Video Game / Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

"Seek only where you wish to go, not where you long to have been. Regret is a mirage that leads many off the path."

"You were only a child when they sent you off to war. Now look at you, the weight of a galaxy on your shoulders. I cannot tell you who you must become, or where the line is drawn. There are no easy choices. These are dark times, and we have few allies. The odds are against us, and they will always be against us. But I can tell you this, if there is any hope of surviving, we must stand against the darkness."

— Cere Junda to Cal Kestis

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is an Action-Adventure Metroidvania Souls-like RPG game sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on April 28th, 2023.

Five years have passed since the Stinger Mantis crew first took flight in search of a way to rebuild the fallen Jedi Order. A now-alone Cal Kestis leads a personal crusade against the tyrannical and expansive Empire, all while wondering if all his fighting has been making any difference. After a mission gone awry, he finds himself visiting some old friends in search of aid but stumbles upon something much more valuable, a way to live a life free from the Empire. With the help of old and new allies, Cal must find a way to not just survive but to live.

Gameplay-wise, three new stances are added making a total of five lightsabre stances that all have their unique playstyle and skill tree. More force abilities and upgrades have been added to augment and expand your playstyle. Multiple traversal methods have also been implemented that change and enhance traversal in several ways. A companion system has been added where you can order your buddy to stun or incapacitate specific foes while adding animations for dual takedowns.

Previews: Teaser Trailer Reveal Trailer 9 Minutes of Gameplay Meet 8 of Cal's Enemies Story Trailer

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Tropes present in this game:

A-F

• Abusive Parents: Bode is so overprotective of his daughter that it somehow warps back around to abuse, and he ends up personally endangering her more than any of his actual enemies.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed with Reyvis' species the Gen'dai, a species from Legends canon that was recanonized for this game. In Legends, the Gen'dai's Healing Factor was so absurd that only totally obliterating their body or destroying their brain could kill them for good (the most prominent Gen'dai in Legends, Durge, had to be thrown into a sun to be killed for good). New canon Gen'dai are much less insurmountable according to the codex, as their regeneration takes longer and instead of just destroying their brain, hitting any part of their central nerve cluster with a killing blow will do the job, though reaching that deep with a killing blow is still far easier said that done. This doesn't stop Reyvis from being nigh-unkillable for the most part, he only dies because he refuses to allow a conflict of interest between serving Cal and Dagan, and exposes his central nerve to a killing strike.
• Advertised Extra: Daho Sejan is set up as the Big Bad of this game in the official teaser. He dies in the prologue.
• Aerith and Bob: The Star Wars universe has always been well known for "Aerith" names. But then, there's "Rick the Door Technician", which stands out as the "Bob" amongst "Aeriths".
• A.I. Breaker : You can exploit the Rancor's inability to climb out of its grotto to literally take the high ground against it and pick it off with repeated lightsaber throws without giving it a chance to fight back. Video here.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Cal views his execution of the Ninth Sister as a Mercy Kill, ending her life as a tormented slave of the Empire and the Sith.
  • Rayvis' death is framed in a somber light, as he pushes Cal into finishing him off in order to avoid being forced to choose between two worthy masters by the laws of his code of honor.
  • Despite everything he did, the Stinger Mantis crew still give Bode a proper Jedi funeral alongside Cordova and Cere, recognizing that while he was evil, he only became so out of desperation to protect his family.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Cere becomes playable when the Empire attacks the Hidden Path safehouse on Jedha.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The game is heavy on the number of collectibles and as you progress the story and clear some optional areas, you'll find upgrades that place icons for different classes of items on your map to make them easy to find. There are specifically five of these upgrades that reveal chests, essences, databank entries, treasures, and seeds.
  • Unlike the combat-focused Force Tear challenge arenas, those which test the player's acrobatic skills provide the option of leaving the area without attempting the challenge.
  • Force Echoes which convey major plot points can be viewed multiple times.
• Back for the Dead: The Ninth Sister is revealed to have survived the events of Fallen Order and confronts Cal on Coruscant, the opening level. This time, Cal decapitates her, putting an end to her rather quickly and ensuring she doesn't show up again.
• Badass Normal: The Bedlam Raiders are largely devoid of any Force sensitives aside from Dagan, but they still pose a surprisingly potent threat to Cal through nothing but good training and skill in combat. Special mention goes to the lightsaber-wielding enemies, such as Drya Thornne, who can stand toe-to-toe against Cal as Mini-Boss encounters and even deflect blaster bolts despite the aforementioned lack of Force sensitivity.
• Bag of Spilling: Played with. Cal starts at a much higher base level of power than Fallen Order and does retain several skills that took time to unlock previously, but several abilities that the player likely unlocked in the original game need to be leveled up again. Cal notably begins with all of the traversal abilities unlocked by the end of the game, with the exception of Slow, which is now combat-only for the entire game.
  • On the inverse side of things, Cal's split lightsaber is now a dedicated combat stance rather than something only used for special moves, to reflect his development of the style between the first and second games. It isn't unlocked for the first hour primarily for new players to get used to combat in general.
• Bald of Authority: Cal's mentor Cere has shaven her head since the last game and is also revealed to be running the Jedha chapter of the Hidden Path. She has even managed to convert part of their safehouse into a Jedi archive.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Cere and Vader encounter each other again on Jedha, as the archive she built there burns around them. It proves to be her last.
• Battle Couple: Cal and Merrin become romantically involved over the course of the game and fight various opponents together before and after that happens.
• The Beastmaster: Cal now has the ability to tame and ride wildlife to ease travel across Koboh.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The Anchorites come across as almost eccentric sycophants with Undying Loyalty to the Jedi, to the point even Cere expresses annoyance with how they cater to Cordova's every whim. However, during the siege of Jedha, a small army of them manage to put up an admirable defense against the Imperial hordes. While Cere's absence would've inevitably led to more casualties, the Anchorites acquit themselves quite well.
• BFS: The new Crossguard stance transforms Cal's lightsaber into this.
• Big Bad: At first it's Dagan Gera. Then after he dies, it's Bode Akuna, Cal's friend.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Senator Daho Sejan and Commander Lank Denvik of ISB are both playing their hands at grabbing more power in the Empire by hunting Jedi themselves to show up the Inquisitors. Both are also vastly overestimating their own ability and threat level.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Cal and Merrin have a few that qualify over the course of the game, but the most prominent one happens on Jedha after Dagan has been dealt with. Cal confesses to his own feelings for Merrin and she reciprocates with one of these, signifying their Relationship Upgrade and cementing her and Cal as an Official Couple.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Klatoonian twins Koob and Lizz serve as the resident Big Guys on the Partisan team that Cal works with in the prologue, and the implication is given that they've provided most of the (non-Jedi) muscle on previous missions. Both of them are killed by the Ninth Sister.
• Bittersweet Ending: Cere Junda, Eno Cordova, and Bode Akuna are all dead, the Empire's grip on the galaxy remains tight, and it's clear there are more hard days ahead. But the villains are defeated, the Stinger Mantis crew are together again (with the addition of Bode's daughter, Kata), Tanalorr will be a safe haven for people fleeing the Empire, and Cal has managed to gain a measure of illumination and closure, in addition to admitting his feelings for Merrin. He's still hurting, but it's clear that he's gonna be alright because he has his Family of Choice at his side.
• Bloodier and Gorier:
  • Downplayed — Bloodless Carnage is of course still in play, but humanoid enemies like Stormtroopers can now be dismembered unlike in Fallen Order.
  • The Ninth Sister ends up being beheaded early on in the game. However, aside from just enough being shown to make it clear what happened, most of the details are hidden out of frame.
• Breaking the Fellowship: The crew of the Mantis has split up in the years between Fallen Order and Survivor, each pursuing their own goals. The early portion of the game has Cal gradually reuniting with everyone.
• Bulletproof Human Shield: Any enemies that can be Force-Pulled into lightsaber range can be held up as a shield from other attacks; human enemies with blasters or other ranged weapons can even be coerced into firing back at other enemies. Unfortunately, any enemy Cal can do this with is generally no more resistant to hits from fellow enemies than they are from Cal's own strikes....
• Call-Back:
  • During the prologue, Cal wall-runs on an electronic billboard with a mugshot of his look from the first game. At the end of the prologue, Cal looks at holos of the Mantis' crew recorded shortly after the end of the previous game, with their original appearances.
  • Cal takes down a LAAT/le Patrol Gunship in a very similar way to what Second Sister tried in the first game.
  • As in Fallen Order, Cal has to fight a vicious Oggdo in order to get a cosmetic reward, a poncho.
  • Before Cal and Bode leave to track a group of pirates through a swamp, Merrin warns the partisan to not let the Jedi Knight swim, a reference to his near-drowning in the first game.
  • When Cere confronts Darth Vader, they discuss the events of Cal and Cere's infiltration of the Fortress Inquisitorius.
    Cere: It's been a while. I was hoping you drowned on Nur when we blew a hole in your underwater base.
    Vader: It is delusion to think your actions have had any consequence. The Fortress stands. The Inquisitorious continues its work. And I have come for you.
  • During Cal and Bode's final duel on Tanalorr, the two get into a Brawler Lock while still holding their lightsabers, which is a reference to Anakin and Obi-Wan doing the same thing in their climactic duel on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith.
• Call-Forward:
  • Dagan vows to take Tanalorr for himself and build an army to defeat the Empire, once he has obtained the Abyss Compass that can safely guide him and his men through the abyss. Years later, Palpatine himself would build a fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyer on Exegol that would later try to help the First Order reclaim the Galaxy and revive the Empire.
  • In the fight against Darth Vader, Cere manages to damage the Sith Lord by bringing down flaming debris on him. In the Rebels episode The Siege Of Lothal, Kanan and Ezra tried to do the same thing and were unsuccessful.
  • Denvik speaks of his plans to have the Imperial Security Bureau replace the Inquisitorius. This would eventually happen in the waning years of the Empire, as the inquisitors fall in battle, the Inquisitorius would indeed be disbanded by the time of the original Trilogy, with the ISB outlasting it.
  • Late in the game, Tulakt remarks on how afraid the Empire is of losing their power over the galaxy, and how one day a sufficient threat that the Empire cannot adapt to in time will be its' undoing. A core theme of Nemik's manifesto will reflect on this as well, noting how tyrannies know their rule is unnatural and they become paranoid of losing it, and how eventually the Empire will fall to too many uprisings at once.
  • Tulakt also muses that if the Empire were smart, it wouldn't be afraid of all the cultures in the galaxy and instead co-opt them for its' own use. Decades later, Moff Gideon will follow this line of thought for his own endgame.
  • One of Tulakt's fortune readings sounds like she's prophesying the destruction of Jedha by the Death Star.
  • Caij is a broad hat wearing bounty hunter with jet boots, dual pistols, and a love of violence and disdain for the Jedi who is ultimately brought in by Boba Fett. Cad Bane, Boba's old mentor-turned-rival, would meet a similar fate in The Book of Boba Fett.
• The Cameo: Boba Fett turns up for a brief cameo at the end of the bounty hunter questline to bring in Caij for her bounty.
  Caij: How about we bring in this Jedi together? Split the bounty right down the middle?
  Boba Fett: I'm not here for the Jedi.
  Cal: You know, it feels good to NOT be the target for once.
• Central Theme:
  • The prospect of fighting a seemingly hopeless fight against an extremely powerful and well-resourced enemy. In an early flashback, Cere warns Cal that the Empire won't be defeated any time soon, but that's not a bad thing as they can still do a lot of good in the meantime until the Empire finally falls. Cal refuses to accept this, and this causes him a lot of strife as he contends with his desire for immediate justice that simply cannot happen since he does not have the resources needed to defeat the Empire on his own.
  • Regret over what could have been. Cal spends much of the game beating himself up for the losses of comrades believing it's all his fault. Several characters spend the game ordering him to stop blaming himself for everything since nothing else can be done now that it's in the past. Towards the end of the game, Greez angrily snaps at Cal when he starts blaming himself for the destruction of the Path's hideout on Jedha and the deaths of Cere and Cordova, pointing out that this was on Bode for betraying them.
    Tulakt: Do your powers include omniscience? [...] Seek only where you wish to go, not where you long to have been. Regret is a mirage that leads many off the path.
  • Love, the desire to protect loved ones, and how it can be corrupted into something abusive. Cal's primary motivation in the game is to build a sanctuary from the Empire for those he loves, and at one point even entertains the idea of using Tanalor as a staging ground for a full-fledged rebellion. Bode's primary motivation is to hide his daughter from the Empire on Tanalor and is complicit in the Empire's atrocities as a means to an end of doing so, and he uses his fatherhood to justify his crimes. Ironically, Cal and Merrin spend half of their final fight with Bode protecting Kata from the collateral damage of the battle.
  • And as the title implies, Survivor's guilt. Cal faces a heavy burden with all the people he's lost, Dagan lost the woman he loved (possibly romantically) in multiple ways and almost everyone he ever knew, and Bode is another Jedi survivor who lost his wife, feels guilty about it, and works with the Empire so he can find someplace for his daughter to be safe.
• Climax Boss:
  • Rayvis serves this on the road to Dagan, as his oldest enforcer and ally his boss battle is the turning point for Cal to find the fallen Jedi.
  • Dagan himself turns out to be one as well, as his defeat opens the path to Tanalorr but in doing so gives Bode the chance he needs to turn on the heroes and show his true colors as both mole for the Empire and another Jedi survivor.
  • Both of the above bosses lead up to a double whammy of back-to-back encounters:
    • First, Bode Akuna's betrayal sets up an epic chase sequence and confrontation, culminating in the added shock, minutes after the turncoat scene and mere seconds before the boss fight proper begins, when Bode reveals himself as a fellow Jedi.
    • Immediately after that fight, the player finds themselves in control of Cere Junda, fighting desperately to delay an overwhelming Imperial assault, ultimately facing down Darth Vader himself.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Defied by Rayvis, who presses Cal into executing him rather than be forced to choose between two worthy masters by his own code of honor.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Cal can now equip his lightsaber with cross guard blades like those Kylo Ren's lightsaber will one day have and indeed those of High Republic era Jedi.
  • One of the Force Echoes has a Battle Droid ask a Bedlam Raider if they won the Clone Wars after being reactivated, similar to when a horde of them were reactivated on Corellia during Star Wars: The Bad Batch, though it's disappointed when the Raider tells it that they lost the war.
    B1 Battle Droid: Oh no...
  • The Ninth Sister briefly uses the infamous helicopter technique that the Inquisitors used while on the Dark Side hotspot of Malachor in Star Wars Rebels, though she just uses it to glide down from her jump a few feet, as opposed to the full flight her cohorts used.
  • Cal can fight the DT-Series Sentry Droids that appear in Rebels.
  • Two of the purchasable cosmetics in Doma's shop on Koboh, "The Shag" and "Training Shirt" are references to the Original Trilogy. "The Shag" is a medium length shaggy haircut reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s iconic '70s Hair from A New Hope, and "Training Shirt" is a sleeveless undershirt similar to what Luke wears while training on Dagobah in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Patrol troopers, who first appeared in Solo, are fought during the game's beginning on Coruscant. 11-3K Viper Probe Droids, a variant of the standard Imperial Viper Probe Droid also first seen in Solo, are also encountered throughout the game.
  • There are several nods towards the events of Star Wars: The High Republic, like the mention that Koboh's moon was shattered by the Emergence, and the then-ongoing war with the Nihil.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Trilla was a member of the Jedi Order in their darkest hour who felt she was betrayed by her mentor and fell to the Empire as one of its enforcers. The new enemy, Dagan is a Jedi from the Order’s Golden Age who feels betrayed by the Order itself and allies with pirates to find a planet that the Empire cannot find so he can create an army and counterattack the Empire. The final antagonist of the game is Bode, another Jedi survivor who only wants to keep his daughter safe and betrays Cal for that end.
• Control Freak: Bode proves to be a tragic example of this. Having been hunted by the Inquisitors for most of his life and only being able to gain a measure of safety for himself and Kata by entering into a shaky alliance with Denvik, at the cost of becoming his personal spy and infiltrator for multiple rebellious groups, Bode has been lacking control over his life as a mere pawn in the larger galactic conflict. Learning about Tanalorr and the opportunity it presents as a refuge from a galaxy under the apparently-unbreakable grip of the Empire motivates Bode to aid Cal just for the chance to finally have a place where he'd be able to protect his daughter by himself against an insurmountable foe, regardless of what risks he has to take. Whilst the narrative does show his intentions are good, Bode's paranoia from his long years as a double-agent means that he cannot tolerate any risk to this safe haven, and so eventually betrays Cal when he decides to use Tanalorr as a base to prepare to fight back against the Empire with their allies, fearing that any conflict with the Empire will only jeopardise his chance to quietly vanish from the fighting with Kata. The Final Boss fight with him is ultimately born out of his Villainous Breakdown after Cal and Merrin do manage to reach Tanalorr despite his efforts, instigating the conflict out of blind fear of others being able to reach the hidden planet besides himself, showing how his desire to feel safe in an environment he has full control over has twisted him into a monster who jeopardises Kata far more in the subsequent fighting than either of his enemies.
• Corrupt Politician: One of the villains is Daho Sejan, a Pau'an Senator who is involved in shady dealings and seeks to capture Jedi to gain more power in the Empire's bureaucracy.
  Sejan: Why fight when you can't win? What is your next move... Jedi?
• Cruel Mercy: Cal spares Denvik despite being enraged over Bode's betrayal and the deaths of Cere and Cordova as well as Denvik himself all but begging for a Mercy Kill... because he knows very well the price of failure within the Empire.
  Cal: Give my regards to the Inquisitors.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: The game deals prominently with relics of the High Republic era (both living and inanimate), a period when this aesthetic was extremely in. For bonus points, many of the ruins Cal encounters were designed by a brilliant Jedi architect who made extensive use of Magitek to give her creations even more retro-futuristic grandeur.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • The final fight against Dagan, Cal and Bode working together give the Fallen Jedi a hell of a fight, but ultimately Dagan proves too strong in the Dark Side and too skilled with a saber to defeat. Cal ultimately has to cheap-shot Dagan by using the Dark Side to attack his mental trauma and kill him while his guard is dropped, a resolution that Cal feels completely unhappy with.
  • It's a Foregone Conclusion that Darth Vader is going to walk away from his fight with Cere alive. However, Cere's growth into a true Jedi Master and Vader's ego lets her severely injure and nearly kill Vader before he kills her. The only other person in the new Canon who had ever brought Vader so close to death was Obi-Wan (twice), and he wouldn't be brought to this kind of low again until Luke defeats him on the second Death Star. With this small victory and knowing that forcing Vader's retreat saved the Mantis crew and the remaining Anchorites from him, Cere dies content.
• Darker and Edgier: The plot is significantly darker than the first game's, with heavy emphasis on how Cal's battle against the Empire feels like a Hopeless War, Graying Morality, an Anyone Can Die atmosphere, and strong themes of trauma and the horrors of war.
• Darkest Hour: After the Empire leaves Jedha, everything seems bleak for the Stinger Mantis crew: Cere and Cordova are dead, Bode is on the run, the Anchorites dispersed themselves and are being hunted by the Empire, and the new Jedi archive constructed from scratch by Cere was completely destroyed. If Cal hadn't managed to track Bode to Nova Garon, it would be game over, simple as that.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • It's possible to find ways to get out of bounds on the map or get into areas that you're not supposed to access without certain abilities. If you end up Sequence Breaking the game will actually warn you that proceeding onward might result in you getting stuck, but it will also create a save file you can access from the main menu that is set right before you ended up in this situation so that you don't end up soft locking the rest of the game.
  • It's possible to die in places you're not supposed to where getting your skill points back is impossible such as being killed by the elevator in the Hidden Path hideout on Jedha. If this happens, you won't lose your skill points like you normally would and won't have to retrieve them.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • The dual-blade stance makes you a Fragile Speedster, significantly increasing the damage you take when hit and requiring precise inputs to get the most out of many of its special moves. Even its basic Force attack is a counter rather than a simple charged blow. The good news, though, is that it really delivers on the 'speedster' part, giving you a sky-high attack speed and letting you cancel lots of your animations with blocks and dodges to rapidly adapt to changing battlefield circumstances. A talented player will be a storm of whirling doom who has more than enough tools to avoid taking that bonus damage in the first place.
  • The crossguard stance is a Mighty Glacier playstyle that emphasizes proper timing even more - you'll cause huge damage when you land a hit and punch straight through most defences, but finding safe openings for your sluggish blows against the game's many nimble, aggressive enemies can be a considerable challenge. Functionally, it works like the claymore weapons of other Souls-like RPG titles.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Dagan and Rayvis are defeated by the end of act two. The final length of the game is spent battling Darth Vader, Commander Denvik, and the treacherous Bode.
• Dramatic Irony: Dagan scoffs after killing a Stormtrooper and asks himself if that was the army that defeated the Jedi in the Clone Wars. Of course, it was actually the Stormtroopers' predecessors, the Clones that did that.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Cal's new crew dress up as Coruscant Security cops to infiltrate Senator Sejan's yacht during the game's intro. Later, Cal himself can dress up as an ISB agent during his infiltration of Lank Denvik's base.
• Dual Wielding: Cal now can fight with two lightsabers all the time. Cal also has a fighting style that incorporates a blaster into his moveset.
• Due to the Dead: The story ends with the surviving Stinger Mantis crew giving Cere, Cordova, and Bode a traditional Jedi funeral in the form of funerary pyres.
• Easter Egg: A cave on Koboh has an invisible passage Cal can squeeze through. Crossing the passage takes about 2 minutes, and leads to a room where B1 Battle Droids are painting on easels pictures of a Mogu suggestively lounging around (In a pose similar to Rose's from Titanic (1997)). A Mogu is in a rocky stage modelling for them.
• Easy Level Trick: The Spawn of Oggdo is a contender for the toughest boss in the game. However, directly above its lair are two Bedlam Smashers that can be Force Pulled down to soften it up before you take it on, and if you're lucky they might even kill it. There is no such trick, however, for the Force Tear where you fight two of them at once.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • At Pyloon’s Saloon, Wini and Zygg note that Merrin has been casting glances at Cal before commenting on Cal’s rather obvious attraction to Merrin. They basically urge him to go for it.
  • In a darker take on this trope, Bode also noticed Cal’s love for Merrin and planned to use it as a way to manipulate him.
• Evil All Along:
  • Bode is not only an Imperial double agent, he's also a Dark Jedi willing to do anything to protect himself and his own, even committing appalling atrocities.
  • Caij is your quest-giver to take down the Haxion Brood bounty hunters, but it turns out she was manipulating you into killing them off to drive your bounty higher so she could collect.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Lank Denvik of ISB has a Dark Jedi working as his personal assassin and spy, keeping him under control by shielding him and his daughter both from the Inquisitors. He ends up learning the hard way that he does not have nearly as much of a hold on his ace in the hole as he imagined, as Bode leaks vital intel of Denvik's to Darth Vader, resulting in a disastrous operation performed months ahead of schedule that not only gets a lot of people killed, but also exposes Denvik's illegal and insubordinate power-jockeying to the Inquisitors, all while allowing Bode to take his daughter and escape.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: When Caij tries to shoot Cal In the Back, he deflects the bolt so it narrowly misses her head, visibly panicking her, then he turns around with a grim look on his face.
  Caij That's a good trick! Aim was just a... bit off.
  Cal: No. It wasn't. What is this, Caij? How much did Sorc offer you?
• Final Boss Preview: Cal fights Bode on Jedha after the speeder chase. Bode uses some of the moves he'll later use on Tanalorr. After Cal either loses the battle or wears him down to half health, Bode cuts the fight short, Force Pushing Cal off the cliff and leaving, though not before urging him to save his "family".
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • When Dagan is first encountered and Cal is seeing his memories, Dagan mentions a "duel with the Gen'dai". Immediately after the following fight we see the Gen'dai is in fact Rayvis who works for Dagan.
  • When the alarms blare right after Cordova demonstrates the repaired Compass, Bode doesn't react and has an expression of detached resignation. A few seconds later, he holds Cordova at gunpoint and exposes himself as a traitor.
  • When Cal catches up to Bode after his betrayal on Jedha, Bode warns him to turn back, and if he listens to his instincts he should know something terrible (Vader) is coming to the Archive. A turn of phrase that one would expect from a Force sensitive not an otherwise down to earth mercenary. Literally 5 seconds later Bode reveals he's a former Jedi by force pushing Cal.
• Foregone Conclusion: From the minute that Darth Vader steps into the archives to fight Cere, there is no way narratively for her to win the ensuing deathmatch (and Cere won't abandon the duel as she wants to protect the Anchorites). Despite her improved capabilities over the 5 year Time Skip and having overcome the temptation of the Dark Side, the only reason Cere has a chance is because Vader isn't going all-out at first, and only gets serious against her once she creatively damages him with the environment rather than her lightsaber skills. After mortally wounding her, it turns out the entire Cere section was Cal re-living her last moments via his Psychometry after finding her body amidst the burned-out husk of the archive, making it a case of this In-Universe.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the prologue, the Coruscant Security cop who captured Cal tries to protect Cal when the KX-series security droid roughs Cal up. The cop says he's trying to protect his payday. Turns out he - and his colleagues - were all Cal's team in disguise. The cop wasn't protecting his payday, he was protecting his new boss.
  • Also in the prologue, Daho Sejan, the Senator from Utapau, says he can't betray the Empire because they'll execute him. Cal uses a Mind Trick on the Senator to compel him. About five seconds after they step outside, the Ninth Sister summarily executes Sejan for "harbouring terrorists".
  • A minor case for the end of the Bounty Hunter storyline. In the Prologue, when trying to meet up with Bode and Bravo once more, Cal has to wall-run across some electronic billboards flashing wanted pictures, including his own. The other picture is Caji, foreshadowing that she's also wanted like him, which Boba Fett shows up to collect upon after her boss battle.
  • When Cal approaches Dagan's bacta tank for the first time, the life support makes a Vader Breath sound, and Dagan wears a vaguely triangular mask. Turns out Dagan's a villain.
  • During their second fight, both Cal and Dagan get into a Force tug-of-war over the tuner that will be necessary to open the way to Tanalorr, with Dagan overpowering Cal gradually whilst ranting about how the planet 'belongs' to him after all he's been through. Seeing how low he's fallen, the captive droid Zee defiantly tells him that Santari Khri should have just left him to rot in the bacta tank, which breaks his concentration and allows Cal to seize the tuner. This ultimately sets up his final defeat, as he proves to be powerful and skilled enough in using the Force to overwhelm both Cal and Bode in a fight, additionally using it to subject them to a Mind Screw, but loses his concentration and leaves himself open for a killing blow when Cal uses his Psychometry to reverse the mental attack and appear as Khri to him, lambasting him for his actions and claiming he's no longer a Jedi, which breaks his composure.
  • There are several hints dropped throughout the story that Bode is an Imperial spy as well as a Dark Jedi, alongside his ultimate intention to retreat to Tanalorr with Kata to stay out of the galactic war, at the cost of literally everybody else who might use the safe haven.
    • When Bode reveals that he'd been Dressing as the Enemy and unmasks himself on Coruscant, he coldly shoots the Stormtrooper he's standing beside In the Back when the latter surprises Cal and has a blaster pointed straight at him. The trooper's body language clearly showcases his shock at his 'ally's' betrayal as he falls to his death, whilst Bode is otherwise unperturbed at callously betraying somebody who'd trusted him. The third act of the game reveals that he'd basically been doing that same thing to Cal and his allies, only in their case he does feel slightly bad about it...but not enough to not sell them out to the Empire when it benefits him more.
    • During the elaborate con on Senator Sejan while dressed up as a Coruscant Security cop, the KX-series security droid nearly screws Bode over by excluding him from handing Cal off, saying "Deals change", though it relents when he says he either comes along or he walks. A Force Echo found in the postgame shows Bode in the same situation with Devnik even after he gave intel on the Hidden Path and Cere Junda's location.
    • One of Bode's battle quotes is saying "When you play with me, the game is rigged from the start" after a successful victory against Cal's enemies. Greez echoes this phrase when shutting down Cal's guilt over being unable to sense Bode was force-sensitive or his planned betrayal, making it clear that everything that happened was all on Bode's own choices and selfishness, not any failing of Cal's.
      Greez: We all know it's a rigged game, but we choose how to play it!
    • When Bode meets back up with Cal on Koboh and learns about Tanalorr, he's the one to first suggest its potential as a hidden refuge from the Empire and how you could just 'disappear' from their omnipresent gaze, and is very enthusiastic about finding it despite the lack of monetary gain, which he'd been focused on before to help support Kata, relishing the idea of "No more looking over your shoulder". As a double-agent in a tenuous alliance with an ISB supervisor just barely protecting him from the Inquisitors, Bode is understandably always wary of getting close to others and feels unable to let his guard down unless he's alone with Kata, ultimately motivating him to seal both of them away on Tanalorr for the rest of their lives as a twisted means of protecting his daughter by himself.
    • When Bode gives Cal his pistol, Cal is at first conflicted about using a blaster, as his old master considered them dishonorable. Bode tells him "Look we have to do whatever we can to survive" to convince him to take it. The "we" is far more literal, as Bode is also a former Jedi.
    • One of the optional conversations Cal can have with Bode at Pyloon's saloon has him ruminating on how strange it's been to meet up with the Mantis crew after their long separation. Bode states that he doesn't really have that many people in his life himself, reserving any emotional bonds for Kata alone, hinting at his deep-seated paranoia out of his duel roles as spy and Jedi making him cautious about ever trusting anybody, as well as hinting about his deceased wife and the emotional wounds that still motivate him.
      Bode: The more people in your life, the more you can lose, ya know?
    • In one conversation with him, Bode notes the growing attraction between Cal and Merrin, and asks Cal if he's prepared to deal with it since Jedi forbid attachments, showing that he knows quite a bit about the Order...
    • After Cal and Bode defeat Dagan and obtain the Abyss Compass, Bode rummages around a little in the background while Cal thanks Bode for his support in stopping the mad High Republic-era Jedi. It turns out he took Dagan's lightsaber since Bode himself is a Jedi, albeit a Dark one, when Cal fights him on Jedha.
    • Upon first meeting Greez, Bode assures him that he's not a Bedlam Raider spy. He is a spy. Just not one affiliated with the Bedlam Raiders

G-L

• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the story, Cal's flirtations with the Dark Side are treated very seriously, with both Merrin and Cal himself expressing concern about how his morals are impacted from touching the darkness. In gameplay, Cal can use his Dark Side fuelled Super Mode as many times as the player wants with no issue.
  • You can change your lightsaber's color if you want, but in at least one cutscenes, the lightsaber casts a blue glow on Cal regardless of what it's current color is, as blue is the default color.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Downplayed in that they don't actually have sex, but the way Cal and Merrin immediately and passionately make out after the Mantis' death-defying run through the Koboh Abyss definitely invokes the spirit of this trope.
• Glass Cannon: The Purity Perk unlocked as part of New Journey Plus turns Cal into this. It massively amps up his attack power, allowing his attacks to one or two-shot most enemies, but does the same for enemies, making them equally lethal. This turns any combat encounter into a much more deadly affair.
• Graying Morality: In contrast to the fairly white-and-black conflict of the first game, this one features significantly more complex and murky morality to go along with the darker atmosphere. Cal gets pushed to his limit against the evil Empire and evolves into a Pragmatic Hero to survive, the Big Bad is effectively a would-be Rebel who's just as bad as the Imperials and some of said Imperials are given nuanced motives. Notably, the ending has Cal embrace and use The Dark Side alongside the Light Side to defeat one of the main villains, and him subsequently gunning down said villain is depicted as completely justified (if tragic).
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • The Nihil, whose attack on Tanalorr in the past led directly to Dagan's Start of Darkness.
  • To a certain degree, the Empire itself. While imperial forces do play a role, they are a secondary antagonist in this game, unlike the first. But the otherwise insurmountable threat they represent is what motivates the protagonist and antagonists.
• Guide Dang It!: There's a priorite shard that can be found in the Nekko stable on Koboh. It's possible to accidentally come across it, but the trigger to make it appear is not very obvious and the game doesn't hint at how to do so. You have to stable a brightly colored Nekko (red, purple, etc.) in the pen on the right side of the entrance. Afterwards, resting and coming back reveals that said Nekko left a nice, big dump in its pen, which will have the priorite shard in it.
• Gun Twirling: Befitting the franchise's Space Western vibes, Cal's holstering of the blaster in its stance engages in this.
• Handicapped Badass: Dagan Gera is a High Republic-era Jedi who is introduced missing an arm and recovering in a Bacta tank. Despite the injury clearly slowing him down at first and taking him some time to adjust, especially since it seems to have been his dominant arm, he proves to be skilled enough in using the Force to compensate, controlling his lightsaber from a distance as needed to strike at Cal, and even in this weakened state, while Cal can still fight on par with Dagan and even get something of an edge on some exchanges, Dagan still proves able to end their first and second fights to a rough stalemate. By the time of the final fight with him, he creates as full-on replacement arm out of materialized Force to more easily dual wield his twin sabers against Cal, though there's also an element of Mind Screw involved. With his full power, even Cal working together with Bode prove no match for Dagan in a fight, and is forced to target his unresolved mental trauma to pull off a narrow victory.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Years of Palpatine's propaganda, coupled with their general low approval ratings prior to and during the Clone Wars, means that Jedi are not well-liked by most people, seen as a Corrupt Church of wannabe terrorists who abused their powers and got wiped out after a failed coup attempt. One of the first things you see in-game is a stormtrooper declaring that Cal should've died with the rest of the Order, decrying them as traitors to the Republic.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Cal and Bode spend much of the game evolving into this. Until Bode's true colors are revealed.
• Hidden Elf Village: The central MacGuffin of the game is Tanalorr, a supposedly mythical and paradisiacal world inaccessible and hidden from the rest of the galaxy due to being located amidst a spatial anomaly called the Koboh Abyss. It was originally going to be the site of a new Jedi temple during the High Republic era, until the Nihil attacked it during construction, with the Jedi Council writing it off as not worth the trouble of defending and more or less forgetting about it, even after the Nihil were defeated. Cal and his allies seek to reach it in the present day in order to settle it as a safe harbor from the Empire's reign.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: In the post-game, Kata Akuna will hum the tune to Pop Goes the Weasel, but instead finishes with "POP goes the Bogling!"
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Cal's first fight against Bode. The latter is extremely quick, hits hard, is highly resistant to Cal's attacks, and to make matters worse, since BD is not around, there are also no Stims. And no matter how well Cal does, he'll still lose in the ensuing cutscene.
• Hopeless War: Cal is increasingly starting to believe that his war against the Empire is this, as his guerrilla rebellion is simply too small to meaningfully affect the Vast Bureaucracy that is the Imperial machine. In the end, he comes fully to the conclusion that he can't defeat the Empire, certainly not alone… but also that this doesn't mean he can just give up, and it doesn't mean he can't live a meaningful life or that freedom isn't worth fighting for against the odds.
• Hope Spot: After Dagan is defeated, the Stinger Mantis crew have basically everything they need to reach Tanalorr and everything seems a-okay. Then Bode kills Cordova as the Inquisitors start storming Cere's hideout, led by Darth Vader himself. Bode was an Imperial spy the entire time.
• Hypocrite: Though it doesn't become apparent until a second playthrough. Bode is extremely judgmental of Dagan for becoming a Dark Jedi despite being one himself in every way that matters.
• I Am Not Left-Handed:
  • In the prologue, Cal's fight with the Ninth Sister has her starting to overwhelm him in a struggle with her natural brute strength, only for Cal to unlock his Split Saber stance against her to counter with raw speed. Cue a swift Curb-Stomp Battle for the short remainder of the fight.
  • When Cere fights Darth Vader himself, he is clearly not trying his hardest to fight her and instead is trying to break her will with the hopelessness of defeating him amidst the destruction of the Jedi archive she worked so hard to build. Once Cere actually lands some meaningful damage on him with the burning debris of the archive, he fights her a lot more seriously, parrying her attacks with more focus and taking advantage of her attempted killing blow to precisely counter and mortally wound her, even with his performance hampered by the damage the fires did to his cybernetics.
  • Bode seems to be a Badass Normal who performs well in a fight with his jetpack, blasters, explosive grenades and a mean punch, capable of keeping up with Cal even in a fight with a skilled Jedi like Dagan Gera. However, when he betrays the heroes to the Empire, Cal manages to eventually catch up to him and destroys his jetpack, seemingly rendering him helpless close-range against a Jedi...until he knocks Cal back with his own Force push and draws Dagan's lightsaber, revealing himself to be another Jedi Survivor. That said, whilst the abilities he displays do mean that Cal can't easily win, he's clearly extremely rusty from never showing these in a fight for a long time, and is clearly lacking Cal's refined skills with a Lightsaber, instead using them to augment his preferred method of shooting or blasting the target.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • In the prologue, Senator Sejan says that bending the knee to the Empire made his people curse his name, but at least they're alive. This rings somewhat hollow when he says it standing on his personal yacht, dressed in expensive-looking clothing.
  • Bode uses protecting his daughter as a blanket excuse for every bad thing he does. When Cal calls him out on all his crimes and accuses him of being a monster, Bode doesn't even try to deny it, simply declaring that he's a father and he's going to do whatever he has to protect his child.
• Inertial Impalement: How Cere dies - she charges Vader and appears to run him through with her lightsaber, only for the camera to move and reveal that he is the one who impaled her - her blade went into the space under his left arm.
• Ink-Suit Actor: All named human (and in Merrin's case, human-appearing) characters in the game strongly resemble their voice actors.
• Instant Death Bullet: Darkly averted in the ending. Bode gets shot in the chest once by Cal… and fails to die immediately, spending his final seconds of life writhing in clear agony before Cal puts him down with a second shot.
• Instant Expert: A somewhat Zigzagged case throughout the game.
  • As before, Cal's Psychometry gives him a Downplayed case of this, as he's able to pick up the basic skills needed to utilise his various differing Lightsaber stances within minutes of getting the appropriate equipment needed to use them. Notably, he notes that Jaro Tarpal frowned upon using blasters and is never having been shown handling a gun before in his prior adventure or at any point before Bode hands him his old blaster, yet he proves to be a swift deadeye shot and manages to implement a variant of Form II: Makashi to compliment his gunplay within minutes of handling the weapon. That said, he still needs to unlock various skills through his skill trees, and the time spent training on his lightsaber handling in the 5-year Time Skip has given him much better use of his weapon in a fight, even turning the Split-Saber into an entire combat form on its own, rather than a special move as he could before, so being able to use and master his skills instantly are two entirely different things. On the other hand, if the player re-sets all of Cal's allocated skills, they could theoretically unlock an entire stance skill tree within minutes of Cal developing it, playing this straight, but even then, Cal's skill trees have slots that cannot be filled in within gameplay, as he's still developing into his Jedi abilities and has further room to grow.
  • The enemies on the other hand subvert this. Cal's first two duels with Dagan Gera are semi-even only because he's still adjusting to the loss of his dominant sword arm, and is visibly re-defining his combat stances throughout the fighting to better adjust to his handicap. By the time he's fully recovered by their third fight, Cal and Bode's best efforts can only net them a Curb Stomp Cushion against him, forcing them to target his mental weaknesses for a narrow victory instead. The few Bedlam Raiders that are outfitted with old lightsaber models Rayvis collected doesn't possess any sophisticated swordplay with their weaponry, and at best are treated as Mini-bossess because of their dangerous weapons rather than inherent skill. Bode having long abandoned his lightsaber to better hide any trace that he's an ex-Jedi means that when he steals Dagan's lightsaber as a backup weapon when betraying Cal, he's even more unrefined in combat with it than the Incompletely Trained padawan, and instead mainly uses it as a blunt-force tool to compliment his preferred blasters.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • If you complete the main story before completing the Bounty Hunter sidequest, the credits will spoil Boba Fett's appearance.
  • Particularly astute players may note that unlike with other merchants, the total cost of all items available from Caij is one more bounty puck than the player is seemingly able to collect, hinting at the presence of one final, secret bounty: Caij herself. Zigzagged, however, as Caij Vanda does not appear on the bounty tree until after the sidequest chain is completed.
• Interservice Rivalry: Overheard Enemy Chatter on Nova Garon makes it clear that there is little love lost between the Imperial Security Bureau and the Inquisitorious, with ISB troops resenting the presence of the latter at one of their bases. Should the player return to Nova Garon after completing the story mission there, they will find evidence of the Inquisitors massacring the base personnel. Turns out they don't like rival Imperial agencies hunting Jedi behind their backs... and they really don't like it when said agencies botch the assignment.
• I Owe You My Life: Years ago, Dagan Gera defeated Rayvis in one-on-one combat in such a way that led to Rayvis having to swear his allegiance to Dagan in accordance with the rules of Rayvis' code of honor. When Cal defeats him similarly, Rayvis forces him to kill him rather than be forced to choose between two men he's bound by honor to serve.
• I Want My Jet Pack:
  Cal: Everyone has rockets... except me.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Cal can now perform these, most commonly making certain enemies temporarily ignore him and turn on their comrades. Certain scripted sequences also have him use this power to do such things as gain assistance from Imperials or convince civilians to abandon dangerous activities.
• Kick the Dog: The act that pushes Cal into embracing The Dark Side in the finale is Bode turning his rage on BD-1, violently bashing the poor droid when he makes the mistake of getting between Cal and Bode in an attempt to break up their fight.
• Knight Templar Parent: Bode just wants to keep his daughter safe… and he doesn't care how many corpses it takes to do it.
• Last-Second Chance: Before their final confrontation, Cal and Merrin essentially make Bode an offer to let him stay on Tanalorr with his daughter, giving them the sanctuary every character has been desperately searching for all game. They're willing to move on from all of the betrayal if he'll just give them the final MacGuffin. But he turns them down cold.
• Light Is Not Good: The one armed bacta tank occupant is revealed to be a High Republic Jedi named Dagan Gera. He wears the white and gold robes typical of the time, and still considers himself a Jedi. Despite all this, he's an unhinged madman so broken by his experiences that's become little better than the worst of the Sith and wants to use Tanalorr to use it as a staging ground where he'll build an army and conquer the galaxy.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Discussed. Merrin speculated that this was the reason why Santari did not see how far Dagan fell even after he murdered multiple fellow Jedi in cold blood.
• Love Makes You Evil: Bode commits horrible atrocities in the name of protecting his beloved daughter and is willing to doom countless innocents just because he can't accept even the most marginal risk to his loved ones' safety. Averted with Cal, however, whose Character Development heavily involves him realizing that his love the rest of the Stinger Mantis crew isn't something to be ashamed of, and his connection to them is ultimately what keeps him from going off the deep end. The two characters essentially express both sides of the equation; of the importance of love, but also how it can be perverted into a selfish and possessive form.

M-R

• Meaningful Echo: Cal ultimately defeats Dagan Gera the same way he initially failed the final trial on Dathomir, confronted with a vision of a deceased Jedi they were close to who lambasts them for their failures and inability to uphold the high standards of being a true Jedi until they reach a breaking point. Whilst Cal ultimately overcame his own trauma and became stronger for it, Dagan having never confronted the painful memories of Khri 'betraying' him — even avoiding visiting the location where a compass to Tanalorr may be found because it's also the place where she cut his arm off — means that he's completely unprepared to deal with the resulting emotional breakdown and leaves himself open for a killing blow, despite otherwise being stronger than Cal in using the Force.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Bedlam Raiders and the Empire have no more love for each other than they do for Cal and his allies, and the local predatory wildlife tend to view anything other than their own species as hostile. Should Cal encounter multiple groups simultaneously, a three (or more) way battle is all but guaranteed. And that's before factoring in Cal's new Mind Trick abilities....
• Mercy Kill:
  • Cal grants one to Rayvis, who allows him to strike the one place that can kill him (his brain) because he wants to die a warrior's death rather than be forced to choose between two worthy masters.
  • Denvik tries to press Cal into giving him one rather than living to face Darth Vader's wrath, but Cal lets him live as a Cruel Mercy instead.
    Cal: Give the Inquisitors my regards.
• Mirror Boss:
  • Dagan Gera's boss battles have him mimicking a few of Cal's various lightsaber stances, evolving and refining his combat abilities throughout each encounter after losing his dominant arm and recuperating for an extended period in the Bacta tank. He initially uses the single-bladed stance after waking up and recovering his old lightsaber in the first fight, adds on a second emitter to the hilt to use the dual-blade by the second — which is additionally capable of splitting into two sabers for telekinetic ranged attacks, presumably inspired by Cal's own dual-saber stance used against him before — and by the third battle becomes capable of forming a Force-generated replacement of his missing arm to more easily use the dual-saber stance to overwhelm Cal.
  • Once he reveals himself to be a Dark Jedi, Bode uses a variant on the Blaster stance in combat against Cal, fittingly as he was the one to gift him the initial blaster that unlocked the stance. Once Cal uses the Dark Side to overwhelm him and break his Blasters, for the remainder of the fight Bode uses a modified variant of his defensive stance that emphasizes raw power and uses heavy wind-up attacks, like the Cross-Guard Stance.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Drya Thornne greatly resembles early concept art for Luke◊, albeit armed with an orange crossguard lightsaber.
  • Once again, Darth Vader kills the mentor of a Star Wars protagonist.
  • The Final Boss wields his lightsaber in a Reverse Grip stance, similar to Galen Marek from Star Wars Legends.
  • When Merrin gives Cal a big Now or Never Kiss, Cal asks if it was for luck, recalling how Leia gave Luke a kiss "for luck" when they were about to swing across a gap in the Death Star in A New Hope. Whereas Leia's kiss to Luke was a sort of innocent flirting you'd often see in that era of cinema and ultimately did not lead to anything romantic for the pair (given they later were rewritten to be siblings), Merrin clarifies her kiss was not for "luck" and was for her.
  • One of the Mogus' attacks is to grab Cal by the leg and lift him up to slam him into the ground, and the player can escape their grip by cutting off their arm, in imitation of how Luke defeated the Hoth Wampa back in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Cal's first fight with Rayvis has him stab the Gen'dai deep in the chest with his lightsaber thinking it will kill him, only for Rayvis to casually No-Sell it and resume the fight. This is the exact same thing that happens in Obi-Wan's first fight with a Gen'dai, Durge, in Star Wars: Clone Wars.
  • To reach the planet Tanalorr, believed to be a safe haven for the persecuted by the Empire, Cal discovers that he needs a compass to safely travel through the Koboh Abyss, just like Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker.
  • To Knights of the Old Republic:
    • The bounty hunter questline recalls not only the various bounty hunting sidequests of Knights of the Old Republic, but also that game's GenoHaradan subplot, as both involved an unscrupulous assassin tricking a Jedi into killing off their competitors.
    • There's a music track that can be unlocked for the cantina titled "Who Mourns for Taris?"
  • Several achievements/trophies echo quotes or character names, including "So Uncivilized" (echoing Obi-Wan Kenobi's attitude towards blasters in Revenge of the Sith) for defeating enemies with a skill in the Blaster Stance. There's also "There is No Try" for lifting a ship out of the muck, "Skywalker" for staying above ground for a certain period of time, "It's a Trap" for triggering a trap and "A Presence I’ve Not Felt Since…" for getting and wearing a poncho.
  • Unlockable cosmetics include the Bandolier, an iconic piece of clothing worn by Kyle Katarn as well as a clothing set named "Outrider", which is the outfit worn by scoundrel Dash Rendar.
  • Turgle's design is very similar to very early designs for Jar Jar Binks and the gungans for The Phantom Menace.
• New Game Plus: Implemented with more consideration than Fallen Order where it was much more of an afterthought. In addition to unlockables, Survivor also allows you to keep your skill points, and there's even an option to change enemy spawns to harder enemies for players who want a challenge.
• Nominal Importance: Subverted with Rick the Door Technician, despite having a name and a boss life bar, he is killed as easily as any stormtrooper you've encountered before.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever the final straw was that caused the Mantis crew to split off over the timeskip is only alluded to as Cal and Cere butting heads over how to handle the Empire, and Merrin wanting to explore the galaxy on her own terms, but much of what led that tension to begin with (much less what cost Greeze one of his arms) is never outright said.
• Notice This/An Insert: In the prologue, Senator Daho Sejan has Cal captured, and they banter for a while. Behind the Senator is his yacht. We see BD-1 run into frame on the yacht, the camera cuts to a closer view of BD-1 putting something down on the ship, and then goes back to the first shot as BD exits frame right. The devs probably thought players might miss it.
• Not Quite Dead: The Ninth Sister and Cordova both turn out to still be alive, as hinted in the prior game. And then it's subverted as they die for real here and in much less ambiguous ways.
• Now or Never Kiss: Just before making a death-defying series of stunts in order to take out a massive Imperial tool of destruction on Jedha, Merrin finally pulls Cal in and kisses him on the lips, acting on her feelings that were hinted at in Fallen Order.
• Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: While Dagan is openly antagonistic from the get go and is the adversary Cal spends the majority of the game hunting down, Bode is a seemingly friendly ally until he reveals his true colors not long after Dagan's death, in which he becomes the game's final antagonist.
• Off with His Head!: Ninth Sister and later on Rayvis meet their end this way.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: After holding Cordova hostage, Bode shoots him in the chest twice and escapes. At the end of their fight on Tanalorr, this is exactly how Cal kills him in return once it's clear Bode won't stand down and redeem himself.
• Perma-Stubble: Cal has grown out a bit of beard stubble as his default look, highlighting his increased wisdom and experience by giving him a slightly older and more grizzled appearance compared to his more boyish looks in Jedi: Fallen Order. Can also be interpreted as Stubble of Sorrow given the rather rough time he's had since the end of the previous game.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Rather than brutally murder Cere for her very close victory over him, Vader just leaves her to succumb to her wounds and die in peace, either out of respect over her skills or simply as he didn't see any point given that they both know she would die anyway.
  • Although he hates Jedi and could have received a handsome reward if he had turned Cal over to Vader or the Grand Inquisitor, Boba Fett instead forms an Enemy Mine with Cal to take down Caij Vanda, a notorious outlaw who had been hiding on Koboh. After Vanda is captured, Fett proves to be a man of his word and parts ways with Cal on peaceful terms.
  • Even though he's just killed Cordova and sold everyone out, Bode still tries to convince Cal to stop chasing him and go back to the others, knowing that Vader is on the way and they're going to need all the help they can get just to get away alive.
• Possession Implies Mastery: Averted. Cal's ability to tinker with his own lightsaber is born from his long years working as a scrapper, and being able to work around Jaro Tarpal's old lightsaber as a base, with it being implied he'd struggle to create one entirely on his own. Cal has to appropriate a presumably High Republic-era lightsaber used by one of the Bedlam Raiders to create his Cross Guard Stance, rather than being able to build the design from scratch. Dagan Gera, as The Ace of the High Republic era of Jedi, has enough working knowledge of their construction to further modify his own single-bladed lightsaber into a form that mimics Cal's own separable blades. Bode having completely abandoned all connections to his old past as a Jedi means he's lacking a blade of his own, and needs to steal Dagan's off his corpse afterwards as insurance to fight Cal off during his planned betrayal.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: In contrast to Fallen Order culminating in a united assault on the Fortress Inquisitorious, a one-on-one duel with the Second Sister that had been built up all throughout the game, and having to flee from the Sith Lord, Darth Vader himself, this game's Final Boss is a much more low-stakes, yet emotionally-charged confrontation. The Imperial assault on Jedha, Cere's fatal rematch with Darth Vader and Cal's infiltration of Denvik's ISB base is arguably the game's climax, with Cal and Merrin's confrontation with Bode on Tanalorr being presented as an emotional fight far more than a physical one. Cal's reluctance to fatally strike Bode down with his daughter watching is ultimately why the fight drags on as long as it does, and the fight's outcome is more affecting to the small group of survivors than to the Galaxy at large.
• Pragmatic Hero: Cal is evolving into this as the war against the Empire drags on, and struggles with toeing the line between it and Sociopathic Hero.
• Putting the Band Back Together: At the start of the story, most of the Stinger Mantis crew have parted company and Cal is trying to bring them back together, while also bringing some new friends along for the ride.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Once Bode betrays the heroes and reveals himself to be both an Imperial spy and an ex-Jedi, additionally directly and indirectly causing the deaths of Cere and Cordova as well as the destruction of irreplaceable Jedi knowledge and history, after getting over his shock in the aftermath, Cal is left perpetually simmering on the verge of one of these, showcased by the menu screens getting cast in a eerie blood-red light as he struggles to control his emotions. Once he tracks down Bode to Denvik's ISB base and confronts him over all he's done, he eventually realises that Bode intentionally lured him in, planning to incite him to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge through the base as a distraction for him to flee with Kata whilst turning the Empire's attention towards Cal to cover his tracks. Realising his former friend is still shamelessly manipulating him for his selfish agenda finally pushes Cal past this, causing him to tap into The Dark Side as a Super Mode whilst pursuing Bode through the base's defenders, single-handedly slaughtering entire groups of enemies that he would normally have struggled against.
  • Whilst Merrin talks him down from going too far into his Wrath, Cal eventually hits this again when finally confronting Bode on Tanalorr. His repeated refusals to stop fighting them and reckless endangerment of Kata with his actions steadily wear at Cal's tedious goodwill towards him, but it's not until Bode angrily smacks BD-1 away to keep trying to pummel Cal to death with his bare hands that he again snaps and activates the Dark Side to overpower Bode. This time however, he uses it in a restrained yet focused manner, channeling the power boost to precisely break Bode's blasters and knock him down so they can finish the fight with just lightsabers.
• Relationship Upgrade: After plenty of Ship Tease in the previous game and this one, Cal and Merrin acknowledge their feelings towards each other and move towards a more romantic relationship after Dagan has been dealt with.
• The Remnant: Cal faces off against reprogrammed Separatist droids from the Clone Wars, owned by the Bedlam Raiders found on Koboh.
• Retirony:
  • Subverted in the prologue; Bode discusses his daughter back home, shows a holo of her to Cal during a character bonding moment, and says he's working as a mercenary to support her. He's the only member of Cal's team (besides Cal and BD) who doesn't die by the end of the mission, and both he and his daughter go on to be major characters.
  • After Bode betrays the heroes and reveals himself to be both a Imperial spy and Dark Jedi, he winds up playing this straight. His overarching goal is to escape to Tanalorr with his daughter Kata to live out the rest of their lives there where neither the Empire or anybody else can ever find them, thus protecting Kata from the Hopeless War he sees the fight against the Empire as. He even exploits Cal's retaliatory Roaring Rampage of Revenge against him to try and having him kill his ISB handler Denvik to ensure nobody would ever come looking for him. When that fails, he attacks both Cal and Merrin himself in order to ensure nobody will ever find Tanalorr after they followed him there, despite their pleas for him to cease attacking them by pointing out he's merely invoking this trope on himself. When Cal hesitates at striking him down in front of Kata after besting him in a fight, he just takes advantage of the opportunity to try and kill them both again, ultimately forcing Cal to play this trope straight and gun him down out of his stubborn refusal to accept any other means of protecting Kata from a dangerous galaxy.
• Right Hand Vs Left Hand: The Empire is, as always, full of factionalism, infighting, and general jockeying for power. Cal more or less encounters three different groups with the Empire hunting Jedi; the Inquisitors, a corrupt senator, and a member of the ISB. The former-most are actually doing their assigned duty, but the latter two are acting way above their station in the name of collecting political points.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Bode uses him as a distraction to escape the Imperial Stronghold with his daughter Kata, Cal reaches his rage-breaking point and touchs the Dark Side of the Force. We get to see what happens when someone decides to push a Jedi over the edge which Cal demonstrates as he single-handedly slaughters the large number of Imperial forces that stand in-between him and Bode, even breaking apart reinforced doors with his anger. If not for Merrin, Cal likely would've reached the point of no return if he killed Bode's associate Denvik out of vengeance.
• Running Gag:
  • Cal's Poncho from the first game is mocked a few times.
  • There's a running gag about how chatty the Separatist Battle Droids are. Cal will note this several times (and wonder who programmed this). At one point Bode and Cal come upon two B2 Super Battle Droids having an argument. Cal tells Bode "It happens more than you think." to which Bode replies "No wonder they lost".

S-Z

• Sacrificial Lamb: Bravo, Gabs, Koob, and Lizz are introduced in Chapter 1 as Cal's new crew after Cal, Cere, Greez, and Merrin split ways prior to the story. Their interactions show that they've gone through a lot together with Cal. Unfortunately, in the same chapter, Koob and Lizz are killed by the Ninth Sister, Gabs takes a fatal shot to protect Cal, and Bravo dies just as it appears he's safely escaped with Cal.
• Salvage Pirates: The Bedlam Raiders, a pirate crew who preys on the salvagers and prospectors seeking their fortunes on Koboh. As their ranks include Gen'Dai, Mandalorians, and the aforementioned reprogrammed battle droids, they are powerful enough to pose a threat to a Jedi like Cal. They throw their lot in with Dagan to become a third party that opposes both the Empire and the Stinger Mantis crew, as their leader Rayvis is Dagan's old buddy.
• Saved by Canon: Unlike in the first game, Cere actually fights Vader on equal ground in a full-blown boss battle and knocks him to the ground at the conclusion, leaving him open for what is most assuredly a Mutual Kill, as Cere lunges at him just as Vader reactivates his lightsaber. Of course, being that Vader is supposed to appear in the original trilogy, Cere ends up missing Vader's chest by a few crucial inches, while Vader's lightsaber hits its mark.
• Scenic-Tour Level: The game begins as Cal is taken prisoner and walked through a section of Coruscant, which establishes the oppressiveness of the Empire since the section is currently under lockdown by orders of an Imperial Senator, the people are struggling to get by, and Imperial propaganda from said Senator is displayed on large screens.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook:
  • Cal now possesses Mind Trick abilities, allowing him to temporarily turn most non-droid enemies into allies. With the right skill upgrades, he can even Force Pull stormtroopers to himself and then make them fire at targets of his choosing.
  • BD-1 can once again hack damaged KX droids, turning them into allies. Various upgrades found or purchased in the course of the game extend this ability to other droid types.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cal is heavily implied to be struggling with PTSD as a result of his life since childhood having been pretty much nothing but fighting, killing, and running, adding an implied extra motive to his desire to find a place where people can escape the Empire's tyranny and the seemingly endless war. Dagan Gera is similarly a Jedi who was driven mad by his growing obsession with Tanalorr and Santari's betrayal.
• Shop Fodder: Priorite, High Republic datadiscs, Jedha scrolls, and bounty pucks serve no purpose other than to be traded to various merchants for upgrades and additional customization options. The pucks are awarded after certain optional boss battles, while the other three can be found scattered about the homeworld of their corresponding merchant.
• Shout-Out:
  • One area has a part where a group of small aliens show you how to Wall Jump your way up a shaft.
  • While en route to Jedha, Merrin comments she's excited to go to Tanalorr. Greez asks her to not open a Witch School there.
  • The three-way Mexican Standoff between Cal, Caij, and Boba Fett is one to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Caij even paraphrasing Tuco's Mad Libs Catchphrase:
    Caij: There's two kinds of people in this galaxy: those with live thermal detonators and those without.
  • Large bird-like aliens called Nekkos can be used as mounts. They come in a variety of colors. Including some who are bright yellow and look like Chocobos.
  • Dropkicking an enemy while wearing a mullet gets the "Road House" achievement/trophy while wearing a headband and training gets the "Cobra Cal" achievement/trophy.
  • Upon entering the Fogged Expanse, Cal says 'Must've been thriving here, once. Now it's a ghost town.', said in the exact same tone as MacMillan's iconic line. Considering Respawn Entertainment is comprised of former Infinity Ward staff who worked on that game, it also serves somewhat as a Production Throwback.
  • The long legged Spamel's on Jedha, visually resemble the Striders from The Dark Crystal.
  • The Anchorites wear face-obscuring beetle-shell helmets, live in an earthen temple, and call the player "Outlander."
  • Max Rebo is namedropped and his new "gig" is specifically referenced, recalling the classic Robot Chicken sketch wherein he bemoaned the loss of his gig playing for Jabba.
  • The fisherman character is named Skoova Stev and wears a diving suit, bringing to mind the action figure “Scuba Steve” from Big Daddy.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: All the main characters have updated their outfits to show how they have changed since Fallen Order.
  • Cere has shaved her head and donned Jedi robes as she works on a new archive, showing that she has regained her belief in the Order and is working with the Hidden Path to restore what she can.
  • Cal's default outfit has also drastically changed since Fallen Order. Whereas in the first game, Cal wore his drab and utilitarian scrapper's uniform, in Survivor, he wears a more distinctive and grown-up jacket vest and cargo pants combination.
  • Merrin has ditched her Nightsister garb for a more conventional look, donning a jacket and pants and cutting her hair shorter.
  • Greez has grown his hair out with a much more relaxed outfit, reflecting the saloon he now runs on Koboh, and is sporting a prosthetic arm that he earned in the interquel novel Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Daho Sejan expresses this belief at the start, declaring that Cal simply has no chance of defeating the Empire alone no matter how heroically determined he is and accusing him of clinging to an outdated way of thinking. Cal spends much of the story fearing he's right, but the narrative ultimately swings the other way.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Bode, the newest member of the Stinger Mantis crew, is really an Imperial spy and Dark Jedi out for his own agenda.
• Society Is to Blame: Many of the villains hold this view, essentially deciding Then Let Me Be Evil in response to the flaws in the system that make the galaxy under the Empire a Crapsack World. Cal flirts with but ultimately rejects this line of thought, realizing that a difficult situation is no excuse to abandon one's morality and that What You Are in the Dark matters.
• Space Western: Leans into this trope even more than is usual for the franchise. Apart from Cal wielding his new blaster pistol like an Old West gunslinger's six-shooter, the main hub world of Koboh is basically just a sci-fi Western setpiece, with a small mining town built around the local saloon being menaced by bandits, and a semi-desert climate that closely resembles the American West.
• Stance System: Cal has access to five different lightsaber "Stances", though you can only switch between any two you set at meditation points on the fly, and you unlock the first three during the introductory Coruscant level.
  • Single Blade, the Form VI: Niman of the stances, though with slight emphasis on cutting down lone enemies. It is average across all stats, and has skills, when upgraded, that cover most areas such as mobility, blaster deflection (up to two) and ranged saber throws, making it reliable in many situations.
  • Double-Bladed, a style where its basic attacks consist of multi-hit spins, on top of Force attacks that cover large areas, making it best used against groups. It is the most defensive of the stances, boasting high stamina and the unique feature to reflect all incoming blaster fire after perfectly parrying the first shot.
  • Dual Wield, splitting the lightsaber into two sabers that encourages constant, fast-paced Jar'Kai. In exchange for having less stamina, Cal can fit in more attacks in a single window compared to the other stances and could abort an attack while in the middle of performing one to avoid damage.
  • Blaster, which has Cal use a handgun-type blaster in one hand while changing his lightsaber attacks to a one-handed fencing style much like Dooku. The blaster lets one damage enemies out of lightsaber range, but doing so consumes ammo that can only restored by landing hits with the lightsaber.
  • Crossguard, equipping the lightsaber with a crossguard-style emitter like Kylo Ren's and turning it into a longsword. It's slow and requires expert timing and spacing so that you don't get hit while you're attacking, but it lands the heaviest hits that rip through an enemy's stamina quick.
• Super Mode: Slow Time has been changed from an active ability Cal can use on enemies and objects to an "ultimate" ability that has to be recharged through attacking, parrying and taking damage that affects everything. In the climax of the game and postgame after Cal's flirted with and reigned in his inner darkness, this is upgraded to also have a Dark Side berserker-like effect, where Cal switches his saber stance to Form VII and begins attacking ferociously and relentlessly and doing enough damage to kill all but the strongest enemies in a handful of attacks.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Cal touches the Dark Side due to his fury at Bode's betrayal. This greatly boosts his abilities, but his morals also take a nosedive and he nearly succumbs to the Dark Side's influence, needing to be snapped out of it by Merrin pleading with him not to lose himself before he brutally murders Denvik with the Force. In the final battle with Bode, Cal taps into the Dark Side again and this time corrals it enough to only disable Bode's blasters but he still ends the game admitting to Cere's pyre that he is scared of how close he's gotten to losing himself to the dark.
• Sword and Gun: The Blaster stance lets Cal wield a blaster pistol in addition to a lightsaber.
  • The "Hybrid" BX Commando droids weild a vibroblade in one hand and a blaster in the other, taking potshots at Cal from far away before closing the distance and hacking at him.
• Take Your Time: No matter how urgent the main threat, Cal always has time to fight bounty hunters or legendary creatures, investigate High Republic architecture, chase down various rumors, or simply hunt collectibles... even if doing so means a trip offworld.
• Time Skip: Five years have passed since the last game.
• Together in Death: Implied. Cere's last word is saying Trilla's name as she looks into the distance, implying that her beloved student is beckoning her on to the next life.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Cal's skills with the lightsaber have definitely improved in the five-year Time Skip. This is best exemplified with his Dual Wielding, which has now gained its own full-fledged moveset as opposed to only being exclusive to a few special moves. As a reflection of this, the Ninth Sister — previously a Climax Boss and depicted as a threat to Cal secondary only to the Second Sister in Fallen Order — is the Starter Villain of the prologue and gets subjected to a Curb-Stomp Battle when Cal unlocks the dual saber stance against her.
  • Once Cal unlocks the Crossguard and Blaster stances after gaining the requisite weapon/lightsaber upgrade, his combat options further improve in a fight, granting him access to previously-unseen fighting methods for handling foes that he adapts to extremely quickly, despite his unfamiliarity with them prior. In particular, he notes that his master disparaged using firearms in a fight, but proves to have a swift quick-draw and dead-eye when using Bode's old blaster.
  • Cal's Force powers have also grown since the first game, as he can now lift multiple enemies at once and his slow ability has its own energy bar instead of drawing from his Force meter.
  • In contrast to her showing in the first game, Cere Junda has a chance to very nearly kill Darth Vader in a proper duel, pushing him to his limits and only losing at the last second by dumb luck. That said, he's also clearly not fighting her completely seriously for the first 2/3 of the fight, being more focused on breaking her will with his superior combat prowess, and only getting serious once she damaged him by crushing him with burning debris.
• Tragic Villain: Dagan Gera is a murderous madman who has become just as bad as the Empire and wants to raise an army to conquer the galaxy, but he became that way as a result the struggles of trying to reach Tanalorr and the Jedi council's refusal to stand and fight for the planet. This leads him to murder fellow Jedi which in turn leads to a perceived betrayals from his lover Santari and the Jedi Council, the former who chose to lock him a way hoping he'd shake off whatever happened came over him. Dagan by the time of the story is a monster.
• Trauma Button: At one point Cal has to use an escape pod. Last time he was in one was immediately after his master was mortally wounded in Order 66, and had to make the journey with his dead body and broken lightsaber. Struck with sudden anxiety even before he gets in, the cutscene is one long take that makes it clear that Cal is incredibly tense due to more than just the rough ride.
• Trojan Prisoner: In the opening Cal is brought to Senator Sejan as a prisoner; the Coruscant Security guards escorting him are actually his allies in disguise.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Dagan Gera refuses to consider Cal as a significant threat to the Bedlam Raiders and their plans despite Cal carving his way through their ranks single-handedly and Rayvis considering him a Worthy Opponent, despite otherwise respecting his ally's opinions and wishes. Far from just being mere arrogance though, he is indeed more powerful and skilled than Cal, and can still fight him to a rough stalemate even when he's still adjusting to his missing sword-arm. By the time Dagan regains his missing arm and is back at full power, Cal and Bode's best efforts amount to a Curb Stomp Cushion against him in direct combat. However, Dagan underestimates the danger Cal possesses beyond his lightsaber abilities, and leaves himself open for a mortal wound when Cal instead turns his Mind Rape back on himself...though he still comes close to killing Cal with a force-choke regardless before Bode intercedes, again validating his own opinion that Cal was not ready to challenge him to an all-out duel.
  • During the first rounds of his fight with Cere, Vader clearly did not go all-out, believing that he would not need his full capabilities to defeat and break Cere's will. Unfortunately for Vader, his arrogance, just like how he once underestimated Kenobi, allows Cere to contend with him much better than he had expected. That said, as soon as he realizes that Cere is indeed a threat to him when she drops down burning debris on him, Vader stops messing around due to his injuries, although by then, it doesn't stop Cere from coming very close to killing him, and he's only able to win due to Foregone Conclusion causing Cere's last attack to miss while his just manages to land on her.
• Underground Monkey: Of a sort, in that they're a new enemy for the game but familiar for the larger franchise; one of the introduced enemy types are Mogu, a subspecies of Wampa found on Koboh and adapted for the more tropical environment.
• Underground Railroad: The Hidden Path from Obi-Wan Kenobi returns, with Cere and Eno revealed to be working for them.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • Shortly after Bode's betrayal, Cal finds himself hopping on a speeder bike and zipping through Jedha's canyons.
  • While the controls are more or less the same as the rest of the game, the section where the player is controling Cere Junda is likely to find them using a fighting stance they've had little to no experience with since the prologue.
• Unwitting Pawn: Of all people, Bode manages to turn Darth Vader himself into one of these. He sends out a call alerting Vader to the Hidden Path's location on Jeda, specifically telling the Imperial forces Cere Junda is there to lure him in and thus setting the more powerful force-user on Cal's side in a fight she cannot win whilst he uses the chaos of Vader's attack to escape with the Compass to Tanalorr. This also exposes Denvik's power-jockeying actions to Vader and ensures that he'll follow the trail to him afterwards and punish him for his insubordination, further eliminating those in the Empire who'd be searching for Bode. Furthermore, he additionally lures Cal to Denvik's base, planning on using his Roaring Rampage of Revenge to either eliminate Denvik directly and turn Vadar's attention towards him in his search, or have the two fight each other there whilst he again escapes to safety. That step of the plan doesn't quite work as he hoped due to Cal catching up quicker than Bode expected and Vader being delayed due to Cere unexpectedly injuring him in their fight, but a force echo Cal finds after the main game confirms that Vader did eventually eliminate Denvik for his actions, meaning Bode was able to indirectly manipulate the most powerful Sith in the galaxy into serving his interests without ever meeting him.
• Video Game Caring Potential:
  • As in the previous game, Cal can pet Boglings. Doing so nets the player an achievement, but no benefits in-game.
  • Cal can turn some barren plots of dirt on the roof of Pyloon's Saloon into a full-fledged rooftop garden, and even recruit someone to tend it in his absence. As with petting the Boglings, there is no in-game benefit other than some minor XP gain for learning about the various plants.
  • Cal can spend time befriending various saloon patrons. Some turn out to be quest givers, and one or two others will give Cal some form of upgrade if he spends enough time talking to them. With most, however, Cal is simply making new friends.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You get the ability to ride large flightless birds called Nekko. Like in Super Mario World, you can use this to gain an extra jump in mid-air. Also just like that game, you can also use this to gain an extra jump over pits, sacrificing the poor creature in the process. At the very least, doing this in some areas can be more of a hindrance than helpful, acting as a sort of punishment. (There is a trophy/achievement for doing this titled "They're Probably Fine".)
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The Ninth Sister averts this, as she has gained quite a few new moves on top of all her old ones. Cal has gained even more and defeats her in the prologue.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The Ninth Sister starts descending into a feral rage as Cal reveals he knows her name and past, which off-balances her enough for him to kill her. Once he says her name, she stops talking altogether, just screaming in rage at most up until her death.
  • Dagan goes completely insane as he starts losing to Cal and Bode. And then Cal uses Dark Illusion to imitate Santari and his last threads of sanity shatter entirely, distracting him long enough for them to deliver the killing blow.
  • Bode maintains his composure throughout all the face-offs with Cal after he betrays the heroes, but this ultimately breaks when the Stinger Mantis crew successfully follow him to Tanalorr despite his best efforts to cut off all access to the planet that he didn't control. Despite their pleas to avoid conflict for his daughter's sake, he attacks them in a frenzied anger to ensure nobody else will ever find the hidden planet, several times endangering Kata from his reckless attacks and completely unaware of it.
• Villainous Friendship: Dagan Gera and Rayvis are actually dear friends and speak to each other with genuine warmth and respect you really wouldn't expect from two men like them.
• War Is Hell: A major theme. The war against the Empire and memories of the Clone Wars are both taking heavy tolls on pretty much the entire cast when the game begins, Cal himself especially, and Dagan Gera was driven to insanity partly by the horrific sights he witnessed and acts he committed in the war against the Nihil. The overarching plot of the game is a search for Tanalorr, a hidden world where the Stinger Mantis crew hope they and other people can escape the seemingly endless warfare and death.
• Wham Shot:
  • On Jedha, Cal, Merrin, and BD-1 have made their way to the Path's headquarters... and out comes Eno Cordova, the Jedi Master from Fallen Order.
  • Dagan Gera has one in his introduction, when he bleeds his lightsaber Kyber crystal in seconds, showing how far down the Dark Side he is.
  • Bode pointing his blaster right at Cordova… and pulling the trigger.
  • After Cal learns that Bode has been a double agent for the Empire all along and summoned them to attack Jedha, he goes to confront Bode... who shoves Cal back with a Force Push.
    Cal: [in disbelief] You can't be...
    Bode: [igniting Dagan's lightsaber] You're not the only one who survived.
  • During Cere Junda's desperate battle to delay an overwhelming Imperial attack, just when the coast seems clear for the moment, the door to the room shatters and Darth Vader himself emerges from the smoke....
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Cal kills stormtroopers and other nameless mooks by the hundreds without pause, yet his temptation to murder Denvik is treated with realistic weight as morally questionable and a step towards a dark path that he backs away from, presumably due to it being an enraged murder of someone who was already disarmed and in no shape to fight back, rather than self-defense, pushing him further into the Dark Side.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dagan reprimands Cal, and by extension the Jedi Order, for the current state of the Galaxy.
  How could you let the Galaxy fall to this unworthy machine of an Empire?!
• The Worf Effect: To display Cal's significantly greater skills, even with the Ninth Sister displaying more abilities, meaning she's grown stronger too, Cal demolishes her as soon as he gets serious and easily decapitates her. Not only that, whereas it takes multiple Jedi masters to capture Rayvis in the past, Cal is able to single-handedly take him down, to where Rayvis admits defeat and would have acknowledged him as his master... If he hadn't already decided to remain loyal to Dagan to the very end, as Cal is one of the only two people to ever best him in a fight, demonstrating that while he is still not quite up there with the greatest warriors of the Jedi, Cal has still grown to be superior to regular Jedi Masters.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • During their first and second fights, Dagan was still adjusting to the loss of his arm and his long recovery period in the bacta tank, which allows Cal to reach a stalemate with him in those two altercations, but even then the Jedi Master still proves to be too much for Cal to truly defeat, as whenever Cal gains the upper hand, he is quick to return the match to an even contest. During the third round, with his arm restored to him and at full power, Dagan displays just how much Cal still has to grow before he could possibly claim a spot as one of the most powerful warriors in the history of the Jedi by trouncing both him and Bode. In fact, he just makes his eyes glow and telepathically incapacitates Bode, who may have been holding himself from revealing his Jedi abilities, but considering how the man was willing to later on reveal the secret when Cal has pushed him, it's clear that he was utterly helpless by whatever Dagan did to him, and he manhandles Cal with the Force before beating him to the ground in lightsaber combat. It takes Cal turning his Mind Rape back on himself in order to defeat him — and even then, he nearly force-choked Cal to death after being impaled if not for Bode's intervention.
  • Bode is clearly not as skilled as Cal in using the subtle tricks of the force, and is extremely rusty in lightsaber combat, having a very unrefined fighting style in both that comes down to using brute force to augment his blasters. Nonetheless, Cal is so stunned by the reveal that he's both an Imperial spy and a Dark Jedi that he's able to push him backwards off a cliff and stun him with a blaster shot clipping his head to buy enough time to escape. Likewise, their rematch during the Final Boss fight has Bode hold his own against both Cal and Merrin, but it's clear that neither of them were going all-out while he was. As soon as he is separated from Merrin and Bode seems to have the upper hand, Cal finally has had enough and proceeds to demonstrate how he could have actually taken down Bode on his own by effortlessly paralyzing him using the Dark Side and then proceeding to trounce him in lightsaber combat while barely breaking a sweat, and the only reason why Bode even comes close to killing them both is that Cal still gives him another chance as he doesn't want to kill him right in front of his daughter. In fact, even when Bode manages to pin down Cal, Cal doesn't take long to break free from Bode's grip.
  • Cere nearly defeats Darth Vader in a fight thanks to her Character Development and overcoming her temptation to use the Dark Side, but on his end, he's clearly toying with her for most of the fight and not fighting seriously at all, trying to break her will with the hopelessness of defeating him. It's only after Cere seriously hurts him with flaming debris that he gets serious, and by then, the fires have also clearly damaged his cybernetics underneath the armour — which doesn't stop him from mortally wounding Cere in an instant when she goes for a killing blow.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Once you get the Crossguard stance, Cal can perform a dropkick by doing a sprinting attack. If you do it while wearing a mullet, you even get an achievement called 'Road House'.
• You Didn't Ask: When Cal asks Cere why she never told him about the Jedi she was helping, she bluntly tells him that he never asked her what she was doing. That said, she follows it up with the much better reason that Cal is a high-profile Jedi fugitive and bringing him in was a risk to the network.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Daho Sejan gets murdered by Ninth Sister as punishment for "harboring terrorists", but it's clear that the real reason is the Inquisitors being pissed that he 1.) was trying to squeeze in on their Jedi hunting, and 2.) failed at it.
  • Denvik tries to provoke Cal into killing him expressly because he'd rather die quickly than face whatever nightmares Darth Vader and Palpatine can whip up to punish him for his screw-up.
• You Shall Not Pass!: After Bode betrays the Mantis crew and an Imperial assault threatens to overrun the Archive, Cere Junda fights to buy time for the Mantis crew and the Anchorites to escape.
• Zero-Effort Boss: While navigating the Imperial Post on Koboh, you'll encounter a Stormtrooper who you can get to open the way forward using a mind trick. At the end of the area, he'll fight you as a named boss called 'Rick the Door Technician' who uses the same moveset as a basic Scout Trooper. Unsurprisingly, he falls within a few hits as well.

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Cal... Guide her through the darkness.