Knights of the Old Republic 41: Dueling Ambitions, Part 3
What is it ? : Security on Jervo's World are looking for Gryph and Jarael, but they've taken on disguises, so aren't spotted. But they manage to pick pocket one of the musicians, and replace his datacube. Meanwhile, Jervo discusses with a colleague the plans they've put in place to defeat Zayne, taking safeties off weapons, and poisoning the claws of one of the opponents.
The battle begins, and Rohlan is almost instantly hit by a weapon which causes him massive pain, and continues to effect him, making them realise the rules have been changed against them. Zayne tries to keep protecting Aubin, but realises his blaster has been deactivated. They take Goethar's Speeder bike and smash their way out of the Arena, being disqualified.
Jervo orders music to be played to cover the chaos, but the replaced datacube has a recording of the conversation Gryph overheard from the air duct, where Jervo admits that he fixes the matches, so the crowd turns on him.
Meanwhile, Rohlan has defeated the remaining opponents in the battle, and is hailed as the champion, winning the Goethar Special Swoop, which he isn't sure what he wants to do with, although Zayne wants to share it with him.
As they discuss their scheme, Goethar encounters Jarael for the first time, and turns on Zayne, telling him that everything he has done is a lie, because if he really was who he says he is, he would never be around her.
Zayne speaks to Jarael, asking her if Goethars reaction was to her marks, asking if they signify that she was a slave, but she tells him that they actually show she was a slaver.
On Jervo's World, an unseen figure kills Jervo, and questions his friends if she was there? They confirm she was, and the person, revealed as a female Zeltron, declares that she will catch Jarael, and that she cannot hide . . . .
High Points : I really like the plan here, it's a Gryph plan, and goes exactly to plan. They get Jervo to plan the recording of him admitting that the races are fixed, which brings down the system (or at least causes enough disruption to it) to allow Goethar and his son to get away from the races and endangering their lives for peoples entertainment.
Low Points : It does feel a little rushed however, as the issue then moves onto building things for the next storyline. We've got Jarael admitting that she was a slaver, and a huntress tracking her down, which takes around half the issue, not leaving a huge amount of space to wrap the current storyline up.
So what do you really think ? : This storyline is some ways reminds me of the Marvel Star Wars comic stories on the Wheel, the gladiatorial fights, even including a Mandallian Giant, which I believe was first introduced into the universe in that story. And to a degree this story doesn't come across well in comparison, as the duels in that storyline made a lot more sense, and not as much happens off page (we really don't see Rohlan doing much in the fight, but he somehow just wins).
Final Words : So we're getting a bunch of new background to Jarael crammed in after 40 issues, while we knew that she must have been involved in fighting in some fashion to account for her skills, I really feel this should have involved Camper as her background was tied up with his. That said, it'd be nice if we got him appearing in a flashback, and we got some backstory to how the two met.
Score : 8/10
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