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“Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all of these things […] and yet you are nothing. In the end, you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone.”

—Darth Malak

A 2003 RPG developed by BioWare, set in the Star Wars universe, four millennia (or, to be precise, 3,956 years) prior to the events of the film that started that all, Episode IV: A New Hope. It follows the story of an unremarkable, customizable Republic soldier who ends up on a doomed starship, in the middle of a war between the Republic and the Sith Empire, ruled by Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Malak. The events that follow, starting with a quest to rescue a Jedi Action Girl with an unimpressive-but-plot-relevant Informed Ability, eventually escalate to a confrontation between the protagonist and Darth Malak himself — and, after The Reveal, it gets personal.

The game is notable for its numerous tongue-in-cheek movie references and for being surprisingly good despite The Problem With Licensed Games. Its success can be attributed to both the lack of a deadline and the distance in chronology, giving the writers considerable artistic freedom. The plot was essentially “Neverwinter Nights meets Baldurs Gate,” but not enough to be classified as “Recycled In SPACE.”

It spawned a sequel by Obsidian Entertainment, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The second game, set five years after the first, tells the story of an exiled Jedi, who returns to a post-war Republic only to find it on its knees, the Jedi Order nearly destroyed and scattered, and a new group of Sith on the rise. The protagonist is discovered by an old ex-Jedi, ex-Sith named Kreia, who helps her re-establish her connection to the Force, find four Jedi Masters in hiding and defeat the Sith — but she is motivated less by nobility than an ancient desire for revenge against two Sith Lords and the great power of the universe.

The sequel, despite being released rushed and unfinished due to Executive Meddling (they cut off an entire planet due to time constraints, and let's not get started on the incoherent, nearly-absent ending, with many subplots Left Hanging), was still a relative success, and, like its predecessor, firmly found its place in Star Wars canon, being referenced by later works. Its plot and general mood were noticeably Darker And Edgier than those of the original, with many elements carried over from Planescape Torment, leaving fan opinions divided. There is an as of yet unfinished Game Mod which will include much of the cut content at: http://www.team-gizka.org/.

In 2006, the series saw a cross-media spin-off in the form of an ongoing prequel comic series, written by John Jackson Miller and published by Dark Horse Comics. The series starts eight years before the first game and follows the course of the Mandalorian Wars, most prominently the adventures of Zayne Carrick, a wrongly accused Jedi Padawan on the run. So far, it has been remarkable for many a Red Herring, Re Vision, and, uhm, Authors Saving Throw; the author, having planned it for many issues in advance, apparently likes watching wild fan theories run amok. But we're talking about the games here, not the comics.

In 2008, Bioware officially announced that there was to be an MMORPG set in the KotOR universe/time period. Cue the fanboys' screams of joy (or terror). Bioware has said that this game (set 300 years after KotOR 2) will continue the involving storytelling tradition of the franchise, to almost universal skepticism.

And while we're at it: the Exile is canonically female, and the first game's player character is male. Eep.

---

These games provide examples of:

• Action Girl: Numerous, plus both female P Cs.
• Almost Dead Guy After being mortally wounded by the Exile, Darth Traya survives long enough to answer all of the Exile's questions concerning to fate of their companions and the worlds they have visited, and then promptly drops dead when the Exile tells her to die.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Darth Revan
• Ancient Conspiracy The Genoharadan.
• Ancient Keeper: The Rakata Elders, Atris.
• Anti Villain: Kreia, who, depending on interpretation, wanted to free the galaxy from the tyranny of the Force or to re-build the Jedi Order without the baggage of the past.
  • Probably both.
• Ass Shove: The prisoner and the hacker's tool.
• The Atoner: Atton, Bao-Dur, and both Light-side PCs. Possibly Visas.
  • Carth Onasi has this problem as well. Killing Admiral Karath is his way of making up for failing to protect his family from the Sith fleet.
    • Juhani also.
    • And Bastila, if you talk her down on the Star Forge.
• Axe Crazy: HK-47, often hilariously so.
• Badass Grandpa: Jolee Bindo.
• Badass Bookworm: Muscular frame notwithstanding, Bao-Dur is a soft-spoken Gadgeteer Genius who invented the weapon that destroyed Malachor V, and built himself a repulsor-powered robotic arm.
  • Blessed With Suck, because of the arm, he can't equip most types of armor, even Jedi Robes, which means he most go unarmored or negate some of the Force Powers he has. The miner uniform, the first set you pick up, is the only armor that allows force powers that he can equip.
  • Gaining enough influence with him will allow you to teach him to feel the Force, causing him to take a level in badass.
  • Mical, AKA "Disciple" also qualifies. For crying out loud, you meet him in a monster-overrun library, doing a little "light" reading on Jedi history. His Soldier class grants him generous endurance, lots of hit points, and the ability to use any weapon or armor. Cross-class the boy into a Consular, and he is a can of Force-power whoop-ass on top of that.
• Badass Normal: Carth Onasi is probably the best example, a veteran but otherwise normal human soldier who manages to be one of the central characters in a Jedi-centered game. Mandalore from the second game may also count, being the only non-droid, non-Wookie in the party who can't become a Jedi.
• Bald Of Evil: Darth Malak, Darth Bandon, Uthar Wynn, Jorak Uln.
• Barrier Maiden: Bastila Shan.
• Better Than Canon: Female!Revan and/or Male!Exile, in the opinion of some fans.
  • Fans also tend to prefer the Handmaiden to the Disciple (without mods they only join male and female P Cs respectively). No longer an example, as the Handmaiden joining, even though the Exile is canon female, has been made canon by (much) later materials.
• Big Bad: Darth Malak in the first game, the Sith Triumvirate in the second.
  • The Jedi Council might count as well.
• Black Knight: Revan fits this trope in the events preceding the game.
• Black And Gray Morality: Adopted by KotOR 2.
• Black And White Morality: Embraced by the first game and crushed by the sequel with its massive injection of gray morality.
• Blood Knight: Bendak Starkiller. The Mandalorians as a whole are like this.
• Broken Bird: Visas Marr, so very much.
  • Juhani has elements of this as well.
• Canon Sue: The two games firmly position Revan as one.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first game, T3-M4 had virtually no personality. In the second one, he takes on a number of traits and quirks.
  • This is semi-explained; apparently it's common to wipe a droid's memory, and T3 has not undergone that, probably because of how vital he was in the first game. Bit like Blade Runner - Time + experience = personality.
• Chessmaster: Half the cast. Revan, the Jedi Council, Kreia, Atris, Goto, etc.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Meet HK-47, sociopathic assassin droid and one of the primary sources of comic relief in the games.
• Cool Ship: The Ebon Hawk, modeled after the original trilogy's Millennium Falcon.
• Consummate Liar: Kreia. Very, very much so. Pretty much everything she tells you is a Jedi Truth at best. Considering she also provides most of the exposition, this can be a problem.
• Continuity Nod: At the end of the sequel, Kreia looks into the future to answer some of the player's questions. When asked what the fate of the Mandalorians will be, she says: “They will die a death that will last millennia, until all that remains is… the shell of their armor upon the shell of a man, too easily slain by Jedi.”
  • Fortunately, more recent continuity invalidates such dire predictions entirely.
    • Numerous film references in general, really. The first game is practically a remake of the Original Trilogy with all the art based on the Prequel Trilogy. And the second game is loaded with references as well; most notable are Kreia's predictions about the future, and her opinions on the Force and Jedi in general.
  • Also the first game featured items made by people with names like Calrissian and Fett, plus the Republic Admiral is called Dodonna. Ancestors, one assumes.
    • Canderous tells you a story about exploring on the outer rim of the galaxy, and encountering an asteroid field, where one of the asteroids seemingly came alive, chasing him, and spitting fire before fleeing. 100% exact description of a Yuuzhan Vong Coralskipper. Further mounting the evidence, in the second game, Kreia says that Revan withdrew from the galaxy in order to prepare, mentally and spiritually, for an extra-galactic, extra-Force threat. That description just oozes Yuuzhan Vong.
• Cowardly Boss: Darth Malak.
• Crapsack World: Generally speaking, the setting of the second game.
• Cue Cullen: This trailer for the upcoming MMORPG. Holy. Crap. Evil just went from "cool" to "utterly freaking awesome."
• Cutscene Incompetence: Omnipresent in the first game.
• Dark Action Girl: The Exile, possibly.
  • Lest we forget the female player character in the first game...she certainly looks built for action and you can go so dark it'd make Sidious envious.
• Dark Lord: The story is full of them. Darth Revan, Darth Malak, Darth Traya, Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, etc.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Exile can be one to the extreme, if the player chooses the right options in conversation.
  • Jolee Bindo is definitely a Deadpan Snarker.
    Jolee: But from now on you can just think of me as any other non-Jedi in our little group - with a lightsaber. And Force powers.
    Jolee: (if Revan picks a Dark Side option towards a wounded Wookiee) Nice... nice... nice... nice... Should we next find some insects to pull the legs off? Sounds fun doesn't it?
• Defeating The Undefeatable: Bastila and Darth Malak are supposedly unstoppable on the Star Forge. Darth Sion is supposedly immortal. Darth Nihilus is supposed to be invincible due to his “Death Wave.” It goes on and on.
  • Partially subverted: Sion gives up his life willingly after he realizes he can't beat you.
• Deconstructor Fleet: KotOR 2 gives this treatment to stock moral dilemmas that RP Gs love to throw at the player. Kreia never misses an opportunity to explain in detail how any of the courses of action the PC may take will ultimately harm someone who doesn't deserve it.
  • KotOR 2 deconstructs pretty much all the core mechanics of CRPGs, which is part of the appeal. The very first thing that happens in the game is Kreia calling you on the fact that you were merrily looting a dead body. Force powers, leveling up, and even experience points are strong and recurring story elements; if you don't kill the Jedi Masters, when you finally meet them they point out that you've been rampaging across the galaxy killing hundreds and only growing stronger from it.
• Depraved Bisexual: Luxa, The Dragon of The Exchange on Telos in The Sith Lords will flirt with the PC regardless of gender, and will always attempt to kill him or her at the end of her related quest.
• Development Gag
• Dodongo Dislikes Smoke
• Dont You Dare Pity Me: Try to show mercy to Kreia at the end of the second game. Go on, just try.
  • Hanharr's entire character is this.
• The Dragon: Darth Sion in the sequel, to Kreia/ Darth Traya. An interesting dynamic, as a significant part of the fight is persuading him that she has no use for him.
• Duel Boss: In the first game, Malak acts as both final boss and midway duel boss with lowered stats.
  • Sion too, in the second game. Boss in the middle, second-to-last boss at the end.
• Dysfunction Junction: Every party member except T3-M4 in the first game seems to have some unresolved issue(s) from their past, leading to strange, and oftentimes downright neurotic behavior. This was especially true in the first game, but continued on a much smaller scale in the sequel Carth Onasi and Atton Rand were probably the worst offenders, but Atton was better seeing as you could make him into a Jedi if you got him to trust you.)
  • HK-47 actually lampshades this in the sequel, mocking Carth and Bastila as he does so. Brutally and hilariously.
• Edge Gravity
• Elemental Crafting
• Ensemble Dark Horse: HK-47 and his infamous lines, such as, “Query: Is there someone you need killed, master?”
  • “Definition: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 300 kilometres away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope.”
  • Revan. Try convincing fans that any Star Wars character is more badass. Just try it.
    • Some Star Wars forums have MANY threads devoted to, I shit you not, "Revan vs. <insert random object/person/thing here>". He has become the equivalent of Chuck Norris in Star Wars Gaming.
  • Jolee Bindo is popular in some places for his unusually self awareness of being a Grumpy Old Man/intentionally invoking Grumpy Old Man. If the PC is simply picking dialogue choices at random, he'll pick up on it, and make remarks that hover somewhere between incredulity and sarcasm.
• Epileptic Trees: mostly about double identities, like the theory that Kreia is Arren Kae, Brianna's mother, or that the comics' protagonist Zayne Carrick later becomes [insert any game character here, there's probably a theory about him]. There are massive gaps in KotOR 2's plot, thanks to Lucasarts' insistence that the game receive a Christmas release date.
  • The reasoning behind that first can be found here.
• Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: The player character in TSL is only referred to as “the exile,” and the only canonical moniker is “the Jedi Exile.”
  • Two of the Exile's companions (although you'll only get one on any given playthrough) are known for most of the game as only "Disciple" and "Handmaiden." Both eventually reveal their names ( Mical and Brianna, respectively). Handmaiden's sisters also go through the game known only as "Handmaiden."
• Evilly Affable: HK-47 defines this.
• Eyes Of Gold: Revan and other Dark Jedi, including the player character if s/he goes over to the Dark Side.
• Evil Is Easy: The Dark Side actions tend to be simpler and quicker than the light side acts.
• Evil(er) Knock Off: The HK-50s.
• Evil Mentor: Kreia fits this trope perfectly.
  • Master Uthar Wynn and Yuthura Ban also qualify. Though you get to school them in the end.
• Evil Overlooker: Both games. The second however, doesn't include the real big bad anywhere on the cover.
• Executive Meddling: You wondered why the last act of KotOR 2 felt so rushed and the ending so inconclusive? That's why.
• Experience Points: Used, it's an RPG after all, and interestingly deconstructed/lampshaded in KotOR 2. A conversation near the end of the game has someone commenting on how the Exile seems to become stronger every time they kill enemies.
  Master Vrook: You must have noticed as you've fought across all these planets, killing hundreds- only to become more and more powerful. Why do you think that was?
  • Unique in that this isn't simply a throwaway line-one of the points made as the story reaches the climax is that the Jedi are very concerned about the Exile's strange traits, namely RPG tropes that players take for granted. Becoming stronger by levelling up, effortlessly reviving travelling companions (who follow your orders blindly)...
  • A good chunk of Kreia's morality is based on the fact that by doing other peoples quests for them, you deprive them of their experience points.
• Extreme Omnivore: The cannoks in the second game.
• Fandom Nod: The text pages in the comics.
• Fake Memories: Memories of Revan were quite malleable.
• Fetish: On Nar Shaddaa, Geeda the Rodian basically says she has this for humans. Her clan apparently holds some Squick about it too.
• FixFic: The second game in a nutshell.
• Flanderization: HK-47 in the second game, he goes from mildly insane to completely psychotic in the second game, probably one of the only times where this trope was done well. This is presumably due to the damage that makes him reveal that he is an assassination droid.
  • It helps that he's a bit more intelligent and philosophical in the sequel.
  • This is even more extreme with the HK-50s in the cut content, where they reveal they want to kill every single living thing in the universe.
• Foe Yay: Darth Sion for Female!Exile, by the end of the game. The Exile's response to this is entirely up to the player.
• Game Breaker: A couple of Force powers become this when boosted at their maximum level, especially in the second game. Use them and watch 10-20 Elite Mooks drop dead like flies in a couple of seconds.
  • In particular, Force Crush (the darkside super force power) starts off this way. Other examples are Stasis Field and Force Storm.
    • With the right choices in classes, stats, powers and equipment in the sequel, becoming literally unhittable (save for a critical hit) isn't particularly difficult.
  • Force Wave: those enemies that won't end up splattered across the walls will take damage anyways.
• Gameplay Ally Immortality: No matter how many lightsaber stabbings, blaster shots, or force-chokings your allies receive, they will always limp back to you after the fight is over.
  • Lampshaded by HK-47, who points this trope out when the Exile expresses incredulity at Darth Sion's Nigh Invulnerability.
• Gas Chamber: The Jekk'Jekk Tarr, in the second game, is a bar for aliens where the atmosphere is toxic to humans. Not even equipping a gas mask can save you (except it does).
• Gay Option: Juhani.
• Genocide Backfire: One of the only people who escape the bombardment of Taris is the exact person Malak intended it to kill.
• God Mode Sue: Revan is treated by the game and the fans not only as the most powerful force user to have ever lived, but also as a tactical genius who could put Batman to shame. Of course, this shouldn't be too surprising considering who Revan actually is.
• Good Is Not Nice: No other Jedi is more dedicated to the Light than Vrook Lamar- and no other Jedi is as much of a douchebag.
  • Likewise, the other Jedi Masters are extremely adept at making the wrong choice at the wrong time for all the right reasons. Atris seems to follow this trope as well but she's actually being corrupted to the Dark Side by a combination of guilt and Sith holocrons.
    • Atris leaked information to the Sith so that it would draw them out, leading to the massacre on Katarr. Who really deserved to be exiled from the Jedi?
• Go Through Me: Bao-Dur gets to say this when you encounter a pair of escaped criminals on the surface of Telos.
• Guest Star Party Member: Trask in the first game, 3C-FD in the second — if you bother to repair him at all.
  • Odd guest star player versions in the second game—B-4D4, the freakin remote, Atton, Mira/Hanharr, and whoever you pick during one seqence. And that's not even counting some of the cut content. And of course the first game has its brief thing on the Leviathan.
• Guns Are Worthless: KotOR 1's ranged weapons did almost no damage: melee weapons were always better to have, regardless of the situation. Guns are more viable in the sequel, provided you use the weapon crafting system.
  • And invest in Precise Shot feats so those pesky sabers stop reflecting them.
• Have You Tried Not Being A Monster: It is likely not a coincidence that Rahasia Sandral and Shen Matale, two lovers whose families are currently in a feud "happen" to be a mixed race couple.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Trask
• He Who Fights Monsters: KotOR 2 reveal that it was doing this that made Revan and Malak fall.
• Heel Face Mind Screw: Revan. It's up to you whether it sticks or not. This is a case where the questionable moral implications are pointed out, and it can be the motivation if you decide to fall back to the Dark Side.
• Hello Insert Name Here
• Hero, LFG!: Heavily deconstructed in the second game.
• Heroic Sociopath: HK-47.
• Hey Its That Voice: Ed Asner as Master Vrook.
  • While not as well-known, there's also Lassie.
    • Considering the size of the cast, its not surprising that a lot of voice actors are recognizable. Bastila in particular, seems to be everywhere. Jolee is Sarevok, Juhani is Serina, Canderous is Solidus, etc...
• Hide Your Lesbians: Juhani and Belaya.
• Highly Conspicuous Uniform: Soldiers of the Old Republic got to battle wearing bright red combatsuits, and the Mandalorians seem to like wearing armour in nearly every colour of the rainbow. But both are easily topped by the Sith Troopers and their shining silver uniforms.
• Hit And Run Tactics: Only if you're desperate, you're still going to take a pasting, this just allows you to fight back. A pattern of firing, taking a hit, retreating, healing, firing, taking a hit and so on can wear an enemy down. Against really strong foes or ones that keep dodging, mines will hasten the process considerably. You can beat the final boss this way if you can't disable his healing mechanism, but be prepared for a long fight, and pray you saved up as many healing items as could be mustered.
• The Horde: The Mandalorians are like this in their background. They gradually morph into Warrior Poets under Canderous Ordo.
• I Am Not A Gun: An Assassin droid on Korriban in the first game.
• I Cannot Self Terminate: HK droids. To HK-47's annoyance this includes his evil knockoffs. He subverts this by recruiting other droids to destroy them for him.
• I Did What I Had To Do: this seems to be the reason for Revan's turning on the Republic in the first place to save it.
• If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him: The Sith will taunt you. Usually, if you taunt back, you will be arrested and go to jail.
• I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: With Bastila towards the end of the first game.
• In The End You Are On Your Own
• Informed Ability: Bastila's Battle Meditation. It only seems to make a difference when used against the Republic; in the light side ending, whether or not Bastila survives and helps the Republic has no impact on the plot.
  • Also Carth Onasi's piloting skill to a degree - he's a professional pilot, but he's on foot most of the game.
    • Whereas Atton crashes everything you let him fly.
• Insurmountable Waist Height Fence
• Invoked Trope: G0-T0 uses this to create his Goto persona.
  "I took many of his mannerisms from holovid cliches, which were surprisingly effective."
• Item Crafting: Executed fairly well, though you tended to get a flood of components.
• It Got Worse: The first game ends with you having saved the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. Cue the second game where the Republic is on the verge of total collapse and the Jedi have been hunted down to a few individuals. Cue the MMORPG, and the True Sith have returned to the galaxy to beat the ever loving Hell out of the Republic AND the Jedi in a Curb Stomp Battle until they withdrew and forced them to sign an armistice.
  • In an in-game sense, you can really screw up the Galaxy as a Dark Side player. In KotOR 1, killing the Progenitor on Manaan destroys the only known source of the crucial healing fluid kolto, making in-game medicine prices skyrocket and almost certainly dooming Manaan by ending the truce enacted there so both Republic and Sith could harvest kolto. As for KotOR 2, well, about 2/3 of the way through a Dark playthrough, it seems to be implied that your actions have irrevocably altered the fate of the Galaxy by ending the Jedi Order for at least several generations.
• Its Personal: Besides the Final Battle, there's also your meeting with Darth Bandon, who killed your Ninja Butterfly friend at the beginning of the game.
  Player Character: Hey! You were on the Endar Spire! You killed Trask! You'll pay for that!
• Its Up To You
• Jedi Truth: Many, especially in the second game.
• Knight In Sour Armor: Jolee Bindo fits this trope exceptionally well. He left the Jedi order not because he didn't believe in their cause, but because he didn't believe in their methods. Carth Onasi fits this when he isn't being excessively whiny and emo.
• Last Second Chance: In the first game, if you're light enough, you can offer one to almost every Dark Jedi. Malak is the only one who will not accept it.
  Player Character: This is your last chance, Malak. Surrender.
  Malak: No, Revan. This time our confrontation can only end in death—yours or mine.
• Leaning On The Fourth Wall: Kreia notes that by doing peoples work for them, you are taking the strength they would gain from doing it themselves. This directly translates to experience points. In this context, her wish to kill The Force gets very interesting...
• Legacy Character: "There must always be a Darth Traya."
• Let's Play: The second game gets a particularly good one, which explores much of the cut content, and even restores the game's original ending! Found here.
• Left Hanging : (the whole friggin' series, since rumors of KotOR 3 have been denied (so far); Bio Ware is focusing on the Star Wars MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, instead).
• Light Is Not Good: Atris wears all white, with white hair and pale blue eyes, to say nothing of her sanctimonious attitude.
• Locked Out Of The Loop: The first game's Player Character.
• Lost Forever: In the first game, everything on Taris and Dantooine.
• Love Makes You Evil: When Bastila falls to the Dark Side, she says her feelings for Revan hastened her fall. Furthermore, Revan can choose to join her instead of try to redeem her, becoming a happily evil couple. In the second game, the Exile can have this effect on any of the love interests.
  • In cut content from the second game, a jealous Handmaiden/Atton could eventually kill Visas/Disciple, depending on the player's actions.
• Love Redeems: On the Star Forge you are given the opportunity to try and turn Bastila, who has fallen to the dark side, back to the light. You can try to do this by appealing to her training as a Jedi or basic morality, but if you pursued the relationship side quest you can redeem her more easily by telling her that you love her.
  • Subverted rather cruelly with Carth and the Dark Side Female PC; he tries, but the only possible results are for the PC to kill him herself or let Bastila do it for her. The ending in which he would have been able to succeed was cut from the official release of the game.
  • The Exile and Visas/Atton can take this route, to a certain extent.
• Karma Meter: Light/dark side. Your allies in the first game get it too, but though they get the benefits (cheaper Force powers), they can't change. In the sequel their alignments will change to match yours, which is justified towards the end of the game.
  • Or they'll change to oppose you, if you've pissed them off enough.
• Killer Robot: HK-47, and the HK-50 models in the sequel.
  • G0-T0 to a degree. And a lot of droids in general, in the second game.
• Lady Of War: Bastila; also a Defrosting Ice Queen. Possibly, also Revan, depending on chosen gender and how it's played. In the second game, the Exile, Visas, the Handmaiden and Mira.
• Large And In Charge: Darth Goddamned Malak. Choose any gender/class other than male soldier, and he will dwarf you when you go toe-to-toe.
• Lost Technology
• Magnificent Bastard: Kreia is KotOR's Emperor Palpatine.
  • Revan is retconned into one. Everything in the Jedi Civil War was as he foresaw. Right up until, uh, everything went to Hell.
• Master Apprentice Chain: Revan went though such a chain according to the second game. A potent piece of Epileptic Tree fuel is that Kreia and Arren Kae are both identified as his first and also his last.
• Meaningful Name: Revan's name comes from “revanchism,” but also may be a reference to revenants, who come Back From The Dead. In a double whammy, Malak is Arabic for “Angel,” as in “Fallen,” sounds like the Hebrew word for "king", and is also Latin for “jawbone”; he's jawless. Possibly also Atton, whose name may in fact be derived from “atonement.”
  • Could also be a form of reaved ("to be deprived of").
  • "Taris" is pronounced like "terrace" (part of a garden) or with the first syllable as a homophone for “tar,” reflecting the planet's decay.
  • "Telos" is Greek for 'the last' or 'the end' (as in English, it can also mean 'goal' or 'purpose'). The second meaning is appropriate, given how much damn time you have to spend on the Peragus tutorial areas (unless you have a very handy PC mod). The first could be appropriate: it's the second-to-last planet, and you finally get to encounter and fight Darth Nihilus, the most prominently featured Sith Lord in the art, and so very over-hyped in the game.
• Medieval Stasis: 4,000 years from now, things will be almost exactly the same. There are some differences, but they're far and few between and often either cultural or wholly cosmetic (such as bacta vs. kolto).
  • If one looks closely, the heavy blaster pistol model is almost an exact copy of Han's blaster pistol.
• Money Spider: Occurs in the second game, though in this case, justified in that it's limited to cannoks, which have a reputation for eating just about anything. Additionally, there is one anomalous occurrence in the first game that happens when the player is resorts to killing tachs in order to hunt down a shapeshifter.
• Moral Event Horizon: Dark Side characters can choose to do this. Forcing Zalbaar to kill Mission is probably the worst example.
  • As far as villains go: “Wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy.”
    • Some context: The villain's Mooks have not been able to find one person who crashed in an escape pod down in the lower levels of the planet. So he orders the ENTIRE PLANET RAZED.
• Mr Exposition: Many in the second game, most of whom can't be trusted. Kreia is the most obvious example.
• Multiple Endings
• Murder Is The Best Solution: HK's philosophy. Put him in your party and he'll suggest blasting everyone you meet, regardless of whether it will actually help or not. Canderous and Hanharr often come to this conclusion as well.
• No Holds Barred Beatdown: Sion beating the Force out of Kreia in a cut-scene.
  • And then it fades in and out as Kreia says, “I suffered…indignities.” Ugh!
• Non Lethal KO
• No One Could Survive That: Calo Nord; actually lampshaded.
  Calo Nord: I am hard to kill, Lord Malak.
• Not Himself: HK-47 can have a Not Himself moment in the second game if the player installs a Pacifist Package into him. Needless to say, this genuinely scares the hell out of him.
• Not So Different: In the 2nd game The Exile, like Nihilus feeds on death. She however isn't consumed by it. This interestingly makes her his Achilles Heel him attempting to use his powers on her turns him into an Anticlimax Boss.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Not quite sure if this counts, but the Disciple's a lot more intelligent than either the fans or the crew in TSL give him credit for. For on thing, he's actually working for Carth Onasi as a spy. He also seems to have an unusually clear perspective on both the Jedi and the Sith, compared with other characters in the game who either blend them together into a mutually evil muddle, demonizing them equally, or worship the ground upon which the Jedi walk. It's more than a little bit likely that, like every other character in the game, he's purposefully hiding his true nature. The optimism bit seems to be genuine though.
• Parrot Exposition: Both played straight and lampshaded during the player's first conversation with the HK-50 unit on Peragus.
  HK-50: Objection: Master! To commit such an act would be in violation of the ethics programming most droids are believed to possess. I am afraid there is nothing that can be done.
  Player Character: Believed to possess?
  HK-50: Irritated Statement: Master, if you insist on echoing everything I say, this already tedious conversation is in danger of becoming even longer.
• Pausable Realtime
• Plot Coupon: Star Maps in the first game, Jedi Masters in the second.
• Point Of No Return: Davik's estate, Leviathan, the Unknown World, and the Star Forge in the first game; returning to Dantooine in the second.
• Precursors: Rakata.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Canderous, complete with My Species Doth Protest Too Much.
• Psychic Static: Atton plays Pazaak in his head to keep other people out of it.
• Relationship Values: The influence system in the second game.
• Replacement Goldfish: “Wow. She really misses her droid, doesn't she?” Please note that this Cargo Ship carries an extra-large express delivery of Squick if you think about it too much. Please don't.

  Carth: I've never felt so sorry for a droid before.

• Ret Con: Darths running around three millennia before Darth Bane, who supposedly started the tradition. Later got an explanation in a tie-in Darth Bane novel(which, unsurprisingly, was written by KotOR's lead writer). Also, the origin of Tatooine and Kashyyyk's strange ecosystems.
  • Don't forget the suggestion that Tatooine is the human homeworld for the setting.
• The Reveal: In the first game; subverted in the second, according to Kreia, where she plays with the fourth wall by stating that the player character was probably expecting a big revelation, but there isn't any..
  "Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you."
• Robotic Psychopath: HK-47 is the Trope Codifier, at least in video games. Also the Ensemble Darkhorse. Make of that what you will.
• Romance Sidequest: (Bastila or Carth in the first game; in the second, it's implied that both the Handmaiden and Visas can develop feelings for the male Exile, and the Disciple and Atton for the female.)
• Samus Is A Girl: Depending on the choices of the player, Revan could be revealed in the first game to have been a girl. This one is oddly in-universe, as even supporting characters use male pronouns instead of female. Apparently the legend of the character was so great that those not in the know just assumed... Wearing a mask all the time didn't help.
• Schmuck Bait: On Korriban you can be offered the job of hauling a box from there to Tatooine. You are repeatedly warned, whatever you do, to not open the box. With good reason, it turns out.
• Selectively Lethal Weapon: The lightsabers. Although they are extremely powerful weapons in both games (arguably the only powerful weapons in the first one), they generally do *not* behave like the lightsabers of the traditional Star Wars lore, which are supposed to cut through other weapons (apart for other lightsabers), armors, walls, doors (and enemies…) like a knife through warm butter. They are more like normal swords, possibly to avoid the Game Breaker status.
  • The item descriptions of the “normal” swords do tend to go on and on about them having a “cortosis weave,” cortosis being a material established elsewhere in the EU as being ultra-rare but able to block lightsabers. Presumably the reason it's so rare in the era of the films is that it was all used up making every single weapon in the Old Republic, even the ones wielded by people at the very bottom of society.
• Shadow Archetype: Nihilus is this to the Exile if she follows the Light Path; the masters state that this is what she would have become if she had embraced the dark side.
• Shoot The Medic First: The Peragus levels feature maintenance drones that repair damaged mining droids who appear to hate your guts. When Atton is informed of the presence of these, he tells your character that “those little pests will try to repair the mining droids if you don't shoot them first.”
• Slap On The Wrist Nuke
• Shut Up Kiss
• Smug Snake: The games are filled with these. There's Mission's Brother Griff, who isn't so much evil as a scumbag. There's Jedi Master Atris, there's Visquis the wannabe Crime Boss, there's Mekel the Sith student, and then there's Davik who pretty much invites his doom.
• Space Compression: Jolee Bindo lampshades this in the first game, sarcastically suggesting that the main Sith planet has only 12 or 13 Sith (an estimate not far off, depending on who you count).
• Stupid Evil: Darth Malak in his war against the Republic, in contrast with Darth Revan who was more interested in conquering the republic with its infrastructure intact.
• Survival Mantra: Several characters in the second game have them.
• Take That: In the sequel HK-47 mocks Carth and Bastila's romantic subplots with the PC. HK-47 then says that is not the case with the second game's companions (though the player has the option to correct him). Starts at 2:24.
  • Also there is a cut scene where Atton is playing pazaak with T3 that mocks the unfairness of it in the first game.
  HK-47: Warning: If you draw another +/- 1 card, I will enact assassination protocols.
• Take A Third Option: The murder investigation on Dantooine. One of them did it, the other was planning to.
• Teeth Clenched Teamwork: The interesting thing about The Sith Lords is that the interactions between party members borders on outright hatred of one another. Everyone but Bao-Dur either ignores or actively hates the droids, who in turn are busy zapping each other at every occasion; Bao-Dur himself hates Mandalore and his people; Atton/Handmaiden are jealous of any attention the Exile gives to the Disciple/Visas Marr; and no one trusts Kreia, who openly mocks more or less everyone but Bao-Dur and Mira.
• The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard: Pazaak.
• There Is Another: The Exile isn't actually the last Jedi, by far.
• They Changed It Now It Sucks: Fan reaction to the news that the next "Old Republic" game will be a MMORPG. Understandable if we consider the fact that the KotOR storyline lacks closure and that the fates of Revan, the Exile, Bastila and all the other characters have been Left Hanging, especially since The Old Republic site nonchalantly informs us that Revan simply never returned from outer space.
  • I can't help but think that KotOR 2's rather... striking changes from the feel of most other Star Wars material (to say nothing of the first game) probably drew a lot of ire...
• Token Evil Teammate: Canderous is a killer with no use for social niceties or weakness in others. He's not a homicidal maniac, but he's not a nice guy. HK-47, on the other hand, is sociopathic in the extreme and tends to recommend indiscriminate application of lasers as a cure to essentially any problem the game throws at you.
• Tomato In The Mirror
• Trailers Always Spoil: Someone, presumably The Exile (even if they are male) is fighting Atris on the cover of the second game. Hmm...
• Truce Zone: Manaan, because of its trade in medical supplies.
• Undying Loyalty: T3-M4 in the sequel as well as everyone else, except Kreia, due to the Exile's force bonds. In the first game HK-47 and Canderous are loyal to Revan to the point of hero-worship.
• Ubermensch: Kreia.
• Unreliable Narrator: Kreia is not actually a narrator, but provides so much of the game's exposition that she fills that role. Many others from the second game do this as well, to a lesser extent.
• Untrusting Community: Dantooine in the second game.
• The Untwist: Done intentionally with Lampshade Hanging in the second game. Yes, Kreia is the villain. Were you expecting some big revelation?
• Urban Segregation: Taris.
• Vague Age: Just exactly how old is the player character from KotOR 1? Almost all of the sprites look quite youthful, only a few years older than, say, Juhani, despite the fact that you're supposed to be at least a decade older than her.
  • Lampshaded in the second game: one character notices how the player character has barely changed from his/her appearance in a holovid ten years previously.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: Pretty much everything on the Dark Side paths, including manipulating the Montagues and the Capulets two rival Dantooine families into wiping each other out, mind tricking a couple of thugs into walking off the edge of a platform on Nar Shaddaa, ordering HK-47 to translate a several-hours long recitation of Sand People history, and crossing the Moral Event Horizon by having Zaalbar kill Mission.
• Videogame Cruelty Punishment: Just try threatening someone on Manaan. See what happens.
• Villainy Discretion Shot: The assassination-related exploits of HK-47 are described in a humorously sociopathic way by the droid instead of being shown on-screen.
• The Virus: The Rakghouls of Taris.
• Warrior Therapist: Either player character can be this. In fact, it's necessary against Darth Sion.
• We Buy Anything: Medicine vendors will buy all your old swords and guns for no apparent reason, other than player convenience of course.
• We Have Reserves: Malak orders the bombardment of Taris despite the presence of his own troops on the surface.
• We Want Our Jerk Back: HK-47's triumphant return in the second game.
  • It's not even inevitable, the game makes you work for it.
  • You can also install an HK Protocol Pacifist Package, which turns HK into a demented, overly polite C-3PO. The other characters are so disturbed that they immediately remove the upgrade.
• White Haired Pretty Girl: Jedi Master Atris and her Handmaidens.
  • And Kreia. Well, erm, “she may have been good looking once.”
    • She looks much less pretty once she goes back to her Sith persona and gets all grey-skinned and black-eyed.
• Xanatos Funeral: KotOR 2. Shocking as it may seem. Darth Traya seems to have deliberately arranged her own death as the only outcome of events. She seems to do this so the Exile is able to restart the Jedi Order exactly as she wishes, without the baggage of the Old Order. Which includes her.
• Xanatos Gambit: There's a number of them in the game that have to explained one by one. The original, is the premise of the game. The Jedi Knights rewrite the memories of a brain damaged Darth Revan and hope that in his visions, Bastila will be able to track down the Star Forge. They even train him as a Jedi to help facilitate this. What's surprising is this plan works out perfectly. Except in the Dark Side ending, of course.
  • There's also a rare chance for the player character to perform a Xanatos Gambit on Korriban. Basically, you can agree to help one Dark Jedi Master betray the Academy Headmaster, then report it to the Academy Headmaster, then poison the Dark Jedi Master on his orders, then inform her of your betrayal so she gives you a poison to give to the Academy headmaster. When you finally fight both, they end up horrified they were played for suckers. You can also pretty much dismantle the Academy by playing a Light Side manipulator, curiously enough.
    • Darth Traya pulls one in KotOR 2. More or less tricking the Exile into finding the last of the Jedi so she could prove them wrong and defeat them without striking a blow. Unfortunately, they don't get the point and attempt to cut the Exile from the force, forcing her to kill them. By the end of the game, she tricks the Exile into killing the last of the Sith Lords. Bizarrely, the last portion of her gambit is to kill herself. She claims to want to destroy the Force but this is actually just part of her desire to give the Exile motivation to kill her as the final test to make him the perfect hero.
    • Darth Revan was retconned into doing one. Apparently, all of the evils of the Jedi Civil War were part of a gigantic master plan to save the galaxy from the True Sith Empire. Ironically, this makes Darth Malak into a Spanner In The Works.
• Xanatos Roulette: Goto may or may not practice this. Given that he is actually an extremely advanced computer, it's possible that he can predict events with more accuracy than others.
• Xanatos Sucker: The player character in the second game.
  • The humorous part of this is the Xanatos Gambit more or less is solely designed to teach the Jedi Exile how to be a better Jedi Knight and end up reforming the Jedi Order on better soil.
• Xen Syndrome: The second game is a major offender, with its last act that's missing most of its content (and sense) thanks to Executive Meddling.
• Your Mileage May Vary: Second game. Some hate it, others say it's the best thing in the franchise since Episode V (or could have been if it had been finished).
• You Should Know This Already: Previews for KotOR II spoiled the fact that the original game's main character was an amnesiac Darth Revan.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: G0-T0 is a perfect example.

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