#jfo meta

[fanfoolishness]

I started replaying Jedi: Fallen Order last night, and it's been like an hour and my heart is breaking all over again. Look at this kid. Cal Kestis is barely 18 here, and he's just a baby covered in grease and oil leaping around incredibly dangerous wreckage in a job that's more like indentured servitude than a career. Passing through the scrapyard you overhear workers coughing (and not wanting to get it checked out) or complaining about company scrip. Prauf calls it out in a heartbreaking speech that engineers became scrappers, that their pay got cut, that things got more dangerous when the Empire took over. Cal's working in a death trap with nowhere to go. No wonder Prauf tried to tell him he should get out of here. How could you look at that face and not want to protect him?

Here's Cal in his Luke Skywalker era. Except where Luke wanted off a planet where he lived in the sticks (in the dunes) and nothing ever happened, Cal looks out over a planet where everything is scrap and trash and wreckage, and the Empire's boot smothers everything, and he has no dreams except old nightmares.

(Also, look at this gorgeous photo. This game is just stunning. It's incredible how they recreated the look of all of the beautiful matte paintings from the time of the original trilogy.)

Aaaaand here we go, the game gives you about 5 minutes before you dive headfirst in Cal Kestis' trauma, even if you don't know what exactly it is. The look in his eyes here is heartbreaking. Prauf was so strong to look into that thousand yard stare on this kid's face on the daily and not just lose it, honestly. Prauf, you the real MVP.

The panic when Cal uses the Force to save his friend -- and in his surprise, Prauf calls it like it is, says Force and Jedi -- is devastating. Cal's frantic, taking his friend's face in his hands, begging him to please forget it, please forget it, please stop talking about it, please don't think about it, the way Cal tries not to think about it every single day --

He's so, so scared.

I wonder if Cal's fractured relationship with the Force was a desperate act of self-preservation. While Cere cut herself off from the Force knowingly, what if Cal subconsciously did so as a way to protect himself? He must have crash-landed absolutely overloaded with terror, grief, anguish, even hatred for the clones who had turned on them. But if his connection to the Force splintered, if it shattered -- then those emotions couldn't lead him down a dark path. What if Cal accidentally insulated himself from the dark side? Because this is a face that is so frightened, and the dark could offer a solution for that, power that could save and protect him from such emotions.

Ugh I'm rambling. More nonsense to follow.

[breakfastteatime]

So... so they land on Bogano and Cere, who has a *very* good idea of just how limited Cal's abilities are, just says "off you go!" And Cal... off he goes!!!!

...into the jaws of an oggdo...

Y'know, sometimes I don't think we examine Cere's motives in Fallen Order closely enough. This woman is so focused on her mission to bring back the Order that I genuinely think she's blind to the needs of others. You could say she drives Cal, pushes him to be his best self, and yet there are times when her actions are less benevolent and more 'succeed in this mission at any cost.'

She's walking a very thin line in that game. She might be suppressing her Force abilities, but there's this tiny thread of self-centredness that drives her.

It's amazing writing, and it's an amazing performance.

[breakfastteatime]

So, I have been saying this since I finished Fallen Order last year:

Leave. Cal. Out. Of. It.

Do you want to know why his story works so well? Because you, the player, literally take him on it. His journey is *our* journey. No live action show is going to capture that. Not. One.

His story is so amazing, and so special, and so well told, that I don't think any of the existing shows could do him justice. Not to mention, if you put him in anything set in the future, you immediately lose the narrative tension of the next game.

I cannot stress this enough: Fallen Order and Survivor are my two favourite Star Wars stories of all time. Yeah, you read that right. Sure, I grew up with the prequels and original trilogy, and I'm here because of them, but I don't think any other story comes close to doing justice to the characters. Nothing in the entire franchise touches the emotional journey these two stories have taken me on. Cal's story strikes a chord with me in a way few things do.

I do not want him anywhere near the other Star Wars characters and their journeys. He'd be overshadowed, and that's not fair because his story is so powerful as a standalone - something the Star Wars franchise desperately needs.

I will say it again and again: Fallen Order and Survivor make the Star Wars universe feel big again because Cal is so disconnected from all things Skywalker. You tie him into that, and he loses his agency and independence. Because that's the issue with a story that involves chosen ones - no one else can be as important. The second he gets involved in any of that, he'll lose something.

Cal matters. Leave him be.

cameron monaghan i trust you with my life

(meaning cal kestis, he is my life)

[theangelwithawand]

Cal Kestis’s Lightsaber

Cal’s lightsaber is cool. I know the reason for the stances is because video game, but character and story-wise it makes sense too.

The different stances give Cal increased adaptability for different situations. It plays into the whole “Survivors. We adapt.”message.

It also shows Cal’s natural combat prowess. No one taught him to wield these other stances, he figured it out on his own, building on a strong foundation from Jaro Tapal.

It’s also a great reminder of his scrapper days. Light sabers are notoriously difficult to build and modify, and for Cal to build such a complex weapon, it is clear how much Prauf taught him on Bracca.

Finally, I love what the double bladed saber represents for Cal. He builds it on Ilum after overcoming a moment of hopelessness. He takes the broken crystal and uses it to make a double bladed saber that can split apart. He adapts.

A lot of people comment that his double bladed stance feels really powerful compared to others, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s on purpose. Story-wise it makes the most sense for it to be the one he favors. Yes, he usually defaults to a standard saber in cut scenes but that’s the one he was trained on. He’s also had the double sided saber since the first game, meaning he’s had five years of training with it. He’s had the split sabers too, but he used them as a special attack within the double sided saber stance.

As much as I love Jedi Survivor, I don’t think the studio understands how crossguard sabers work. I understand having it be a heavy two-handed weapon because video game, but crossguard sabers aren’t from a custom emitter. When you bleed a crystal wrong you need vents to emit the excess energy. It’s nothing game breaking but I think it’s funny.

I’m sure that I am not the first one to come up with this headcanon, but I like to think that Cal changes his lightsaber color from its canonical blue to green after starting something with Merrin so he can match her magick. Because Cal is dorky like that.

Also, the lightsaber he uses technically isn’t his. It belonged to Jaro Tapal.

Anyway, thanks for my too-long meta analysis of me reading too deeply into things that probably only exist because of video game mechanics!

[browncesario]

jedi survivor spoilers under the cut and a conversation about the dark side, gray jedi, personal morality, and living life on your own terms.

i think something that i’m not seeing in conversation about cal’s arc through the second half of the game is that like, his acceptance that the jedi order is gone is him accepting that this thing he’s known his whole life is no longer there for him and he needs to find another community and code to in order to live life on his own terms. like textually that is set up from the start with greez making a point to tell him to settle down and bode emphasizing his own familial life from the very start. he can’t keep sacrificing his own potential happiness for the potential good of the galaxy.

cal has held on to the rules of the jedi order his whole life because keeping the structure of what he lost is how he copes with his grief and trauma. but merrin even said it herself, you have to find a way to move on. him being able to embrace the dark side is indicative of this release from the constraints of the jedi order, and him being stopped from using it in vengeance at the end of the first sequence is him returning to the balance. its utilizing ideology of gray jedi, but it’s not him ascribing to that ideology either. again it’s cal figuring out what works for him in his life in a way that lets him live by his own code of morality, especially considering that his life looks very different then it did five or ten years ago.

additionally, i think it's really significant that when this happens it's basically the next day after he verbalizes to merrin that the jedi order is gone and he wants a relationship with her (and they have sex?? idk they kiss and it fades to black and it's the next day i don't think that's insignificant) because of the whole obsession the order has with personal romantic intimacy leading to the ability to utilize the dark side. i also think it's significant that merrin is the one to help him set the boundaries on how he wants to use it, and again while i don't think cal even knows about gray jedi, the writers absolutely do and it's alluding to this general structure.

it’s in this way that continuing to be able to use the dark side mechanically is really powerful emotionally because it’s reflective of his ability to move forward into something new, something better. this is a cal who returns to a bar with friends and family, this is not the same cal who has to live by the rigidity of what he lost.

[disregardcanon]

while i’m just word-vomiting meta thoughts, i’ve been thinking about how concrete cal’s thoughts about teaching kids were and how much of a dream being a master must have been for him since he was young... and thinking about the inquisitorius using that against him. 

like, imagine after months of torture trying to get him to open the holocron that desire to teach and to rebuild his people is taken and exploited. “we ARE going to get access to these children one way or another. we have the holocron, and we will eventually get someone to open it. it’s only a matter of time. the only question is whether we’ll kill them... or keep them. assuming we had someone to bring them up right” 

and he’s left with what feels like a choice between the actual death of these children (his PEOPLE’S children) and the cultural death of these children to be able to live under the empire. and... he makes a choice. if he can make sure that the empire won’t kill them and these kids can live and maybe bits of their culture can live too, he’s going to take that chance so that he can do his best to protect them and get all of them through this. 

you can’t stop the empire, after all. months of torture has taught him that. 

he’s in some ways complicit in his people’s genocide not only in the “kill the other jedi, kill the jedi within yourself” ways but also in the “raising the youth in toxic situations that run contrary to the culture they were supposed to be raised into” ways. but he gets to work with kids the way that he always wanted to and tries his best to protect them, even though there’s always the guilt eating away at him that tells him his compliance with this situation caused it and has made things worse. 

[mylordshesacactus]

One of the most heartbreaking things about Trilla, really, is that--if you watch her, as the game progresses, it becomes so crushingly obvious that Trilla Suduri was never a warrior.

Like, this isn’t me going “oh poor little baby,” this isn’t a desire to woobify, I really genuinely do not think Trilla handled the war well at all. I don’t think she was a fighter. I don’t think she was even a passable soldier. And I think that fucking broke her before the Inquisitorius even got the chance.

It’s hard to articulate because all the evidence for it is like...it’s a thousand tiny moments and all of them sound very thin in isolation, but the thing is they’re consistent.

Like, okay, an example:

(source)

Compare that to Trilla’s fine control and carefully deliberate stances in a duel. Compare that to literally every other experienced Force-user we’ve ever seen deflecting blaster bolts.

That’s fucking sloppy.

Those are massive, messy, energy-inefficient, time-wasting movements that leave her wide open.

Trilla was a padawan during the Clone Wars. As best we can figure, she would have been about 17; just around Ahsoka’s age, a little bit younger but not by much. An older teenage padawan who served in the Clone Wars should be better at deflecting blaster bolts than this.

It’s not an animation error or something, we see characters animated with precise and controlled motions in this game. Trilla is just really bad at the one thing that should be subconscious muscle memory.

(And how stressful must that have been to her master? Cere, who’s extremely gentle and selfless but still a fighter, a survivor, a field commander, with this sweet girl she half-raised who seemingly cannot learn a basic survival skill but is expected to lead battalions?)

(Even aside from that and allowing for the handicap of that fucking helmet, Trilla’s reactions in combat outside the tightly-controlled arena-like environments she arranges to face Cal in...well, you see it up in that gif, a bit. She looks over her shoulder, she stops in unwise places, she doesn’t actually have good battlefield instincts. I think Cere reflexively ripping Cal out of the way to open fire--stop staring and take cover, damn it, padawan--was a very practiced move for them, during the Clone Wars.)

Anyway: The fact that Trilla is absolute dogshit at blaster deflection despite the timeline...says something, about her. About what she would have been like as a padawan. Her suitability in a martial setting and her inability to adapt to it.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great duelist, certainly--but saber-on-saber dueling was like...academic, in the pre-war prequel era. The Sith were gone, nobody but Jedi used lightsabers, so the odds of you ever actually needing to know how to handle yourself in a saber fight were basically nil. Who are you going to actually fight? It would have been a sport, a form of meditation, an art form, but it wasn’t...real. No competition fencer is training with the intent of someday having to fight for their lives.

Combine those things and what I hear is: A nerd. Fairly sheltered before the war, probably easily overwhelmed, not terribly confident (except, probably, in the duelling ring, because that’s a hobby, it’s a meditation, it’s a martial art that deepens her connection to the Force and gives her a physical outlet and it’s not real.)

And then, solidifying that, we have our flashbacks from Cal accidentally overdosing on the psychometry--Trilla’s own memories of Cere’s abandonment, the raw panic in her voice, the hyperventilating, the way her voice shakes, the way she sobs in open fear before the torture has a chance to start.

Of course she was barely more than a child; of course none of this is a criticism. She was alone and afraid in the middle of the fucking apocalypse, and the fact that she wasn’t defiant and confident in those circumstances is not evidence of anything, really.

Except that, well, we have seen what typical reactions to stress and fear from other wartime padawans look like. There’s fear, there’s pleading, there’s “wait, master, don’t go”. And then there’s the wild incoherent terror of “DON’T LEAVE US,” the way her voice is high and unstable as she tries and fails to reassure her younglings, the fact that the softest and most tender we’ve ever heard Cere’s voice is when she’s explaining her plan to her padawan--whom she is clearly used to having to calm down in overwhelming situations. We see Trilla instinctively grip Cere’s arm and then let go, which also hints at a reflexive pattern--something she’s done before.

(The fact that Cere’s last words to her are not “protect them” or “get them to safety”. Cere’s last words to her are “stay with the younglings, Trilla”. I don’t think she meant anything by that. I’m not sure Trilla shares my confidence.)

Trilla’s responses in a highly traumatic situation are completely normal reactions...for a civilian child who’s in way over her head. Not a military commander in a war zone.

Trilla was never a warrior.

But the Inquisitorius didn’t need Trilla Suduri, did they.

[hermitmoss]

In Their Own Words: Jedi + Peace & War(riors)

For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.

      Obi-wan Kenobi, A New Hope (1977)

Great warrior?  Wars not make one great.

     Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack.

     Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

We're keepers of the peace, not soldiers.

      Mace Windu, Attack of the Clones (2002)

To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not. In this war, a danger there is, of losing who we are.

    Yoda, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lair of Grievous (2008)

There’s a difference between pulling innocents into a war and leaving them to extinction.

     Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Defenders of Peace (2009)

“Master Windu has said we are keepers of the peace, not warriors. However, once the war is over, it will be our job to maintain the peace.”

“Yes, but will we do so as keepers of the peace or warriors? And what's the difference?”

“I don't have all the answers, Ahsoka.”

   Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Brain Invaders (2009) 

“There has to be a difference between us and those we fight. We are Jedi. We must remain Jedi.”

“And if we lose? If more of us die?”

“Then we lose, and we die, and we are still Jedi.”

    Aayla Secura and Quinlan Vos, Star Wars comic (year:?)

As he always did, the Jedi felt a twinge of sorrow at taking another’s life. But decades of war against a brutal and relentless foe had forced Gnost-Dural, like so many others in the Order, to come to grips with the moral ambiguity of killing an enemy in the pursuit of a peace that would save the lives of trillions.

      Gnost-Dural, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation (2012)

“I’m … I’m not a soldier,” she said, her voice uncertain as she took a step back from him. “I’m a Jedi.”

     Satele Shan, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation (2012)

The Force isn’t a weapon.

     Ezra Bridger, Star Wars: Rebels (2018)

We were peacekeepers.

     Cal Kestis, Jedi: Fallen Order (2019)

As a Jedi, we were trained to be keepers of the peace, not soldiers -- but all I’ve been since I was a Padawan is a soldier.

     Ahsoka Tano, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2020)

[fanfoolishness]

WHOA

on Senator Sejan and that classified military intel

so i was working on a Jedi: survivor fic tonight and i got to thinking about Senator Sejan, the Senator for Utapau who Cal is stealing that intel from at the start of the game - the one who sets up the themes of collaboration to survive/protect people and the idea of choosing the lesser evil. which is a brilliantly-done setup, and everything in it holds up the rest of the game really well, so i started going - why would they never explain what's going on with that information?

from the holoprojection we see when Cal briefly takes a look, it looks like the intel Saw wanted was a list of Imperial military deployments and impending invasions across the galaxy - which is definitely incredibly sensitive, highly classified intelligence that a senator should not have been able to have access to, especially not on an unsecured location like his pleasure yacht, which is basically a glorified luxury landspeeder. it seemed like something incredibly weird for the writers to just... never acknowledge how unusual that is.

so then i get to thinking. it's not really hard to figure out how he could've gotten hold of that information - one thing that we know is that the military, the ISB, the Senate, all of them will have someone dirty, at some level. trading secrets for secrets, or credits, or some other nebulous favor, is probably fairly standard. while this is definitely a high-value thing to get his hands on, Sejan had enough accumulated power to entirely seal off a level of Coruscant and force it to quarantine, despite not being an actual member of Coruscanti planetary government. that leads us to the much more pressing questions of what the hell did Sejan want with that information, and why the hell did he have it on his yacht?

and i think i've found an answer that explains everything.

Sejan is Alliance (Rebellion).

timeline-wise, we're in 9 BBY, which i believe is post Partisan-Alliance split. we know the disparate rebel cells that will form beneath the Alliance's banner are currently being funded, in varying levels of secrecy and deniability, by the governments of the senators who make up the Alliance's leadership council (see: Leia and Bail involving themselves in getting ships and other materials to rebels). we know also that the cells mostly function via receiving information from Fulcrum - and she has to get that information somewhere. somewhere likely very high up. a list of current and future Imperial military deployments would be incredibly valuable to the budding rebellion. if Sejan was hoping to steal that information and then send it out, it makes sense that he'd smuggle it out onto a personal terminal he can control, that probably has his own encryptions - and we know that Fulcrum's encryptions are damn good.

but Lee, you say, Sejan is an Imperial collaborator whose planet hates him! that doesn't fit the profile at all! to which i say: doesn't it? the entire game is about how there are more ways to fight than just the obvious. about how sometimes survival is a rebellion in and of itself. about how fighting back, becoming a weapon, may just get more people killed in the end. the bitter Imperial collaborator is not only an excellent cover to wear - it could even be true. sometimes fighting back means throwing your lot in with the other side, and resisting in the quiet ways. not all worlds are powerful enough, wealthy enough, and Core enough to survive their governing figures being openly anti-Imperial like Alderaan. to win a war you have to be alive to fight, and beyond that, you have to have something left behind to be protect, something there to go back to, when it's all over. as for the bits where he's canonically tortured people - well. have to maintain an image somehow.

the game gives Sejan's reasoning for trying to capture Cal out from under the nose of the Inquisitorius as an attempt to gain favor with the Emperor, but i honestly don't buy that. a clever man (and Sejan has to be a clever man) would know that Palpatine does not appreciate being undermined, especially where the Jedi and the Sith are concerned. i suspect it was an attempt at actually being able to talk to Cal, in some kind of privacy, possibly to try and recruit him away from the Partisans?

which really just leaves the final piece of the puzzle as: why would Saw Gerrera send Cal to steal intel from someone he almost definitely knows is Alliance? and that's pretty easy. we know how Saw feels about the Alliance; of course he'd want to have data on Imperial military movements for himself. of course he'd believe that he could do more damage with it than the Alliance ever could. all he had to do was not tell Cal all the details, and it seems fairly clear to me considering the utter lack of contact Cal has from Saw that while he's a useful frontliner and diversionary force, he's not entrusted with the Partisans' inner workings. for good reason, too - Cal can't lie to save his life.

just some food for thought. but i find it interesting that Ninth Sister accuses Sejan of "consorting with traitors" and kills him without blinking, instead of listing out his actual, theoretically more important crime to the Empire (since it would be very obvious that he wasn't willingly with Cal) - stealing classified intel, locking down an entire level of the capital planet he has no real authority over, and trying to keep a Jedi prisoner away from the Inquisitorius. she doesn't accuse him of harboring a traitor - but consorting with them. to me that's an important distinction.

(i made this post at 5 am, so if there's any errors or anything i didn't explain clearly enough, that's probably why. this came to me like an hour ago while i was trying to write fic. figured the fandom might find it interesting.)

[breakfastteatime]

What do you think the actual in-universe mechanics are for Cal interacting with echoes? Fandom is big on him being struck by accidental echoes all the time, and that's great for plot or angst purposes, but I don't read it that way; honestly, I can't see him staying sane if so. With the rare exceptions like Trilla's lightsaber, it seems to be an active choice on his part. My tenative headcanon is that (at least as a trained adult) Cal has to be actively open to/using the Force to read an echo from something (which he was when he was using it to summon Trilla's lightsaber) and otherwise, it's similar to game mechanics, that he can sense from a distance that something has an echo, and choose to interact with it. I like how you've balanced logic and fantasy world in your storoes so I'm wondering what your take on it is.

Thank you for asking about this! I will try to break down my thoughts as coherently as possible. I admit my interpretation has developed over the *checks notes* fifteen months since I first played Fallen Order.

This got lengthy so under the cut we goooooo!

Firstly, the headcanon that goes around about Cal not picking up echoes if he wears gloves does not work for me because you literally see him picking up echoes with his gloved hand in Fallen Order. He uses both hands to do this. Okay, PHEW, got that off my chest.

Alright, moving on!

Personally, I always try to separate videogame mechanics and storytelling because as a game, the echoes function the way finding documents would in another game (e.g. all the files you find in games like Control or Resident Evil, or the voice recordings in Bioshock). Whenever they are being included as a gameplay element, the player literally sees them as glowing blue light, and you have to interact with the item for Cal to pull out the echo. So yes, I agree that to some extent he has control over what he does and does not experience. I like to think Master Tapal taught him some self-control. You know - resist temptation, Cal!!!

However, when echoes are included as a storytelling element, there isn't always a light (e.g. the hallikset doesn't have anything until Cal touches it and it flashes, Trilla's lightsaber has nothing, the bacta tank in Survivor). These tend to be the more all-consuming ones (again - because it's a storytelling element so we're gonna get a cutscene).

We also see Cal pull his own echo out of a dream, and arguably the flashbacks in Fallen Order are examples of him doing this too... The flashbacks in both games (although more so in Fallen Order) are where gameplay and storytelling come together beautifully... but that's for another day!

So, how do I marry gameplay and storytelling? My interpretation is this: some echoes are so huge and so powerful that they just spill out of the Force from Cal's perspective. He can then choose to either interact with them or leave them. Others are equally powerful but catch him off-guard for whatever reason (he's distracted, he's tired, it's surrounded by 'brighter' echoes, or it just doesn't glow... I will find a plot device!). I also feel like the Force has this element of benign will, so if the Force wants Cal to see something, he's going to see it because the Force doesn't care about individuals. It's the Force! It doesn't conform to human behaviour.

As for how he would stay sane if almost everything he ever touches has some kind of echo on it, I come at it from a perspective of 'Jedi are as used to their abilities as I am with breathing'. If Cal does pick up stuff from everything (which I don't believe because not everything is being held while something of great importance happens!), he just processes it because he's a natural-born Force-sensitive, and he's used to it. The Jedi trained him on how to focus, how to let some things pass right through him, and how to reflect upon the echoes that won't go quietly. In other words - he gets better with age and practice, however sometimes psychometry still gets the better of him (a bit like how my lungs can breathe, but asthma makes that harder at times).

I also find it fascinating how Cal has clearly developed his ability between games. In Survivor, we see him holding onto himself more frequently (he follows Dagan in his dream/memory, we see him watching the moment Santari fights him... he then turns an echo against Dagan which I freaking LOVE... interestingly, he doesn't hold onto himself in the memory he picks up from Zee, suggesting that he hasn't quite perfected this yet.) Oh, and then we have the fractured echoes which I'm still kicking around as a 'how do I take this definitely a gameplay thing and make it a storytelling thing'.

The character development in these games is just fantastic, and going back and playing Fallen Order after a couple of Survivor playthroughs just makes it even clearer (and not because I keep forgetting teenaged Cal can't do a bunch of things).

I love to play around with echoes because they're just such a fun concept. Except more stories about them in the future!

I really hope my logic makes sense here! Thanks for the Ask ^_^

[jaysunderwear]

no hold up. the first flashback we experience in the dream on the train is a ghost of remembering remembering. it’s a stack of places he has lived and looked for people. he’s looking for prauf and he finds master tapal. he’s pushing buttons and he touches the door and remembers his masters last words. but it’s violent. he’s layered too much. he’s too tired. he’s perpetually running. he’s not safe. he can’t trust in the force. he can’t trust in anything. i don’t even know what i’m saying but my god.

the first memory is a nightmare.

[space-blue]

JFO wiki you absolute winner

[starbeets]

THIS IS AWESOME THANK YOU!!!!!

Fallen Order & Survivor Musical Themes

Has anyone done this yet? Here is a comprehensive list of all of the character themes/motifs found in the Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor video games for anyone interested. I tried to give several examples of each and also included some of my own thoughts. You can listen to many or as few links as you want. If I missed anything please feel free to add on or let me know.

FALLEN ORDER CAL KESTIS - I'm giving Cal two separate sections because I'm pretty positive he now has two separate themes and in attempts to make it less confusing, I've decided to very creatively refer to them as Fallen Order Cal and Survivor Cal. I'm a genius, I know. Fallen Order Cal is consistently heard all over both games. It's his primary theme. It feels young and heroic and wide-eyed... Remember feeling like nothing could touch you when you were young? That's the sort of feeling I get from Fallen Order Cal. It's not happy per se but it's hope and optimism sprinkled with naive youthfulness and an undertone of solemnity. He's been through some serious shit but he's a kid, he's young. The grief and trauma are there for sure but they haven't encompassed him completely. There's still some hope behind those eyes, there's a healing journey to go on, and there's a chance to take on this Empire. It's only until Survivor that the theme starts feeling a little more grounded just like the transition from childhood to adulthood. Fallen Order Cal in Survivor feels a bit less magical, that youthful spirit has diminished, that hope has dwindled.

CAL KESTIS

THE PATH OF THE THREE SAGES

PEACEKEEPERS

A FRONTIER WELCOME

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

A STEP TOO FAR

SURVIVOR CAL KESTIS - So, I originally thought this was a minor key variation of a section of Cal's theme but I've since realized that it technically is a completely separate theme. That being said, thanks to @foxykatie425 in this insanely detailed reply to my frustrations regarding this theme that put what I was hearing into musical terms way out of my element in terms of explaining, I've realized that I may have been somewhat correct. I don't know if the two themes are actually connected, that would be a question for the composers but at the very least, it's definitely a secondary darker theme for Cal as it only ever plays in reference to him and I'd wager a guess that it's the main theme of Survivor as a whole. Compared to Fallen Order Cal, Survivor Cal feels drained, heavy, tired, burdened, and above all else, dark and foreboding. There is a genuine weight to this theme that just feels sinister. There is a hint of Fallen Order Cal there but as that post says, it almost feels like it's on the verge of falling apart. He's not the same man he was five years ago and the fact that this theme is the first thing you hear music-wise in the game and accompanies your very first view of him is an incredible way of subconsciously telling that to your audience right off the bat.

DARK TIMES

ABOVE THE CLOUDS - note: this theme and Fallen Order Cal switch back and forth constantly in this track and I find that so interesting.

NOVA GARON

NIGHTSISTER MERRIN - Merrin's theme is interesting to me because it doesn't sound anything like the type of music you might use to accompany a witch or magic user. It's not necessarily fantastical or whimsical or anything of the sort. In fact, it sounds more like something you might use for a superhero. It's a little bit timid or unsure or even afraid in Fallen Order but god damn has it built in confidence and strength once Survivor rolls around. The only time you hear that sort of timidness to it again is during the first kiss on Jedha which has such interesting implications for her being a nervous wreck in that moment. I also adore how it sounds as an action cue which you hear several times throughout Survivor. It sounds like it comes straight from the best MCU movies and yes, I do mean that as a compliment.

TO DATHOMIR

PEACEKEEPERS

MERRIN

THE WILL OF THE FORCE

TRIDENT

FLIGHT

CAL & MERRIN'S LOVE THEME - Look, I genuinely did not think they would actually go through with making Cal and Merrin canon, I honestly thought they'd chicken-shit out and I was certainly not expecting them to get any sort of love theme if they did but here we are... and we somehow got both. Cal and Merrin are canon and they got a love theme. Holy fucking shit. It just has all that warmth and sweetness of a friend-to-lovers romance too.

FIELDS OF DUSK - ORCHESTRAL VERSION

CAMPFIRE

A STEP TOO FAR

THE ABYSS

BD-1 - I said in my post regarding my thoughts on the Survivor score that these two video game scores are quite possibly the closest we've ever gotten to a John Williams sound from a composer(s) who is in fact, not John Williams. Not that every piece of Star Wars music has to sound like the big man himself, part of the reason The Mandalorian theme was so positively received was that it was such a different sound for Star Wars but I stand by what I said: this is the closest a composer has gotten to a John Williams sound and they have clearly done their research. Some people might not know this but R2 and 3PO have a very small motif heard throughout the films. It's not played very often and is sometimes not very noticeable but it's there and BD-1's motif is not only similar but definitely sounds like it exists within the same universe. I also love that droids are so often musically presented as very childlike, innocent, and mischievous. BD in particular has a very playful energy.

BD-1 AND THE BOGLINGS

MERRIN

THE WILL OF THE FORCE

TRILLA SUNDURI/SECOND SISTER - Trilla's theme legitimately activates my fight or flight response and when I say that, I mean mostly my flight response cause you won't find me messing with this shit. It's very much in lieu of the famous Psycho violins which were written to heighten your senses by emulating screams. I wish we got more of it cause it's intimidating as fuck and a piece of dark side art.

FIGHT AND FLIGHT

TRILLA

THE WILL OF THE FORCE

CERE JUNDA - Don't hate me but I haven't quite fallen in love with Cere's theme yet. That's not to say it's bad by any means, it's absolutely beautiful. It has such a deep melancholy vibe to it, like an inescapable sadness. It almost has a feeling of failure to me weirdly enough.

THE PATH OF THE THREE SAGES

DESERT RUINS

SIEGE

THE VISITOR

ENO CORDOVA - I've mentioned this before but again, for people who might not know: the music that is widely considered to be the main theme of Fallen Order - so much so it was primarily used during the recap at the beginning of Survivor - is Cordova's theme. It's such an interesting artistic choice because I think many people would've made it either Cal's theme or given the entire game its own theme in general. I listen to this one a lot honestly. It's so calming and safe feeling.

THE PATH OF THE THREE SAGES

FAILURE IS NOT THE END

ENO CORDOVA'S THEME

THE NARKIS ANCHORITES

BODE AKUNA - Yes, Bode does have a theme and you know what? It slaps. I really like it. It's very adventurous and feels quite friendly which is ironic as hell. It does get some heart-wrenching renditions nearer to the end of the game. It's the music that swells when he force-pushes Cal and everyone collectively shits themselves. Oh, it also has some dark renditions as well.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

A STEP TOO FAR

BROTHERS

THROUGH DARKNESS

RAYVIS - As far as I can tell, Rayvis does not have a set theme but he is usually accompanied by high-playing strings and his boss fight music is the best example of that. I actually don't think a lot of Rayvis moments ended up on the score soundtrack which... how dare they.

WARRIORS CODE

DAGAN GERA - I thought Dagan didn't have a theme for the longest time but it turns out he actually does have a tiny motif that I do wish had been more thoroughly realized in the score because it's so menacing and I absolutely love it. It's most prominently heard during his last confrontation with Cal. He is also usually accompanied by low-playing horns. Not always but usually.

RELEASE ME

TO THE RESCUE

GRAND OCULUS

KATA AKUNA - I'm going to rant about this one for a second, okay? I have spent the last few weeks wondering what the hell the melody that plays throughout the track Through Darkness is. I was sitting here plucking out melodies on a piano app (cause I don't own a keyboard) and was like, "Okay, it's not Cal's theme, it's not Bode's theme, it's not Merrin's theme... what the hell is that series of notes??" Yes, I'm aware that not every note has to mean something but these just felt like they did. It's played at such an emotional point in the game and for two scores that already work heavily around themes and motifs and musical ideas, it didn't make sense to me that this little series of notes would mean nothing, especially at such a poignant moment. Funnily enough, it only just occurred to me while making this post that it's fucking Kata's theme. At least I think it is. Well, motif. It's not a fully developed theme but it definitely has the makings of one. That's not even me making a wild guess either, these notes appear in other places in the story that feature Kata.

NOVA GARON

THE ABYSS

THROUGH DARKNESS

GHOST STAR - I'm adding this for fun because I think it's gorgeous and I love it but it leads me to ask: why has there been no official release of Ghost Star? With or without vocals? This is a genuine question. It does not appear on the Cantina album nor is there even a snippet of its melody on the score album. It makes me wonder if the song was maybe added later into production? Trust me, I love the orchestral cover that has been going around and people are obviously seeking it out cause the track has gained thousands of streams in the months since the game was released. It was at 10k the last time I looked on Spotify and it's currently at 24k as of writing this. I'm just genuinely surprised EA/Respawn or hell, even Lucasfilm hasn't capitalized off that.

GHOST STAR

GHOST STAR W/ VOCALS

Thank you most sincerely if you made it all the way here :)

I liked this. I should do this for more scores lol.

[softpadawan]

You know what would be awesome? If Lucasfilm/Marvel made a Jedi: Fallen Order comic series centered around Cal Kestis the way they gave Kanan a series in Star Wars: Kanan.

Yeah, we know a little bit more about Cal's past than we did Kanan's, but there's still a lot of backstory that can be explored.

I just want more content.

[macewinduu]

Not to be emo about JFO again...but the entire sequence starting with Cal reliving Order 66 and ending with him rebuilding his lightsaber is so fucking heartbreaking, but gives me so much respect for Cere and her voice actress.

She (and Greez! You see him glance back at Cal when he collapses) sees Cal having a mental breakdown and very gently tries to get him out of it. When he says he wasn't good enough, and that's why Jaro Tipal is dead, you can hear the "oh honey, no" in her voice. Then she does something surprisingly rare for mentors in Star Wars: she's honest. She shares her trauma to help Cal deal with his.

And its hard for her! Cere curls up in the same way Cal does, her voice is shaking, and you can just imagine her having the flashbacks and nightmares Cal did, back to that single moment. But she pushes through and she tells him to get up and keep going.

(Then we hit Ilum, which once was sacred. You can hear the pain in Cal's voice, but Cere, who brought her own Padawan once upon a time, who probably hoped to bring the younglings under her care there, what was that like?)

[sudurisms]

i like how respawn really wanted to remind us that cal is ultimately a disney character by killing off his parental figures and giving him trauma from it