Knights of the Old Republic (Comic Book)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a monthly comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics which ran for 50 issues, from January 2006 to February 2010. It is part of their 20th anniversary retooling of its long-running Star Wars series. It takes place in the same timeline as the video games of the same name, eight years prior to the first game.

The Knights of the Old Republic comic stars failed Padawan Zayne Carrick who is falsely accused of murdering his fellow Jedi students due to the efforts of his masters. Joining with Snivvian conman Marn "Gryph" Hierogryph and the beautiful Arkanian off-shoot Jarael, Zayne attempts to clear his name and unravel the truth of his friends' death.

The writer of the series, John Jackson Miller, is producing a continuation, or spin-off of the comics, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: War, in which Zayne Carric "has been drafted" into the Mandalorian Wars.

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Tropes found in KOTOR the comic are:

• The Ace: Carth Onasi
• Action Girl: Jarael.
  • Well, some of the time.
• Affably Evil: Arkoh Adasca is extremely charming and polite while telling Jarael how her race is an abomination and while trying to sell dangerous superweapons to the Republic and the Mandalorians.
  • Chantique as well. She's all smiles when manipulating Zayne, and even goes so far as to put her arm around him and give him a drink
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted big time. Shel and Jarael both want Zayne, turning down Adasca and Alek for him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Applies to Adasca and Lucien Draay as the galaxies richest playboys/jerkasses.
  • Eventually subverted with Lucien, who makes a Heel Face Turn and survives his resulting Heroic Sacrifice.
• Armor Is Useless: Pleasantly subverted. Mandalorian Neo-Crusader armour turns out to be surprisingly resilient against lightsaber blades. Zayne's nigh-indestructible phrik vambraces are even better; though they only cover his forearms, the advantage in a lightsaber duel is obvious.
• Artifact of Doom: Kanness Muur's talisman.
• The Atoner: Lucien Draay
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Lucien Draay and Mandalore are both amongst the best warriors in the galaxy.
• Badass: Subverted BIG TIME with Zayne Carrick. It's been close to forty issues and Zayne Carrick has actually NOT KILLED A SINGLE PERSON despite immense justification.
  • How the hell this is a subversion? In his situation, such approach actually demands much greater badassery.
  • Actually, in a later issue Zayne had to kill a Cammasi named Snout in self defense. He doesn't take it very well.
  • Played completely and utterly straight with Cassus Fett: whenever he shows up (he's normally only present through fearful/awed mentions of his name), it's to make an amazingly badass statement or speech.
• Bait and Switch: See Jossed below. The writers seem to have intentionally made readers think that characters were really characters from Knights of the Old Republic (the games) and subverted a fictional case of Young Future Famous People. Krynda Draay sounds like Kreia, has precognitive/clairvoyant powers, and is half-Miraluka like Kreia is implied to be in KOTOR II; Haazen looks like Darth Sion; Lucien Draay is even offered the title of Darth Sion, fits the definition of a "scion," and was originally named "Lusion"; and Zayne just seems important enough to be someone big later on like Nihilus, which would also be an ironic contrast to his personality. None of these people ended up having any direct consequence to the plot of the games. Alek does end up starting down the road to becoming Darth Malak though.
• Bald of Evil: Alek. Better known by the alias he eventually adopts, Darth Malak. Interestingly enough, the loss of his hair coincides with the beginning of his Start of Darkness.
• Better as Friends: Zayne and Shel end up as this; surprisngly, the Zayne Jarael Shippers are able to avoid bashing her, and usually take this route in their fanfics.
• Berserk Button: Chantique mocks Jarael about what she did to Zayne. Jarael....doesn't take it very well. And by not very well I mean "savagely beat Chantique into submission and stand over her ready to deliver the death blow."
• Betty and Veronica: Shel (Betty) and Jarael (Veronica), the Love interests of Zayne.
• Blind Seer: The Miraluka Q'Anilia
• Break the Cutie: The entire Destroyer Arc counts as Zayne's Break the Cutie. He's enslaved, shown visions of torture, experiences an elaborate manipulation at the hands of Chantique, is forced to watch as a slave he befriended dies, drives Jarael away, and doesn't realize that he's been lied to until it's too late.
• Brother-Sister Incest: Not quite right because Not Blood Siblings but Lucien Draay and Q'Anilia seem to be lovers by the fact they share the same room with one bed. Also, they hold each other a great deal in times of duress.
  • Arkoh Adasca also confirms it by mentioning that Lucien used to always show up at parties with Q'Anilia as his date.
• Born Lucky: Zayne's apparent disability with learning the Force actually swings the odds in his favor. That's probably why he survived the killing of the Jedi Padawans in the beginning of the series, setting the whole series in motion.

Zanye: My master says that my existence is proof that the Force has a sense of humor!

• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Del Momoo is an idiot, yet he is remarkably good at anything bomb related, showing an extremely intricate knowledge of how they work (There is one funny scene when he explains why a bomb failed to go off and Raana simply stares in shock.)
• The Captain: Saul Karath.
• Clear My Name: Zayne's quest.
• Comedic Hero: Zayne Carrik, worst Padawan in Jedi history. He gets over it pretty fast, though, proving that his incompetence was more than anything due to a neglectful Master.
• Con Man: All of the heroes have been one at one time or another.
• Cosplay: Jarael enjoys dressing up as a Jedi Knight, a Sith Lord, and other disguises. It's more for fun than anything really relevant. That and a chance for the artist to show her in a variety of cute outfits.
  • Shel and Alek do this in Turnabout, when she and Alek dress in pirate like clothing to meet with the Jedi.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Adasca is halfway between this and an Evil Chancellor since he's both a corporate head as well as the owner of a planet.
• Complete Monster: Chantique, Demagol, and Haazen all qualify. Demagol is a Josef Mengele style scientist who kills countless men women and children in a vain attempt to replicate his work, and is described as havbing no empathy whatsoever. And He sold his own child into slavery for disrupting his school (which caused his wife to kill herself.) His daughter, Chantique, ultimately turns into just as much of a monster as he does. She mind rapes Zayne,manipulates him into trying to abandon his friend Jarael, forces him to fight a slave he befriended, and when the slave killed himself SHE MOCKS HIM ABOUT IT. She leaves him alive purely so that he can drive Jarael away (which works.) Oh, and she buries all of her classmates alive. Haazen causes every atrocitity in the first 35 issues, psychologically damages Lucien, and tries to destroy the jedi just to piss on the grave of a man he already murdered.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Far too many for this page. A partial list can be found at Moments of Awesome: Star Wars.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Copious, especially in the introductory story-arc.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Zayne Carrick telling Gryph that he's going to be a Jedi of the People and not let people who slip through the cracks suffer because of the Jedi Council's high handedness. Effectively choosing his friends over a Jedi Knighthood.
  • Gryph telling the Jedi Covenant that they never knew Zayne at all if they ever believed he could hunt them down and murder them.
  • Zayne and Shel's reconcilliation in Knights of Suffering, especially considering the fact that she was planning to kill him less then 15 minutes earlier. Of course, her crying into his shoulder while hugging him probably helped to establish this atmosphere.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Chantique commits pretty much every atrocity she does simply to get revenge on Jarael.
• Dark Action Girl: Chantique
• Dark Lord: The Revanchist and Alek are destined to be Darth Revan and Darth Malak.
  • Subverted with Haazen who looks like he's going to become one, even choosing the name Darth Haze but ends up getting killed within minutes.
  • Subverted even more with Lucien Dray, for whom Hazen had even picked out a Sith-apprentice name. Made all the more surprising because Dray's actions up to that point had clearly been leading him down the path of the dark side- and even worse, the name Hazen picked, Darth Sion, was already known to be that of a future Sith Lord whose mutilated physical appearance could have been a match for Dray. The role was prepared for him. He just refused to play the part.
  • Don't forget Mandalore!
• Deadpan Snarker: Gryph, Zayne, and practically everyone else at some point.
• Doomed Hometown: Taris.
• The Dragon: Lucien thinks he's this for his mother but he's really The Dragon for Haazen. Cassus Fett is The Dragon to Mandalore.
• The Empire: The Mandalorians.
  • The Mandalorians are only becoming The Empire. They were previously The Horde. The fact they're becoming one is actually something that at least one Mandalorian objects to.
• Evil Is Sexy: Chantique's outfits are eerily similar to some of the stuff Emma Frost wears, as well as dominatrix outfits in general.
• Evil Matriarch: Zayne Carrick assumes Krynda Draay is this. Subverted. In fact, she's horrified by her son's actions in her name.
• Evil Mentor: Lucien Draay and especially Haazen.
• Face Heel Turn: This isn't a secret to anyone who plays the games but Admiral Saul Karath will end up becoming one of the most evil men in the new Sith Empire. Likewise, Alek is also Darth Malak.
• Facial Markings: Jarael and Chantique's facial markings are actually their names, written in a secret Sith dialect.
• Fainting Seer: Krynda Draay takes this to the point of having a stroke.
• Fantastic Racism: The treatment that pure blooded Arkanians show off-shoots.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Zayne and Jarael. At least, they started out as this since fans thought Zayne would end up with Shel. Safe to say the last issue made a lot of fans happy.
• Fandom Nod: Lots to the KOTOR games and the Tales of the Jedi comics.
  • Special mention goes to the editor's/author's notes at the end of issue 48, where Miller details the whole Rholan/Demagol fan discussions, and giving a nod to TV Tropes itself for its role on the topic.
• Fan Service: The appearance of Mission and her brother during the Siege of Taris.
• Faux Action Girl: Shel is the worst assassin you could possibly pick. Ever.
  • After saving Zayne from the Jedi Covenant in the introductory story-arc, Jarael seems incapable of defeating anything other than Mooks, and has to be rescued by the main characters from the Mandalorians, Lord Adasca, a rogue assassin droid ...
  • In Shel's case, it's not easy to kill someone even if you are a trained soldier, and she's just a civilian who has no choice but to fight. Plus, it helped that Zayne massively deconstructed her motivation for wanting to kill him by a.) forcing her to face that she really had no clue as to why she thought he was guilty, and b.) showing genuine grief over her brother's death, which is not exactly the kind of things darksiders do.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Zayne and Griff.
• Foreshadowing: Several, given the amount of Author's Saving Throw the writers manage to pull off. A particularly notable one is hidden in one of the extra bounty hunter bulliten at the end of one of the issues, saying a certain person couldn't be the Corellian Strangler because her's too small. Cue issue 38.
  • One of the subplots is Malak's Start of Darkness. His rough treatment of Rohlan, whom he believes to be Demagol, makes the Mandalorian exclaim: "That's the way you like it, Jedi — don't you? So save your Republic — but who'll save the Republic from you?" Saving the Republic from Malak is your mission in the eponymous game.
• For the Evulz: One might argue that Haazen is ONLY destroying the Jedi Knighthood and taking over the Republic to further spit on Barrison's grave.
  • The Crucible gleefully admits that they no longer have a purpose for their crimes, but do it anyway.
• Genre Blind: Apparently, none of the Jedi Covenant are familiar with the concept of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and fall into a pretty classic example of it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Haazen destroys Barrison Draay solely out of jealousy over the man's wealth, power, and luck with women.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Krynda Draay, the mother of Lucien Draay is a half-human/half-Miraluka hybrid.
  • Senator Gorravus is a half human half Mirialan hybrid (his wealthy father had an affair with an alien servant).
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Jedi Covenant see a vision of a Sith lord dressed in a red environmental suit. At first, and given the events later, they're considered to have interpreted the vision wrongly. Alek wears one at the end of the flashpoint arc. The comic even calls attention to it.
• Heel Face Turn: Lucien Draay betrays Haazen's plans and ultimately gets to live.
• Heel Face Door Slam: Raana Tey.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Zayne Carrick is believed to be a multiple mass murderer of Jedi. He gets better.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Jedi Covenant. Alek is destined to go this way.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Arkoh Adasca, Raana Tey, Haazen; Arkoh: eaten by his own weapons; Raana: Impaled through the back with a saber by Shel Jelavan (when Raana had taught Shel how to build it, and who put her up to it.); Haazen: Looses his McGuffin and Annihalated by his own weapons
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Cassus Fett, Mandalore's aide-de-camp and general right-hand-man, seems to be the brains of the Mandalorian Empire- it's heavily implied that his eye for tactics and logistics is what has enabled most of their victories so far.
• Ironic Echo: After saving Zayne from the covenant at the end of the first arc, Jarael says she can't let Zayne go around thinking sacrificing himself for her is sensible behavior. Chantique says the exact same thing to Jarael, about the exact same subject, during they're fight to try and convince her that Zayne no longer cares about her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Golliard is captured by his own drones. And is handed over to a man who's father died thanks to his cowardice.
• Karmic Death: This is actually a major plot point. There are implications that, due to Zayne Carrick's peculiar relationship with the Force, that people who attempt to kill or harm him will suffer these.
• Karma Houdini: At least one of Zayne Carrick's villains gets away scott-free. Lucien Draay
  • Hey, he's blind after the whole thing, that's not exactly scott-free.
• Kick the Dog: "Meaningless wasn't it?" That line effectively sealed Chantique as a monster.
• Knight Templar: The Jedi Covenant in a nutshell.
  • And the Jedi Crusaders aka Revanchists.
• Knight Templar Big Brother
• Last-Minute Hookup: Zayne and Jarael in the final issue.
• Late to the Party: The reason for Zayne's survival of the Padawan massacre.
• Light Is Not Good
• Jossed: Theories that have been Jossed by the creator and Lucasfilm include Lucien Draay is Darth Sion and/or Darth Nihilus, Zayne Carrick is the Jedi Exile, and Krynda Draay is Kreia. Lucien Draay rejecting becoming Darth Sion is actually a plot point.
• Loveable Rogue: Gryph in a nutshell. It's questionable whether he actually does all his con games for money or the sheer joy of screwing with people's heads.
  • Assuming they're mutually exclusive.
• Mad Scientist: Demagol.
• Magnificent Bastard: Haazen, though he becomes more of a Smug Snake when he's within INCHES of victory.
• Moral Event Horizon: Chantique crosses this during Destroyer, when she mindrapes Zayne, screws with his head, forces him to kill his friend, and causes him to drive Jarael away. Adding to the cruelty is the fact that Zayne fails to realize that he's been played until right after it's too late. Not even the fact that her father sold her into slavery, or the fact that Jarael doublecrossed her justifies the cruelty she shows Zayne during those two issues.
  • Raana Tey does when she tries to manipulate Shel into killing Zayne. Before she was kind of sympathetic, as her madness was caused by her guilt for what she had done. Manipulating an innocent girl into trying to kill an innocent man caused this troper's views to switch from pity to "Kill this ***** now."
• Nice Guy: Zayne Carrick is almost unique amongst Star Wars EU protagonists in that he's just a swell person. Oddly, this makes him very popular in a genre dominated by Darker and Edgier protagonists.
  • What's "odd" about that, considering the position of the original movies on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism? If anything, the persistent attempts of EU authors to make Star Wars universe Darker and Edgier (even the original Knights of the Old Republic games slipped into it in the sequel), which seem to alienate alot of fans are odd.
  • It also pays in dividends. Zayne is able to make friends out of pretty much everyone whose not a complete asshole by simply being a pretty swell, upstanding guy. And almost everyone he helps ends up returning the favor. Even Cassus Fett. Even Lucien Draay
• Nightmare Fuel: Demagol's experiments. The Exgorths. The way that the Crucible tries to break Zayne Carrick.
  • Haazen's... "reconstruction". GAH.
• Not So Different: Zayne Carrick and Haazen. Haazen points out that he too was an abused failed Padawan that no one took seriously. Zayne Carrick rightly sees Haazen as a lunatic.
• Of Corsets Sexy: The dress code for all the female Crucible members.
• Official Couple: Zayne and Jarael
• Omniscient Morality License: The Covenant, and Lucien in particular, think they have one of these due to all being powerful seers. Too bad that no one ever told them that "always in motion is the future".
• Prequel: Not only is it before Star Wars Episode I, but it is also a Prequel to the Knights of the Old Republic video games.
• Prophetic Fallacy: The dream of the red space suited Sith is almost certainly about Darth Malak. The Jedi Covenant chasing Zayne wastes time, resources, and effectively destroys their organization.
• Prophecy Twist: Zayne Carrick's prophecy. Is in fact totally made up to just screw with the minds of the Jedi Covenant.
  • It was also to buy Zayne time.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Rohlan Dyre.
  • As well as any Mandalorian that makes an apperance, natch.
    • Except Demagol.
• Seers
• Redemption Earns Life: Unlike the other Jedi Covenant member, Lucien Draay survives after he rejects the Sith and helps to kill Haazen and thwart his plans.
• Redemption Equals Death: Raana Tey dies only seconds after realizing that she was wrong about Zayne and accepting his offer of salvation.
• Screw Destiny: Zayne Carrick has this attitude but he was almost certainly never really destined to be a Sith Lord anyway. Lucien Draay is a more direct case as we find out he was destined to be Darth Sion but rejected this destiny.
• Secret Police: The Jedi Covenant is a secret cult of these within the Jedi Order. They all get killed off or arrested at the end of Haazen's plan.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Jedi Covenant more or less gets itself killed off one by one attempting to kill Zayne in exactly how their visions predicted they'd die.
  • Subverted with Xamar in that his attempt to do the right thing is what causes him to get killed.
• Shadow Archetype: Haazen and Zayne Carrick
  • Jarael and Chantique.
• Shocking Swerve: The hints had been dropped so steadily and for so long that Demagol having switched places with Rohlan probably qualifies as The Un-Reveal. But the fact that he's also Jarael's childhood mentor and Chantique's father? Nobody saw that coming. And yet, in retrospect it makes perfect sense.
• Snake Talk: Xamar.
• Spanner in the Works: Zayne Carrick utterly unravels the Jedi Covenant, Adasca, and arguably Mandalore's plans for the galaxy. It seems to be his role within the Star Wars universe.
  • Del Moomo actually fills this role once when his stupidity and singlemindedness distract Raana and Shel long enough for Gryph to disarm the later, saving Zayne's life in the process Shel also unintentionally derails Jervo's plan with her first attempt to kill Zayne.
• Start of Darkness: Both Lucien Draay and Haazen have these.
• Tear Jerker: Zayne has two of these in issue 6; the first when he sees his girlfriend's betrayed face in the crowd, and when he learns that his friends never really believed in him. Yeah, he get's better, but still.
  • "The people! The people!"
• Took a Level In Badass: Zayne Carrick manages to setup an information gathering network he calls the "Rogue Moon Project," designed to help refugees and people who were wrongfully accused while making himself its first field agent. You read that right kids, that Zayne Carrick.
• Too Good to Last: Knights of the Old Republic ended after fifty issues. Suspicion that this is due to a Readers Are Morons brand of Executive Meddling is very high.
• 2-D Space: Forming a ring of ships over the equator of Corruscant is supposed to prevent any ships from reaching the planet.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: They have a HUGE selection of costumes for the characters.
• The Virus: The Rakghoul Plague that transforms you into (one of) the Star Wars equivalents of a Zombie.
• Villainous Breakdown: Haazen and Arkoh Adasca both experience these as their evil plans collapse around their ears. They both die within minutes
  • After he realizes how he's been played by Haazen and the (immediately afterward) death of his mother, Lucien has one of these. It's followed by Villainous BSOD and then a Heel Face Turn.
  • Demagol get's one two, learning that his life's work was a failure and that the force talent he thought he instilled in his students was just his latent powers all along. Except for his daughter, who has actual talent, but who he sold into slavery, thinking she was a failure. Then he ends up dying by the very blade he'd stolen to give to Jarael.
  • Raana Tey slowly becomes more insane to the point where she throws Zayne THROUGH A LARGE GLASS WINDOW. Both combatants are lacerated by the falling glass.
• Warrior Poet: Rohlan the Questioner.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The entire point of the Jedi Covenant.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Lucien Draay craves this from his father. Subverted in the fact that his father is dead and seems likely to have not been nearly the stuffed shirt that Lucien Draay thinks he was.
• Word of God: John Jackson Miller's blog contains a lot of explanations that confirm or have Jossed fan speculation.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Jarael. And Chantique
• Winds of Destiny Change: Zayne's "learning disability" with the Force turns out to be the ability to have probibility swing his way.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Haazen has one of these.
• The Woobie: Zayne Carrick's life continually goes from bad to worse.
  • To be fair, his luck slowly got better after Knight's of Suffering. And it went even lower in Destroyer, when Zayne had to kill a guy in self defense and experienced one of the most depraved Mind Rapes in Star Wars history.
  • Snout qualifies big time. He's forcibly turned into a killing machine and forced to experience the memories of over 1000 years of pain and misery, and is forced to fight the one person who showed him any compassion in many years. Ultimately he kills himself rather then murder his friend even though he could have easily done it.