One common complaint about (beyond its lack of fast travel and those bloody poncho🐬s) is how its protagonist, last of the Jedi no-reaജlly-this-time-we-mean-it Cal Kestis, is boring. While the ginger Jedi had his fans (read: me), the majority of players didn’t gravitate towards him as a leading man like Respawn might have hoped.
In fact, even four years after Fallen Order’s launch, Star Wars fans are still debating whether Cal is a boring protagonist, with the majority of votes saying that he is. Being the most beautiful man to walk the Earth aside, Cal being boring or “milquetoast” is a sentiment I never agreed with. Cal seemingly being “the last Jedi” is on🎐e of the biggest Star Wars tropes out there, but, unlike Luke and Rey Skywalker, Cal was actually born and raised a Jedi instead of just hearing about it decades later, making his story and all he lost that much more tragic.
We’ve seen the consequences of Order 66 tons of times in Star Wars by now, but witnessing Cal’s lonely life on Bracca as he hides his powers and tries not to make any connections with his latent aꦿbilities hits a lot harder than the rest. He is truly alone and living in constant fear, and the Cal we see in game opening is nothing more than a shell of who he once was, a man who refuses to process what’s happened to him and lives his life out of fear of the consequences for himself and t𒁃hose around him if things were to change.
Throughout Fallen Order, Cal slowly confronts and accepts his trauma and grief, getting back in touch with the Force and finding a family in the Mantis crew. Again, it’s nothing new for Star Wars, but remains a gr๊eat character arc with important highs and lows that showcase his growth and acceptance of being one of the last Jedi alive.
All of this is to say that I’ve never agreed that Cal Kestis is a boring protagonist. If you did think that, then is looking to change your mind, as it’s showing a completely𒅌 new side to Cal - this boy needs a damn hug and some sleep.
I can’t talk too much about the specific story events that took place in my four-hour hands-o💎n time with Jedi: Survivor last w♏eek, but throughout my time, the thing that stood out the most to me was how different Cal seemed. He still occasionally quips with BD-1 and helps people, but without the Mantis crew b♐y his side, he seems lonely, tired, and unsure what to do next.
This all comes to a head when he finally sees Greez on Koboh for the first time in years - the two are happy to reunite, but there’s a clear tension between them thanks to everyone going their separate ways, and Greez is clearly as worried about Cal as the rest of us. Meanwhile, Cal seems to brush him off and even snap at him when he’s just trying to help🌌, a far cry from the shy version of him we saw in the first game.
Glimpses of this side of his personality could be seen in Battle Scars, a novel that shows what happened between Fallen Order and Survivor. In the book, we see Cal get somewhat jealous over Merrin’s relationship and doubt Cere’s commitment to taking down the Empire. He’s definitely more like his Fallꦆen Order self than in Survivor, but the cracks of the heavy burden he🍨 carries definitely start to show.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that we’re seeing the dark side of Cal, but his character in both Battle Scars and Survivor feels much more human and a far cry from how innocent and 🦩pure he was in Fallen Order. I’m hoping for a happy ending for Cal and the Mantis crew (if Greez dies, we riot), but seeing my favourite Jedi become a more layered, flawed, and interesting character is undoubtedly a good thing.