Brace yourselves, everyone; it’s time for some bad opinions. EA and Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order may be the best canonical Star Wars experience since Force Unleashed came out more than a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s totally immune to criticism. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of… well, just about anything to which EA has staked a claim this generation, but it certainly has a few shortcomings, most obviously in terms of narrative structure and character development.
The fact is that Cal Kestis just isn’t that interesting. He’s a person around whom interesting things often happen, but he himself is kind of a wet blanket. For instance, we’re first introduced to a broken ex-Padawan content to live out his days as a lowly scrapper on the dour planet of Bracca, and the game’s introduction makes it clear that he’d rather continue to lay low rather than take action against the empire. Furthermore, he only answers the call to adventure when he’s inadvertently outed as a Force user and has no choice but to escape the planet with his spur-of-the-moment saviors Greez Dritus and Cere Junda.
Though he does eventually agree to join in the duo’s mission to re-establish the Jedi Order, he certainly seems to be the least interesting of the group. Greez is a stout, dry-witted Latero known for his piloting skills and compulsive gambling habits, while Cere is an ex-Jedi who cut herself off from the Force after the empire captured and tortured her. Both of these characters feel quite a bit more fleshed-out than Cal who, despite surviving his own trials and tribulations, seems to be lacking in personality.
Controversial though this take will undoubtedly be, some of this has to do with Cameron Monaghan’s dry line deliveries. Though he injects just enough emotion in his performance to keep Cal from feeling like a soulless droid, his one-off comments and remarks come across as dull and just a bit flaccid. One can only listen to his droll internal monologue for so long before they reach the conclusion that Cal just isn’t that deep of a character.
Sure, this was likely intentional, as he’s both young and inexperienced, but, when compared to the righteous tenacity of Elizabeth Grullon’s Second Sister or the latent regret hiding behind each of Debra Wilson’s Cere’s words, Monaghan’s Cal Kestis just feels lukewarm. Hell, even BD-1 comes across as more developed than Cal, and he’s a voiceless droid.
That’s not to say that Cameron Monaghan can’t act; he’s famous for his roles in Gotham and Shameless, but, pigeonholed into a somewhat stale character archetype and unable to convey his emotions visually, his performance just doesn’t compare to what he’s proven himself capable of in other roles. We do see him emote more in the final third of the game, but, shame though it is to say, he seems to come from the Hayden Christensen school of wooden acting. Others have showered him with praise for his part in Fallen Order, though, so take that with a grain of salt.
That said, Cal Kestis’ role in Jedi: Fallen Order seems to be a purposeful parable of Luke Skywalker’s story in A New Hope. Luke himself was a come-from-nothing latent Force user who, in all honesty, was a bit bratty and hard to like initially. Cal may have received formal Jedi training before Order 66, but his years on Bracca put him at a similar disadvantage, and, though he isn’t the slightly snotty teen desperate to escape his foster parents that Luke was, he still carries a bit of that ignorant teen vibe which all parents quickly learn to loathe.
This isn’t to say that Cal Kestis is a bad character, but, across the wide, wild worlds of Star Wars, he’s just outclassed by some far more compelling beings. Up against galvanic character’s like Saw Gerrera and Darth Vader, he falls interminably short. Though a serviceably simple player-character, he can’t live up to the show-stealing panache of some of our favorite Star Wars heroes.
