Summary
- The Old Republic era had epic Jedi vs Sith battles. While featured in games and books, they've yet to be explored in canon Star Wars movies.
- SWTOR cinematics showcased armies of Sith and Jedi clashing in truly brilliant and epic lightsaber duels and galactic battles.
- The Acolyte show is the closest in live-action to the clashes of The Old Republic with Jedi vs Sith, but still lacks the armies of Force-s fans truly desire.
15 years ago, Star Wars revealed the ultimate Jedi vs Sith battle the movies have never given us. In the 9-film Skywalker saga and its connected movies such as Rogue One and Solo, the Old Republic era in which there were just as many Sith Lords as Jedi Knights has never been explored on the big screen. Likewise, the sole Star Wars live-action show that's gotten even remotely close is still a far cry away from what audiences have wanted since 2009 (if not earlier).
Thousands of years before The Phantom Menace, the Republic and Jedi Order were constantly embroiled in wars with variations of the Sith Empire during the Old Republic Era. Serving as the setting for the ever-popular Knights of the Old Republic games and its successor The Old Republic, this still-canonical period has captured Star Wars fans' minds several years later, even as the bulk of its specific events have since been rendered non-canon Legends. Regardless, hopes that Lucasfilm will one day bring armies of Sith to take on the early Jedi to the big screen have never really died.
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KOTOR Showed Us The Ultimate Jedi Versus Sith War
The Jedi and Republic vs the Sith Empire
Whether it's in the comics, book, the Knights of the Old Republic games, or The Old Republic MMO, the Old Republic Era famously features the armadas of the Sith Empire as the primary threat to the Republic and Jedi Order. Preceding Darth Bane and his Rule of Two, there were just as many Force-s serving the dark side as the light. Naturally, this resulted in the Old Republic Era featuring some of the most epic battles as the Republic frequently went to war against the Sith Empire.
During the Knights of the Republic games, the bulk of the narrative is focused on Darth Revan, an amnesiac rogue Jedi who'd become a Sith Lord, only to be recaptured by the Jedi who wipe his memories. Becoming a Jedi once more, Revan clashes with Darth Malak, his former apprentice who had since taken command of the initial Sith Empire hailing from the Unknown Regions. Likewise, Knights of the Old Republic II focuses on a triumvirate of Sith leaders: Darth Nihilus, Darth Traya, and Darth Sion. While both games featured Jedi clashing with multiple Sith Lords, the subsequent Old Republic MMO truly took this concept to the next level.
Star Wars Movies Have Never Matched KOTOR's Sith War
We've Yet To See Armies of Jedi and Sith Clashing
Bioware's The Old Republic is still quite a popular MMO that still has a pretty active fanbase even in 2024. However, the game's impressive cinematic trailers are universally beloved as well, effectively being short films set in the period that depict some of the most incredible lightsaber duels and galactic battles that have even been seen to such a high degree that they objectively sur what's been seen in the movies. This includes one of The Old Republic's very first cinematic trailers released in 2009.
Titled "Deceived", Bioware's 2009 cinematic details Darth Malgus who led the new Sith Empire's "Sacking of Coruscant", having infiltrated the city planet just before a massive invasion force took over the planet. Having walked right up the front steps of the iconic Jedi Temple, Malgus preceded a shuttle carrying fifty Sith warriors which crashes right through the front entrance. Igniting their crimson blades, this force of Sith made short work of their Jedi rivals as the warships of the Sith Empire descended upon Coruscant.
The idea of Jedi and Sith armies clashing was definitively proven by The Old Republic cinematics as absolutely brilliant 15 years ago and was established well beforehand with the Knights of the Old Republic games. However, the canon Star Wars movies have yet to feature anything at this level in live-action. This is largely because Lucasfilm hasn't yet made a canonical movie or project before Darth Bane's Rule of Two, prohibiting the existence of any Sith beyond a single master and apprentice at one time.
The Acolyte Is The Closest Star Wars Has Come To Matching KOTOR's Jedi Versus Sith War
Even Though It Only Had One Real Sith
For all of its controversy and mixed reception, The Acolyte and its High Republic setting is the closest Star Wars has gotten to the epic clashes of the earlier Old Republic Era. Set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, Qimir's The Stranger is still a lone Sith Lord. However, he does take on an entire force of Jedi in a sequence that features some impressive dueling and combat. That said, it's still not anywhere close to what Star Wars could and should do with armies of Force-s on both sides. Here's hoping the Old Republic will eventually be explored on screen in the Star Wars franchises' future.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Publisher
- Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm Games
- Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Mode
- MMORPG
- Platform
- PC
- Rating
- T
Star Wars: The Old Republic is fascinating. Next to World of Warcraft, it has somehow become the MMORPG tens of thousands have invested the most time into, despite not always being sure what to think of it. In 2011, it was a game at odds with itself, and while so much has changed since then, that has not. But that conflict has also led to seismic shifts, with BioWare dragging it in unexpected directions. People keep coming back and, with a new expansion on the horizon, you may be contemplating the same. You should.
Things have progressed quite a bit since those days, however. After you finish your class story at around Level 50, you’ve not got several games’ worth of adventures and crises and character-driven yams left to play through. The first couple of expansions aren’t really worth repeating playthroughs, but everything from Shadow of Revan onwards is surprisingly gripping stuff, evocative of the single-player RPGs that inspired it, but not beholden to them. Perhaps most like Knights of the Old Republic 2, the later chapters make the Star Wars universe and the Force feel strange again.
Going back to the level playthroughs, those first 50 levels are going to either fly by if you’re subscribed to their hip, or take a good while longer if you’re here for free-to-play. All the XP bonuses and complimentary boosts mean that subscribers can get to the original level cap purely by doing the class and planetary quests. They’re invariably the best written and most engaging parts of the game, to the point where it feels like a classic BioWare RPG. Everything else is a crapshoot. The actual objectives for every kind of quest rarely deviate from the most uninspired MMO tropes of fetching and killing, so most of the heavy lifting is done by story and characters.
As a new or returning player, especially, you’re not going to run out of group or single-player stuff for a very long time, and the busiest servers feel as lively as a fresh MMO, so you won’t be starved for people to play with. It’s still growing, too. After a long break, the war between the Empire and Republic has flared up again, and a new storyline has kicked off that takes players to new worlds like Ossus and Dantooine. Along with new missions, operations, and special events, the latest string of updates has also given additional attention to PvP, introducing new maps, modes, and free-for-all PvP areas.
Tons of players keep coming back for more, but each time they do it’s a bit different, most of the time for the better. Part of the allure is the fact that Star Wars fans have been a bit underserved in the game department under EA’s stewardship, and while the Battlefront games do an excellent job recreating the movies’ impressive battles, they don’t really capture the universe in the same way that an MMORPG like The Old Republic does. If you’re looking for a good Star Wars yarn, this game’s overflowing with them.
Star Wars Movies |
Release Date |
|---|---|
The Mandalorian & Grogu |
May 22, 2026 |
