People call Malak a terrible villain *spoilers*

[Yüce Ebu Leheb]

I mean he's an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, sure. He sat on Revan's throne, bombed Taris, tortured Bastila and such. He's a backstabber, but he's cool as ♥♥♥♥. He's a one big mofo with more muscles than Arnold. He has a cool mask. He looks like ♥♥♥♥ when he takes it off, but still, he looks cool. His voice actor did an awesome job, his evil laugh is funny. His first fight was kinda easy, but last fight was hard. I used so many Life Supp Packs and Adv Medpacs.

When we kill him, he says: "I... I cannot help but wonder, Revan. What would have happened had our positions been reversed? What if fate had decreed I would be captured by the Jedi? Could I have returned to the Light, as you did? If you had not led me down the dark path in the first place, what destiny would I have found?"

Then he takes responsibility for his actions: "I suppose... I suppose you speak the truth. I alone must accept responsibility for my fate. I wanted to be Master of the Sith and ruler of the galaxy. But that destiny was not mine, Revan. It might have been yours, perhaps... but never mine. And in the end, as the darkness takes me... I am nothing. "

Those quotes alone makes him a great character. I didn't player KOTOR 2, so I don't know how it's villains are, but I think Malak is a good villain. Although, he is overshadowed by Revan.

Malak kinda looks like Jon Irenicus tho.

Note: Don't give any KOTOR 2 spoilers, please.

[Ragnarök]

Malak was a bad character because he was just a moustache twirler. What's his goal? To crush the Republic! Why? Who even knows. Frankly, it's hard to really even call him a character when he acted more like a force of nature, a challenge to be overcome.

There was nothing redeeming about him, nothing to be sympathetic over. And no, one Hail Mary line at the end of a game does not a good character make. Taking responsibility for your actions after being forced to do so =/= being remorseful over those actions. It was too little, too late.

Can't even blame KotOR specifically, shallow main villians had always been a problem up to that point in Bioware games.

[Yüce Ebu Leheb]

Originally posted by Ragnarök:

Malak was a bad character because he was just a moustache twirler. What's his goal? To crush the Republic! Why? Who even knows. Frankly, it's hard to really even call him a character when he acted more like a force of nature, a challenge to be overcome.

There was nothing redeeming about him, nothing to be sympathetic over. And no, one Hail Mary line at the end of a game does not a good character make. Taking responsibility for your actions after being forced to do so =/= being remorseful over those actions. It was too little, too late.

Can't even blame KotOR specifically, shallow main villians had always been a problem up to that point in Bioware games.

Darth Vader was kinda like this at the beginning, until he fought with Luke, we discovered that he has a heart too. If Malak would take more time, we'd see that he'd be a great villain I think. Maybe that was the purpose. They wanted to make him a bad villain to show more of Revan.

I don't think that Bioware can't write a main villain. The real main villain in the story was Revan, that's why Malak didn't feel as superior as Revan after The Revelation. The whole game, they told us that Revan is better than Malak. They showed Malak as an underdog, but in the end, we saw that he's an intelligent character after all. I don't know, I think I Malak is a good character.

Edit: Jon Irenicus is the best villain ever. He's in a game which been made by Bioware.

[Ragnarök]

Revan wasn't much of a villian in KotOR either, or a character for that matter. It actually took KotOR II to come in and fix that. That's where Revan became interesting. I won't go into that. In K1 it was a simple Hammer/Scalpel relationship between Malak and Revan. Of the two, I'd fear Malak more if I was a citizen of the Republic. His evil is greater because he glassed two planets.

Jon Irenicus is an exception to the rule. Best villian is a matter of opinion, of which my choices would be either Darth Traya from K2 or Jacques de Aldersberg from The Witcher. Perhaps Metromind from Primordia.

[Yüce Ebu Leheb]

I think people may learn a lesson from this. Being more evil doesn't make a better villain. He was kinda cool tho. I mean if you would show someone who doesn't know who Malak is, people would find him a badass. My brother doesn't know who Malak is and he says that Malak is awesome. He only played a bit of KOTOR 1.

[spartakisteqc]

Sarevok was a cool villain in Baldur's Gates 1 too. He had some complexity with his love relationship with Tamoko and while his ambition was a bit typical, it's one of the villains I enjoyed the most in RPGs and I played to a lot of them. And then in Throne of Baal, he gets even more developped. Bioware did create a few great villains, but their newer games weren't as good for this. I would still say that Sovereign was crazy cool in Mass Effect 1 too. And while we don't see him a lot, seeing him more would have made the Reapers less mysterious and thus less frightening.

As for Malak, I believe there could have been more nuances in his character and probably a bit more flashbacks about what he was before his corruption. The big problem is that while the big fight at the end and his confessions are great, there was too little before this point to prepare us for it. Had we seen him thinking aloud about this before being defeated, he could have been a great villain. But in it's current state, the confessions at the end come a bit out of the blue although they are interesting in themselves.