Star Wars has never shied away from dark storytelling, yet Knights of the Old Republic wasted a chance to add more to the list with a side quest for Tanis on Tatooine. The dark side of the force has influenced many characters across the franchise, corrupting several past the point of no return. In the events of KOTOR, the player can return Revan to the light or have them fall back down the dark side, corrupting everything they encounter. When the world opens up, the player can immediately start on the path to the dark side, cutting deals with gangs and killing civilians with bounties on their heads. Every action the player takes at the start of the game determines their alignment.

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The infamous planet of Tatooine is one of the many locations the player has access to once they acquire a ship, enabling them to travel to the desert den of thieves and murderers as part of the story. Here they can find several like-minded individuals who are not force-sensitive but influenced by the dark side, like the assassin droid HK-47, a perfect KOTOR casting. Through the game, the player has multiple opportunities to fight and kill some party members naturally attracted to the light side and unwilling to join the Sith. However, amidst the many opportunities to commit war crimes and evil deeds of untold proportions, there is one encounter on Tatooine that goes unresolved as far as the dark side is concerned.

One side quest in KOTOR has an NPC trapped in the dune sea that can be left to his fate by the player, but when the player revisits Tatooine, he is still alive. Known as Tanis Venn, he is seen flirting with several women, forcing his wife to do all his work for him as he slowly kills off the wraid population with his droids. His wife later rigs Tanis’ droids with explosives that will detonate if he moves, leaving him trapped in the desert. All of Revan’s companions in Star Wars: KOTOR comment on the situation when the player encounters him, remarking on whether to save Tanis or let him suffer. Unlike other choices in the game, this does not see a conclusion if you refuse to rescue Tanis, as progressing the story doesn’t resolve it.

KOTOR Had Plenty Of Dark Side Quests, But One Was Left Unfinished

Returning to Tatooine, seeing a corpse or even Tanis near dead from dehydration would have been more impactful than what happens. Throughout the game, the player has multiple situations where they see the result of their actions, yet this one side quest is a departure from the dark tone the game creates for dark side players. It’s possible while working on KOTOR, BioWare did not want to make that brutal end or assumed that players who left Tanis wouldn’t return to see if he had died. No matter what the decision was for not giving Tanis a final resolution, it would have been one of the darkest moments in KOTOR​​​.

Instead of a definitive answer to what would happen without Revan’s intervention, the player is left to speculate on the possibilities. The chance Tanis succumbs to starving or accidentally making the wrong move is very likely, but nothing is saying he won’t receive someone else’s help. The routes Revan can take are numerous, but this side quest having an unresolved dark ending doesn’t make the Star Wars title weaker for it. When the remake of Knights of the Old Republic releases, it will be interesting to see if this side quest’s dark potential is also left unfinished, or if there will finally be a true end to the tale.