KOTOR I Companion Analysis: Mission Vao

In a way, Mission Vao is only playable and a companion at all because of the abandonment and brutal nature of her world. She is a child soldier taken to war from a decadent, then destroyed planet. Not even KOTOR II goes as far as using a child soldier as a key supporting character for the plot, and I think this works because of the deliberate upbeat tone of the first game. Knights of the Old Republic allows for dark moments and subtlety, because it comes across as a more adventurous and fun story. For lack of a better analogy, KOTOR I is the Grey Jedi, morally questionable and pragmatic, but with a positive filter about the world. KOTOR II is the Grey Sith, where there is the capacity for love and healing in the setting, but natural perception favours the warped, difficult, and combative nature of sentient beings.

I like Mission more as time goes on for being a simple but positive kind of character that isn’t made any more. Beginning with the really bleak KOTOR II, but onwards with TOR, Twilek characters are stereotypically sexualised and portrayed as dancers and slaves, locked into a broad stroke background. While future game companion Vette is played by the same voice actress, it’s clear the older romantic/roughed up/criminal past female is hardly something original or uncommon at this point. It’s interesting to have youthful and non-insufferable character, and while I understand that is hard to write, the result is worth it. Optimism and a plucky attitude may be less ‘realistic’ or ‘popular’ according to study groups or marketing, but it offers something different to the omnipresent sexualisation and exaggerated violence of female companions as they increasingly all appear the same.

Mission is the impatient delivery girl you’ve met working in the high street, someone jogging past you on the road, there’s the connection to the urban, the dynamic with a heavy hitting gentle giant in Zaalbar.

Catherine Taber, like Raphael Sbarge has important likeability and humanity to dialogue, the mundane reactions -surprise, a light joke at escaping disaster- suits a galactic quest and roster of intentionally divergent companions. KOTOR is not as relentlessly bleak as its sequel, and intentionally casting a wide net of companions with varied personalities, characteristics and backgrounds. Mission may be like Carth, someone missed a little in the middle and later stages of the game; but in a way this is a lesson about the allure of power and political self importance. As more grandiose egos are revealed, does the protagonist keep their boots firmly on the ground? Within the meta narrative Knights of the Old Republic seeds all throughout its games, are you paying attention to the people without Force powers, who feel things more and have a less zealous and combat driven religion?

There are many ingredients to a cast that can be overlooked, and the team at BioWare intended to have a youthful scavenger before the trope became both heavily used yet ironically presenting poorly defined characters. Mission stands up for her morals, is tripped up for comedic amusement, always part of the here and now. The player offers Mission freedom from her situation, but her personal side quest gives a tragic and cynical blow to the heart for Misson’s development, and accounting for the optional Dark Ending if a player wishes to pursue Mission content there’s a certainty she will have her aspirations crushed in some permanent way if a player wishes to explore her story.

Mission’s quest is distinct, memorable for how dislikeable her brother is, and how the resolution is a determination not to be had. It’s a familial story that lands better than Carth’s in some way, as it is less high scale. Aside from KOTOR games the idea of a healthy functional normal family is scarcely visited in Star Wars. The quest is neither short or unsatisfying, the scale is intended to cross many planets but be personal and confined to one sister, her brother and an emerging web of confidence schemes. it helps other grand political narratives breathe in a way, tying to Czerka and the corporate evil within KOTOR games subtly, but has no mention of the Jedi, Sith or Mandalorian factions. It ties well into the meta quest by being picked up in Tatooine; like Mission herself the entertainment and curiosity stemming from being in a hostile environment can transition to some self-knowledge. Life may be a series of escapades, disasters and betrayal. That can be accepted. It is not the death of a peppy outlook, the energy we have and what humour we can make with people who actually care about us gives us a sense of acceptance we truly want.

In this way, Mission fits very well with Juhani and surprisingly Canderous; her story and companion quest demonstrate the death of her assumptions, how one’s backstory and idealisation shifts when other people discuss the facts of the past (something very relevant to the main plot). It’s both a shame that like many others Mission never got any development outside of this game; but it also keeps her character contained to a good quest, making the setting larger and keeping KOTOR’s cast fresh and memorable.

Mission Vao may be a bright blue plucky young character, but as a companion her role and a lot of intriguing ideas come from the protagonist taking an interest in her difficulties helping someone else deal with seemingly inevitable disappointment. When our surroundings seem inescapable. When a bad relative refuses to change. When life is filled with debts and a kind of oppression that never seems to reduce or go away. Mission is a very uncommon attempt to evoke a kind of ‘younger sister’ bond with a player. How do we help a younger person through life? On our quest, is it adapting to life’s difficulties, the death of innocence; or an important reminder of joyful sarcastic people to keep a sense of purpose and morals while the cynical or experienced individuals find a galaxy increasingly not to their liking?

References:

Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare. 2003.

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