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Revan/Bastila

Blog Entry: Revan/Bastila

Blog Entry: Revan/Bastila
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Posted by: VampireWarith
Posted: December 7, 2016, 10:42:05 PM
Updated: April 10, 2023, 8:07:02 PM
Revan/Bastila
The time span of KOTOR-I shows Revan and Bastila getting to know each other seems to take place within weeks or a month or two since we always see Revan sleeping when they travel to another planet. That may not be a 100% realistic but it's better than just having them falling in love in a few seconds like in other games (Resident Evil 2 (1998), Resident Evil Code Veronica, Metal Gear Solid, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) or even films (The Matrix, Battleship). When it comes to Revan's character, you of course get to choose what Revan says and how he acts, I always pick the dialog and the decision that was intelligent to what Bastila said, asked and did. Not the dialog where Revan acts like an idiotic comedian.

I love you, Bastila
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms3gEBapbzo


Novel and Video Game
According to Star Wars The Old Republic - Revan, within two years of the Jedi Civil War's conclusion, Revan and Bastila married each other. His relationship with Bastila Shan had a significant effect on his personal views regarding love and attachment. In opposition to the Jedi Council and the orthodox way of the Jedi Order, Revan asserted that the Jedi could embrace love without being undermined by passion. He disregarded past Jedi who had been corrupted by the dark side through attachment, believing that they had been overwhelmed by the emotions that they were ill equipped to handle. But in the Council's eyes, love and passion were indivisible, and thus they would have none of his heresy. Although Revan refused to leave Bastila, he ultimately agreed to stop challenging the doctrine of the Jedi Order. In return for respecting the Order's traditions, Revan and Bastila were allowed to remain as its members, though in a low-profile capacity.

I don't really like the novel, there's only a few scenes with Revan and Bastila, but there scenes together are very sweet, it shows that they were a very loving couple and I can only imagine what kind of loving father he could have been to his son. When it comes to the audio version... it's pretty bad, it only has one voice actor and he has to do female voices... it's cringing to listen to... was Jennifer Hale, the voice of Bastila, too busy? Did they not have enough money to even hire her or even one female voice actress?? And for those who say, "Yeah, but you get use to it"... Bullshoot! Devices and digital enhancements that can change a male's voice to sound like a female have been have been around for awhile. Audio books with only one voice actor is a mix bag, sometimes depending on the story and characters it can work... other times it doesn't.

The video game that somewhat continued the storyline, The Old Republic... I like the fact that they chose Revan's face that has long brown hair that's slicked back, but I didn't care for the game or for much of the storyline. There's quite a bit of continuity errors and inconsistencies, certain events were either ignored or changed that don't make any sense, Drew Karpyshyn either didn't do enough research or he didn't care what Chris Avellone wrote in KOTOR-II. Revan went from a redeemed complex character to a generic villain. Instead of leaving the character alone, letting his story arc be complete, they just shoehorned him into The Old Republic just to cash in on a popular character... then there was the DSL to that game where there's two Revan's... one is good... and the other is evil... oh god, these writers are just so clever and original...

Revan - Decoded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXDSw60eTMw

The Sith Emperor, Vitiate/Valkorion, is one of the most unoriginal poorly written villains that Bioware has ever created, his bland boring appearance and title didn't help either.


Revan/Bastila: 2003 to Now
It's a shame that even after all this time, these two are very much ignored, the last time I saw a fan art picture of them was in mid 2016, but before then it was in 2009 or 10. There's a little more fan fiction of them, but still, it's rare to find any that are good. Too many people write the characters as irritating teenagers and Revan as a lowlife who just easily cheats on his wife and child... as if they were nothing but an afterthought. Somehow that's a character those people can care about and route for, someone who couldn't keep it in their pants... you can be a flawed character that's not perfect without being a douchebag...

I started a Photo bucket album in 2008, one of the albums is nothing but pictures of them as a couple, along with other couples. I knew that no one would bother making any sort fan club for them. I can't put anymore up for two reasons, one because I haven't seen any, and two, Photobucket wants its users to pay them and if you don't, you can't use your account.
http://s247.photobucket.com/user/VulcanJediConsular/library/Revan/Revan%20Bastila?sort=3&page=1

The Legend of Revan and Bastila (Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY9enJJ2Fzs


Flawed Characters
In the early years when the game was released in 2003, one of the main reasons why she wasn't liked was because of the way Bastila acted in the first part of game and some fans (mostly annoying fangirls and hipster soy boys) just couldn't handle that... most of the time these people can't handle any character that isn't written to be perfect, do these people have no understanding of intentional character flaws??? It was obvious that her problem was going to be shown, addressed, talked about, and fixed, just about every character in literature goes through this. However, since the mid-2010s, that's changed and Bastila is a far more liked character. She may not be was well liked as Leia, but her character is far more understood and appreciated... but the fangirls and pussy little boys still can't get over it.

Bastila clearly wasn't a perfect person, nor a perfect Jedi, she had an attitude and authority problem, she wasn't right about everything (the Jedi, lightside, darkside, the Mandalorian War, her mother, love), she made mistakes, but she admits this when it comes to how she was raised by the Jedi, she makes peace with her mother, she was beaten, captured, and she was redeemed. Bastila's character actually grows and develops as the story goes on, she opens up and she lets her guard down with Revan, she showed a human side to her, in other words, a flawed character.

Bastila was the co-pilot of the Ebon Hawk, but that didn't mean she was an expert like knowing how to fix it within seconds, or became an expert fighter pilot, she didn't just suddenly get a new Force ability to free herself from Malak or beat him, she didn't just suddenly master using a lightsaber, she was trained since childhood, her mother gave her to the Jedi because she wanted her to have a better life, and she wasn't related to a great powerful Jedi or Sith, she had limits. All of this actually makes Bastila a great character and she was voiced by someone who could act and invoke far more character and emotion.

Who is Bastila Shan? - Star Wars Characters Explained!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM0AXUXKsuE
The KOTOR Revan model being used in the video is inaccurate despite the fact the correct model has been used before in another video.

Star Wars KotOR: Bastila Shan: A Character Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-kuzthoJDE

Why Was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic SO AWESOME?! (21:21 and 45:45)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPr2p7PRI6k
"The inability to accept blame, the self-righteousness, the Jedi's biggest conflict was they could not separate themselves from their ego and this also prevented Bastila from living her life in the way she truly wanted. Who truly wants a loveless life of self-sacrifice?"

Bastila Shan Respect Thread (Updated 2017)
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/profile/darthant66/blog/bastila-shan-respect-thread-2017/102982/

Even though Revan was powerful, but when his mind got wiped, he still had to be retrained, he learned fast but nevertheless, he was taught to be a Jedi again and had to earn those Force abilities.

Luke got knocked out by a Sand person, was thrown across the bar in the Mos Eisley Cantina, he flew in Beggar's canyon but he didn't know how to fly the Millennium Falcon or how it worked, "What's that flashing?" He was knocked out by a Wampa, rescued by Han, got shot down by an AT-AT Walker, it took time for him to use the Force, he wasn't very good at it, he failed at the cave to not take his weapon, got frustrated with Yoda, "You want the impossible", didn't finish his training, was beaten by Vader by getting his hand cut off and had to be rescued again. Luke failed to rescue Han, Leia, Lando, C3-PO and A2-D2 from Jabba at first, but was able to later on and with help.

However, when it comes to Rey... she didn't fail at anything, she can take on groups of guys twist her size, despite never flying the Millennium Falcon she was able to fly it quite well and was able to fix the problem faster than Han who owed the thing for years. She was able to save both Han and Finn while taking out some of the bad guys and can perfectly hit Stromtroopers despite them being trained all their lives. The main villain just happens to have an interest in her, she didn't need any training in the Force or a lightsaber, she just heard that the Force was real, blocks her mind from getting read, tricked a Stormtrooper and beat a trained dark Jedi... Rey had a little bit of an attitude with BB8 at first, but that was her only flaw as a character, if that even counts, but it quickly disappeared.

Luke is basically told that Rey doesn't need him, he can't teach her anything, she can just train herself since she ended up beating another trained Jedi, Luke, who's a veteran, able to take down three Tie Fighters in one single hit in her first ship battle and can move huge rocks easily while still not having any training in the Force. Can hover while levitating rocks, connecting to past Jedi, took down a Tie Fighter with just a lightsaber, can sail on huge waves and defeated Palpatine. The only explanation they could come up with to all of is that... she's related to Palpatine...

She ends up getting the Falcon, Luke and Leia's sabers, Luke's homestead and the Skywalker name, once again she didn’t earn any of those and she especially didn't earn the Skywalker name and title... Rey is a post millennial who gets everything handed over on a silver platter without even working for it... she's that much of a Mary Sue. Those who defend her do so very poorly and won't accept any criticism. According to the "actress" (I use that term loosely) who plays her says that calling her character that is sexiest... what isn't these days????

The Great Star Wars LIE (4:40)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfCDok05uc

Daisy Ridley Tone Deaf EPIC RANT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRs_3Kn5QUc

Star Wars: The Last Straw - Part 1 (1:12:45)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ugp8F7KefE

Star Wars: The Last Straw - Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKT2LFtjI24

If there are explanations to this in books and comics, well the majority of the audience (average movie goers) haven't read them and won't be getting them, so they'll still be clueless, but a film shouldn't rely on that to stay coherent with its story and characters.

It seems that too many people seem to think that characters all need to start out as perfect right from the start, that they need to be nice, understanding, loves all and is loved by all, can do everything better 24/7 and their connected to everything... in other words... a Mary Sue/Walking plot device. Mary Sues seem to be the norm these days, anything else and you'll be hated by everyone... well mostly by per-teens, teenagers and 20-year-olds... but is actually character development and flaws meaningless these days????

But a lot of people are being hypocrites (I've seen a few admitting it) when it comes to Bastila, Carth gets off the hook but he whines about his life, trust issues, his opinion not being agreed with, being kept in the dark and so on. I don't hate him, but every character in KOTOR I and II has an attitude problem, this has basically become a staple with Bioware games, but the haters will only target certain characters. Luke and Han argued and bickered with each other at first in Episode IV, when they meet Leia, she criticizes the rescue attempt, argues with Han, tries to take over, and insults Chewbacca, this arguing between them continued in Episode V. Again, I didn't hate the characters, I thought that stuff was great, it was funny.

In terms of storytelling and character relationships, that's what you want, where you can see where you started out, not on the best of terms, then somewhere in the middle where you begin to understand each other, and by the time you get to the ending where your best friends or lovers, a journey where you hear someone say something like, we've come a long way since we first met. That's the basic setup of so many stories that there are too many to list.


Lazy Writing
Bastila falling to the dark side was very idiotic and it made no sense, I mean getting tortured into becoming a Sith??? How does that happen, how do you break someone into becoming evil???? I blame Drew Karpyshyn for that one, but she's not the only one to suffer from shootty writing in the Star Wars universe when it comes to that. So many SW characters became evil because of incompetent writers.

Exar Kun fell because he read Sith scrolls, looked into a Sith Holocron and then got really angry.
Anakin was made to look like he was blackmailed into it.
•When Luke reached Byss, a Deep Core world so enveloped in the power of the dark side, that he apparently couldn't resist it and beaten by the re-born Emperor caused him to fall completely.
Jacen Solo fell because he was told to, that becoming a Sith will bring peace to the galaxy.
•Revan and Malak fell because of the Star forge and The Sith Emperor's mind control.
•Even the opposite is true, Kam Solusar snapped out of it, as if he was under a spell, Galen Marek was brought up by Vader since childhood in the dark side, but it didn't take long for him to become good. Kylo Ren fell just for the sake of it and after years of killing people, came back to the light within a few seconds.

Falling to the dark side should be a long and troubled process due to the events that happens in that person's life, like what happen to Revan and Malak during the war, those events changed them, or at least it was implied that's what happen before Karpyshyn ruined it. It should not be like if you hit something enough times, it will just work or turning an On and Off switch, the Sith are not the Borg.


No Comparisons
Whenever I see people trying to make comparisons between... (sigh)... Rey and Bastila, Kylo and Revan or the romance Bastila and Revan had or the (dumb) romance that Anakin and Padme had... is similar to Rey's nonexistent thing (whatever that was) with Kylo... I just have to roll my eyes and shake my head, the difference between them such as their personalities, events, romances, is night and day. I can't believe these people are that dumb and blind to believe these desperate excuses or just flat out lies. I have already put links to Bastila's character, story and her romance with Revan and I cannot see any comparisons or connections that can be made. Here's a link explaining Revan's background and why he should not be compared to Kylo or Anakin...

Why Revan Was Forced to Become Sith Lord – Star Wars Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzubYadkSXg


Remake Trash
When I heard there was going to be a remake, I knew it was going to be woke garbage. But the naive fans who think that Disney gives a shoot about Star Wars or about them will always fall for this crap, they are some of thy most gullible easily amused people I've seen. It's not about writing good storylines, characters, or making a profit, just as long as they can say that they're not racist, bigot, sexiest, misogynist, homophobic etc, it's to shove their agenda in everyone's face, to show just how stunning and brave they are, that's what matters to all of these talentless hacks and professional victims.

KOTOR Remake Hires Feminist Twitter Pest as a Writer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhtjL9WmaU

But thankfully as of August 2022, it's been put on hold indefinitely.