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Bastila Shan |
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 Bastila Shan
Born circa 3,979 BBY, Bastila Shan was the quintessential Jedi: trained from a young age and gifted with a natural ability with the Force that gave her both renown and considerable pride. Despite her youth, Bastila was skilled in the rare art of Battle Meditation -- through sheer force of will she could influence the course of a battle. Through this power, one side was given courage and strength while the other is sapped of their will. This ability alone put Bastila into the forefront of the Galactic Republic's plan to defeat the Sith.
Brash, impulsive, and overconfident, Bastila seemed to walk invincible through her world, though that was hardly the case. Bastila was well aware of the responsibility that pressed down on her shoulders. Her Jedi masters urged her to be cautious, but Bastila turned every fiber of her being towards defeating the Sith menace and proving herself to the Jedi.
Bastila possessed all the qualities that separate those special few destined to leave their mark on history, but her very youth and determination were always threatening to become that which eventually consumed her.
Bastila was part of the strike force sent to capture Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith, during the Jedi Civil War. Though she managed to corner Revan on the bridge of his flagship, it is likely that she and the other surviving members of the Jedi strike team would have been killed by the Dark Lord had Revan's apprentice, Darth Malak, not chosen that moment to betray his master by opening fire on his ship. Though Revan's mind was damaged beyond repair 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, and reprogrammed with a new memory of a Republic soldier, and sent to serve under Bastila on the ship "Endar Spire." Over the planet of Taris, the Endar Spire was ambushed by a Sith fleet, forcing the crew to abandon the ship and land on the planet surface. Bastila was knocked out as her escape pod crashed, leading to her capture at the hands of a swoop bike gang known as the Black Vulkars. The Vulkars believed her to simply be a Republic officer, and planned to award her as a slave to the winner of the annual Taris swoop race.
Meanwhile, Revan and Republic soldier Carth Onasi had escaped to the Taris surface and learned of Bastila's imprisonment. Volunteering to drive a dangerous experimental swoop for a rival gang, the Hidden Beks, Revan won the race. Bastila used this opportunity to break out of her imprisonment and join forces with Revan and Carth. Stealing the ship the Ebon Hawk from the crime lord Davik, the three along with Twi'lek Mission Vao and Wookiee Zaalbar escaped the planet just as Malak destroyed the Taris city with an orbital bombardment in an attempt to prevent Bastila's escape.
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 Lord Revan and Malak. There they found a Star Map which told of a Star Forge of unknown significance. The map showed the planets Tatooine, Manaan, Kashyyyk, and Korriban as having other maps. In order to find the Star Forge, the Jedi enclave council sent them and their companions to find other star maps on these planets and piece together the location of the Star Forge.
During the group's ensuing adventures, Bastila was again captured, this time by Darth Malak. After torturing her for weeks, Malak eventually succeeded in forcing Bastila to give in to her hate. She fell to the dark side and became Malak's apprentice. She met with Revan atop an ancient Rakatan temple and tried to persuade him to reclaim his former title of Dark Lord of the Sith.
Alternate Universe Dark Side Choice
Revan gave in to the dark side. He and Bastila killed Jolee Bindo and Juhani. When returning to the Ebon Hawk, Revan persuaded the rest of the team to join the dark side. The droids HK-47 and T3-M4 were already programmed to do so, and Canderous Ordo pledged his loyalty to the man he believed would bring him battles in which he could find honor, as he had in the Mandalorian Wars. Carth Onasi refused and ran away. Mission Vao refused to believe that Revan had returned to the dark side and did not run away. Zaalbar initially agreed to join the dark side as he owed Revan a "life-debt"; but when told to kill Mission, he tried to protect her and Revan killed them both.
Before approaching the Star Forge, Bastila persuaded the Republic to attack the Sith fleet there as a measure to defeat the Republic. The Republic believed that she would use her Battle Meditation against the Sith, but she turned it against the Republic just before Revan faced Malak. Master Vandar realized all this but could not do anything.
After Revan defeated Malak, he re-assumed the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and Bastila became his apprentice. Together, they set out to conquer the galaxy.
Canonical Light Side Choice
Revan refused to give in to the dark side again. After an intense lightsaber duel, Bastila retreated to the Star Forge, 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, drawing on the bond they shared--not one of the Force, but one of love. 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 old friend 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.
Despite this seemingly happy ending, Revan and Bastila were not destined to remain together. 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 all those he loved behind, for he knew that to take them to the places he had to go would bring destruction to them all. It would have helped had he made her understand. But she was always strong-willed, that one, and did not understand war as Revan did.
Bastila remained behind with her fellow galactic saviors, keeping the Republic safe as Revan had asked them to, and waiting for the day when Revan would return.
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