Awesome / Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

A new Mandalore has risen.

General

• "Definition: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope." Now this is a pretty cool line in and of itself, but what makes it awesome is when he clarified his metaphor and it makes sense: "Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose... against statistically long odds."
• The combined hilarity and sheer awesomeness of HK's interactions with the Exile are possibly the best reason to choose The Dark Side in this game. Read the dialogue below and be awestruck (alternatively: horrified) at the way that a Dark-side Jedi Exile can spread enough suffering and misery to impress even a ruthless assassination droid. Keep in mind that this droid was built by Darth Revan. Darth motherfucking Revan. When he was a Sith Lord.
  HK-47: Statement: Master, I must say it is a pleasure working side by side with you.
  Exile: If you have a long-winded explanation for why, indulge me.
  HK-47: Statement: Just when I believe my photoreceptors have recorded the last potential aspect of your cruelty to my memory core, you commit a new atrocity that leaves me analyzing its impact for days.
  HK-47: You are like a delightful random cruelty generator, master, poisoning all you touch with your presence. You are a testament to all organic meatbags everywhere.
  Exile: Stick with me - you'll pick up a few things.
  HK-47: Statement: I have already learned a great deal, master, and I am anxious to learn more about lying, betrayal, and new ways to harm innocents.
• Kreia is practically a walking Moment of Awesome. Let us count the ways.
  • Burrowing into Atton's mind and holding his darkest secrets over his head. When the Exile finally gets him to spill the beans, he thinks it will free him from her. She practically mocks him as she tells him how she can make his life a living hell, then dismisses his laughable attempt at escape.
  • Messing with the Disciple's head by standing right in front of him yet being invisible to his sight, apparently for no other reason than she can. She also robs his memory of the end-game plot when he figures it out. Poor guy's brain is like a library no one returns books to. Also, the fact that she had to rob his memory of the end-game plot is an awesome moment for the Disciple. He figures out what no-one else does, and Kreia has to go straight to pure Force-usage to manipulate him in the direction she wants, because she can't break him with words.
  • On the light-side path, saving Hanharr then forcing him to kneel, putting a berserker Wookiee whose idea of a life-debt is to kill the one he owes it to under her heel. Contrast with the relationship a dark side Exile can have with him: eventually they swear to become each others' blood brother.
  • The mere fact that she is able to walk right next to all four masters and not a one of them ever notices unless it's pointed out to them.
  • Better yet, she wins even if she loses. Her goal is not power but philosophy, to weaken the bounds of morality on the Sith and Jedi who have become narrow minded. Even when she dies, the only Jedi or Sith left are you and your disciples. Aka her disciple. Everything that follows in the entire Star Wars Galaxy is a result of her disciple.
  • Kreia almost effortlessly convincing Atris that she's evil. Remember how Holier Than Thou Atris is; Kreia's that good.
  • When you face Kreia, you can threaten to activate the Mass Shadow Generator there and then, killing her and you. She'll call your bluff, asking the Exile if they would really kill her without first learning why she betrayed them — and given that you don't get the option to follow through, it seems to work. She's just that good at what she does.
  • When you're on you way to Onderon with Mandalore's help Kreia confronts and tells him what she knows about the Mandalorians and Revan. Mandalore is a old, experienced solder who usually is very stoic and Kreia can creep out even him.
    Mandalore: (to Zuka) "Forget the Jedi. Keep your eyes on her."
• More of a gameplay thing, but Bao-Dur and Handmaiden both have additional feats in melee combat if they're not carrying any weapons. That's right, you can have two (although Handmaiden is better at it) Bare-Fisted Monk in combat while lasers are flying everywhere.
  • There are gloves made for melee combat that can help either of them become even deadlier. Not to mention the perks they get should you train them as Jedi.
• When you convince the Handmaiden to become a Jedi, Kreia uses the Force to send Atris a single word: Betrayal. It's chilling and awesome at the same time.
  • Slightly more awesome is that the Exile can agree to teach her by using Loophole Abuse in their favor. The Handmaiden's vow to Atris states that she can never learn the ways of the Jedi. However, it says nothing about her being forbidden to learn the ways of the Force.
• It's possible to actually turn HK-47 to the light side by performing Light-sided actions in front of him while still choosing enough Dark-sided actions to unlock his bonuses. Sure, he still acts the same, but seeing HK with a blue background on the party select screen is something to behold. The same applies for G0-T0.
• The Exile actually manages to turns their own banishment into an awesome moment. After being ordered to relinquish their lightsaber, without saying a word, the Exile defiantly buries the blade into the centre stone of the Council Chamber, before turning around and walking out on them.
  • Which becomes even better, as despite the Exile essentially telling them exactly where they can shove it, some of the Jedi Masters present appear to be both amused and impressed by this act of defiance.
• The Exile can teach their companions to use the force and become Jedi (or Sith). By getting to know them and gaining their trust they are able to awaken the power that they've always had but never knew was there. The moment is powerful and moving on an emotional level. Each moment is uniquely awesome as well.
  • After completing the third round of her sparring, Handmaiden confesses that she desires to learn the ways of the Force. Admitting that she's come to know the Exile better than Atris who she has served her whole life. Choosing to break her oath to follow in the footsteps of her mother.
  • After hearing Mira describe how natural it is for her to hunt targets, the Exile takes her back to where Kreia showed them to feel the Force currents on Nar Shaddaa. Using the same words Kreia did, the Exile helps Mira realize that she's been tapping into the Force the whole time.
  • It's entirely possible to have what should be novice Jedi/Sith force users take on and kill scores of fully trained Sith by the end game. Shown best by Atton taking on and potentially downing Darth Sion at the Trayus Academy.
  • Forget about Force users, it's entirely possible to get party members unable to feel the Force, or even droids, to defeat scores of Dark Side users. Seeing Mandalore, who is basically an old guy in a cool suit of armor, beating a fully trained Dark Jedi or two with a sword is a thing of pure beauty. This is best put on example when Mandalore is locked into your party when facing Darth fucking Nihilus. Of the three party members present, the other being Nihilus' old sith apprentice and the Exile herself, Mandalore is the most ideal choice of the three to be the main party tank.
• With a high enough Awareness skill, the Exile can determine that someone has turned an entire sector of the Outer Rim blind to the Force by wiping out the Force-sensitive Miraluka colony of Katarr, making it easier to move freely or strike without warning in that sector.
  Kreia: The Mandalorians were right to respect you on the field of battle.
• Despite the HK units sharing a voice actor and identical speech patterns, they somehow managed to give each one a distinct personality. That's something that most modern games can't get a grasp on!

Prologue and Peragus II

Prologue - The Ebon Hawk

• An HK-50 droid gets one if you play through the prologue — even Sephiroth's fire walk isn't this badass.
• T3-M4 jury-rigs the crippled Ebon Hawk and brings it in for a safe landing in deserted mining colony... after navigating through an asteroid field. By himself.
  • Which is then completely disbelieved by his companions as you escape Peragus, when the droid attempts to explain how they all survived.

Peragus Mining Facility

• Peragus itself is a Moment of Awesome for the HK-50s. Arriving on the station unprepared, a single assassin droid manages to improvise, in a matter of days, a way to quietly slaughter practically all organic life in the entire complex.
  Mocking Query: Coorta? Coorta? Are you dead yet?
  • Made more awesome when you consider that the droid did everything indirectly, managing to get everyone killed in ways where the blame was always placed on someone else. A Chessmaster if ever there was.
• The Peragus Security Officer put up a good show in his investigation of the accidents riddling the facility, considering how all the other miners and personnel acted during the crisis. He had already started to close in on the Maintenance Officer, whom HK-50 was impersonating, and was mere steps away from shutting down the administration level droids to reprogram them himself and figure out how the sabotage was done and who was responsible. His body is the only one of the senior personnel that is not visually identified, but he was most likely killed at some point before the Exile's awakening given that he was unable to put his plan into effect. Even then, his personal logs can help the Exile start piecing together what happened and even finish what the Security Officer started with the administration level droids.
• Piecing together everything that happened requires a complete and thorough investigation of every terminal, every log and every possible investigative dialogue option available both on the Peragus Mining Station and aboard the Harbinger. And as a reward, you get to shut down HK-50's threat with an amazing comeback:
  HK-50: Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke. I suggested you should shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue.
  Exile: No, you were clear. I just don't listen to assassin droids.
• Atton gets some flak throughout the game for crash landing the party repeatedly. However, during the escape from Peragus he manages to maneuver the small freighter through a volatile asteroid field while avoiding fire from the turbolaser cannons of the warship Harbinger, getting the ship out unscathed and jumping to hyperspace just as the field begins to explode.

Telos IV

• A bounty hunter infiltrated Citadel Station to kill the Exile, initially intending to overload the party's force cages, and then to simply deactivate the Exile's cage and make it look like an attempted prison break. Instead, Atton manages to goad him in a fight, and the overconfident killer decides to deactivate all three force cages and take Kreia, Atton and the Exile on all at once. The late assassin learned too late that indeed, "an old woman, a fool, and a broken Jedi" are more than a match for his skills, even while unarmed.
• The Telos Academy is looked after by a squad of Handmaidens, almost all identical to one another. Behave like anything but a doormat to them in dialogue, and the possibility of fighting them in a martial arts duel arises. The Exile is an incredibly skilled martial artist, and she beats one, then two, until eventually you're fighting all of the Handmaidens at once except for the one they deem to be the weakest among them. Win, and you will have taught them a lesson in humility and punished them for bullying their sister.
• Telos has no traditional final boss fight so to speak of, with the last real combat before the climax with Atris being the HK-50 ambush at the Polar Plateau. Instead, the "final boss fight" is delivered entirely through dialogue with Atris. It's not often that the player gets to achieve a Moment of Awesome in dialogue, but the conversation with Atris in the return to the Telos Academy allows you to virtually dethrone her on the debating field in whatever way you please. Here's just one way in particular:
  Exile: Our teachings do not mean we should stand by and watch others die.
  Atris: There was no guarantee that marching to war would have saved the Outer Rim. In fact, quite the opposite.
  Exile: We could have waited, but defeating the Mandalorians after they had won would have been difficult.
  Atris: There are victories other than physical ones: the real victory lay in th-
  Exile: The triumph of the Jedi teachings is a cold thing when there is no one left alive to appreciate them.
  Atris: You do not kno-
  Exile: You are correct- I do not know. And neither do you.
  Atris: (Enraged) How dare you? The Mandalorian Wars should have been your grave and Malachor V is where you should have died!
  Exile: Your anger... is it because you secretly wish you'd had the strength to follow me to war?
  Atris: (Flustered) What? What do you mean?
  Exile: I can see it in you - you wanted to fight by my side, but you were too scared to defy the Council.

Dxun and Onderon

• The trials you have to beat to secure transport to Onderon while the Hawk is being repaired.
  • Slaughtering a jungle beast that even Mandalorians try to avoid.
    • Convincing a disgraced recruit to assist with this so that he can earn the honor that he missed out on.
  • Beating the Mandalorian champion in their fighting circle, after fighting your way through every other participant.
  • Fighting through several members of the Onderon army, who are specifically looking for you.
    • While you do that, the Mandalorian who sends you to do it is also busy. When you meet him again, he's surrounded by a good half a dozen corpses, and he's no worse for wear.
• When you finish every task and are about to depart to Onderon, Sith Assassins assault the Mandalorian camp. You help drive them out in what's likely the largest single battle in the game.
  • The same guy who fought off the Onderon army goons gets the drop on a couple of unsuspecting Sith Assassins while stealthed.
    Kelborn: You didn't think you were the only ones with stealth generators, did you?
• Killing the two bounty hunter gangs in the Western Square results in establishing one hell of a reputation. The local thugs find out about it and give you a wide berth, telling you they don't want to cross you. The beast-rider thugs in the Cantina don't even believe it was you, saying that only some sort of crazed wookiee could pull something like that off. The death toll is significant enough that it was reported on the news hologram, and Iziz citizens believe the corpse trail left behind by the party is a result of a gang war. And to top it off, one of the dock workers heard a rumor that some sort of Sith Lord was killing people with his mind (which on a Dark Side path may not be too far off from the truth).

Onderon Civil War

• Master Kavar sums things up quite nicely when he feels the Exile returning, setting the expectations for the conclusion of the civil war.
  • If you take the path of the Light Side, the volume of faith he has in the Exile is shown in his confidence that the tables are about to be turned on Vaklu and his allies.
    Kavar: There is hope... It is faint, but it is growing stronger. I think my message was received.
    Talia: Which message? What are you talking about?
    Kavar: An old student is returning. I don't think the Sith are going to know what hit them.
  • On the Dark Side, Kavar realizes that the Royalists' situation has only become more dire and bleak.
    Kavar: I think the situation has gotten even worse.
    Talia: Worse? How is that even possible?
    Kavar: It can always get worse. An old student is returning. I fear for us all.
• Whichever side you've chosen to support earlier promises you safe passage to Onderon, but the Mandalorians highly doubt that given the civil war is reaching its peak. So they offer the Exile an alternative: a salvaged Basilisk War Droid, which the Exile's party takes to divebomb the city. The Mandalorians here sure know how to make an entrance.
• After crashing into the ruins of the Merchant Quarter with the Basilisk War Droid and wiping out the Onderonian forces there, who believe that whichever side you've allied with has made a pact with the Mandalorians, you and your party break through the opposing Onderonian forces' lines and charge through entire armies of enemies, defusing tons of traps that lie in your way between you and the Queen. And best of all, after basically an entire game of Mooks displaying Suicidal Overconfidence and trying stupidly to kill you for the bounty on Jedi, they finally begin to give you a Jedi's due respect and cower at the mere sight of your rampage.
  Commander: Run! Run!
  Exile: Finally, someone has the right idea. Go ahead and run.
• On the Light Side path, the Exile and their crew get to be The Cavalry. Vaklu is breaching the palace as the Basilisk War Droid lands and is about to have Talia executed by his men before the Exile intervenes. From the Royalists' perspective, this is their Darkest Hour, but arriving just in the nick of time is the Jedi Exile, who single-handedly dismantles Vaklu's entire rear guard and air support before marching into the palace and retaking control of the consoles and entering the throne room in time to stop Vaklu, who subtly freaks out.
  Vaklu: What?! The Jedi lives? But how?
• Talia holds her own admirably in single combat against Vaklu with a double-bladed vibrosword, forcing him to retreat and order his men to gun her down, or get the Exile to kill her if they've sided with him. Even against a Dark Side Exile she's a fairly tough Duel Boss, coming up immediately after the fight with Kavar.
• On the Dark Side path, after Talia's death the Exile can ask Vaklu why he would risk asking them for assistance. Vaklu's response is to list the Exile's credentials ever since re-entering Republic space, saying that only someone so indomitable could change Onderon's fate. As thanks for the aid they've given to Onderon, he then ensures that Izis will be a safe haven for them if the Republic ever seeks to hunt them down as reprisal for helping Onderon secede.
  Vaklu: Because I had faith in you. I know who you are... You're the last of the Jedi, hunted by the Exchange, the Sith, and the Hutt-spawn knows who else. They've thrown everything they have to capture and kill you, but you cannot be stopped. If anyone could save us from our fate... it was you.

Dantooine

• A minor moment is the circumstances behind finding the Disciple. Early on if you talk to Khoonda militia, they'll talk about how an unarmed scholar walked into the ruins of the Jedi Enclave sublevel and how they'll never see him again. The threat represented by the laigreks that dwell in the sublevel is increased by the somewhat-armed salvagers that refuse to return to the ruins to save their last companion even though he's the one with all their valuable loot. The Disciple, alone and unarmed, made his way across the sublevel to the archives, where the Exile then finds him. Reading.
• As imperious as he can be, one cannot deny Master Vrook his sheer awesomeness when he's found captured by a band of mercenaries. When you show up to rescue him, this old man chews you out for screwing up his plan, which apparently involved his supposed capture.
• Siding with the settlers means that the Exile, in a short time span, manages to organize a rural militia into a force mighty enough to fend off an attack from a much more numerous group of professional mercenaries, some of which even received Sith training.
  • The Exile's Rousing Speech when organizing the militia (if you choose to make one) before the actual battle deserves some credit.
    Exile: (after picking the option "Tell them this is their chance to make history") Dantooine's short history has been a constant tale of rugged people surmounting difficult odds. Never have the odds been so great, nor the future so uncertain... but today is your chapter, your tale. Generations yet born will look upon the upcoming battle with pride and wonder. I will not lie, the risks are great. The threat real, but I would stand beside any of you proudly as we face our destiny on this field of battle. This is our day, our valiant chance to free Dantooine. Who will fight beside me?

Nar Shaddaa

• The Exile gets lured into a trap at the Jekk-Jekk Tarr, a bar in which the very air is lethal to humans. However with Kreia's timely help the Exile proceeds to get back up and go about slaughtering dozens of hostiles. Even if you're light-sided, Hanharr will start singing your praises to the local Arc Villain as he watches you go. The Exile can't die and they can't be stopped.
• As the Exile attempts to break into the hideout, the game cuts to a showdown between Mira and Hanharr, depending on the route you're taking for this planet. As Hanharr, it's a rather easy Curb-Stomp Battle since he's a melee powerhouse, but as Mira you're at a slight disadvantage. If you intend to initiate Mira as a Jedi, there's even incentive to not immediately use all of Mira's level-ups, meaning that the fight and subsequent breakout is a lot harder due to you missing several levels. It's not impossible, and completing this segment with the handicap is quite satisfying.
• G0-T0 maneuvers his way to a powerful position in the Exchange without ever showing himself personally — all anyone ever sees are holograms. Get enough influence with him, and you can learn that this is because he's just a droid. An accountant droid. Then there's his bit on Malachor V: "The galaxy will be reduced to anarchy within years. And if there's one thing I can't stand, it's an untidy galaxy."
  • "I prefer more predictable games, like galactic economics." That doesn't sound awesome until you think about it: this whole time, galactic economics have been a game to this guy, though to be fair, it makes manipulating the normally un-manipulatable a little easier if you use methods like 'send twenty assassin droids to blow up this guy's house' at the slightest provocation.
• When Hanharr is choking Mira, she looks right in his eyes and tells him that if he kills her, her rockets will blow them both right off the planet.
• With Goto trying to steal the Exile for himself and leaving the bounty hunters of Nar Shaddaa high and dry, the bounty hunter truce is off and every gang and two-bit hunter on the Smuggler's Moon is gunning for each other, Goto, and the crew of the Ebon Hawk. The resulting gang war ended with almost every notable bounty hunter on Nar Shaddaa dead or seriously injured, and put an end to Goto and the Exchange's operations on Nar Shaddaa due to the deaths of most of the Exchange's upper echelons in the Refugee Sector and the destruction of Goto's yacht. In spite of the numbers pitted against them, the Ebon Hawk and her crew came out on top.
• When Goto has captured the Exile, a plan is hatched to obtain access to Goto's ship by making the Ebon Hawk broadcast the ID of one of Goto's freighters. The only problem is, as Mira or Hanharr tells the others, those can only be found in a warehouse that's locked down and operated completely by droids. Smash Cut to T3-M4 at the entrance of the warehouse, somehow ahead of everyone else as he is in the middle of a ruse of being sold to help operate the place.

Korriban

• Plunging through the ruins of the Sith academy where Sith assassins and wild beasts wait around every corner. Not to mention standing up to Sion, who shows up just at the end.
  • Even more impressive if you travel to Korriban right after leaving Telos. You're fending off one of the Sith Lords responsible of hunting down and killing the remnants of the Jedi Order, and you're doing it with maybe a sword and a couple of blaster pistols.
• The cave where the Exile sees the visions of their past can be an awesome moment as well. And if going through a cave filled with monsters both real and of their memories was not enough, it all culminates against a fight against an image of Revan themself.
  • The first trial that greets you as soon as you enter makes the Exile relive the past Malak trying to recruit the Jedi to the Mandalorian War. Naturally, you are posed the question of what you would do, with the benefit of hindsight — defy the Council to end the Mandalorian War with Malak and Revan, or stay loyal to the Council and prolong the suffering inflicted by the War? But for those not interested in the Light-Dark dichotomy, a third option is "I wouldn't do anything differently. My choices have made me the person I am today."
  • The second trial makes the Exile relive a point in the Mandalorian Wars where they lost a lot of soldiers to a mined-out chokepoint. You can opt to redeem this situation by going forward to disarm the mines, though it's also perfectly valid to just face-tank the mines yourself to clear the path for the soldiers' safety.

End Game

Rebuilt Jedi Enclave

• Kreia's Face–Heel Turn for Light Side players, which also doubles as Nice Job Breaking It, Hero. After you gather the Jedi Masters on Dantooine, they tell you that you are a liability, and must be cut off from the Force if the Jedi are to have any hope of survival. Once they have you in stasis, in walks Kreia, who is, SURPRISE, still fully Sith. Here's the awesomeness: she Force pushes all three back, pushes Vrook again when he tries to get up, and then she epically chews them out, before using the Force to sever the Masters' own connection to the Force, killing them instantly:
  Kreia: Step away! He/She has brought truth, and you condemn it? The arrogance! You will not harm him/her. You will not harm him/her ever again.
  Kavar: I thought you had died in the Mandalorian Wars!
  Kreia: Die? No; became stronger, yes.
  Vrook: Is this your new master, Exile? If so, then you follow Revan's path. Her teachings will cause you to fall as surely as he did!
  Zez-Kai-El: She is...difficult to see. She's like a shadow of the Exile. (ignites lightsaber) We sought to lure the Sith out, and now they have come to us.
  Kreia: How could you ever hope to know the threat you face, when you have never walked in the dark places of the galaxy, faced war and death on such a scale? If you had traveled far enough, rather than waiting for the echo to reach you, perhaps you would have seen it for what it was. There is a place in the galaxy where the dark side of the Force runs strong. It is something of the Sith, but it was fueled by war. It corrupts all that walks on its surface, drowns them in the power of the dark side, it corrupts all life. And it feeds on death. Revan knew the power of such places…and the power in making them. They can be used to break the will of others, of Jedi, promising them power, and turning them to the dark side. Did you never wonder how Revan corrupted so many of the Jedi, so much of the Republic, so quickly? The Mandalorian Wars were a series of massacres that masked another war, a war of conversion…culminating in a final atrocity that no Jedi could walk away from—save one.
  (Turns to the Exile) And that is what I sought to understand. How one could turn away from such power, give up the Force…and still live. But I see what happened now. It is because you were afraid(light side)/you had no choice(dark side).
  As you would pass judgment on him/her, I have come to pass judgment on you all. Do you wish to feel the teachings born of the Mandalorian Wars? Of all wars, of all tragedies that scream across the galaxy?! Let me show you, you, who have forever seen the galaxy through the Force! See it through the eyes of the Exile.
  (Kreia forcibly severs the Masters' connection to the Force)
  • The implication of her speech isn't that she wanted the Jedi Council to die. Rather, she sees that they stood in front of the Exile (her prize pupil, the embodiment of her teachings), and yet again took away the wrong lesson. She's not trying to kill them. She's trying to open them up to the same pain and awareness the Exile had experienced - and they couldn't take it. And that pain and suffering that the Exile has survived, she had too. Through this final act of cutting them off from the Force, she proves that she was right. She did not kill them. They died from the shock of being cut from the Force because they rely on it as if it is required to survive. Yet the Exile survived without it. The Exile is the pure embodiment that her teachings were true. That the reliance of the Jedi on the Force only serves to make them weak in the long run.
  • The Restored Content Mod restructures a bit of her cutting speech to the Jedi Masters and also includes a few lines personally addressing each one.
    Kreia: Did you not hear its call on Dantooine, Vrook? On its scarred surface, and in the minds of the settlers? I have endured your corruption of my other students, you shall not have this one.
    And you, Kavar, so close to the call of Dxun, tell me: did you not feel what poured from the moon, what had taken place there?
    And Zez-Kai-El, to hide upon Nar Shaddaa, yet blind yourself to all that happens there. So close to understanding the Force, so close to giving it up.
• If you take the dark side path and kill the Jedi Masters yourself, Kreia sends you off to Dantooine to find the "Last of the Jedi." What you find instead is an empty chamber, since you've just about driven them into extinction. Kreia then enters, explains the situation, and asks if killing the Jedi calmed your rage. Your answer is invariably no. "Then you have failed me," she remarks coldly. "Completely and utterly." She then drains the life from you, and chews you out for leaving nothing but death, destruction, and the end of everything in your wake. All you're left with is the hope that maybe you'll learn something.
  Kreia: I have taught you to feel the Force again, shown you the contrast, and yet still you do not understand! This is what you have wrought: countless murderers, slayers, assassins, born of war that has, as always, taught the wrong lesson. You showed them life without the Force — and instead of showing them truth, power, all you showed them was how the galaxy may die. You are responsible for all of this; even now, events spiral towards destruction, and there is nothing that can be done because you refuse to listen, to understand! You have seen the effects you have on those close to you, heard the echo scream across dead planets, and watched as your strength has grown, yet it is for nothing. To have the Jedi Masters brought low by such a failure, there is no victory in that. You have not heard a thing I have taught, and for all I have said, you have never learned to listen.
  Vrook was right to come here, though he did not recognize the connection until too late. This place will hide you from the Sith for a time — enough to do what must be done. (Bitterly) You were my last hope; the only one who could change what is to come. And now you have left me with nothing. I shall teach you no longer: our bond remains, but that is all. Stay here and die, apprentice, among the wreckage of all that remains of the Jedi. It is a fitting grave, until the Sith come to end you... to end everything. And as you lie here, I pray you will listen... and finally awaken.
  • In the Restored Content Mod, instead of draining the Exile's life force, she instead punishes them by piercing herself with her own lightsaber, using their Force Bond to deliver unimaginable pain right into their brain. And then she gets up and walks away, leaving The Exile withering in agony. Awesomeness incarnate.
    Kreia: There — do you feel that, Exile? It cuts through your defenses — as unprepared for such an attack as you are. Let that pain be a lesson — and a reminder of what you have forgotten.

Return to Telos Academy

• The Handmaiden's return to Telos in the endgame to confront Kreia and Atris. She's stopped by her sisters, who declare her a traitor and attack her, still blindly loyal to Atris. Cue a Fade to Black, followed by The Handmaiden walking away from her unconscious sisters.
• For an informal Jedi apprentice, the Handmaiden holds her own fairly well against a fully-fledged Jedi Master. It takes Atris repeatedly battering her with Force Lightning to subdue her.
• The male Exile gets an extra round against Atris due to arriving just before Atris was about to execute the Handmaiden.
  Atris: There is no love in that one. He is a shell, devoid of emotion. All that he was died at Malachor, and he dies there still, as he should.
  The Exile walks in from the other entrance.
  Atris: So... one exile has arrived to save another.

Battle of Telos IV

• Whether you're Light Side or Dark Side, watching major allies from some of the planets you've visited arrive to reinforce the Telos Security Force when Darth Nihilus attacks is awesome. If you're Light Side, Zherron and the Khoonda Militia arrive from Dantooine while Onderonian Royalists arrive from Onderon. If you're Dark Side, Azkul and his mercenaries arrive from Dantooine while Vaklu soldiers arrive from Onderon. But all come to assist Citadel Station in its darkest hour.
• The Republic Fleet arriving to help Citadel Station. The Republic may be dying and crumbling internally from the economic crisis of rebuilding the worlds destroyed in the Jedi Civil War and from strife between members, but when a Sith fleet arrives to lay siege to Citadel Station, it's clear that the Republic will not go down without a fight. If Carth Onasi is present, he makes it clear that he has no intention of letting the Sith destroy his homeworld twice.
• When boarding the Ravager, the Sith troopers align themselves to protect the ship's docking entrance from the boarding Mandalorians à la A New Hope... And they blow up the wall to enter instead, killing everyone in the room. Mandalore then slowly walks through the flames and after a quick briefing, proceeds to say that they'll be the ones to finish this, and remind the galaxy of Malachor V. Again, the Mandalorians really know how to make an entrance.
• When Darth Nihilus attempts to feed on the Exile, he is damaged because he feeds on the Force, but the Jedi Exile is a wound in the Force. This weakens the already starving Nihilus and you get to finish him off pretty easily.
  • You can (pretend to) swear allegiance to Nihilus and offer yourself for him to feed. He is weakened by this attempt, and the Exile can either rub the turn of events in Nihilus's face, or reply with a sarcastic "What's wrong, Master?"

Malachor V

• The endgame of KOTOR II is a Moment of Awesome for the Exile, who assaults an entire Sith academy, killing numerous Sith Assassins, Marauders, and Lords singlehandedly. By the time you've reach that point, you've got enough Force Powers and bonuses to let you wipe out entire rooms by mashing your AOE Force Powers, slowly pounding single enemies into the ground with Force Crush, or turbo-charging yourself with Force Enlightenment for 3 buffs at once so you can cleave through the legions of enemies personally. Sit down, Palpatine, the Exile is the true master of Force Lightning.
• Killing Sion by actually Talking the Monster to Death. When he questions how the Exile had the strength to defeat him despite refusing power at Malachor V, the Exile replies that true strength is when offered ultimate power, choosing to walk away from it. To surrender to it only turns a person into its slave... like Sion is!
  Darth Sion: The Force is who I am - the dark side fills me. It is what I am.
  Exile: And Kreia hates the Force, even as she wields it. If the Force is what you are, then that is what she despises.
  Sion gets up from the ground.
  Exile: What kind of life have you lived with the Force flowing through you? Was it worth living?
  Darth Sion: It... it was not. No matter how many I killed... there was no end to the pain... the blades the Force tore though my flesh.
• Bao-Dur and his remote droid both get this when Bao-Dur tries to save the day by ordering the droid to reactivate the Mass Shadow Generator and destroy Malachor V for good. Whether this succeeds will depend on which ending you choose.
• The final boss fight with Kreia/Darth Traya is pretty awesome in its own right. Just when you think you finally beat her and slice her remaining hand off, she starts triple-wielding lightsabers through the Force.

The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod

Several very awesome moments were restored with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod.

• The battle of Dantooine, originally kept as a cutscene in the original game, is fully playable in all its glory. This is especially awesome if you have Tier 3 versions of stun, horror, or lightning (which you can get even if you visit Dantooine first). There's really nothing quite as satisfying as seeing an entire army spring up... then stopping them (quite literally if you use lightning) dead in their tracks. Of course, those three force powers are just awesome by themselves in any crowded room.
• One of the restored sequences involves Kreia teaching you how to fight. She does this by having you fight against Visas with increasingly difficult limitations: first, with one lightsaber, then with two, and then unarmed. Note that you do all of this without items or Force powers, and Visas heals between each and every fight. Even though this fight may be easier than it sounds due to the game handing you a lot of unarmed bonus feats, it doesn't detract from the badassery of the moment.
• The Restored Content Mod expanded the scene between Atton and the Handmaiden when he needs to get something from the cargo hold. As he's walking back to leave the cargo hold, the Handmaiden immediately turns from her practice and strikes at him, prompting him to drop into his Echani fighting stance to parry her attacks. And from this quick interaction she deduces that though he knows the first tier of Echani styles he was also holding back.
• The final fight in Ludo Kressh's Tomb has been upgraded to a fight with a shadow of the Exile, then Revan, back-to-back. Combined, they can put you on your toes.
• The mod makes the Handmaiden's fight against her sisters playable, and guess what? Atris even cruelly comments upon it as it unfolds, expecting the poor Handmaiden to kill her sisters and then shortly fall to the dark side that way. Fortunately, Handmaiden internally repeats a previous lesson about whether one wants to kill, then let their fury fly free, but to do the opposite and merely incapacitate them instead, one needs to properly apply only enough force to render them unconscious, with the TSLRCM mod making so that, if the Handmaiden lowers their HP enough, they'll simply remain stunned for the duration of the fight and vice versa. If you've taken the effort to optimize Handmaiden's battle performance, this is also a great time to revel in the fruits of your efforts.
  Atris: We shall see what the Exile has taught. If she kills her sisters, then the Dark Side will have its claim on her. Yet if she does not, then she will die. Such is sacrifice.
  Handmaiden: (internally) The true test of battle is how much force to bring against opponents - if you wish to kill them, do not hold back. But if you wish to stun them, incapacitate them, then you must choose your attacks carefully, using just the right amount of force, just the right weapon, to stop them.
• You can utterly rip virtually all of Atris's arguments to shreds with a Kirk Summation.
  Atris: When the Sith are destroyed, then I shall rebuild the Jedi Order again. They shall have none of the weaknesses of before, they shall be strong, willing to take battle to any who oppose them and weaken the Republic. They shall not train those who are easily corrupted - no more students that will bring war and hate to the galaxy.
  Exile: Atris... you will make the Jedi into the Sith.
  [...]
  Atris: [The Jedi Masters] live? But... Then there were survivors, as I thought... as I hunted them. And they are cowards, afraid to battle the Sith. They do not have your strength... our strength. Together, we can stop them, put an end to such weakness.
  Exile: Weakness - like when you fled Katarr? And Dantooine?
  Atris: I did not flee. I did what was necessary to fight the Sith - and preserve the last of the Jedi.
  Exile: And you left the Jedi to die on Katarr.
  Atris: Yes... I sensed what would happen on Katarr. It was I who leaked knowledge of its presence in the hopes of drawing the Sith out. I will not deceive you... I knew what could happen there, but it had to be done to make the Sith reveal themselves. But I did not know the extent of their power - and what that meant for the Jedi. I will not underestimate them again.
  Exile: You are responsible for the murder of an entire planet.
  Atris: (coldly) As are we both. You, who brought the screams of Malachor to the galaxy... do not preach to me. You lead by example. You always have. You knew what was necessary at Malachor V, and the stakes in this war are higher than you know - it is a war of extermination, of total annihilation.
• The HK factory becomes an extended one for HK-47 as he goes through it alone, destroying all opposition in his path.
  HK-50 #1: Confused Query: Where are you going?
  HK-50 #2: Ineffectual Command: We command you to stop.
  HK-47: Statement: But you said so yourself. You have just admitted your own weakness. Conclusion: You have just shown me your soft, meatbag-like underbellies, and said, 'HK-47, please shoot me repeatedly there until I die.' Statement: You cannot stop me, you cannot harm me.
  • When the HK-51s are activated and turned to your side, HK-47 takes great pride in turning the tables on the HK-50s, who had been acting smug and superior towards him the entire time he'd been going through the factory. Even the HK-50s admit that they've been outmaneuvered by HK-47.
    HK-47: Statement: Ah, yes. The HK-51 units. They should indeed be coming online soon. Perhaps you will soon experience what I have been experiencing: that slow, crawling feeling of obsolescence.
    HK-50: Confused Query: What do you mean?
    HK-47: Statement: Ah. Here they are now. Perfect timing.
    HK-51: Announcement: Multiple targets detected. Destroy any HK-50 units and seize control of the facility for progenitor unit HK-47.
  • Turning the HK-51s to your side isn't required. You can simply shut them down or, better still, keep them on and fight them too. Having just blown your way through the clearly-not-superior 50s, you can do the same to the clearly-superior 51s. Bad. Ass.
• HK-47 makes his way to Malachor V, where he rescues Bao-Dur's remote from G0-T0 who cornered it to prevent it from reactivating the Mass Shadow Generator. If the HK-51s were activated and turned to your side, two units arrive with HK-47 to confront G0-T0, who still believes that they're there to help him and not their predecessor unit and thus that he still has the upper hand. HK-47 Out-Gambitted a scheming, manipulative crimelord who had been manipulating politics and criminal organizations on a galactic scale for years.
  HK-47: Correction: One could rust listening to your speeches, fat one. Perhaps it is the large, unwieldy vocabulator within your moon-sized frame that prevents your calculations from taking me into account. And while I find this small droid annoying in the extreme, I find my urge to shoot you takes a higher priority.
  G0-T0: Unfortunately for you, I have arranged for friends to meet me here. And you seem to have brought none of your own. Stop him.
  HK-51: Unexpected Correction: We are not here to aid you. We are here because our predecessor unit summoned us.
  HK-47: Statement: As always, fat one, you have miscalculated.
  G0-T0: Ah... an unfortunate oversight.
  • If HK-47 does not reprogram the HK-51s, two HK-50 units appear to join G0-T0, but because of their self-preservation programming they are unable to stop HK-47, so G0-T0 tries to stop HK-47 himself by hacking him. It fails to affect him.
    HK-47: Statement: I understand. Assassination protocols activated. Let us see what you have in your arsenal, fat one.
• If you have enough influence with your Jedi party members, they'll go to Trayus Academy and attack Darth Traya, menacingly threatening her as they surround her. She still ends up curb-stomping them, but that they had the sheer balls to attack her despite vaguely knowing what she is capable of is pretty awesome.
  Mira: We've come a long way, Kreia. Don't bother getting up.
  Kreia: Ah, the huntress. To come alone... you are braver than I thought.
  Handmaiden/Disciple: She is not alone. We stand with her.
  Visas: And with her, stand all the Jedi.
  Atton: *sarcastic monotone* And now I come in, saying something suitably heroic.
  • Counts as an awesome moment for Kreia as well, who chews them out and beats them all on her own, without even using a lightsaber.
    Visas: The Force runs strong in you, Traya, but in the howling of a storm, it is difficult to hear the whisper of the blade. You have forever been the blind one. You were given a gift few are ever given, and yet you let your gift of sight warp you, tw-
    *Force chokes Visas*
    Kreia: You think your existence under your Lord was torture, Miraluka? I will make you see.
  • Following this, Atton escapes the Trayus Core and gets intercepted by Darth Sion, whom he's forced to fight in a duel. Atton is either defeated by Sion and tortured to death or manages to defeat him and escape. Obviously, Sion can't be killed through conventional methods and gets back up shortly after Atton leaves, but Atton, a scoundrel with nothing but bare-minimum Jedi training, defeated a Sith Lord in a duel. And he would likely have killed him if it weren't for the fact that Sion had to be talked to death.
    Darth Sion: And I get the fool.
    Atton: Funny, that's just what I was thinking.

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