Bastila Shan

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Bastila Shan
Star Wars character

Position	Jedi Sentinel (Padawan Rank), Briefly Sith apprentice to Darth Malak
Homeworld	Talravin
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Height	Unknown (Estimated between 5'3" and 5'7")
Affiliation	Jedi, Galactic Republic, Sith
Portrayed by	Jennifer Hale (voice)

Bastila Shan is a fictional character from the 2003 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In the video game she is voiced by Jennifer Hale, to whom she bears a striking resemblance.

1 Early history
2 The Second Sith War
3 Alternate endings
4 Trivia
5 External links

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Note: In the game, the player may be either male or female. The main character is canonically considered male, so will be referred to as such. However, if the player chooses to be female, some of the plot points discussed here will be transferred to Carth.

[edit] Early history

Bastila Shan was an archetype for the Jedi Order. Like many of her compatriots, she was trained from a young age because of her strong natural gift for the Force. In particular, she became renowned for her skill in the rare art of Battle Meditation, an ability which could turn the tides of battle by strengthening one side and weakening the other. Bastila's prowess in this ability thrust her into the spotlight of the Galactic Republic's struggle against the Sith during the Jedi Civil War.

Although little is known of her history before she became a Jedi, she reveals to Revan that she has fond memories of her father, and bad memories of her mother. She says that her mother would push her father into going on treasure hunts, only to find nothing. Bastila remembers that she was constantly on their ship, moving from planet to planet.

However, Bastila does have a brief encounter with her mother on Tatooine during her mission to find the ancient star maps that would lead to the star forge. Her mother claimed that she was dying and tried to reach out to Bastila while slandering her father, but Bastila remained true to her high views of her father and refused to listen to her mother. Bastila's strongly mixed emotions within her family might have spurned her later fall to the dark side.

Bastila was known throughout the Order as a somewhat arrogant and brash youth. Her Jedi Masters had advised her to be cautious, but Bastila proved almost too impulsive to let the Order guide her themselves. Despite her overconfidence, she was always well aware of the burden of responsibility that weighed her, and all Jedi, down.

[edit] The Second Sith War

"Malak preyed upon her weaknesses." - Jolee Bindo

Shortly before Darth Malak's rise to power, Bastila wielded a single-bladed yellow lightsaber, the standard weapon of Jedi Sentinels at that time. However, by the end of the war, Bastila had exchanged this sword for a double-bladed yellow lightsaber. The double-bladed lightsaber was first invented by the great Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun. A difficult weapon to master, it has been wielded by extremely few over the millennia, and at no time in greater abundance than during the Jedi Civil War, when it became very popular in Darth Revan's new Sith Empire but also among a few Jedi.

Bastila was part of a strike force sent to capture Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith, during the Jedi Civil War. Though Bastila and her strike team managed to corner the Dark Lord on the bridge of his flagship, Darth Malak chose that moment to betray his Master by opening fire on Revan's ship. Though Revan was severly injured and almost killed in the attack, Bastila managed to save his life, thus forging a powerful Force bond between the two. Revan was brought to the Jedi Council, who performed a memory wipe on him, gave him a new identity as a faithful and skilled member of the Republic, and was later requested to serve under Bastila on the ship Endar Spire. Along with the loss of his previous identity of the Dark Lord Revan, he also lost all remembrance of his force sensitivity, though the force still worked strongly through him without his knowledge.

Over the planet of Taris, the Endar Spire was ambushed by a Sith fleet intent on capturing Bastila, killing most of the crew. Among the few survivors were Bastila, Revan, and Republic officer Carth Onasi, who took escape pods down to the planet Taris. Revan and Carth Onasi shared the last functional escape pod, while Bastila had previously escaped in a seperate one. Revan and Carth were able to escape undetected from their escape pod, however, Bastila's escape pod crashed in the lower city on Taris, and she was quickly kidnapped by a swoop bike gang known as the Black Vulkars. Her lightsaber was lost to her, only to be found by the Black Vulkars later. The Vulkars believed her to only a simple Republic officer, and planned to award her as a slave to the winner of the annual Taris swoop race.

Meanwhile, Revan and Carth set up base in an abandoned apartment in the Upper City of Taris and eventually learned of Bastila's enslavement. Hoping to rescue Bastila by winning the swoop racing tournament, Revan volunteered to ride a dangerous experimental swoop. He emerged victorious, but Brejik, leader of the Black Vulkars, had come to the knowledge of Bastila's true identity as a Jedi, refused to surrender her, claiming that Revan had cheated because of the use of the prototype swoopbike. It was at this moment that Bastila used the Force to free herself from her cage, showing extreme mental strength because she was restrained by a "Neural Inhibitor", and together she and Revan finished off Brejik and his gang.

Bastila escaped Taris by stealing a crime lord's ship, the Ebon Hawk. Revan, Bastila, and Carth, along with Twi'lek slicer Mission Vao, her Wookiee partner Zaalbar, Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, and the astromech droid T3-M4, escaped the planet just as Malak destroyed the Taris city with an orbital bombardment in an attempt to end his long hunt for Bastila.

After making it off Taris, the group left for the Jedi Academy on Dantooine to seek guidance on training the memory-wiped Revan. After a remarkably fast training, the two were sent to investigate ruins on Dantooine which had been visited by the Sith Lords Revan and Malak. There they found a Star Map which told of the Star Forge, an ancient alien artifact of unknown significance. The map showed the planets Tatooine, Manaan, Kashyyyk, and Korriban as having other maps. In order to defeat the Sith, the Jedi enclave council sent Revan, Bastila, and their companions to find other Star Maps on these planets and piece together the location of the Star Forge.

During their travels, Bastila became increasingly intrigued by Revan. Although she had been charged with guiding him along the path of the Light, she eventually began to consider her role as a redundant one due to Revan's actions. Gradually the two fell in love, but while Revan had no reservations Bastila refused to give in, hating herself for loving the man who had been the scourge of the Jedi.

As the group made their way to the fifth Star Map, the Ebon Hawk was captured by the Sith flagship, the Leviathan, and Bastila was kidnapped by the evil Admiral Saul Karath. Imprisoned along with the rest of the crew, Bastila was brutally tortured by the sadistic Republic traitor in order to coerce Revan into revealing their mission, though Karath already knew the answers to all of his questions. It wasn't long before Bastila, Revan, and Carth escaped, however, killing Admiral Karath and battling their way toward the Leviathan's docking bay. On their way to freedom, however, they were intercepted by Darth Malak who revealed Revan's true identity.

Though Revan and Carth managed to escape, Bastila was kidnapped by the Dark Lord and held as his prisoner. After torturing her for weeks with Force lightning, Malak eventually succeeded in forcing Bastila to give in to her hate. She fell to the dark side and became the Dark Lord's apprentice, replacing Darth Bandon as Malak's double-bladed lightsaber-wielding apprentice. Bastila, consumed with the treachery inherent in the ways of the Sith, met with Revan atop an ancient Rakatan temple and tried to persuade him to reclaim his former title of Dark Lord of the Sith.

Revan refused to give in to the dark side again. After an intense lightsaber duel, Bastila escaped on a G-Wing ship and returned to the Star Forge in rage and shame, where she and Revan eventually faced off a second time. Even though her powers were continually renewed by the Star Forge, Bastila found herself unable to defeat Revan. Beaten at last, she begged the former Dark Lord to take her life. Revan refused, however, and eventually persuaded Bastila to denounce the dark side and return to the light. Bastila then used her Battle Meditation to turn the tide of the battle in the Republic's favor, allowing the Star Forge to be destroyed after Revan had slain his former apprentice Malak in personal combat.

After the battle, the Jedi reconvened, Bastila and Revan, along with their companions Republic soldier Carth Onasi, Twi'lek slicer Mission Vao, Zaalbar the Wookiee, astromech droid T3-M4, Mandalorian warrior Canderous Ordo, Juhani the Cathar Jedi, hunter-killer assassin droid HK-47, and former Jedi Jolee Bindo, were honored as the saviors of the galaxy.

A year after the Star Forge's destruction, Revan, having remembered a great threat to the galaxy he discovered as the Dark Lord, set out alone into the Unknown Regions, leaving his companions behind. Bastila remained behind.

[edit] Alternate endings

[edit] Bastila's Death or Redemption

After confronting Bastila again on the Star Forge, Revan defeated her in a light-saber duel. Bastila begged Revan to kill her. The player can choose either to kill or to spare her, in any case, Revan later confronted Darth Malak and killed him as well. With Bastila dead or supporting the Republic, the Sith fleet lost the advantage of Bastila's battle meditation. The Republic destroyed the Star Forge after the Sith starships fell into disarray. Victorious, Admiral Dodonna awarded Revan and the surviving crewmen of the Ebon Hawk with the Cross of Glory, and Master Vandar honors Revan as a redeemed Jedi Knight. In the canonical ending, she survives.

[edit] Revan and Bastila - Dark Lords of the Sith

If the player chooses to give in to the dark side, Revan and Bastila kill Jolee Bindo and Juhani on top of the Rakatan Temple on the Unknown World. When returning to the Ebon Hawk, Revan persuades the rest of the party to join him. The droids HK-47 and T3-M4 do so willingly, being programmed to follow any orders given to them by their current master (Revan is HK-47's original constructor), and Canderous Ordo pledges his loyalty to the man he believed would bring him battles in which he could find honor, as he had in the Mandalorian War. Carth Onasi refuses and flees. Mission Vao refuses to believe that Revan has once more turned to the dark side and does not run away. Zaalbar initially agrees to join Revan as he owes him a "life debt"; with the Force Persuade power, Revan can force Zaalbar to kill Mission.

Before approaching the Star Forge, Bastila persuades the Republic to attack the Sith fleet stationed there as a measure to defeat the Republic. The Republic is under the impression that she would use her Battle Meditation against the Sith, but she will turn it against the Republic just before Revan faces Malak. Master Vandar realizes this but is unable to do anything.

After Revan defeats Malak, he reclaims the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and Bastila will become his apprentice. Together, they will unite the Sith and set out to conquer the galaxy.

[edit] KotOR II Dark Side Entrance

In the sequel to Knights of the Old Republic, if the player character specifies in the beginning of the game that Revan turned to the dark side, there is a chance to find a recording of Bastila giving T3-M4 a "final order" by working on T3's memory core with the "computer" skill, as well as a Sith Holocron in Uthar Wynn's room at the Sith Academy on Korriban. Once the Exile goes into the room, the Holocron starts, and it seems that Bastila waited on Korriban in the Sith Academy for Revan to return. She says that she finally lost patience and left to go look for Revan. She also appears as a vision in the Shyrack caves on Korriban, as one of the few Jedi visions that join Malak.

[edit] Trivia

Vima Sunrider was originally planned to be one of the main characters in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Later, the developers scratched that idea and created a new character, whose name was borrowed from the Cathar Jedi: Bastila Shan. The Cathar Jedi was then given a new name, Juhani. This was due to an alleged copyright infringement of the name 'Sunrider', causing the name Vima Sunrider to be replaced.

According to some comments by a developer posted at the BioWare forums, Bastila is in the age range of 19-23 within the first game.