A'Gaeris

Eh, Mace was kind of a one-dimensional, action figure oriented, bubble gum character anyway. I don't care if he's Samuel Jackson- Mace was all hype and no substance.

Yeah, I doubt the company responsible for the BG, IWD, Fallout, and Torment games can ever take a project too big for them. What has Bioware made that has been stellar outside of their association with Black Isle? NWN? That game barely had a story. And KOTOR? I couldn't believe it when I realized they just recycled the story from NWN and put it in space. Bioware makes great worlds, but can't seem to populate them with anything of interest. Black Isle- Obsidian can.

Why? What can ensure more immediate and total power than the Dark Side? If Revan saw a threat from the Sith, then maybe he was right to try and to take the plunge and conquer the Republic. If you look at the Republic's history in the last century, it seems to have been woefully unprepared for every crisis that's hit it. It wasn't ready for the Jedi Civil War, nor the Mandalorian invasion, nor Exar Kun 40 years before that. If the Sith Empire is as bad as Kreia seems to suggest, it's not so hard to imagine that Revan sacrificed himself to guarantee the galaxy's survival. Comparing him to Palpatine isn't so great an analogy. Palpatine manipulated events to gain power. Revan fell almost over night, and was careful to preserve the Republic's infrastructure when he did attack. Everything seems to suggest he had no intention of continuing to harness the dark side energy of the Star Forge, which is what eventually led to his overthrow by Malak. Not everything has to be as black and white as is traditionally Star Wars, as even our history shows us that we can't classify major world leaders as strictly heroic or villainous.

And that's really the great crime here. The best part of KOTOR I were the sequences that described Revan and his accomplishments. The man saved the galaxy and was worshipped even by the people he destroyed. You really got some sense of awe from him. Then you became him. Except you didn't, really. After that little revelation, you're not the manipulator or strategist Revan is. You're never allowed to display that savage cunning he's rumoured to possess. You're meant to be the great man, but no matter what path you take, it's either Bastilla or Jolee who call the shots. How can you really *be* Lord Revan when you've been treated like a child the entire game, even unto the end? KOTOR II vindicated Revan, made him much more complex than we previously saw. He had a purpose to his fall which went far beyond the black and white villain crap Bioware gave us. Revan went beyond the stereotypes associated with the Light Side and the Dark Side; he controlled them to meet his goals, not the other way around. Like Kreia says, Revan is power, and KOTOR I didn't do enough to show this. Playing KOTOR II and listening to what the NPCs had to say of Revan made you look back and think, "Good God, I was a bad ass," which should have been Bioware's objective. They didn't do very well. On the side, for one who really looks at the dialogue in KOTOR II, you may notice that Obsidian takes quite a few subtle pot shots at the simplicity in the original. From HK's dialogue to the direction of the game itself, it seems like somebody thought Bioware's efforts were quite lacking. I think that's precious.