KOTOR 2 - Connections: Notes

WARNING: the following contains heavy spoilers about KOTOR I and KOTOR II. Do not read it if you haven't played the game yet.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: these are loose notes related to my "Connections" fan fiction. They are very poorly organized, as they were only ever intended for my own personal use.

ANOTHER WARNING: you saw that there were going to be spoilers, right? If you haven't played the games, stop reading now.


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This fanfic is based on a unified playthrough between KOTOR I and KOTOR II. I planned the character backstories, builds, and even the outline of this fan fiction before starting the playthroughs. The idea is to make it feel like one unified story in two parts, rather than two separate games in the same universe.

===== Random thoughts on the Connections idea =====

"Connections"

Yoda's quote about never using the Force for attack might be good to lead with in the fanfic.

What if instead of reforming the Jedi Order, Revan creates a new one based on new insights. Loose thoughts, some of which is inconsistent with the above chapter summaries.

- the old Jedi Order forbade connections as leading to jealousy, greed, and the Dark Side

- however, the thing the made the old Jedi Order distinct was that Jedi "use the Force". This is ALREADY deep into the Dark Side. The Force doesn't exist for the Jedi, or anyone, to "use", and if you start off with the philosophy of commanding it, you're already on the wrong path.

- what you can use, instead, is each other. Because free-willed beings can choose to be used. The Force empowers Force-sensitive people, who can then willingly grant their strength to each other. There's an amplification effect, where the more connections are formed, the stronger the whole becomes.

- the Sith did something similar, via Sith sorcery to extract and empower themselves from the life force of others. But that's a corrupted version - the Dark Side manifestation of this effect.

- the Light Side manifestation has been almost ignored by the Jedi. But some people have a natural affinity for it. Bastila is one (would need to rewrite the "Revan's Surrender" thing a bit, to make him aware of connections she'd unconsciously formed to her teammates when facing Revan). The Force Bond between her and Revan was a manifestation of this ability, even though she didn't understand what she did or how she did it.

- Bastila's Battle Meditation ability is another manifestation of this. She's forming connections to large groups who, as willing members of a team, are unconsciously sharing. When this is a group of ordinary people with no special connection to the Force, the effect is limited, but the multiplier effect makes it significant. When it is a group of Force sensitive people with a lot to share and who know how to do it: Bastila is a Force Turbocharger.

- Meetra is the Johnny of this effect. Meetra's incredible affinity for forming connections is umatched.

- This would probably be a female Revan, because the canon Bastila/Revan romance would distract from the story. Could try out the in-game female romance options just to see them, but don't include that in the story.

- Still do the build exactly as planned. The new thing there is that not only should Revan not use Force powers that do direct damage, nobody should. (I guess stuns are still okay? They're an absolute necessity for the build. Maybe I'll just quietly ignore that part for the sake of the game. Jedi companions can still take whatever powers in the game - this restriction is really just for story purposes, and Revan won't even have had her big revelation about all this yet)

- When Revan leaves after KOTOR I, it is still to counter the True Sith. But it isn't by directly assaulting them, or even scouting them. Revan has started understanding this new philosophy, and relearned of the planet Nathema, where the Vitiate did his ritual and turned it into a Void in the Force. Revan thinks this planet may be key to the new philosophy and goes there.

- At first, Revan is still thinking in terms of reforming the existing Jedi Order. So when Revan leaves, it is just to learn about stuff and Revan is intending to not be gone long. All that those left - mainly Bastila, Jolee, and Juhani - know is that Revan remembered something about a threat and is going to try to retrieve knowledge about how to face it.

- Revan still sends Juhani after Meetra, as described below, and for those reasons.

- Meetra tries the reform/rebuild thing. Doesn't really work out. Juhani finally returns, has found Revan's ship on Nathema, but no Revan. Juhani needs help, the planet is too much for her.

- They all head off for Nathema. Find out that Meetra, due to her condition as a Wound in the Force, is unaffected by Nathema. Meetra finds Revan meditating. Revan thinks she's been gone for maybe a few weeks, is shocked to learn it has been years.

- Revan was right about the planet. Vitiate was right about it being a Void, but wrong about the implications. Most Force-sensitives, even Jedi, take the quick, easy path. They draw upon the Force all around them, and command it to do their will. In a Void, though, there isn't any Force around them to command. However, beings who enter the Void, especially Force-sensitive beings, retain their own connection to the Force. But truly drawing on one's self is an almost unheard of skill. Even Jedi who think they're doing that - even Revan in her past - are fooling themselves. What they're actually doing is exploiting their strong connection to the Force in everything. Truly drawing on on one's own connection to the Force is generally a death sentence, and there are very, very few exceptional people who have the strength of will to do that. (This is a shout out to both Revan in my Dark Meetra story, and to Luke in The Last Jedi.)

- Staying on the planet forced Revan to either die, or to learn to draw on her own connection. She learned, but in order to survive had to pull only as fast as that natural connection could self-replinish. Which explains why she thinks it has been weeks, not years.

- But the secret has been uncovered. Everyone has been heretics all this time, but Revan has learned the truth: you can't take the Force. You can only share it. And sharing not only multiplies, it doesn't diminish. So when A shares with B and B shares with A, they each have their own power (which they can't take much from without risking their own lives), they also have the full power of the other (which they have full access to).

- One consequence is that Revan, as perhaps the most powerful Force-sensitive person other than Vitiate, can't really do anything on her own. To do so, she'd either have to commit suicide, or violate the Force by extracting it from around her. And, in tandem with one other individual, she can't do anything exceptional, because she can only do as much as that person can share. But whomever she shares with - that person becomes a Revan-fueled superhero.

- Sidenote on tandems: traditional Force Dyads are just two Force users who have learned to share in this way, and also to draw from their surroundings. They essentially each get doubled up. But they generally don't know how they're doing it. Because Ben and Rey were both kind of idiots.

- Another consequence is that if you can get a bigger group of people who know how to do this: wow. Every one of them gets the power of all of them (minus themselves). And if one of those people in the group is Revan. Woo-boy. You have a little army of Revans.

- Another consequence is that the strong become weak and the weak become strong. Revan could demonstrate this to Meetra (or whoever) by attacking them in lightsaber combat while doing tandem sharing. They'll trounce Revan easily. Because they're fighting like Revan and she's fighting like them. She can't fight like Revan while doing this, because that'd require drawing on externals. But because she's sharing with them, they can.

- Yet another consequence is that everyone sucks alone. The big weakness of someone adhering to this philosophy is that if they're ever caught on their own, they're pretty helpless. And being caught in a pair isn't much better - you can share with each other, but you're still just normal strength, only you've swapped who's stronger and weaker in the pair. But once you have three people, you start multiplying, and it just gets better from there. So the old Jedi practice of lone Masters doing stuff, maybe with a Padawan tagging along, has to change. Everybody goes in groups of at least three, and preferably more.

- I wonder how much distance this sharing thing can work across. Probably different for different people. Those really versed in it (like Revan) or naturally talented (like Bastila and Meetra) can probably do it at greater distance, maybe even unlimited distance. But normal people are probably more like line of sight.

- Now, you still can't do this AND use the Force AGAINST someone directly, like Lightning or Choke or whatever, without violating it. Which violates the whole philosophy, and even actively terminates it because the Force won't allow itself to be manipulated in this way. So if you're fighting, you have to use weapons. You'll just all be really freaking good with them. But you can do things like absorb attacks (so would be effective against Vitiate).

- Basically, the Force can only flow along connections between willing participants. Anything else is heresy. So this pretty much limits you to buffs and heals. Meetra is the perfect example, because that's the ONLY way that Meetra can interact with the Force anymore. So there's a simple rule: if Meetra can do it, it is okay. If Meetra can't, it isn't. Now, the Force isn't against you killing bad guys. You just can't actually use the Force to do the killing.

- All this demands a new and even more strict form of mental discipline. You have to forgo all the abilities you've learned, everything you know how to do, and retrain yourself in the new ways. But Meetra has a head start, because as a Wound in the Force but with the ability to still make connections, Meetra can't possibly do it wrong. So Meetra is kinda the ideal model of what they're trying to do.

- normal Force-sensitives are like drug (spice) users. The ability of the Force, everywhere, all around them, is irresistible and they become dependent on it. That's why Nathema affects them so strongly, even kills them. They're going cold turkey and having withdrawl. When you're on the drug, that's all you can feel. You're deaf to the kind of sharing that Revan has discovered. But they can learn to live without the drug, like Meetra did. And when they do, it opens up a whole new set of options, a whole new way to interact with not only the Force, but with each other.

- Revan could share the power of being Revan with Meetra, and it be an amazing experience for Meetra. Meetra could finally understand how Revan was able to lead two different armies - the ability and confidence are beyond what Meetra could have comprehended. And now Revan can make this available to anyone who'll learn to accept it. The whole New Order can be Revan.

- what should the New Order be called? "New Order" is dumb, unimaginative, and derivative.

- Are Meetra's Force-sensitive companions here? Atton? Mira? Mical (sp)? Does Bao-Dur live or die in this one?

- This is NOT a pacifist movement. If anything, Revan is more interventionalist than ever. Maybe even full zealot. The rest of the new Jedi Order that aren't there - maybe they can be taught. They'll have to be brought to Nathema for reeducation. But the True Sith? They're a hopeless abomination, and must be mowed down like grass.

- Weapons-only fits the theme of both playthroughs, given that Meetra won't have any offensive powers at all, and Revan will have at most Stun and Destroy Droid.

===== And some additional thoughts, mostly from before I thought up the Connections thing =====


- Revan was right all along about the Mandalorian Wars. The Jedi Council was wrong. But Revan handled it about as poorly as she could have.

- Revan was aware of Malak's imminent betrayal and could have countered it. But in that moment, on her flagship, Revan realizes she's fallen out of the Force's will, surrenders to it, and allows herself to be betrayed. This is her redemption.

- Revan follows the Light throughout KOTOR I, not as a Jedi fangirl but because it is the right thing to do. She has a redeemed personality, but no memories of her redemption (or much else).

- The "big reveal" and subsequent events through to the temple top aren't Revan's redemption. That's already occurred. They are hier test, to see if the new Revan is wiser than the old one. She passes.


===== More Details, written before I thought of the Connections concept =====



The Order failed Revan, and unknowingly fell to the Dark Side, when it failed to support Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. The problem, which the Jedi Order never realized, was that it did not exist to perpetuate itself, or to protect the Republic, or to follow its own Code. The Jedi Order existed to serve the Force, and all these other things were simply the most common things the Force required of it, and the most productive ways the Jedi knew to find the Force's will. In this case, the Will of the Force was that the Jedi follow the Force's Avatar - Revan - against the hidden dark threat - the True Sith - that the Mandalorians represented. A resounding defeat of the Mandalorians by the unified Jedi Order would have sent a clear signal to the True Sith that the Republic was not an easy target, and would have spared countless trillions of innocent lives. It didn't matter that the Jedi weren't aware of the True Sith. Their calling was to serve the Force, not dictate to it. Revan was right, and the Jedi Order turned away from both her and the Force, choosing instead to live in pride and the willful ignorance that accompanies it.

(Per "Connections", the Jedi order was actually founded on heresy. "Using" the Force is wrong, no matter your intent. So it is actually even worse than described in the above paragraph.)


This does not, of course, mean that every Jedi of the era was a Dark Sider. As is often the case in movements that have lost their way, there were many individual Jedi who continued to follow the path of the Light. But the Order as a whole was lost.



Revan, unfortunately, handled all this poorly. She also fell to the Dark Side, a fall which originated in pride in her own abilities. Maybe there's a way to blame Kreia for at least some of this? Maybe she manipulated Revan into being open to the wrong teachings, and then when Revan uncovered Malachor V and Korriban she first was too interested in them, then later embraced them, due to Kreia's influence? I'd really like to blame Kreia, because it ties the two games together. And maybe I can call her Kae during this period? That'd be even better. I don't have a fanfic chapter about this part, and probably don't want to because this fanfic is already going to be super long. But maybe I can have a few paragraphs where Revan remember some of this stuff.



Part of Revan's willingness to attack the Republic after his fall was that, at some level, she was aware that the Jedi Order had fallen and needed to be changed. But in her Sithness, she understood that to mean destroying it rather than fixing it.



But being Revan, some part of her still heard the actual voice of the Force calling her back to the Light, to the destiny that was still available to her. And so, on the bridge of his flagship, when she was confronted by Bastila and team, an interesting thing happened. She surrendered to the Will of the Force. This was no master strategy, no carefully laid plan. Darth Revan could have easily taken out the Jedi, and she was aware of Malak's impending strike with enough time to counter it. But she didn't. Because the Force, acting through Bastila, had finally reached her, reminded her of who she was supposed to be. So Revan stopped, and allowed Malak's attack to occur, without knowing what would happen. This was Revan's turning point. Revan's redemption wasn't some accidental side effect of a Jedi Council plot. She chose it willingly. This was the moment that Revan stopped being merely an incredibly talented Force user and became its servant. This was the moment that Revan died, and the moment that Revan was born.



The reveal on the Leviathan (and Revan's subsequent reaction to it, continuing through to the temple top) wasn't her redemption. That was her test, a confirmation that she'd actually become what the Force intended her to be.



The reborn Revan doesn't have her memories, at least at first. She can't be trusted with them yet, so the Force withholds them. She does, however, have the motivations from her redemption, and she immediately begins reforming the Jedi, starting with her companions.



After the Star Forge, she is able to take a more active role in rebuilding the Jedi Order. But she becomes aware (again) of the True Sith, and learns that time is shorter than she'd hoped. The new Order isn't ready for this threat - it is still very early in the process of being restored. So she has to face this alone, but (being Revan) she has a plan.



She finishes reforming the Jedi Order by proxy. She gives trusted, if unlikely, people specific tasks. She has Carth prepare the Republic and Canderous prepare the Mandalorians. The Jedi are trickier - Bastila is a good option, but she'll need help. Jolee is still around but he's a wild card. The only other person up to the task is Meetra, but she's unavailable. So Revan sends Juhani after Meetra.

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Here are some notes I wrote while working on the Training Begins chapter:

Summary: Exploration of the Council+Bastila arguing over whether to retrain Revan or not. Dive into the Force Bond a bit. Highlight how much pressure Bastila is under and what she agrees to in terms of looking after the freaking Dark Lord while still being a Padawan herself. But the "Training Begins" is a double meaning. Revan talks privately at some point in all this with Bastila and expresses concerns that she (Revan) will be required to learn to use the Force to attack people. She doesn't mind at all fighting and killing opponents - she's already proven that - but she has a feeling that it isn't right to use the Force to do it. And maybe they talk about the Force Bond too. By the end, she's not only established that she won't use the Force in that way, she's also made Bastila rethink it (Bastila is probably not convinced, but that door has at least been opened). This is all foreshadowing of the new philosophy, which Revan is just discovering. But not only is Revan's training beginning (in the old Jedi ways) so is Bastila's (in the new way). In some respects Bastila and Revan are each acting as both pupil and teacher in this one. But we also get lots of Vrook being a complete jerk. And maybe Atris? Even if she's not actually there, she needs to be referenced to help link the playthroughs.

Carth, in his very first conversation with Revan on Taris after the Endar Spire, knew:
- who Bastila was
- that she had the Battle Meditation ability
- that she was with the strike team that killed Revan
Not sure how high up the food chain Carth was and how much more he would have known than the average person, but it is possible that it was common knowledge that the Jedi had killed Revan.

Carth says "common knowledge" is that Malak escaped the trap that killed Revan. So apparently, the Jedi are publicly taking credit for killing Revan, and keeping it to themselves that it was actually because Malak betrayed Revan. Carth calls it "Bastila's Jedi Strike Team". Is this all a coordinated misinformation campaign? Is the Dantooine Council in completel coordination with the High Council, or is it in at least some ways operating indepedently?

From a strictly in-game perspective it is possible that:
- Bastila didn't know what Revan looked like (never took off the mask)
- Bastila didn't know the person she specifically requested to be on the Endar Spire was Revan (she could, for example, have just been told by the Council or someone to ask for this person, and either have been given a false reason, or no reason at all)
- Bastila didn't know about the mind wipe. We know she took Revan off the flagship, but we don't have any in-game info about what happened afterward. She could have just given Revan to the council and not known if Revan lived or died.
But for purposes of this fanfic, I'm going say that Bastila knew all that stuff.

Dantooine Jedi Council Members who would presumably been present on Dantooine when the wounded Revan was brought in by Bastila:
Zhar (Twilek male)
Vrook (Human male)
Vandar (Yoda-species male)
Dorak (Human male)

High Council Members that I could find:
Vrook (on both councils)
Vandar (on both councils)
Atris (raging bitch)
Zez-Kai Ell (human male, decent dude)
Lonna Vash (human female, might be agreeable based on her reaction to the Exile in cut KOTOR II content)
Kavar (human male, unsure how he'd react)

According to Wookiepedia (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dantooine_Jedi_Enclave_Council), at least Vrook and Vandar served on both Councils. So there's that dynamic. Maybe they were actually coordinating. Or maybe Vrook and Vandar spoke for the High Council (with or without explicit authority). Or maybe they actively misled the High Council.

Atris was on the High Council around this time (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Atris). She was at least on it when it forbade Revan from participating in the Mandalorian Wars (https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/47/Council1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150808060352), which Revan of course ignored.

During the game, Revan can ask "Isn't the Jedi Council on Coruscant", to which they reply: "Yes, the High Council of the Jedi Order is on Coruscant, but we are the Council in charge of the training facility here on Dantooine".

Given that Bastila brought Revan to Dantooine (per Wookiepedia), would this "Council" have taken it upon themselves to approve the Revan Rehabilitation Program, or would the High Council have been involved? Was the High Council aware of the strike team's plans in the first place, or did the Training Facility Council approve that unilaterally?

The Jedi Council's goal, per Wookipedia, was for Bastila to use her bond with Revan to draw out his memories about where his fleet came from and how to defeat him. When was this plan formed? They apparently didn't know about the Star Forge until the vision on Dantooine. But they did know that something unusual was happening. Was the original Strike Team plan ever to actually abduct Revan, or just subdue Revan, try to extract the information, then escape?

Why the heck was Revan on the Endar Spire? If the plan was to extract information, why implant the personality of a low-ranked person in the military? How does that help with extracting information? One possibility - they were going to cart Revan around to places they knew Revan had visited in hopes of triggering a memory. But how would that have worked? Revan wasn't even around Bastila. Revan might have said "hey, this place looks familiar" to the person at the next station. How would Bastila have known? Or if it triggered a full memory and Revan said "hey, I remember when I was here as the Dark Lord as we took over the place ... that'd be sort of a negative outcome, right? So what was the plan?

u/Smudgysubset37 on Reddit said this, which isn't bad:
The best theory I can come up with is that Bastilla was supposed to use the force visions she received from her bond with Revan to try and learn about the Star Forge, however they still needed her battle meditation in the war, so they couldn't have them both sitting around on Dantooine. Thus, they were put on the Endar Spire together, which was out doing normal battleship duties when it was attacked over Taris.

However, I don't think the visions had started before the Endar Spire? Maybe they were just hoping to use the Force Bond to get something out of Revan? Did the Jedi Council know about the Force Bond beforehand?

I'm just gonna be a little vague about all that in the fanfic.
In the first conversation with Revan, Zhar seemed ready to approve Revan for training right away, while Vrook was skeptical, even hostile. Bastila argued for it. These don't seem like the conversations of a group that has already agreed on a plan of action. Could they have planned to rebuild Revan but *not* retrain? If so, what good would Revan have been to them? If they did plan to retrain, why are they arguing about it? Dorak and Vandar favor training, with Dorak calling Revan a "special case". Vandar mentions Revan being dead. Vrook, however, isn't sure Revan is dead, and asks what would happen if the Dark Lord returns. Vandar says the council should talk about it in private.

After the first conversation, Bastila and Revan share another vision, and Bastila tells the council about it. They say that Revan and Bastila's fates are linked. Vandar says they have little choice in the matter, because (basically) everything is really desperate and Malak is winning. They've apparently already agreed amongst themselves to train Revan.

Zhar oversees the training, and talks at some length about how fast Revan is learning and how powerful Revan is. However, he also says he personally trained Revan, and that Revan was "his most promising pupil". So why is this a surprise? He expresses disappointment at Revan's fall. Maybe he's just excited to see Revan apparently back on the right track? Or that Revan's injuries didn't destroy Revan's power?

Wookipedia also mentions Dorak as one of Revan's teachers.

The Dantooine Council should at least have a conversation about whether to consult with the High Council or not. Even if this whole thing, from the beginning was a secret effort of the Dantooine Council, there should be some disagreement among them at this point. This gives me a chance to at least refer to High Council members like Atris and maybe some of the other KOTOR II Masters.

Bastila is in way over her head. She thought that once she got Revan back to Dantooine from the flagship, the Masters would take over, for better or for worse, and she'd be off the hook. Maybe she'd get a good talking to from Vrook (which she does). But still, her part would be done. But then Bastila (in part because of the Force Bond, in part because of what she saw on Taris) feel strongly that Revan is redeemed, or at least redeemable, and is clearly being used by the Force, and should be trained. So she speaks up for Revan. And basically gets "okay, but if you bring the puppy home, you have to feed it and clean up after it". She gets saddled with being the Dark Lord's Master. She's terrified and overwhelmed, but she also doesn't turn it down because she thinks it is the right thing to do. So she pretends she's fine.

"When I used my Force powers to keep you alive on that bridge it created our bond. I convinced the Council that I could use that bond to draw out your memories and lead us to the Star Forge." ―Bastila Shan, to Revan

One thing to show, even if I don't say it outright: every time Bastila is around the Jedi council in this story, things are stressful, uncertain, chaotic. Every time she's around just Revan, things are peaceful, comforting, hopeful. This comparison is setting Revan up to be her Master and guide.

Revan is also uncertain in some ways, but not fearfully. There's confidence and assurance, just not a clear path. Revan very much knows that she is a learner. But she is also still Revan, so she's very sure it'll end up okay. The difference in Old Revan and New Revan is that now she trusts the Force rather than just herself.

Timeline note: With "now" being immediately after the destruction of Taris (and per Master Dorak on Dantooine): Exar Kun war: 40 years ago 20 years of rebuilding Then the Mandalorians, sensing the Republic was still weak, began attacking non-Republic Outer Rim worlds 7 years ago, they attacked Republic worlds, using supplies from the worlds they'd already conquered 4 years ago, the Mandalorians surrendered unconditionally to Revan Revan and Malak disappeared for "months" then came back with the Sith fleet 2 years ago, the Republic started winning some battles via Bastila's Battle Meditation almost 1 year ago, Bastila was on the strike team against Revan, and was present at Revan's end Interesting: it has been a really long time since the strike team. Almost a year. Have I been laid up somewhere for all that time? Also interesting: per Dorak in this conversation, which occurs at the end of Revan's training as a Jedi, the Council doesn't know where Revan got the Sith fleet from. But they know more than he's letting on - Bastila has already told them about the vision, which mentions the Star Forge. So he's giving me history, but also walking a fine line by keeping some things to himself as part of manipulating me.

Should I (subtly) ship Juhani and Yuthura? Would need to handle Belayaappropriately. Either Juhani and Belaya are quits (presumably in a friendly way, and quite possibly before we ever met Juhani), or maybe Belaya died on Dantooine. Possible that Yuthura consoles Juhani in the Banned chapter, and that's how things start.

A bit of background on Belaya:
- I meet her on Dantooine before I ever talk to the Jedi Council. She basically accosts me for not wearing the traditional Padawan robes. I tell her I'm not a Padawan, she's surprised because the Force is strong in me, I say I came with Bastila, she's heard of Bastila, knows that Bastila has mastered Battle Meditation, rare in someone so young, but also seems to think Bastila has a reputation for being arrogant. She apologises to me for being harsh and unfair to me, says her Master tells her she needs to learn to control her emotions and apparently she has a lot left to learn. - After I redeemed Juhani, she was really complimentary, said I'd done "a great service to the Order" and "deserved the highest praise".
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Juhani mentions to me in the course of in-game coversations that: - she was from Taris - she lived in the lower city and was treated very badly. Lived on trash and meager wages from menial labor. - her parents fled there from somewhere or other - Cathar do not make friends "easily, or for long" - even on Dantooine she was alone a lot. "Not exactly ostracized, but separate" - she felt like, on the Star Maps mission, that it was "warming" on the ship and she was "accepted". She liked it. In an in-game conversation, Bastila admits she's been unfairly critical of me, unnecessarily lecturing me, and, despite swearing she wasn't going to do it, becoming as "self-absorbed and stodgy as the Jedi Masters". She said she wanted me to know how much she respects and admires me. (This was on Tatooine, after 1st Star Map, and I was pretty close to Light Side Mastery, but not there yet.) Later, she calls me a "true servant of the light" and says I make resisting the Dark Side look easy, while she struggles with it. Says she's quick to anger, quick to get involved, and dreams of using her power to kill Darth Malak, but she's been taught these are the path to the Dark Side. Then she went on a bit about how it might be worth it to kill Malak, the stopped herself, saying who is she to question the Jedi teachings, and, even more, who is she to try to make me question them. Later, she says part of her point in coming on the mission was to guide me, to keep me from the dark side, but she fears she's failed in this task, and I should have stayed with the Council. This seems an odd thing to say - I had achieved Light Side Mastery at that point. She does say that she's always had trouble controlling herself, even less since our Force Bond, and that I've maintained the path of the Light in spite of her, not because of her. I say maybe we can help each others, and she says I'm kind and maybe that'll work out. Seems like a great turning point for this fanfic, because she's explicitly not my teacher anymore, we're more like peers and she's valuing my input and help. This video has pretty much all of Yuthura's backstory conversation from the Sith Academy. One notable thing she said about the Jedi (talking about her desire to free the other slaves on the planet she was from): "They claim the Dark Side is evil, but that isn't so. Sometimes anger and hatred are deserved and right. Sometimes things change because of it." And talking about how she still has her anger and she's learning to fight from the Sith, she says "I know this may sound strange, but only my compassion stands in my way now. Once that is gone let the slavers beware." If pressed on it, she then tries to downplay it by saying "I mean losing my compassion as in ... holding back" This one is the conversation with her on Dantooine. She says she's having trouble letting go of all the Sith thoughts about anger, power, and victory (interesting wording there!) but ironically, despite the Sith Code, she's never felt so free. Thinks she may be able to finally find some peace on Dantooine. Asked about the slavers, she says she needs to work on herself first before helping anyone else. But that hopefully she can work through the Jedi to help eventually. Even though the Jedi work slowly, they do make a difference. She hasn't actually rejoined the Jedi at that point. The Council is giving her time to think about it. If asked if she'll come with me, she says that isn't her path, but maybe when I'm done I could come back. She could use a friend. And maybe we can travel together then. Wow, did the KOTOR writers plan for my fanfic or what? POSSIBILITY: Jolee Bindo, in one of his rambling stories in KOTOR I, talks about "Master Hortath" and calls him the "most near-sighted thing in the Core". Says he'd bump into things, mistake apprentices for rancor beasts, etc. People tried to get him to let the Force see for him, but he refused to admit he was having trouble. Hortath ended up giving a Padawan the wrong directions to the Council, and the Padawan ended up leaving the Jedi because of it. Kreia could think something about not wanting to be like Hortath when she's waffling about blinding herself. Sort of an obscure callback to KOTOR I, almost an Easter Egg. But this is supposed to be a serious passage, so would that work? Also, Hortath was before Jolee's time, and therefore also likely before Kreia's. When Jolee *finally*, at the end of all his stories and ramblings, fesses up about why he left Kashyyyk to come with me, he first tells a story about a boy who found a snake in his village. He cleared things out of the snake's way, out of the village, and all the way through the forest to the great desert. At that point, the snake bit him. As the boy was dying, the snake asked why the boy followed him. The boy replied "I followed you? I thought I led you away from the others." I asked Jolee if he thought I was the snake, and he said that was for me to decide. Said so far I'd chosen the lighter path, but he wasn't sure if I'd keep following it through the challenges ahead. Said he could see that I had a great destiny, but that didn't mean my path was already written. He said he wasn't there to judge me or tell me which path to take, he was just there to offer his help if I asked for it. He said coming with me was more important than remaining in his home and pretending the galaxy doesn't exist. He concluded by saying "You're a fine young lass, and I hope things turn out well for you." -------------

"Allronix1" on Reddit said this pretty interesting thing about Juhani, might help write her character more convincingly (also has bits on Jolee and Mical):

I honestly like her being what she is. Here we have Bastila, the very image of what the Jedi think they want. She's been trained from childhood, spouts all the right phrases, professes all the right opinions, great saber skills, fantastic Force abilities, obedient to her superiors, toppled a Sith Lord...

And the poor young woman is an anxious, brittle mess who has no clue how to handle situations that fall outside the rulebook and overcompensates with a haughty demeanor, especially towards non-Jedi. Remember, Carth's people are considered a de facto servant class of the Jedi (Telosians are supposed to realize the Jedi are their betters and act accordingly), and Mission is a street kid who (according to "how it's supposed to work") is supposed to be awed and reverential, not asking questions with the candor and lack of reverence only a teenager can manage.

Jolee is the fellow who probably used the rulebook in his outhouse and ripped out the last page several years ago. He was better smuggler than a Jedi and made some fantastic screw ups while succumbing to apathy in his self-exile. In retrospect, he makes a good inversion of Ahsoka, who also walked away from the Order, but still followed the Jedi rulebook and acted like one where Jolee only gets his Jedi groove back when Revan shows back up. We love him because the Prequel Jedi Council were such monumental assholes (riding a slave kid's ass for being homesick and worried about the mom left in slavery is considered greedy?! And we're supposed to agree with the Jedi here, Lucas?! The man has a severely messed up idea of healthy relationships and it shows) and the KOTOR Jedi Council treating this as a contest to go 20% harder with the tomfoolery. We love the guy because when authority sucks that hard, the guy who flips a middle finger to them looks more heroic than he actually is.

Juhani has every reason to be a Sith. Lots of anger, painful backstory, nasty temper, GREAT Force and saber skills. She gets compared with (and sometimes shipped with!) Yuthura Ban. She got treated like crap from the Jedi management. Yet...even with all the reasons she would have to choose the Dark Side and the fact she might be a natural Sith, Juhani makes the choice to live that Code and try to be what the Jedi should be. I think that, ironically, Juhani and Mical are the best Jedi we get in the games when it comes to walking the walk, showing that it is a viable belief system.

(End Quote)

--------------
Light side KOTOR II ending is here, for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0SI8Z6lpiw

Questions between KOTOR I and KOTOR II that any fanfic needs to answer:
The Revan book elaborates on some of this (but fanfics don't necessarily need to follow that): Wookieepedia contradicts itself within the https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/HK-47 article, in one place saying HK-47 AND the Hawk were left behind by Revan when Revan went into the Unknown regions, and in other saying HK-47 had his memory erased and was left with Bastila, then later went searching for Revan on his own, was damaged, and that T3 found his remains and stored them on the Hawk. If T3 went to Malachor V in the Hawk after Nathema, maybe that's where HK's search had led, and where he was damaged (plenty of Sith Lords there to do it, prolly Kreia herself)

The Jedi Council, at the end of KOTOR 2 before Kreia kills them, told Meetra that she was effectively a Force Vampire, gaining strength from all the lives she took and forming connections to her companions which caused them to be her unthinking servants, killing on her behalf even against their natures. The Council said that Meetra was a wound in the Force that must be sealed, because otherwise she would be the end of all Jedi, and maybe the end of the Force itself. When she got back to the Hawk, Meetra struggled with that, and Mical gave her a pep talk, saying he followed her because he chose to and that her connections were a strength, not a weakness. But that never really gets resolved.
In the first conversation in the barracks on the Ebon Hawk after leaving Peragus, Kreia did a masterful job of manipulating Meetra's thinking about how she'd lost her connection to the Force, and the consequences. First they talked about the Force Bond, and Kreia led Meetra into asking if it could be lethal, which Kreia said was possible. Meetra mentioned that she could feel the Force again, but faintly. Kreia suggested, but did not say outright, that the Jedi made her lose her connection. Meetra questioned that, and Kreia said it more firmly, but still with just enough doubt to sound slightly uncertain, which was more convincing than outright certainty would have been. Then Meetra said she thought she'd lost her connection to the Force because of the Mandalorian Wars, and choices she made in them (almost certainly referring to Malacor V). Kreia, although she is the freaking master of Trayus Academy ON MALACHOR V didn't even acknowledge that battle, but said in more theoretical terms that she found it unlikely that anything that happened in war could sever one's connection to the Force - in fact she thought it'd make it stronger. When Meetra asked if anything could be done to restore her connection, Kreia said Meetra needed to be retrained, and either she (Kreia) could do train her, or else some other Jedi could. Meetra then said all the other Jedi were dead (which she only thought because in the cockpit Kreia had told her so) and Kreia said she guessed it'd have to be her, then. So at the end of this conversation, Meetra believes:
Most of the things that are untrue for purposes of this fanfic are at least exaggerated by other interpretations. Overall, Kreia did an incredible job of steering Meetra onto the path that she wanted Meetra to follow.


Revan's companions being uncertain about Meetra, even after the end of the game, would play well with an in-game cutscene showing a conversation between Carth and Gren, the guy in charge of Telos Security Forces on Citadel Station, where Carth says that the Republic had been considering taking the Exile into custody but instead had taken a wait-and-see approach. This approach may have been directly influenced by Bastila, and communciated to Jolee and Yuthura.
The name of the "Banned" chapter has a double meaning - Revan is banned from teaching (which she ignores) but also Yuthura Ban becomes a companion. Regarding Dantooine, Wookieepedia (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_on_Dantooine_(Jedi_Civil_War)) implies that the orbital bombardment was more widespread than I want for Banned, so I need to explain that in the story. Wookieepedia also says that the civilian population was subjugated by the Sith for several years following the attack. I can tweaked that by saying there was a break in there where my Banned story happens - Dantooine was bombed, then later occupied by Triumverate forces after Malak's death. Maybe in "Purpose" when I talk about how the Sith attacked the settlement, I could switch that to be the beginning of the invasion. So Jolee, Bastila, and Yuthura hold off the Sith long enough for Mission, Zaalbar, and some of their peeps to get off planet. But as it is the start of a full-scale invasion, they have to give up the planet for lost. Or something like that. The "battery" Jedi on the Star Forge apparently came from Dantooine, implying that Malak sent in ground forces. But they could have done an initial assault, killed/captured anyone left, then departed. And then other Sith came later. T3 has a hologram of Carth saying that Revan is going to leave, and that if Revan gets into trouble, then T3 has to come back and get help. I'm going to say that coversation took place on the Hawk while Carth was getting his gear together. Per some sources, T3 apparently did come back for help, but deleted his own memory of where Revan had been and locked the astrogation system so nobody could find out. Still not sure why that happened - if T3 was coming for help, wouldn't knowing where to bring the help back to be useful? Also still not sure how HK-47 got dismantled before the start of KOTOR II. The 'Revan' novel may talk about some of this, although I may or may not decide to use it. At least in some variations of their conversation on Telos, Carth tells the Exile that Revan told him to "stay here, to try to keep the Republic strong" and that was "the hardest thing of all". He also implies that Revan was intending, at a minimum, to stay gone a long time, but maybe even permanently. Carth also tells the Exile that Revan "believed something had been behind the Mandalorian Wars. That it hadn't been the Mandalorian's choice to attack the Republic" and "Whatever it was, I think she went off to fight it." While recounting the events of KOTOR 1 to the Exile (which KOTOR II implies via a fade-to-black-then-back-in was a long conversation but which very little of is actually in KOTOR II), he says "We saved the Republic. But it was like the war didn't end for her. She would keep remembering things that she had done, and it kept driving her. And she kept using it as a wall between us. And I think she finally remembered something terrible she had done during the Mandalorian Wars. And she went to put an end to it. She left without warning. She didn't say where, only that it was to a place where she could not take anyone she loved." This can all be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntnN-yjyF2s. I doubt (but have not confirmed) that exact conversation happens in all version of the Carth/Exile conversation. To make it compatible, I need to: - have Revan be remembering "things she had done" - have Revan use this as a wall between at least her and Carth, but could be her and anyone - have Revan at least raise the possibility of being gone a long time, or at least say or do something that could be interpreted that way - talk about how she "believed something had been behind the Mandalorian Wars and that "it hadn't been the Mandalorian's choice to attack the Republic" - have all this happen such that Carth can think she went off to fight whatever this was - remember "something terrible she had done during the Mandalorian Wars" as the impetus for leaving - leave without warning - not say where she was going, only that it was to a place she shouldn't take anyone she loved - tell Carth to "stay here, to keep the Republic strong" - make that hard for Carth For a lot of that, I just need for Carth to have the perception that's what was going on. I don't have to have that be what was actually going on. So maybe I can adjust the Carth parts such that he'd have that impression, but other people have different takeaways?