“The Old Republic” calls to mind many different feelings for people. For some, it’s modern Star Wars “done right,” with all of its action and original trilogy archetypes. It’s the anti-Prequel, prequel. Despite its roots in comic books and tabletop RPGs, other fans grimace at the mention of the era, with its oftentimes edgy imagery and “(video)gamification” of the Force: reducing the light and dark side to a point meter.

Although most of the stories set in The Old Republic have been folded into the Legends banner, the era lives on in the form of an online role-playing game, simply called Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). I enjoy massively multiplayer online RPGs (or just ‘MMOs’ if you’re nasty), and played SWTOR when it launched in December of 2011. I enjoyed it for a few months in the same way I’ve enjoyed other Old Republic content, which is “kinda.” 

But recently, like many characters in Star Wars itself, I’ve been interested in the history of the galaxy. The Jedi, The Sith, The Old Republic, and the MMO that released 8 years ago, is still updated today, but seems to be absent from most Star Wars discourse….

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