Comics Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #7-12: The Dying Light/ Legacy's End (6/6 Released)

After reading this excerpt, I want to know more about the 9th sister. This could become another great character!

 

If she is on a side mission with Vader....better enjoy these two issues.


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Dunno. Maybe they'll start building a cast of recurring characters.

 

A ninth inquisitor? Nice to know they didn't stop at eight, wonder if there'' a tenth brother/sister

 

Huh. I figured this ninth sister was going to turn out to be the girl in the preview images we saw a couple weeks back. But it's not. Her identity is still a mystery. Now I am definitely wondering if the girl we saw here

Is going to turn out to be one of the earliest Rebel Cell members

 

I love the fact that Vader still uses In'fila's lightsaber. Hopefully it sticks around for a while and when Vader eventually replaces it with the saber we see in the OT, it's a suitably dramatic moment.

 

Today's issue was pretty good, but I had a little trouble following what was going on during the action scenes. The story was interesting and I was very happy with the way it connected with

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the Lando series. I liked the reveal that Palpatine was behind everything, but I can't say I'm surprised. It would have been nice if it was someone else, just to expand the scale of this series.

8/10

 

I want more of Ninth Sister now. I found her fascinating.

 

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Well, so much for In'fila's lightsaber...

 

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I for one disliked that Palpatine was behind the assassination attempt. The old EU was full of tests for Vader, which made Vader look weak in a way, because it shows Palpatine is unsure in the power of his apprentice. Though I guess at this moment in time it makes sense that Palpatine would test him. I just hope this isn't a running theme of the series, after all it started with the test of acquiring a lightsaber.

I enjoyed the rest of the issue, especially ninth sister. Her decision to betray Vader was a welcome surprise. That takes some balls. I guess mom and dad are toast, but in a way they deserve it for being Jedi hunters. Maybe their daughter discovers a better way to earn a living.

The action in the issue was pretty great imo.

 

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I'd recommend the Lando comic from 2015. Just sayin'.

 

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There are two highlights for me from this issue, which were also noted by other posters here: Chanath Cha and the destruction of Kirak's lightsaber hilt. As a a fan of the Lando mini, I've been wondering what made Chanath so special that Palaptine would contact her personally to take care of business. While this issue doesn't really provide an answer, it does elucidate things a bit, which is welcomed. I am not too optimistic that her parents will survive the end of next issue though. As for Kirak's lightsaber, I am perfectly fine that it is gone this soon (what is it, three or four weeks after ROTS now?), and I am eagerly anticipating the building of Vader's classic hilt.

Vader is still unrestrained and brutal. He didn't hesitate one bit to murder the innocent (as far as we know) cantina visitors and use them as living shields. Poor mon cal patron - he/she got smashed into a shield. Also, a bothan appeared in the cantina! The speeder chase reminded me a of Rebels and the speeder chases in some of the episodes.

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I love the implication that Palpatine is testing Vader with this. He's had Vader as an apprentice for no more than a month by now, so it would make sense that he isn't 100 % convinced in Vader's skills and devotion, especially after his failure on Mustafar. I also liked the same types of tests Palpatine implemented on Vader in the old EU, as they made sense to me back then too. It is important to note that all of those tests in Legends (as best I can remember at the moment anyway) also took place just a few months after ROTS, more or less exactly like in this issue(s). So, if you are ok with these tests taking place so soon after ROTS in canon, why wouldn't you be ok with the ones in Legends? As I've said, they also took place very soon after ROTS (e.g. Purge - The Hidden Blade, Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin...).

 

I agree 100% with you.

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The cliche "it's all a test by Palpatine" is such a massive trope in the Vader comics it's as tired, boring and uninspired narrative choice up there with "it's all just a DREAM!" At this point I'm wondering if Vader become a Sith Lord or he enrolled in college classes because of how many times Palpatine is behind some "test." The fact we just wrapped up an arc where Vader was tested to get his lightsaber should have been enough for quite some time. I would love to open the Vader story to other story possibilities than this constant Vader/Palps testing back and forth. Does Vader have his own agenda? Is Vader testing Paps power himself at some point? Is Vader looking for clues on how to eventually regain his old power? Does he spend any time scheming himself behind the scenes? Hopefully this is the last of it for quite some time and we see new things happening.

 

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Ok, how many times has "a test by Palpatine" been implemented in the Vader comics? To the best of my memory:

- Three times so far in canon: first the test for obtaining a lightsaber crystal as shown in the first arc of Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. We don't know for sure yet, but the way Palpatine instructed Vader to obtain his red crystal appears to be a standard test for Sith apprentices. Therefore, no way around it. The second test is the one from this issue. How will this get resolved is yet to be seen. The third test was the power battle between Vader, Cylo & his creations and Tagge from the 2015 Darth Vader series.The latter took place 19 years after the previous two.

- Just two times in Legends: a test of patience and foresight in Purge: The Hidden Blade, and a test of...whatever that was in Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin. There is a potential third "test" in Dark Times, where Palpatine recruits Beyghor Sahdett and uses him alongside Vader to find Order 66 surivors (well, one survivor to be precise), but this one is so vaguely presented as a test in the comics that it can just as easily be interpreted as something completely different.

Given the number of Legends stories it is likely I am missing some, but if I am correct then the argument that "a test by Palpatine has been done so many times before" is not really accurate. In total there are 5 such tests in both continuities (6 if you really, really push it, but see what I wrote above). What almost all of those tests have in common? With the exception of the one from Darth Vader (2015), all of the tests take place within the first 6 months after ROTS. Both in Legends and canon. In other words, in the first 6 months of Vader becoming a Sith. And Palpatine is the master with Vader the student, so how are these early tests out of place? If one doesn't like the way they are executed, that's another argument, but saying they don't quite make sense is strange to me.

Vader does have his own agenda. In last months issue, Vader destroys the chip with the Force sensitive children list for his own reasons, against Palaptine's wishes. That happend less than one month after ROTS. In the 2015 Darth Vader he basically recruits his personal droid army. In Legends, he tries to obtain the Muur talisman and offers Celeste Morne partnership to overthrow Palpatine, and that happens just 3 months after ROTS. He hires and trains a bounty hunter to find a Jedi survivor, all on his own initiative. That takes place around 5-6 months after ROTS in Legends. Also in Legends, there is the whole saga of Galen Marek. And most obvious, he tries to turn Luke to the Dark Side to rule the galaxy with him and destroy the Emperor.

Just my two cents.

 

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Important to note that Palpatine testing Vader with Cylo also came after a massive failure in the destruction of the Death Star. Palpatine was making sure Vader still had what it takes to be the number 1 enforcer.

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Very good point. And now another test comes after Vader "failed" to bring Jocasta Nu in. I´m waiting to see where this story is going, but at the moment I´m very interested by it. Besides, I really liked the Ninth Sister: she is such an unique character, and her interactions with Vader came as the high point of the issue for me... can´t wait for the next one!

Oh, and very interesting, @Coherent Axe ! I haven´t followed Lando´s series, so I didn´t know we were getting a established character´s backstory!

 

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The Lando series is great; I'd highly recommend it (as do many other people). It's written by the same writer (Charles Soule), and is among the best characterization Lando's been given in the EU. And yes, that character first appeared there, so it was a surprise to see her here, although Soule does like making his characters cross-era.

 

Would love to see an issue that takes place on a university campus or something. Maybe a padawan tries to evade the Inquisitors by living a normal life of a student or something.

Basically I just wanna see the world building of intergalactic sites of learning. Think it'd be really cool world building.

But the thing about this Vader comic is that its scope is enormous — from battles on Mon Calamari to hunting solitary Jedi on backwaters to duels on the galactic capital. This series really is just a dream.

 

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Good issue. Cool thing that one of the new characters ended up being Chanath from the Lando comic (also was in the Vader Down arc). I imagine we will probably learn a lot more about her bounty hunter career over the following years. She definitely has to be older now than many people would have thought she was during the OT timeline. She would have to be around 40 or so now come the Lando series.

 

So this series is called Rule of Five right? I got to thinking. We only have five inquisitors plus the grand one, which makes 6. I wonder if that's how many there are. However, we have no mention of 2,3,and 4, (1 most likely is GI) so maybe they're dead or already on missions.

I really hope they go more in depth with these Inquisitors because I want to know how and why they fell and how the number work (ranking, power, x number to join, etc.) I'd also like to get to know 5th Brother's species and the names of these guys.

 

6th Brother dies in less than a year though.

 

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if we are being generous and say she is 16-18 here + 20 ish years to get to the Lando mini, then yes, she would be around 36-38.

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@AdmiralNick22 @GrandAdmiralJello @Point Given @The2ndQuest

We have the thread: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #1-6: The Chosen One (6/6 Released)
Which contains The Chosen One Part I - VI story arc
The trade collecting all six is called "Imperial Machine" but there is no thread with that title.

So with that said, we have this thread which mixes one arc name with the name of the future TPB. I believe this is a little misleading and there should be some renaming/reshuffling
Suggestion:
Two threads:
a1) Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #7-10: The Dying Light (4/4 Released)
a2) Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #11-X: The Rule of 5 (1/X Released)

7 The Dying Light Part I
8 Part II
9 Part III
10 Part IV
11 The Rule of 5 Part I
12 Part II

Thanks!

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BTW, loved Issue #11. The art was beautiful; Sister Nine was great and a good contract to her other brothers and sisters. She didn't give a **** and it was awesome.

 

Everyone knows bounty hunters age more slowly. That's why Dengar and Bossk look the same age in TCW as they are in ESB, Aurra Sing didn't age between TPM and TCW, etc.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with having one thread per TPB for discussion. The Rule of 5 will probably only be two issues, and since one is already out I'd say it's too late to try and move to a different thread.