KOTOR 1 My Three Endings

AUTHOR'S NOTE: before someone corrects me - I know the game only has two endings. This post is about my role-playing experience from three different perspectives. This was from a 2020 playthrough.

Summary: I played through most of the game just picking the dialog options that felt right for my character's personality, without worrying much about Light or Dark. This was a lot of fun, and I ended up slightly to the Dark side of center when I reached the Temple on the Unknown World. I then finished the game three times:

About my build: I'm playing as a Guardian, so not being fully Light or Dark doesn't make as much difference to me as it would to a Consular. Mostly I just slice people up with my lightsabers. On normal difficulty, nothing in the game was all that challenging, and I got through most fights by just spamming the Flurry button. The final fight with Malak was pretty easy on all playthroughs. I did train both Advanced Throw Lightsaber and Destroy Droid with this fight in mind, which helped a lot.

About my character: this version of Revan is less concerned with Light vs Dark and more concerned with what he perceives as Right vs Wrong. As his own moral compass, he's not susceptible to the dogmatic failings that plague both Jedi and Sith. He has full confidence in his own judgement and doesn't really care what either philosophy thinks about it. However, because he's not as infallible as he thinks, he often does the wrong thing for the right reason without realizing it.

On top of the tower, I tried to get Bastila to join me, not Sith Me or Jedi Me. She was willing, but only if I agreed to rule the galaxy as the Sith Lord again. I wasn't, so she ran off. When we met again on the Star Forge, she could initially think only in terms of Jedi and Sith, but I kept bringing the conversation back to her and me on a personal level. She came around, and we declared our love. (Awww, how sweet...) I had decent dialog options for my character all the way through, but there were a couple of dialog trees that forced me to say something I don't think my character would have said. I checked my alignment during the final Malak fight and I was dead center in the middle between Light and Dark.

However, after killing Malak, everyone treated me as if I was 100% Light Side Jedi. That's no surprise, because of course the game really has only two endings. But it did somewhat cheapen the decisions I'd made for my character. This Revan was completely, almost pathologically certain that he alone was capable of choosing what is best for others. He was very comfortable making himself judge, jury, and (literally) executioner. No matter how well-intentioned he was ... that sounds like Dark Side to me. He was one small step short of Anakin on Mustafar ranting about bringing peace to "My Empire". But everyone treated me like I was the the pinnacle of Light. Again, that's pretty much what I expected, but despite how happy I am with the rest of the playthrough, it did make the ending feel incongruent.

For this playthrough, my character realized that the Rakata, perhaps the most powerful and successful empire in the history of the galaxy, was destroyed by the Dark Side. Despite not being Sith, their attempts to use Dark Side power for what they considered worthwhile and justified reasons ultimately destroyed them. The larger danger, then, isn't in dogmatism after all, but in the Dark Side itself. He decided that, while the Jedi aren't perfect, they are the best of any group out there. Therefore, his best chance of helping the galaxy in a lasting way is to fully embrace the Jedi and do whatever he can from within to improve the Order.

On top of the tower, I tried to turn Bastila back to the light. She was unimpressed, and even took an impressively scathing cheap shot at Juhani before running off. Then on the Star Forge, I talked Bastila into quoting the Code, and convinced her she could be redeemed. Then she brought up being my girlfriend and - what the heck, I went for it again. I grabbed a few last Light Side points by trying to redeem Malak, but as expected, no luck there. I didn't make it to full Light Side, but I did pick up enough Light Side points to stand in front of a blue light and bow my chest out on the character screen.

This ending felt less true to my character, because my "revelation" that the Jedi were the right choice felt contrived. But in all the final conversations, it did feel less like I was fighting the game to find a suitable dialog option. My character actually had a "journey" that ended up in a different place than it started. And I didn't feel like a hypocrite when they pinned the medal to my chest.

For this playthrough, the proximity of the Star Forge brought out my character's innate desire for power, and he went full Dark Side. On top of the temple, he declared himself the "True Dark Lord" and told Bastila that if she sided with Malak, she had to die. She decided I was more powerful than Malak, switched her allegiance to me, and we set off to kill Malak and rule the galaxy together. Jolee and Juhani objected, so we sealed my turn to the Dark Side by killing them. Carth and Mission wouldn't follow me either. Carth ran off, but I had Zaalbar kill Mission. Canderous was pretty enthusiastic about following me to the Dark Side.

On my previous endings, I'd taken Juhani and Mission with me onto the Star Forge. As they were both dead for this ending, I took Bastila and HK-47 (I generally took one melee and one ranged companion with this build). With Bastila already in my party, there was no second conversation - well, a brief and uninteresting one with some of Malak's apprentices - so the Star Forge was pretty much one long fight. I told Malak off about how I was the real Dark Lord and hacked at him until he agreed, just before dying. I didn't make it to full Dark Side on the character screen, but I got fairly close.

This ending felt natural for my character, who had a lot of darkness in him throughout. Becoming Sith again and retaking his empire would be the quickest, easiest path to power. I can see him doing it. I enjoyed this ending the least, even though it was fun to be all edgy and dark, because I enjoyed playing a character who struggled with and overcame his own failings on his own terms. This felt like giving up.