what do we actually know about (Darth) Revan?

[Lord Revan]

simple enough question, what do we know about ablities and/or actions of Revan before, during or after his reign as a sith lord that isn't implied or second hand info.

I know he's his both of the kotor games in some role Spoiler

being the player character in KOTOR

and he has a minor role in the KOTOR comic, but what so we actually know about him, this came up a while ago in another dicussion IIRC most of the stuff we know about him is second hand from people who have met or heard of him and thus may or may not be reliable.

[Ritterin Sophia]

We know he lead the Republic to some form of victory. He commanded the detonation of the Mass Shadow Generator. He conquered a good portion of the Republic and according to GO-TO (I don't see a motive for him in the context of the conversation where he says it) he did so without needlessly destroying resources. He made the most advanced assassin droid of it's era. Cut off Malak's jaw in a duel. That's about it.

This is however coming from someone who has never found Revan to be all that great and much of his achievements are overstated, for example I would say the Republic winning against the Mandalorians was a foregone conclusion after they pulled their heads out of their asses and started using their larger number of warm bodies and greater infrastructure to win, the same concept he used as a Sith Lord with the Star Forge to make him near infinite resources, Revan just helped them apply it. I'm willing to say he was great and maybe even a legend in his own time, but to say he's comparable to the OT and PT Jedi is a bit of a stretch given that he never exhibited their higher end capabilities. (Mace Windu's shatterpoint, Yoda causing multimillion ton troop transports to collide through TK, Anakin as a child causing a Blood Carver to spontaneously combust, Luke and Jacen utilizing the force to shield themselves from the waste energy of AT-AT laser cannons and even turbolaser bolts when deflecting said bolts, Galen Marek altering the course of an Imperator during freefall in the atmosphere, Palpatine's force storms & his mindwiping of a large portion [possibly all of the population] of Coruscant after burying the Lusankya [we are of course talking hundreds of trillions of sapient beings, the 'official' 3 trillion would give Coruscant the population density of Mobile, Alabama])

[JGregory32]

Reven broke the force, think about that for a minute. It was only through the actions of his third in command (the exile) that the force was put right.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Reven broke the force, think about that for a minute. It was only through the actions of his third in command (the exile) that the force was put right.

What are you talking about?

[Ghost Rider]

Reven broke the force, think about that for a minute. It was only through the actions of his third in command (the exile) that the force was put right.

Actually given that statement comes from Kreya, and could be considered a hyperbole at best or an outright lie at worst? Not much to state of abilities. No difference then claiming Anakin bringing balance to the Force without knowing what bringing balance to the Force meant, really.

[JGregory32]

I will admit that it has been a long time since I played the game but wasn't there a conversation tree that mentioned that when the gravity generators were switched on a LOT of jedi lost their connection to the force and not just the exile.

As for Revan himself, while not maybe the most traditionally powerful Sith his real power lies in getting people to follow him. Revan is constantly described as a charismatic leader and he/she certainly amassed a fanatical following amonst both Jedi and regular people.

[Darth Ruinus]

Reven broke the force, think about that for a minute. It was only through the actions of his third in command (the exile) that the force was put right.

What are you talking about?

He's talking about Malachor, where the activation of the mass shadow generators causes a wound in the Force. It's actually not that odd, they are cuased my mass death in a small amount of time.

I will admit that it has been a long time since I played the game but wasn't there a conversation tree that mentioned that when the gravity generators were switched on a LOT of jedi lost their connection to the force and not just the exile.

It was, I believe, just the Exile that lost her connection to the Force (as not many Jedi survived Malachor).

[Stark]

So -HE- didn't break the force at all; he turned on the EU Sith Weapon of the Week to do it. Amazing; he can press a button.

[Darth Fanboy]

So -HE- didn't break the force at all; he turned on the EU Sith Weapon of the Week to do it. Amazing; he can press a button.

Well he didn't even press the button really, he had someone to do that for him (Bao Dur).

[Ritterin Sophia]

It should also be noted it wasn't a Sith Weapon, but a device of Bao-Dur's own making.

[Darth Yan]

the mmo writers have also just confirmed that Spoiler

revan originally worked for the true sith. The Sith Emporer is also the one who turned him to the dark side

Personally I'm torn as to whether thats a good change or a bad change.

[Mr Bean]

the mmo writers have also just confirmed that Spoiler

revan originally worked for the true sith. The Sith Emporer is also the one who turned him to the dark side

Personally I'm torn as to whether thats a good change or a bad change.

Bad change. KOTOR2 paints Revan as someone who started down the Darkside path willing to sacrifice everything to save the Republic. Once down that path it occurred to Revan as it does to most successful generals that the Politicians are very bad at war and they(Generals) are very good at war. So if they simply replace them then they will do better winning wars. So we witness the Kotor one flashback's where it's mentioned time and again that Revan was trying to subjugate the galaxy not destroy it. He attacked Governments not worlds tearing down the established order while leaving the factories and population centers intact then converted them over to more warmaking production.

The question is... the main question is with Revan is was all of this justified. Was the scale of the death and destruction justified for the threat he was trying to hammer the republic together worth the damage he caused? After all he failed, instead of uniting the Galaxy under his banner he failed and instead left a shattered Republic to face this new enemy he was trying to ready them to fight. The change as it were makes things dumber because it makes Revan just another Darksider with an ego problem rather than a rather misguided patriot who destroyed the thing he was trying to protect.

[Darth Yan]

to be fair they also say that reven decided to double cross them later. Therefore he could have subjugated them to fight his Spoiler

former masters.

And I always liked the idea of Revan as a total monster before his redemption because it makes it more powerful. Maybe it would have been better if Revan started out noble then decided that the Jedi were too weak to help the galaxy and had to be purged because only he could set the galaxy right. He would then slowly loose his humanity until he was captured and redeemed. It would allow to be misguided while still being a monster.

[Sarevok]

Revan was a warlord at heart. Any good intentions on his part are a simple byproduct of his heavily armed military protecting worlds under his control. He never had any great noble plans spelled out. Indeed we don't even know what the hell is it that he was planning to save the Republic from.

[YT300000]

Revan was a warlord at heart. Any good intentions on his part are a simple byproduct of his heavily armed military protecting worlds under his control. He never had any great noble plans spelled out. Indeed we don't even know what the hell is it that he was planning to save the Republic from.

I think it was in the second game where Canderous eventually tells you about an encounter with a ship that sounded a lot like a Yuuzhan Vong vessel. It's been years since I played the game, but I remember an implication that they were the threat.

[Adam Reynolds]

Revan was a warlord at heart. Any good intentions on his part are a simple byproduct of his heavily armed military protecting worlds under his control. He never had any great noble plans spelled out. Indeed we don't even know what the hell is it that he was planning to save the Republic from.

I think it was in the second game where Canderous eventually tells you about an encounter with a ship that sounded a lot like a Yuuzhan Vong vessel. It's been years since I played the game, but I remember an implication that they were the threat.

It was KOTOR one
Here is the scene in question

[FaxModem1]

So, Revan was gearing up for the Vong War. I can see why he did the things he did. Course, the MMO will probably ruin that.

[Napoleon the Clown]

GO-TO is the one who talked so much about Revan taking so much care to keep the Republic alive to face a future threat. Last I checked, he wasn't exactly privy to Revan's plans. He was deducing all of this on his own. It was certainly possible Revan intended to leave as much intact as possible so he'd have strong worlds once he got them under his control.

For those who have read the Thrawn trilogy, Thrawn himself was quite pleased with the ability to leave production facilities in working order, and to just hammer the military targets when viable. He wanted to do as little collateral damage as possible. His reasoning was that a world left largely intact would be far more useful than one that had to have large amounts of support sent in because he glassed half of it.



So what do we really know about Revan? He was a charismatic SOB, he went to the darkside, at one point cut off Malek's jaw, built HK-47 and programmed him to use the term "meatbag" in reference to humans since it angered Malek and that was amusing (so a bit of a dick), and he managed to control the Star Forge for an undetermined period of time without it consuming him. Oh, and we know he wielded a single lightsaber in combat. Both cutscenes in KOTOR and the comic show this. Most of the stuff we're told about him seems to be character's speculations and stuff fans are left to speculate about. Not much of use is really nailed down, to my knowledge.

[Ritterin Sophia]

It should be noted that Bioware has made it clear the threat Revan was intending to face was the True Sith in KotOR 2, further it would seem Revan was supposed to act as an emissary of the Sith Emperor and be the prophet of his return, Revan not being the subordinant type decided to conquer the galaxy instead to fight the True Sith, again according to Bioware this time for the backstory for TOR.

[Sarevok]

How powerful were the Vong during the Kotor era ? Did the Vong even exist in their current form ?

[YT300000]

Well, the Republic had been more or less technologically stagnant for millennia - in KOTOR we see a small fleet carry out a Base Delta Zero-level strike on Telos. I'd imagine the Vong would similarly not be too different from where they were thousands of years later, except perhaps for having far fewer conquests under their belt.