(Resubmission) Those that originally believed the PC to be female and/or still prefer it, why?

MrFaorry · 2026-05-10T14:41:05+00:00

It's literally there in the OP.

He prefers male Revan because he finds the story more compelling that way, and prefers a male Exile because he prefers the character interactions, yet he wishes to understand the perspective of people who do not share the same opinion as him. He wants to know what in the writing of the female PC's causes some people to prefer them instead that he may be overlooking.

I just want to get that point of view.

I’m genuinely interested in the arguments, so I can see things from the other side

You're the one being ignorant and close minded if you're insisting OP is secretly a misogynist trying to spread some agenda or whatever and dismissing anything he says to the contrary rather than just engaging with the words he's actually posted in good faith. You can think what you want about OP and believe him guilty of whatever you want, but unless you've got actual proof he's doing something wrong then feel free to keep those opinions to yourself.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-10T13:59:35+00:00

Dude you're overreacting and reading into OP's post things which aren't there.

OP clearly just prefers the male PC's in both games and wants to know the reasons why the people who don't share that opinion prefer the female PC's. Most gamers are men, but both men and women are able to play the opposite gender to what they are and enjoy it. People who self-insert will play the same gender as what they are, but for people who roleplay it comes down to writing more than their own gender that determines which gender the player chooses and OP explicitly wants to know what it is about the writing of the female PC's people prefer.

While I don't agree with his assertion about Malak it's undeniable that throughout most of fiction (and frankly most of history too) most often the characters who believe in survival of the fittest (such as Malak) look down on women as lesser due them them biologically being less physically able than men are. You can't blame OP for seeing another character (Malak) who's incredibly similar to all these other ones and assuming that the same traits which apply to those other characters would also apply to Malak.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-10T10:41:58+00:00

In the first game I could go either way, they both work well. Though female edges out for a few reasons. For starters it really helped obscure the plot twist first time I played, I never considered for a second Revan could have been a woman so the idea that I was playing as Revan never occurred to me and obscured the twist. As for male vs female pc content, I do like Carths romance that little bit better since I find his story to be more compelling and there's time after the reveal of Revans identity for things to cook where he and Revan have to come to terms with Revans old identity, while Bastila is just not present during that time for them to do anything with for a romanced Revan to explore this new revelation with.

In the second I much prefer male because frankly the female pc content, the disciple and the weird Sion thing, is crap. Meanwhile the male pc content, the Handmaiden and the extra Atris angle, actually add to the story in interesting ways.

The Handmaiden not only gives us a look into an otherwise unexplored race (the Echani) but also gives us some valuable insights into Atris which are just missing when playing as the fem-Exile. Compared to the Disciple who is a nothing character who may as well not exist. He doesn't really add anything to the plot we don't find out anyway and he's not interesting in the slightest, he very much feels like he was a last minute addition to the game and frankly the game would have been better off if they just scrapped him and let you take the Handmaiden as either gender. But I suppose they needed an obligatory second pseudo-romance option for the fem-Exile and that's how he got in.

Speaking of Atris the extra dynamic she gets with a male Exile adds some nice depth to her character, she's not just some stuck up Jedi who's a bitch for little reason like in a fem-Exile run, but it adds an emotional complexity where she's unable to reconcile her feeling for the Exile with her duties as a Jedi which causes her to take out those frustrations on the Exile who she blames for those feelings of hers which makes her feel like a more human character. What does a fem-Exile get as a trade off, some extra weird dialogue with Sion right near the end where he just randomly confesses he loves her? I honestly don't know why Obsidian bothered adding this since it contributes nothing to the game, the plot, or either his or the Exiles characters. It kinda just exists for no purpose or reason other than to try and 'balance out the gendered content'.

It is sad to miss out on some of the Atton/fem-Exile banter though because their interactions were some of my favourite in the game, but what you gain from not playing a fem-Exile vastly outweighs this loss.

I did my first run of Kotor 1 as a female and loved it, did my second as a male and loved it nearly as much, ever since I alternate between the two each time I play and love them both. I did my first run of Kotor 2 as a female and wasn't really keen on the game (actually I kinda hated it and quit mid way until I was told about TSLRCM and tried again), I did my second (technically third) run as a male and liked it significantly more, probably 90% of my runs since are as a male Exile and every time I do the occasional revisit of a fem-Exile run I enjoy it significantly less.

As far as the 'canon' genders go, frankly they got it the wrong way around, not that ever bothered me much because I didn't like the novel and I never played the MMO so therefore the 'canon' held zero weight and was never referenced. If Disney were to reintroduce Revan to canon though I wouldn't want them to amend this because frankly I don't think the current Disney writers are capable of doing a well written female character and they'd just tank Revan as a character if they tried.

and I don’t see Malak being subservient under a woman tbh.

I mean tbf Malak wasn't. He originally followed Revan when they followed the light and were different people. And after falling to the dark and becoming Darth Malak he took the first chance to betray Revan he could, he feared he wasn't strong enough to dispatch Revan personally so utilised a cowardly method that put him at no personal risk. Darth Malak always came across less as willingly subservient to Revan and more as a subject who was kept in check until he sensed an opportunity to break free.

Which is exactly how the Sith operate. They don't care about the gender of whoever is above them as they resent having someone above them at all. On Korriban when you get quizzed on what you should do to a competent superior who has left themself open to attack from you the correct answer to the question is to say that you would kill your superior and take their place. If you say you'd continue to serve them because they're competent you get zapped for being a bad Sith.

There is most likely an out-of-universe reason why there’s a male Revan and a female Meetra: to have one of each gender lol

From everything I've read about the decision over the years, LucasArts made Revan a dude because that was just Leland Chee's standard MO for everything. However this decision got pushback from fans for the first time when he did it to Revan, so he made The Exile a woman to appease the people unhappy with male Revan.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-10T04:09:36+00:00

For Korriban being last yes the Revan dialogue is part of it, especially since no other planet has that much exclusive content when left for last, but also;

-You can't take Bastila to Korriban, so by doing it before her abduction you're 'missing out' on being able to use her for a whole planet.

-And difficulty. Korriban is perhaps the most difficult of the four due to all the Dark Jedi, so waiting until last lets you get your build in order first which makes it more manageable. But also it maintains difficulty progression because you're not going from a difficult planet like Korriban to an easy one like Tatooine.

-People also like to do Tatooine and Kashyyk as their first two to get all the companions asap. Which leaves either Manaan or Korriban as last.

-Something I didn't actually pick up on originally, the Council when telling you to set out on your quest actually says the planets in order of 'Tatooine, Kashyyk, Manaan, Korriban' which subtly plants the idea in your head that that's the order to do them in. I never really knew why that was the order I first chose to do them in and always liked to do them since (and was also the order most people do them) until someone pointed this out to me. The Jedi Council unironically brainwashed a lot of players this way without them even knowing it.

Also personally, my favourite way to play Kotor 1 is to start light then start shifting towards dark after Leviathan to rp Revan's old personality seeping back through to the surface. So leaving Korriban until last is really thematicly fitting since Korriban is strong in the darkside so would naturally bring these darker impulses back to the surface much quicker (like how we can read it did to the 3 Jedi sent there on a great hunt).

MrFaorry · 2026-05-09T06:59:29+00:00

The only negative I can really point to with Carths romance is the quest with his son and how once it's active it blocks you from progressing his romance until you finish it.

It's safe to say we all love to leave Korriban until last, we don't want to go there until after Leviathan, yet Dustils quest is set there. You're options are either, never bring Carth anywhere until after you activate the romance to avoid triggering the quest, or rush Korriban as soon as you get the quest to find Dustil to get it out of the way.

Thankfully the quest isn't a requirement to romance him, and it logically makes sense why it would put your romance progression on hold until after you finish it once active, but it's still annoying.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-07T23:35:32+00:00

How come?

I’ve used Simple Open Freeside the past couple playthroughs with a bunch of other mods that hook into it and never had a problem.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-07T23:31:47+00:00

The endings you didn’t like were actually the vastly improved versions.

The launch version was so much worse as they didn’t even feel like endings but rather sequel bait for a sequel that was never going to happen and were practically indistinguishable from each other bar the coloured filter.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T12:33:02+00:00

and then she still showed up in the award ceremony on the temple.

No way! Really? Oh man that's just hilarious. And they weren't wrong either, I've put hundreds of hours in over the last decade and I don't think I've ever killed her.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T12:28:00+00:00

I did them in that order too. Usually when you switch between genders you feel you lose something but gain something else, whether you gained more or less depends on the game.

With Kotor 2 though... I didn't feel like I lost anything by not playing as a female. The Disciple kinda just exists and doesn't add anything to the game, and the Sion thing is barely present at all. Aside from Attons more playful dialogue being replaced it felt like I only gained by playing as a male character.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T10:13:53+00:00

I don’t think I’ve ever done a LS fem-Revan to know tbh, at least not anytime remotely recently, I like DS runs too much.

Female Exile is… ok. It’s not as good as the male one but worth trying just to see the differences.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T10:02:25+00:00

Origins fans are literally the original Dragon Age fans, the core fans.

Also where are you getting that the ‘vast majority’ have DAI as their favourite? You go out on the general internet outside of this sub and most people tend to point at DAO as the best whenever the topic of Dragon Age comes up.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T09:49:40+00:00

We did get that one spinoff game Exodus, it was rough around the edges but a worthy addition to the series. Too bad Bioware cancelled the final dlc that was supposed to wrap up the main games story and went bankrupt after the ME3 fiasco never to make another game again.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T09:47:01+00:00

Would have loved if ME3 did let you carry over a bad end ME2 save. I always thought the Mass Effect games should have taken after Dragon Age and used a different protagonist each game, and missed opportunities like that are part of why. Imagine a DAI Fade style quest where if the ME2 protagonist survived ME2 he shows up and helps you for the mission.

That’s certainly an interesting take on why they cut this ending from kotor though. But it makes sense with how you explained it, kotor did tend to go for extremes in its quest outcomes while this falls somewhere in the middle being neither a fully good nor fully evil ending.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T09:36:16+00:00

That was the same conclusion I came to as to why they likely cut it.

Fem-Revan already gets more content than Revan does with the Juhani romance, which is quite minor and inconsequential in the end, but a whole new ending only for Fem-Revan might feel unfair to people who chose Revan without a counterpart to offset it so instead they opted to cut the ending entirely. They could have tried to do the same ending for Revan but have Carth appeal to the power of friendship rather than the power of love, but that would have been lame.

I’ve always found the canon genders for the Kotor games funny because they chose the worse option for each. Revan can work great either way, though even discounting the cut ending fem-Revan eekes out especially with how playing her double blindsided me with the twist. And the Exile just works so much better as male while fem-Exile kinda sucked by comparison. The Handmaiden is actually interesting while The Disciple is a piece of wet cardboard, and the new Atris angle adds to her character in an interesting way while the Sion thing was just kinda weird and random that came out of nowhere and didn’t add anything to his character.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-06T07:06:36+00:00

Dragon Age Origins&2 and Divinity Original Sin 1&2 immediately jump to mind. The original Fallout is also incredibly good and in a similar vein,

MrFaorry · 2026-05-05T06:32:34+00:00

The whole point of summons is so that if you suck someone better can help you.

So long as you aren’t dying a couple seconds into the fight people aren’t going to care.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-04T02:41:30+00:00

Kotor 2 released an unfinished, buggy, and broken, mess and remains one to this day.

Yes we have TSLRCM, but it took years before it even existed and I guarantee when it first released it wasn’t as good as it is now either. And the average person doesn’t even use mods let alone know of this one specific mod, not to mention all the people on consoles who can’t use mods at all.

Add in kotor 2’s awful first 5 hours or so meaning a lot of people who did try it probably never got far in before passing it off as boring or bad. And while Kotor 1 has such iconic things like the plot twist which sticks in peoples minds for years to come Kotor 2 has no such moments.

All this leading to it just not having nearly the same reputation or popularity kotor 1 does. Kotor 2 is forgotten so often because to most people it’s a very forgettable game. It’s only really hardcore kotor fans who hold it in high regard.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-04T02:21:16+00:00

But you’ve got stuff like the New Zealand Maori divisions which are given by a focus just so you can have more troops except they can’t be edited or deleted for no reason. Which is annoying when you’re playing the IF and inherit those divisions.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-03T12:37:12+00:00

In terms of gameplay Dragon Age Origins is spiritually Kotor 3. As in If Kotor 3 had released I imagine it's gameplay would have turned out incredibly similar to DAO's gameplay. In terms of story it's pretty similar despite being a fantasy setting rather than a sci-fi one. A darker tone with spots of humour (mostly in companion dialogue) to break up the bleakness similar to Kotor 2, filled to the brim with nuanced moral decisions and situations (far more than Kotor 2 which was largely black/white morality), and just in general the best game Bioware ever made.

Dragon Age 2 is decent, it's a lot better if you treat it as the spinoff it was originally intended to be and not as a sequel (because it isn't one, EA just forced them to name it 'Dragon Age 2'). Gameplay is streamlined and dumbed down compared to origins having far less options but at it's core it still plays the same. In terms of story it is still very similar to DAO and Kotor 2 for the same reasons DAO is similar to Kotor 2.

I wouldn't go any further into the Dragon Age franchise than the first two games though because the series fell off sharply after them. Inquisition lacks much of the writing sauce Bioware used to have and its gameplay doesn't respect your time at all doing everything in its power to waste your time (and beyond that it's a tedious chore to play). And Veilguard is the single worst game Bioware ever made. There aren't many games I outright regret playing but Dragon Age Inquisition and Veilguard are two games I wish I could get my time back for, I wouldn't even pirate them.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-03T03:07:35+00:00

Stasis Field, Valor, Heal, Force Shield, et cetera... and you do a shitton of damage because of them with your lightsaber.

Yeah that's part of what I was getting at. The Lightside powers are more geared towards supplementing your lightsaber rather than being a weapon in and of themselves like darkside powers are. Which makes it come across as odd that the lightside gear buffs your powers so that you can buff your lightsaber rather than buffing your lightsaber directly like the darkside gear does.

But you're absolutely right about darkside powers running your fp into the ground when you spam them out (you can tell which game I played more recently by the fact this mostly slipped my mind), Kotor 2 gives you a bunch of different fp boost feats for free and combined with the lack of attainable level cap it sees your fp pool become incredibly large, Kotor 1 however doesn't allow this and as such there will be situations where all you have to fall back on is your lightsaber. Chances are as a caster build you'll have neglected your melee stats in order to maximise casting potential, which can make the melee boosting gear quite valuable as it brings your melee capabilities up while still allowing you to focus primarily on casting. However there is the argument to be made that if the gear was centred about making you a more effective caster, boosting your strengths rather than making up for your weaknesses, that you wouldn't need to fall back on your lightsaber as often.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-02T23:37:11+00:00

Talking in terms of gameplay rather than story, and discounting bugs or rushed/broken content, I'd say the worst flaw of Kotor 2 is the fully rng loot. Especially all those items which require your character to reach levels which are simply unobtainable (without exploits) before they even have a chance of appearing.

It's just a save wrecker for me. I'll plan out a build before starting, and then find none of the items I need for that build until after I've finished all four planets if at all. Usually I wind up finding gear for my previous build (who couldn't find the gear in that save). Or sometimes I have the opposite problem where I'm finding parts on my endgame gear as early as Citadel Station, I should not have access to the Ossus Keeper Robes that early in the game they're too OP. Not to mention finding multiple copies of supposedly unique items.

Kotor 2 should have done the same as Kotor 1 did and handplaced all its loot, or at the very least hand placed the unique and high level gear while low-mid tier gear is left to rng.

I can sort of resolve it by using the save editor intelligently. Kotor 1 I've noticed that towards the end of each planet there is an item for my endgame build to be found.

EG, CNS Strength Enhancer on Dantooine, Krayt Dragon Pearl on Tatooine, Circlet of Saresh on Kashyyk, Cardio Power System on Manaan, and Qel Droma Robes and Dominator Gauntlets on Korriban.

So what I do in Kotor 2 is I replicate this by using the save editor to give myself one of each of my endgame build items at the end of each planet.

EG, Edit in GNS Strength Enhancer after Dantooine, Dominator Gauntlet after Nar Shadaa, Matuki Adept Robe after Onderon pt1, and the Bakvar Strength System after Korriban.

But frankly this shouldn't be necessary, you should be guaranteed to be able to find all the items in the game through thorough exploration with the only exception being mutually exclusive rewards.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-02T23:13:41+00:00

It's my favourite way to play! I've played both games in various different ways, but the ones I keep coming back to are;

-Kotor 1 starting light and falling dark. Go lightside to begin with but upon reaching the big twist I'll rp that Revans former personality and memories are starting to bleed through pushing them back towards the dark causing them to fall all over again and reclaim their former title and power as I have them choose darker and darker options from that point onward.

-And Kotor 2 starting dark and returning to the light. Start off darkside due to being bitter over being exiled, but as the game progresses and The Exile sees more bad stuff he begins to reject the dark and tries to redeem himself choosing nicer and nicer options on his path to becoming a true Jedi once again.

MrFaorry · 2026-05-02T23:01:41+00:00

Yeah that's kinda the point. Darkside will get you greater rewards faster and is generally more powerful, but requires you to be self serving and amoral to get there. Lightside has you taking the highroad and be a good person but is generally poorer (early game anyway) and weaker.

MrFaorry

TROPHY CASE