Biome Analysis: The Unknown World [KOTOR]

The blue of the skies, the beautiful wash of the beach, but ruins of both culture and people hint at something far darker. The last planet of Knights Of The Old Republic before the Star Forge finale is only called The Unknown World.

The strangeness of The Unknown World is punctuated by Canderous, of all people finishing the first half of a two-game arc, his unease, even terror enough of a change in his confident, experienced mindset that it amplifies the uneasy feeling of this intentionally tranquil world. That something lies under the surface, and the melding of lighter and darker elements is a motif of KOTOR I I think, suiting its elements of lighter, upbeat characters such as Mission, and those who murder others happily right alongside them, such as HK or Canderous. The potential to go either way, and the scars of the past are ideas KOTOR I invents, and will be taken further later. This planet is a forerunner to the idea of being broken, in pride, in civilisation, and In character. We witness that break in character, and Revan, learning and addressing what he has done here in a way is better and clearer than anything the Exile does, as we clearly are shown by those who remember on the other side the power and danger of their previous self.

And this is to say nothing of the dark side path, where things break down tragically, exposing how evil Revan can be, and contrastingly, draw out Jolee and Juhani’s light. Neutrality is abandoned here, lore wise I would argue possibly due to the influence of this world, although the power of the Star Force as a weapon is a material factor that forces one to take a side. There are few things crueller in video games than the choices the player can make here; I believe this to be deeply punctuated by the setting.

Human action is not confined to dramatism. The ills we perform do not happen in dark temples or volcanic moons. To betray and seize tyranny on a simple beach provides powerful visuals hard to forget.

It is one thing to say the mighty have fallen, showing it with a typical desert environment (which KOTOR does in a way that arouses interest in Tatooine, explaining the geography of that world), but another to be more inventive than that. to have beauty bury your world, the easy environmental metaphor of sea erosion and vicious natural predators prosper as the Infinite Empire’s hubris utterly collapsed is poignant.

Much like Manan, the mixture of pleasant and unsettling, I would argue choosing killing Mission with Zalbarr the most disturbing scene in any of the KOTOR franchise is original and bold from the designers. It’s something of a bridge to where the franchise will be going. The subtle shift of doubt or violence affecting one’s personality, the notion of a kind of echoing disquiet, and the notion of action and reaction regarding a person’s mental state and how the Force flows through it and shifts it will be built upon in the sequel. But without this world, I question whether that focus would have been thought of. I know there’s speculation and interviews, and honestly I don’t care much, as legal contracts, recollection, and the lack of all the contributors present allow speculation, which is as much fun for an audience member as anything.

Bringing a quest to a world that seems to utterly break with typical conventions, showing a faded empire that was once so omniscient a precursor, it creates part of the atmosphere that makes KOTOR’s story so heavily effective. KOTOR bears an advantage of its sequel in that it is finished, and also that its subversions are bolder, and in ways less misanthropic or pessimistic.

No Star Wars media brings someone truly volatile and possessing both the ways of Sith and Jedi, a broken empire of stunted remains, the notion of facing an entirely forgotten betrayal, and how companionship, not politics forge and direct an ultimate cause from a leader starting to find themselves.

References:

Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare. 2003.