User blog:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: Exar Kun

Hello guys! Today, here's my twentieth-sixth PE proposal, and it's about Exar Kun, a major character and antagonist of the Star Wars Legends Old Republic era. As you may know, I make this proposal as we prepare for the release of The Rise of Skywalker. Back to topic, here are my reasons for which why Kun must be officially approved as PE.

WHO IS HE / WHAT HAS HE DONE?
Exar Kun was a Force-sensitive human who lived many years before the events of the Star Wars films. During the Old Republic era, Kun serves as the Padawan of the respected Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, but comes across forbidden knowledge of the Sith's history while a student. Growing extremely confident of his abilities and given his temperament, Kun investigates more about the Sith until he finds the planet Onderon, where he finds the tomb of the Sith Lord Freedon Nadd with the help of a pair of Nadd's followers. Confronted by the spirit of Nadd, upon sensing his potential, Nadd directs Kun to Korriban to injure him, but Kun accepts the Dark Side of the Force on his heart. Kun then goes to Yavin 4 and enslaves the primitive Massassi alongside Nadd's spirit, but Kun becomes too corrupted until he banishes Nadd's spirit and learns about other dark side users who learned Nadd's teachings.

While searching for Satal and Aleema Keto, Nadd's apprentices, Exar Kun meets the Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma and fights him until the spirit of Marka Ragnos proclaims them to be Sith Lords, with Kun as master and Qel-Droma as apprentice. Deciding to bring back the Golden Age of the Sith, Kun and Qel-Droma start the Great Sith War against the Old Republic. In the early stages of the war, Kun takes possession of a rare Sith holocron, which he used to corrupt other Jedi to form the Brotherhood of the Sith. Now their leader, Kun sends the Brotherhood to wreak havoc and kill their masters as he rescues Qel-Droma from Coruscant after being captured, killing Supreme Chancellor Sidrona in the process. Vodo-Siosk Bass goes to confront Kun, but Exar reveals his doublde-bladed lightsaber (the first ever in Star Wars, this was before Darth Maul) and kills Bass in a duel before sending Aleema Keto to her death due her role in his apprentice's capture by causing a massive supernova on Ossus, where Kun and Qel-Droma ransack the Great Jedi Library for its ancient treasures. Having a change of heart after killing his brother Cay, however, Qel-Droma witches sides with the Jedi and betrays Kun by leading the Jedi to his base on Yavin 4. In the following battle, Kun refuses to go quietly as he conducts an ancient ritual to free his spirit from his mortal form so he can wreak havoc through the cosmos, disintegrating into nothingness. However, while Kun's spirit successfully left his body, it remained trapped on the base for the next several millennia.

Many years later, when the now Jedi Master Luke Skywalker establishes a Jedi training ground on Yavin 4, Exar's spirit attempts to influence Skywalker's Padawans to do his bidding, managing to corrupt Kyp Durron to the dark side and severely wound Luke, but it was ultimately all for naught, as the other apprentices banded together and with the aid of Vodo-Siosk Bass's long-dead shade, the spirit of Exar Kun gets finally banished to the Netherworld of the Force and his menace is brought to an end.

WHAT'S THE WORK?
Well, Exar Kun has appeared in many Expanded Universe stories in the Star Wars universe, handled by many authors and published by several companies, so in this case, better if we don't list all of them, right?

MORAL EVENT HORIZON
Although not seen in the films or television shows like many PEs of the franchise like Grand Moff Tarkin or Pong Krell, Exar Kun is evil like many Sith Lords, and one of the most ancient. As most Sith, Exar had no qualms to push the galaxy into war, uncaring on how many innocent people were going to die to achieve full control of the galaxy and rule it with an iron fist. This makes him too similar to previous other renowned Sith like Emperor Palpatine or Darth Krayt. Every PE villain must have crossed the Moral Event Horizon to be PE, and Exar Kun definitely crosses it when he kills his former Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas after rescuing his apprentice and killing the Supreme Chancellor.

HEINOUS STANDARDS/MITIGATING FACTORS?
While once a great Jedi, Exar Kun was a psychotic and ruthless tyrant whose evil developed even before he became part of the Sith Order. When he starts as a Jedi, Exar Kun is an arrogant, impatient and brash Padawan who aside his violent temperament, is xenophobic, believing humans (his species) to be superior to aliens. Confident of his abilities, Kun develops an attraction towards the forbidden Dark Side of the Force in spite of his holding great respect for Vodo-Siosk Bass, his Jedi Master and his thoughts about becoming a great Jedi. This shows us that Exar Kun already had imperfections before falling to the dark side, so his descent into darkness was inevitable, believing himself to be superior than his master and peers and that he knew perfectly his abilities. Even the Cathar Crado, who regarded him as his best friend and allowed himself to be recruited by him despite his fall to the dark side, means nothing for Kun, who sends Crado to a suicide mission to get rid of him after failing to kill his own mate under his orders, dismissing him as a "nuisance" and an expendable pawn for his undying devotion towards him. Likewise, Kun comes to hate the Jedi Order and the Old Republic by deeming them weak and ineffectual unlike him, desiring to get rid of them as well.

Upon being taught by the spirit of Freedon Nadd, Kun allows himself to embrace the darkness and destroys Nadd's spirit upon realizing that he was trying to take over his body, proving how quite intelligent and manipulative Kun was despite his initial doubts on accepting Nadd's tutelage, but never looking back once he fully accepted his extreme hate and becoming power hungry. Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Kun demonstrates his sadistic side when enacting alchemical experiments on the Massassi by twisting their bodies into war weapons, something which ultimately contributes into the species' eventual extinction when Kun sucks their life to save his own, showing us how uncaring Exar was by committing genocide on an entire species just for the sake of more knowledge and power. Becoming obsessed on his destiny, Kun decides to be the only Sith and killed anyone who studied the dark side, minus Ulic Qel-Droma, who is proclaimed as his apprentice by Marka Ragnos. However, as petty he has become, Kun never really cares for his apprentice and just tolerates him for his usefulness, showing that the only one for which he truly cares is himself.

Passing himself as the Jedi he wasn't, Kun sways curious Jedi apprentices to be possessed by Sith Ghosts and sends them to slay their Jedi Masters, just focusing on a future based on Sith teachings. Like many later Sith Lords, as part of his plans, Exar Kun has no problems into pushing the galaxy to war regardless how many lives are lost in the conflict, showing how bloodthirsty and savage he has become to bring back the Sith's Golden Age. By this point, the sole redeeming quality of Kun is his respect towards Vodo-Siosk Bass, whom he tries to convince to join his cause. But as it was not to be, Kun fully committs himself to the Sith by ruthlessly killing him during the war after rescuing Qel-Droma from the Republic, definitely abandoning any chance of redemption. Even before so, Kun also demonstrates having no qualms into leaving a government without its political leader, killing Supreme Chancellor Sidrona to rescue his apprentice, who once his usefulness runs out, Kun casts him aside and he no longer has any use for him, in an example of his extreme selfishness. His monstrous nature even becomes more apparent when he starts tricking several of his followers into initiating a supernova that devastates countless star systems.

For last, while his treachery towards Qel-Droma ultimately leads the Jedi to track him down and force himself to sacrifice his physical body without having second thoughts, Exar Kun grows desperate and half-mad for his isolation over millennia, but he doesn't let his wishes and ambitions to die and when he sees the opportunity upon discovering the students of Luke Skywalker, Kun proves that neither his cruelty has toned down by haunting Luke's students to the point of incinerating one and make one use a superweapon against a solar system before they all band together and ultimately defeat him, showing us that Exar Kun just wanted to do whatever he needed to take over a galaxy who didn't deserve the oppressive, power hungry and vengeful lunatic he was for a leader.

VERDICT
Taking all of this into account, I would say yes about considering Exar Kun to be officially approved as PE.