About Meetra Surik
Oct. 9th, 2016 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
returnofajediMeetra Surik, also known as The Jedi Exile, is the protagonist of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. She is from the light side path of the game.
As she's a customizable character both her appearance and personality depend on whoever's playing the game at the time. However, my Exile can be summed up in a few ways. First, she is so a Jedi you can't even believe it, like, who cares if it's advisable to barge in and justice, she's gonna do it. Second, she has her own definite ideas of what the Order has been and what it should be. Third, she's seen some shit. While she's absolutely a do-gooder that won't mind her own business, she's no chirpy apprentice. She's doing this because it needs doing.
Her Force abilities are also unusual. In her youth she was described as a natural leader, which turns out to be a particular knack for Force bonding. She also picks up new skills quickly even for a Jedi. She was cut off from the Force for a decade but regained her abilities and is now quite formidable with them, but if you're a Jedi, you'll pick up that they're not coming from her as much as through her. Removed from all of her bonds, the Exile would lose her connection to the Force again and have to build it anew. She's better equipped for such a possibility than most Jedi and has a wide-ranging skillset outside of it. She's also extremely good with the lightsaber, both as a duelist and on a battlefield.
Although I'm using her canon name, it's for the sake of convenience--characters in-game often refer to her as "the Exile" but she always introduces herself as whatever Starwarsy thing the player gives her. I'm not incorporating the events of Revan or the MMO, and as for Revan, I refer to her as female unless otherwise requested.
The Exile is a veteran of a brutal conflict that she personally ended with an act that could be considered a major war crime. Thousands died on the enemy side and her own at Malchor V. She carries those deaths with her daily, but at the same time she maintains that she was correct to act when the Council would not. She admits that she's made mistakes, she admits that she has blood on her hands, she admits that she will still make mistakes. But she refuses to be blamed for things that are not her fault and hypocrisy gets under her skin. She defends the choices she made long ago and today. She doesn't blame her war-ending decision on the Jedi, but she will say that they could and should have become involved in the war much sooner than they did.
During the war, the Exile participated in many grueling battles. She remembers everything about them: the conditions, the locations, the enemies she killed and the people under who command who died and broke in the fighting. Victory or defeat, each fight was a bloodbath. Although she is functional on a day-to-day level, there are certain habits which betray the scarring effect that the war had on her psyche. She is rarely forthcoming about her experiences and despite her habit of prying into everyone else's past, does not readily discuss her own except with fellow veterans. Even then, she prefers a sense of quiet understanding to in-depth discussion--there is a sense of distance to her when such subjects arise. Though she is determined not to regret her original decision, she also cannot escape the pain that came with it. She is vulnerable to the fault of doing everything on her own in an effort to risk no one else's life.
The Exile also has a number of small habits. She's forever tinkering with her battle equipment, trying to improve it as much as she can. She does the same for anyone she considers herself responsible for, and she does not like being interrupted at the workbench. This is, to her, a form of meditation; when she meditates traditionally she tends to get distracted by what she perceives and goes off to fix it.
It is perhaps because of the pain she suffered, witness, and inflicted in the Wars that she is so drawn to suffering in the present. Helping the helpless is the duty of any Jedi, but the Exile often strides into situations without regards to practicality or wider strategy. If she sees someone in trouble, she will intervene. The Exile is no wide-eyed apprentice, mind you. She can be jaded, and is aware that well-intentioned actions often have terrible consequences. She expects that trouble will occur wherever she goes and not only will it land on her head, she expects to be blamed for it entirely. But she takes the philosophy that she would rather be in trouble for doing something than for not doing anything. To sit by when there is an action she can take is something she seems constitutionally incapable of doing.
This does make her a target of manipulation, as her association with Kreia shows. There have been other times when deceivers have taken advantage of her good nature or tried to. The Exile is aware that her past actions cast her as a war criminal and she does not dispute the characterization, and so she tries to understand and guide others, which does not always work. Despite being reticent about her own past she is a prodnose who tries to find out everything about her companions so that she can understand and help them better, even when they really, really do not want to talk about it.
The Exile is also a teacher of anyone who will accept her. She trained numerous Force-sensitive adults over the course of the game. She's been described as a natural leader, a troublemaker, and a danger to the Galaxy. Such things do trouble her, but at her core she is determined to be a Jedi as far as her personal understanding of the term. To her, a Jedi uses their connection with the Force to help anyone in need or in peril. That includes protecting them from physical danger. It also means guiding them through emotional torment, too. She is forgiving and isn't prone to harsh judgment. She tries to see stories from the point of view of people who tell her.
The Exile cut her own Force connection to survive the backlash of all the deaths at Malachor V, although it took her a long time to realize that she'd done it to herself. She began regaining her abilities when brought into proximity with another Force-user whom she bonded with. Her "restored" connection was bolstered as she fought her way through mercenaries and assassins, growing stronger all the while. She also draws her connection from the people she forms Force bonds with. For this reason she has been described as a cipher and a walking wound who feeds on death. This could be true if she'd gone on a different path, but truthfully it's more complicated. Others with her ability seek and devour those strong in the Force. But for the Exile, they seem drawn to her rather than the other way around. Because of her devotion to the light side, their links are mutually beneficial. Apart from the emotional benefit they get from being personally close, her positive energy flows across the link to them.
The Exile also draws her strength from places where her actions have had a huge impact, or places where the Force has been disrupted. Now, these do tend to be places where she's killed a bunch of people, but in fairness they were trying to kill her first.
Other Force users can pick up on this strangeness. For the inexperienced, they might not know that it is strange, but they will understand that they follow her and conform to her actions a bit too easily. For Knights and Masters, it can be deeply unsettling... perhaps even terrifying. During her travels, the Masters and her mentor looked at her and saw the death of the Force, a walking rift--the Masters feared it and her mentor saw an opportunity in it.
However it's interpreted, the Exile's presence does seem to send an "echo" through the Force, as though she herself is a place where a great disturbance occurred.
As she's a customizable character both her appearance and personality depend on whoever's playing the game at the time. However, my Exile can be summed up in a few ways. First, she is so a Jedi you can't even believe it, like, who cares if it's advisable to barge in and justice, she's gonna do it. Second, she has her own definite ideas of what the Order has been and what it should be. Third, she's seen some shit. While she's absolutely a do-gooder that won't mind her own business, she's no chirpy apprentice. She's doing this because it needs doing.
Her Force abilities are also unusual. In her youth she was described as a natural leader, which turns out to be a particular knack for Force bonding. She also picks up new skills quickly even for a Jedi. She was cut off from the Force for a decade but regained her abilities and is now quite formidable with them, but if you're a Jedi, you'll pick up that they're not coming from her as much as through her. Removed from all of her bonds, the Exile would lose her connection to the Force again and have to build it anew. She's better equipped for such a possibility than most Jedi and has a wide-ranging skillset outside of it. She's also extremely good with the lightsaber, both as a duelist and on a battlefield.
Although I'm using her canon name, it's for the sake of convenience--characters in-game often refer to her as "the Exile" but she always introduces herself as whatever Starwarsy thing the player gives her. I'm not incorporating the events of Revan or the MMO, and as for Revan, I refer to her as female unless otherwise requested.
The Exile is a veteran of a brutal conflict that she personally ended with an act that could be considered a major war crime. Thousands died on the enemy side and her own at Malchor V. She carries those deaths with her daily, but at the same time she maintains that she was correct to act when the Council would not. She admits that she's made mistakes, she admits that she has blood on her hands, she admits that she will still make mistakes. But she refuses to be blamed for things that are not her fault and hypocrisy gets under her skin. She defends the choices she made long ago and today. She doesn't blame her war-ending decision on the Jedi, but she will say that they could and should have become involved in the war much sooner than they did.
During the war, the Exile participated in many grueling battles. She remembers everything about them: the conditions, the locations, the enemies she killed and the people under who command who died and broke in the fighting. Victory or defeat, each fight was a bloodbath. Although she is functional on a day-to-day level, there are certain habits which betray the scarring effect that the war had on her psyche. She is rarely forthcoming about her experiences and despite her habit of prying into everyone else's past, does not readily discuss her own except with fellow veterans. Even then, she prefers a sense of quiet understanding to in-depth discussion--there is a sense of distance to her when such subjects arise. Though she is determined not to regret her original decision, she also cannot escape the pain that came with it. She is vulnerable to the fault of doing everything on her own in an effort to risk no one else's life.
The Exile also has a number of small habits. She's forever tinkering with her battle equipment, trying to improve it as much as she can. She does the same for anyone she considers herself responsible for, and she does not like being interrupted at the workbench. This is, to her, a form of meditation; when she meditates traditionally she tends to get distracted by what she perceives and goes off to fix it.
It is perhaps because of the pain she suffered, witness, and inflicted in the Wars that she is so drawn to suffering in the present. Helping the helpless is the duty of any Jedi, but the Exile often strides into situations without regards to practicality or wider strategy. If she sees someone in trouble, she will intervene. The Exile is no wide-eyed apprentice, mind you. She can be jaded, and is aware that well-intentioned actions often have terrible consequences. She expects that trouble will occur wherever she goes and not only will it land on her head, she expects to be blamed for it entirely. But she takes the philosophy that she would rather be in trouble for doing something than for not doing anything. To sit by when there is an action she can take is something she seems constitutionally incapable of doing.
This does make her a target of manipulation, as her association with Kreia shows. There have been other times when deceivers have taken advantage of her good nature or tried to. The Exile is aware that her past actions cast her as a war criminal and she does not dispute the characterization, and so she tries to understand and guide others, which does not always work. Despite being reticent about her own past she is a prodnose who tries to find out everything about her companions so that she can understand and help them better, even when they really, really do not want to talk about it.
The Exile is also a teacher of anyone who will accept her. She trained numerous Force-sensitive adults over the course of the game. She's been described as a natural leader, a troublemaker, and a danger to the Galaxy. Such things do trouble her, but at her core she is determined to be a Jedi as far as her personal understanding of the term. To her, a Jedi uses their connection with the Force to help anyone in need or in peril. That includes protecting them from physical danger. It also means guiding them through emotional torment, too. She is forgiving and isn't prone to harsh judgment. She tries to see stories from the point of view of people who tell her.
The Exile cut her own Force connection to survive the backlash of all the deaths at Malachor V, although it took her a long time to realize that she'd done it to herself. She began regaining her abilities when brought into proximity with another Force-user whom she bonded with. Her "restored" connection was bolstered as she fought her way through mercenaries and assassins, growing stronger all the while. She also draws her connection from the people she forms Force bonds with. For this reason she has been described as a cipher and a walking wound who feeds on death. This could be true if she'd gone on a different path, but truthfully it's more complicated. Others with her ability seek and devour those strong in the Force. But for the Exile, they seem drawn to her rather than the other way around. Because of her devotion to the light side, their links are mutually beneficial. Apart from the emotional benefit they get from being personally close, her positive energy flows across the link to them.
The Exile also draws her strength from places where her actions have had a huge impact, or places where the Force has been disrupted. Now, these do tend to be places where she's killed a bunch of people, but in fairness they were trying to kill her first.
Other Force users can pick up on this strangeness. For the inexperienced, they might not know that it is strange, but they will understand that they follow her and conform to her actions a bit too easily. For Knights and Masters, it can be deeply unsettling... perhaps even terrifying. During her travels, the Masters and her mentor looked at her and saw the death of the Force, a walking rift--the Masters feared it and her mentor saw an opportunity in it.
However it's interpreted, the Exile's presence does seem to send an "echo" through the Force, as though she herself is a place where a great disturbance occurred.
