Bastard of the Old Republic

Later, when exploring the surrounding area, I spotted a droid encircled by Kath Hounds, looking in trouble. Not out of kindness, but simply because the game enters combat mode when you get too close to the hounds, I defeated all the attackers. Beasts destroyed, the droid explains his situation. He had run away quite deliberately, as a result of his mistress taking that title a little too literally. Rather than grieving for her husband, she had transferred her feelings onto the droid, and was attempting to have a relationship that was clearly inappropriate with a robot. Deciding that this was the best thing he could do for her, the droid had tried to get himself killed to force Elise to move on. Noble, brave. I remember making the difficult decision to help the droid fulfil his wishes, and killing him, then going back to Elise to tell her he was dead. It was a terrible moment - she was distraught, destroyed, and I was sure I had done the wrong thing. Until later in the game when I met her again, and she seemed to have finally moved on in her life. I had made a real difference.

This was not for Simon Evil. Simon Evil did something very, very bad. I could have ordered the droid to return home, and left the woman to continue unravelling in his bemused company. That would have been pretty dreadful. But I found a much... better option. I decided I would kill the droid, but right before doing so, tell him that I'd be sure to go back to Elise and let her know he was still out there, and she should keep looking for him. The droid's last words were cries of astonished misery. Mission and Carth, after voicing their shock, dutifully helped me take him down. "You asked for this!" I went back to Elise to let her know there was still hope, he was out there, and she should go find him. Job done.

I think this might have been the point where I snapped. Once I got into the dispute between two local families, the Sandrals and the Matales, I noticed that the squirming and reeling in reaction to my decisions was beginning to fade. In fact, when I was forced to apologise to someone in order to get the mission going, I was becoming most perturbed.

Here's the deal with those families. The son of Nurik Sandral, Casus, had gone missing. Nurik's convinced he's been kidnapped by rival Ahlan Matale. Soon after, Ahlan's own son, Shen, went missing. The Jedi Council had been asked to intervene with the escalating dispute, and Simon was dispatched to... help.

Neither family is particularly helpful, but inside Nurik's home I spoke to his daughter, Rahaisha. She begged for my help, telling me she had a secret she must share. Picking the cruellest option, I dismissed her and told her I had no time for her stupid, petty concerns. Bastilla was horrified at my attitude, the girl was upset, it was business as usual. But unlike so many encounters, it didn't let me continue with the task in spite of my rudeness. If I wanted to mess these families, I was going to have to bite my lip and apologise to this woman. Apologies mean Light Side points, something I was committed against, and had so far avoided. Dilemma. Thankfully the game is so splendidly written that even in apologising, I was able to be such a dick that by the end of the discussion the game declared I'd scored both Light and Dark points. A reasonable compromise.

Played Light, you can find that Shen is being held captive by Nurik, and the daughter wants you to rescue him, and help the two of them get away from the increasingly unhinged Nurik. I went along with things this far, convinced I would have to go back and reload once these actions turned me all nice or something. As the two fled from the house they were suddenly confronted by both families, along with their platoons of soldier droids. Here with your carefully chosen words you can reconcile the two families, help Nurik to accept his son's disappearance has nothing to do with Ahlan, and probably have bluebirds land on your shoulder while bunnies gambol at your feet. Or, it turns out, you can tell Nurik that Ahlan killed his son. Oopsie.

The scene that follows is glorious. Ahlan is enraged, and with a nudge can be prompted into revenge, shooting Ahlan's son dead. Spinning around to Nurik I cried, "Are you going to stand for that?!" He is not, and he fires at Rahaisha. And then all out war breaks out, the two families slaughtering each other, leaving me with just a couple of droids to polish off.

And I loved it. I laughed. It was just so rewarding. My actions, even involving the slightest compromise, had allowed this dreadful situation to escalate out of all control until everyone involved was dead. When the Jedi Council each asked me about what could have possibly happened, how a simple dispute I was investigating could have ended in such bloody horror, I revelled in lying to them about it, each falling for my ludicrous claims of innocence. "I guess it must have been Mandolorians!"

Oh my God. I'd turned to the Dark Side.