Biome Analysis: The Ravager

The Ravager may be a warship and not a planet like other missions, but it serves as one for all intents and purposes. The action climax of KOTOR II, and the penultimate arena before the maw of Malachor V.

The biome of The Ravager, its environment echoes the common Star Wars motif of oppressive sterility and minimalistic steel environments housing the antagonists; but the presence of Sith style red lightning, and a mechanical corruption of simply empty space and what should be critical damage make it unique.

The visual I love the most however, and feel is very deliberately done is actually the contrast to the corpse-ship and the thing that drives it. I always remember the ‘sky’ beyond the bridge is so full of stars. Teeming with life, so distant and far away but a reality of space which we can’t see so much due to cloud cover and chem trails. There are billions, likely trillions of stars and the estimates grow every year as our knowledge of astronomy develops. Contrast gives KOTOR II’s story its potency, and seeing so many stars has the effect of making a person feel so very small. The unspoken threat, while Nihilus ‘speaks’ in a manner we cannot understand is the extent of embodying hunger threatens all life in all its forms. This creature would consume it all. All life, all light, all dark in the end as well. It’s not the comparatively more basic threat of imperial tyranny we see in the Sith or Galactic Empire. Those who serve are also condemned to suffer, and arguably worse.

The narrative reinforces the nature of how small the universe is, how small the individual is within a very large world, in this case several worlds. But also that in this claustrophobic, cramped cluster of the galaxy there is a true threat that must be stemmed, or everything falls.

The character of the ship is like the ‘character’ of its master, a stark series of visual motifs created by the art department, an object twisted to the point where we only see it’s purpose. It is uncanny, inhuman and sickening because it works in spite of logic. And beyond its sensation and mechanism, being a vehicle that consumes due to its hunger, it has no other quality at all.

It is for this reason, the uncanny quality of the ship, the persistence and omnicidal aspiration of its capitan that additional catharsis stems from a recreation of the original film’s cutting through the ship and engaging in battle, that the Mandalorians are cast in an unseen unambiguously heroic light. The discipline, the survivalism, desire for glory are channelled into a positive force, a battle which can be considered righteous, with The Exile, be they a Jedi, Grey Jedi or Sith fighting against the absolute nihilism of the universe. The ship is finally broken like a dungeon entire. It is the location less for personal revelation, or lessons and reveals that make one question the inerrant good of morality, but proof that not only survival, but facing and overcoming trauma and horror is possible.

Reference:

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Obsidian Entertainment. 2004.