Alright so here we are again, its time to discuss the big bads, the bosses, the head honchos, big cheeses, people with exfoliating problems. You know 'em, you love 'em: the bads of KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2! Thankfully I think this one will be a bit shorter as there are fewer people to discuss than all the party members. Alrighty then lets kick it off!
The Bad: KOTOR 1
Now thankfully there is only one major villain in KOTOR 1. I suppose you could argue Darth Bandon and Saul Karath but come on! They are mini bosses at best. No, we are talking about the man with the durasteel jaw: Malak.
Now the only problem with Malak is that the game constantly undermines him. In the beginning you get some some decent menace from him as he and his Sith fleet are orbiting Taris. He stands all cool, back to the camera giving out his orders and the Saul does a good job at showing he's afraid of him. His icy voice gives him a certain presence that made him memorable coupled look and stature (he's tall). After he gives the order to wipe out the planet you're like, "Oh man, we got some stakes here!" However as the game progresses, it makes Malak less and less intimidating.
The first thing is when you learn that between Revan and Malak he was number two. Okay then, so where this Revan guy I'll be fighting? Oh, he's dead (allegedly). How did he die? Oh Malak just had his ships fire on Revan's when it was being attacked by Jedi. Moving past how that's stupid and and instead they could have captured the Jedi and turn them and then use them against the Order would've been a better idea that I literally just thought of, we get a big bad who is too much of a wimp to actually fight his master and instead kills him from miles away (allegedly). Keep in mind the idea of turning people is something that the game uses a lot (hell, that's the twist!) so I'm not really nitpicking. I'm sorry but that's not how you build up a villain, it makes him seem weak not some monolith that you wonder how you could ever beat him.
With that Malak slowly dissipates as a threat as his apprentice gets destroyed by you and every other plan he comes up with fails. KOTOR 2 avoids this problem by actually making your success part of the story and not making the actual Sith lords hound you as much as Malak does. After you find out you're Revan, it further undermines him as you realize he was YOUR apprentice. Well then, are there any other incredibly embarrassing things about Malak you want me to know?
Yeah, it's funny I know but it makes Malak comical now. After that he tries to be intimidating by shocking Bastila a bunch and you then seeing him without his jaw and just becomes all the more apparent how contrived it is. The game never mentions how he received his injury and so it just becomes a clear attempt to make him seem like Darth Vader. Even his own boss fight undermines him because as soon as you start to beat him he just sucks the life out of the pod people and goes back to full health. NIce.
Really? You know if anyone was built up as a villain it was Revan, the way he is spoken about (especially by Canderous) and his military genius; it makes HIM seem like some monster you have to overcome. Nope, you're him and the game doesn't really show you/ give you the opportunity to be the "genius" Revan was said to be.
The Bad: KOTOR 2
Now KOTOR 2, THERE are some villains that not only intimidating but built up well and given enough time to be a sinister presence that hangs over the entire game. The first you're introduced to is Sion, an absolutely delicious character in all that he is. He hits all the important points at first. His voice appearance, and his introduction. You see the ship the eerily Harbinger floating towards Peragus and get a cutscene with this:
You enter the Harbinger only to find bodies everywhere and power shorted out. You find out then the crew picked up you and some husk of a corpse out in space. That husk is put in a bacta tank and eventually breaks out. As you piece it all together you start making your way through the ship and are greeted with this:
That's how you introduce a villain. You show the player the power of their adversary. You set up an interest in them. Why does he look like that? What's going on between him and Kreia? Why is he after me? All these questions come at you as you make your escape. Sion also has doesn't fall into the habit of many villains of, "I'll get you next time!" by not chasing you through the game. He shows up one more time before Malachor V on Korriban where THROUGH GAMEPLAY the game shows you how much of a monster he is. You beat him down and he just literally wills himself back to life. You then have to run from the fight so you can figure out a way to beat him.
Later on you learn more about him and specifically why he looks the way he does. The way he has engrossed himself so much in the Dark side that it has scarred him beyond all recognition and keeps him in constant agonizing pain. However the irony is that it is the only thing keeping him alive and he can't find it within himself to just die. He is too fueled by his own hatred and anger to just let go. He also develops an interesting relationship with the Female Exile as he falls in love with her as she has lived without the force and is stronger for it whereas he relies on it to simply live. He loves you for being everything he is not and in the end dies because from confiding in you and that gives him the peace to finally let go.
On the opposite end of the spectrum we have out poster boy: Darth Nihilus. Nihilus is a different entity than Sion as he is much more in the background throughout the game. Despite that he also generates so much interest as he is much more of an enigma that Sion is. The game does a great job at introducing him as you see his disheveled ship floating through the vacuum of space (You later learn that the ship is a relic of Malachor V that he is literally holding together by sheer will). Nihilus is very much a character that lets the player think about him as the game is very careful about what it tells you about him. The one thing that is certain though is his strength. He is said to have destroyed world by himself and what is left over is a husk of a planet devoid of all life.
You first learn of him after meeting Visas and she gives you the lowdown on him.
Nihilus is very much a character that doesn't do a lot but carries a presence throughout the game, this overhanging threat that is the reason the Jedi have gone into hiding. The way people fear him and speak of him in hushed tones give him all the character he needs and the times when you do see him he speaks in this garbled voice that makes him seem alien, different than anything you come across. He is not necessarily evil but an almost embodiment of hunger that must feed on whatever it can. He consumes him so much that Visas thinks that he actually consumed himself and used the Force to actually bind his consciousness to his armor. While his boss fight is a little underwhelming, partially from the combat in this game not exactly being the best, the build up he receives makes him a memorable villain. Plus that mask is pretty dope.
As I mentioned earlier KOTO 2 avoids making its villains seem incompetent by not making them chase you from level to level. In KOTOR 1 Malak's plans are focused on stopping you from hiring different people, sending apprentice and eventually sending Saul to stop you. You beat him every time and it makes him seem like he can't do anything. His only success is capturing Bastila but that is because she goes all Trask Ulgo on him and locks the door behind her. In KOTOR 2 the villains are different on each planet and the threat of the Sith just hangs over the proceedings.
Honorable Mention
Atris is a character is also partly the poster child for the game (she's on the disk) and she seems to be the Light to Nihilus Dark at first glance. However, unlike Bastila, her fall to the dark side actually is foreshadowed well. Everytime time you speak with her she is filled with anger at you for everything you did during the Mandalorian wars. This is shown both in your dealings with her on Telos and then when you see a holovid of her at your trial.
She constantly throws blame at the exile despite what the other Masters think. She then shuts herself off the rest of the Jedi in a room you discover later is full of Sith Holocrons and calls herself the last Jedi despite the other Masters still being around. It is she who brings Nihilus to Telos as her falling to the Dark side and collection of holocrons end up calling out to him. She ends up being manipulated by Kreia into becoming what she hated so much but that hate is what led her to it.
Okay then so the bad is completed, now all we have left before delving into the intricacies of the story is the spider at the center of it all. The person who manipulated everything to end up as she planned it. See you folks next time!
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