Lit Death Star plans in legends

Have a question about the stories about the Death Star plans getting stolen in legends. I know there are multiple different stories about the plans getting stolen and the way it is supposed to all fit together is that they are all just stealing a portion of the plans.

I'm curious though is the part about them only stealing a portion of the plans something that was just added later to fit the multiple different versions about the story together. Or was them only stealing a part of the plans something that was planned all along?

 

Dark Forces: Soldier For the Empire novella mentions two sets of plans in existence, one on Danuta, one on Toprawa, and that both needed to be stolen to ensure success.

 

The original Star Wars radio drama established that a group of Rebels attacked an Imperial convoy carrying the Death Star plans and fled to Toprawa, which was subsequently blockaded. Princess Leia ran the Imperial blockade surrounding Toprawa and was able to intercept transmissions from those Rebel soldiers in an operation codenamed "Skyhook".

This is the original Death Star plan theft story. There was really no attempt to depict this as one of several different sets of plans. The video game Dark Forces contained a level in which Kyle Katarn steals the Death Star plans on Danuta. "Skyhook" was namechecked in this level, but otherwise it had no relation to the radio drama story. As Nom von Anor pointed out, when the level was expended into a novella by Dark Horse, two sets of plans were established, with both sets needed to ensure a successful analysis. So it seems that for these sources, at least, the original intention was for one set of plans, but when Lucasarts wanted to tell a different story, there was enough awareness that the singular plans became two.

Another set of plans had been presented in the RPG adventure "Jedi Dawn", which was set entirely on Toprawa, mostly during the Imperial blockade, and is consistent with the radio drama. The novel Rebel Dawn presented an alternate but not incompatible version of the Toprawa events.

From here, though, things spin out of control. The novel "Death Star" namechecks a number of different Death Star plan stories, but in a way that conflicts with all of them. The game "Lethal Alliance" involves Kyle Katarn, Danuta, and the Death Star plans, but in a way that is either separate from or contradicts the original Dark Forces game and novella. The Battlefront games have a different interpretation of events entirely (though the events are largely internally consistent), as did the original X-Wing game (back in the day). All of these may represent other plans, but unlike the original three, they've never been defined in relation to one another--"Soldier for the Empire" and "Jedi Dawn" were very specific about what their plans had that the Toprawa plans didn't.

(As an aside, the short story "Interlude at Darkknell" included what might have been a set of Death Star plans, but was later officially retconned to be the coded location of the Death Star's construction site.)

Bizarrely (and one day I will retire this pet peeve, but it still irks me), the original attack on the convoy to steal the Death Star plans has never been seen. So if anyone wanted to come up with a whole "new" Death Star plan theft story involving new characters, they could have just told that version of events. Ah well. Rogue O.ne should settle the issue definitively soon enough, and we'll never have to deal with this silliness again. (Probably.)

TC

 

You're faith in that is so adorable. Dis-can is still two years old, and has minor contradictions. In 30? *chuckles*

 

I fully support Rogue One for being the definitive version of "how Leia got the Death Star plans story" because of the incredibly convoluted multi-plan stage / locations / who stole the plans method that eventually happened in Legends. Now it's just "how did they get the Death Star plans?" "Rogue One!" "Great!"

 

Agreed. With there being a movie now about the plans being stolen I doubt there will ever be a completely different story for it.

 

When Corporate spends over $100 million to develop a story as the main plot of a major motion picture, they're a lot more likely to remember it in thirty years than if the story is a video game side plot, a bit of NPR whimsy, or an obscure UK-only Choose Your Own Adventure tale.

 

"If you had to throw a dinner party and invite everyone who had ever stolen the Death Star plans, you'd be surprised at how many place settings you'd have to worry about."

--- Pablo

 

"You stole the Death Star plans? Oh, please! If every Rebel who said they were there to steal the Death Star plans was actually there, it would've been like Woodstock!"

 

I said "probably." Actually, in 30 years they will probably re-boot the whole shebang and remake ANH as an immersive VR experience, and bring back Kyle Katarn for the inevitable new-new-old Death Star plan story.

TC

 

With Rogue One settling the "who stole the Death Star plans?" issue, now all we need is a film to establish which bounty hunter it was exactly that Han ran into on Ord Mantel.

 

Disturbingly realistic scenario

 

What's the backstory to the Ord Mantell encounter? I know of about ten for those ones.

 

The original backstory kicked off the Archie Goodwin run of the newspaper comic strips with the cybernetic bounty hunter Skorr on Ord Mantell. Brian Daley did another take on it with the "Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell" record and the hunter Cypher Bos. (An odd and rare contradiction in the very early EU; Goodwin and Daley were usually particularly good at cross-referencing each other's stuff.)

Troy Denning's Scoundrel's Luck RPG adventure featured the hunter Alfreda Goot in a story that was set closer to ANH than ESB for some reason. Goodwin had the same issue with his story, and so had Han Solo have another encounter with Skorr on Ord Mantell (along with Boba Fett, Dengar and Bossk) closer to the events of ESB at the tail end of the newspaper strips. Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta wanted to use Skorr in their Young Jedi Knights series, but since he was killed in the later newspaper strips they opted to use a bounty hunter named Czethros who had essentially the same backstory, Ord Mantell and all. (They did reference both Skorr and Cypher Bos, ensuring that all three stories occurred in the same continuity for the first time.)

The modern EU had more or less settled on Skorr as the "definitive" hunter on Ord Mantell, although Renegade Squadron just had to slip in a level on Ord Mantell with IG-88. As none of the encounters took place at the same time, though, and (except for Czethros/Skorr) most of the stories were completely different, having them all in the same continuity worked better than most conflicting EU backstories. Mostly.

(There were some minor contradictions about whether or not Luke and/or Leia had been to Ord Mantell before the various adventures. A few other sources, such as the Valentine's Day one-shot comic and the Smuggler's Gambit audio drama name-dropped Ord Mantell as an upcoming mission for Han, which didn't really jive with any of the existing Ord Mantell stories--Han was usually drawn to Ord Mantell unexpectedly, unofficially or against his will.)

Although Skorr was usually accepted as definitive, a better "official" explanation might have been that Han was just being facetious--since he'd run into a half-dozen bounty hunters on Ord Mantell over the years, it wasn't as though a recent encounter would be the real reason for his leaving. Actually, that whole scene leads to another EU rabbit hole--how Han Solo planned to pay off Jabba in the first place. (Various sources had shown him losing the reward from ANH, having it stolen from him, or even paying back Jabba in full.)

(As a post-script, one issue of the Marvel comic book released immediately prior to ESB had Han Solo learn from a dying bounty hunter that Jabba was once again on his tail after the debt had been settled in earlier issues. This is sometimes interpreted as yet another Ord Mantell encounter, but the planet is unnamed and the writer of the story was Archie Goodwin, who went on to pen the newspaper comics, so I'm not sure this was ever an intentional reference.)

TC

 

In Battlefront II a bunch of Rebel prisoners broke out their holding cells on the Death Star, stole part of the plans, and escaped in a shuttle.

 

Shuttle Tydirium in Legends?

 

I liked the Death Star plans being secured by Bria Tharen's group and being beamed to the Tantive in time for Leia to escape with Vader in hot pursuit. Tharen and all of Red Hand Squadron perished in the subsequent Imperial attack, buying the Death Star plans with their lives. Despite her earlier double-crossing of her smuggler allies, Bria goes out like a hero, fighting to save the Galaxy from the Empire's Ultimate Weapon. In spite of how she decieved Han I found myself shedding a tear at Bria's death. She believed in what she fought for and in the end she was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop the Empire who enslaved millions.

 

I know the confusing continuity is something that can get out of hand but at the same time I would be lying if I said I don't love trying to learn all the different versions of certain events. It can be such a cool look at how different writers would handle the same event and how the EU was at different times. I am glad the new eu is getting a definitive story for the plans and likely will for Ord Mantell but I have almost become accustom to the whole, 10 stories for one event, thing.

 

I wonder if the Ord Mantell bounty hunter story is being kept in a "reserve for possible big project" box. Like Vader finding out about Luke Skywalker was huge and it was the end of the opening arc of "Star Wars" and "Darth Vader" respectively. The Death Star plans is getting it's own movie. The post-Endor / Battle of Jakku gets a book trilogy (and a comic miniseries and a videogame level so far).