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Revan
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June 2021 Legends group Read: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn
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uhhh. I'm in for this one, this is for sure.
It's been a looongg time since the last time I read this, and I remember not liking it. Let's see if my opinion changes any this time around. XD
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I need to find a comprehensive summary of the plot so I can enjoy the novel, which is set after the end of KOTOR 1.
Hailey wrote: "Oh, why not?Since you asked...
I love the KOTOR games, and I was really, really invested in seeing what happened after KOTOR II ended with the Exile and Revan, since (view spoiler) So I was expecting something more than what happened in the book, and I was incredibly, incredibly disappointed with the ending, especially how things ended with the Exile.
This book was meant to wrap up the stories of KOTOR and KOTOR II and tie up the loose ends to move into the SW:TOR storyline, and it just did it terribly to me.
It also didn't help that canon!Revan was male and I always played KOTOR as female!Revan. On my most recent playthrough of KOTOR (I was so excited when they released it and KOTOR II for iOS), I finally played as male!Revan, and I gotta say, I prefer Carth over Bastila and they're both really annoying.
I really don't think my feelings on the book are going to change, but it's been so long since the last time I've read it that I don't really remember much of what happened, so I'm willing to at least give it another shot.
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Consider these my pre-group read thoughts.
I've never read the Revan novel but I played the first KOTOR video game a couple of years ago. So, the book starts o..."
I also need a KoTOR summary. This is a Legends book, so ignore HR and the new canon books. Legends Jedi had
-Luke/Mara
-Leia/Han
-Jedi of Han’s home world of C-something(can’t spell it) had families.
So some Jedi had families.
Akindle wrote: I also need a KoTOR summary. This is a Legends book, so ignore HR and the new canon books. Legends Jedi had-Luke/Mara
-Leia/Han
-Jedi of Han’s home world of C-something(can’t spell it) had families.
So some Jedi had families.
You can't really count Jedi marriages after the OT though. Luke's Jedi Order post ROTJ was based on whatever Jedi teachings he could find, and I think he changed quite a few things to suit the needs of his new Jedi Order.
A Jedi marriage that were more around that time period was Nomi Sunrider. Her husband was a Jedi, and she became a Jedi after his death.
Tales of the Jedi took place something like 40 years before KOTOR. (Which is why some events and characters from Tales of the Jedi get mentioned quite frequently in KOTOR) Nomi Sunrider and Ulic Qel-Droma were a thing for a little while, before Ulic fell to the Dark Side.
Even so, Bastila was actually resistant to a relationship with Revan at first. I recall several interactions with Bastila where she was all like, "We shouldn't do this, even as much as with both want to!" She even regretted it when she and Revan had some smoochies in the sleeping quarters on the Ebon Hawk. Bastila was very much afraid that her feelings for Revan could cause them both to slide toward the Dark Side.
I'm not even sure they remained in the Order after they married. Revan was constantly haunted by the returning memories of what he had done as a Dark Lord of the Sith. Considering what the Jedi did to him, even if it was for the "greater good," I don't think I would have stuck around with the Jedi if I were him. I'm not really sure it's even mentioned whether or not they remained with the Jedi. Revan was obsessed with trying to figure out what he and Malak had seen in the Unknown Regions.
For everyone who hasn't played the KOTOR games, I went ahead and wrote up a summary of both games. It's too long to post in the comments here, so I've put it in a Google Doc anyone can access:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C...
Just a warning, it's a bit of a read. I tried to keep it to only what's relevant to the book, but it's still pretty long.
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Hailey wrote: "Zuzana wrote: "Thank you so much, Jess. Great summary and quite a lot of information to take in before reading the book."That was a great summary! Thank you for taking the time to write all of th..."
You're welcome! I like writing incredibly long, detailed summaries, so it was no trouble, lol
The full content mod for KOTOR 2 is so freaking awesome, and I had been waiting for it my whole life, lol Some of the content they cut out really explains some things. Also playing the HK droid factory was awesome.
To be fair, losing influence with Kreia isn't hard. Especially if you're playing light side. Some day, I will play a game where I do things Kreia's way.
Atton is way more my speed than Carth, lol Last time I played KOTOR, it was after I got it for my iPhone and I hadn't played in over 15 years, and I was like, 'was Carth always this annoying?' Atton is very lovable by comparison, lol
Hailey wrote: This explains a lot. I only played Kotor 1 as female!Revan so those cut scenes/dialogue options weren't included in the gameplay. I should replay Kotor 1 as a dude to get the full-story. I'll have to come up with a Star Wars-y sounding name for him. Maybe I should go darkside with him just to see what that route is like. Especially since I played as "myself" the first time, all out light side, choosing my own gender, class, skills, and dialogue closest to what I would decide in real life.
Yeah, my last playthrough of KOTOR was the first time I'd ever managed to get farther than Taris as male!Revan. I never noticed when I played when I was younger, but it really seems like the developers had playing as a male in mind with the way they wrote the story. I personally prefer female!Revan, but the story seems to have been written more with the Bastila/Revan romance in mind.
I usually play LS when I play KOTOR. I don't know what it is, but I always feel bad being mean to NPCs, lol I never make it very far when I try to play DS. I really do want to do a full DS playthrough for both KOTOR and KOTOR 2 someday.
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Yes, I just can’t spell it.
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htt..."
Thanks!
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https://archiveofourown.org/works/668...
Set after RoTS, with Revan's holocron important in it. The ending is awesome.
Note(view spoiler)
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74.5 pages a week for paper book
if on e-reader, then you can do 25% a week
I'm so excited!
message 17:
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Allyssa, Former Moderator/Group Founder
(last edited May 30, 2021 12:11PM)
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rated it 5 stars
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1. He would have appeared in an deleted scene of the CW episode "Ghost of Mortis"
2. He's in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary. It seems that quite a few Legends beings are brought back to canon, but with less details then their Legends selves at this time.
3. Also in Path of Destruction, as a holocron.
25% per week seems good. Does this mean we can talk about 25% if the book per week, or how are spoilers handled here?
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If you read ahead, just use spoiler tags <*spoiler>Loran Ispum Dor<*/spoiler> Remove asterisks and replace text.
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Just finished Revan, but will refrain from discussing any specific plot points until the group has completed the read. I came into the book "cold" not having played the KOTOR games that preceded this. I enjoyed it quite a bit and like the characters of Revan and Scourge. I might have a different opinion on the book had I played the games first.
There was a lot of backstory referenced and somewhat summarized in the book which helped, but I wished I was more familiar with it as I read this book. I read Jess's summary of the 2 KOTOR games (thanks, Jess!) after I finished this book so that helped with more of the backstory details.
This is my first Old Republic book and it struck me that the technology during this period is practically the same as it is ~4000 years later in A New Hope. They have advanced droids, interstellar travel, holovids, blasters, and so on. I was expecting a bigger difference to reflect the large time difference. I thought the same thing when I read the High Republic Books Light of the Jedi and Into the Dark, which took place ~200 years before A New Hope.
Hailey wrote: "This is my first Old Republic novel as well. You brought up an excellent point about technology. In the KOTOR games you can tell the technology and droids are predecessors to what you see in the movies but nothing too archaic. I didn't notice it at all after a while in-game because it's almost identical. I wish this was touched on more in-game and also in the novel.."Humans first developed writing in Sumer and Egypt 4600 years ago which began recorded history. That is a long way from where we are today. Granted, humans do not have Star Wars technology today, but I would expect the Star Wars universe to look dramatically different 4000 years ago. For example, no technology such that all the action would take place on just one planet. And weaponry would be swords or axes or something similar. I think the light saber might even be too high tech. Maybe the Jedi (and Sith) could have had some other lower tech, but unique weapon. Their abilities with the force would certainly make them much more powerful in a no-tech world.
Hailey wrote: "What are everyone’s thoughts so far?"I enjoyed Revan's activities with Canderous and the Mandalorians at this point in the story. I liked the conniving and interplay between Scourge, Sechel, and Nyriss even more.
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message 25:
by
Allyssa, Former Moderator/Group Founder
(last edited Jun 20, 2021 07:20AM)
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
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Massive spoiler for this book (I read the summary)
(view spoiler)
The book was good but I didn’t really like the ending. It also depends heavily on knowledge from the games, which feels lazy and cheap from the Author, as this is info he could’ve provided in his book. In the other hand I really liked Revan as he’s not a White Jedi knight but moves more on the gray side of the story, being a user of the light and dark side of the force. Lord scourge and the Mandalorians story was great but I feel this book could’ve been way way more.
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Spoilers for the ending
(view spoiler)
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I’m enjoying the connections to earlier and later lore, like the different forms of lightsaber combat.
That said, Canderous is a terrible husband—sorry, not sorry. And his wife taking him back into her bed after he disappears for years without a word? What kind of bizarre male fantasy is that?!
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This could have been an incredible trilogy: Revan vs. the Mandalorians (including Meetra and culminating in Revan’s confrontation with the Emperor), a retelling of the KOTOR I game, and finally Revan’s quest to uncover his memories and his second confrontation with the Emperor (essentially the Revan book, but with more depth since the groundwork would have been laid in the first two installments). As it stands, it’s a bit disappointing. Unless you’re a gamer, it feels like major pieces are missing. Some characters, like Meetra, don’t get nearly enough space to develop, and the ending just kind of fizzles out. The book wasn’t a disaster, but it could have been so much more than what we got.
There were some parts I really enjoyed, the lore stuff was really interesting. Cortosis laced armor, hello?!
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- "At the apex of his leap he hung suspended in the air for just an instant; then gravity reasserted its hold and he plummeted to the ground. He landed in a three-point stance, using his free hand to help absorb the impact."
Yay for a superhero landing in the Star Wars universe. ;-)
- " Denying or attempting to utterly control emotion, Revan felt, was a fool’s game. Jealousy was actually the result of ill-prepared Jedi being overwhelmed by feelings they had never learned to face. Revan believed Jedi could be taught to use positive emotions like love and happiness to strengthen their connection to the Force in the same way that hatred and anger gave power to those who followed the dark side."
Sounds sensible. It must have stung when the Jedi Council prohibited Revan from teaching or mentoring other Jedi.
- "The original Dark Jedi who had taught the Sith tribes the ways of the Force millennia ago had been human."
"The Great Hyperspace War had been one of the darkest times in the history of the Sith. Under the leadership of Naga Sadow, they had invaded the newly discovered Republic, seeking to conquer it as they had conquered every other civilization they had encountered. But despite their early victories, they had quickly lost ground. The Republic hadn’t just defeated the Sith fleets; they had annihilated them. And then the Jedi had pursued the fleeing survivors across the galaxy, nearly hunting the Sith to extinction. The decisive actions of the Emperor had saved them. He had led the remaining Sith into the unexplored regions of the galaxy, a decades-long flight that ended only when they rediscovered and reclaimed Dromund Kaas, their long-lost ancestral home. Fortunately, the Republic and the Jedi had never found them here—a small stroke of luck that had allowed the Empire to survive."
"One of the things Revan had always admired about the Mandalorians even as he’d fought them was their loyalty. The ties that held a clan together went beyond friendship and even family; it was an essential part of the culture, ingrained in children from the day they were born or adopted into the clan."
Oh, yeah! The snippets of lore about the Sith (and earlier in the book about the Mandalorians) were an absolute joy to uncover.
- "...his jailer had never experienced a vision through the Force. It wasn’t unusual: the phenomenon was much rarer in those who followed the dark side. Their focus was internal—they used the Force as a tool, rather than seeing themselves as instruments of the Force’s will. They were not accustomed to opening themselves up to the Force for guidance and direction."
“The future is always in motion. The Force grants us visions that show us only one of many possible outcomes.”
Another piece of lore. I thought that Karpyshyn can very well weave in pre-existing lore into his stories (this time about Force visions) and add a little piece of his own to it.
- "Meetra wasn’t about to attack someone who didn’t seem to want to do her any harm; that went against everything she believed in. But she wasn’t going to let her guard down, either."
The Acolyte TV show attempted to portray this, albeit somewhat clumsily. The key difference is that here Scourge never attacked Meetra and Meetra has no knowledge of him killing or attacking her allies or innocents (unlike with the Stranger).
-"He understood that the two sides of the Force were more closely intertwined with each other than either the Jedi or the Sith would ever admit. He had learned to balance on the knife-edge between them, drawing on both the light and dark sides for strength."
Revan the one true gray Jedi.
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💡 The writer who left BioWare: Eurogamer interviews Drew Karpyshyn (2012): https://www.eurogamer.net/the-writer-...
--on how he created the character of Revan for the KOTOR game, on the development of KOTOR:
(view spoiler)
💡 Roqoo Depot Interview with Drew Karpyshyn (2012): https://roqoodepot.wordpress.com/2012...
-- on Revan's ending:
(view spoiler)
💡 And this Karpyshyn's blog post on the difference between game Revan and book Revan (2011): https://drewkarpyshyn.com/c/?p=239
(view spoiler)
would you recommend playing the game first and then reading the book?
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Star Wars Legends Fan Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Path of Destruction (other topics)Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary (other topics)
Revan (other topics)
June 2021 Legends Group Read
Revan by Drew Karpyshyn (The Old Republic #1)
The Group read starts on June 1st.
- Book 1 of the The Old Republic series
- First published in October 2011
- Set in the era of the Old Republic - 3954-3950 BBY, 3900 BBY (epilogue)
There’s something out there:
a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic,
unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares and deep, abiding fear.
What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.