Lit Dark Empire article series in Insider

DE1 Luke and Leia battle Palpatine without help from Anakin. What's not to love?

 

I wonder if this concept was reworked into Nom Anor.

 

Sounds more like "His Divine Shadow" from Lexx.

 

Dark Empire may not be universally loved, but it's probably going to be the story I will be comparing Episode 7 to more than anything else. Not in terms of plot, but in terms of whether it gives me the same psychological high of "OMG, it's the sequel?!?!" that I got back when I first read DE1.

Kylo Ren has a long way to go, though, before he gives me the "OMG, the Dark Side has returned!" feeling that I had when I first turned the page and saw Palpatine and immediately went "WTK?!?" or even when I first saw that TPM trailer when the door slid back to reveal Darth Maul. Kylo just feels... I dunno, maybe I've become jaded and Sith'ed out after TOR and Legacy and LOTF, but I've yet to experience the same "The Sith are back!!" sensation..

I'm kinda hoping that's intentional though and that whoever Kylo's master is becomes the "WTK?!" moment of Ep7 the same way as when it was revealed it was Palpatine that called Luke to Byss.

 

Kylo Renn feels like a Sith groupie.

I'm going to keep beating that drum.

 

I want to like this post, but that Dark Side makes me queasy.

Old habits die hard.

 

Great Dark Empire poster! Never seen that before. I wonder if it'll ever be available mass-market?! Probably not.

In any case, I agree that DE was definitely "cinematic", and really did feel like you were watching the sequel to ROTJ.

One of the many reasons I may not even see TFA in the theater is that I don't think the villains (Kylo Ren, etc.) will be nearly as imposing/threatening as DV or the Emperor were in the OT/PT. Part of this is that I remember seeing the actor playing Kylo Ren in the "Girls" HBO show....

 

I actually forgot that I chased down that two-part article when it came out a year or two ago. Some really great stuff in those, too. Funny to see some of Lucas's originally ideas for what the sequel to Star Wars would have, especially Luke becoming an explicitly Bond-like assassin for the Rebellion and he and Leia having an affair, before Leia being killed and Luke getting revenge. Or Lucas bringing up the idea of Leia and Chewie becoming lovers after ANH.

When I first got the internet in the mid-90s it seemed like almost every single nascent Star Wars fan website talked about DE. It got brought up almost as much as rumors of the upcoming prequels, probably because novels like JAT mentioned its events and it was before comics were as mainstream as they were now, so a lot of readers felt like there was some book they had missed that explained all this clone Palpatine stuff.

 

What? What? Was that really said?

 

Edit: I see Force Smuggler already got there.

 

Exactly!

 

A great fic. Got it on my desktop. I thought Publius went MIA, though?

 

Spoiler: A great DE tribute

 

when I first got into Star Wars, there was the OT, the Thrawn trilogy, and Dark Empire, and that was it (yeah I know there was the Lando and Han trilogies but I didn't know about them they were probably out of print, plus Marvel SW)

and that made those seem on the level with the films to me

granted, Dark Empire moreso than the Thrawn trilogy because I was a kid and comics were more interesting than novels

plus even then Dark Empire had the sense of mythology to it continuing the films which I find the Thrawn trilogy to be lacking, not to mention now that I'm older an effort was made to develop the characters beyond Return of the Jedi. You can't really say that about the Thrawn trilogy. I mean Leia's pregnant but that doesn't really inform her character as an expectant mother much, it's more of a plot point that started the ball rolling on kidnapping the Solo children than anything else. In the Thrawn trilogy, Han, Luke, and Leia are kind of frozen where we left them in ROTJ, not really developing much past ROTJ. And at the end of it, they're mostly in the same place.

 

I'll have to hunt these down, always thought this was a really solid Star Wars story and I'm a big fan of Kennedy's art.

 

Yes, and one also had to get up early to be one of the first X people at his booth ... which is why I was never able to snag one.

That went on well into the '00s. At the time I was real sick of answering "in what book does Luke fall to the dark side" and "what book has Palpatine's clone" but now I miss those days.

 

wat.

I assumed it was like most other Celebration exclusives and only available the once, but you say he had them in Anaheim as well? Maybe there's hope for me for C8 after all.

 

That poster is amazing, I want one!

I love DE; the idea of a young Palpatine and Luke turning to the dark side blew my mind as a kid (like most fans at the time). Kennedy's art added to the surreal nature of the events.

Well, I think it's time for a re-read!

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It's time to re-read DE I & II. This Literature forum is a great reminder of the comics I need to go back & re-read (or read for the first time).