Darth Malak, born Alek Squinquargesimus, is a human Sith Lord and the principal antagonist of BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003). He was a Jedi Knight who followed Revan into the Mandalorian Wars, followed Revan into the dark side afterwards, and then took the title of Dark Lord for himself by ordering his own fleet to fire on Revan's flagship.
The name is the biography
The surname on his Republic immigration record is the name of the village he came from on Quelii, assigned by a clerk who needed a field filled in. Nothing about Alek is chosen by Alek. He follows Revan into a war the Jedi Council forbade, follows Revan out of the Order, follows Revan into the Sith, and the single decision he makes on his own — the betrayal — is the one that ruins him.
A villain built to be second-rate
This is the unusual thing about him and the reason he holds up. Malak is not written as a superior antagonist. He is written as a man occupying a role that was designed for somebody else, and the game keeps telling you so: his officers compare him to his predecessor, his strategy is Revan's strategy executed with less imagination, and the atrocity he is best known for — the orbital bombardment of Taris to kill one fugitive — is what a frightened man does when he cannot find a better plan.
The jaw
The prosthetic mask covering the lower half of his face, a wound taken in a duel with Revan, is one of the most recognisable character designs the Star Wars games ever produced, and it does real work: it makes him unreadable at exactly the moments when the story wants you to wonder how much of Alek is left.
Structure
Because Knights of the Old Republic withholds the player character's identity for most of its length, Malak's arc is inseparable from the twist. He spends the game hunting a person who does not remember being him, and the final confrontation is the rare video-game boss fight that is also a conversation about whether either party is still the person who started the argument.
Canon status
Star Wars Legends. Malak, Revan, the Jedi Civil War and the entire Knights of the Old Republic period sit on the Legends shelf; current canon has never depicted them.
Where to start
The game, and only the game. Drew Karpyshyn's later novel The Old Republic: Revan (Del Rey, 2011) revisits the aftermath, but Malak's story is complete at the end of the 2003 release.
