Ahead of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, I have returned to Fallen Order, just like I’m sure many of you have. As I replayed the game for the first time in many♈ ye🍃ars, I found myself wondering – just what is it people like so much about Cal Kestis?
Unfortunately, I personally believe the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:milquetoast allegations against Cal are true. I get what the game was trying to do, and I respect its attempt to represent the devastating effects of trauma on young Jedi affected by Order 66. But like many players, I think the game’s backstory was doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to Cal’s character. Throughout the game, Cal is mostly alone with BD-1, a small droid that s𒅌lices tech and jumps into boxes littered around the world to find collectables for him. Predictably, there isn’t much conversation to be had. For most of the game, C🐻al isn’t given a shot at proper characterisation, because there’s little dialogue to express character with in the first place.
This wouldn’t be a problem if his interactions with other characters told us anything about him, but they don’t. The game touches on themes that could have been far deeper explored with Cal’s character, like his desire for self-preservation versus his desire to fight the Empire by rebuilding the Jedi Order. After all, he was in hiding when the game started, but after being rescued by Cere and Greez, he just goes along with it. There’s no arguing with himself, no chance for him to think about the danger he’s putting hims🦹elf in, not even the slightest thought of whether his safety is worth a shot at rebuilding the Order. He just… does it. It doesn’t solidify him as selfless or selfish, it solidifies him as nothing.
What do we really know about Cal’s character? We know he’s persistent, despite what he believes are insurmountable challenges, but even those challenges are easily fixed. For example, when he finds a crystal to repair his broken lightsaber, it breaks in his hands, and he slumps to the ground, defeated. Then BD-1 does some good, old-fashioned motivational speaking (in a way) and he gets up, fixes the lightsaber with ease, and gets right back to fighting Stormtroopers. The game doesn’t giveꦫ us a chance to root for him, 🎃because there’s just not much to root against.
Cal feels like just a regular Jedi, doing the right thing and overcoming every o♏bstacle. He doesn’t struggle against darker impulses, like the far more compelling Cere does. He never says anything funny, unlike the belatedly introduced Merrin. The most interesting thing about him is his painful past, and that doesn’t make for a good protagonist.
When our own George Foster, a known Cal Kestis stan, previewed Jedi: Survivor, he said that it was clear Cal wa🍎s a different cꩵharacter. He’s lonely, tired, and lacking direction. The game humanises him by taking away his puppy-dog demeanꦗour, making him more layered and flawed. However, the preview was just a preview – it’s yet to be seen if Cal’s character will actually get the narrative foꦇllow-through he deserves.
It’s easy for a story to dump more trauma on a character, but it’s far harder to use that to make a character seem multi-faceted and human, especially when Cal was almost a blank slate in Fallen Order. Characters are turned bitter and angry all the time – how will they use this to actually say something about Cal? I want to see pain represented, and how that pain is then taken out on other people to perpetuate a cycle. I want a redemption arc. But I don’t just want anger to be used as a cheap way to make a character more interesཧting, beꦿcause it doesn’t work. He’ll just be angry, and players everywhere will roll their eyes.