KOTOR Thoughts on Revan
Feb. 25th, 2019 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorThis is probably an unpopular opinion among KOTOR fans, but I think Revan is highly overrated.
Now, that doesn't change the fact that I do think that what the Jedi did to Revan was deeply, deeply wrong, lol. I just don't think Revan's that great of a person. The first game hypes up Revan a lot, but for reasons I've discussed before, I actually sympathize a lot with Malak who I think was purposely constructed as a character who could be 'justifiably bullied'. He's mistreated as Revan's inferior but turns out it's okay because he's just pure evil and Revan was just bullying him because they're just morally superior to him. Like, this is exactly the kind of thing where I think meta-analysis above the level of the events of the narrative is necessary to see the full extent of the problem. Which here, is this-the bully is being cast as the better person, and that was a narrative choice that someone made. Because sure, you can say that within the narrative Malak is more than a little unsympathetic (War crimes! So many war crimes!), but it is always, always the creators who are responsible for the combination of traits that the characters posess.
Also, if anything, what we learn about Revan in KOTOR II makes me like them even less! Like, oh, I see, you just went to war with the Republic to strengthen the Republic! All of that death and destruction was just to help make people stronger for some external threat. That's terrible. It's abhorrent, and awful, and explicitly glorifies war.
So yeah, I really dislike Revan.
Now, that doesn't change the fact that I do think that what the Jedi did to Revan was deeply, deeply wrong, lol. I just don't think Revan's that great of a person. The first game hypes up Revan a lot, but for reasons I've discussed before, I actually sympathize a lot with Malak who I think was purposely constructed as a character who could be 'justifiably bullied'. He's mistreated as Revan's inferior but turns out it's okay because he's just pure evil and Revan was just bullying him because they're just morally superior to him. Like, this is exactly the kind of thing where I think meta-analysis above the level of the events of the narrative is necessary to see the full extent of the problem. Which here, is this-the bully is being cast as the better person, and that was a narrative choice that someone made. Because sure, you can say that within the narrative Malak is more than a little unsympathetic (War crimes! So many war crimes!), but it is always, always the creators who are responsible for the combination of traits that the characters posess.
Also, if anything, what we learn about Revan in KOTOR II makes me like them even less! Like, oh, I see, you just went to war with the Republic to strengthen the Republic! All of that death and destruction was just to help make people stronger for some external threat. That's terrible. It's abhorrent, and awful, and explicitly glorifies war.
So yeah, I really dislike Revan.