The 5 best Star Wars video game characters

Happy May the 4th! Star Wars has an incredibly rich history of movies, TV shows, books, comics and of course, video games. While many have been based on the films there are quite a few that are also original stories just based in the universe and as such feature their own cast of original characters. Here are the five best Star Wars characters that originated from video games:

#5. Starkiller

So, I actually don’t think the Star Wars: Force Unleashed games are all that great. They aren’t terrible or anything, but for one thing, this was touted as something that was major canon yet has essentially gone completely unaddressed in the movies and games since, but also the games are just kinda ok action power fantasies and especially in the second game the plot goes some really dumb places.

That doesn’t take away from the fact that Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller (yes that was originally Luke Skywalker’s name I know) is an incredibly interesting premise and a great character. I would love to see him pop up in some other games, maybe as a soft reboot sort of thing where some things happened and some things didn’t, him not being basically a Jedi god and maybe it even builds to him getting another shot at his own franchise but done right, like the Tomb Raider series. Either way a great character unfortunately done a disservice by the story he was in and probably deserves a shot at redemption.

#4. Mission Vao

Granted, this whole list could be characters from the Knights of the Old Republic games but I wanted to spread the love a little. Mission Vao is one of the series (and really Bioware’s) greatest character accomplishments. You might not think of it that way, but think of how poorly the youngest member of a team, especially if they are a teenager, is often written. They are normally annoying, often useless and sometimes even an obstacle to the team’s success.

Mission Vao is none of that. She is whip-smart, manages to be extremely positive in the face of a lot of adversity, and really can be one of your best party members as she is skilled with a pistol and one hell of a hacker. A genuinely fun teen character that honestly everyone designing a younger character should take a look at.

#3. Merrin

The most intriguing and awesome Star Wars character in many years, Nightsister Merrin introduces a whole new element to the Star Wars universe: magic. It might still be based in The Force in some manner, but the Nightsisters have abilities and powers you’ve never seen and it instantly makes them the most promising thing introduced in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Merrin herself is an incredibly intriguing character and instantly feels like she fits right in with your crew and should have been there from the start. That’s honestly the biggest problem; Merrin doesn’t join your crew until way late in the game and therefore you don’t get a lot of time to know her. But she does make quite an impact with the little screen time she has and hopefully will be even more fleshed out in the inevitable sequel.

#2. Kyle Katarn

Having been featured in several games and really the only character that has originated in a videogame and fully graduated to become part of the larger extended universe, Kyle Katarn is easily the most popular and well-developed character to come from a Star Wars video game.

It started out humbly enough, he was an Imperial soldier turned Rebel ally in Dark Forces. But he journeys his way to being a very powerful Jedi, albeit one who is torn between staying on the light side of The Force and falling to The Dark side and frankly his journey was handled way better than many who experienced similar paths in books, movies, and comics. Katarn seems sadly shoved off with the rest of the “legends” content but they could always introduce a new version of him, especially with so many TV shows happening right now, so let’s hope that’s an eventuality with his character’s popularity.

#1. HK-47

That’s right, meat bags. The best original Star Wars character from a video game is a homicidal droid. HK-47 knows exactly who and what he is, and not only has no qualms about it but relishes it. He likes killing things and has an incredibly hilarious upbeat attitude about it.

The amazing part about that is his loyalty to you, however. He enjoys it if you are bad, but will still tolerate if you are good. Honestly, as long as he gets to call humanoids meat bags, make sarcastic commentary and kill some things, he’s satisfied. HK-47 is the best character yet to come out of any Star Wars game, and I would love it if they could shove him into more appearances in any way, shape or form.

That’s it for now, see ya real soon!