Knights of the Old Republic: War: Part 1 of 5
What is it ? : So we begin with an update, the war between the Mandalorians and Republic has been grinding on, but the Jedi have entered the war and have turned the tables. On the world of Essien the Phaeda Militia are one of many groups of planetary forces across the galaxy (since the Republic has no unified military) rooting out Mandalorian strongholds.
And we're straight into the action, Jedi on Speeder bikes are leading the assault against a Mandalorian Stronghold believed to be in the forest, and the battle is raging.
A group of the Militia come under attack by Mandalorians, but find themselves defended by Zayne Carrick who blocks the blaster bolts. He use the force to repel the Mandalorians, knocking their weapons from their hands, but a command speeder fires on them killing the unarmed opponents. Zayne realises they're also firing on retreating forces, so leaps aboard and blocks the gunner from firing. The commander Dallan Morvis berates Zayne for not knowing what side he's on, but is interrupted when Zayne pushes him out of the way of a landing Basilisk War Droid.
The droid however lands awkwardly and explodes, and Zayne notices the pilot has a child on their back. As the crew of the speeder open fire on the Mandalorian, he activates their jet pack getting them away.
Morvis continues to berate Zayne for defending an enemy, but Zayne points out he was trying to stop them killing a child, but Morvis thinks that would be the Mandalorians fault for taking children into the battlezone.
Zayne tells him that the Jedi once thought killing him was okay, but he realised that they weren't wise enough to decide who lives and dies, and he certainly isn't.
A voice comments that it sounds like something they might have said, and the leader of the Jedi on Essien introduces himself, Dorjander Kace, a former Jedi High Councellor. He stepped down from the High Council to join the war, advising Morvis that the Mandalorians have taken up hiding within the Forest, so he should lead his forces in there, especially all the crews of the ships to allow a massive overwhelming attack.
Zayne heads into the forest to warn the Mandalorians to evacuate their young, and we get told how he ended up in the Militia, his family is from Phaeda, so when he was visiting them he was caught up in the draft. He's from there, isn't a Jedi, so was applicable, even if he refused to use a weapon except his lightsaber.
He gets into the forest, and discovers only abandoned sets of Mandalorian armour, and realises this is a set up for the Republic forces. However he is caught in the initial bombardment, so dons a set of the armour to stop being killed.
Morvis leads his forces into the forest to mop up any survivors, but only find Zayne wearing Mandalorian armour, but they realise the truth of his words when he shows them all the Mandalorian bodies lay around are just empty armour.
But before they can act, a massive wave of Mandalorians attack on Basilisk War Droids, and the Republic Fleet has been already siezed.
Dorjander Kace reveals that he is working for the Mandalorians, and the Republic Navy has just been drafted into their forces . . .
High Points : And we're straight into the action, and it does make some effort to explain how Zayne has gone from being a fairly rich and influential person on Coruscant, to just being a member of the Militia on Phaeda.
And despite it being a first part, so having to do a lot of set up, it does get a lot of action in, Zayne is caught up in a battle, deserts to save innocent Mandalorians, and the Jedi are shown to be working for the Mandalorians. Which gets Zayne being active and driving the story forwards, which is excellent.
Low Points : Right from the introductory text I have questions, the Republic has no Army? But it does have a navy? That seems a very odd line to draw, that we're not going to get involved in battles, well, at least not ground battles. So instead of carrying a Republic Army, instead the Navy carries around independent Militias.
Also while Revan leading a split from the council matches up more closely with what we saw in the Video games, when the Kotor comics ended, Revan and Malak were leading Jedi against the Mandaorians with the blessing of the Jedi Council due to the massive support of the public for the Jedi to do something. What changed? Something had to change to get the comics and games to match up, but it would have been nice if we'd seen it.
As for Zayne, Morvis acts like just the early parts of the comic series are publically known, that he was a fugitive, and left the Jedi order. But not his heroic acts later on, making feel somewhat like a reset. Although I suppose that information just isn't that widely known.
So what do you really think ? : While it's a comic series with Zayne Carrick in it, and it's by the same writer, it feels very different. And the core of the Kotor series was always Zayne, Gryph and Jarael, so without the other 2 characters it really isn't the same series, it's just a Zayne from the Kotor series instead.
I can't help but feel it would be far more entertaining if it was the 3 of them caught up in the situation, rather than it just feeling like yet another Jedi in yet another war.
Final Words : It's a fairly strong start, but just doesn't seem to capture the feeling of the original series, but we shall see where it goes from here, even if it doesn't introduce Gryph and Jarael, we'll see if Zayne has kept up the scheming and trickery he learnt off Gryph, which will make him a more interesting character. And we shall see if his Force Bad Luck has followed him between series (although being caught up in the middle of a betrayal by Jedi certainly could count as an occurrence of his bad luck.)
Score : 8.5/10
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