Generally, Star Wars video games haven’t been overly interested in exploring the Dark Side of the Force. Both Knights of the Old Republic games do the best job of giving players a better look at the Sith, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed certainly lets you feel the wrath of the Dark Side with Starkiller’s tale. However, most Star Wars games stick to the Light Side. Plus, most of the games that do let you play as a Dark Side user are choice-based. There aren’t many crafted Sith stories, despite the popularity of characters like Darth Vader and Darth Maul. With that in mind, Cal Kestis might be our best chance to get a Dark Side character as the lead, or an opportunity for Respawn to do something we’ve never seen.
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Could Cal Kestis Join the Dark Side?
We know Kestis has been close to the Dark Side before. Remember his rage after Bode Akuna turned traitor? And how he had to embrace his darkness during their final fight to put an end to his former friend? The Dark Side is lurking inside Kestis, using his love of people to worm its way inside him slowly but surely.
Thankfully, Cal has, so far, been able to come back from the brink, thanks in large part to his relationship with Merrin. The Nightsister officially became Kestis’s love interest during Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. While she was able to convince him to come back to the Light after that encounter with Bode, his love for her might be his biggest weakness to the Dark Side.
There’s a reason having a lover was against the Jedi Code. Emotional attachment like that can easily lead to the kind of emotions that tempt Force users to the Dark Side. We’ve seen what Cal does when his friends die. What if a similar fate meets Merrin in the final game of the trilogy?
Without his anchor and what’s sure to be a well of rage, could Cal come back from the edge? Would he even want to? That’s a question Respawn might have to answer, but there’s actually more than two options. Kestis doesn’t have to decide between Jedi and Sith. In fact, I would argue it’s more in line with his character to become one of the best examples we’ve ever had of a Grey Jedi.
Cal Kestis – a Grey Jedim
The term Grey Jedi has some haters in the Star Wars fandom, and that’s not without reason. Everything we know about the Force tells us that there must be a balance between the Light and Dark Sides. It’s hard to imagine a third side to the Force, and that’s not what I’m arguing in favor.
Instead, think of a Grey Jedi as someone who is firmly in the Light Side of the Force, but doesn’t agree with the Jedi Order’s teachings. We have a few solid examples of this with characters like Qui-Gon Jinn and, to a lesser extent, Ahshoka Tano. No one would argue that those characters were working for the Dark Side, but they were doing things outside of the Order because they didn’t agree with certain decisions.
In some respects, Cal Kestis is already there. Don’t forget that during a conversation with Merrin, Kestis said, “The Order’s gone. It’s time to leave it behind. And… I know what I want now.”
That sounds like someone ready to do his own thing. It’s hard to say exactly what that looks like for the end of this trilogy, but it would give Respawn free rein to take Cal’s character wherever they want. Whether Kestis goes to the Dark Side or stays on Light as a Grey Jedi, it’s exciting to know that we might be getting one of the more nuanced takes on the Force with the end of the trilogy.
As of this writing, we don’t know too much about the final game in the trilogy outside of the announcement that it’s in production as of 2024. Fans had to wait about four years between the first and second games. We might see a slightly shorter gap between the second and third games, but the earliest we could realistically expect the finale is probably 2028. The good news is that Respawn has continuously shown it has a flair for surprising its players, so here’s hoping that trilogy ends with a universe-shattering bang.
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