Bastila vs Malak

[Gheralt]

Howdy, folks.

 

I've been reading some St. Augustine, some Dante, and some CS Lewis, because, well, that's what I study in school! With that in mind, let's get to the meat of the thread.

 

The scene in the Leviathan always bothered me. I spanked Malak all over the place a few times without breaking a sweat, and Bastila 'martyrs' herself to save my posterior. I said, "Do what?"

 

I've no idea whether BioWare anticipated the average player being able to whoop on Malak with little trouble, but it sure seemed odd that Bastila sacrificed herself for basically no reason. I coulda killed 'em mahself, yessuh!

 

Then after reading some of the authors above, and remembering Bastila's chief vices, I got to thinking, and I came to a conclusion.

 

Why did she do it? Pride!

 

We hear from her that she always dreamed that she would be the one to take out Malak. That dream implies two things, especially once we know Revan is, well, Revan:

 

1) She doesn't imagine Revan will be doing it.

2) She imagines that she has the wherewithal to do it.

 

Now, after getting paralyzed a few times and witnessing me (Revan!) beating Malak senseless, it might be that she thought, "Well, if /he/ can do it, surely /I/ can do it!" So, she 'sacrificed' herself.

 

I use quotes because I don't much thing she meant to be a martyr. Rather, I think she suspected she had the stuff necessary to win that fight. As we all know, she didn't! Now, was she humbled? No, suh! When strapped to Malak's TortureTableOfDoom<tm>, she remains proud. "I'll never fall to the dark side!" (Tee-hee!) Why does she fall? Well, there's that stupid pride again. She wasn't able to beat Malak while following the Light, and she thought to herself, "I'm surely better than Revan! Why, I beat Revan! That's what I'm known for, right?"

 

We see in the Starforge that she believed the dark side would give her the strength to defeat Revan. Why would she want to defeat Revan? Damn. There's that word again! Pride!

 

It is only after Revan trounces her a few times and professes his genuine love for her that she is humbled and focuses her attention outside of herself. That is, it's not so much "What I'm able to do" and "What the council has trusted me to do, but sincere attention to someone else's feelings.

 

Or perhaps I'm being overly optimistic. Even when being redeemed, she says, and I'm paraphrasing, "I can thank of nothing safer than to be loved by you." Note the use of passive voice. Not "You love me," but "I am loved by you." She's the subject, even there! Ah well. Our proud Jedi Princess has a long road ahead, methinks. Comments? Questions?

 

--Gheralt

[Evil]

Your right. She is pride. And she show that very often.

But somehow her 'pride' is what i love about her.

 

But your right. Her 'sacrifice' is dumb. Malak was so weak i barly finished him alone, and then she - and shes weaker then me - sacrifice herself?

Strange.

 

It seems like the jedi woman like to do sutch things. Bastila did it, and also Kreia did it. Remember the first meet with Sion, she sacrifices her self for the exile and loses her hand.

Also, Bastila loved Revan (oh and i love her two ^^) and Kreia somehow loved the exile. He was all she ever wanted, the perfect apprentice. So its a kind of love. Maybe they want to protect they're hero at any cost, even when hes strong enough to take it?

[Gargantuan]

Bastilla threw herself because if not then the game would have been unfun. I think she was even credited in the credits for helping the game design along as 'convenient plot progress device'.

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

They had to do it that way. If you beat Malak on the Leviathan then the game would be over. Thank you and goodbye. So it had to be that way so you could find the last starmap and then the SF and whip Malak there instead.

[Saint]

Yes, let's not forget that the ease in which we defated Malak is a part of the game mechanics, not the storyline. Which is also why Malak is able to somehow "perma-stasis" everyone including Revan. It doesn't make any sense with the game mechanic - at most the stasis should last like 20 seconds but no matter how long you run around looking for Malak Bastila and Carth stay frozen. That's why the Bastila sacrific things happens in a cutscene, where game mechanics are not an issue. Because let's be honest, at that point in the game, if I only had Bastila to use as a PC I'd still be able to beat Malak. Its only due to the story that Malak is as powerful as he is.