Released in 2004, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2: TSL) is a CRPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Upon release, it left a lot of content on the cutting room floor which was subsequently re-introduced by fans via the TSLRCM, or The Sith Lord Restored Content Mod, which also resolved a number of technical issues the plagued the game such as stability problems and broken in-game quests.
This is the third in a series of articles detailing specific choices made in the design of KOTOR 2. The first article covering item and characterization design can be found here, and the second covering party companions here.
In KOTOR 1, Darth Malak is the undisputed antagonist through the entire game, after betraying his master Darth Revan before the events of the game. Despite the revelation of Revan's true fate toward the end of the main plot. Its sequel, KOTOR 2, has a much less well-defined series of antagonists. This isn't a condemnation, rather, it led to design choices for the plot that led it to interesting directions.
Darth Sion is the first villain to appear, arriving in somewhat grand fashion aboard of ship of corpses. He hunts the main character, the Jedi Exile, or even simply the Exile, as they believe them to be the last of the Jedi following the end of the Jedi Civil War in KOTOR 1. He is shown in more menacing glory when he appears in person to apprehend the Exile, but Kreia, your first companion, steps in to buy time and challenges Sion. A cut scene plays, and the two converse in such a way to imply a deep past with each other. After this, he ceases to appear for much of the game or until the player goes to the world of Korriban, where Sion makes his only other appearance before the end of the game. He is quickly supplanted by Darth Nihilus as the primary threat in the greater story. Ultimately, he re-enters a servant role to his previous master, making him a secondary antagonist-- one with relatively little involvement in the plot aside from the beginning and the end.
Darth Nihilus is the perceived main threat for much of KOTOR 2, being a predatory revenant of hunger lurking in the dark places of the galaxy, devouring life-- notably, the world of Katarr, and the Jedi meeting there in secret. Their only goal to feed, and become more powerful. But, when examined, Nihilus is almost a non-character, more akin to a plot device than meaningful actor. It's mentioned by Kreia and another companion Visas Marr that Nihilus is no longer "truly a man anymore", instead being a creature of the Force, driven only by primal and eldritch hunger. They are only encountered once at the end of the game, where the Exile and companions defeat them while they attempt to feed upon the world of Telos. For all the buildup, Darth Nihilus is less of a full character, and more of an event.
Darth Traya, or Kreia, is a party member for much of the game. Indeed, she is the first person to join you. In the greater plot, however, she is the primary antagonist of KOTOR 2, with either being directly or indirectly responsible for most events of the game. Indirectly by being a master & teacher of Revan, and later to Darth Sion & Nihilus, then manipulating party members such as Atton and Disciple, "saving" Hanharr on Nar Shaddaa, and tricking Colonel Tobin into luring her former student to Telos and force a conflict to destroy the last of the Sith and Jedi. During the course of the game, you have many chances to question Kreia on her beliefs, with her responses being usually vague or cryptic, and often turned back on the Exile as questions of her own. She exalts in her self-appointed role as teacher to the main character. She will speak at great lengths about the failings of the Jedi and Sith teachings, subtly implying she knows a better path. At the beginning of the endgame, the Exile returns to Dantooine with Kreia, and whether Light or Dark, Kreia will condemn the Jedi and Sith, and reveal a crucial character motivation;
"I merely wished them to see that they and their teachings were wrong. That one could not truly understand the Force simply by adhering to the Jedi Code. All I have ever trained have been failures to them, students who went to fight the Mandalorians, who fell to the dark side, who abandoned their training. To see one that had the strength to best them, that is a moment I will not forget."
This led to her later joining her former students in fighting the Mandalorians, which led to her finding Trayus Core upon Malachor V, becoming Darth Traya and taking Sion and Nihilus as students. They then betrayed her, their master, stripping her of the Force. Having fallen from both the Jedi and Sith, she sought the Exile to prove that her teachings were correct, and that neither of her prior allegiances saw the whole truth. Out of this desire, seeped a hate of the Force-- when she was stripped of the Force at the hands of her former students, she saw the galaxy without the Force, likely the first time in her life. From this experience, she comes to believe that no one should wield the Force. From her time in the Mandalorian Wars, she knew of the Exile and their fate, a walking wound in the Force, and sought them out, thus leading to the events of the game.
Kreia is a fully realized villain, and is often a strong lingering memory that haunts those that see the story to the end; a teacher that has seen much, knows much, but is still haunted and brought down by their own failings in their life, as a Jedi, a Sith, and as a teacher. There is incredible pathos to her story.
While the presentation is somewhat chaotic, KOTOR 2 has some of the most iconic villains in pre-Disney Star Wars extended universe, the way that they interact in the story enhances it greatly. Both Sion and Nihilus being supplanted and revealed as something akin to red herrings for Kreia, it matches the greatly subdued tone from the previous game, and overall grandiose space-opera tropes for the greater fiction as a whole, making the Sith Triumvirate a truly memorable set of villains.
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