Knights of the Old Republic II - The Odd Things that Stuck

This lady's a jerk, but she has a point...

It occurs to me that one of my most memorable moments in gaming is an old hag lecturing me about giving to the poor.  Except, she was telling me not to give money to the refugee.  To which I told her to shut up, I'm a Light-Side Jedi, I do heroic things like giving money to poor people.

That poor person was then beat up and left for dead by thugs who saw that he had money.  So she was right.  That was not a helpful thing to do.  Seven-year-old me had a hard time accepting this lesson.  Kreia was an uncaring crone before, how could she be right on what is and isn't a good deed?  But it made sense.  The refugee got money, a thing he needed, but I didn't give him the power to keep that money.  In the end, that just made him a target.  Which meant I was wrong and didn't actually know how to help.

That unforgettable dialogue (YouTube clip)

It took me a few years, and more than a couple play-throughs, before I began to see the nuances of Kreia's character.  Yes, she is a jaded, cranky, manipulative person, but it's because she's tired of seeing people's ignorance make a bigger mess in the name of "doing the right thing."  Her philosophy is more than a little pessimistic, and she manipulates without apologies, but she's not evil.  She's just really bitter.

This is why I believe KotOR II, even with the bugs and rushed ending, will always be my favorite Star Wars video game of all time.  Not only did it have quite an effect on my developing sense of morals, but it was one of the first stories I experienced where there was no true evil and no pure good.  The characters had a level of complexity that I couldn't figure out with just one play-through  (granted, I was seven, but even today I'm still realizing things).

It's not often that the "Great Dark Lords" are just a bunch of puppets controlled by a nagging old lady who's trying to teach you something.