wow that's a nice inflexible honour code you've got there. i can't wait to see it broken under immense pressure, and you along with it.
You know, I saw someone say, on Tumblr in fact, that you weren’t a true Star Wars fan if you liked Darth Maul (my favorite Sith Lord, of course), oh no. To be a TRUE Star Wars fan (which is laughable, aren’t you a true fan if you like it?), you had to like…
Dun dun dun!
Bastila!
From KOTOR.
…
let’s talk about how much i love bastila
bastila’s seeming hypocrisy is well-explained by her developed character. we’ll start with her childhood; first of all, jedi are taken from their parents at a young age. while the jedi order has changed by then, episode i anakin is told he’s “too old” at around ten years old. for argument’s sake, we’ll put bastila around 8 or 9 when she joins the order. she is Extremely Young. her mother nags and criticizes her, while her father offers her affection. is it any wonder that a child of that age might idolize her father? furthermore, bastila’s father is a treasure hunter, and she says that made them move from world to world. given her character i would assume that prevented her from making any real friendships because she never really got to put down roots—bastila’s father was likely one of the only people that showed her outward affection as a child. children need affection. fast forward and she joins the order, away from her family, at a young age. she is left only with what she remembers of her parents—communication with parents is, after all, stifled by the jedi. she never gets to mature in her relationship with her mother, see that her mother was critical of her because she wished the best for her, that that was the only way she knew to treat her child, etc. we learn as we grow up to value a strict parent because they did not spoil us. bastila did not get to grow up with her parents, she did not get to make this distinction. but when you meet helena on tatooine you can encourage bastila to overcome her prejudice towards her mother, and though it ends on an ambiguous note, i like to assume that her mother gets treatment and bastila is allowed to reconcile further.
bastila is arrogant and constantly reminds you of the dangers the dark side poses, for two major reasons:
- bastila is a direct product of the last decade+ of her life. the jedi harp endlessly on the danger of the dark side. it is a flawed ideal to see in absolutes as they do, which we explore in KotORII, but all the same, bastila has had it drilled into her head for years that the dark side is Evil and Must Be Avoided At All Costs.
- (spoilers to follow) you are darth revan. bastila is literally traveling with a former dark lord of the sith. you are her responsibility. they hope your former personality is dormant but they cannot say for sure—after all, you are having visions of your former life—there is a great fear within the council (which they feed into bastila) that you may fall again. bastila wants to move up in the order, she doesn’t want to fuck this up, so she obsessively nags you to basically be a paragon of light and goodness. it’s annoying but she does it for a reason.
bastila has spent her time since discovering her talent for Battle Meditation being told by everyone that she is a special snowflake, the greatest hope in winning the Jedi Civil War, and being placed on that enormous pedestal. everyone knows her for defeating darth revan and believes she will help lead them to victory.
HOWEVER bastila is still a padawan! look at all she has achieved, look at her responsibilities with revan and malak, and she hasn’t even been made a knighthood? she knows that she is being held back for some reason—probably because the council knows she is headstrong and emotional—and that completely preys upon her mind.
but DESPITE ALL OF HER NAGGING, bastila still falls! what a bitch! how dare she!
but let us consider that bastila is a human
humans make mistakes. humans have EMOTIONS. bastila has been taught all her life that emotion = bad but she is basically shitawful at a stoic lifestyle, she admits it herself. bastila is afraid of your dormant personality, she is (if you play canonically) afraid to be in love with you, she is rife with lust and desire and curiosity and insecurity. she is stubborn and arrogant and headstrong. malak plays upon this and converts her. she falls to temptation and sin.
bastila knows she is arrogant and proud and vain and headstrong. she has flaws and is insecure about them, she admits this to you. she knows that they hold her back as a jedi and as a person. she is a beautifully and wonderfully flawed character and that is why i love her.
but even if these flaws still drive you nuts about bastila, you can call her out on her bullshit and she will concede to you that she is pretty much an abrasive, nagging bitch. she is aware. but revan makes her better. he teaches her to no longer be afraid to love and (this is getting into my headcanon for post-kotor) to stop seeing the force in absolutes. there is hope for her to become a better person. storywriters place her at 18 - 23 (though this is debated in the fandom i suppose, it’s obvious that she’s young)—who is perfect when they’re young? who is perfect ever?
Confession: When I was a kid, I hated Bastila. Always “ooh, Dark Side” and she turned out a hypocrite, too! But then I realized that she has always been pressured to be the perfect Jedi due to her talent with the battle meditation, but try as she might, she felt she was failing. And then she bonded with Revan. If you play as a Lightsider, the Dark Lord himself is a better Jedi than she is; if you play a Darksider, you are dragging her down along with you, and she seems terrified when it doesn’t feel wrong.
Unmute !
I'm probably one of the few tumblr users who still remembers Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games (Prove me wrong!). I really love Kyle and Luke dynamics and couldn't resist to redraw this scene from Jedi Academy.
Ciara ate this up, this version is so haunting, her little hums at the end… gives me chills 🥶
“its been a long week” me on a Tuesday
that moment when you cross the point of no return with a character should be accompanied by a specific chime i think. like 🔔 congratulations! this one has been installed in the Permanent Collection and you will never stop thinking about them as long as you live
New episode of “KotOR, Threnn’s misadventures in space”… Where he “saves” Bastila Shan, though she’ll insist that SHE saved his ass instead… Before I met her, I was expecting Bastila to be some kind of wise, calm, Satele-like jedi. LOLNOPE! How the HELL are they supposed to save anything together???… Yeah I admit: I love it >.>
Knights of the Old Republic: Lord Revan & Bastila Shan
Created by Corbin Hunter
Awkwardly Force-bonded Jedi are now my favorite thing in this game.
Kotor angst/smooches! I needed to make up for the ridiculous fade to black during the actual scene… A FADE TO BLACK? FOR A KISS? REALLY GUYS!