TheStar Wars Jedigames are reportedly going to bookend the series as a trilogy and that leaves one final installment left to knot any loose threads. Cal Kestis has always been singular in a post-Jedi Order galaxy where he’s met nobody else besidesJedi Masters Cere Junda or Eno Cordovawho also wield the Force as peacekeepers, but that certainly doesn’t mean he’s been alone in his struggle to adapt and continue onward.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s antagonists are all victims of the Jedi Purge, for example, and the same can be said of Bode Akuna inStar Wars Jedi: Survivorwhile Dagan Gera and Rayvis are more or less throwaway villains by the time the game reaches its third act.
In particular, Trilla Suduri’s Second Sister and Taron Malicos are thematically poignant characters inFallen Order, whichStar Wars Jedi: Survivorblunders in its own feeble attempt. Bode’s ambitions being purely fueled by his daughter’s safety suddenly buckle when he inexplicably refuses to take refuge on Tanalorr alongside the Hidden Path when doing so wouldn’t affect him or Kata whatsoever, and his bewildering reaction to that is turning the Jedha archive over to the Empire and turning to the dark side. With only one entry left, Respawn’s franchise is itching for another remnant of the Jedi Order whose beliefs and morals have shifted chaotically in the wake of the Purge as Malicos’ had.
Taron Malicos Refreshingly Serves as a Villain with No Grey Area
Fallen Order’s Taron Malicos is an example of an antagonist who’s one-dimensional and whose actions are unsympathetic, whereas his backstory is a silver lining or saving grace that gives him substance. Malicos’ sole ambition is Dathomirian power, but his view of the Jedi as a failed and antiquated Order is certainly fair and valid given that he was aJedi General himself during the Clone Wars.
Nonetheless, once the hooded robe is removed and the markings on his bare torso are revealed it is clear he is too far gone and any of his rationale or logic for why he’s sought to abuse the Nightsisters’ power on Dathomir is drowned out by how demonstrably dark-sided he’s meant to be perceived, especially as he brandishes dual lightsabers bearing red blades. This would’ve been detrimental overall if Malicos was intended to beFallen Order’s main antagonist, and yet with Trilla Suduri playing that role and being wholly tragic and empathetic it is actually perfect that Malicos serves the role of an antagonist players can fully root against with his plans being so cartoonish or outlandish.
He’s a consequence of a fallen Order who spiraled too deeply and it’s that baser, almost animalistic villainy that allows him to be unique in a game full of conflicted or tortured souls along theForce’s arbitrary spectrum of light and dark. IfStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s sequel could find a way to replicate Malicos’ occult or power-hungry nature in another villain it could provide another beautiful, ancillary contrast to a main antagonist whose actions can be compelling, divisive, and even defensible given proper context.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Sequel Likely Has No Room for Such Nostalgic Grievances Anymore
The only downside to another Malicos-esque antagonist is that it’s been more than 10 years since Order 66 was conductedwhenSurvivortakes place in the largerStar Warstimelineand it’d be tough to sell a zealot character who’s still reeling from that event in such a visceral and conflicted way.
Indeed, the passing of time molded Bode into a survivor willing to work with the ISB to ensure his daughter’s safety rather than lashing out and choosing to dominate an inhospitable planet’s dangerous tribes. Time is likely to leap ahead inSurvivor’s sequel, too, and if so there’s no telling what state its proposed antagonists will be in. Either way, it’d be a shame ifStar Wars Jediends without endeavoring to feature one last villain as barbaric and tonally rare as Taron Malicos.
