Lit Legacy Vol 2. #18: Empire of One, part 3 (of 3) - The Final Dark Horse Star Wars Comic

Would we rather the series end with thousands of Sith running around just like with the books after Crucible?

 

I still haven't read Crucible yet... I seriously hope that's a joke.

 

It is.

Luke has this insight, in a near-death moment close to the end of the book, that seems more like something Vergere or Anakin Solo would say, than the usual sort of thing from Denning.

The Force was life, and life was growth, and nothing grew that did not change.

And change was destruction.

That was why the dark side existed. Life bore death, death nourished life, destruction came before rejuvenation. And pain came before healing. The dark side was as necessary to life as the light side was. Without it, verdant worlds would stagnate, galactic empires would rule forever.

Luke saw all that and more, saw that conflict was as necessary to progress as harmony, that suffering was as essential to wisdom as was joy. Perhaps there was no pure good, no absolute evil. There was only life, only change and growth, suffering and joy ... death and rebirth.

Then Luke decides it's time for him to "step back" and let the Jedi Council run things itself for a while.

 

Spoiler

I think people are taking the idea of the Sith being completely gone from "end of history" line too literally because there is no way that all of the One Sith converged at once. I am pretty sure that Nihl, Talon, Maladi, Havok, and Saarai are all still alive and they did not get killed off-screen. It is possible Nihl gave the order to the Sith to go after Wredd, but I doubt they are all gone. I did love the line with Marasiah saying how "history has a way of continuing" so it came off more to me as putting a final end to the series. I thought Cade's cameo was great and always liked Cade even though I know many people on here aren't fans. I think it is perfectly logical that he would be selling stuff for money since this ended two years after Legacy: War and he just wanted to relax and have peace after that. He is probably just traveling with Deliah and Jariah and doing what he wants, but I doubt he is doing it for deathsticks which someone mentioned and I think the character deserves more credit than that.

I thought that Legacy Volume 2 was great even though I wish it could have continued and that a giant-sized final issue would have been a cool way to end it, but I liked what we got and thought it was a good end. In regards to the Imperial Knights' lightsabers no longer all being silver, I thought that was established in the first issue of this volume since Yalta Val used a blue one and I just assumed that after Legacy: War, the Knights no longer followed that rule and Marasiah may have overturned that rule allowing the Knights to personalize their lightsabers since they are the same handles. Marasiah used a blue lightsaber as an apprentice before becoming a full-fledged Imperial Knight so it is not unheard of.

I just want to say thanks Gabriel Hardman because I thought Legacy Volume 2 was great and Ania and her supporting cast were great characters along with a great story. I loved yours and Corinna's work on Planet of the Apes with Betrayal, Exile, and Cataclysm too! I'll be sure to check out Invisible Republic! Thanks again!

 

Thanks for the support! It's much appreciated.

GH

 

Anyone know if there's any plans to release the whole series (#1-18) as one hardback copy? I know I know DHC have lost Star Wars but it might have been apart of the final agreement for finishing off the series.

 

If the EU continued and then it would have been collected in a hardback eventually I'm sure. Probably going to have to collect the TPB's.

 

I just hope that they had a prior arrangement and allow DH to do it. I've emailed DH to inquire so will keep you posted on their reply!

 

Why would Marvel allow DHC to issue a Legacy II HC when they can issue their own and charge you $50 for it?

 

Thanks for the clarification. Either way, reptiles are cool

 

Like I said it 'might' have been a prior contractual agreement for the series, there still releasing Book 4 Empire of One even though Marvel now own the rights to Star Wars.

 

Marvel doesn't get it until January. DH can still has it.

 

Maybe they will then....

 

They released the second Dark Times Omnibus a couple weeks after the last TPB for the series was released but if they were going to do that for Legacy, they would have announced that already.

 

Not to dash your hopes but the last Legacy II trade is November, along with the Dark Times Gallery Edition - that's it.

Sad to say, it'll be over.

 

and the 3rd Legacy II 2 is out now as well.

 

Finally got my hands on this. Loved it. Legacy II suffers a lot from the limited issues but this is as good a conclusion as they could offer. Satisfying endings for pretty much everyone all around. General thoughts:

-Much is made of this being the end of the Sith, the "end of history". That's a good sentiment to leave things on, should people want to. But I enjoy that Marasiah still leaves that little bit of wiggle room for people who don't want to picture it that way. For me? Nihl and a few others are out there. The Sith are fundamentally broken and entering into a phase of true extinction but there's still one more adventure I can imagine in my head. I like that.

-The lack of Jedi is a big flaw in this series and it a bit pronounced in this final confrontation. Still, seeing the Imperial Knights so active is really great. Given more time, I think we'd would have see Jedi and I think this big conclusion would have really built up over time. However, looking at all of this, it's pretty clear to me that there was a strong concept of where things would lead from the moment Wredd was introduced.

-Speaking of Wredd, he's awesome. I mean, I like every character in this series pretty much but Wredd is basically the Bane 2.0 with depth and a death wish. It's fantastic!

-Characters, tho. Man! Treis Sinde might be the pinnacle of what I imagine for an Imperial Knight but Jao and even Yalta Val really were great heroes in terms of Force. AG being droid Obi Wan was a great turn. And I always love when we have strong female characters in Star Wars. Ania is a great counterpart to Cade in this era. I like Cade, probably more than most people but Ania? Wonderful. She this character who never really compromises herself and while she has a past with baggage, she presses forward to forge her own path. If Cade was about reclaiming your past, Ania was about forging your own future.

I'm going to miss Dark Horse. A lot. My summer were defined by spending time on the beach, alternating between time in the water and time sprawled out on a towel reading things like Dark Empire and SotE. Dark Horse always "got" Star Wars for me. They gave me Kerra Holt. They gave me Zayne Carrick. Hell, I'm even a big Tasha Ryo fan, as criminally underused as she was. But that's just the recent years. They also gave me Ulic and Nomi and Kir Kanos. The craziness of Mara Jade and Luke's wedding, the stunning Mission to Queyta, and my first taste of Theron Shan. It was diverse and wonderful and amazing. And it always felt like Star Wars. Bravo to this series and bravo to Dark Horse.

 

The lack of Jedi was one of the things I loved about the series.

 

Heh, me too, actually. Just another nail in the crappy leadership coffin in which K'Kruhk likes to chill out and pretend that it's still 22 ABY.

On the one hand, it makes in-universe sense for the Imperial Knights to be more active than the Jedi in the aftermath of the war. Very few IKs died during the conflict; their headquarters and entire infrastructure on Bastion remained entirely intact; they were constantly training new recruits who, from the few glimpses we saw, were old enough to at least be young adults. Contrarily, what little infrastructure the Jedi had left was destroyed during the Battle of Taivas, and even at the end of the war their numbers remained scattered. It follows that they still had some rebuilding to do.

On the other hand, it's been over a year since the end of the war, and there are no reasons left for the scattered Jedi to not come out of hiding. The Empire did its part against the resurgent Sith threat, Stazi got in on the action too, while the Jedi... didn't. It wouldn't surprise me if the cowardly Whiphid was keeping the Jedi cooped up in a temple and re-learning the tenets of the Old Jedi Order. You know, the one that failed? And warning them against the perils of ever going outside and seeing the sun because it destroyed the Jedi during the Clone Wars!!!!!1

The Imperial Knights are far more interesting than the Jedi, which is why it's so disappointing that this final issue of Legacy II threw in that random line about their reorganization. "Loyalty will not be due to the Empress alone, now that the Sith are gone." It's a vague enough line to not necessarily mean what I fear it means, but honestly, it sounds like they're morphing into just another Jedi Order. Their loyalty to their liege predates the Sith by generations --- why would the end of the Sith cause them to go back to the drawing board? What's the logic here?

What's disappointing about this series is that it had so much great concept going for it, but the execution was often lacking. And the thing is, eighteen issues would have been plenty of time to tell a deep, coherent, and non-rushed story. Instead, we got that drawn-out and ultimately pointless third arc full of anti-climaxes and non-payoffs. It was a side trip that, in the end, amounted to nothing. If those five issues had instead served to further the series' storyline, then the final arc could have been closed off without leaving us with so many "Why?"s. Why would the Sith send virtually their entire arsenal to take out a single renegade? Why did Wredd think he had to risk turning Jao into a darksider in order to destroy the Sith, instead of just killing himself? Why would Wredd assume that every single Sith had come to the planet, and then kill himself, instead of escaping to hunt down whomever might be left? Why was the battle over in so few pages without the reader having any idea of how it progressed?

A rushed ending isn't inherently a bad one --- see Legacy: War --- but this final issue of Legacy II was, IMO, a pretty big mess. And it's such a shame, because Bechko and Hardman have proven that they're quite good writers capable of telling coherent and captivating stories. This series had so much potential after the end of Broken Ring, but it just fell apart in the final eight issues. Good characters, though.

 

I don't think the Sith are gone. Wredd himself said those were the acolytes in #17.
And yes, it was rushed, thank you very much Disney and Lucasfilm! I enjoyed the series, though.

 

Sorry one last question if you don't mind, I've read that an updated handbook of the Legacy era will be released along with Book 4 Empire of One and wondered if any of your characters back story's would be included or mentioned in it? If not could you share your inspiration for the Barabel IK Master Thared? Thanks G Hardman

 

Can someone post a pic of this Barabel IK? I am eager to see him.

 

Incredibly bittersweet but glad that Dark Horse managed to capture the feeling that made us love Star Wars comics one last time ;____;

 

How do we know he's a Barabel? They're a bit hard to tell apart from Trandoshans - but Trandoshans tend to have a longer muzzle, no tail, and much less "jagged" forehead ridges:

Barabels:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Trandoshans:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Trandoshan

Do we ever see this guy's tail?