Rahm Kota

"My records recall Kota as a blind drunk. But according to Imperial records, he was a respected general in the Clone Wars."

- PROXY

Rahm Kota was a Human male Jedi Master and general during the Clone Wars. He refused to trust clone troopers, instead building himself a small militia. This allowed him to escape Order 66, and survive well into the Jedi Purge.

Early life
Prior to joining the Jedi Order, Kota fought in the brutal trench warfare that plagued his homeworld. While negotiating a peaceful resolution to a brutal conflict, Mace Windu befriended the then-eighteen-year-old Kota. Once the mission was completed, Mace brought Kota to Coruscant to begin schooling in the Jedi arts with Master Yoda serving as his tutor. Kota had difficulty forming friendships due to his outward hostility, but his courage was known to all. Kota always opted for the most hazardous missions. He became a tough, grizzled general and participated in many combat sorties during the Clone Wars.

The dark times
Kota believed that clones were not fit to be soldiers, relying instead on a militia troops, that had been selected and trained by Kota personally. This belligerence ended up saving his life when Order 66 was issued; his squad had no clone troopers to implement Palpatine's command. A squad of Antarian Rangers in his service managed to wisk him to safety and, learning what had happened to the rest of the Jedi Order, Kota and his loyal soldiers vanished into the Outer Rim Territories. Official Imperial records, however, claimed he had been killed.

Duel with Marek
"A boy? Months of attacking Imperial targets, and Vader sends a boy to fight me?"

- Rahm Kota, unimpressed with his opponent

Kota eventually became a secret ally of Senator Bail Prestor Organa and his assistant, Ylenic It'kla, who fed him information about Imperial targets. Kota led attacks on these targets with his troops in an atempt to draw the Sith into direct combat. In 3 BBY, acting on Organa's information, Kota and his followers took over a TIE fighter construction facility over Nar Shaddaa. Hoping to draw Vader directly into the fray, Kota was confronted and, during a pitched lightsaber duel, blinded by Galen Marek, an apprentice of Darth Vader operating under the codename of Starkiller.

"Vader thinks he's turned you. But I can sense your future. And Vader won't always be your master. I sense only... me?"

- Rahm Kota tells Galen Marek of his possible future

Kota believed that Marek had a far greater calling than just as Darth Vader's servant. During Kota's duel with the aspiring Sith, Kota used the Force to detach the control room in which they fought from the Construction Facility. As the control room descended into Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere, it flipped over, making what was the ceiling the floor. Marek blinded Kota by forcing his own lightsaber back into his eyes while in a saber lock. Marek grabbed the general with the Force, lifting him up in the air, but Kota released a telekinetic repulse that shattered all viewports and sent Marek flying. Before the apprentice could finish off the Jedi, Kota said in a rather cryptic manner that he could see the young man's future. He said that in it all he could see was himself, and that Starkiller would not always remain a servant of Darth Vader. A gust of wind came sweeping through the plummeting control room, sucking Kota into the atmosphere, sending him free-falling toward Nar Shaddaa. Marek, though, thought it possible that Kota had leaped out.

Aftermath
Kota survived the duel, but was left blinded. He had apparently lost his connection to the Force and led a life of self-imposed exile on Cloud City on Bespin. Galen, in his search to gather the enemies of the Empire, finally found him on Cloud City after months of tracking him, from Nar Shaddaa to Ziost. Kota led Marek to rescue Princess Leia Organa from the Imperial slave outpost on Kashyyyk, in order to convince her "father," his senate contact Bail Organa, to help them in their cause.

When Marek returned to Raxus Prime to destroy a Star Destroyer construction station with an ore cannon, one of the Destroyers came crashing through the atmosphere. Kota told Marek to use the Force to gently put it down before it crushed the Rogue Shadow.

Captured
As the Rebels gathered on Corellia, Kota, who had removed his bandages, offered his experience and wisdom to the Alliance. But just as the Corellian Treaty was signed, the Empire attacked and Vader revealed that Marek had actively lured them out in order to be captured. Kota tried to fight Vader but was caught in a Force grip and thrown aside. The Rebel Senators were taken to the Death Star to be interrogated, tortured and then publicly executed to crush further resistance. Marek had followed them, however, coming to do battle with Vader and free the captured senators. After a heated and protracted lightsaber battle, Vader was defeated and Palpatine attempted to entice Marek to finish his apprentice. Kota interfered, snatching Palpatine's lightsaber with the Force. Palpatine attacked Kota with Force lightning, and Marek confronted the Emperor in order to save Kota. Rather than fight, the Emperor simply dropped to his knees and begged Marek to kill him. Despite having the Emperor at Marek's mercy, Kota told the redeemed Jedi that he shouldn't strike down the Sith in anger. Palpatine then took advantage of their distraction to once again attack Kota, but Marek interceded at the cost of his life. Marek's sacrifice bought enough time for the Rebels and Kota to escape with Juno Eclipse aboard the Rogue Shadow.

Rebellion
Regrouping on Kashyyyk, in the old hut where Marek's family once lived, the Rebels resolved to continue the work Marek had started, using the insignia of Marek's family as a symbol of hope. Kota then comforted a worried Juno, saying that when Marek found him at Cloud City, Kota had glimpsed one bright thing in all of the dark thoughts in Marek's mind: Juno.

Personality and traits
Prior to the fall of the Republic and the near-total annihilation of the Jedi Order, Rahm Kota was fiercely loyal to the Jedi and willing to fight for the preservation of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. While he had no objection to serving the Republic as a Jedi General, he absolutely refused to have anything to do with its newly commissioned clone army. He felt that clones were unfit to serve in battle. To that end, he believed that "birth-born" soldiers, recruits and conscripts were more intelligent, creative, freethinking, and all-around more effective than a clone trooper. Thus, unlike most of his other fellow Jedi, Kota was not influenced by sympathy for the clones as he saw little distinction between clones and droids.

Kota's animosity towards the clones was justified when they betrayed and killed most of the Jedi at the Clone Wars' climax. With the support and loyalty of his own militia forces, composed entirely of non-clone soldiers, Kota began his own personal war to topple the Sith usurpers and bring down their Galactic Empire, so that both the Republic and the Jedi Order might one day be restored.

After the loss of his sight, Kota became disillusioned with his plans to overthrow the Empire and became a solitary drunk who was left alone. He believed that trying to defeat the Emperor was a fool's errand, as the vast war machine of the Empire was unbeatable, with anyone attempting to even take on such a task facing unspeakable fates. However, Marek's continued attempts to bring down the Empire inspired Kota to resume working for the defeat of the Emperor. At the start, during his first meeting with Marek, known as Starkiller at the time, Kota was brash and perhaps overly confident in his abilities, unimpressed with Marek, berating his youth and assumed inexperience by continuously referring to him as "boy".

He was humbled when Marek defeated and blinded him, though his arrogance may have been what brought him into his drunken stupor on Bespin. This may have been another characteristic of his cunning, however, due to the possibility that his stammering around as an exiled drunk was throwing off his scent from the Empire. With a dry humored swagger, he was never short on flavorless jokes that seemed to amuse only himself (though he may have only been talking to himself to keep up the ruse). When rallying behind Marek, his mind, as a talented military strategist, proved invaluable. He sought out possible sources that would either enrich Marek's pursuit of forming his rebel army, or possible Imperial targets that would show the Empire's weaknesses for all to see. He was never short on contacts with the senate, many of whom who were opposed to the fascist oppression of Imperial rule. His most devout ally in the senate was also the key Marek needed in funding and organizing the rebellion: Senator Bail Prestor Organa. With Organa's immeasurably vast wealth, the alliance would have near unlimited funding.

Powers and abilities
Rahm Kota was a skilled and powerful Jedi Master, capable of powerfully manifesting the Force. He was able to use telekinesis to a high degree as seen when Kota used the Force to split the TIE Construction Facility in half, and flipped it over during his duel with Galen Marek. At the start of his duel with Marek, he was able to easily deflect the lightning the Sith apprentice had unleashed back to its source, as well as deflecting Marek's Force push back at him. He also showed some ability with farsight, able to look into Marek's future and see that he would not always be Vader's servant, instead seeing only himself. Additionally, he relied on Force Sight, much like Darth Traya nearly four thousand years before, in order to see after being blinded.



As well as being a powerful user of the Force, Kota was also a skilled lightsaber duelist, as seen during his duel with Marek who was a master of multiple lightsaber forms. He attacked Marek with blinding speed and intensity, forcing Marek to resort to the defensive Soresu, before the instensity of the duel began to wear on the general. Kota specialized in the ferocious seventh form of lightsaber combat, Juyo, which was the most challenging and demanding of all forms, known to require intense focus and a high degree of skill to employ.

Behind the scenes
Rahm Kota is voiced by Cully Fredrickson, whose likeness was also used for the character.

Leaked Hasbro toy catalogs were the first sources to hint at Kota's character as a "Samurai Jedi."

Kota's character was originally going to be the disembodied spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn.

In the PSP, PS2 and Wii versions of The Force Unleashed, Kota is found on Nar Shaddaa instead of Bespin.

Alternate ending
If the player decides to attack Vader instead of Palpatine, after the fight it shows a still alive Kota. Palpatine attempts to coerce Marek to kill his mentor, but Marek instead attacks Palpatine, which he blocks effortlessly. Palpatine then uses Force lightning and throws Marek outside where he sees the now executed senators. As the Rogue Shadow is landing, Palpatine grabs it using the Force and crushes Marek and presumably Kota with it.

Appearances

 * The Force Unleashed novel
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comic
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

Notes and references
Rahm Kota Rahm Kota Rahm Kota Rahm Kota Rahm Kota Rahm Kota