Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, & Darth Traya – The Fallacy and Power of Star Wars Kotor2

foreign do you remember when you could say Star Wars and expect a pleasant conversation Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 the Sith Lords is one of the darkest and deepest games that has been entered into the ocean of Star Wars content I suspect it's also the most misunderstood but then again maybe I'm the crazy one maybe I misremember my perspective on Star Wars in general is narrow A New Hope is great and Empire delivers improvements in almost every category and that seems to be where consensus of justifiable opinions begins to break down the unifier is 40 years old what a tragedy those fans that conduct themselves as Death Watch mandalorians demanding content of a particular style to match a particular taste have been easily dismissed with the argument it's for kids well the same is true of Harry Potter and Adventure Time Harry Potter grew up with its audience in Adventure Time weaves candy for the eyes and heart with threads and themes that were more dark and mature than some of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry these arguments over taste and preference mask a criticism of quality any decent plot structure will advance the idea that struggle imbues the climax with significance and a sharper contrast seems an easy path towards sharper catharsis yet when the climax is revealed they're mere abundance of dark and mature will not hide any shortcomings that proceeded in its construction when I was a Star Wars foundling there was nutrition that sustained me in the material I'll not draw a pistol as quick as the death watch but I'd be a fool to take my helmet off I think I can get away with saying the waters ahead look navigable but treacherous the Mandalorian Clans are probably going to be kept scattered drifting further apart from one another drawn to their little corners of things crafted just for them and them alone maybe this is the way but we live in New Times and Death Watch aren't known for their poetry so if you'll permit a metaphor the old ruins of temples long forgotten are hidden though not yet subsumed by the time there really is treasure to fish up waiting in the dark down there and those of you that would be Jedi will have to enter the cave sooner or later so before another illum is mind Hollow I think we should check one of the most dense dark and deep entries in the firmament of Star Wars spoilers by the way so where to begin the fallacy the power or the Kotor II they're all a symbiotic circle of ideas so perhaps I should say that it is possible that every word of the title and every component on the cover of the game might all be lies every word each individual image in part and composite together might be a deception I say might maybe and perhaps that's actually the point of the game the trick it plays a player can learn to recognize a fallacy when it appears and still be able to use its power but that's a waterfall of an idea maybe we should start small and merely dip our toes the original notion that began this project was to unpack the question what is a powerful Sith the full title of the game is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 the Sith Lords and it's that Sith Lords part that is near to the heart of the questions that the game poses we can start there the game Kotor 2 introduces several overachieving Sith characters one of whom is nearly always on a list of top 10 in power and another two that are frequent honorable mentions Darth nihilus that guaranteed mention was a Sith Lord that consumed the life force of entire planets residents included his nearest counterpart from the same game Darth Sion was a man so angry he could not die bro was functionally Immortal indestructible including these two on a list of powerful Sith is well merited yet there is an invisible yet sizable assumption that is required before including them on such a list Darth nihilus and Darth Sion are not Sith a bold claim I know now approximations and components of this notion are scattered here and there along the shore you may have encountered before I only hope we can lay everything out all at once I do not hold the arguments that follow to be true in totality there is a difference between the ease of definition the is of composition and the is of predication which is to say the arguments are true from a certain point of view now what the Crypt am I talking about you're right I said we'd ease into things you know I want to share something about Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 with you but for now let's simply fish up a definition for Sith we'll be skipping over the long extinct species native to quarterback as ethnography is rarely interesting on its own the most obvious place to start then is the Sith code a quick recitation goes peace is a lie there is only passion through passion I gain strength through strength I gain power and through Power I gain victory through victory my chains are broken the force will set me free the local nature of my chains and me free will have importance built upon them later if you can carry those in the back of your mind for now but as it stands this Creed outrightly states that passion is the only fuel which an adherent should draw upon passion so anyone that adheres to this explicitly might rightly be called Sith but so too might anyone who uses the force to fulfill want in any meaningful way I do some interpretation to say the most basic decision-making process of I do want this I don't want that to which all action is subordinated could be argued as either manifesting or guiding one's Passions manifesting or guiding Passions to clarify we maybe have two definitions in just the Sith code those that use a kind of fuel and those that have an opinion on how things should be maybe Darth Sion and Darth nihilus both use a kind of fuel and maybe they both have an opinion on how the Galaxy should be Maybe we'll Circle back as we've got two more pearls to examine so I've got the boxes with the 2003 Genji clone wars in the other room and I still vividly remember Dooku egoing Ventress quote you are not Sith you wear the trappings of the Sith you fight like the Sith but this can be imitated however you lack one vital quality found in all Sith Sith have no fear and I sense much fear in you we could take this statement at face value as a serviceable definition but why should we deconstruction alone leads us to where we must ask is it the no fear quality on its own in some kind of combination with the fighting an aesthetic signaling in context of an adherent to the code Maybe and if fearlessness really were unnecessary quality then an entire category of passion the want of not to be afraid would be removed from the power sources available for this interpretation of a Sith to draw upon and before we go deeper let's look to another fictional World a quick reference outside of Star Wars over to Nolan's Dark Knight Rises the film argues underneath its narrative that the fear of death is a powerful emotional tool with physiological effects that are ready and harnessable for use either good or ill but back to the Dooku quote and in particular its context in universe such as the power dynamic in the rule of two that it is most unwise to lower your skepticism at least when the writing is good the line is a tilt obviously but it has more than one use it simultaneously is meant to trigger while it more importantly reinforces a sense of Separation that most immediately needs to be overcome with a show of actions it's a type of Separation that's a key ingredient for a Perpetual never good enough kind of servitude as a dark side acolyte a never a Sith by such means is the rule of two preserved with some notable debate the internal effects of such a dynamic can lead to effort being spent on hiding a show of Fear or even rebuking one's own self for being afraid thereby wasting mental energy battling one's own self the phrase covertly weaponizes the instinct to self-improvement a mind trick without the force Dooku be toxic like that now as for Darth nihilus and Darth Zion it's hard to say if they were capable of fear as we would understand it but their very presence did indeed have a poisoning effect both more subtle and more obvious than Dooku's their ethos dominated those around them nihilus inducing a sense of helplessness while Scion seemed to demand a single-mindedness but the effect was primal if Dooku's style could be likened to the 48 Laws of Power then nihilus and Scion have doubled down on the most Savage laws and ignored everything about decorum attacked and Regal conduct so maybe Sith are supposed to have an air of being in charge at every interaction but can that include the Primal or must it be dignified only does culture and social circumstance have a say if so then circumstance would control some of the power wouldn't it it's hard to say let's try another definition now the third definition and as you know the third thing in any sequence so constructed is either a resolution or an escalation so enters Darth virelock III I didn't dig the comet back up so correct specificity if you must to my memory the quote goes a Sith imposes his will upon the living Force now this quote proceeds varlock literally mind melting the ghost of a god king from the ancient days of the Sith it's a whole other project to discuss the shift in Philosophy from the order of the Sith Lords and their poisoning of the Commonwealth to the rule of two where I think it's misleadingly said poison is concentrated into one cup it might be better to described that all the holes in the dam are sealed off save for two two outlets for the dark side two For Whom the water pressure will remain high and increase exponentially as the dark side boils to be used then from the rule of two there is the transitioning into the order of the one Sith where everyone Warhammer style must pour some of their own water into the common well under a single Dominion before being allowed to draw from that well in a self-reinforcing kind of gaming of the dark side as another aside I'll argue we saw a similar kind of gaming on zakur without the implicit adherence to one aspect of the force but neither here nor there so now even with this crude and admittedly suspect knowledge of the evolution of Theology and practice that has all been called Sith at which virelock sits at a place of significance at the well-controlled well at the end he still does not furnish a definition that excludes his forebears it is a definition in keeping with the many interpretations of the Sith code Sith imposes their will upon the living Force this is the definition we've been noodling and spearfishing for it's simple describes something viscerally accurate and straddles a tremendous theological Rift underneath its semantics now before we swim out into the deep let's switch Rivers again and for real mildly unpleasant interruptions to escapism await plug your nose and hold your breath for 30. you'll be fine in the digital space there are techniques of Bot swarming and sock puppeting wherein individual neck beards or state-funded actors will direct scores of empty accounts to orbit various topics or other accounts to build the idea of consensus keep that in mind in general but also as we shift IP again The Shining the film at least I don't know about the book or the mini series but do you remember how all those people just started appearing to the characters they could have been ghosts trapped in a cycle or visions of the past and future locked in cyclical suffering yet they were all fairly consistently trying to get Jack and Danny to stay and play with them Invitational there was nothing much discernably distinct in their intentions like hollowed out finger puppets all a part of the same hand of something that was holding the Torrance family in its Palm there's that Eastern Fable of the Buddha holding The Monkey King in his hand whilst letting the monkey think he's free to go as he pleases teaching the monkey a lesson about perception both about self and the world perhaps in The Shining instead of the Buddha it's King Yama holding the monkey regardless of how plausible this interpretation might be compared to others it's a yawning kind of spooky that changes some things if your head is still above water it should be clear where this current of thought deposits us on the question of nihilus and Scion the will they express is not their own they are conduits for aspects of the dark side hunger and Scorn that's an important perspective on its own but it remains open to challenge as a matter of point of view very well context is one Pathway to meaning so hang on Rapids ahead of course I've seen a fair amount of clips of George himself laying out the tenants for All Star Wars the Sith have obsessions the Jedi are selfless the will of the force is all around us all fair enough where there's a great deal more to be explored in just the simple pillars Campbell's hero's journey the Dao and the Brahman apollonianism versus dionysianism Nietzsche against the gnostics the list of real disciplines of thought that can be found beneath the surface in non-exclusive ways is fathomless the ambiguity is a gift and with all these valid enough influences and undercurrents in the original trilogy we all saw what we needed to see of Luke's training as he began to grasp the force his training was to let go of conscious self which we are shown to be synonymous with the Jedi as selfless and we saw the Sith refuse to let go becoming the Hulk Gazette consumed by their own death grip nihilus and Scion are a mockery of this arrangement they have let go but not in the way that Luke did they exemplify the idea that the dark side of the force is at least in part transactional they corrode the description of a benevolent all-binding Good Will of the force they are a warning that all advice that prescribes is not Universal there are no axioms as I think their Master might say to let go the conscious self and act on instinct can make monsters where the Sith code has been said to be an affirmation of Life by use of the force as a direct criticism of the Jedi code's apparent denial of life for the sake of the force we see in Kotor 2 both religions warped so easily to yield the opposite result if it is fair to say the dark side is transactional these two traded away life so that they could continue to exist and if the dark side of the force has a will of its own then it gained Tools in them the sith's focus of self the worship of the me and the my at the end of the Sith code was the only Shield against this kind of unlife we see manifest through nilas and Scion identity disappearing into such power from this certain point of view they are not Sith as they have no will of their own that they could impose I hope that makes sense I hope that makes sense because it's important interpretations of sithar more often than not built atop one of two pillars commentators often begin with the Judgment of Sith actions starting there likely as a shock value hook and then work backwards to imply a model of sithness with a value set that supports the actions or interpretations begin with stated values against which actions are then measured for commitment I propose a third pillar not superseding or overshadowing but adjacent and underused I think I already mentioned it back there somewhere in the tide of words already Sith have actionable opinions about the way the universe should be it's more than actions alone the idea undermines the notion that we are all only that which we do but nor does it affirm we are what we wish no value is built in mere preference to an imagined or incorporeal ideal and the first time I thought this essay was done I found related ideas readily pre-existing in the belly of Balthazar and in Aristotle's Poetics Aristotle sees fit to mention action character and thought admittedly his arrangement is slightly different as he speaks to a different purpose but as we speak of it here thought when mastered climbs this pillar I erect and poorly named a pillar of self and actionable opinion without this perspective we can see action as only outcomes and character as only qualities plus temperament yet the want to act in the world is inseparably wed to that which is acted in the world these two create a single idea which is often so unrightly split apart it's from atop this pillar of actionable opinion that I argue nihilus and Scion are not Sith though the other pillars most certainly still support them and it is from this pillar that a great many characters that would be Jedi are undermined by the draw of this perspective if this interpretation is to be taken seriously Luke was only truly a Jedi for brief moments in time when he turned off his targeted computer on the Trench Run when he let go of the banister on Cloud City and when he threw down his lightsaber on the second death star the rest of Luke's life that we are shown his actions were Guided by a firm opinion of right and wrong opinions which he acted upon which led him into moments of violent contest right and wrong as quick easy and seductive points of view I quote it is difficult to follow the Jedi Code when so few others have and it is here where the other Contender forsith Lord might be suitably addressed not the master not yet rather the noble Jedi librarian corrupted by her books and her wants The Scholar that gets right and wrong not deconstructed but rather twisted the woman in white from the cover now what more noble want could there be than to resist the Sith and see the Jedi Order survive how right is the instinct to preserve lessons from the past to bring benefit for those yet to come what actions would be justifiable for the future or for the ideals for those that don't know in Kotor 2 the Jedi are scattered the academies destroyed all of the Galaxy Lim son bleeding and wounded from long Wars the Republic is nearly vanquished in its victory the Jedi religion as always had been at the heart of each of the conflicts the Jedi go without friends while the Sith build armies of spies and assassins weaponizing hope a disturbing feeling Cold War grips the Galaxy and nihilus and Scion hunt Jedi quietly stalking and striking from dark space that's a librarian understands the stakes she has knowledge of the reality and knows how far away her want for a better future is if nothing is done the ideals will be destroyed and replaced so she studies she studies pragmatism and deficiency she studies until she becomes the knowledge she studies outcomes fall away as process matters more and more and quietly she becomes a prisoner to the pathway she built in her own mind all that would oppose her are Sith as she can only afford to deal in expedient absolutes this Jedi councilwoman climbs the pillar of actionable opinion higher than perhaps even her Rivals Darth nihilus and Darth Sion but perhaps she's chained to it she's rarely even a footnote on those lists of honorable mentions forgettable and quiet in Legacy like so many other stepping stones cast off in Sith rivalries with these three it begins to seem as though Talent discipline and intellect are not sufficient nor is stoicism or selflessness this interpretation of actionable opinion as Sith sinks all definitions of Jedi that do not adhere to the strictest way of no way but wherever philosophers would quote the wisdom of laotzu there will come retorts and needles supplied by those philosophers who know their jean-zu someone who can make a mockery of things so from this height we can begin to see the shadow of Crea Far Below but we've only begun to address the question of power and fallacy so from this height we can take the plunge as it was from this height that the councilwoman was nudged into the deep end nudged of course by Crea [Music] by her own words claims that she is but a mirror if accurate then she cannot be understood without understanding all that surrounds her so it's here where I think we find the obligation to discuss the force all its aspects not just the narrow and dogmatic view of every individual contributor to the franchise and its commentary now there is a host of material in the Golden Age and elsewhere that leans too far fantasy or too far sci-fi for my tastes but for the dark side considerations there's technomancers Alchemists and deities all scattered across the range of genre fiction but for the variety many through lines remain we all know most interpretations of the magic system of the force sees the use of classically negative emotions as correlated to deformity and decay whilst the Light Side might preserve and tranquilize the dark side seeks to be active and affect a change a change as simple as doing damage even in the user and the structure of Sith belief systems all too often facilitates a spiraling paranoia arguably another aspect of the dark side seeking expression the callus and opulent malevolence of Palpatine is arguably another such form and as a thought perhaps a master telling their Apprentice that it should taste like poison let's The Apprentice mistake the harm they bring into themselves for power thus keeping them weak but the force is benevolent it heals gives life and unifies anyone could say the dark side does not have a will it does not seek to transact as I argue well that belief implies that people are evil not the force Maybe if that's true it might be why so many of the Light Side acolytes call for a deconstruction of one's own ego if that's true the dark side must be a consequence of Evil Within a mind it is then individual Minds that corrupt the force around them they are either a polluting sea board something corrupting spills from them leaving a stain like oil in the sea but is this true of the council woman by the end she is a Jedi only in her own mind the light sides inoculating call to Stillness and Surety turned into a poison a dangerous case study in Mass formation perhaps this is the power of Darth nihilus and Darth Zion even trying to address them as an intellectual problem poisons one's own self this Council woman from the cover art does seem so outmatched she does much to demonstrate the problem of study we tread into those Waters parallel of critical theory where it could be said that ideas seek Minds as vessels seeking expression for those more vulnerable to such beliefs and for everyone else this is Foucault's power knowledge or gidebor's mediating spectacle this character should underscore the notion that any one particular perspective of critique seems to be able to use truth claims to smuggle value propositions truth claims as the light of the anglerfish that any type of sordid criticism when touched by utilitarianism intentionally or otherwise brings a corrosion into itself the truth remains for a time but it does erode the foundations of anything built atop it in search of value and so the Ivory Tower is made into a fortress of ignorance and fortresses always retain their usefulness as long as their foundations are not washed away in a storm and when times become tumultuous Rivals will call for the destruction of study altogether whilst devotees see only Sith gathering at the gates but what this means in Star Wars what this character suggests is that the force may be fickle the title of Jedi is so obviously false upon her shoulders in the end but it's a trap to ask what the title means in the first place the game does not force the issue but it does let the player go deeper to ask from where do titles derive meaning at all for as committed to the legacy of the Jedi as this person was the only thing required to turn them to the dark side was time at study perhaps she did not let go perhaps her opinion of how the Galaxy should be arranged overshadowed the will of the force or perhaps the force does not seek balance as a static state the light side's rebirth and renewal may require a terrible flood to come before and there may be Seasons where such tragedies belong a season of growth and a season of storm Guided by the hand of the force light or dark it's here with this understanding that Crea begins her work with words alone she traps all three of those figures from the cover the councilwoman is rendered ignorant inside a withering Fortress the indestructible undrawnable man is Chained in the bottom of the sea in a place of her choosing and nihilus he who would drink all the ocean must go where she directs swallowing the cup of concentrated poison she leaves for him and is the player free from her manipulations of course not the Deep things could not reach her as she understands both them and the Sea they swim better than they understand themselves craya or Darth treya she is one of those occasional honorable mentions on those lists of powerful Sith but what was her power words they are indeed a means to meaning but this seems to pale in comparison to the raw power in her former students and her students knew it the very moniker of Darth treya says everything it needs to say false teachings can be a pathway to truth but only if one is not wounded so Gravely as to be rendered blind thus every student is a failure before her tutelage begins to trust the will of the force or to trust the force as your weapon to trust a master or an ideal is to betray yourself is that idea powerful is that idea a Sith does Darth treya belong on the list of honorable Sith mentions to proceed from here safely let's look at an example from the game not the famous one from narshada but rather with the shaman and force healer chodo chabat so the quick facts herd are responsible for a restoration project trying to save a planet the project is fraught with political and consequently funding trouble does not approve of aiding him and it is here where I have heard claimed that Crea projects a brutal self-interested utilitarianism on others it's been argued she projects the worst on others because she is at her core Sith a grandmotherly styling of Dooku's Sovereign Sith it's a very useful explanation but its usefulness has limits the writer of this game exists in a context where we have access to more than just Nietzsche as an influence so too could there be Echoes of Jameson and Jung and all the other post-marxist thinkers wherein there is an overt question about the nature of unconscious paradigms of culture and of the various modes of production critically mode is not the same as means in Star Wars the very mode of only Jedi and only Sith is challenged by the existence as a shaman and force healer in the tradition of his people the authorians they have four throats and still the species seems to struggle to form the sounds of a lie this poor cripping Nerf herders it is possible craya projects ill intent on his request for Aid and subsequently his greatly involving the player character in The restoration project but that would mean craya is unable to see altruism as an alternative it is possible that her warnings of entanglement are about showed those unconscious intentions he seeks to restore a world and thus the force around it recreating the old modes of thinking that the force seems to bring with it a mode of light side and dark side only in a self-amplifying feedback loop or perhaps she is cautious against allying with someone with an incomplete understanding of Game Theory someone so committed to a positive sum game which is to make more than there was before that they are unable to recognize when the moment shifts into zero sum such shifts bring with them wildly different strategies for success a young man with money meets an old man with experience when they part ways the old man has the money and the young man has experience and his authorians are vulnerable in many ways but are rendered most vulnerable because he does not know the parable to be true he and his authorian herd prove more than vulnerable they are in fact helpless against more practiced zero-sum participants around them it could have been predicted that they would need more help than they initially asked for and they give in exchange only the minor Boon that was offered from the start along with a sincere recommittal promise that they will save a world which could not save itself perhaps Cho dos overly ambitious promise of Charity could be said to undermine self-determination by trusting the will of the force perhaps too in his petitions for Aid he displaces responsibility away from himself perhaps Korea's disapproval comes from more than one place in this instance nearly every instance with Creo could be said to be worthy of similar examination where she goes and why where she does not go for if she is Sith why does she not set foot on the philosophy's Homeworld of koroban does the question have a single answer and why does she respond to some dialogue options as though the player character is asking thoughtless questions and on narshada it might be enough to say you will need the contrast as she foreshadows that to which she will forever be an adversary and on the subject of adversary covertly important to the question of Darth treya's identity as Sith is the fact that she does not take up the namesake until the end was she Sith when she saved the Exile and The Gambler from Darth Sion was she Sith at malachor 5 when everyone else was defeated and in which moment was she more herself nietzscheism seems close but when Nietzsche says God is dead it means something different than when Darth treya finally declares her intentions her analysis so effortlessly topples the Romantic Notions that the Jedi are benevolent rulers and protectors just as it drains meaning in the belief of the heroic self-made Sith Lord she rejects the notion that the force is simply the Bountiful ocean that provides for All Peoples gathered on their little Islands within its arms just as she rejects the idea that the force is best used as the highway for Warlords to raid Island after Island leaving stains in their wake the force must also be the uncaring stormbringer that wipes Islands clean season after season the force is the ultimate master of Fate that sings siren songs of Serenity and power both the ocean itself is the nemesis as the climax approaches in Kotor 2 Crea reveals herself as Darth treya but perhaps it could be said she assumes the role of Darth treya the necessary antagonist the player must confront in that final showdown she wears the trappings of the Sith and she fights like the Sith for the Sith have always sought confrontation with Jedi and then sought confrontation with one another regardless of what the player has chosen to be craya forces a final fight as one last test she could not present herself as anything else but Sith to fulfill the ending she had built kreya attacks from every angle every layer of the nervous system must be mastered and every layer of belief is put to the test from the nature of the world to the essence of value and morality down even to self-identity the choice is to grow stronger and survive and to unify the pieces of what is truly yourself to Triumph to show you Mercy or speak clearly would be to steal a kind of purity the player will be craya's Triumph as a teacher or the player will be proof that the depths of her ideals cannot be taught hegel's recognition will be sourced in the bondsman or in the self she will bring forth Nietzsche zubermench or she will be the Uber bench you are astute you have heard me say the player character and you have heard me say the player you've swam with me this far you've seen the tools at work without being told what they are and a long long time ago I said that everything on the cover of this game was a lie I need your attention now more than before to show you the tools deliberately the title of this game is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 the Sith Lords of Star Wars there is no conflict rising to the galactic stage as there is in the rest of the franchise the Insidious squeezing Cold War manifests at its most explosive moments only is brief planetary sorties of Knights of the Old Republic there is only one a patriotic mobster a shadowy Persona dedicated to criminality as the best means to stabilize the very concept of Law and Order and as for the Jedi those former Knights of the Old Republic those guardians of peace and Justice they are at best and I quote cowards doubters and Afraid each of them that you find are still recognizable as Jedi Masters but are trapped in the past dabbling in hypocrisy or are consumed by helplessness making the titles feel hollow and for the Old Republic itself it's absent and nebulous like a single parent working the night shift communicating only through texts and notes on the fridge even the demarcation of the Roman numeral two is a trick inescapably it is the second game of two inescapably the player will have encountered other Star Wars media and that will have shaped ideas about the way things should be with a bit of stretching this symbol for the number two could even invoke the ideas of Duality that are at the foundations of Star Wars but there's a space in between the further down the Star Wars path a fan has come only means there's a longer road to navigate back down if a wrong turn was taken somewhere the more that has been learned the more that may need to be unlearned and the phrase the Sith Lords I find the plural little letter s to be exceedingly clever you'll have to decide for yourself how many Sith Lords you see on the cover this game secretly challenges the player to unlearn what they have learned so well constructed is the difficulty of this challenge that those same tools can be put to hardening what has already been built I suspect we are in a protracted season now where there is a draw towards realistic fiction to make things gritty and dark we seek to see things we recognize as real reflected safely behind a barrier of fiction but fiction can have the power to reach back from the deep like Kotor 2 does but perhaps Kotor 2 is not Star Wars from a certain point of view it wields lightsabers and Starships like the Star Wars it incorporates the force like the Star Wars but this can be imitated however Kotor 2 lacks one vital quality found in all Star Wars Star Wars offers resolution and I see only ambiguity in the void underneath the mask believing all that Star Wars paraphernalia there are ideas within this game that are easily missed games the genre of fiction that as always has taught the wrong lesson that the veil of fiction separates us from consequence to act freely that fiction itself is a barrier the idea then of acting freely of self-expression is best found as something contained on the other side of the barrier of fiction a deception easy to believe because some of the borders are defined it teaches that things cannot spill out and in without notice but when are we more ourselves I steal a certain type of strength from you now as I make the final lesson clear that craya hid from you at the very end from the moment the game began it has deceived you there is no great Revelation there is no great secret there is only you you are that which might change your own perspective the power of craya lies in these tools of critical inquiry the first principles always abanizio what is each thing in itself where is its beginning and its end how can each thing be touched Will finds a way and forsakes the rest for as deep as the ocean of Star Wars goes it threatens to drag souls to the abyss as Cyrillic Guinness or Alan Moore feared but the journey can be a circle Kotor 2 does not merely go deep its fiction spills over that might be my favorite quality that fiction can possess it allows us to anoint ourselves in Knowledge from the cups that we prefer Star Wars has gotten out of hand we must respect that it has exceeded any one interpretation and yet it Remains the height of arrogance to see that truth as carte blanche I caution the Death Watch to not ignite the quality criticism casually as Kotor 2 is an entry into Star Wars where something primordial something that extends beyond the boundaries of fiction has found a way to Don the mask of Star Wars such things are rarely coerced let's head back to shore was Darth treya Sith does that do Crea Justice why is she powerful well she fought all the ocean alone and might have succeeded were it not for one of her students were any enemies in the game truly Sith does it matter of course it does such titles allow us to break the Galaxy down into light and dark to categorize it Sith and Jedi will always be recognizable and the utility of the categories are undeniable but the categories are not immutable the skill to both understand the utility and to change the category when it is suitable is the lesson kotor2 will teach you or hide from you or maybe I'm the fool maybe I drink too deeply from the stream maybe it's all a mirage maybe there's nothing in the cave but what I brought with me I would not recommend every Star Wars entry swim out as far or as deep as Kotor 2 seems to do likewise it would be foolish to demand someone change their taste and appetite to match one's own after all validation certitude does a Jedi crave these things maybe I'm not a Star Wars fan but for those of you that resonate with the image of the Jedi you'll have to make your own way into the cave at some point and for those hardened shells with withering Hearts just remember the cortosis fist takes hold of little a generous sense of humor is better than baskar so what's to come for the Star Wars fandom well there's less and less value in lamenting more elegant films from a more civilized age and there's especially no real fun in blasting people about clumsy or random entries so what then can we say for the franchise overall perhaps I'm too old but Cyrillic Guinness seems to keep his air of wisdom if those core films aren't bringing us together where is their value if Kotor 2 doesn't bring us together either where is its value should we expect better not from you Idol fishermen but from those great liners on the horizon hauling Nets to pull everything of value up to the surface the old man leaves with the money I hear Andor is good but how fraud are the waters and the first Fallen order likewise is of a different type little to unpack and beautiful for it but I still suspect we'll not see creatures of the deep like Kotor 2 for some time such is the season that will likely not come together at the same table to Feast upon the next catch we'll only get the gutted cleaned and pre-packaged individual fillets of leviathans that have come before it is difficult to follow the Jedi Code when so few others have there is no blame almost accept all right back to dry land again hope you fished up something valuable the game is super buggy on Steam but F4 F5 seems to work and I'm not expecting the reboot to be finished anytime soon or ever for that matter as I suspect coming Echoes and the force will overshadow any value that can be mined from a Dusty old game as for labors of love I cannot speak to the restored content mods but yes without them the base game does just kind of end much is missing from a narrative perspective which would taste of hypocrisy if it did not feel like a real life tragedy no explanations and no closure simply an ending and so we arrive at the end of this conversation I take my helmet off to say this I choose to believe in your success exile steal what wisdom you can from however you play the grand game let none of the fractured Clans be an obstacle only opportunities to you this is the way I think I've captured the spirit of the game well enough I'm gonna go play into the Empire with my wife go think about something fun touch grass get some sunshine look into upping your vitamin D game in general grow your free will for the better after you fight lament and describe the force will be with you always [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Lo Effort Thought

Views: 8,071

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Id: y1zqcaFpdoI

Length: 56min 15sec (3375 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023