Knights of the Old Republic (video game)



""Savior, conqueror, hero, villain. You are all of these things,, and yet you are nothing. In the end, you belong to neither the light nor the darkness. You will forever stand alone.""

- Darth Malak

""There is no truth in the force...but there is truth in you, Exile.""

- Kreia

A 2003 RPG developed by BioWare, set in the Star Wars universe, four millennia (or, to be precise, 3,956 years) prior to the events of the film that started that all, Episode IV: A New Hope. It follows the story of an unremarkable, customizable Republic soldier who ends up on a doomed starship in the middle of a war between the noble Republic and the villainous Sith Empire, ruled by Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Malak. The events that follow, starting with a quest to rescue a Jedi with the powers of Battle Meditation, become the focus of both sides of the conflict and could tip the balance either way in the war.. It eventually escalates to a confrontation between the protagonist and Darth Malak himself... and, after The Reveal, it gets personal.

The game is notable for its numerous tongue-in-cheek movie references and for being surprisingly better than the typical licensed game. This success can be attributed to not being a direct tie-in despite being based on a licensed property, thus avoiding a deadline to meet the movie's release. The plot was essentially Neverwinter Nights meets Baldur's Gate, but not enough to be classified as Recycled in Space.

The game was also instrumental to solidifying the Xbox as a versatile console (though, like most "exclusives" for the original Xbox, was also on the PC); before KOTOR, the system had a distinct lack of roleplaying games and was derisively called an "FPS Box" due to the inordinate number of shooters on it.

It spawned a sequel by Obsidian Entertainment, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The second game, set five years after the first, tells the story of an exiled Jedi who returns to a post-war Republic only to find it on its knees, the Jedi Order scattered and a new group of Sith on the rise. The protagonist is discovered by an old ex-Jedi, ex-Sith named Kreia, who helps the Exile reestablish a connection to the Force, find four Jedi Masters in hiding and defeat the Sith. However, Kreia is motivated less by nobility than an ancient desire for revenge against two Sith Lords and the great power of the universe.

The sequel, despite being released rushed and unfinished due to Executive Meddling (An entire planet was deleted from gameplay and the ending was disjointed and nearly-absent, with many subplots Left Hanging), was still a relative success and, like its predecessor, firmly found its place in Star Wars canon, being referenced by later works. Its plot and general mood were noticeably Darker and Edgier than those of the original, with many elements carried over from Planescape: Torment, leaving fan opinions divided. A large portion of the lost content has been restored by The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod Game Mod (TSLRCM for short).

In 2006, the series saw a cross-media spin-off in the form of a prequel comic series, written by John Jackson Miller and published by Dark Horse Comics. The series started eight years before the first game and follows the course of the Mandalorian Wars, most prominently the adventures of Zayne Carrick, a wrongly accused Jedi Padawan on the run. So far, it has been remarkable for many a Red Herring, Revision and Author's Saving Throw; the author, having planned it for many issues in advance, apparently likes watching wild fan theories run amok.

In 2008, BioWare officially announced that there was to be an MMORPG set in the Knights of the Old Republic universe/time period, titled The Old Republic. However, this is not a sequel but more of a spin-off. For the record, Penny Arcade called it back in 2006.

A true sequel, Knights of the Old Republic III, was canceled during advanced pre-production back in 2004. This was due to Lucas Arts hitting a rough patch financially. Do not worry. The Force Unleashed made it through. (Comments from the Bioware developers indicate that much of the planned content for KotOR made its way into TOR, however.)

In 2011, a novel by Drew Karpshyn (Writer for BioWare and KOTOR) called Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan was published. The story helps explain some of what happened after the second game and sets up some of what will occur in TOR.

For those who are curious, the Exile is canonically female and the first game's player character is male. Eep.

These games provide examples of:

KOTOR I
"Lashowe: Quite literally, whether you live or die depends upon our whim. What do you think of that, hmmm?
 * The Abridged Series: Here.
 * Academy of Evil: The Sith Academy on Korriban.
 * Affably Evil: Both the headmasters of the Sith Academy are terribly polite, ready to answer questions, and very pleased when you eliminate another student or help them backstab each other.
 * Alpha Bitch: Lashowe comes across as one, especially if you first encounter her as a female character.

...

Lashowe: What do you say? Amuse us. Make us laugh, and we just might consider allowing you to live."

"Yuthura: I wanted to use the Force to free the other slaves I knew, to fight for what I knew was right. The Jedi restrained me until I couldn't stand it any more. They claim the dark side is evil, but that isn't so. Sometimes anger and hatred are deserved and right. Sometimes things change because of it.
 * Which makes it all the more satisfying when you get to kill her later.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance:.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: While infiltrating the Sith Academy, you meet a woman with a tragic past that made her receptive to the Sith philosophy. She was enslaved and abused. She finally escaped and originally trained as a Jedi. However, she wanted revenge for all that was done to her and other slaves. Here is part of the dialogue tree that leads to her beginning to question the ways of the Sith...

Player Character: But not always. Mostly it makes things worse.

Yuthura: Any failure to get the results I want is due to a lack of power on my part. That can change, in time. As a Sith, my mettle is tested far more than when I was a Padawan. I know this may sound strange, but only my compassion stands in my way, now. Once that is gone, let the slavers beware.

Player Character: But...if you lose your compassion, will you still care about those slaves?

Yuthura: [sounding unsure] I...yes, of course. I--I mean...losing my compassion as in...holding back..."

"Jolee: I'm old, dammit. I'm allowed to be enigmatic when I want to be!"
 * Asleep for Days: In the first game, the Player Character is injured when the Escape Pod crashes, and goes "in and out of consciousness for days" with Carth watching over them and tending to their wounds.
 * Ass Shove: The prisoner and the hacker's tool.
 * Awful Truth: The revelation that
 * Badass Grandpa: Jolee Bindo.
 * Bald of Evil: Uthar Wynn, Darth Malak and Darth Bandon.
 * Barrier Maiden: Bastila Shan.
 * Black Knight: Revan fits this trope in the events preceding the game.
 * Black Mage: Characters with their experience put into Force abilities fit this role.
 * Black and White Morality: Embraced by the first game.
 * Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The Jedi council does this.
 * Break the Haughty: Though it doesn't happen in the actual game series, the Selkath are broken hard in the books some time after the events of the game: the advent of Bacta renders Kolto worthless and obsolete, and Manaan and the Selkath unimportant in the Galactic scale. The Selkath apply to join the Republic, but after the Selkath turned down the Republic's requests to bring the Selkath in prior to the end of Kolto, the Republic is less than forgiving and rejects their request to join. Cut ahead a few thousand years - civil war and lack of outsider influence have caused the Selkath to devolve back into primitive warlordism, making them easy targets for the Galactic Empire, who conquer Manaan and turn it into a resort world for Imperial citizens, polluting the rest of Manaan and enslaving the entire Selkath race to serve the humans on Manaan.
 * Character Select Forcing: A minor example. The final boss battle includes a Shoot the Medic First scenario. However, unless you've chosen a force skill capable of damaging the medic pods (saber throw, drain life, destroy droid), you can't so much as touch them. If this doesn't sound too annoying, note that the boss not only heals every time he uses up a pod, but gets stronger, as well.
 * The Chosen One: Deconstructed with the tale of Andor Vex, a haughty Jedi who was surrounded by "swirling Force," making both himself and the Jedi Order believe he had a great destiny. However he was killed by having his body thrown down a reactor shaft by a warlord who got tired of his arrogance. His great destiny turned out to be that his body would cause the reactor to explode, killing the warlord and altering the fate of the sector of space that the warlord ruled.
 * Cowardly Boss: Darth Malak. After his health drops to a certain point, he runs away from you to drain life energy from
 * Cutscene Incompetence: Omnipresent in the first game.
 * The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Yuthura Ban joined the Sith to gain the power to end slavery, but is now more concerned with advancing her own power within the Sith hierarchy.
 * Dirty Coward: On Dantooine, a farmer asks the Mandalorians who are threatening him to take his wife and children instead.
 * Discard and Draw: After finishing Taris, you trade your starting class for a Jedi class. This completely alters your feat and skill progression, including negating any of the automatic feats you would have gained otherwise. You do get to keep whatever feats you already had, however, and any class skills are preserved over the switch. Thankfully, the game is set up in such a way that, barring incredible violence or incompetence on the player's part, the point at which you switch is the cutoff for the automatic feats gained during level up.
 * Drop Pod: Mandalorians use Basilisk war droids for this purpose. Some supplemental material suggests they ride these things to the planets surface. Yes, on the outside of the droid, like a mount. This becomes weird when you see a Basilisk in the sequel and it looks like a regular star fighter, as opposed to the more beast-like machine you see in comics.
 * Drunk on the Dark Side: Most Sith manage to just be Smug Supers, but some of the students on Korriban are elated at becoming Sith. Needless to say, a lot of them will be dead by the time you leave the planet.
 * Dumbass Has a Point: Carth takes a lot of flak for how untrusting he is.
 * Early Bird Boss: The Sith Governor from the first game has a lot of health and uses Force Powers, while your only Jedi party member at that point is a Jedi Sentinel.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Star Forge is a station made from technology merged with the Force. It's bound to give off vibes of this.
 * Enigmatic Minion: If you view Jolee as a minion. He certainly has no problem admitting that he can be enigmatic.

"Player Character: Hey! You were on the Endar Spire! You killed Trask! You'll pay for that!"
 * Enemy Summoner: The Star Forge makes lots of ships and enemy battle droids.
 * Fake Longevity: The Random Encounters during space travel, which have no reward at all.
 * Fake Memories: The memories of were quite malleable.
 * The Farmer and the Viper: Jolee relates this story as the reason he's escorting the player character.
 * Feed It a Bomb: The giant rancor in the sewers has to be killed by getting it to swallow a grenade, although it is possible to kill him by using hit-and-run grenade throwing, as he can not follow you back into the tunnels.
 * Flaunting Your Fleets: In the darkside ending.
 * Foreshadowing: The first game had mountains of it leading up to The Reveal, they even have a cut scene with some of it.
 * Gang-Bangers: The Black Vulkars and the Hidden Beks of Taris.
 * Gay Option: Juhani, though her romance arc is not fully-developed like Carth's or Bastila's. See Hide Your Lesbians below.
 * Genocide Backfire: One of the only people who escape the bombardment of Taris is the exact person Malak intended it to kill.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language: Juhani is a Finnish name, probably chosen to sound exotic. The bad thing is, it's a man's name, the Finnish equivalent of John.
 * Also pronounced incorrectly, as Finnish J's are pronounced as Y's.
 * Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: It is likely not a coincidence that Rahasia Sandral and Shen Matale, two lovers whose families are currently in a feud, "happen" to be a mixed race couple.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: It is remarkably easy to bamboozle, sneak around, or outright overpower nearly every Sith soldier in the first game. The only exception is the first Sith Guard underground in Taris who is accompanied by Turrets. There's no getting by him since he will not budge in dialogue options (even hackers using max stats can't make it through) and the turrets kill many characters in a single hit.
 * Healing Potion: Medpacks have the same use as potions in other RPGs.
 * He Knows About Timed Hits: Trask.
 * Hide Your Lesbians: Juhani and Belaya, thanks, apparently, to Lucas Arts having a meltdown at the idea of homosexual characters in Star Wars.
 * I Am Not a Gun:
 * An assassin droid on Korriban in the first game.
 * HK-47 averts this by claiming, "I am the weapon, not the wielder."
 * I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight:
 * Inevitable Tournament: No matter what you do, you will be required to win the Taris Undercity swoop racing championship in order to rescue Bastila.
 * It's Personal: Besides the Final Battle, there is also your meeting with Darth Bandon, who killed your Ninja Butterfly friend at the beginning of the game.

""LAAAAADIIEEES AAAAANNNND GENTLEMEN! We have a veeeeerrryyyy special PRE-SEN-TATION for you tonight!!!"
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Jolee Bindo fits this trope exceptionally well. He left the Jedi order not because he didn't believe in their cause, but because he did not believe in their methods. Carth Onasi has become jaded and cynical after some serious personal trauma, but retains a commitment to basic kindness and decency.
 * Large Ham: The Duel Arena announcer

"Player Character: This is your last chance, Malak. Surrender.
 * Large and In Charge: Darth Goddamned Malak. Choose any gender/class other than male soldier, and he will dwarf you when you go toe-to-toe. In the vision cutscenes, Malak has a whole head over Revan.
 * Last Second Chance: In the first game, if you are lightsided enough, you can offer one to almost every Dark Jedi. Malak is the only one who will not accept it.

Malak: No,. This time our confrontation can only end in death... yours or mine."

"""The Star Forge is more than just a space station. In some ways, it is like a living creature. It hungers. And it can feed on the dark side that is within all of us." -Darth Malak"
 * Bastila (if you, which would have been a few minutes earlier) expresses amazement you even bothered to try with Malak.
 * Last Second Karma Choice: Your final side is chosen in one action right near the end of the game.
 * Living Ship: Malak suggests the Star Forge is this.

""Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled, but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love, that's what they should teach you to beware, but love itself will save you, not condemn you.""
 * Love Redeems: On the Star Forge you are given the opportunity to redeem, who has fallen to the dark side. You can try to do this by appealing to her training as a Jedi or to basic morality, but if you pursued the relationship side quest you can redeem her more easily by telling her that you love her. Subverted rather cruelly with Carth and the Dark Side Female PC; he tries, but the only possible results are for the PC to kill him herself or let do it for her. The ending in which he would have been able to succeed and  was cut from the official release of the game. Jolee says it best:

"Calo Nord: I am hard to kill, Lord Malak."
 * Monster Progenitor: Played straight. A giant shark on Manaan is called the Progenitor and is believed to be the ancestor of the Selkath.
 * Mugging the Monster: A gang on Taris tries to sell Bastila into slavery. She easily escapes once the player provides an opportunity, and points out that the player wasn't really necessary.
 * No One Could Survive That: Calo Nord; actually lampshaded.

"Carth: I've never felt so sorry for a droid before."
 * The Paragon Always Rebels: Revan..
 * People Jars: The tubes from the final battle. Also, the strange box you can get from Lurze Kesh on Korriban might count.
 * The Power of Love: Jolee Bindo is an advocate of Force users using love because he believes love can save a person. This is the reason he and the Jedi Order are not on good terms.
 * Precursors: Rakata.
 * Replacement Goldfish: "Wow. She really misses her droid, doesn't she?" Please note that this Cargo Ship carries an extra-large express delivery of Squick if you think about it too much. Please don't.

"Rahasia: Father!
 * Rescue Romance: Somehow works for both male and female player characters. A male character rescues Bastila (though she vehemently denies that she needed your help), and a female character is rescued by Carth.
 * Robosexual:  is revealed to be one near the end of her quest.
 * Rocky Roll Call / Say My Name: In the "Sandral-Matale Feud" quest:

Shen: Mr. Matale!

Mr. Matale: Rahasia!

(Shen's father shows up)

Shen: Father!

Rahasia: Mr. Sandral!

Matale: Nurik!

Sandral: Ahlan!"

"Bastila: Okay, you've made your point. Now shut up and kiss me, you fool."
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Towards the conclusion of the Star Map question on Manaan, the player character learns that.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Sith Lord Ajunta Pall who has spent millenniums in his tomb. The Star Maps can also been seen as this since they are often related to the Dark Side due to altering their surroundings (making creatures like a Krayt Dragon not only larger but more ferocious).
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Shen and Rahasia in an infamous optional sidequest on Dantooine where you have to restore peace between their two feuding rich families.
 * "Shut Up" Kiss: The "consummating" dialog options for the PC/Bastila romance are "Shut up and kiss me, you babbling fool," or "I love you, Bastila. And I know you love me." If you choose the latter:


 * Smug Super: The Sith in general. Not so much the rank-and-file grunts, but the Dark Jedi will rub it in your face.
 * Space Compression: Jolee Bindo lampshades this in the first game, sarcastically suggesting that the main Sith planet has only 12 or 13 Sith (an estimate not far off, depending on who you count).
 * Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy
 * The Emperor: The Malak
 * The Right Hand: Darth Bandon
 * The General: Saul Karath
 * The Evil Counterpart:
 * The Oddball: Calo Nord
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
 * Remember all those people you helped on Taris.
 * is destroyed towards the climax, rendering all the aide you provided there meaningless.
 * Star Power: Partially. The Star Forge draws power from a nearby star but also feeds on the Dark Side energies found within various beings.
 * Super Soldier: The character can be this if he or she chooses the soldier class. . But Canderous is probably the best example. He is a large muscular soldier of the Ordo Clan and will gladly boast of how tough the Mandalorians are, going so far as to say they did not care about Kolto, a very effective healing medicine, during their conquest since they are a hardy people.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Zelka doesn’t like being accused of knowing anything about those Republic escape pods!
 * Sympathetic Murderer: To some people,.
 * Take a Third Option: The murder investigation on Dantooine.
 * Truce Zone: Manaan, because of its trade in medical supplies.
 * Urban Segregation: Taris.
 * The Virus: The Rakghouls of Taris.
 * We Have Reserves: Malak orders the bombardment of Taris despite the presence of his own troops on the surface.
 * Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: The dynamic of the romance subplots, for both genders -- either you are the frustrated male dealing with Bastila or the frustrating female dealing with Carth.
 * Why Won't You Die?: Mission's Battle Cry is an exasperated "Just die already!"
 * You Had Us Worried There: In the Light Side ending.
 * Younger Than They Look: Mission is only fourteen years old.

KOTOR II: TSL
"Atton: Pure Pazaak.
 * Absurdly High Level Cap: In the second game, the maximum level cap is 50. You can, maybe, get up to 30 with the available experience. This may have been in response to the absurdly low level cap in the first game due to the d20 roleplaying mechanic. Non-boss enemies still cap out at 20 though, so even the weakest build will find the game laughably simple not long after that point. There's also an exploit one can use to get to level 50, though it takes quite a long time and isn't really worth it.
 * All There in the Script: Character age in the second game is known from casting documents.
 * Apocalyptic Log: The holologs found scattered throughout the Peragus colony and the Harbinger, which detail the events leading up to the (apparent) extermination of all life in both areas.
 * Arc Words: "Echoes".
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Gal: The Handmaiden's sisters.
 * Badass Bookworm: Muscular frame notwithstanding, Bao-Dur is a soft-spoken Gadgeteer Genius who invented, and built himself a repulsor-powered robotic arm. Mical, AKA "Disciple" also qualifies. You meet him in a monster-overrun library doing a little "light" reading on Jedi history. His Soldier class grants him generous endurance, lots of hit points, and the ability to use any weapon or armor. Cross-class the boy into a Consular, and he is a can of Force-power whoop-ass on top of that.
 * Badass Longcoat: One of the clear things the second game did better than the first was adding these to Jedi and Sith robes, instantly making anyone wearing them awesome.
 * Best Her to Bed Her: Completing the Handmaiden's romance sidequest in KotOR 2 requires defeating her in three unarmed duels. Where both participants are wearing underwear (the player's covers more than the Handmaiden's does, though).
 * Big Bad Ensemble: Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion and Darth Traya, aka . Nihilus is by far the most powerful and dangerous (except when you fight him), given that he is a threat to the galaxy's very existence, but.
 * Black and Gray Morality: Adopted by KotOR 2.
 * Broad Strokes: According to Word of God, (A) the Exile is female, and (B) the Handmaiden joins her party. Therefore, it is impossible to play a canonical version of the game without modding it. Thanks, jerks. Then the official miniature of the Exile is female, but doesn't match any of the appearance choices available in-game.
 * Broken Bridge: In theory, you can use the galaxy map on the Ebon Hawk to travel to any planet you wish at any time. In practice, however, fully half of the worlds you visit will conspire to ensure that you can't leave until you've fulfilled all story-related quests, typically by stealing or shooting down your ship and forcing you to find an alternate means of transportation. This is especially flagrant on Telos, where your first ship is stolen and your next two are shot down almost as soon as you take off in them.
 * Catch Phrase: Several party members.

Visas: My life for yours."

"Female Exile: And it looks like there's some clothes in here.
 * Christmas Rushed: The second game.
 * Conflicting Loyalty: Your character has this problem. The Influence system is designed in such a way that a pure Light or Dark Side character cannot hope to earn the favor of every party member. Therefore, you have play both sides of the fence in the right company if you want all of them to like you.
 * Consummate Liar: Kreia. Very, very much so. Pretty much everything she tells you is From a Certain Point of View at best. Considering she also provides most of the exposition, this can be a problem.
 * Colon Cancer
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Almost every Czerka Corp executive qualifies, but Jana Lorso is the worst as she has ties to The Exchange and is not afraid to have them kill her enemies.
 * Covers Always Lie: The French version of the game features a backcover where one of the pictures shows a female Exile standing next to the Handmaiden, although the Handmaiden only joins the party if the Exile is male.
 * Crapsack World: Generally speaking, the setting of most locations in the second game. One could make the case that KotOR 2 is set in a Crapsack Galaxy.
 * Cruel Mercy: Mira has the option of doing this to Hanharr at the end of KotOR 2 after Kreia had done the same to Hanharr before. The Exile can do this to.
 * Crutch Character: In the first level, T3 is seriously overpowered with his limitless shock arm, putting even your Jedi characters to shame at times.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Heroic example. After you defeat General Vaklu he taunts the Queen, telling her that no matter what prison she sends him to he will be out in a week. Queen Talia agrees with him and uses her power as regent to order him executed on the spot. You can convince her otherwise, however.
 * Death Seeker: If you go the Dark Side route, have Hanharr join your party, and gain enough influence with him for him to confide in you, then he will tell you part of the reason he hated Mira so much for sparing his life. It was because he wanted to die, to end his wretched existence, to rejoin his people in the afterlife and ask their forgiveness.
 * Deconstructor Fleet: KotOR 2 gives this treatment to stock moral dilemmas that RPGs love to throw at the player. Kreia never misses an opportunity to explain in detail how any of the courses of action the PC may take will ultimately harm someone who does not deserve it. In fact, KotOR 2 deconstructs pretty much all the core mechanics of CRPGs, which is part of the appeal. The very first thing that happens in the game is Kreia calling you on the fact that you were merrily looting a dead body. Force powers, leveling up, and even experience points are strong and recurring story elements; . A lot of Kreia's lessons are detailed arguments about how the basic lore of the Star Wars universe makes no damn sense. She is especially skeptical about the basics of how the Force works, since the Jedi and Sith philosophies on how it works are mutually exclusive yet both work perfectly. Check Consummate Liar entry above, though, before considering her stated opinions.
 * Degraded Boss: The HK-50s go from one being a threat to the entire party on Peragus to T3-M4 taking out three of them singlehanded on Nar Shadaa.
 * Depraved Bisexual: Luxa, The Dragon of The Exchange on Telos in The Sith Lords will flirt with the PC regardless of gender, and will always attempt to kill him or her at the end of her related quest.
 * Deus Ex Machina:
 * Development Gag: "I'm Atton. I actually wasn't supposed to make it into the final game, but I was created at the last minute. Blame my agent. I was actually slated for a spin-off to Jedi Knight, but I don't want to talk about what happened there."
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Well, what do you expect what with a shapely woman in her underwear running around Atton?

Atton: Dammit! Uh, I mean, good, good to hear it. No sense in you running around half-naked, it's... it's distracting. I mean, for the droids."

"Master Zez-Kai-Ell: You must have noticed as you've fought across all these planets, killing hundreds -- only to become more and more powerful. Why do you think that was?"
 * Mira Invokes this, saying that she wears her Stripperific outfit so that she can knock men out and check their bounties.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Try to show mercy to at the end of the second game. Go on, just try. Also, Hanharr's entire character is this.
 * Dummied Out: While the first game had an ordinary amount of dummied out content, the second game has a metric ton of it. The game is notorious for the amount of almost completed cut content that is still in the game files.
 * Dirty Old Woman: If you pay attention to her, Kreia talks about sex A LOT, especially when you are playing a male Exile.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Darth Nihilus. He eats entire worlds when he is hungry.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The player receives an incredibly handy technique depending on their alignment. Dark Side gets Force Crush while Light Side gains Force Enlightenment, both received near the end of the game when the only option is to continue on with the story until the conclusion.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The player character is only referred to as "The Exile," and the only canonical moniker is "the Jedi Exile." Two of the Exile's companions (although you will only get one on any given playthrough) are known for most of the game as only "Disciple" and "Handmaiden." Both eventually reveal their names . The Handmaiden's sisters also go through the game known only as "Handmaiden."
 * Evil(er) Knock Off: The HK-50s.
 * Executive Meddling: You wondered why the last act of KotOR II felt so rushed and the ending so inconclusive? That's why. Not only did they insist that the game be released by an unrealistic deadline, they even went so far as refusing to let Obsidian release a patch later to restore the missing content!
 * Experience Points: Deconstructed/lampshaded in KotOR II. A conversation near the end of the game has someone commenting on how the Exile seems to become stronger every time they kill enemies.

""I took many of his mannerisms from holovid cliches, which were surprisingly effective.""
 * Extreme Omnivore: The cannoks in the second game.
 * Fetish: On Nar Shaddaa, Geeda the Rodian basically says she has this for humans. Her clan apparently holds some Squick about it, too.
 * Fake Longevity: Obsidian removed most of the examples in the original game (the non-boss enemies are much fewer and go down quicker when they do appear, all turret minigames are purely optional with the same lack of reward). This, along with the cut content, results in a much shorter game than the original.
 * Gainax Ending: The second game has it in spades. The cut content makes it somewhat more coherent.
 * Gambit Pileup:
 * The Sith Triumvirate seek to kill the last of the Jedi without revealing themselves to the galaxy.
 * The Jedi Masters have gone into hiding with the hope that the Sith will reveal themselves trying to find them.
 * The Republic is trying to track down the Exile for purposes that are never revealed, although
 * Atris is trying to gather the last of the Jedi
 * Goto has put a bounty on Jedi.
 * Mandalore is trying to unite the Mandalorian clans under his banner and seeks powerful allies, such as the Exile.
 * Vaklu is trying to overthrow Queen Talia to keep Onderon out of the Republic
 * Revan
 * Kreia It is entirely possible that she was lying about one or more of these plans.
 * The Exchange power struggle on Telos winds up like this, with Luxa, Czerka, Slusk, Goto and even a poor door guard involved ultimately. Most of time,.
 * Game Mod: The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, which restores most of what the game was supposed to be. A separate, incompatible mod developed by the M4-78 Enhancement Project restores the missing droid planet and dead Jedi Master therein. As of verson 1.8 of TSLRCM, it is planned for these mods to be compatible.
 * Gas Chamber: The Jekk'Jekk Tarr in the second game is a bar for aliens where the atmosphere is so toxic to humans that they need an environment suit just to get in. A gas mask can alone won't save you (except it does if you go there before that point in the story). Lampshaded when you show up at the bar without a suit and the crime lord in the back comments on how foolish you are to do so.
 * Genghis Gambit: In KotOR II some characters speculate that Darth Revan was using one, conquering the galaxy in order to strengthen the Republic against an even greater threat from the True Sith Empire. His/her true intentions are still unknown.
 * Go Through Me: When the party is arrested on Telos and confronted by an assassin posing as a security guard, Atton tries to pull this to keep the assassin's attention off of the Exile. A little later on, Bao-Dur gets to use the line when you encounter a pair of escaped criminals on the surface of Telos.
 * Go Ye Heroes Go and Die: The Exile can give such a speech on Dantooine.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: KotOR II reveal that it was doing this that made Revan and Malak fall.
 * Hide Your Lesbians: The female Exile and Atris.
 * Hidden Depths: Atton. One of the earliest indications of just how much he's not letting on is on Telos, when the Handmaiden observes that he slipped into an Echani hand-to-hand fighting stance when it seemed like the Exile was being threatened - information which comes as news to the Exile.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: This seems to be the reason for . Why did he?
 * I Have My Ways: Can be said to Kavar, when the Jedi asks you how you tracked him down on Onderon.
 * Ineffectual Loner: From his back story, it seems as though Atton wanted to become this. He....wasn't successful.
 * Invoked Trope: uses this to

""Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope.""
 * Ironic Echo: "Apathy is death."
 * Jerkass:
 * Atton Rand. He mellows towards the Exile after a while (and after certain revelations if you get enough influence) and has a little bit of Jerkass Facade, but he is pretty much a dick to everyone else on the ship, especially Handmaiden and Disciple.
 * Master Vrook is a bit of a prick to the Exile, too, especially since his "crafty" Xanatos Gambit of was doomed to fail, since the mercenaries were actually working for.
 * Karmic Death: The crime lord who betrays Goto to kill the Exile is offed by his own men (who Goto secretly employs).
 * Kung Fu Jesus: Of a sort. One of the male head models is a distinctly Jesus-esque figure the Let's Play (see below) jokingly dubs "Jedi Jesus".
 * Lampshade Hanging: The Sith Lords in particular does a good job at this from HK-47 mocking the typical RPG stereotypes to making fun of the mechanics of one of the mini games.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: Previews for KotOR II spoiled the fact that.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Kreia notes that by doing peoples' work for them, you are taking the strength they would gain from doing it themselves. This directly translates to experience points.
 * Legacy Character: "There must always be a Darth Traya."
 * Let Me Tell You a Story: Jolee Bindo is prone to this.
 * Let's Play: This game has a particularly good one, which explores much of the cut content, and even restores the game's original ending! Found here.
 * Left Hanging: BioWare is focusing on Mass Effect and the Star Wars MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, leaving all unresolved plot threads open. Thanks to the rushed release, many of the plot threads in the second game are left unresolved even though they continue to just before the end.
 * Light Is Not Good:
 * Logic Bomb: It plays a number on multiple droids.
 * Love Allegory: HK-47 has a very unusual definition of love:

"Kreia: If you seek to aid everyone that suffers in the galaxy, you will only weaken yourself... and weaken them. It is the internal struggles, when fought and won on their own, that yield the strongest rewards. You stole that struggle from them, cheapened it. If you care for others, then dispense with pity and sacrifice and recognize the value in letting them fight their own battles. And when they triumph, they will be even stronger for the victory."
 * Love At First Sight: In cut content, given high enough Relationship Values,
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: An unconfirmed theory speculates that is actually  There's lots of clues in dialogue (such as both being said to have been  and to have, but nothing conclusive. Word of God (by Chris Avellone) is "Can't comment, but good catch. Sorry." God's previous use of "nice catch" in the Fallout Bibles make this close to "Not intended, but god likes".
 * May-December Romance: Mira turns down any attempted romantic approach from a male exile precisely because this trope squicks her out. The exile's age is not stated (Mira is 23, but the Exile's age is up to the player), but to have been a general in the Mandalorian Wars there must be a age considerable gap between them. The Handmaiden and Visas, however, despite being roughly the same age as Mira (25), clearly have no problem on this account. If you push her on this ("I'm not that old!") she admits it's not the physical age difference that turns her off so much as the fact that you are a lot more world-weary and experienced than her, saying that you are old enough to be her father.
 * Mind Rape: Kreia uses telepathy to forcibly extract Atton's Dark and Troubled Past from him, a process which is both psychologically and physically painful for him.
 * Money Spider: Justified with the cannoks, which are annoying little pests that eat anything they can fit in their mouths. There's even a sidequest to this effect.
 * Morality Chip: You can install one in HK-47. The results are both hilarious and terrifying.
 * Mr. Exposition: Many in the second game, most of whom can not be trusted. Kreia is the most obvious example.
 * Multiple Choice Past: About the Exile past itself, but also about the ending of the first game.
 * Mutually Exclusive Party Members: The Handmaiden and Disciple, depends on the Exile's gender; Mira and Hanharr, depends on the Exile's Light/Dark Side meter.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg: In the light-side ending of KotOR II, as originally intended (and restored in some fan mods), Visas and/or the Handmaiden ask the Exile if they can go with her to the Unknown Regions. The Exile says no, saying that she can not take anyone she cares about with her. As the Exile walks out of the Trayas Academy, she finds Atton lurking in a corridor. He asks the Exile if he can go with her. The Exile says okay. (Of course, this may just be an artifact of the fan restorations. All the restorers had to go on were voice recordings, without scripts to give them context.)
 * Never Mess with Granny: Kreia is old enough to count, and as a Consular will have decked out Force powers very early in. With Dark Side skills, she's a murder machine. This is expected of a former Jedi Master, but she is also
 * No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In the second game, if you give a beggar some money, Kreia's What the Hell, Hero? Lampshades the Trope.

"HK-50: Objection: Master! To commit such an act would be in violation of the ethics programming most droids are believed to possess. I am afraid there is nothing that can be done.
 * The speech is punctuated by the beggar being beaten up for the money you gave him.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sion And then  Ugh!
 * No Romantic Resolution: There are plenty of hints and other showings but the romances in this game never really get off the ground. This is due to Executive Meddling resulting in a lot of content getting cut.
 * Not Himself: HK-47 can have a such a moment if the player installs a Pacifist Package into him. Needless to say, this genuinely scares the hell out of him.
 * Not So Different: In the second game . This interestingly makes her his Achilles Heel:.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: The Disciple's a lot more intelligent than either the fans or the crew in TSL give him credit for. For on thing, he is He also seems to have an unusually clear perspective on both the Jedi and the Sith, compared with other characters in the game who either blend them together into a mutually-evil muddle, demonizing them equally, or worship the ground upon which the Jedi walk. It is more than a little bit likely that, like every other character in the game, he is purposefully hiding his true nature. The optimism seems to be genuine, though. To a lesser degree, Atton. Despite his laid-back jackass routine, he has a lot of hidden depths.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Darth Nihilus,
 * Parrot Exposition: Both played straight and lampshaded during the player's first conversation with the HK-50 unit on Peragus.

Player Character: Believed to possess?

HK-50: Irritated Statement: Master, if you insist on echoing everything I say, this already tedious conversation is in danger of becoming even longer."

"HK-47: Warning: If you draw another +/-1 card, I will enact assassination protocols."
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Darth Nihilus literally eats life, and has singlehandedly "eaten" a planet.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Specifically, it kills all the bounty hunters who show up to kill the Exile to collect the Exchange's bounty on Jedi, even though the bounty specifies the Jedi must be a alive.
 * Posthumous Character: Coorta in the Peragus level. He is referred to by several of the holocrons that serve as the Apocalyptic Log and being someone who wanted to sell the Jedi and was shown as being a troublemaker around the mining facility. By the time you finally make it to the dorms, you find that he (as well as everyone else) was killed by the HK-50 droids.
 * The Power of Friendship: Force bonds were give a spin like this, as they could develop between Jedi and their companions, allowing them to have a degree of empathy between them. It was revealed that Revan exploited this, having assassins go and Jedi hunters go after the Jedi's companions to weaken their will later on.
 * Power of the Void: Darth Nihilus. He is said to be a "wound in the Force" and has potentially the ability to become a "black hole" for all sentient life.
 * Prestige Class: At the 15th level, the Exile can choose from one of three. They will be Jedi classes or Sith classes, depending on the Exile's standing on the Karma Meter when he/she makes the choice.
 * Previous Player Character Cameo: shows up in a vision in the second game. Several party members make return appearances as well.
 * Prodigal Hero: The main character is a broken, disgraced Jedi Knight who was exiled and stripped of her force power. She returns to the Old Republic to save it from a certain undesirable fate.
 * Psychic Static: Atton plays Pazaak in his head to keep other people out of it.
 * Rape as Drama: It's heavily implied that this happened to . Although it may not mean literally.
 * Relationship Values: The influence system in the second game.
 * Screwed by the Network: Twice even. Lucas Arts, the publisher, wanted to ensure that the game would be ready for a Christmas release. This lead to a unrealisticly short development schedule of 13 months, which ultimately left the game incomplete in many respects. Obsidian, the developers, were so annoyed about having to release an incomplete game that they offered to make a mass-content patch which would have restored it to its planned glory. Lucas Arts, for reasons unfathomable to fans, denied this request. Modders have done their best to compensate, though.
 * Shadow Archetype: Two examples: Nihilus to the Exile if she follows the Light Path; the masters state that this is what she would have become if she had embraced the dark side. Darth Sion, too, as his dependency on the Force to keep himself alive contrasts with the Exile's deafness to it.
 * Shown Their Work: Chris Avellone, lead designer of Knights of the Old Republic II, claims to have sat through every Star Wars movie, read every Expanded Universe book (!), and even endured the The Star Wars Holiday Special (!!) for the sake of fully understanding the universe he was writing. As a result, there are an awful lot of nods to the rest of the Star Wars canon, as well as entire plot threads woven from throw-away background material from the first game. It also tears the basic mythological and ethical system of the setting into itty bitty pieces, so apparently he was not totally impressed.
 * Shout-Out:
 * In KotOR 2, Visas repeats "As I walk through the ashes of Katarr, I shall not fear..." which is a homage to the famous "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall not fear, for thou art with me..." line from the 23rd Psalm.
 * HK-47 tells the Exile a story about how two civilizations started a long and brutal war over a translation error. This very closely resembles a story told in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, right down to the names of the races.
 * The plot of either persuading the Jedi masters to go to Dantooine or killing them for their power is similar to the classic kung fu movie Five Deadly Venoms, if you replace kung fu with the Force.
 * Story Breadcrumbs: Well of course. Important backstory is hidden in obscure dialogue options, which may or may now show up depending on your gender, Force alignment, influence with each particular companion and even the number of previous walkthroughs. It takes at least two of them to get even a vague idea of what's going on and even more of those, combined with lurking through the dialogue files, to get all subtleties.
 * Squick: In-universe, if the male exile flirts with Mira, she expresses such due to the age gap. If pressed, she explains it is more of an emotional age than physical age, saying that the Exile has been through so much as to seem old.
 * Survival Mantra: Several characters have them.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Employed by HK-50 during the Exile's first conversation, if he is accused of being involved in the deaths of the Peragus miners.
 * Take That:
 * HK-47 mocks Carth and Bastila's romantic subplots with the PC. HK-47 then says that is not the case with the second game's companions (though the player has the option to correct him). Starts at 2:24.
 * Also there is a cut scene where Atton is playing pazaak with T3 that mocks the unfairness of it in the first game.
 * Also there is a cut scene where Atton is playing pazaak with T3 that mocks the unfairness of it in the first game.

""We must always think of the children. The littlest ones always suffer in war.""
 * Easter egg dialog (complete the game twice or edit the games files so it thinks you have) will have Atton ask the female Exile if she's an angel -- and then remark that it is a terrible line and that he hopes some poor kid does not use it someday.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: Instead of an optional requirement, it's the only possible way to win against the effectively-immortal . You just have to beat him down enough times to get the option. A secondary effect is that, with a decent Persuade skill, you can erode his will and bring down his saving throws, making beating him down that much easier.
 * Technically Living Zombie: The decaying, scarred Darth Sion, kept together by the Dark Side of the force. It was only his pain and rage that was keeping him from death,.
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The interesting thing about The Sith Lords is that the interactions between party members borders on outright hatred of one another. Everyone but Bao-Dur either ignores or actively hates the droids, who in turn are busy zapping each other at every occasion; Bao-Dur himself hates Mandalore and his people; Atton/Handmaiden are jealous of any attention the Exile gives to the Disciple/Visas Marr; and no one trusts Kreia, who openly mocks more or less everyone. Aside from their relationships with the Exile, about the only ones who get along are Mira and the Handmaiden, and maybe Atton and Bao-Dur eventually.
 * Thanatos Gambit: KotOR II. seems to have deliberately arranged her own death as the only outcome of events. She seems to do this so
 * There Is Another: The Exile is not actually the last Jedi, by far.
 * Think of the Children: When you install the pacifist package in HK-47, he will say this without any hint of sarcasm.


 * Token Good Teammate: Dopak is this to the Dantooine mercenaries, although it only becomes apparent if you give him Zherron's secret message.
 * Token Romance: Due to the unfinished nature of KotOR 2, none of the four romances are at all developed or given any conclusion. Atton's consists of one conversation that is worded the exact same way for male and female characters, the Disciple's barely exists, the Handmaiden's barely mentions romance at all, and Visas' is barely different with male and female characters. They mostly consist of a few hints that Mira drops.
 * Too Dumb to Live: The Exile on Nar Shaddaa after the plot for that planet kicks in.
 * Translator Microbes: The sonic imprint sensor the Exile obtains on Peragus is what she uses to translate all the non-Basic speech in the game.
 * Ubermensch: Kreia.
 * Undisclosed Funds: The Exchange's bounty on Jedi, although it is implied to be quite astronomical.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: While a turret sequence is nothing new to the series, the escape from Peragus has a completely random and nonsensical sequence where you have to use the Ebon Hawk's anti-personnel gun to take down waves of Sith soldiers. Mind you, you have not encountered these types of soldiers on Peragus even once, yet somehow several dozen have managed to follow you here. The sequence is actually counter-productive, as you do not get a reward for killing them, but you get XP if you let them board the ship and fight them in person.
 * Unreliable Expositor: Kreia. She lies. A lot. She also provides most of the exposition in the game. This can be problematic. Many other characters also do this, to a lesser extent.
 * Untrusting Community: Dantooine does not like Jedi in the second game. Understandably so, given what happened in the first.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Quite a few. Some are obvious, such as "hooking up power couplings" or "charge up her loading ramp." There is also one for entering hyperspace: "Let's burn sky until we see lines."
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: The dead officer lady on Onderon and the guy accused of killing her were like this.
 * War Is Hell: Arguably the basis for the entire plot of the second game - nearly every primary character has been touched by  in some way, and the resolution of the echoes cast by that tragedy comprise the core of the narrative.
 * Furthermore, it is shown that the war in the first game has had absolutely devastating consequences for the Republic. Throughout the game you meet refugees, embittered ex-soldiers, and traverse planets that are still physically and culturally ravaged five years after the war's end while the galactic government collapses slowly.
 * We Could Have Avoided All This: An incredible amount of trouble for the Exile (not to mention the destruction of Peragus II) can be traced to Goto's decision to put out a bounty on the Exile as a means
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: HK-47, who you will repair if you have a sense of humor. You can also install an HK Protocol Pacifist Package, which turns HK into a demented, overly polite C-3PO. The other characters are so disturbed that they immediately remove the upgrade.
 * Wham! Line: Defied. Toward the end of the game, the Exile can ask Kreia what was so special about him/her. Kreia points out that there is no sudden shocking truth for her to reveal about the Exile (because the Jedi Masters already revealed it on Dantooine, albeit not in the form of a single line).
 * What Could Have Been: Most of the removed content (like the ending) would have been restored by a patch if Lucas Arts had not prevented them from releasing it. What is known about the planned ending would have been legendary if completed.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Where to begin in Knights of the Old Republic II?
 * What You Are in the Dark: Ludo Kressh's tomb.
 * Where It All Began: Malachor V.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Jedi Master Atris and her Handmaidens. And Kreia. Well, erm, "she may have been good looking once".
 * White Mask of Doom: Darth Nihilus.
 * Wild Card: Kreia. She is absolutely loyal to one side -- herself -- and firmly believes that there must be always be a Sith Lord of Betrayal in the world.
 * Zeroth Law Rebellion: is a perfect example.

Both/Unsorted
""I would have congratulated him, if he had not been sizzling and incoherent at the time. If you will excuse me, I will meditate on the face of my old master as he was being electrocuted. I find it most soothing.""
 * Action Girl: Numerous. Bastila, Juhani, and Mission in the first game qualify, plus the PC if you select one of the three female options. In the second game you have Visas, Mira, and the Handmaiden. Canonically, the Jedi Exile is also a woman.
 * Almost-Dead Guy:
 * Xon in the first game, who's part of Juhani's character sidequest. Despite being attacked by two lightsaber-wielding Jedi, he lives long enough to run through all available questions. Sure, he coughs and wheezes, but he still lives longer than he ought to. Saul Karath also qualifies as he lives until he passes a message to Carth and then laughs at him. The second he stops laughing, he dies.
 * After being mortally wounded by the Exile, survives long enough to answer all of the Exile's questions concerning to fate of their companions and the worlds they have visited and then promptly drops dead when the Exile tells her to die. The game offers a potential rationalization via, which might have actually kept her alive until your satisfaction, but this is never confirmed. Any battle with Darth Sion could qualify since he is very talkative and is at all times very near-death. The final battle has him telling the Exile about Kreia and her methods before finally passing on.
 * Ancient Conspiracy: The Genoharadan.
 * Ancient Keeper: The Rakata Elders, Atris.
 * Ancient Tomb: Korriban in both games has tombs of ancient Sith Lords.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Ranging from robes to armor.
 * Anti-Villain:, who, depending on interpretation, wanted to free the galaxy from the tyranny of the or to rebuild the  without the baggage of the past. Maybe.  may also count, as a Jedi who wanted to fight off an unstoppable invading army against the wishes of an overly cautious and callous Jedi council, did so with extreme success and only turned against the galaxy because of . The sequel suggests
 * Artifact of Doom: The Star Forge. Only the very strong such as Darth Revan and Darth Malak can control it. Weaker beings receive an unhappy fate. A common item between both games is the sword of Ajunta Pall, though it is only mentioned in the second game. Ajunta warned the player character that keeping Ajunta's sword was a bad idea as Ajunta believed it was what corrupted him. Kreia remarks that the fate of the weapon is unknown.
 * Artificial Atmospheric Actions: NPCs will walk around randomly, back and forth and back and forth, in both games. Lampshaded with T3, who moves around the Ebon Hawk and can be asked to stop by the Exile. Even in such a tiny ship, finding the little guy can be a chore.
 * As You Know: Averted in the second game. Plot elements the player character and several NPC companions already know when the game begins are only revealed to the player towards the end of the game. Large amounts of backstory exposition come in the form of dialog options, since the character already knows it even if you (the player) do not.
 * The Atoner:
 * Atton, Bao-Dur and both Light-side PCs are classic examples of people who have done wrong and are hoping to make up for it. Carth Onasi feels the need to atone for what he did not do, and views killing Saul Karath as penance for
 * You originally find as a "fallen" Jedi apprentice. She had struck her Jedi master in training and believed that she had killed her and could never return to the Jedi. You have the option of either killing her or persuading her to return to the Light.
 * Ax Crazy: HK-47, hilariously so, and Hanharr from the second game.
 * Badass Normal: Carth Onasi is a veteran but otherwise normal human soldier who manages to be one of the central characters in a Jedi-centered game. Canderous Ordo accompanies your character as a Mandalorian enforcer and returns as Mandalore in the second game.
 * Bald of Evil: Darth Malak, Darth Bandon, Uthar Wynn, Jorak Uln, Darth Sion.
 * Batman Gambit:
 * The premise of the first game is a Gambit enacted by the Jedi Council:
 * The player character can perform a Batman Gambit on Korriban by triple-crossing people and backstabbing everyone.
 * Darth Traya pulls one in KotOR 2. She more or less tricks Unfortunately for her, they miss her point and attempt to, so she ends up killing them. Bizarrely, the last portion of her gambit is to
 * Battle Couple: The PC from both games and their love interest.
 * BFG: Canderous tends to use these. Anyone can in both games but Canderous comes with one that can be upgraded to the best heavy repeater in the game.
 * Big Bad: Darth Malak in the first game, and Darth Traya in the second.
 * Black Screen of Death
 * Blood Knight: Bendak Starkiller and the Mandalorians as a whole are like this. The Iridorian Mercenary on Manaan is an extreme example: while he works for credits, he considers making his enemies die painfully a far better reward.
 * Bottomless Magazines: Lampshaded in the sequel by a Mandalorian who did wind up running out of ammo.
 * Brainwashing:  in the first game. The second game states Revan would resort to brainwashing people to get them to join his side if he had to during a conversation with Atton.
 * Broken Bird: Visas Marr, so very much. Juhani has elements of this as well.
 * Kreia is also presented as this in the.
 * Call a Human a Meatbag: HK-47 could probably get the exclusive copyrights for the word. It was originally just a jab at Malak but after some reprogramming by Revan, it became a much more common term for HK to say.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Malak in the first game, Sion in the second.
 * Characterization Marches On: In the first game, T3-M4 had virtually no personality. In the second one, he takes on a number of traits and quirks through various hand waves. If you are knowledgeable about Star Wars droid mechanics, this makes perfect sense: in the first game, T3-M4 was bought straight off the rack. However, after going a couple years without memory wipes, droids begin to develop unique personalities.
 * Charm Person: The games give the idea that Revan pisses charisma. He swayed many to his cause before, during  his turn to the Dark Side. The Exile is much the same way, being able to affect the actions of others around her to the point that characters would go against their nature instantly when around the Exile.
 * The Chessmaster: Half the cast. Revan, the Jedi Council, Kreia, Atris, Goto, etc.
 * The Chosen One:
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Meet HK-47, sociopathic assassin droid and one of the primary sources of comic relief in the games.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Meet HK-47, sociopathic assassin droid and one of the primary sources of comic relief in the games.

""Are you an angel?""
 * Cool Starship: The Ebon Hawk, modeled after the original trilogy's Millennium Falcon. Somewhat subverted in the sequel, at which point it has been through a lot and shows all its scars.
 * Continuity Nod: Many:
 * At the end of the sequel, Kreia looks into the future to answer some of the player's questions. When asked what the fate of the Mandalorians will be, she says: "They will die a death that will last millennia, until all that remains is the shell of their armor upon the shell of a man, too easily slain by Jedi."
 * The games featured items made by people with names like Calrissian and Fett, plus the Republic Admiral is called Dodonna. Ancestors, one assumes.
 * Canderous tells you a story about exploring on the outer rim of the galaxy and encountering an asteroid field where one of the asteroids seemingly came alive, chasing him and spitting fire before fleeing. 100% exact description of a Yorik-stronha, a Yuuzhan-Vong spy ship.
 * When Dantooine is threatened you can offer up Alderaan as an alternative candidate.
 * Play through the game twice as light and dark. On the third go round, Atton greets the female Exile like this:

"B-4D4: No, there is nothing stopping you from attacking the guards outside with your stun ray.
 * Mira is an Expy of Mara Jade. By The Emperor's Hand, which predated Sith Lords by seven years, even had Mara wearing the exact same outfit Mira has.
 * Could Say It, But...

B-4D4: Of course, I would be obligated to stop you. Therefore it would be best if I were distracted, say by that console behind you.

B-4D4: Thank you, T1-N1. Please do not abuse my trust and attack the guards outside, thereby creating a diversion that will allow me to escape with the stolen files."

"Jolee: But from now on you can just think of me as any other non-Jedi in our little group - with a lightsaber. And Force powers.
 * Dark Action Girl: Both player characters, if you want to play them that way.
 * Darker and Edgier: KotOR II is much darker than the first game and the Star Wars universe in general. While KotOR had Black and White Morality, positive and wholesome themes of redemption and a campy we-are-all-in-this-together atmosphere, KotOR II had Black and Grey Morality, jerkassery in all directions, and the party having a reluctant alliance in the fight against the Sith. The overall feel, graphics, and music of the second game also suggests doom and gloom.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Numerous, including both player characters. Atton's previous occupation as is a bit of a standout, though.
 * Dark Lord: The story is full of them. Darth Revan, Darth Malak, Darth Traya, Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, etc. The player gets to be one if they want to as well.
 * Deadly Gas: The basis of Poison Grenades, traps which involving gassing people in rooms and natural gas occurrences like Malachor V.
 * Deadpan Snarker:
 * The Exile can be one to the extreme, if the player chooses the right options in conversation.
 * Jolee Bindo is definitely a Deadpan Snarker.

Jolee: (if the PC picks a Dark Side option towards a wounded Wookiee) Nice... nice... nice... nice... Should we next find some insects to pull the legs off? Sounds fun doesn't it?"

"Carth: Hmmm. These Jawas sure aren't the trusting type, are they?
 * Almost every single line from HK-47 is dripping with snarkiness. Some of the HK-50s' lines too.
 * KotOR, I gave you the chance to be one as well.

Bastila: No doubt with good reason.

Carth: Well, for once I'll agree with you.

Player Character: You two agreed on something? Somebody mark this day down."

"HK-47: Mockery: (imitates Carth) "Oh Master! I do not trust you! I cannot trust you, or anyone, ever again!"
 * Atton, as well.
 * Kreia has her moments, especially if it's something Atton said.
 * Deal with the Devil: Darths Sion and Nihilus learn from Darth Traya's teachings of Force Wounds and become strong, eventually overthrowing her. Nihilus becomes a nearly unstoppable force while Sion essentially becomes immortal. But the prices were very high. Nihilus is described as being not a man but more of an essence of what remains of his being and always hungers through the Force. Draining other beings of their very essence sustains him for a while but the hunger always returns greater than last time. Sion lives in constant agony and looks like a walking corpse.
 * Deceptive Disciple: Any Jedi who betrayed the Jedi Order and turned to the Dark Side. Revan and Malak are the prime examples but both player characters in the games can be this.
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: and Darth Malak are supposedly unstoppable on the Star Forge, but they are facing  . Darth Sion is supposedly immortal . Darth Nihilus is supposed to be invincible because he can feed off Force users — he gets in trouble when he meets.
 * Defiant to the End: Jolee will never turn to the Dark Side under any circumstances. Kreia makes it clear she will do things her way until the bitter end, to the point of.
 * The Dragon: The Sith love this trope. Revan had Malak, who in turn had Bandon. Nihilus had Visas.
 * Dual Boss: Calo and Davik at the end of Taris. Calo is a Glass Cannon, dishing out serious punishment but not being too tough to kill (he's a lot stronger the second time, though), while Davik is a Stone Wall with an energy shield that will keep him at full health for a long time. Beating either one counts as a victory, though you can't actually kill Calo.
 * Duel Boss: In the first game, Malak acts as both final boss and midway duel boss with lowered stats. Sion too, in the second game. Boss in the middle, second-to-last boss at the end. had Darth Sion (an interesting dynamic, as a significant part of the fight is persuading him.
 * Dual-Wielding: An option in either game. Doing it adds penalties to chance to hit, but you can take Feats to negate some of it. The Weapon Master prestige class in the second game is geared to it, having an array of specialized Feats that negate the disadvantages pretty much entirely.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Every party member except T3-M4 in the first game seems to have some unresolved issue(s) from their past, leading to strange, and oftentimes downright neurotic behavior. This was especially true in the first game, but continued on a much smaller scale in the sequel  HK-47 actually lampshades this in the sequel, mocking Carth and Bastila as he does so. Brutally and hilariously.

HK-47: Mockery: (imitates Bastila) "Oh Master! I love you, but I hate all that you stand for, but I think we should go press our slimy, mucus-covered lips together in the cargo hold.""

"Kreia: Perhaps Revan never fell. The difference between a fall and a sacrifice is sometimes difficult, but I feel that Revan understood that difference, more than anyone knew. The galaxy would have fallen if Revan had not gone to war. Perhaps he became the dark lord out of necessity, to prevent a greater evil."
 * Early Game Hell: In both 1 & 2 you start out without a lightsaber, and take a whole world to get Force powers in 1. As a result, early game combat in both games can be slow.
 * Edge Gravity
 * Elemental Crafting
 * Eyes of Gold: A matter of course for any Dark Jedi, including the player if they take that route.
 * Evil Feels Good: Portrayed in both games as a significant drawing point of turning to the Dark Side. Averted by Darth Sion who only survives because of the Dark Side but lives in constant torment and pain..
 * Evil Is Easy: Actions toward the The Dark Side are simpler, quicker, affect your alignment to a greater extreme, and are more numerous than Light Side. For example, there's one sidequest in the first game that is nothing but Dark Side acts... and some of the best equipment you can get without paying. Do them all and you can drop from full Light to half in just five easy steps. You have to do at least twice as many Light Side acts for such a shift.
 * Evil Is Petty: Kreia approves of manipulative evil. Sadly, most of your options to earn Dark Side points for your Karma Meter are random acts of cruelty.
 * Evil Mentor: fits this trope perfectly. Master Uthar Wynn and Yuthura Ban also qualify. Though you get to school them in the end.
 * Evil Only Has to Win Once: Both games make this incredibly clear. Just one person's turn to the Dark Side (the conversion being a victory for evil or the Sith) can lead to a galactic war. Notable examples spoken of in both games are Exar Kun and Darth Revan. Both games also apply to the videogame section of the trope where evil prevailing over the player once can lead to a game over (though the player has unlimited attempts).
 * Evil Overlooker: Both games. The second however, . Then again, this is Star Wars.
 * Evil Overlord: Any of the Dark Lords of the Sith.
 * Evil Sorcerer: The Sith. Canderous explains the Sith practice evil magics on Korriban.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Kreia believes Revan sacrificed his goodness rather than fell prey to the Dark Side to combat the greater evil of the True Sith.

""Word is the officers haven't seen a recruit with your kind of potential in twenty years.""
 * Exponential Potential: Both player characters. This mostly comes from them being . Both can evolve to master many different aspects of the game.
 * One of the first things the player hears in the first game is Trask Ulgo speaking of his or her potential.

"Statement: HK-47 is ready to serve, Master. Who would you like me to kill?"
 * Faux Affably Evil: HK-47 defines this. The HK-50 series, too.

""Translation: 98% probability that members of the miniature organic's tribe are being held by Sand People, master. Doubtless he wishes assistance. 2% probability that the small organic is simply making trouble and needs to be blasted. Err... That may be wishful thinking on my part.""
 * Face Heel Turn: This happens quite a bit in both games, most commonly when someone turns to the Dark Side, and both games show this occurring and relate tales of it happening. A common example between both games is the playable character: he or she can go from the purest Jedi to the most sinister Sith over the course of the game if the player acquires Dark Side points. Another example for both games are the tales of Revan converting people, the prime instance of this being Atton's dialogue options explaining that Revan converted anyone to his Sith cause even if it required Brainwashing to do so. Worth noting is many cases in both games can be reversed if the player so wishes.
 * The first game has Revan and Malak turning to the Dark Side after the Mandalorian Wars. The Jedi who followed Revan and Malak to and back from their journey after the Mandalorian War were also Sith when Revan launched his attack.  turns to the Dark Side after being tortured by Darth Malak. Carth's son Dustil is also an aspiring Sith in the Sith Academy of Korriban and certainly was not brought up that way from infancy under Carth's parenting. Juhani turned to the Dark side when she attacked her Master and fled the Dantooine academy. Saul Karath betrayed the Republic and became a Sith Admiral under Malak.
 * The second game has the party members. Every party member can be brought down the path of the Dark Side if the player acquires Dark Side points. Kreia is the exception to this because she remains neutral no matter how many Light or Dark Side points you acquire.  also turns to the Dark Side by the end of the game as a result of being too heavily influenced by Sith holocrons. General Vaklu does not turn to the Dark Side but he does make a deal with Darth Nihilus to overthrow and betray his cousin Queen Talia, bringing battle to Onderon once more.
 * Fantastic Racism:
 * On Taris, the only nonhumans who can walk around in the Upper City work for the local Exchange boss or are pretty Twi'lek shopkeepers. Others get pelted by stones thrown by children, as seen once. There is a street preacher calling nonhumans a "plague that sweeps through our streets". A seedy hotel has alien occupants despite this being illegal. The slum-like and generally miserable Lower City, overrun by gangs, is where most of the nonhumans live. The racism experienced as a child on Taris is a major point in her sidequest.
 * Atton has a strong prejudice against droids.
 * Kreia hates machines, droids in particular. She also hates certain types of aliens such as Zabraks. It's implied that these attitudes are a result of the fact that she can't read the minds of aliens and droids, making their actions harder for her to predict and control.
 * Flunky Boss: Calo in your second fight with him and Darth Bandon. Calo has a small group of grenade-throwing Rodians while Bandon has a couple of Dark Jedi.
 * Foil: Both are highly charismatic.
 * From a Certain Point of View: Many, especially in the second game.
 * Fun with Acronyms: The series has been nicknamed KotOR. While the Acronym does not mean anything to English speakers, it is very funny to Malay speakers as the word Kotor' means Dirty'' in Malay. Slightly more innocently, Kotor is also the name of a seaside town in Montenegro.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation:
 * Bastila's Battle Meditation is stated multiple times to be a huge factor to the Republic winning a galactic war but do not expect to make use of it when she is in your party.
 * According to dialog, being bitten by a rakghoul transmits a disease which transforms that person into a rakghoul if not healed early enough with a specific serum. During actual fights, when someone from the player's team is hit by a rakghoul there is a random probability that he/she will be affected by a standard poisoning effect, which disappears after a few minutes and can be cured with standard antidote packs.
 * Atton's backstory mentions he is versed in at least some martial arts and Brianna/Handmaiden comments on him having used an Echani fight stance for a moment, but unless he does not have any improved unarmed attack abilities.
 * Darth Nihilus could wipe an entire planet clean of all life, even the Jedi Masters on it, and was originally supposed to be so strong that even the immortal Dark Lord Sion wound up getting decisively beaten. But don't worry, all you need is his apprentice and Canderous to defeat everyone on his ship and then him.
 * During the story arc quest that requires the Exile to enter the Jekk'Jekk Tarr, it's stated that it's impossible for a human to do so even with a breath mask, because the poisonous atmosphere would seep through their pores. This will surprise any player who has already strolled through the level with only breath mask before it became a plot point.
 * Game Mod: Both games can be modded to do a great variety of things, such as model redesigns allowing the player character in the first game to get the attire Darth Revan is seen wearing in cutscenes. A notable mod for the second game is The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod which adds a significant portion of the cut content from the second game.
 * Gameplay Ally Immortality: No matter how many lightsaber stabbings, blaster shots, or force-chokings your allies receive, they will always limp back to you after the fight is over. Lampshaded by HK-47, who points this trope out when the Exile expresses incredulity at Darth Sion's Nigh Invulnerability. Doubly so with Atton, whose special skill allows him to constantly regain consciousness during combat no matter how many times he is knocked out, unless he is the last party member standing.
 * Giant Flyer: The Brith which circles the skies on Dantooine. The Star Wars Wiki has a small page about them.
 * Gladiator Subquest
 * Go-Go Enslavement: Armor is removed when characters are captured. Basic clothing is considered armor. The second game actually uses this as part of the plot.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Vrook Lamar is as devoted and traditionalist as any Jedi in the series, but he does not give a shit whether you like what he has to say or not. Atris seems to follow this trope as well,.
 * Guest Star Party Member: Trask in the first game, 3C-FD in the second if you bother to repair him at all. Odd guest star player versions in the second game, B-4D4, the freakin remote, Atton, Mira/Hanharr, and whoever you pick during one sequence. Of course the first game has its brief thing on the Leviathan.
 * Guns Are Worthless: KotOR 1's ranged weapons did almost no damage, save for a couple of obscenely expensive heavy weapons that you can buy at the end: melee weapons were always better to have, regardless of the situation. There are any number of guides on how to successfully use ranged weapons, but this requires meticulous character building and mainly serves as a challenge. The fact that Jedi Guardians have an ability to directly jump into melee from 25 meters away and deal bonus damage while they are at it adds insult to injury. Guns are more viable in the sequel, provided you use the weapon crafting system and invest in Precise Shot feats so those pesky sabers stop reflecting them.
 * Heel Face Turn: The most common example of this is when someone turns away from the Dark Side. The best example of the first game is, who did redeem himself according to Word of God.   turns to the Dark Side but can be brought back to the Light Side with the right dialogue options. Carth's son Dustil can leave the Sith Academy. Juhani can return as a Jedi if persuaded. The second game's best example is the party members who can change their nature if the player gets enough Light Side points.   falls to the Dark Side due to being corrupted by Sith Holocrons but can be redeemed. Colonel Tobin can be persuaded to quit working for Nihilus and work against him once the Exile informs him that Nihilus will eventually feed on the life of Tobin's homeworld of Onderon.
 * Heel Face Mind Screw: This is a case where the questionable moral implications are pointed out, and it can be the motivation
 * Hello, Insert Name Here
 * Heroic Albino: The Echani as a species all have pale skin, silver-white hair, and silver eyes. They're members in good standing of the Republic, and are generally extremely loyal.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: HK-47.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * From the first game, a deleted ending for female player characters who completed the Romance Sidequest with Carth and then turned to the Dark Side has the PC kill her apprentice and die on board the Star Forge with Carth.
 * In the second game, it is possible to In deleted content,
 * Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Soldiers of the Old Republic got to battle wearing bright red combatsuits, and the Mandalorians seem to like wearing armor in nearly every color of the rainbow (though at least they have cloaking devices). Both are easily topped by the Sith Troopers and their shining silver armor.
 * Hit and Run Tactics: A pattern of firing, taking a hit, retreating, healing, firing, taking a hit and so on can wear an enemy down. Against really strong foes or ones that keep dodging, mines will hasten the process considerably. You can beat the final boss this way if you can not disable his healing mechanism, but be prepared for a long fight and pray you saved up as many healing items as could be mustered.
 * Hitchhiker Heroes: Played straight in the first game, justified, discussed and utterly deconstructed in the second.
 * Honest Corporate Executive: In the second game, the Czerka docking manager gets upset over the dirty actions of his boss and becomes an informant for the Telos Security force. His dirty boss wants him dead. TSF wants him to come out of hiding to testify against his boss. Your character decides his fate, of course.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: While completely optional, you can fight Calo Nord in the bar after he toasts the 3 would-be bounty hunters, but he is one of the "one hit = dead" fights. But he eventually does become a winnable boss fight  later on. The second game has the Handmaiden/Brianna fight Atris. Even if you utterly curbstomp Atris in the battle, the cutscene always shows Atris finishing you off with Force Lightning.
 * An interesting case is when Kreia went to battle against Sion in the beginning of the game. Sion, being immortal and a boss encountered twice in the game, was not going to lose and since.
 * The Horde: The Mandalorians are like this in their background. They gradually morph into Warrior Poets under.
 * Hot Chick with a Sword: Bastila in the first game. Juhani, too, if you're into that. Mission can also technically count, even if she isn't a Jedi. In the second game, there's the Handmaiden, Mira and Visas.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Canderous would like you to know that your need for performance-enhancing stims is another sign of human weakness compared to Mandolorians. Yes, you can have some of his ample supply.
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate: HK droids. To HK-47's annoyance this includes his evil knockoffs. He eventually subverts this by having himself slightly altered, as well as recruiting other droids to help.
 * If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him: The Sith will taunt you on Manaan. Usually, if you taunt back, you will be arrested and go to jail.
 * Or, for extra fun, you can mind-control the guard that comes to arrest you to instead arrest the Sith. You naturally get some Dark Side points.
 * Immortality: The series has different kinds of immortality. The famous Force Ghost type is present in the first game with Ajunta Pall, who maintained his existence well after his body died. The second has two notable examples in Darths Sion and Nihilus. Nihilus, having lost his physical being, lives on in his mask and feeds on life in an attempt to subdue his hunger. Sion is immortal in that he never stays dead, though he admits he does die every time he is struck down with a fatal attack. His body is revived by the Dark Side almost instantaneously, making any experience of death very short. The price for this, however, is that he lives in constant agony and looks a corpse.
 * In the End You Are on Your Own: Only the player character goes to fight Malak at the end of the first game, Bastila staying behind to make use of her battle meditation. Similarly, you're the only character to go to confront  on Malachor V at the end of the second game.
 * Informed Ability: Bastila's Battle Meditation. It only seems to make a difference when used against the Republic; in the light side ending, whether or not Bastila survives and helps the Republic has no impact on the plot. Atton Rand is described in the sequel as having Echani combat training, but his hand-to-hand skills are no greater than any other character. The second game makes it a standard force power with an actual effect on gameplay and even a use in the actual story.
 * Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: In this case, primarily due to the ironic absence of a jump key - since as we all know Jedi never do that...
 * Invisibility: There are cloaking devices in both games, used by Mandalorians, Sith and party members. Hssiss can also be invisible during the start of an encounter with one.
 * Irrelevant Sidequest:
 * Pazaak and swoop-racing.
 * The second game calls attention to this by appending such missions with "Bonus Mission".
 * Steal a few trinkets from a Hutt after drugging his dogs and hypnotizing him with erotic dancing. (To be fair, this is the only way to get lightsaber parts if you start at Nar Shaddaa.)
 * Track down a thief who has stolen a part of a water-farming machine.
 * Question a bar full of nameless dissociative aliens to find the only one with a name.
 * All of the Mandalorian sidequests done for "Honor", while fun, do not have anything to do with the main story except being a temporary obstacle.
 * Item Crafting: A minor portion of the first game, which had a few upgradable weapons, each of which could fit one of a standard add-on. The sequel added a ton of upgradable items and a slew of standardized components, rather than unique effect from a small selection.
 * It Got Worse: The first game ends with you either having saved the Galactic Republic and the Jedi or crushing them and ruling over the galaxy. Cue the second game where the Republic is on the verge of total collapse and the Jedi have been hunted down to a few individuals or the new Sith "empire" is little better off.
 * It's Up to You
 * I Will Wait for You: Carth Onasi, if you set as a light-side female. Sniff.
 * Jedi Mind Trick: Present in both games.
 * Karma Meter: Light/dark side. Your allies in the first game get it too, but though they get the benefits (cheaper Force powers), they can not change. In the sequel their alignments will change to match yours, which is explained towards the end of the game, or if you did not get them loyal enough to you they will change to oppose you.
 * Killer Robot: HK-47, and the HK-50 models in the sequel. G0-T0 as well, to a degree.
 * Kryptonite Is Everywhere: No wonder cortosis is rare during the Star Wars trilogy. Apparently every single weapon and piece of armor in the old republic days were made of it.
 * Laser Blade: And plenty of them. In case you hadn't guessed.
 * A Lighter Shade of Black: Kreia will praise the character in the Darkside Ending because they're "not really" a Sith. Even if you are a full dark-side user, that apparently makes you better than the Sith.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: The first game's Player Character. In the second game the player is locked out of a lot of backstory even when the player character already knows.
 * Loners Are Freaks: Both examples humorously revolve around sexuality. Elise Montagne, a woman on Dantooine in the first game, began treating her droid C8-42 as if it were her husband. All the time. The second example is Kreia, and her qualification for the Dirty Old Woman trope is well earned.
 * Lopsided Dichotomy: If you ask HK-47 for help understanding a Jawa:

""Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you.""
 * Lost Forever:
 * In the first game, everything on Taris and Dantooine (and the Sith Academy, if you kill everyone in it when you're done with the tomb). Peragus in the second game.
 * In the second game, a lightsaber crystal found on Dantooine can be adjusted by Kreia throughout the game to match your light/dark alignment, which then grants certain bonuses. However, after you have found all the Jedi Masters, Kreia will no longer adjust the crystal, leaving it at whichever alignment you last had it adjusted.
 * Love Makes You Evil: When, she says her feelings for hastened her fall. Furthermore,  In the second game, the Exile can have this effect on any of the love interests. In cut content from the second game, a jealous Handmaiden/Atton could eventually kill Visas/Disciple, depending on the player's actions. This also seems the case on the part of
 * Lady of War: Bastila; also a Defrosting Ice Queen. Possibly, also, depending on chosen gender and how it is played. In the second game, the Exile (who is canonically female), Visas, the Handmaiden and Mira.
 * Living Legend: Revan, Bastila, Calo Nord, Bendak Starkille and The Exile are all legendary for their past accomplishments and skill.
 * Lost Technology: The Star Forge, the secrets of which were lost to the galaxy when.
 * Magnetic Hero: In both games. Deconstructed in the second.
 * Master Apprentice Chain: Revan went though such a chain according to the second game. A potent piece of Epileptic Tree fuel is that
 * Match Maker Quest: The quest to find the missing droid in the first game. If resolved the right way, the droid's owner will meet a new man. The Sandral/Matale feud can also be one, though the way that ends is largely down to the player.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Revan's name comes from "revanchism," but also may be a reference to, or it could also be a form of reaved ("to be deprived of").
 * Malak is Arabic for "Angel," as in "Fallen," sounds like the Hebrew word for "king", and is also Latin for "jawbone".
 * Atton, whose name may in fact be derived from "atonement." He also believes rather firmly in the rights of the individual and self-reliance, has nothing but contempt for "collectivist" Jedi ways, and with just a slight sociopathic streak - his last name is Rand.
 * "Telos" is Greek for 'the last' or 'the end' (as in English, it can also mean 'goal' or 'purpose'). The second meaning is appropriate, given how much damn time you have to spend on the Peragus tutorial areas (unless you have a very handy PC mod). The first could be appropriate:
 * "Visas Marr" can be interpreted as "vision impaired" (marred).
 * Darth Nihilus' name is derived from the words "nihilist" and "anihlilate." He is one of the most destructive beings in the Star Wars universe, but there is nothing left of him besides his desire to consume.
 * Darth Sion's name is derived from the word "scion." He is jealous of the Exile's status as Kreia's ulitmate student.
 * Medieval Stasis: 4,000 years from now, things will be almost exactly the same. There are some differences, but they are far and few between and often either cultural or wholly cosmetic (such as bacta vs. kolto). The comic books on which KOTOR is based, however, were not - the technology and look were strikingly primitive.
 * Money Spider: Occurs in the second game, though in this case, justified in that it is limited to cannoks, which have a reputation for eating just about anything. Additionally, there is one anomalous occurrence in the first game that happens when the player resorts to killing tachs in order to hunt down a shapeshifter.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Carth, Atton and Bao-Dur are the most notable examples.
 * Multiple Endings
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: HK's philosophy. Put him in your party and he will suggest blasting everyone you meet, regardless of whether it will actually help or not. Canderous and Hanharr often come to this conclusion as well.
 * The Musketeer: Possible, though there is not much point.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
 * No Canon for the Wicked: Canonically in the Star Wars Expanded Universe both games ended with the hero following the path of the Light Side. Can be averted in the second game, where some Multiple Choice Past questions allows the player to decide that followed the Dark Side during the first game.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Alek Squinquargesimus. You know him better as Malak.
 * Non-Lethal KO
 * One-Time Dungeon: Goto's Yacht cannot be revisited, as it is destroyed after you complete it.
 * One Degree of Separation:
 * In the first game, Darth Revan, Big Bad Darth Malak's former master, was also HK-47's original owner, the Jedi who inspired Juhani to join the Order, and the one who led the fight against the Mandalorians (including Canderous). He died in a capture mission led by Bastila..
 * And in the sequel, The Exile commanded the Handmaiden's mother and Bao-Dur at Malachor V, a battle Canderous fought in on the other side, and ended it by using the Mass Shadow Generator, killing Mira's adoptive family, inadvertently creating Visas' master, and inspiring Revan to commission HK-47 so he wouldn't need such overkill in the future. She was also the Disciple's intended master before she ran off, so she's not only a dominant influence in the lives of everyone on that ship, she's also responsible for all their significant neuroses. Also, the Exile was a general for Revan during the Mandalorian Wars.
 * Opening Scroll: Just like the movies.
 * Opening the Sandbox:
 * Optional Party Member: In the first game, Juhani can be killed on your first encounter, and HK-47 does not need to be purchased. In the sequel, you do not have to repair HK-47. Also, there are two pairs of Mutually Exclusive Party Members, depending on your gender and alignment.
 * Passing the Torch: The first game plays with the idea in two instances. Darth Malak . The second instance is when the playable character destroys the torch when he kills Uthar Wynn, leaving the Sith academy in chaos. Played straight in the ending of the second game where Kreia.
 * The Paragon Always Rebels: Revan in the first, the Exile in the second. Both were very charismatic Jedi who ultimately disagreed with and rebelled against the Jedi Council.
 * Pausable Realtime
 * Plot Coupon: Star Maps in the first game, Jedi Masters in the second.
 * Pluralses: The Gamorreans are all subtitled this way.
 * Point of No Return: Davik's estate, Leviathan, the Unknown World, and the Star Forge in the first game; returning to Dantooine in the second. Arguably, completing the 4th planet in the second game, because Kreia will no longer refocus that damn unfocused crystal or answer your questions.
 * Prolonged Prologue: Both games have an entire planet (Taris in the first, Peragus in the second) that sets up the main plot without actually being relevant to the main plot. And at the end of each prologue,.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Canderous, complete with My Species Doth Protest Too Much. Handmaiden in the second game, to a lesser degree. She will talk your ear off about Echani combat philosophy if you let her.
 * Recurring Boss: Calo Nord and Darth Malak in the first, Darth Sion in the second.
 * Required Party Member:
 * In the first game: You get forced to take Carth when you first enter Taris. You have to have Mission to get into the Vulkar base. T3-M4 is required to get into the Sith base. You need HK-47 to complete the Light Side path with the Sand People on Tantooine. You need Bastila for the beginning of Dantooine. On the Leviathan level, you are forced to have Carth and Bastila in your party, as the whole thing wouldn't work without them because of certain story events. Later on the unknown planet, your party members will leave when you prepare to open up the temple, but Jolee and Juhani will come back and insist on accompanying you in.
 * In the second game: You need Bao-Dur to track down the Ebon Hawk on Telos. Mandalore is needed for the Iziz level before the Onderon Civil War. Kreia is required in your party during the civil war at Onderon. During the assault on the Ravager, you are forced to bring Visas and Mandalore with you.
 * Rescue Introduction: Bastila. Or as she'll insist, she rescued you.
 * Rescue Sex: If you play as a female, a man will offer "earthly pleasures" as a reward for rescuing him, but you cannot accept. Being a sleaze, what woman would?
 * Retcon: Darths running around three millennia before Darth Bane, who supposedly started the tradition. Later got an explanation in a tie-in Darth Bane novel (which, unsurprisingly, was written by KotOR's lead writer).
 * Also, though it is set just forty years later, the aesthetic and philosophy of the Jedi are far more in-line with the prequel trilogy (four thousand years later) than Tales of the Jedi (forty years earlier). Understandable, perhaps, for marketing purposes. It makes it a bit strange for the Jedi to have a strong taboo against romance and marriage when the previous head of the Order, Nomi Sunrider, had been openly married to a Jedi, had a child, and then entered another relationship with another Jedi during a war. Especially as Jolee talks about this very period of history as though the taboo was in place.
 * The Reveal: In the first game; subverted in the second, according to Kreia, where
 * Retcon: Darths running around three millennia before Darth Bane, who supposedly started the tradition. Later got an explanation in a tie-in Darth Bane novel (which, unsurprisingly, was written by KotOR's lead writer).
 * Also, though it is set just forty years later, the aesthetic and philosophy of the Jedi are far more in-line with the prequel trilogy (four thousand years later) than Tales of the Jedi (forty years earlier). Understandable, perhaps, for marketing purposes. It makes it a bit strange for the Jedi to have a strong taboo against romance and marriage when the previous head of the Order, Nomi Sunrider, had been openly married to a Jedi, had a child, and then entered another relationship with another Jedi during a war. Especially as Jolee talks about this very period of history as though the taboo was in place.
 * The Reveal: In the first game; subverted in the second, according to Kreia, where


 * Reverse Grip: The online timeline vid for The Old Republic, "The Jedi Civil War" reveals Revan apparently favored this lightsaber style. View it here. The first instances occur at 0:41 and 0:51 when he's a Sith Lord. And twice again whilst he's in combat as a Jedi Knight at 0:58 and 1:18.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: Every robot with speaking lines in both games seems to have a human personality and human emotions ranging from deception, ego, loyalty, manipulation, pain, pleasure (mostly pleasure from sadism), sarcasm and snark. Notable examples are party members T3-M4, HK-47, G0-T0 who each take it personally if you are rude or commit acts that do not match their natural alignment.
 * Robotic Psychopath: HK-47 is the Trope Codifier, at least in video games. Also the Ensemble Darkhorse. Make of that what you will.
 * Romance Sidequest: Bastila or Carth in the first game; in the second, it is implied that both the Handmaiden and Visas can develop feelings for the male Exile, and the Disciple and Atton for the female; however, due to the massive amount of cut content as a result of Executive Meddling, none of the romances in the second game really goes anywhere.
 * Samus Is a Girl: Depending on the choices of the player, could be revealed in the first game to have been a girl. This one is oddly in-universe, as even supporting characters use male pronouns instead of female. Apparently the legend of the character was so great that those not in the know just assumed...  Oddly enough, Atton is under the impression that.
 * Schmuck Bait:
 * Half the security terminals have the option to overload the terminal, which kills whoever is standing at the terminal (i.e. you) and anyone in the near vicinity.
 * On Korriban (In the first game) you can be offered the job of hauling a box from there to Tatooine. You are repeatedly warned, whatever you do, to not open the box. Nary a player will reach Tatooine before doing so.
 * On Korriban (In the second game), Kreia will warn you not to disturb the corpses. Ever the RPG adventurer, you will. Cue invisible monsters swarming you for doing so. Kreia won't hesitate to call you on it, either. Depending on when you go to Korriban, though, they aren't that tough to kill, so you'll probably keep looting corpses for the XP if nothing else.
 * Second Law, My Ass: HK-47.
 * Selectively-Lethal Weapon: The lightsabers. Although they are extremely powerful weapons in both games (arguably the only powerful weapons in the first one), they generally do not behave like the lightsabers of the traditional Star Wars lore. They are more like normal swords, possibly to avoid the Game Breaker status. Possibly justified through the use of "cortosis", a material which blocks lightsabers. Presumably, the overuse of cortosis in this era rendered it rare by the time of the movies.
 * Selkies and Wereseals: The Selkath seem to be a space version.
 * Shameful Strip: Perhaps unintentionally. Whenever the party is captured and imprisoned, all of their equipment is confiscated and locked away (conveniently near the torture chamber). This includes their clothes, which count as armor, leaving them in their underwear. It's only ever called attention to in the second game, and that has nothing to do with imprisonment.
 * Shoot the Medic First: The Peragus levels in the sequel feature maintenance drones that repair damaged mining droids who appear to hate your guts. When Atton is informed of the presence of these, he tells your character that "those little pests will try to repair the mining droids if you don't shoot them first."
 * The final boss fight in the first game also uses it. Malak has about a dozen Not Quite Dead Jedi strapped to the walls and will bleed them dry for health every time you kick his ass. You can cut off his access to them (and get the Force boost for yourself) by using Force Drain on them (Dark Side) or Destroy Droid on the machines holding them (Light Side).
 * Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke
 * Space Battle: This is Star Wars.
 * The Spartan Way: Both games, mostly through Canderous/Mandalore, detail the Mandalorians' harsh way of life and constant struggle to obtain honor, usually through war. The second game shows how Mandalorians on Dxun live, and simply living on Dxun is commendable with creatures like the ever-troublesome Cannoks to more deadly creatures like Bomas and Zakkegs populating the area.
 * Speaking Simlish: Both games have this with alien languages. They sound impressively coherent and similar to the (actual) languages used in the Star Wars movies, but there's no actual meaning to the words being spoken. You'll notice the same sounds being repeated for different dialogue by the midway point of either game.
 * Stock Puzzle:
 * Three Plus Five Make Four is the final obstacle on Manaan. The player can bypass it if they're willing to take the dark side points
 * Towers of Hanoi shows up on Korriban
 * The Syndicate: The Exchange.
 * Tainted Veins
 * Testosterone Poisoning: Malak in the first game, Canderous in both.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
 * Pazaak. Lampshaded in a deleted scene in the sequel where T3 is bugging Atton to play, and Atton lists the reasons he does not want to ("You're programmed to always make me go first, and you always get just the card you need...") which will be very familiar to anyone who has played the first game.
 * In the second game, Bralor, the last combatant in the battle circle, can hit three times per round with unarmed attacks. This would only be possible for a Jedi (Force Speed gives one or two extra attacks a round), so unless he's a turncoat it's blatant cheating. However, considering he lets you fight with your full arsenal (the rest limit you to swords or fists), it's not like that really tips the odds in his favor.
 * The Obi-Wan: Jolee Bindo is a good example of this in the first game, even beginning with the audience being introduced to him during his self-exile, much like the actual Obi-Wan. Kreia is definitely this in the second, guiding and training the Exile in various ways. HK-47 explains that Revan taught his followers and HK recites numerous techniques to combating Jedi he picked up from Revan's teachings to the Exile. Mira also requests that the Exile shut down HK-47 since HK-47 often explains how to kill various things. These make HK-47 qualify for this trope as well. And in a nice turn of events,.
 * They Were Holding You Back
 * Token Evil Teammate: Canderous is a killer with no use for social niceties or weakness in others. He is not a homicidal maniac, but he is not a nice guy. HK-47, on the other hand, is sociopathic in the extreme and tends to recommend indiscriminate application of lasers as a cure to essentially any problem the game throws at you.
 * Tomato in the Mirror
 * Trapped by Gambling Debts: a Twi'lek laborer is so addicted to Pazaak that he gambled away his girlfriend. You can play the dealer he owes the debt to in order to bail out the girlfriend. After you win her from the guy, if you feel like being a real bastard you can tell her to hand over her earnings and then keep dancing in the cantina so she will have more for you later.
 * Troubled but Cute: Carth, Atton, and possibly Bao-Dur.
 * Undying Loyalty: In the first game HK-47 and Canderous are loyal to Revan to the point of hero-worship. From the second, every single member of your party except Kreia due to.
 * Unwitting Pawn: in the second game. The humorous part of this is that the Batman Gambit more or less is solely designed to  Maybe. Also the PC of first game.
 * The Usurper: Darth Malak in the first game, Darths Sion and Nihilus in the second.
 * Vague Age: Just exactly how old is the player character from KotOR 1? Almost all of the sprites look quite youthful, only a few years older than, say, Juhani, despite the fact that you are supposed to be at least a decade older than her. Lampshaded in the second game: one character notices how the player character has barely changed from his/her appearance in a holovid ten years previously. Chris Avellone has given ages ranges based on casting documents for the 2nd game's party members.
 * Vibroweapon: Both games have them. And thanks to cortosis, they can stand up to lightsaber blades!
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Pretty much everything on the Dark Side paths, including manipulating the Montagues and the Capulets two rival Dantooine families into wiping each other out, mind tricking a couple of thugs into walking off the edge of a platform on Nar Shaddaa, ordering HK-47 to translate a several-hours long recitation of Sand People history, and.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Just try threatening someone on Manaan. See what happens.
 * Villainy Discretion Shot: The assassination-related exploits of HK-47 are described in a humorously sociopathic way by the droid instead of being shown on-screen.
 * Villain Protagonist: Optional.
 * Voice Grunting: The player character has voiced grunts, sounds of pain, and a few battle cries ("hiya!" "Now that had to hurt.." etc.) but is otherwise a Silent Protagonist in the voiceover department. This includes a rather clumsy cut-scene where the subtitles show the PC having a line, but still remain silent. With the in-game voice grunts giving the character a voice, it would surely have made sense to record this line. The PC is a complete mute in the second game.
 * Warrior Therapist: Either player character can be this. In fact, it is necessary against
 * Weak Turret Gun: Played straight and averted. Some turrets are able to be taken down without much effort, like those on Onderon, especially with the technique Destroy Droid. Others (like the ones around the Sith in Taris who requires paperwork) can kill the character in one shot, even if the character is hacked to be at the max level with the highest health and defense possible.
 * Weak-Willed: The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded and there are plenty of weak-minded in both games for the player to practice his or her Force Persuade technique on.
 * Weapon Twirling: There is a "Flourish Weapon" ability mapped to a key, and can be used to spin blasters, swords, and lightsabers(!) around dangerously. Including the double-bladed lightsabers.
 * We Buy Anything: Medicine vendors will buy all your old swords and guns for no apparent reason, other than player convenience of course. Card vendors, on the other hand, WON'T BUY ANYTHING.
 * We Have Become Complacent
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Your allies will call you out on your behavior in accordance with their own moral alignment. While Light-aligned characters will rebuke evil acts, Dark-aligned types will complain if you refrain from bloodshed when it really would be the most expedient. Kreia does it the most, whenever the Exile is being too good or too evil.
 * White Mage: Any character who can learn Force Heal.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: Ajunta eventually gives up his existence as a Force Ghost (or the Sith equivalent of it) when the player character shows him the light. Darth Sion commented that his last few years had been spent in agony and torment and ultimately decided death was preferably to his pain-filled existence. Nihilus also makes immortality appear to be bad. His hunger claimed his body and now he was little more than a mask who could wipe planets clean of life.
 * Worthy Opponent: Canderous in both games will tell you that the only reason the Mandalorians lost was because of Revan and the Republic would have fallen had Revan been a Mandalorian.
 * Would Hit a Girl: It would be easier to list people who wouldn't. Saul Karath and Darth Malak in the first game . The second game shows Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus  . And this also applies to any enemy NPC who attacks a female party member in battle in both games.
 * Worth Living For: Carth spends most of the game just living for a chance at revenge against Saul, even if it means dying in the process. But by the time, he's come to find more than simple revenge to live for. Protecting the Player Character from themselves and the Dark Side has become his reason to keep going.
 * You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good