I stand on a bridge, countless felled behind me and only one remaining ahead as I walk into their very literal claws of the Trayus Academy Core. The winds howl inside the desolate crater, the only other sound being my boots as I pace forward. No minions or bodyguards ambush me, not even an automated turret or deception that turns into a wild bantha chases. It has come at last to this, and thats what she has wanted from the start.
The final showdown of Obsidian’s foray into the Star Wars universe is one that stayed with me since eleven year old Diarmuid kept getting his lightsaber handed to him. 
The penultimate showdown against your former mentor (and possibly friend?) Kreia, is one that sticks out to me, and in Star Wars. Kreia was one of the few bosses I really couldn’t stand up against when I first stood toe to toe with her.That is up until the day a friend came over and casually batted this final boss aside in a few minutes. And after I nailed the technique (use force heal regularly) I poured over the final battle, taking in every last nuance and fortune of the fallen Sith, most of which I’m still scratching my chin about to this day.
Everything about this fight encompasses what I loved about the game (despite it getting rushed), from the eerie and iconic Trayus core design, to the final revelations Kreia imparts on you before her demise, and the challenges to the nature of what the force is that shake what we’ve all taken for granted since 1977.
Not only is Darth Traya lightyears tougher than how she looks and how you leveled her up as a party member, she’s as crafty and unpredictable in combat as she was manipulating you and your companions along the way. That isn’t to say that your duel doesn’t follow a few classic tropes of final bosses (like the pesky second health bar). Besting her in singles combat comes quickly enough regardless of class and specialization, you’ll be left with a far emptier health bar and that’s when the kicker comes out. Taking a step back, three purple lightsabers shoot up around her, igniting and forming a ring around her. Being outnumbered wasn’t much of a disadvantage in any other part of the game. I’d carve up a dozen soldiers single-handedly and in the areas previous it was jarring to not be fighting at least five Sith warriors. But when three lightsabers are just hovering in front of you, pouncing at you mercilessly, it’s like being surrounded by a trio of cobras. Except its probably easier to hit a cobra than it is a lightsaber hilt floating around while you’re getting diced up. And that’s what caught me every single time. Until fresh eyes took to it and cleverly decided to just disengage from the lightsabers, run around them, and attack Kreia as she stood there lightsaberless. It worked…. the clever shit.
But like everything that had to do with Kreia, it’s not about the battle, more so what came before, after and what currents rippled underneath it. My favorite part of the whole ordeal is that despite her returning to an old Sith academy that broke and brainwashed Jedi, donning the old Sith robes and even dusting off the mantle of “Darth Traya”, Kreia wasn’t a Sith. I didn’t fight a Sith Lord inside those towering stone claws; I fought my mentor who went beyond every conceivable idea to challenge her apprentice in ways that even J.K Simmons would applaud. Throughout the journey from Peragus to this last fight, Kreia challenged the Exile at every turn. Even the final confrontation was a test of 
their will, to see if they could survive the surface of Malachor V, which they all but destroyed in an act so terrible it severed them from the force. Kreia threw tests of all kinds at the Exile and even me in front of the screen.
Showing a perspective on the galaxy, the Republic and the Force that was unheard of and unique to the Exile as well as the Star Wars Universe. And even at the end, after turning the old academy into a mass grave and defeating her, she still yearns to pass on her wisdom, to give one last gift to the student whom she cherishes above all others. Kreia was the first and last conversation I had in The Sith Lords, and throughout the game she molded and mentored me to be something far above what the Sith and Jedi that she hated so much ever were. The significance of her finally yielding all truths and predictions at the end was maybe the most satisfying outcome of defeating the final boss. Everything I tried to learn from her but never had enough of her approval was brought to light; from the fate of your companions to snippets and teases of Revan (which was enormous in a pre-SWTOR age).
There was something odd about this showdown, something that surpassed the typical “you were my master, but now I must defeat you” trope that is seen pretty often across all genres. And with so many questions that Kreia posed remaining unanswered, it’s what makes it a boss battle thats stayed with me up to this point.
