Star Wars is no stranger to high and mighty Jedi falling to the temptation of the dark side of the force. Fallen Order, the precursor to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, showed how tempting and dangerous it can be, delving into the Inquisitor Trilla’s turn to the dark side and Cere Junda’s experience with nearly being consumed by it. Cal’s own struggle with the dark side in Jedi Survivor feels insidious and subtle; it appears to have been conquered on the surface, but it’s clearly something that will likely get worse before it gets better (if it gets better at all).
This article will contain endgame story spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Cal Kestis has always been fighting against a dark tide. Just as the Clone Wars show explored what constant war does to corrupt and challenge the teachings of the Jedi code, so too does living in a time of pure survival, being hunted by the Empire at every turn. Jedi Survivor takes a notable shift from Fallen Order, however; rather than constantly being hunted, Cal has been doing the hunting. For the past five years, he’s been fighting against the Empire, doing everything he can to disrupt its plans.
This has left him skating along a dangerous frontier of violence for quite some time, but he has always managed to hew closely to the Jedi code; Jedi Survivor pushes him past those limits, however.
After Bode Akuna betrays the location of the Hidden Path’s base on Jedha and kills Eno Cordova, Cal propels down a dark path. After getting incapacitated while chasing after Bode, Vader shows up at the Hidden Path’s base, and after an intense fight, Cere ultimately falls in combat.
Cal is hit hard by this death. Not only was Cere his Jedi master during Fallen Order and beyond, but he feels responsible for her demise. Bode was someone he confided in, someone with whom he felt connected in their mutual hatred for the Empire. Cal brought Bode into his inner circle, and now Bode was responsible for the deaths of Eno Cordova, Cere Junda, and countless others. Greez points out that their deaths aren’t on him — Bode made his choices, Bode is responsible — but that doesn’t stop the dark pit in Cal from growing.
After hunting down Bode to an Imperial Intelligence base on Nova Garon, Cal infiltrates the facility, making his way to Bode’s quarters. Cal speaks kindly to Bode’s daughter, Kata, but when Bode arrives, it’s clear that Cal isn’t holding it together too well. Even as Bode explains his perspective, the life he’s lived as a Jedi survivor himself and what he’s done to keep his daughter safe, Cal is determined to see Bode brought to justice.
Once Bode flees, Cal pursues, but he’s waylaid by hordes of Imperial troops. It’s here that Cal finally breaks; he taps into the dark side with a large prompt across the screen: “Embrace the Darkness.” This transforms his previous time slow ultimate ability into something more sinister. While active, the screen turns a dark red, and he carves through his enemies with ease.
As he pursues Bode through the facility, this ability recharges lightning fast, and nearly every encounter is brutally ended by embracing the darkness, allowing Cal to defeat his foes more quickly and continue to hunt. This is a heart-pounding chase, and every second counts; if Bode gets away, he can escape and never be found again. In Cal’s desperation, the dark side offers the only solution.
Once Bode does escape, after Cal and Merrin fight through a huge contingent of Imperial forces, Cal encounters Commander Denvik, and he begins to force choke him. He redirects his anger toward Bode to Denvik, knowing him to be Bode’s handler in Imperial Intelligence. This isn’t done in some calm, calculating way; he’s not eliminating a dangerous Imperial threat. He’s filled with rage and taking it out on this Imperial commander. He nearly kills Denvik, but Merrin manages to stop him.
Cal is clearly shaken by the encounter. Later, on the Mantis, he speaks with Merrin about this, about his fears of losing himself to the dark side. She promises that if he ever loses his way, she’ll be there to pull him back.
He recalls one of Cere’s lessons to him: that every Jedi will need to face the dark side eventually. At this point, Cal seems repentant, fully aware of the dark side’s pull on him and feeling disgusted by it. Another Star Wars story might fully pull him back at this point — He’s had his struggle with the dark side, but his companion managed to lead him back down the right path. But, the storytelling in Jedi Survivor offers a much more subtle approach to this shift. There isn’t a clear-cut end to his dalliance with the dark side. As the game continues on, Cal’s ultimate force power is forever replaced with ‘Embrace the Darkness.’
This ability can almost feel like a cheat code, so quickly can it end an otherwise brutal or frustrating encounter by the sheer power it helps Cal unleash. This feeling of almost simplifying encounters fits perfectly into the idea of the dark side of the force. It’s the easy path. A player might choose to avoid using this ability, rather than embracing the dark side, but it’s clearly become a part of him, whether a player revels in its use or avoids it at all costs.
In the final encounter of the game, when Cal and Merrin are fighting Bode on Tanalorr, Bode knocks Cal to the ground and is raining blows down on him. The screen slowly darkens until you can’t see anything, only hearing the sounds of Bode’s blows landing. It almost seems like a game over, like you failed some crucial moment you didn’t realize, but then the text ‘Embrace the Darkness’ slowly slides onto the screen.
If you resist, refusing to activate the dark side ability, the beating simply continues, unabated. Cal has to activate the ability. In this critical story moment, he has to embrace the dark side in order to survive here. Some might read this as a simple necessity, that it’s just a tool to use, not necessarily ‘evil,’ but it further solidifies that Cal isn’t past this dark side journey he’s on.
After the fight is won, and we’re treated to the final few cutscenes celebrating their victories and mourning their losses, there’s an odd foreboding to some of Cal’s scenes. The way Cal is framed in a shot, his face bathed in shadow, or the tone of the music being almost haunting rather than heroic — these ending moments key players into the fact that this wasn’t some clean victory. Even though Cal won the day in the end, there’s a darkness to him now. It hasn’t consumed him yet; he’s still determined to do the right thing, to fight against the tyranny of the Empire, but he’s changed.
In the final cutscene exchange between Greez, Merrin, Kata, and Cal, it almost ends on a lighthearted note, with Greez welcoming Kata about the Mantis, chatting about cooking her a fine meal. The music is jovial, hopeful; but then the camera pans to Cal and Merrin. Merrin boards the ship, and the camera lingers on Cal. The music takes a darker turn, playing a tune that wouldn’t be out of place when the Emperor walks into the room. He’s not doing anything evil or looking sinister in this moment, but the musical queue is deliberate, ending on this darker note, almost to remind the player “Cal won the day here, but he’s started on a path that might not end happily.”
This leaves him in a precarious position moving into the certainly planned sequel. He’s already started abandoning various Jedi teachings — embracing a relationship with Merrin is a wonderful thing on the surface, but it’s given him a dangerously strong emotional tie. Bode within the game showed how that kind of love for someone, even rooted in something good and beautiful (in his case, his daughter) can lead someone to do terrible things in the name of protecting them. Heck, Anakin’s love for Padme in the Prequels lead to the fall of the Republic.
I don’t expect Cal to become some evil antagonist in the next game. Cal is ultimately a hero on a difficult path — yes, he’s struggled with plenty of trauma and has been forced to push against his code of ethics in the name of fighting against a greater evil — but a hero, all the same. I do expect, however, the next game to push Cal to some uncomfortable places. I expect Cal to be forced into more and more situations where he has to use the dark side, just like in his fight against Bode, and with each use, it will nudge him just a little further. I worry he’ll eventually push too far too many times, driving a huge wedge between him and those he’s closest to. I worry his new relationship with Merrin, while something I’ve wanted for him since Fallen Order, might play into his downfall. He’ll probably eventually come back to the light, fully embracing his mistakes and faults and perhaps achieving some higher level of peace worthy of a Jedi Master, but I worry about who he’ll hurt along the way.