A Knight’s Tale
The Jedi Knight in Star Wars: The Old Republic taps directly into the classic Star Wars fantasy: a lightsaber‑wielding hero trying to hold the line while the galaxy slides towards disaster. Set millennia before the films, the class story leans into duty, sacrifice and the uncomfortable gap between what the Order expects and what the war actually demands.
Your journey begins on Tython, the Jedi homeworld, with a Knight who is already trained in the basics and is now being tested in the field. The opening arc has you dealing with a fallen Padawan and a plot that threatens the Order from inside, which sets the tone early: this isn’t a peaceful monastic retreat but an institution under pressure. From there you’re sent to Coruscant, where the Republic’s political heart is still recovering from the Sacking and where you quickly uncover a wider Sith conspiracy involving stolen superweapons and sleeper agents. By the time you leave the capital, the Knight has shifted from promising student to someone the Council quietly starts treating as a key asset in a much larger struggle.
Mechanically, the class splits into two advanced options: Guardian and Sentinel. Guardians focus on resilience and control, taking the single‑saber, heavy‑armour route and specialising either in tanking or in hard‑hitting melee DPS. Sentinels dual‑wield lightsabers and live in the thick of the fight as pure DPS, using forms like Juyo and Ataru, mobility skills and a centering resource mechanic to keep up a constant pressure of strikes and Force abilities. Between them, they cover the expected “Jedi frontline” roles without changing the core story beats, so you can swap between a stalwart defender and a hyper‑mobile damage dealer without losing the through‑line.
The Knight’s story plays out over three acts, each one ratcheting up the scale. The first act has you chasing down a network of superweapons designed by Doctor Tarnis and his allies—planet‑killing technologies the Sith are trying to turn against the Republic. You track and neutralise those threats across worlds like Taris, Nar Shaddaa and Tatooine, while also dealing with the revelation that Kira Carsen, your new Padawan companion, is one of the Emperor’s “Children”, an infiltrator raised to serve him. In the second act, your focus shifts to a more direct confrontation with the Sith Emperor: you join a strike force of Jedi Masters in an assault on his hidden stronghold, an operation that goes badly wrong and leaves the Knight carrying scars that shape the rest of the campaign. The final act centres on the fallout from that encounter and the Emperor’s attempt to consume the galaxy through a wide‑ranging ritual, pushing you into open battles against elite Sith, corrupted Jedi and Imperial forces as you work to stop him for good. The climax on Dromund Kaas, where you face the Emperor in his own seat of power, is about as close as SWTOR gets to the “Chosen One” moment, and opinions on that vary—from players who love the epic scale to those who find it a bit too close to fanfiction—but it’s hard to deny it feels climactic.
Companions give the Knight’s story much of its texture. T7‑O1, the astromech who’s been helping Jedi for decades, is your first partner: cheerful, fiercely loyal and good with locks and terminals. Kira Carsen joins on Coruscant, initially as Bela Kiwiiks’ outspoken Padawan and later as your own apprentice, bringing a mix of sharp humour, combat skill and a past that ties her directly to the Emperor’s schemes. Later recruits include Doc, a roguish field medic; Sergeant Rusk, a by‑the‑book soldier with a very high tolerance for acceptable losses; and finally Lord Scourge, the Emperor’s former Wrath, who defects after his own visions convince him that the Knight is the key to stopping his master. Scourge’s presence in particular complicates the usual Jedi/Sith divide and adds a long‑view perspective, since he’s been serving the Emperor for centuries by the time he switches sides. These companions react to your alignment choices—Kira and T7 have very little patience for dark‑side decisions, for example, while Rusk is comfortable with ruthless pragmatism—which helps keep the light/dark slider tied to actual relationships rather than abstract numbers.
The Jedi Knight’s storyline is often singled out in discussions of SWTOR’s class narratives. Some players criticise it for pushing the protagonist into an almost Mary Sue position—“the most progressive Padawan ever”, as one forum post puts it, taking down multiple Darths and the Emperor in short order. Others rate it highly as the most “Star Wars” of the arcs, delivering a classic hero’s journey with strong pacing and big set‑pieces. Later expansions reinforce its importance: the Knight, along with T7‑O1, Kira and Scourge, continues to play a role in the ongoing fight against the remnants and echoes of the Sith Emperor (Vitiate), tying the original class story into Knights of the Fallen Empire, Knights of the Eternal Throne and beyond.
Taken as a whole, the Jedi Knight offers a concentrated dose of Star Wars heroism: a personalised rise‑to‑champion arc threaded through with questions about power, responsibility and the cost of victory. With its flexible combat options, memorable companions and a plot that moves from temple training grounds to the Imperial throneworld, it remains one of SWTOR’s defining experiences and a touchstone for what a narrative‑driven MMO class story can look like.
