Thursday, November 17, 2011

Poem- Countless Droplets of Power





Countless Droplets of Power
Author: me, vadess40
Game: Knights of the Old Republic
Characters: Female Darth Revan
Disclaimer: Female Darth Revan and KOTOR belong to Bioware and LucasArts 


Countless droplets of blood were spilled
As the Mandalorians fought with skill
This is how they indoctrinated the Revanchist into war
With all of its wonder and horror

There is no emotion, there is peace
Once those words brought me relief
Now they only bring confusion 
I no longer know what truth is

I am here on this battle field because the Jedi failed
They ignored the Outer Rim's pleas and wails
They refused to help when the Republic called
For, force forbid anyone make them leave their Temple's walls

In this battle, I fought like a Jedi
I aimed to bring peace and restore order
Now I must decide: 
Did my battle strategy cause us to die?

As I write this it now starts to rain
Yet the countless droplets can't wash away confusion and pain
Why did I lose when the light side always wins?
How could Mandalorian philosophy make our numbers thin?

A thought has entered my mind
Perhaps it is time for my battle strategy to be revised
Perhaps the Jedi are blind
And the truth is that the light side only leads to destruction and demise

No, that cannot be true…
Since I was a little girl I've been taught the Jedi way 
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
Yet all the knowledge that I have known has resulted in loss

What if we lost because the Jedi way is loss?
What if the Jedi way is in vain?
Perhaps the Revanchist will only bring about the Republic's destruction...
Unless we show our enemies the weaknesses within their philosophy, and exploit them

No! Their philosophy, their words are the path to the dark side
Yet what can be done to turn this losing tide?
I did not come to fall but to save
Yet so many people from this war are now in their grave

Remember: There is no passion, there is serenity
There is no chaos, there is harmony
There is no death there is the force
As I look around, my laugh is coarse

No, peace and serenity are lies
Death is clearly everywhere 
Chaos and passion are the ways of the worlds
Those who think otherwise are clearly blind fools

No, peace is a lie; there is only passion
In order to win
Must embrace passions within
Or suffer the fate of the weak

Through passion I gain strength
With this strength, I can crush the Mandalorians,
Save the Republic 
And see that the soldiers and Jedi who fell to the Mandalorians have their revenge!

Revenge? What am I thinking?
Revenge is a path to the dark side
The embracing of passion leads there too
Perhaps these thoughts are the path to ruin…

No, the way of the Jedi leads to ruin!
It is a way that leads to doom…
No, through strength I gain power
Power to crush the Mandalorians

Yes, and through power I gain victory
Through victory my chains are broken and the force shall free me
And the force will free us from tyranny
And the force will free the galaxy

This is the new code of the Revanchist
Just through reciting those words, I can feel the power within my fist!
The countless droplets of power are will be mine as long as I remember:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion

Through passion I gain strength
Through strength I gain power
Through power I gain victory
Through victory my chains are broken
And the force shall free me

May these words of power and glory
Remain forever in my memory

Cower in fear you Mandalorians
For General Revan has now arisen as a greater being
A being that will have her vengeance and destroy you
For I am Revan, a being of countless droplets of darkness, vengeance and power



Poem's Description




I wrote this poem a few weeks ago and posted it the website, DeviantArt in response to a poetical prompt Countless Droplets from the group #Love-4-Dark-Poetry.  It is fan poem inspired by My favourite video game of all time is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), which takes place 4000 years before the Star Wars movies.


For those unfamiliar with KOTOR, Revan rebelled against the Jedi Council because the Council refused to aid the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars. She did so by leading a faction of Jedi, called The Revanchist, to defy the council and become Jedi Generals in the Republic Navy. This poem takes place after the Battle of Dagory Minor; this battle happened three weeks after the Revanchist rally where Revan recruits numerous Jedi, including Shadow, on Dantooine. In this battle they get their first taste of what the Mandalorians are capable of and lose. Shadow concludes her version of the tale by describing how all the Revanchist decided that in order to defeat the Mandalorians, they had to become like their enemy and embrace war.

In the PC version of the game you can download various modifications for the game. One of my favourite modifications for KOTOR, which is really an expansion pack is  Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge  (BOS). In the mod the game's protagonist, Revan, the woman on the right in the above picture, can ask her former assassin, Shadow, the Twi lek on the left and the protagonist of the BOS, about the Mandalorian Wars and the different battles they both fought in when they are on the ship the characters travel around in, the Ebon Hawk.

In this poem, Revan sneaks back on to the battle field where they lost and contemplates what has just happened. In this poem I had hoped to capture the conflict that was going on within her, because she now has a choice to make: Do I accept the loss and continue fighting like a Jedi or do I become like my enemy and embrace their philosophy in order win?

In this poem I included both the Jedi and Sith codes because the battle and it's aftermath are the beginning of Revan's fall to the dark side. Mandalorian and Sith philosophy is so similar that for a Jedi to fight like the Mandalorian is indirectly choosing to fight like the Sith.  Even though Shadow says that Revan's feelings were being felt by all the Jedi at that moment, I believe that Revan was the one who who took the first step as it is said everywhere that all the Jedi, save one, who followed Revan to war fell along with her. While it was their choice whether to side with the Exile or side with Revan, it still doesn't change the fact that Revan was the first to fall and the one who pushed everyone along with her.


The cover art below is from the Malachor V flashback in Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge.

 I enjoyed writing this and I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave both positive feedback and constructive criticism!

3 comments:

  1. An inner conflict on different levels such as reason vs emotion, the head vs the heart, peace vs passion. Passon wins but its pathway leads supposedly to freedom. Reason or peace loses because its pathway to freedom can't be seen. The obstacles of power, glory and revenge cloud that pathway. Revan fails to see that her concluding pathway to freedom has too many traps that lead to not to freedom but away from it; to further inner turmoil. But such is the way of unbridled emotion.

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    1. Good observations! Glad I captured them.

      What's unfortunate is that after this she comes back to the Republic and starts a war against it and becomes a slave to the dark side. Luckily in the game, my Revan chooses light side and comes back. So, this isn't the end for her.

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