This page contains unmarked spoilers for Knights of the Old Republic.
Deceived is a Star Wars Legends novel by Paul S Kemp, author of Crosscurrent, Riptide, and Lords of the Sith. It was released on March 22, 2011. It takes place during the events of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
This novel contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Zig-zagged. Eleena is this for Malgus big time, as he is at his most vulnerable whenever her life is in danger. After he kills her, the sheer memory of her death fuels him with such anger and hatred that he becomes practically invincible.In death, she had become his strength, her memory the lens of his rage.
- Action Girl: Played straight with Aryn Leneer, a young Jedi whose entire plot in the book involves travelling to Coruscant to avenge her master's death. Also played straight with Mandalorian bounty hunter Shae Vizla. Eleena Daru is a mix of this trope.
- All There in the Manual:
- Shae Vizla's name isn't mentioned in the novel because Malgus, from whose POV the story is being told, doesn't know her name. Here he merely refers to her as "the Mandalorian".
- Likewise, Eleena's last name, Daru, isn't mentioned at all in the book. We only know because of her character profile from Star Wars: The Old Republic.
- All for Nothing: While the Jedi's brave actions on Coruscant are certainly admirable, in the end, it all becomes moot when they are all easily dispatched by the Sith.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Particular emphasis on the "anguished" part.Eleena: I knew you loved me.
Malgus: I do. - Arc Words: "You were deceived."
- Artificial Limbs: Arra receives a pair of prosthetic legs afforded to her by her father after he had acumualated enough credits.
- Ax-Crazy: Malgus, who practically savours every moment during the massacre at the Jedi temple on Coruscant. Then again, he is a Sith Lord.
- Battle Couple: Malgus and Eleena, of the villainous form.
- Because Destiny Says So: During a pilgrimage on Korriban, Malgus had a vision of the Republic homeworld burning, and had every intention of making this happen.
- Berserk Button: Malgus has three:
- Referring to him by his birth name, Veradun. Only Eleena is allowed to call him as such, but only in private.
- The other Sith making speciest or sexually objectifying remarks towards Elena. Of course, the Sith do this with the purpose of triggering Malgus.
- Harming Eleena in any shape or form. Part of the reason Malgus wants to kill Ven Zallow, aside from the fact that he's a Jedi, is because he throws Eleena's blaster shots back at her before Force-pushing her into a wall.
- Aryn's button is pushed when she senses her former master, Ven Zallow's death.
- Big Bad: The Sith Empire to the Republic, naturally.
- The Exchange is this to Zeerid.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The two primary antagonists are Darth Malgus, who led the attack on the Jedi Temple and killed Master Zallow, making him Aryn's target, and Vrath Xizor, a former Imperial sniper working for the Hutt Cartel, which puts him at odds with Zeerid. Although they briefly work together, their goals and agendas make them separate threats to the heroes. Malgus is the more powerful and dangerous of the two, however.
- Bittersweet Ending: Upon Aryn's return to the Jedi Temple on Alderaan, she is stripped of her rank of Jedi Knight as punishment for striking out on her own, and violating the Jedi code on revenge. However, she is at peace with herself for resisting the wants of the dark side, namely for not killing an innocent girl (not that it helped her.) After several months of having time to herself, she travels to Dantooine to settle down and start a new life with Zeerid, Arra and Nat.
- Blatant Lies:Eleena: And things will always be as they are?
Malgus: Master and servant. This displeases you?
Eleena: You do not treat me as your servant. Not always.
Malgus: Yet a servant you are. Do not forget it. - Call-Back: Eleena refers to the events of Star Wars: The Old Republic, including making an indirect mention to Jedi Satele Shan, who was responsible for putting Malgus in a respirator.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Malgus painfully electrocutes a female Jedi Knight to death with Force Lightning.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: It's a romantic relationship between an innocent girl and a Sith lord, something that never ends well. The book likes to continuously remind readers just how destructive Malgus and Eleena's relationship is. Eleena, for her part, doesn't seem to mind.
- Eleena shows the typical behaviours of an abuse victim, namely, she is very apologetic, she backs away in fear when Malgus raises his voice at her, as if she were expecting a beating, she repeatedly tries to defend Malgus's occasional mistreatment of her, and on top of that, she willingly participates in mass-murder and destruction just to please her lover.
- Didn't Think This Through: Vrath has already seen how far Zeerid would go to protect his daughter, so it was absolutely foolish of him to taunt Zeerid with threatening to reveal Arra's existence to the Exchange, even as a joke. He gets chucked out of an airlock for his troubles.
- Downer Ending: The Sith have succeeded in forcing the Republic into an inconvenient "peace" treaty by leaving Coruscant in ruins, resulting in several civilian deaths. They have also succeeded in destroying the Jedi temple, killing every Jedi Knight and Padawan inside.
- Aryn is physically unable to defeat Malgus, who is strengthened through the dark side, leaving her unable to avenge Jedi Master Ven Zallow's death. She's only spared by him as a gesture of gratitude for sparing Eleena's life, which in itself became meaningless when just hours after her departure, Malgus kills Eleena anyway.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even when Vrath does discover that Zeerid had a young daughter, Arra, he makes it a point to not use her as leverage, because he sees the idea of threatening children as unprofessional.Vrath would not use her, of course. As a matter of professional pride, Vrath never resorted to threats or harm to a man's family, much less a child. It lacked precision, something a bomber pilot would do, not a sniper.
- Despite Malgus being a Sith Lord, even he thought Eleena's first master too cruel towards her, and ended up killing him to save her.
- Fantastic Racism: The Sith Empire, as usual, show active contempt for all non-human species, as shown by how they make derogatory remarks about the Twi'lek Eleena, and even transfer her to a lower-class medical centre for treatment after she has been incapacited by Zallow just because they wanted to save the higher-quality care for the humans. Though, all of these were done mostly to unhinge Malgus.
- First-Name Basis: Eleena is the only person whom can refer to Malgus by his birth name,Veradun, but will not tolerate it from anyone else.
- He Knows Too Much: Zeerid shoves Vrath out of an airlock to prevent him from informing the Exchange that the former has a daughter.
- Informed Attractiveness: Malgus is constantly taken back by Eleena's beauty. Justified in that she's a Twi'lek, who are considered to be one of the most physically attractive species (which sadly makes Twi'lek females easy targets for sex slavery). Her beauty is further emphasized by her lavender skin, a rare colour hue for her species.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Malgus fatally stabs Zallow through the torso. He later does this to Eleena by driving his lightsaber through her heart.
- Kill the Ones You Love:Malgus kills Eleena when he realizes that his deep love for her would only hinder his progress on obtaining absolute power over the galaxy.
- Knight In Shining Armour: Eleena sees Malgus this way, and oh boy is she wrong.
- Missing Mom: Arra's mother (Zeerid Korr's wife and Natala's sister), Val, was killed in an airspeeder crash sometime before the battle of Alderaan. it was the same crash that left Arra crippled.
- Morality Chain: Eleena is this for Malgus. He ultimately disposes of this weakness.
- Off with His Head!: How the Supreme Chancellor meets his end at the hands of Lord Adraas.
- Only Sane Man: Aryn. She's the only one to point out how illogical it was for the Empire to suddenly propose a peace treaty with the Republic out of nowhere.
- Revenge by Proxy: When Aryn discovers that outright killing Malgus would only set her down a dark path, she settles for killing Eleena, hoping that Malgus will feel the pain that Aryn felt when he killed her master. She eventually changes her mind when she realizes that she wouldn't be much different from him.
- Schmuck Bait: The Empire arranges for a peace summit to take place on Alderaan. With all the attention set on the negotiations, this allowed for Coruscant's defense systems to get shut down, allowing the Sith to invade the planet and do away with the Jedi.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: What happens to Vrath. Not that anyone will miss him.
- Trauma Conga Line: Eleena's life in a nutshell. Let's take a look:
- She was born and made into a slave on Geonosis where she was repeatedly beaten by her master
- She was later rescued in her teens, but her new master happens to be an Ax-Crazy Sith lord, who has bred her to be a skilled killer for the Empire against her will
- On top of that, she is also made into something of a sex slave, made to "please" her master whenever he wishes. Although their relationship eventually evolves into one similar to that of a husband and wife, Malgus' occupation prevents them from aiming for any Relationship Upgrade. And despite their love being genuine, Eleena is frequently subjected to emotional and psychological abuse by Malgus.
- Being an alien, she is a frequent target of xenophobic remarks by the other Sith lords. And because she is a Twi'lek, a species well-known for their great physical beauty, the other Sith Lords will occasionally make borderline sexual remarks about her, especially where Malgus is concerned.
- She is Force pushed into a pillar and shot with her own blaster shots by Master Ven Zallow.
- Upon being carried to an Imperial hospital to have her flesh wounds treated, she is ejected and sent to a civilian hospital on orders of the other Sith Lords as a non-priority, simply because she is an alien.
- She is used as leverage and nearly killed by Aryn, just to get back at Malgus.
- And finally, as if to add insult to injury, she is murdered at the hands of her lover. when she was beginning to be seen as a fatal weakness.
- Undying Loyalty:
- Aryn has this to Jedi Master Zallow.
- Eleena has this for Darth Malgus in spades.
