The Cut KOTOR Ending You've LIKELY Never Heard of

In today's video, I talk about the third potential ending of Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republc that was cut from the game's final release back in 2003!

It's my belief that all of the content used in the video falls under the law of Fair Use, but if content owners feel the need to dispute this I will remove the content. I do not intend to infringe upon anybody's content ownership. If you find any image, art or music piece that belongs to you, feel free to message me and I will happily offer credit!

May the force be with you, always.

[Allronix]

Totally knew about it and it was an early discovery by modders who put it back in the game. (All you need to do is remove one bugged line of code in a dialogue file) I will also say that Raphael Sbarge earned every cent of that paycheck because he sold the whole thing on just his voice acting. For a time, it was a favored AU scenario for fanfic/fanart on kotorfanmedia (seriously, if you want to know much of anything about kotor fanfic, I will totally infodump. I also know a bit about modding history)

I think I also recall David Gaider (Bioware writer and the guy who wrote the dialogue files for Carth and Bastila) saying it would have been his preferred ending, but that the lack of sequel potential was why it got vetoed. Gaider being one of the head writers on Dragon Age...well, this kind of ending totally fits with the Dragon Age "every option is a bad one" running theme. It certainly would be an *unusual* ending as far as Star Wars goes because it rejects the binary and it isn't the whole agape ideal, but also very fitting with Star Wars because Star Wars is all over how the small, personal dramas can have galaxy-spanning consequences.

[mrmoviemanic]

I also feel Carth and Fem Revan's romance is slept on, it's a very growing sort of Romance with lots of obsticles, something which I don't think Bastilla's was, (And I like that romance) here you have a man who's previously married and has a child, but is essentially broken by the war, and you're a huge reason for that even if you never understood it for most part of the game. It's far more complex and plays more on the themes of redemption, forgiveness and overcomming things with love.

[mrmoviemanic]

I wish they added this in, cause you can literally stop Bastilla and even confess your love for her in the last moment (even if you didn't romance her), but Carth doing it and not being able to sway you feels like a great misstep, I can only see it not working if you didn't have much interactions with Carth, but a romanced or a deep friendship Carth that develops feelings for you, it feels personal and something very Star Wars to comeback from even at the brink of destruction.

And weirdly enough if someone says it didn't work in the whole concept of "Star Wars ideas of love" I feel doesn't get that literally Padme tried to do this for Anakin on Mustafar, this scene literally could be a mirror of that scene before ROTS even happenend.

[gravelordnito]

I personally like this ending, though I noticed one thing, which imo is the reason it was cut. It’s a dark side playtrought with a light ending. As far as I know, you can’t do the opposite (becoming evil in a light side playtrought).
I doubt it was because of the sequel, since I think they weren’t even thinking about a second game. Not to mention Jedi Bastila in kotor 2 (perhaps only in restoration project mod), if I remember correctly, revan addressed as a male and canonisation of Revan as a light side male who romanced and saved Bastila in the original game (thank you SWTOR)

[kylewilson]

I think the biggest story reason for not including this ending is that Revan is too far gone by this point to make a return to the light, even for the sake of love. Remember, Revan hasn't just turned to the Dark Side, He/She murdered Jolee and Juhani in cold blood, broke Zalbaar's mind to force him to murder his best friend AND your loyal companion Mission, THEN MURDERED ZALBAAR AFTERWARDS! All this happened on the same day! The Dark Side isn't just a power boost either, it's like an addictive drug. The more you take, the more you want and you can't stop. It's why Yoda tells Luke "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will!" The only other person we've seen return from the Dark Side was Anakin Skywalker, the literal manifestion of The Force in the flesh. And he DEEPLY loved Obi-Wan and Padme, yet even THEY couldn't bring Anakin back from the Dark Side, not when he was still swimming in the emotional turmoil and Dark Side intoxication of what he had done. It's why Anakin was crying after he killed the Separatists: He knew his life as Anakin Skywalker was over. When Padme left her ship on Mustafar, Anakin was already dead. Darth Vader was all that was left, and it wasn't until Vader had suffered through over 20 years of constant agaonizing pain and grief that Anakin BARELY was able to break free.

Carth can't do that here. He's too late and he even acknowledges this. Revan has fully embraced the power of the Dark Side and is still swimming in the glory of his/her greatest acomplishment: The slaying of Darth Malak (Thus reclaiming his title of Dark Lord of the Sith) and the total destruction of the Republic. He/She isn't going to be able to come down off that high so quickly, regardless of how much Revan does or doesn't love Carth.

[TheMinskyTerrorist]

There isn't anything saying romantic love can't get you to pull back from the dark side. Not even Attack of the Clones, which is the source of all the attachment stupidity, does that.

[timonsolus]

During the final confrontation with a light side Revan, Darth Malak has the following dialogue:

"Foolish words. The darkness and the light wage a constant war within you. The balance is tipped one way now, but it can easily be tipped back. Saviour, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all things Revan... and yet you are nothing. In the end you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone."

These words would be much more appropriate if they were addressed to a neutral Revan - one who chose the light side ending, but was only very marginally tilted to the light side on the character morality scale.

I would have liked KOTOR to have had a neutral ending, which involved Revan refusing to return to the Jedi Order, preferring freedom.

Maybe Revan would not even show up for the victory celebration on Coruscant (perhaps Bastila, Juhani, Jolee, Carth, Mission and Zaalbar would do so without the others, with Bastila getting the medal!), and instead Revan, Canderous and the droids take off in the Ebon Hawk and go into hyperspace, destination unknown.

[rickbiessman]

I agree with your hypothesis why this ending was cut. That was my first instinct too. I DON'T think that the whole "Jedi aren't allowed to love" stuff is the reason AT ALL, because it's one of the most inconsistend and muddled aspects of the Star Wars universe. Sure, Jedi are supposed to not have passion and attachement and all that, but it's the weakest point of Star Wars and in pretty much every movie it falls apart and doesn't really work, and the Star Wars canon itself is totall inconclusive about whether the Jedi are even right about this.

Spoiler: They're not; it's just not how human beings work, and is a futile attempt at changing human nature. We are, at our core, relational beings, and relationships make us STRONGER, not weaker. They CAN make us vulnerable, but the price that people pay who shut themselves off from love is very high.

[TheMinskyTerrorist]

Anyone doing a dark side run is likely doing it for the novelty of being an edgelord and would like killing off companions more than a redemption at the end. Just doesn't seem worth the extra effort.

[EvolutionSTUDS]

Without significant edits or additional dialogue to support it, this cut ending would make no sense in the context of the story. Revan turns full heel and then goes "oh wait a minute?" It's bad writing from any way you look at it. Presumably this would have been cut early in story development since the dialogue up to that point doesn't suggest such a character turn, so its probably possible they could have developed this ending if they wanted. Even so they still made the right choice. It would have been a cool juxtaposition next to the light side romance endings with some significant changes, otherwise its just bad writing and a good cut.

[NorseGraphic]

Why it was cut? It made little sense to add this ending, when the player character dies... The same effect could be to lose to Darth Malak, after ensuring the core of the starforge explodes automatically and can't be reversed.

[TheRavenShadowsWolf]

0:34 - what the hell are you talking about? Unless you mod the game; there's LITERALLY Bastilla = Yes or No. That's IT. Doesn't matter which side you're on it's do you want to BREED Bastilla or not.

In KoToR 2 there are more options. Specifically BECAUSE of how pissed players were that you couldn't get anywhere with Juhani or Mission (who to be fair should've been rendered at least 18-21 and wasn't necessarily)

Oh, excuse me - if you play female you can romance Carth. But A) Revan is confirmed CANONICALLY male since Bastilla is listed as a mother; and B) Who actually bothered to romance Carth? * Seriously I hate his character in general. He's useful for his blaster and otherwise he's a prick.

** 4:30 = I can already tell why this was cut: Too much zig zagging. Nobody wants to play that indecisive a HERO. Or an Antihero. That's way too convoluted to work out and based on the gain or LS or DS points in game it would fuck up the achievement for mastering one side or the other (it would be better suited to the Grey Jedi - who at that point mind were NOT a thing) Also, Also - no one wants the hero they invested X insane amount of hours (relatively back then) into to die. Wrath of The Righteous actually had to allow a set special ending to a character mythic path that wa purposely designed not to have it due to time shennanigans, JUST because it vexed so many players to have the MC die while actually succeeding in their task. : /

[DanielHudson-yirp]

Please explain than.... KOTOR 2, Admiral Carth Onasi, if Carth dies in the first KOTOR how is he an Admiral in the second?

[liamwalton]

Actually the true light side ending is when you defeat Darth Malak and bring him back to the light side

[cyanimation]

somehow only JUST realized Canderous, T3, HK, and Zaalbar are the only companions that live through every choic, and that's got to be the reason 3 of them are the only returning party members in KOTOR 2