History VideoGame / KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords

* FantasticAesop: The main moral lesson that the game tries to convey seems to be "The magical force that flows through all life in the galaxy is really evil and we shouldn't base our morality on it."

[[folder:Tropes R-Z]]

An updated version was released on Steam on July 21st 2015, adding support for widescreen, achievements, and mods through the Steam Workshop, including the aforementioned TSLRCM.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: DarthVaderClone Darth Malak was a [[LightningBruiser physical juggernaut]] who towered over other characters, wore form-fitting bright {{red|IsViolent}} armor with {{purple|IsPowerful}} [[FacialMarkings scalp tattoos]], and was altogether about as subtle as an OrbitalBombardment. BlackCloak, CoolMask, and VaderBreath aside, Darth Nihilus is more like Emperor Palpatine, [[OrcusOnHisThrone sitting on his throne]] aboard the Ravager and directing his forces from afar -- though he too lays waste to a planet from orbit, by [[VampiricDraining draining all life]] on the planet of Katarr into the wound in the Force that he embodies. [[spoiler:True BigBad Darth Traya is even more like Palpatine, as a consummate {{manipulat|iveBastard}}or who [[TheCorruptor corrupted]] a previous generation of Jedi -- yet her ultimate plot is to bait the Exile into becoming her enemy, thus becoming strong enough to undo the harm she believes she and the other Jedi and Sith have done to the galaxy.]]

* DarthVaderClone: Deconstructed (like so many tropes in this game). Darth Nihilus, with his dark robes and face-concealing mask, superficially resembles the trope, but is actually just an EmptyShell, with no personality and very little back-story that we know of -- he's actually closer to the generic EvilOverlord of Palpatine in the original trilogy. Darth Sion, on the other hand, is basically Vader without the armor -- a [[TechnicallyLivingZombie walking corpse]] who serves as TheHeavy, and {{a pupil|OfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil}} of Kreia's who betrayed her. [[spoiler:Though since Kreia herself was Sith at the time, and went on to betray the Sith in turn, the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor that often applies to the Vader Clone is actually hers.]]

** DarthVaderClone: Sion and Nihilus deconstruct two different components of the archetype.

Soon thereafter, the Exile awakens in a mining complex whose inhabitants have been slaughtered by their own droids, with the sole survivors being an [[OldMaster old ex-Jedi]] named Kreia, a [[LovableRogue smuggler]] named Atton Rand, and the ''Hawk''[='=]s [[RobotBuddy utility droid]], T3-M4. The four band together, escaping the complex just as the Sith arrive, and Kreia takes the Exile in as her apprentice. The group proceeds to seek out the remains of the now-devastated Jedi Order, gathering allies in the hopes of finding the remaining Jedi Masters and defeating the Sith. However, it quickly becomes clear that Kreia is [[EvilMentor not quite what she seems]]--nor is ''[[DysfunctionJunction anyone]]'' on the ''Ebon Hawk'', [[IAmWho the Exile included]]...

An updated version was released on Steam on July 21st 2015, adding support for widescreen, achievements, and Steam mods (including the aforementioned TSLRCM).

* BrokenBridge: 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, 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. {{Lampshaded}} by Atton in the Restored Content mod the second time it happens on Telos.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Light side ending: The Mass Shadow Generator is reactivated, causing Malachor's gravity well to fade and the "planet" (which is really just a mass of asteroids and ship hulls held together by the Generator) to collapse. However, the Exile is saved in the nick of time by the Ebon Hawk, which rises up from below the platform they're on and whisks them away to safety. The last we saw or heard of the ship before this was it crashing into a cliff, then falling down a chasm. The entire rest of the party save for Mira, G0-T0, and Bao-Dur's remote are unaccounted for.]] However, the various cut content {{Game Mod}}s tone it down; [[spoiler: The Ebon Hawk still makes an inexplicable recovery, but all of the party save Bao-Dur and T3-M4 is accounted for.]]

* LegacyCharacter: [[spoiler:Kreia]] talks of this, stating that "There must always be a Darth Traya." It's more a reference to cut content than anything else, however - [[spoiler:specifically, the fact that in the original plan, it was possible for either Kreia to resume being Darth Traya, or for ''Atris'' to take up the mantle]].

* LetsSplitUpGang: During the return to Onderon, you need to simultaneously deal with a Sith outpost on the moon Dxun as well as resolve the civil war on Onderon itself. One of your party members leads the group on Dxun, while the Exile, Kreia, and one other member infiltrate Onderon. If you have many party members (i.e. 7 or more), some of them won't end up in either group. Justified in that one group is [[spoiler: sneaking into the secret tomb of a long-dead Sith Lord]], and the other has to travel in a rather small ship to Onderon.

** [[spoiler:G0-T0]] was programmed with only two directives: produce options to rebuild the Republic, and follow all laws of the Republic. This goes [[ThreeLawsCompliant about as well as you'd expect]]: considering [[CrapsackWorld the kind of state the galaxy tends to be in]], especially after two sequential and devastating wars, he quickly found out that it was simply not possible to follow both directives: any practical plan to rebuild the Republic he could come up with required breaking one or more laws. Also noteworthy is that when he "broke", he decided to just prioritize the first directive [[MoralPragmatist and ignore the second]], rather than just going berserk and trying to kill everyone.

** BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: The fact that the Sith and the Jedi have existed and warred for millennia have made the two factions indistinguishable from one another to the vast majority of the galaxy. The fact that they still exist despite possessing exactly opposite philosophies suggests that neither of them have a grasp on the full nature of the Force that empowers them.

** RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Exile's party consists of diverse characters of differnent backgrounds, races and aligments. Instead of getting along swimmingly, much of the crew either barely tolerate or totally despise one another - Bao-Dur and Mandalore, Visas and the Handmaiden, Kreia and Atton - and for the most part, have their loyalty to the exile be the one thing in common. [[spoiler: In the cut content of the Dark Side path, this eventually comes to a head when many of the party try to kill one another due to the various tensions in betwixt the lot.]]

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: In this game, the fate of the galaxy hinges on an [[TheExile exiled]] ex-Jedi; their cryptic, [[AboveGoodAndEvil amoral]] mentor; a [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] smuggler (and [[spoiler: ex-Sith hitman]]); a willful astromech; a genius engineer suffering from a serious case of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]]; a sheltered [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Girl]][=/=]bookish Republic agent (who is a [[spoiler: Jedi washout]]); a [[HitmanWithAHeart principled]] but [[DarkAndTroubledPast troubled]] bounty hunter[=/=][[AxCrazy psychopathic]] Wookiee; an [[DentedIron aging]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior]] struggling to reclaim his people's glory days; a reluctant Sith acolyte who is both a BrokenBird ''and'' an ExtremeDoormat; a gleefully murderous assassin droid; and a ruthless crime lord's robotic proxy. As with many other common RPG tropes, the game happily deconstructs the workings of such a group. Most of the party [[TeethClenchedTeamwork can't stand each other]] for a variety of reasons, and the only reason they're all working together is because of their loyalty to [[MagneticHero the Exile]]. In cut content, a Dark Side playthrough would have culminated in several of them trying to off each other on Malachor V.

* RevengeIsSweet: The Jedi Exile may choose to assemble the Council on Dantooine and then kill them all as retribution for cutting her off from the Force [[spoiler:although they actually did it to themselves]]. If they do, Kreia will angrily approach the Exile and demand to know if it brought them even the tiniest bit of satisfaction. The exile may choose to respond that yes, it ''was'' worth it. Kreia, however, will then lecture the Exile before taking her leave from the party [[spoiler:to assume her role as Darth Traya]].

* RunningGag: Shuttles or ships crashing into various landscapes. Cut content has Atton [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] it when the shuttle he's flying crashes into the plateau on Telos.

* SamusIsAGirl: Inverted for Revan, as Atton will automatically refer to them as a woman and you can choose to correct him or not.

*** Also a shoutout to the first game. A similar "error" allows the party to wipe out the Sand People on Tatooine without Dark Side points.[[note]] You get a krayt dragon pearl for helping Komad kill the krayt dragon. If you resolved the Sand People quest on the LS path, you can cash in said pearl for the tribe's oral history. At the end you are allowed to ask questions; doing so in a manner interpreted as "mistranslation" (HK will helpfully warn you of such) turns the entire tribe hostile, with no alignment penalty--and you can get the pearl back. [[/note]]

** You can switch between two sets of weapons rather than going to the equipment screen.

** On a smaller scale, the whole reason the Exile manages to get into a position to determine their own fate is the gambits of Kreia, Revan, the Triumvirate and HK-50 colliding on the Harbinger and Peragus.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "What kind of life have you lived with the Force flowing through you? Was it worth living?"

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVizpchePVQ There is also a missing scene where Atton is playing pazaak with T3, which serves to mock its [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard sheer unfairness]] in the first game.]]

* {{Foil}}: Thematically, Revan and the Exile. [[spoiler:Whereas Revan was a walking conduit for the Force, the Exile was more of a black hole. One was [[TheChosenOne chosen by destiny]], [[TheUnchosenOne while the other got there by sheer force of will]].]] Both are [[MagneticHero highly charismatic]].

** If, after getting your party back in Atris's hidden base, you backtrack and use Kreia's Force vision to look into the meditation chamber, you can see that [[spoiler:Atris, self-proclaimed last of the Jedi, is as [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience red]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope as red can be]]...]]

* {{Fetish}}: On Nar Shaddaa, Geeda the Rodian basically says she has this for humans. Her clan seems to feel some disgust about this.

* FakeLongevity: Creator/{{Obsidian|Entertainment}} 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. Had the game been completed as originally envisioned (see ExecutiveMeddling above), it likely would have been of similar length.

* {{Fetish}}: On Nar Shaddaa, Geeda the Rodian basically says she has this for humans. Her clan apparently holds some {{squick}} about it, too.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: In this game, the fate of the galaxy hinges on an [[TheExile exiled]] ex-Jedi; their cryptic, [[AboveGoodAndEvil amoral]] mentor; a [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] smuggler (and [[spoiler: ex-Sith hitman]]); a willful astromech; a genius engineer suffering from a serious case of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]]; a sheltered [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Girl]][=/=]bookish Republic agent (who is a [[spoiler: Jedi washout]]); a [[HitmanWithAHeart principled]] but [[DarkAndTroubledPast troubled]] bounty hunter[=/=][[AxCrazy psychopathic]] Wookiee; an [[DentedIron aging]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior]] struggling to reclaim his people's glory days; a reluctant Sith acolyte who is both a BrokenBird ''and'' an ExtremeDoormat; a gleefully murderous assassin droid; and a ruthless crime lord's robotic proxy. As with many other common RPG tropes, the game happily deconstructs the workings of such a group. Most of the party [[TeethClenchedTeamwork can't stand each other]] for a variety of reasons, and the only reason they're all working together is because of their loyalty to [MagneticHero the Exile]]. In cut content, a Dark Side playthrough would have culminated in several of them trying to off each other on Malachor V.

* UnexplainedRecovery: In a Light Side ending, [[spoiler:the ''Ebon Hawk'' reappears to save you from the collapsing Trayus Core after having been last seen plummeting into the depths of Malachor V]], ''after'' crash-landing so hard that its hull was visibly deformed.

''The Sith Lords'' tells the story of a former Jedi who was cast out of the Order and [[DePower lost the ability to feel the force]]. Nearly a decade later, [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Exile]] finally returns to the Republic, only to find it on its knees in the wake of the [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Jedi Civil War]] five years before. After linking up with a Republic warship, the Exile is brought to the brink of death when Sith forces attack the vessel, leaving the former Jedi comatose and adrift in the badly damaged ''[[CoolStarship Ebon Hawk]]''.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: 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.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:After gathering the Jedi Council together on the light side path, they not only turn on the Exile believing everything is their fault, but decide to cut them off from the force, only to be killed by Kreia. Making the long journey to gain their aid a failure.]]
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: While it's possible to make certain party members fall for the Exile, the game never really gives you the option to return their feelings. At best, all the Exile can do is dance around the issue. A male Exile can make advances on Mira, but she turns you down.

* AncientTomb: Korriban once again houses the tombs of the Sith Lords, although the only one available to explore is the Tomb of Ludo Kressh, which is not even available to explore in the first game. It doubles as a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, as the Exile relives their war experiences and current issues in exploring the tomb.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: With the Restored Content mod, the Exile convinces most of the companions to stay and help rebuild the Jedi and the Republic. Meanwhile the Exile and Atton head out to the uncharted regions.

** Your inventory screen can be filtered accordingly to the items' category, making navigating easier.
** Some planets have "instant travel" units in the form of a NPC or a computer terminal. Interacting with them will give you the option to instantly travel to another area, sparing you the chore of running from point A to point B which takes a huge amount of time.
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:Kreia / Darth Traya]] who, depending on interpretation, wanted to free the galaxy from the tyranny of [[spoiler:the Force]] or to rebuild [[spoiler:the Jedi Order]] without the baggage of the past. ''[[ConsummateLiar Maybe.]]'' Revan is also characterized like this in this game: 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 before giving into the temptation for power. [[spoiler:Kreia presents the idea that it was in fact a GenghisGambit by Revan. He fought the Mandalorians because the Jedi would not, then turned to the dark side to control the Star Forge and turn on the Republic so that they would be ready to face future threats when they came.]]

** And meanwhile, "[[LastOfHisKind the last of the Jedi]]" [[spoiler:is anything but. Atris believes she alone remains true to the Jedi Code, even as other Jedi still live... despite her efforts to see them all killed, purged so that she can create a more perfect order in her own image. And if you've completed your companion's arcs, you've found that you are not the last of the Jedi, but rather they are the ''next'' generation, those who were lost and forgotten during the wars.]]
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The Handmaiden's sisters. They're pretty full of themselves and have no qualms about insulting Handmaiden in front of strangers.

** Your party members have a nasty habit of disregarding your orders and always go after your target. While ganging up on a single opponent is a viable tactic, it's not always in this case. A party of three Jedis with no intelligent pathfinding will only make the whole thing frustrating, as they awkwardly bump into each other while trying to reach the target.
** Party members set to grenadier AI will dangerously waste all of your grenades supply as they have no sense of ammo conservation.
** [[DualBoss The Twin Suns are deadly bosses]] because Atton will be facing them alone. The Twins are master of melee combat and have energy shields. However, Atton can simply to duck behind the bar and the Twins will stand still and do nothing. Atton can then shoot them dead and spam grenades at his own leisure. Amusingly, the Twins will occasionally heal themselves when injured, but they still won't attack.

* AsYouKnow: Averted. 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. A large number of those options are in turn {{Schrodingers Question}}s, enabling the player to have control over their character's actions even prior to the events of the game.

* AutoRevive: Atton has a unique ability to give him a chance to revive when he falls in combat, provided at least one of his allies is still standing.

* BadBoss: IS-43 on the M4-78 planet (only with the restored content mod installed). He is obsessed with the high productivity of his cleaning droids. He keeps assigning them with overloads of work. It reach a critical point when he starts ignoring repeated warnings that the droids are close to breaking down due to lack of maintenance.
* BalanceBuff: The game gives a lot of extra perks to skills to create a niche for Jedi Sentinels, which were MasterOfNone in the previous game. Successfully picking locks and retrieving deadly mines now awards small bits of experience which can add up in the long run, and picking open a chest gets you items that would've otherwise been shattered if you smashed open the lock. UselessUsefulStealth is downplayed as you get a lot more opportunities to use it to great effect. Then there's the whole ItemCrafting system where high skill investment lets you access powerful upgrade parts.

* BigBad: The Lord of Betrayal [[spoiler:Kreia/Darth Traya. DiscOneFinalBoss Darth Nihilus and TheDragon Darth Sion were made that way by her. The main events resolve around Traya's scheme and she's the sith with the personal connection to the protagonist. Nihilus is just one excuse for the Protagonist to reunite the masters so Traya can kill them. She wishes to destroy the force itself, so dangerous that Nihilus exiled her. Traya is also the FinalBoss.]]

* CouldSayItBut: Part of the Light Side resolution on Citadel Station involves taking control of Czerka's receptionist droid, B-4D4, reprogramming it and sending it back in to Czerka to steal confidential files. When B-4D4 gets to the Czerka mainframe and is chided by another droid, who threatens to rat him out to the nearby guards, this exchange occurs:

* DangerousWorkplace: When you kill the Guard in front of Bumani Exchange Corporation on Citadel Station [[spoiler:before Luxa arranged a meeting for you]] you can go away and come back again. Everytime you come back after killing the guard, there will be a new guard. Every new guard will talk about that his predecessor was killed. The third guard even talks about how dangerous this job is.
* DarkerAndEdgier: As listed above, the game has a more grim mood to it. The music and lore help accompany it.

* DealWithTheDevil: Darths Sion and Nihilus learn from the Third Sith's teachings about Force Wounds and become strong, [[FaustianRebellion eventually overthrowing her]]. Nihilus became an [[PhysicalGod unstoppable force of destruction]] while Sion became [[TechnicallyLivingZombie immortal and invincible]], but the prices were very high. Nihilus is no longer a living being, but a walking embodiment of emptiness, eternally hungering through the force. Sion lives in constant agony and only continues to breathe because of the PowerOfHate, and looks like a walking corpse.

** KleptomaniacHero: Behaving like one just pisses people off. If you go loot an apartment on Telos, a man will eventually step in and angrily demand to know why you were in his quarters. Trying to loot containers that belong to Gamorrean guards on Nar Shaddaa will cause them to turn hostile if you're not in stealth mode.

** BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: The fact that the Sith and the Jedi have existed and warred for millenia have made the two factions indistinguishable from one another to the vast majority of the galaxy. The fact that they still exist despite possessing exactly opposite philosophies suggests that neither of them have a grasp on the full nature of the Force that empowers them.

** BlackAndWhiteMorality: While those fighting the war would believe themselves the heroes and their enemies the villains, those outside the conflict rarely distinguish between the two - especially when they suffer from the after effects of the war. Hence why the conflict between Jedi and the Sith in the previous game is termed the Jedi Civil War.

* DegradedBoss: 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.

** At the end of the royalist path on Onderon, Queen Talia rewards you with relics from the royal museum. However, if you've looted the museum, she will think Vaklu's troops did it, and won't reward you with any items.
* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Light side ending: The Mass Shadow Generator is activated, causing Malachor's gravity well to fade and the "planet" (which is really just a mass of asteroids and ship hulls held together by the Generator) to collapse. However, the Exile is saved in the nick of time by the Ebon Hawk, which rises up from below the platform they're on and whisks them away to safety. The last we saw or heard of the ship before this was it crashing into a cliff, then falling down a chasm, the entire rest of the party save for Mira, G0-T0, and Bao-Dur's remote unaccounted for.]] However, the various cut content {{Game Mod}}s tone it down; [[spoiler: The Ebon Hawk still makes an inexplicable recovery, but all of the party save Bao-Dur and T3-M4 is accounted for.]]

** Kreia warns a male exile not to get any funny ideas after Visas Marr joins the crew.

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: The Exile is mentioned as being a student at the Dantooine Jedi Academy alongside Revan and Malak. A vision on Korriban likewise shows Bastila amongst the group that Malak attempted to recruit during the war, which immediately clues the Exile in that it's false, as in reality, Bastila utterly ''refused'' to join them.

** The Jedi Guardian is clearly meant to be a fighter. While par for the course in regards to Force powers and below-average in terms of skill points, it has more hitpoints than the other classes, gets more feat choices than the other classes (with feats being the main way to upgrade physical combat skills), and, if upgraded to a Jedi Weaponmaster or a Sith Marauder, gets extra melee damage and damage resistance. While both are great at tanking and dealing damage when close-up, the former is more of a MightyGlacier with their bonus to deflecting ranged attacks, and the later is sort of a GlassCannon by comparison (though nevertheless much tougher than anyone else), sacrificing the bonus to deflecting attacks for the ability to enter a [[TheBerserker murderous rage]] which improves their damage and health at the expense of defense.
** The Sentinel plays like a thief, with average Force powers and fighting skills, but with much more skill points than the other classes, not to mention they get Stealth as a skill class and can therefore level it with less cost and to higher levels. If specialized into a Jedi Watchman or a Sith Assasin, they gain the ability to sneak with the Force alone (gaining free bonuses for their sneaking skill later on) and gain extra damage with sneak attacks. The former class allows for more flexibility by virtue of giving much more feat choices, while the latter is even more stealth focused, with a faster growth in sneak attack damage.

* {{Foil}}: Thematically Revan and the Exile. [[spoiler:Whereas Revan was a walking conduit for the force, the Exile was more of a black hole. One was [[TheChosenOne chosen by destiny]], [[TheUnchosenOne while the other got there by sheer force of will]].]] Both are [[MagneticHero highly charismatic]].
* ForegoneConclusion: The Mandalorian subplot. The tribe members you meet are (at best) just trying to hold onto their ideals in the face of dwindling numbers and disrespect from other races, or look at themselves as an absolute joke. Likewise, they're led by [[spoiler:Canderous]], an aging veteran who is/can be told at several points that his clan will be driven to irrelevance over thousands of years and his efforts are all for naught. Given what is known about their eventual fate, his efforts come off as more tragic than anything else.

** When Atton first meets Kreia, he says "Whoa, another Jedi?". His personal story arc reveals that [[spoiler: he was an assassin who can in fact see people who are force sensitive... including Jedi and Sith]].

** Darth Sion, Lord of Pain, seeks the destroy all the Jedi from the galaxy and is brutal, but has retained human perspective and awareness in contrast to Nihilus, [[BeingEvilSucks taking no joy in his painful existence]] and wanting to "fix" the galaxy (Ego).

* FromBadToWorse: 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, while the Sith "empire" is little better off.

** The Exile and Kreia's Force Bond is an important plot point. The game also makes it so that any beneficial powers that affect one of them also immediately affects the other.

** Bao-Dur's able to max out most skills with incredible ease, and story-wise he is considered a truly magnificent engineer. His class is even named Tech Specialist. The Handmaiden describes his ability as greater than what most could ever aspire to achieve, and not only is he responsible for the design of Telos' shields, but also for [[spoiler: the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Mass Shadow Generator]] that destroyed both Mandalorians and Republic fleets alike in Malachor V]].

** The player will briefly take control of either Mira or Hanharr as they infiltrate the Jekk Jekk Tar. Despite having only interacted with the Exile and nobody else for all of five minutes, they have access to the player's entire inventory before they officially join the party and while far away from anyone in it. This is probably due to engine limitations, but it can be jarring to see Mira clad in armor she has no access to.

* GameplayAllyImmortality: 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. [[{{Determinator}} Atton]] takes it UpToEleven, being able to wake up in the middle of combat if there's someone else standing.

* GhostPlanet: Korriban became abandoned after the Sith turned on each other when Malak was defeated. When the Exile visited the planet, all that was left were the scattered corpses of the dead acolytes.

*** For Mira, you need to increase her influence, have a conversation and then take her to a specific location to trigger a cut scene. Thankfully, by picking the right dialogue options, you can earn all the influence required without leaving the ship, but the option to offer her Jedi training is buried deep in one specific branch in the dialogue tree that can be easy to miss.

** There are two reinforced doors that can only be blown open with thorium charges, and you can only find one set in the ruined Sith Academy. Where's the other one? Akkere on Dantooine sells it, but you have a very narrow window -- when the mercernary attack is imminent, you have to ask Akkere on joining the militia, and he'll respond with offering to sell the thorium charges. If you pick up his hydrospanner and confront him about it, or if you initiate the mercernary attack, you will lose this opportunity.
** Fassa's quest on the Nar Shaddaa docks will give paltry rewards unless a specific order of steps (including exploiting an infinite xp bug) are taken. Following that process is the only way to get the best robes in the game. The restored content mod fixes this oversight.
** Some influence opportunities [[PermanentlyMissableContent disappear]] past certain points. For example, on Nar Shaddaa, you can earn influence with Atton or Bao-Dur by fixing the airspeeder, but after you complete the main quest, it becomes sabotaged beyond repair. Most frustratingly, the Nar Shaddaa finale triggers on its own without your control, so you have to beeline to the parts before the speeder is lost to you.

* HitchhikerHeroes: The Exile manages to attract a bunch of latent Force-sensitives on their travels through a galaxy where the Jedi have been wiped out. It's deconstructed, as with a lot of things - [[spoiler:the Council claims that the Exile is unconsciously forming force bonds with them, influencing them to join up. Despite this, there is a ray of hope--in the female light side finale, The Disciple insists that they don't feel it's a result of malevolent influence, but a result of the Exile's [[MessianicArchetype near-Messianic nature.]]]]
* HonestCorporateExecutive: The Czerka docking manager on Citadel Station 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.

*** A Jedi master may be so wary of the dangers of rash action, that they may end up not acting at all, or so late that their inaction ends up causing more harm than almost any action would've in the first place; so sure of their own humility and open-mindedness that they begin seeing themselves as infallible and dismiss anyone's opinion but theirs as being insufficiently enlightened; so quick to offer mercy and help to the needy that they end up hurting them in the long run; so blindly hateful of evil and intolerant of corruption that they fail to realize that they're nevertheless being blindly hateful and intolerant.
*** The Sith, meanwhile, are little better: they preach eternal, Nietzschean struggle as a path to freedom and power, yet, without direction, become so occupied with war for its own sake that they'll turn on each other at the expanse of accomplishing their goals and devolve into a cult of brainless thugs; so desperate to gain power that they'll resort to methods which ultimately make them slaves to it rather than masters, uncontrollably driven by their own hungers, obsessions and paranoia as surely as they mock the Jedi for being limited by their codes and ethics.
** Kreia is quite the hypocrite. She derides the Jedi council for not listening to the ideas of others and speaks negatively of people who refuse to accept what other people say, but any time the player pokes any holes in her logic she just claims that you can't understand and refuses to take your claims seriously. She also despises the Force, speaks ill of those who use it, [[spoiler: and her EvilPlan is to destroy it utterly]] even though she can't even ''see'' without the force. The player can point this out in the ending, and she admits fault - though brushes it off as no longer important.

* LeftHanging: Thanks to the rushed release, many of the plot threads are left unresolved even though they continue to just before the end. TSLRCM GameMod fixes this to a degree.
* LegacyCharacter: [[spoiler:Kreia]] talks of this, stating that "There must always be a Darth Traya." It's more a reference to cut content than anything else, however - [[spoiler:specifically, the fact that in the original plan, it was possible for either Kreia to resume being Darth Traya, or for ''Atris'' to become another one]].

** Much of the game is devoted towards talking about the hypocrisy, inconsistencies and even crimes of the Jedi Order. Some of the old order members themselves admit they relied on morally questionable tactics and techniques to achieve their goals [[spoiler:such as exploiting a Force bond between Revan and Bastila, burying Revan's own memories and actually making things worse since it meant they didn't know about the hidden Sith.]] Atris is easily the worst, however. [[spoiler: She convinced the remaining Jedi to rally at a convocation on the planet Katarr to discuss dealing with the new Sith. in reality, she lied to them to use them as bait for the Sith, then leaked the information to draw them out so they could be engaged in battle. The end result? ''Nearly every remaining member of the Jedi was dead, along with an entire population of Miraluka civilians, save one.'']]

** [[spoiler:Atton Rand]] is discovered as a Jedi hunter. He was part of a squad that was trained in ways to kill Jedi, or capture them and torture them into insanity and make them fall to the Dark Side. Like HK-47, there is a also a dialogue option that allows him to tell you the ways in dealing with Jedi, provided you have sufficient Influence with him, though it doesn't provide any bonuses.

* MasterOfTheLevitatingBlades: Darth Traya fights by controling three lightsabers at once, making them levitate around her with the Force.

* RelationshipValues: The influence system, absent in the previous game, where your actions and dialogue options can earn or lose the approval of your party members if they're nearby. Higher influence can unlock new dialogue options with your crew members, and can make their force alignment shift to match yours more closely. Lower influence also unlocks new dialogue options, but the alignments of your party members instead shift towards the opposite of your own.

* RequiredPartyMember: You need Bao-Dur to track down the Ebon Hawk on Telos. Mandalore is needed for the Iziz level before the Onderon Civil War since he's got the ship license needed to enter the port. 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.

* RightMakesMight: Getting full Light or Dark gives you a stat bonus; the bonus for a Jedi Guardian who hits maximum light side points is, quite literally, might - +3 Strength, guaranteeing at least +1 to your to hit rolls and damage.
* RunningGag: Shuttles or ships crashing into various landscapes. Cut content has Atton [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] it when the shuttle he's flying crashes into the Polar Plateau.

* ScareChord: It’s used every time you commit a Dark action. It’s also used in the cut scene where Sion beats up Kreia with [[NightmareFuel terrifying effect]].
* SchmuckBait: When you arrive on Korriban you find several long dead corpses of Sith Acolytes, Kreia will subtly warn you not to loot them. If you do decide to loot them, a giant creature will appear and attack you, and the game leaves you a reminder with a Steam achievement.

* ShadowArchetype: Two examples: Nihilus to the Exile if the latter follows the Light Path; the masters state that this is what they would have become if they 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.

** Nihilus' body disintegrating after his death implies he AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence as a force ghost.
* ShaggyDogStory: The Exile's trip to Korriban to find Master Vash. [[spoiler: After braving the ruins of the Sith Academy, solving multiple puzzles and killing many beasts and assassins along the way, you finally gain access to the final room in the temple...and find Vash's dead body: She'd been captured by Sion to lure you in and was murdered shortly after you arrived. The entire endeavor was just an elaborate trap to get you killed.]]

* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: When the Exile comments on the Handmaiden's practice of sparring in her underwear, she expresses amusement at the "modesty" prevalent to non-Echani.

** 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 ''Film/FiveDeadlyVenoms'', if you replace kung fu with the Force.

*** "Larger World" (get your first Light Side points), "An Elegant Weapon" (build your first lightsaber), "You ARE the droid I'm looking for" (deduce G0-T0's identity), and "Your Eyes Can Deceive You" (learn [[TrueSight Force Sight]]) refer to lines by Obi-wan in ''Film/ANewHope''. "The Walking Carpet" (recruit Hanharr instead of Mira) was a snide remark by Leia regarding Chewie, while "Don't Get Cocky" (kill all Sith troopers with ''Ebon Hawk'''s swivel gun during the Peragus escape) and "Let's Blow This Place" (30 points in Demolitions) are Han Solo lines.

*** "A Certain Set of Skills" (gain a prestige class) appears to reference Bryan Mills' speech to his daughter's kidnappers in ''Film/{{Taken}}''. Mills is played by Creator/LiamNeeson, who [[ActorAllusion plays Qui-gon Jinn in the prequel trilogy]].

* ShownTheirWork: Lead designer Creator/ChrisAvellone claims to have sat through ''every'' Star Wars movie, read ''every'' Expanded Universe book (!), and even endured the ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' (!!) 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.

* SignificantAnagram: In the refugee sector, you find a mother who's name is Nadaa and her daughter's name is Adana.

* {{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.

* StaticRoleExchangeableCharacter: "Dxun Party Leader". During the Battle of Onderon, you must detach three party members to perform a diversion on Onderon's moon Dxun. Whoever is chosen as the leader of this strike team stars in a minor subplot where an ancient Sith tomb tries to tempt them with TheDarkSide, and you have to deal with its aftermath after the battle.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: In spades. Important backstory is hidden in obscure dialogue options, which may or may not 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, combined with lurking through the dialogue files, to get all subtleties.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: Lopak Slusk, Exchange boss on Citadel Station, chooses to attack you if you try to threaten him. Even if you just finished wiping the floor with his personnel roster and the traiterous Luxa and her minions. In his words, he'd rather take the chance of attacking you and dying than risk harming his profits by stopping harrassing the Ithorians.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVizpchePVQ Also there is a missing scene where Atton is playing pazaak with T3, which mocks the unfairness of it in the first game.]]

** 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 [[Film/ThePhantomMenace some poor kid]] doesn't use it someday.
** The whole game comes off as one to Franchise/StarWars in general. Characters repeatedly attack the BlackAndWhiteMorality of the main series and especially the first game. Another target is the Jedi, with many characters calling them on hypocrisy and the murky differences between them and Sith. The simple fact that the events of the first game are called the Jedi Civil War shows that most of the galaxy doesn't really see the difference between the two. Kreia in particular is critical of the simple presentation of Revan and how the Jedi reacted to them [[spoiler: though she has personal reasons for why any failures on Revan's part would sting, since Revan was once her student.]] Still, this is partially negated by the fact that the Exile [[spoiler: effectively reboots the Jedi order. Therefore the Jedi seen in the movies are the result of the Exile's influence and not the product of the earlier order which is being criticized in the game]].

** The Exile on Nar Shaddaa after the plot for that planet kicks in. [[spoiler:On their way to the villain's lair, which is filled with a gas that is lethal to humans, they are incapacitated by Mira, who takes her protective environment suit and goes in the Exile's place. Upon reawakening, the Exile, instead of seeking help from their companions or any secondary way of surviving the gas, simply rushes in after Mira, and starts to suffocate immediately after entering. They only survive because Kreia conveniently is able to teach them a Force power that will keep them alive long enough to get through. Or [[GameplayandStorySegregation with an anti-poison implement.]]]]
** Any enemy NPC attempting to collect the bounty. One does not simply capture a Jedi (unless specifically trained to, as [[spoiler: Atton and HK]] are). Doubly so since the bounty specifies '''alive''', yet pretty much every hunter outright states they have no intention of even trying to take the Exile alive, believing they can still earn most of the astronomical bounty with a corpse. Given the reveal for ''why'' the bounty exists, it's likely not only would there be no payment for a dead Jedi, but YouHaveFailedMe will ensue.
* TranslationWithAnAgenda: The HK-50 droids masquerade as protocol droids who, among other things work as translators to spread anarchy and war by ruining diplomatic confrontations. In the cut content where you see the place they're manufactured and trained, they are not at all subtle about it, often opening conversations with vile insults and overt threats they attribute to their "masters."
* TranslatorMicrobes: The sonic imprint sensor the Exile obtains on Peragus is what they uses to translate all the non-Basic speech in the game. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:it's also how the HK-50's always know where they are]].
* UndisclosedFunds: The Exchange's bounty on Jedi is said to be quite astronomical. At one point, it is mentioned that it is enough for anyone who wins it to buy a planet.

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: 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. In a major case of GuideDangIt, 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. Then again, 25 sith soldiers might be a bit too much for your party to handle.

** Revan defeating Malak did not magically fix the galaxy. Between the Jedi Civil War and the Mandalorian Wars that preceded it, hundreds of worlds have been ravaged, and countless people have been killed. The Republic is still reeling years later and only beginning the massive reconstruction efforts, while teetering dangerously close to collapse.

** If the player decides to be a KleptomaniacHero and go through every apartment on Telos Station, they will eventually run into a man demanding to know what they are doing in his home. A similar situation happens on Nar Shaddaa if you try to loot containers that belong to Gamorreans; looting them will result in the guards turning hostile, unless you have sufficient skill points on Stealth and you loot the containers on stealth mode.

* UnexplainedRecovery: In a Light Side ending, [[spoiler:the ''Ebon Hawk'' reappears to save you from the collapsing Trayus Core after having been last seen plummeting into the depths of Malachor V]].
* UnreliableExpositor: Kreia. She lies. ''A lot.'' She also provides most of the exposition in the game. This can be [[MindScrew problematic]]. Many other characters also do this, to a lesser extent--for example, [[spoiler:Atton implies that he killed the Jedi who showed him the Force out of mercy, whereas Kreia says he strangled her slowly. Who should you believe? Probably, neither]].

** [=G0-T0's=] personal perks are a personal cloaking device, and the ability to hack or convert enemy droids. HK, Mira and Mandalore easily outclass him in the ranged combat department and Atton or even Bao-Dur is likely far better-specialized at Stealth; the one remaining niche for [=G0-T0=] has very limited use especially since at that point you've cleared Goto's Yacht, which is one of the most droid-dense levels in the game.

** The Dark Side endgame [[spoiler:brings the Exile to an empty enclave after having killed her former masters in retaliation for their punishment. Kreia asks if the Exile is satisfied after their quest for vengeance is complete, and every dialogue option shows they are not.]]

** 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.
** The Jedi themselves don't deal with war well, as comes back millennia later in Film/RevengeOfTheSith. Their connection to The Force becomes borderline traumatic with the constant large scale death and suffering. Sheer firepower and numbers can kill them, and The Sith thrive on war and use the chaos to cut them down and convert them to the dark side.
* WeWantOurJerkBack: 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.

* WhatTheHellHero: Atton calls out the entire Jedi Order for refusing to help during the Mandalorian wars, choosing to sit by and "evaluate" the situation while the Republic was being destroyed.

* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Darth Nihilus most distinctive feature is his white mask, which he merged his spirit with to survive after his organic body decayed away.

* YourWorstMemory: For the Exile, the battle of Dxun has to be among the very worst; a visit to Ludo Kressh's tomb on Korriban brings the memory back as an illusion, forcing you to decide whether or not to send allied troops into a minefield.

* ZerothLawRebellion: [[spoiler:G0-T0 is revealed to be an accountant droid with two directives -- save the Republic, and uphold the law. He comes to realize that fulfilling both objectives is impossible, and thus bypasses his second directive, doing what he can to save the Republic using resources obtained by illegal means.]]

Despite being released [[ChristmasRushed rushed and unfinished]] due to a TroubledProduction and ExecutiveMeddling (the ending in particular was [[GainaxEnding disjointed and nearly-absent]], with many subplots LeftHanging), the game was still a relative success and, like its predecessor, firmly found its place in Franchise/StarWarsLegends canon, being referenced heavily by later works. The game actively {{deconstruct|ion}}s the very foundations of the setting (such as TheForce itself), and the general mood is noticeably DarkerAndEdgier than in the original, borrowing themes from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''.

* VillainHasAPoint: Darth Traya wants to [[spoiler:destroy TheForce because she sees it as an endless source of war. Considering that several darksiders--most of whom were [[FallenHero fallen Jedi]]--show up and cause several wars after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' in both continuities, and they gained the power to start those wars because of TheForce]], she wasn't exactly wrong.

** Steal a few trinkets from a Hutt after drugging his dogs and hypnotizing him with erotic dancing.

* LampshadeHanging: ''The Sith Lords'' 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.

** Darth Nihilus' name is derived from the words "nihilist" and "anihlilate." He is one of the most destructive beings in the StarWars universe, but there is nothing left of him besides his desire to consume.

* MiniGame: Pazaak and swoop racing both return, but they're entirely optional. The starfighter minigame is as well, but an early sequence where you have to use the turret in a hanger is mandatory. That said, [[GuideDangIt killing anyone in said turret sequence is counterproductive.]] You get no XP by killing the mooks with the turret, but you do if you kill them in regular combat once they've boarded the ship. Then again, 25 mooks in one rather-small ship might be a bit too much to handle.

* MoodWhiplash: The HK-50 factory level from TSLRCM seems almost comically out of place: The Exile has just [[spoiler:defeated Atris and prepares to face Darth Nihlus in his capital ship]], but now it's time for HK-47 to face some of his LaughablyEvil copies in HamToHamCombat.

* MoneyForNothing: The game is ''insanely'' generous with its item drops, especially post-Telos. After Telos, the only thing you actually ''need'' to buy is armor, robes, or lightsaber crystals. T3 and Bao-Dur can craft standard weapons that, when fully upgraded, easily surpass any of the special things you get from stores or drops, while you hardly need to bother buying gloves/belts/implants because they could just as easily drop. This is made all the worse because there's almost nothing unique for the vendors to sell.

** Played straight when the Exile trains The Handmaiden as a Jedi. Kreia sends a single word message to Atris: '''''Betrayal'''''.

** [[DefiedTrope Defied]]. Toward the end of the game, the Exile can ask Kreia what was so special about them. 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).
---> '''Kreia:''' There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you.

** When meeting with the three remaining Jedi, the Exile confronts them about cutting him/her off from the Force. Master Vrook harshly tells him the truth: [[spoiler: the Exile cut ''themself'' off from the Force, deliberately.]]

* DysfunctionJunction: The player's party is one of the most dysfunctional groups of heroes in the entire franchise. Almost all of them despise one another to varying degrees until the very end of the game (and even then, many of the scenes where they reconcile are reconciliation are DummiedOut), united only by their [[MagneticHero mutual respect for the protagonist.]] In particular, each party member has a counterpart who serves as their primary rival:

* DysfunctionJunction: The player's party is one of the most dysfunctional groups of heroes in the entire franchise. Almost all of them despise one another to varying degrees until the very end of the game (and even then, many of the scenes where they reconcile are reconciliation are DummeidOut), united only by their [[MagneticHero mutual respect for the protagonist.]] In particular, each party member has a counterpart who serves as their primary rival:

* DysfunctionJunction: You have a bitter and cynical old woman (and that's putting it ''charitably''), a lying deserter with blackmail-worthy crimes in his past, an old war buddy with ten years of rage and guilt, and a young warrior who's oppressed by her parents' legacy and abused by her sisters, a utility droid that ''clearly'' knows more than it's letting on... and ''you'', an exile who lost everything you had in life after experiencing untold horrors in war. These are only the people you have ''before'' you leave Telos.

While the game was later deemed ''Legends'' in 2014 with the reboot of the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'', some themes of the story were used in Rian Johnson's ''Film/TheLastJedi'', the second film of the ''Star Wars'' sequel trilogy, with an old and embittered Luke Skywalker having similar negative views of the Jedi, the Sith and the Force to Kreia's. Also, some elements of the game have been canonized in BroadStrokes in the post-reboot ExpandedUniverse such as Meetra Surik being name-dropped in ''Franchise/TheHighRepublic''.