Revan

In the Knights of the Old Republic series

Revan is depicted as a former Jedi who, along with Malak, left the Order to lead the fight in the Mandalorian Wars due to the Jedi's inaction. One year after the end of the Mandalorian Wars, Darth Revan returned to Republic space at the head of a massive invasion fleet. Calling themselves the Sith, they declared war on the Republic. However his intention was to unite the galaxy under one ruler so he could attack the ancient Sith Empire, he avoided attacking key places such as Coruscant, Onderon, and Dantooine. The Sith won the battle and as the Dark Lord prepared to battle with the Jedi who boarded his flagship, Darth Malak, in the hopes of destroying both Revan and Bastila Shan (as well as the Jedi accompanying her), betrayed his Master, ordering the ships under his command to fire on Revan's flagship's bridge. Though Malak believed himself to have been successful in killing Revan, they survived. Revan was severely injured from the turbolaser blasts. He was then taken by Bastila Shan and her Jedi strike team to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine where the Jedi Council members chose to wipe Revan's memory, and imprint him with a false identity that the player creates at the beginning of the game. Knights of the Old Republic begins with Revan awaking on a starship under attack. Throughout the game, Revan learns of his forgotten history and assembles a band of followers as he searches for "Star Maps" that lead him back to the Star Forge, which Revan used to make his army. Revan encounters Malak, who tells Revan that he is the former Sith lord.

At one point Malak captures Bastila and turns her to the dark side. Her ultimate fate depends on player choices. In the game, the player can choose whether to turn Revan to the dark side or the light side of the Force. Regardless, Revan confronts Malak at the game's conclusion. According to canon, Revan returned as a Jedi Knight who stopped the Sith forces under Malak's control and destroyed the Star Forge. The last scene of the game's canonical ending shows the principal characters, including Revan, being honored by the Republic at the site of the temple on Rakata Prime; a picture of later events has emerged from subsequent games and novels.

The sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords reveals that a year after the defeat of Malak, Revan recalled a threat from his time as the Dark Lord, and left known space to deal with it. Clues to the nature of the threat emerge from in-game dialogue with non-player characters (including Canderous and Kreia); this varies according to alignment and gender.

Prior to the events of the sequel, Revan bade farewell to the nine comrades who had accompanied him on his quest, knowing that none whom he loved could safely accompany him in the places he had to walk; the only NPC with certain knowledge of where and why (his navigation droid, T3-M4) won't say. Also, at the ancient tomb of Ludo Kressh in Korriban, the Jedi Exile fights a silent vision of Darth Revan, in which he appears to wield two lightsabers, one red and one violet. The game lists the color crystal of the light saber the player obtains from him as a unique red color. This is Revan's only appearance in the entire game. Additionally, the Jedi Exile can speak with several companions and non-player characters within the game to learn more about the history of Revan, and his journey into the Unknown Regions.

The Old Republic: Revan

He appears as the primary focus of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, released by Bioware and EA on December 20, 2011.

The Old Republic

Revan re-emerges in Star Wars: The Old Republic after a team of Republic heroes manage to rescue him from the Emperor's Maelstrom Prison with the help of the ghost of the Jedi Exile. Though thankful to the Republic for rescuing him, Revan decides to fight the Emperor on his own terms and takes control of a Rakatan installation called "The Foundry" and engineers a droid army (led by HK-47) programmed to identify and eliminate any target with Sith DNA, which represented the great majority of the Sith Empire. Revan's plan is thwarted when a group of Imperials manage to infiltrate the Foundry and destroy the droids and HK-47 before confronting Revan. After a vicious battle, Revan is defeated but disappears before a killing blow can be delivered.

Revan appears again in the "Legacy of Rakata Prime" flashpoint as the man behind the conspiracy in the "Forged Alliances" plotline. He is the primary antagonist of the fourth digital expansion to The Old Republic, entitled Shadow of Revan During the digital expansion Revan returns to try to destroy the republic and the true sith empire by changing their security routes to meet above Rishi where he could destroy their best ships with his own ships made up from Republic and Sith warships themselves, in order to go unchallenged when he fights the Emperor. However, his plan is destroyed when the "Character" is able to send a communication to both Republic and Sith to stop fighting. Revan later is cornered on Yavin where he tries to raise the Emperor but is confronted by the Player Character and defeated. After The Emperor makes a deathly entrance, Revan's light side ghost reveals that when he was defeated in the Foundry his light side part ascended the force, but his dark side, fueled by hate for the Emperor, had surpassed his light side and survived, which started the "Forged Alliances" plotline. Revan then re-connects his light and dark side and warning the Player's Character that he (Revan) must un-do what he has done or everything will be lost.

Other appearances

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Revan appears as a holographic avatar for a holocron discovered by Darth Bane.

Revan was originally slated to appear in the cartoon series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In the third-season episode "Ghosts of Mortis", Revan would have appeared as a Sith Lord alongside Darth Bane as advisors to the Son, a dark side embodiment. Revan was cut from the episode in late production since his presence would conflict with Lucas's view of the Force.

Merchandising

In 2007, Hasbro toys released an action figure of Darth Revan. Revan received the second-highest number of votes in a "fan's choice" poll in ToyFare magazine in 2006 for Star Wars characters to be made as an action figure. The highest number of votes was for Quinlan Vos, a Jedi who appeared in comic books and who Hasbro had already slated to be released as an action figure in 2007.

A Darth Revan figure was also released as a Mighty Mugg, a popular series of stylized figures based on characters from the Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Indiana Jones, G.I. Joe, and Transformers universes.

Lego released a Darth Revan mini-figure as a free-with-purchase promotional item in May 2014.

Revan won the 2015 Black Series Fan Choice at San Diego Comic Con and his figure will be release in late 2016 or beginning 2017.

Reception

Revan was chosen by IGN as the 12th greatest Star Wars character, as well as also being chosen by IGN's Jesse Schedeen as, along with Darth Malak, the fifth best Star Wars villain. IGN's readers chose Revan as their 7th top Star Wars character. UGO Networks put the character as the ninth top Star Wars expanded universe character. Jesse Schedeen listed Revan as one of the Star Wars character that she wanted in Soulcalibur, calling him "one of the rare Expanded Universe characters that unquestionably stands alongside the best of the movie characters". Robert Workman, from GameDaily, listed the character as one of his favourite Star Wars video game characters.

Although Revan ultimately did not make the cut, Game Informer staff considered his inclusion in their "30 characters that defined a decade" collection, with Matt Miller saying, "in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the looming shadow of his presence hangs over everything, and the Revan-centric twist at the heart of the story shocked the gaming world."

ScrewAttack listed the moment where it's revealed that the player character is Darth Revan as the tenth "OMGWTF" in video gaming. Edge also listed the moment as one of the most jaw-dropping moments in video games. GameDaily's Chris Buffa listed the moment as the fourth top video game spoiler, and Robert Workman listed the moment as one of the eight BioWare moments that shocked him.