Polo You have to understand Dups was like

A badass by the end Like I had them They're troubled Any more fights Yeah But everything was predicated On some of his stuns Getting through

Even against like Powerful characters Like half of them would land And that was enough To like let him do the improved power attack or critical strike or whatever and like just cut people

cut people down uh none of that works and so the first time I'm the first time I face revving I haven't like taken all my potions I just like let's 1V1 this see how it goes okay real bad real bad like he none of that got through like I

I got no but actually I did get him down through the first like chunk of hip hit points where he's like and now let me show you these little Jedi juice boxes. And then he kicks my ass. I was, all right. Well, now I got a potion up.

Yep. Well, the thing that's important is he has to run to them. So when you kill him, and I actually hate this about the fight. This is so silly. You get him down to no health, and he's like, ah, BRB, I have to run across the whole stage and then sippy on one of my Jedi that I have up on the wall and come back. And of course, people lay minds. That's built.

It's the only fight. the game. We're like, oh, the thing the NPC is doing sets them up to be, to have minds lead so they're going to run back to me and have to run into all these minds. And also it sucks because it's like, just shoot him in the back while he's running away. He's almost dead. Why does he get to run across this whole level and heal up? Just bot one time. Yeah. At least make it so it's like, oh, I can interrupt him, you know, and if I can, whatever, you know, it's annoying. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, or like, do so, like, like, like, I don't know, make Malick throw something at you that's

stuns you for a second so that there's some fucking justification for why you can't stop this from happening. But either way, so like, you know, I come back, I take all the potions. I've made sure that my inventory, like I've now got the exact equipment that I should probably

have the best equipment I have. I actually, I spoke last time. I was at level 19. When I hit level 20, I got that level three implants. Implants. Yeah. And I don't remember what I got.

It was awesome, though. Just trust me. Plus for Constitution or plus four strength or one of those big ones. I think it was a Constitution one. I think Candace, I gave him a Dex one or something. So Candace just turned to like a big burly ballerina. Love it.

And I was like, man, we're really going to own Malik together. No. So, and this fight goes worse. And like going toe to toe with him, I'm getting stun locked and none of my stunts work. And I'm missing most of my hits. like hit race never been amazing with Dopp's as a lightsaber guy but like it's real bad against Malik and so I just started like chain dying

and then we're just off to the fucking races as I try to figure out a way around this whole nightmare fight and I didn't I had to drop it down to easy I was like because it was late I was getting angry I was like we're going down to easy yep yeah we got a we got a late night message for us last night

we got some Austin Walker out I was shocked to see this message when I woke up from 4.36 a.m. Hey, real quick. Fuck the Star Forge. Fuck the Star Forge. And it really is just this fight. If this fight's better, like, what an era for bad final boss fights in games that just undercut how the way you played the whole rest of the game.

It's just constant in this era. And this is one of the bad ones. It really is. So, like, but this is where I was like, at least, at least early on. when I was talking about the game just like del using me in grenades and the fact that Dupp's had a decent demolition score Austin mentioned offhanded

that like kind of need all that shit for the final fight. Don't use grenades, just hold on to everything. And so once I drop it down easy, if you can tag him with an adhesive grenade and just sits there and just eats shit. Because he won't break that for whatever. I don't know what the what the check is that he's failing. I'm

guessing it's a reflex save versus... Sometimes he does get freed from it, though. Okay, well... There are times he beats it. Yeah, it's just that I'm looking it up now. His fortitude saves are 38. He's really good at breaking out of anything that is a fortitude save, which I want to say is, I don't think that that...

I think that the reflex is adhesive, and so he's able to, like, get around a lot of stuff with that high fortitude save, but you can... Yeah, so stasis is fortitude, so that's why he's... He's getting out of your stasis. He's getting out of stun. He's getting out of, you know, he resists wound and choke and kill. He can not with force wave. Usually I can knock someone on the ass with that.

Totally. Totally. Yeah. So it's like I've just got me on a lightsaber and then all these stunt abilities that are not useful. And grenades. And thermal detonators the only thing that knocks him. Everything else he can just sort of absorb.

Right. So it turned into a really undignified, like I didn't have enough thermal detonators to close the deal. because, again, he's going to get to refill his hit bar eight times. And it's so annoying that you can't just bash the Jedi juice boxes. You can't just grenade those. You can only deal with this via the force. And I'm like, it's a guy in a jar.

Yeah. Like, I got a lightsaber. Like, we can, trust me, the forces, the lightsaber is the force. Let's just do it. So, like, I had to do all the things. It wasn't just, like, hit him with it because I didn't have adhesive grenades. They didn't have enough of those. Like, I had enough plasma thermals to probably get the job done if I had adhesives, but I didn't.

So I used my master speed, and I ran around in circles, throwing mines down. Like, once all the good ordinance was gone, we were going back to average fragmine. And I was like, you a meal, buddy, average fragmine. I got 50 a you. and so there's a lot of like me hitting my little zoomies and racing around in a circle and just like checking back to make sure he's following me and I swear to God, even uneasy

I swear to God that thought must have been an hour That must have felt so frustrating. That was the first time I played this game This is exactly what happened to me Rob 100%. I also definitely made the Dubs Polo build the first time because I was like I want to be high persuade I want to be like that's the shit I want to do

and the same power curve happened where it's like eventually it's not that big of a deal you end up being really strong and then you get to this fight and just like you're not built for it you know

which is really frustrating it's like they give you all these options to like what kind of Jedi like do you want to be and then at the end it's like well you basically need to be a thug yeah you need to be able to just go to tow to town

it's the whole like the Mike Tyson everyone's got a plan until they get punched like that's me unfortunately that was me I was like, here we go. And then boom, one shot from Malik. And I'm like, this is not the fight.

So it's like, now knowing this, I'm like, oh, if I'm, I would have to build my entire character around just being like a goon. Just like roll up on that dude, smack him with. Is lightsaber strength dependent? Or is it like all? The actors are both. Whichever is highest is you're to hit with it. And then strength still gives you bonus damage The way that it does with all melee weapons

But yeah So you need that big decks You either need big decks or big strength Just like make sure you just hammer it Yep Totally and again The best version of that build exists And it is you have Flurry

Which gives you three attacks per round Or gives you two attacks per round You have an extra hand You double two handed weapons That's another extra hand Another attack per round You master speeds And it's a fourth attack per round

or a fifth attack per round at that point. It's just like, you know, you're just chewing through him. Yeah, 100%. And it's not a big deal when you do it that way. Like, it's truly just like, and like, fine, go heal. Come back. I'll kill you in two rounds again, you know. I will say, like, even with that build, I guess he was still able to stun me sometimes

and do other stuff that was annoying. His son's so long. They're so long. They're so long. You just watch your hip bar just drain. Yeah, those moments are like, yeah, okay, I actually have to do the old pause to heal. trick to make sure I don't get one shot in the game where I was like pulling out all those stops too where I was like every time he ran off to go to his little uh sippies I was like because

you're not in combat you have infinite access to your med packs so suddenly all the medpacks that I haven't used in ages just they're like basic yeah I'm just like yeah give me eight bedpacks please wait so if you disengage can you just do that no because you're still under attack Yeah, right? Because he just engages, I see, I see, I see. Which is bullshit, again, it's very silly. So, like, that fight was a nightmare, it was like, it got me back to what, like, there have been times I've really been sour around this game.

There's times I'm like, yeah, you know, there's some good shit here. Really horrible note to go out on. Well, certainly, the big finale, the big cut scene at the end must have made you feel great. That didn't bring you back around? So rewarding. so satisfying and fulfilling. Also, wait, did any of you who did Lightside save Bastila or not? Yeah.

Okay. So Natalie, you saw the saving Bastila. Rob and Allie. Yeah, of course I say. Okay, so only Allie kills Bassel. That's my wife. That's your wife, right? Yeah, that's my wife.

Yeah. Your wife's behind the door with the dexterity implant. Don't do candors like that. True. But actually, you know what? I did kind of like the final cutscene they have together where, you know, it's... They blow up the Star Forge, right? I more mean, like, Malik is just, like, defeated.

And he's like, I can't help, but he's like, I thought it was my destiny. But none of this has worked out. You know, and this regret of, like, you were this guy's big brother. Yeah. And you were effectively like, hey, try force heroin. and then you got clean and now you've come back to like wreck his shit

and you're like hey I regret I regret taking you to the Sith like getting us into the Sith but your choices were yours after that and you know they they were nobody was standing behind him with a gun making him you know

do Taras like that but I kind of dug the whole like oh he reverts to like Oh, yeah, this is a kid who looked up to you. Yeah. And, like, wanted to be just like you. And now you're here to put him down. And you're the one who led him into this.

Like, this guy doesn't become a Sith Lord without you being like, hey, let's try dark side powers. And the minute he gets that taste, he's just like, I want to be the biggest Sith Lord in the galaxy. Yeah. And, you know, he's left with, I like, I love the fact that he's haunted with that question. As he says, he feels nothing this encroaching. There's nothing for him.

There's no unity with the force. It's just death. It's just finality. If the roles had been reversed, how would this have played out? Would he have been, would he have had that stuff of heroes? Yeah.

Yeah. And he says, what would have happened? I cannot help but wonder, Revin, what would have happened had our positions been reversed? What if fate had decreed I would be captured by the Jedi? Could I have returned to the light as you did? If you had not led me down the dark path in the first place,

what destiny would I have found? And then, yeah, he's like, I alone must accept responsibility. Oh, you can say either you cannot blame me for the path you chose or I'm sorry I started you on this path, but you chose to continue down it. And he's like, I suppose I suppose you speak the truth. I alone must accept responsibility for my fate. I wanted to be master of the Sith and ruler of the galaxy, but that destiny was not mine, Revin.

It might have been yours, perhaps, but never mine. And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing. Damn. Darkside doesn't really get, Darkside gets the big first thing that he says with the, like, you know, I thought it was my destiny, but it was your destiny. Then you could either say, you should have known you could have never defeated me, Malik, or you can say the Apprentices finally has,

learned his final lesson. And then he says, so it ends. Sometimes I always knew it must in darkness. And then he dies. There's no big final. That's a terrible. It's brutal. Well, but then you get something else that's different. If I don't, I didn't get this. And this is, I think, an argument that Darkside Fem Raven, Raven is canon. Because there is a scene that I think none of us got. And I'm going to stream it to us. Oh my God. This video is called, because you're just going to see it. I wish I could. This is the Carth finale. Cato, you can go ahead and find this video to drop in. It is called

Bastila kills Carth on the Star Forge. I'm going to hit play in three, two, one, go. Loud, sorry, KHT. A lot. So you've killed Malik at this point. You're walking out. So you killed Darth Malik. Are you evil in this? Yes.

But she doesn't look sick evil. Not it probably, don't worry about it. But I also told them that I couldn't abandon you. I had to come. I said I'd find a way to save you from yourself, and I will. You should have stayed wherever you were. All you have to do is listen to me. That's all I ask.

Here comes Bastila. Who also doesn't look evil, by the way. I knew I sensed your presence. I should have known you would find a way to meddle in this one life. time. Don't interfere, Bastila. This is between me and Revin. You're a fool. Revin has already made her choice and there is no turning back. Don't listen to him, master. Let me strike him down. Seize your victory. Yes, kill him. Nothing he could do. It'd sway me or could matter. And then Bastila just kills him. The fool is dead. One shot.

Now there's nothing in the way of your victory. The end for Carth. This is the only way Carth dies in this game. is if you portray him with if you were if you were romancing him and a woman then he shows I mean obviously you have to be because that's how his romance is written but then he'll show up and then yeah your options there's you could also kill him you could say I'm sorry Carth it's too late we both know that or I'm glad I get to kill you personally Carth for old time's sake or I don't need you Carth and I won't change my mind there is a deleted ending or an unfinished ending, but the voice files are there, for Carth convincing you that you need to betray Bastille here, kill her, stop her from battle meditating the Sith side, which allows them to blow up

the Star Forge with you and Carth still on it. So that's not in the game, but that is the like, the only, the closest thing to like a neutral ending is doomed lovers, doomed lovers. Yes. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And there's no finale. There's no final thing. There's no like pre-rendered cutscene at the end after that. You know what I mean? Or whatever the big finale thing is where you get your metal if you're light side, right? Which is what you get. You get the end of Star Wars New Hope, but it's on the unknown planet. And you get the- It's more awkward. It is more awkward. It's weird. You get the cross of, what's it called? It's like the cross of honor. The Republic or something, I think.

Oh, yeah. It's the cross of honor. Great. Good. Something. Great. The dark side ending is that you and Bastila are like, you know. Oh, cross of glory, sorry.

The cross of glory, right. The dark side ending is that the Republic Armada gets fucking wiped, just absolutely destroyed. The Admiral Dodona. is like who by the way this is the first time you're meeting this character also she's like uh oh no like we're gonna we're gonna lose everybody or we gotta get out of here all it's hopeless our republic forces pull back pull back and vandar is like it's too late to retreat admiral the Sith Armada has cut us off there's no escape for us now which by the way in the dark side play through he warns her of once he realizes it's gone bad he's like we have to get out of here now and she's like but this is

our only chance and he's like all right then we're all going to die and then they all die And then you get the big finale, which is you've taken over the evil, or the temple, the Rakatan temple down on the base and it's like a dark red sky and the Sith Empire is there. And it's just the empire, you know, it's just all the way to Star Wars empires type stuff with big red flags. And Bastila is like your hype man and is like, you know, Malik is dead. You know, all hail the return of Darth Revin, the true lord of the Sith. And everyone's like, it's a bunch of, you know, soldiers and Sith people and, you know, imperial battle droids and stuff. And everyone's like, all hail Lord Revan, all hail Lord Revan. Jesus.

And then it's like the Sith bow before you, you reclaimed your rightful throne. The Jedi order is in tatters. It's only a matter of time until your Sith minions wipe out the rest of the Republic. And, you know, we're going to take over the core worlds. And then it kind of like fades to dark. It lifts up and you see the Star Forge and the Star Forge is putting out like hundreds of capital ships. You know, it's just like stream. It's the end.

You know, actually, you know where this should have come back? Where? The Rise of Skywalker. Where did the Emperor get his ships? He should have had the Star Forge. Let him have the Star Forge. Why not? I don't know that it's good still.

I think it still sucks, but it would at least answer the question of where Palpatine got all those ships. Maybe it's in a fucking book somewhere. maybe you're right still to come yeah that'll be the reveal of this this one of these upcoming things yeah uh-huh that's what i've been thinking since that ended that like is this in the way that i've watched every e3 and seen a cool star wars game and then it immediately gets canceled and i'm just disappointed the thing of like i finally want someone to to to reference the old republic in a star wars thing and it's fucking return of the jet or whatever that movie so rise of the Skywater.

And it's like, yeah, Palpatine came back to Life and has the Star Forge. Yeah. It would, I would, I would accept it, I guess. Yeah. It's tough. It's so, we've talked about this before, but the fact that Star Wars is like, the Star Wars plot is the bad guys get a big super weapon, which. Every time. Every time. This is also, Allie, this is also the Gundam plot, right?

Is like the Death Star. The Death Star did permanent damage to a certain type of. sci-fi writer's brain. I'm not immune to this. People who listen to Friends of the Table, no, I love a Death Star. To the degree that I have turned stars into the Death Star before.

Like, it's fun to do that. But it does get a little boring to be like, the Sith have a super weapon. What are we going to do? Destroy it. Yeah. And then we win. And then we win.

The prequels don't really have this problem. The prequels actually get around this pretty nicely, but there are just so many other Star Wars stories that end with a Death Star or a Star Killer Base or a Star Forge or, you know, another type of big space gun of some sort. Yeah, in the prequels, the Super Weapon is just a man's heart.

Yeah. So true. So true. So true. And we couldn't save it. Couldn't. It's messed up that Cotor's ending is worse than Revenge of the Sith's. That's so bad.

That's so bad. Is it? The fight's bad. The fight's really bad. The fight of the Intervenger of the Sith is good. Yeah. Have you seen that as good as which one? That's like the woman, I think she's like a philosopher's.

I forget what she is, but she's like revenge. Yeah, that Revenge of the Sith is like the greatest film of all the time and is like. I have seen this. Yes. It's. Wait, Revenge of the Sith is? Hold on, hold on. I think I'm scrolling back.

Who is it? I forget who it is. There's something about her that's something. Margaret Nussbaum. Oh, right. Uh-huh. Yes. Yeah.

No, no. It's, it's, uh, it's, uh, Camille Paglia. Yeah. Uh-huh. Um, who has some bad opinions. I just want to say that before anybody writes in. Yes. Uh, some real bad, real bad feelings around, uh, childhood sexuality.

Uh, but, you know, isn't established academic and, and, and, and, and, and, and, a critic and does love Revenge of the Sith. And it's very funny to hear someone describe the end of that film in, you know, with reference to, it's not funny. It's, like, she's not wrong. She's explaining that it's like operatic and that it's like, this is what Lucas is doing and Lucas is drawing on this. And like, here are these two people who are bearing their souls through the choreography and the special effects and da-da-da-da. And it's like, all of her analysis there is like, yes, this does rip. You're not right.

It's fucking good But yeah We don't claim her But then you see the fight for choreography They left on the floor with Hayden Christensen And you're like, you just denied us Of course Like this man was born

To do lightsaber can all bad Yeah He was He was in But I had a question Yeah Given the end Given that there are multiple endings

For Cotor Yeah How does Cotor 2 Great question Reckon with that Is that something we should save for playing Cotor? This is the beginning of Cotor. One of the things that happens at the beginning of Cotor is someone is like, hey, yeah,

all the stuff that's been going on lately is wild, huh? And the exact dialogue, I don't want the exact dialogue, but you basically get the chance to say what happened at the end of Cotor 1. You get to say, did you play Cotor 1 as a dude or a lady? And then did you do the dark side or the light side ending, basically? Okay. But you get to set, kind of set what your revene was so that the world reflects that in mostly small ways. The, yeah, go ahead.

Is the secret and secret dark side ending that you were saying is the one with Carth? Yeah, yeah, it's the, well, no, yeah, yeah, it's the one, it's the like neutral ending where you let Carth, or sorry, the secret is that, yes, you can get Carth killed. You can kill Carth at the end, which is like, it's the only way to do that is if you played a woman, if you romanced Carth. if you were dark side. So it's like, I didn't even know this existed until this run through when I looked into it, right? But yeah, there's no additional. And then there's the one that that got cut, which is the neutral ending, which is, again, it's all three of those. And then also you have to side with him at the very end, right?

Which just isn't a thing there. But yeah, you basically set at the beginning of Cotor 2, which side Revin was. You kind of like set that stuff. And then that changes a few things because, like, in Cotter. or two, Carth exists. He's not a party member, but you'll get a message from Carth. You'll see a broadcast with Carth, and Carth will say something different depending on what your choices were about who Revin was. And then likewise, I want to say, like, Johani briefly shows up in one thing, or maybe there's, like, a text thing. But most, like, it's a direct sequel, but it's

not a direct sequel in the, you're going after, like, Reven's disappeared from the galaxy is, I guess, the thing worth saying. You know, no one knows her Revin went at the end of, Okay. Even if you'd pick Darkside Reven and Revan was poised to set up the Sith Empire, Revan is gone now. And there's some other Sith lords. The name of Kotor 2 is the subtitle for it is the Sith lords. And the premise is like some other Sith lords have shown up and they are wrecking things. Uh-oh.

And you're stepping out back, you know, it's like five years after Kotor 1 and the Jedi are like basically gone, right? the Jedi are in hiding because even if you even if Revin was light-sided things go things go bad for the Jedi order because of how good the Sith had how successful the Sith had been I want to say so you're you're kind of like the Jedi are on the run the Jedi are trying to recover who they were you are you are spending a lot of time in that game like searching out hidden Jedi masters to learn new techniques or confront them about what they did to you and blah, blah, blah. So I want to play that game.

You're not playing that game right now, you know? Yeah. It's time to go back to Rebel. What I really want to do is play the Old Republic. Finishing this made me want to start the Old Republic again so bad. And we can't do that either. Maybe after we finish Rebels. Right.

As a treat. As a treat. We can do a game and a loot again. That might be great. We'll see. I've never played Corto, too. This breaks my mind. You should just play it.

No, you shouldn't. I don't know. Because there's Mandalorian stuff in that game in a big way. You know? The party for that game is sick. So we'll get there. It's so hard enough to start spoiling stuff about, like, I've gone back and forth on Code 2 a lot. Because there are stuff in it that I don't think holds up in terms of, it's Chris Avalone is one of the key writers on that game or is like maybe one of the leads, lead designer maybe on that game.

lead writer and it looks like lead designer. And Avalon, who also is not someone we claim for a number of allegations that he's received over the years, but is also like has a real libertarian streak that produces, I should say, has a real libertarian streak from 20 years ago. The Libertarian Party has really gone in directions. And I've never been a libertarian, but like, you know, a friend of the show, Michael Lutz was a teenage libertarian, and that meant something different when we were teenagers than what it means now. At the time, it mostly meant that you didn't believe in, you didn't want anyone to go to jail for smoking weed, you didn't want to pay the government money for missiles, and you didn't like taxes.

And then like, you know, that often at the time even was also like you don't like the Americans with Disabilities Act. You don't like, you know, regulations. Well, because every government intervention is actually driving more harms than the solving. this is what they, this is what libertarians of the age believed. Today, it has been so overrun with anti-vaxxers and racists and, uh, you know, effectively, basically militia groups and so many other things that it's like, I'm not, I'm not really a, I had sympathy for the libertarians, but like, you could make temporary bonds with libertarians in the age of George W. Bush. You could, you could both, for instance, support not going to war. And these days,

that is just not the case with most of the leaders of that party at this point, right? I don't know every now and then, but not really. And Avalon's, that streak of Avalon's writing is here, but also it's a Star Wars game, which means that one of the organizations that game is suspicious of is the Jedi, for instance, is the Republic, is, you know, ancient elite orders. And so it shines through in moments that I think are really, really good. And also sometimes it's extremely corny. So I one day would love to get to that game. And some of my absolute favorite Star Wars moments are in that game. And I also just think that, like, you know, I'm going to show you one piece of Cotor 2 art

that is just like this, this is the coolest game that's ever been. Here we go. This is it. This is a character. This is two, this is a Jedi and a Sith dueling. This is not a spoiler. This is like one of the promotional pieces of art. And it's like, oh, I want to play this game instantly.

it's like a sick Jedi in all blue fighting a Sith Lord who has a different type of evil mask on and the things that they do with both of these characters are just really good so shoutouts to Cotor 2 Oh, this looks fucking sick Yeah, mm-hmm Wow

It's good We'll get there That image has real mortis vibes I'm being honest I think that there is stuff in that game that gets at the heart of some of the big ideas around Mortis and the breadth of Mortis in ways that are so much better, because they fundamentally completely return back to like, we are just people in the world.

That is, and we are all susceptible to shit. It's great. Anyway, we'll get there. And unlike Kotor 1, you know, there are some spoilers for Kotor 2 out there. But it doesn't really hinge on a big twist, I don't think. Playing through that game, I anticipated many of the big twists and still had a great time the first time through in a way that 13, whatever year old Austin was surprised by Revin. 18 year old Austin was not surprised by the quote unquote big twist of this game. Okay.

I was going to ask if you played it like when it came out. I watched someone play through it when it first came out. I watched Art, Martinez Tebel, our friends of the table played through it when it first came out, and then played it after that viewing, right, of myself to do a different run-through. But, you know, that was, that was, well, one of us can afford this game right now. So why would we both play this game?

Let's, I'll watch you play it, and then I'll borrow your copy, you know. So that's limiting college right there. Yeah. Well, that will, that will do it for Cotor. We're through. We did it. We defeated Malik. I feel defeated

I feel like I've seen things like it is it's a real it's a fascinating game right because as you pointed out it's like it's bioware kind of like hitting a new formula they're going to refine but this is the

prototype and it's also a really awkwardly executed D&D adaptation and all that all that comes through I will do a question for this right that's our next yeah yeah yeah our next patron on is a um Q&A so send in your questions for all of Cotor to the email address a more civilized age at gmail dot com not anywhere else

damn true just say if you want your question again i want to give you all a fair shot at getting your question answered if it ends up in another place yeah it's it it no No, nope, no. We're not checking the Patreon comments. We're not checking the Patreon messages. We're not checking co-host asks. No. Yeah.

Not because we wish we could do all of those. We do not have the time right now. Yeah. We don't. We don't. One day. But shout out to Allie for. But maybe you have the time to go to patreon.com slash civilized.

But like this is a thing. It's like if you want to, if you want us to answer your questions, that email is the way to do it. That is the best way to do it. We do our best to, if not answer everything. like figure out what the most asked questions are and we yeah we hit topics we identify the themes we see what people are interested in we go wildly off topic oh my god we do uh so head on over to patreon to hear it's true some of those uh aside i wanted to shout out alley for uh reviving the co-host uh posts so if you're if you're no longer a twitter user and you're on co-host that we are

we are posting episodes when they go live there as well. It's true. Hashtag AMCA New Heat. Yeah. For new episodes. Yeah. That's very funny. In two weeks, we are back to Rebels.

And you want to know what we're watching? Beginning of season two, right? Beginning of season two. I think we are watching the first two episodes. Does that sound good? There's a sort of, there is a first, there is a connection between episodes one, one, two, and three, but one and two are a two-parter. So we could ease our ways to our way back in with episode 16 and 17, episodes one and two of

season two titled, The Siege of Lothal. What, Lothal? You don't remember Lothal? I always wrote to that to be like a dun-d-d-d-d-dun. That's the planet they're on, Rob. Lothal? Oh, shit, that's right. I remember Tarkin was getting up to some stuff at the end.

It was like, man, it was like, shit just got real. How long have we... I just didn't remember where shit. We need to do like a 10 minute, like, where, like, uh... Okay, wait, when did we stop doing... Okay, we, we, we... October? It was so long ago.

No, it was not. It was before that. Our last Rebels, our last Rebels episode was 67, July 19th, 2023. I want to know, which is, so how many months is that? Is that six months and then seven months, right? Like, basically seven months, basically half a year. What was the gap? between episodes between okay so at the end of season one of rebels was March 2nd 2015

the beginning of season two of rebels was June 20th 2015 they just ran right into it oh then and then there was a gap October 14th so people waiting for that second season just ran basically right into it there was like a little bit of a summer gap but that's it that's wild all right Well, my appetite was, was wetted a while ago. I'm reading a summary. Yeah, I might rewatch Fire Across the Galaxy just as a recap. That first season ended real good. Oh, remember, we learned who fulcrum was, which I won't say here just in case you're listening and haven't listened to our rebels coverage.

Hey, if you liked Cotor, if you enjoyed this process and you haven't listened to anything else, go listen to the back archive. Go listen to our Andor episodes. Let's go listen to our Clone Wars and Rebels episodes. Over on the Patreon, besides all the comic stuff that we'd been doing during this, we covered Mandalorian Season 3, we covered the Obi-Wan show, we covered Book of Boba Fett. We covered the first season of Star Wars Visions. We should do the second visions thing maybe sometime this year or two.

Oh, yeah, I've been wanting to watch that. Me too. Shout to people who re-listen to old episodes and are, you know, just. long-time fans, new fans. Yeah, new fans, anybody. Absolutely. People who give us five stars on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Less than that. Maybe you want to listen to us via your Vision Pro. Oh, hell no. We used to be floating in the ether. In space. And if you have a Vision Pro and you'd want to support us more than maybe $5 a month, that email, just let us just send off.

It's just send us. So we'll get in touch. Drop us a line. We'll work something out. We take tips. Patreon will let you write any number of that box. They will. You put whatever you want in there.

That's true. But they'll take a cut. Sometimes you're just like, I want to support you. I want a wire transfer number. And I'm like, here's my wire transfer number. Damn. It was like that. I made me a pig arrow press.

We should set up a gift list online, people. Instead of a registry. The AMCA registry. Nothing to do with Star Wars stuff. Speaking of new Star Wars acquirings, look what I got. Oh, boy, here we go. This is the sort of stuff that happens on the Patreon content. If people aren't listening, is Natalie's like, look at this new shit I got.

Oh, yeah, okay. This is the, yeah. I have both of the Star Wars Tales of the Jedi Volume 1 and Volume 2, Omnibuses. That's because we read those already for the Patreon. You'd already secured those to read months ago. You certainly weren't reading any sort of Sith-coded e-pub. No. She got them from the library.

Now she's legally purchased them. Yes. Now I legally purchased them. But I have to say, if you haven't listened to our Patreon episodes on these comics, you should. and I wanted to just, what's the word I'm looking for, emphasize how beautiful. Oh, it's gorgeous art. The artist, especially the end of the Tales of the Jedi Volume 2.

Yeah, the very final, yeah. It's good shit. It's good shit. A weird little guy shows up and you get him in all his detailed way. Oh, no. If you have not, I close my eyes. If you have not listened to us talk about those comics, and you're like, I haven't heard them talk about a weird little freak in too long. I know.

Yeah, there's no freaks in Cotaur. There's no freaks in Cotaur. Actually, my number one complaint about Cotor is that there are no little freaks. They just don't have the animation budget for that. They do not. And I'm thinking about the Cotor 2 party, and there, again, is not really any, there aren't any weird little freaks. You get one guy who's like a Zabrack. I guess you get a droid who is.

sort of a little freak, which is... Wait, hang on, hang on, hang on. Yeah, what's up? The big dude who has the little dude who's like a symbiate. Oh, yeah. That's... That's it, though.

That's our only little freak of course. But it's a good one. We barely get to hang out with them. Yeah. They bring it. Yeah, they do bring it. I fuck with them. And we're going to bring it in two weeks

when we get back to rebels and figure out where Lothal is and what's going on there. Woo! Where Lothal is the main planet. Yeah. Back to Ezra. He doesn't have that little like slings out.

thing anymore, right? Yeah, can we, okay, wait, can we name the whole crew of the ghost? I got it. Okay. Ezra. Ezra. Zeb. Zeb.

Yep. Uh, herra. Uh-huh. Uh, what's the, uh, Kyle, no. She said, Kyle. Kyle. Chopper.

Chopper. And then, you know, Kyle was there. Kyle showed up. Joda. Zalzabar. Zalzabar was there. The whole click was there. The whole crew.

Canaan. Canaan. Canaan. What's his last name? Bro. It's not Jarvis. That's asking a lot. It's Canaan.

It's Jarvis? Is it Jarvis? No J-A-R-I-R-S it is J-A-R-R-R-U-S like J-A-R-U-S don't look anything up Stop typing And then what's the

What's the I did it and I immediately got a spoiler Literally immediately Cain and Jaris was a Sith master Oh we're free I'm so glad we're free From the Revin Wikipedia bullshit

That was so terrible Unbelievable unbelievable All right Wait, what's the girl's name? The art girl? Oh, the art girl. Fuck. Sabine.

Sabine. Yes, Sabine. Sabine. Sabine. Sabine. Sabine. Yeah, okay. I call her paints.

And then fulcrum paints. Then fulcrum. And that's it, right? That's everybody. And then there's the evil guys, but I forget. Oh, what's the evil guy? Tarkin. Darth Vader.

It's Tarkin, Darth Vader. What's the one with the beard with the mutton chops? Oh. It's something with a sea, isn't it? No. Carth. What is his name? Is that right?

That's not right. Corby is the Mandalorian. Corgi. Is it? Corgi's Unlaw's son. No, that's corky. Corky from Obi-Wan, son. Oh, God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is his fucking name? Callis. Callis. Callis. Callis. Yeah. Jesus, Lord.

Yeah. All right, we're pretty loopy. This is what Cotor is done in this. I'm curious about where we'll be with Co- Cotor in two months because sometimes you finish a thing and you're upset at it and then it becomes the thing that you see the whole thing through going forward. So we'll see. The same way that that one book that we read, the, the, what do you call it book?

The Duku book, Duky Jedi Lost, will this, will Cotor become important to us the way Dukai Lost is? Our sacred text. Because there's stuff in Cotor that is important in that way to me when it comes to like Sith ghosts and the Jedi order sucking and the Jedi order like mind wipe wiping Revin like I think within six months we're like this is just like what they mind wipe rev rev rev rev you know I feel like even like hortic and I was thinking of Jedi laws I don't think you could go above Jedi lost for me at this point you're in duku Jedi lost

where duke was at the like the race in Khorasan and has to like jump down into the spate the fucking space race save his brother or whatever anyway people should go listen to our paper episode on Duku Jedi lost, the er text of Star Wars. There's an entire subplot where like a shitty Jedi kid you meet him like years later and he's in too deep with bookies and he's like a Jedi assassin now.

It's great. Like do you never seen Star Wars like you've seen Duky Jedi Lost. It's the peak. It's the peak. It's the peak. You know what? It is genuinely. It is their most epic story. It is. In a literary sense, the sweep of time. And like,

characters. It's the Odyssey of Star Wars. Duku is Odysseus. If Lucas and Banta Ray or whatever the hell the publisher is, had been able to like, instead of working with Kevin J. Anderson work with Tolstoy,

Duku Jedi lost. Boom. Yeah. Wow. That's the result. True. I believe. All right. All right. Well, that will do it for Kotor. Tune in, you know, back us at patreon.com's last so lies next week you get the Q&A here you know you hear us

reflect more on our time with Kotor and answer your questions then in two weeks we're back to rebels woohoo back to the mystery of Lothal what is it what are they up to there Thank you.

Oh!